The Art and Philosophy of Bodybuilding

Philosophy Forums Philosophy
1

I have just watched a French TV program, entitled ‘Philosophie’ on channel ‘Arte’, on French TV; the episode was entitled ‘corps’ (body).

It is presented by Raphaël Enthoven, a philosopher based at l’ecole Polytechnique et à Sciences Po, Paris.

The guest on the show today was Marion Richez who has a philosophy degree and is a dancer.

At one point during the show Enthoven showed Richez a copy of Flex magazine with Arnold Schwarzenegger on the front and asked her what she thought of it.

Some of the words she mentioned were: ‘narcissistic’; ‘mechanical’; ‘violent’; 'western; ‘exterior’.

She contrasts her analysis of Arnold with another analysis of a picture of a swimmer, whom she deems to be more like a dancer, more artistic and more in touch with his spirit.

She also contrasts the ‘narcissistic’; ‘mechanical’; ‘violent’; ‘western’; ‘exterior’ of Arnold with the more ‘eastern’ idea of inner spirit of the swimmer.

I laughed.

I have been bodybuilding for 11 years and have always considered it to be a spiritual art built on various philosophical foundations.

Bodybuilders are judged on the overall quality of their muscular development. Judging is based upon the presentation of:

Mass
Definition
Proportion
Symmetry
Stage Presence

To me the criteria for judging very firmly bases bodybuilding in the realm of aesthetics.

Bodybuilding is by definition, artistic, philosophical and spiritual.

I was surprised to see such blatant prejudice on a national philosophy program, even more so because it was simply based upon some random woman’s sexual preferences.

Let me know what you think.

2

Steroidian.

3

Who?

4

Body builders in general. Seems to be rampant. Wouldn’t trust anyone who says they never touched it. Most professional body builders have steroids written all over them.

5

Arnold Szchwarzenegger has steroids written all over him also. You can just tell in the face… Steroid face I shall call it.

6

Bodybuilders in general?

Seems to be?

Name a pro that doesn’t take steroids.

What has this got to do with philosophy?

7

You can just tell in the face?

What about his physique? Is that not slightly more telling?

Who are you to judge?

I will categorise you with woman on philosophy program.

8

Pro athletes take steroids sure, yet it seems body builders take much higher dosages.

Now, what does this have to do with philosophy? The same thing you claim body building has to do with philosophy.

9
  1. Sorry you are going to have to make this point more clear for me; I have missed it.
10

Yes I can just tell in the face. The physique also but I don’t look at half naked men much. Who am I to judge? The same as you to judge. I judge everything and everyone. I will categorize you with the fake steroid injesting superficial high fiving motherfuckers group.

11

Take your claim on what body building has to do with philosophy, inverse it and apply it to steroids. There you go.

12

You are not the same as me.

13

Sorry that is still unclear…

14

Well then perhaps your reason for considering body building to be a philosophy by definition is unclear.

15

Do you want me to explain it to you?

16

No.

17

Good.

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The swimmer does seem more flexible and graceful. And the photo does have an erotic aspect to it especially with his ass sticking out of the water in such a way. I’m not sure about “eastern” and “being more in touch with spirit”, it strikes me more as homosexual erotica.

20

I found her judgement to be shallow.

The swimmer does seem to be more flexible and graceful.

However her judgement was based on the appearance of each picture.

Arnold Schwarzenegger has taken many dance classes to help with his posing which is essentially an artistic performance as much as dancing.

She clearly had no understanding of the subjective experience of being a good bodybuilder.

To be good takes a lot of control, a ‘mind/muscle’ connection, extraordinary discipline, etc.

All of these aspects were overlooked in her evaluation because she didn’t know what she was talking about.

I agree the photo of the swimmer was somewhat more sexual than the photo of Arnold.

Interestingly enough the swimmer would have been involved in weight training as well to complement his sport.

Appearance and reality.

I don’t know anything about homosexual erotica so I can’t comment on that.