The Art and Philosophy of Bodybuilding

[Gamut]

@Gamer

Sometimes it’s the art of charlatanism. Sometimes its the art of sculpting a physique that looks like a Michelangelo and posing in a way that’s more akin to ballet. Most will find it ugly. Western. Violent. Anabolic. Fake. But like anything, a further look reveals beauty, commitment, and yes, philosophy.

I’m curious about philosophy and bodybuilding. Would anyone like to rekindle this conversation?

It’s funny that people keep bringing up Michelangelo. The statue of David for instance…always referenced for being aesthetically pleasing. But, how many of us can say we look like that statue? How hard would it be to obtain that level of fitness?

I just now finished my four mile run, I work out four days per week with weights and cardio. I push myself very hard and take numerous supplements to help me achieve my goals, and I still cannot say I have a physique like the statue of David. I have made lots and lots of progress to be sure. I am far more defined and muscular than most of my peers and most people in general. Would a few rounds of steroids help me in getting that physique? Most certainly.

What people fail to grasp is that the steroid is no different from the barbell. The tools of bodybuilding require patience, focus and dedication.

My goals? To shave a few minutes off my run. To lower my body fat. To have a healthy heart and mind. The benefits of exercise with weights and cardio have been documented so fully that anyone who has a brain should know that working out is well worth the time and effort.

But, then again, some people prefer to waste away or just be mediocre at life. Personally, my goal is to live as long as possible. At work, I am the best I can be. If I am not performing at my best, I figure out why and work and study to be my best. At fitness I learn and push myself to be my best.

The same is true with friendship, love, family and life in general.

Isn’t that the very purpose of philosophy? To identify the values and reason behind an act?

The health and confidence rewards I reap from fitness make it possibly the most important aspect of my life. It staves off depression and sickness, makes me strong and keeps my body strong as I age. Because of bodybuilding and exercise, I can live life to the fullest.

Call it vanity if you wish…but who says vanity is always wrong? What is wrong with vanity? Is it a sin to look in the mirror and be pleased? I have but one body, and I feel no pity for anyone who hides from a mirror. It is clear and well established how to make your body more aesthetically pleasing, only the lazy don’t want to do the work and would rather condemn those of us who push ourselves beyond our old limits.

[Only_Humean]

@Gamut

What people fail to grasp is that the steroid is no different from the barbell. The tools of bodybuilding require patience, focus and dedication.

My goals? To shave a few minutes off my run. To lower my body fat. To have a healthy heart and mind. The benefits of exercise with weights and cardio have been documented so fully that anyone who has a brain should know that working out is well worth the time and effort.

Indeed.

The health risks of steroids are also well-documented. The physical pressures of competition bodybuilding, cutting down to miniscule body fat percentages, are hardly part of a well-balanced healthy lifestyle with an eye on the long-term.

Call it vanity if you wish…but who says vanity is always wrong? What is wrong with vanity? Is it a sin to look in the mirror and be pleased? I have but one body, and I feel no pity for anyone who hides from a mirror. It is clear and well established how to make your body more aesthetically pleasing, only the lazy don’t want to do the work and would rather condemn those of us who push ourselves beyond our old limits.

And the injured? The congenitally disfigured or physically handicapped? What of anorexics, who can’t judge rationally? Or those whose idea of aesthetically pleasing is what you would call grossly obese?

It’s not a sin, in my view. Given the ephemerality of societal aesthetic standards and the subjectivity of personal ones, it seems foolish to put a great deal of effort into sculpting oneself without an external reason (such as a modelling career). Not foolish to think that a healthy body is a useful thing to have, but foolish to base ones self-image on the impression that one’s physique makes on other people; placing ones happiness wholly in the hands of other people’s judgement.

[Gamer]

The health risks of steroids are also well-documented.

This isn’t really true. You can find some of the short-term reversible effects on Mayoclinic.com but the real dangerous life-threatening results are not supported by studies, they are anecdotal at best. Don’t get me wrong I don’t take them nor is bodybuilding more than a mild endeavor for me.

The steroid issue intrigues me though. No evidence exists against the “correct” or studied use of anabolic steroids, you can take a few small shots of testosterone, bulk up and be just fine. Same with human growth hormone which is not technically a steroid.

Used in the right way the risks are so marginalized that danger is not a definitive argument against. I think no such argument exists.

Granted the “right way” has never been established in a clinical setting. If you take it with knowledgeable friends, the results are pretty predictable and usually safe, barring the outside chance that it might be something different since it’s unregulated. That makes up the majority of risk, and can this risk can be removed if steroids were decriminalized.

One can argue the result is unnatural or grotesque, but makeup is unnatural. Antibiotics are unnatural. Farming is unnatural. The unnatural is such a natural part of human existence that it makes no sense to distinguish unnatural versus natural as a moral standard worth any intellectual weight. It may be actually be immoral to do so – but that’s another topic, one worth exploring later.

To take steroids is to defy the system and shoulder a level of risk for greater advancement toward a personal ideal. Given all the attention society heaps on cars, homes, interior decorating, art, it seems sour grapes to vilify bodybuilding as being overly vane. It seems to me to be a more direct expression of values, whereas cultivating a beautiful home is an indirect expression of personal beauty.

Whether I appreciate the immensity of pro bodybuilders is not important. What matters is that the ability to sculpt ones body is, to me, a profound expression of control of oneself, and it’s all too often overlooked by philosophers who live in a verbal world of concepts. All too often we settle for internal change, but such change is hard to measure, we delude ourselves half the time. Bodily change is material and real, and requires real commitment to ideals and action. If you can’t change your body, what makes you think you can change your mind? How are you sure you’re not just all talk?

[Only_Humean]

@Gamer

The steroid issue intrigues me though. No evidence exists against the “correct” or studied use of anabolic steroids, you can take a few small shots of testosterone, bulk up and be just fine. Same with human growth hormone which is not technically a steroid.

Absolutely, it’s long-term use (and use by teens before development has finished) that’s the risk. Same is true with most drugs; cocaine doesn’t harm you if you take it occasionally either. And the danger of occasional use is mostly in impurities, I’d support decriminalisation.

To take steroids is to defy the system and shoulder a level of risk for greater advancement toward a personal ideal. Given all the attention society heaps on cars, homes, interior decorating, art, it seems sour grapes to vilify bodybuilding as being overly vane. It seems to me to be a more direct expression of values, whereas cultivating a beautiful home is an indirect expression of personal beauty.

No, social status. As an (academic, not heartfelt )antithesis to your argument, any schmuck with working limbs can lift weights all day and bulk up; that takes no wits, only sweat. To afford a nice house and beautiful car you have to have achieved something, made money, been a success.

Whether I appreciate the immensity of pro bodybuilders is not important. What matters is that the ability to sculpt ones body is, to me, a profound expression of control of oneself, and it’s all too often overlooked by philosophers who live in a verbal world of concepts. All too often we settle for internal change, but such change is hard to measure, we delude ourselves half the time. Bodily change is material and real, and requires real commitment to ideals and action. If you can’t change your body, what makes you think you can change your mind? How are you sure you’re not just all talk?

What is so profound about the self-control of bodybuilding? It’s hard work, but not uniquely or differently hard work. It’s control. You could say the same of anorexia…

Bodybuilding is aesthetics. One can certainly delude oneself about ones bodily appearance, or settle for less than you started off wanting, just as much as with internal change. If you want something concrete, get in a boxing ring (/wrestling ring/MMA ring) and you’ll see whether your combination of mental and physical change really measures up against others, instant real, physical feedback. Run a marathon, you get a time at the end of it that you can compare to others; play chess, get a rating; play poker, check your bank balance. Bodybuilding (as opposed to weightlifting) lacks all of this externality.

[Gamer]

Hey nice to meet you only humeen

any schmuck with working limbs can lift weights all day and bulk up; that takes no wits, only sweat.

Sounds like you’ve never done it. And maybe you’ve never looked at the average american shmuck in cold light of day.

I’ve started a business, made money, earned degrees, AND built a body.

The last one took the most wits. The act of bequeathing myself with the responsibility of molding my body was a deeply profound one that required tremendous intellectual and emotional honesty, and then courage and commitment.

That I bothered to design the vessel I must live in…it stands as an expression of my free will. There’s something intensely telling about how we approach our bodies, whether we are actively involved with the design, or whether we become passive victims or diminish the role of physicality.

When you strip away money, education, fame, edifice, all you have is body. Body is truth. Body is either flabby or firm, sunken or poised. You ARE your body. We go through SO MUCH in society to try to forget that fact. And it’s no wonder, what most of us have under the trunk isn’t pretty.

Bodybuilders overdo it I think, it’s like any form of extremism or fanaticism, it crowds out other things of value and becomes a sole focus in life. But talk to a bodybuilder, you will find they are indeed profound, they take a philosophy to an extreme. At the core, they are people who deeply need to be strong and powerful, and express this need compulsively by rending flesh and letting it repair itself stronger. An allegory for philosophy, a pulling apart, a fusing, a growing, weights that always move but stay in one place. A Sisyphusian folly.

But to gaze upon your vessel with approval, to take your body’s design into your OWN hands, there is deep profundity in this.

[Only_Humean]

@Gamer

Hey nice to meet you only humeen

Likewise.

any schmuck with working limbs can lift weights all day and bulk up; that takes no wits, only sweat.

Sounds like you’ve never done it. And maybe you’ve never looked at the average american shmuck in cold light of day.

Well, I did say it was an academic not an earnest argument. Yes, I bulked up when I was younger. Not competition bodybuilding, though, just weight training until I felt happy with my body; I’m 6’5, I’d had my jaw wired and gone down to about 145 lbs. Not a great look.

The last one took the most wits. The act of bequeathing myself with the responsibility of molding my body was a deeply profound one that required tremendous intellectual and emotional honesty, and then courage and commitment.

Erm… you didn’t just go down the gym and pump iron? I found it a dull experience, mentally; although the endorphin rush was pleasant. To each their own.

When you strip away money, education, fame, edifice, all you have is body. Body is truth. Body is either flabby or firm, sunken or poised. You ARE your body. We go through SO MUCH in society to try to forget that fact. And it’s no wonder, what most of us have under the trunk isn’t pretty.

Body is not truth. Body is reality; the conclusions you draw from that are what truth or falsity apply to. And aesthetic judgements are entirely subjective… since you’re stripping away things that don’t matter, why not strip away body too? It’s not like most people need to be much stronger than average, outside of a few professions.

A basic mobility and good health are fine; everything else is an investment of time in a frivolity on a par with money, education, status.

Bodybuilders overdo it I think, it’s like any form of extremism or fanaticism, it crowds out other things of value and becomes a sole focus in life. But talk to a bodybuilder, you will find they are indeed profound, they take a philosophy to an extreme.

Not my experience of bodybuilders, I have to say, I used to share a house with a couple. But I spent a long time in the martial arts, which fosters a lot of philosophy (mostly shockingly poor, but still), and I met some very wise people and some very deeply unwise ones. People are people, activities aren’t redemptions.

[Gamer]

I saw Body, lithe and blue, her white hair dwarfing the sad puddle of willow branch the king ordered to have cut down. Her hair, the wind, the line of her body, the sinew and sweep of her limbs, the liquid metal of her abdomen flexed out its silent wisdom. It made us take our pistols out of our mouths. The pasty young priestlings absently fingered their comatose clits, eyes a recipe of double-blanched igneous. Each plunked backward into a purple-syrup sludge and the earth was blind to them.

[MagsJ (Surya Loka)]

@Gamer

When you strip away money, education, fame, edifice, all you have is body. Body is truth. Body is either flabby or firm, sunken or poised. You ARE your body. We go through SO MUCH in society to try to forget that fact. And it’s no wonder, what most of us have under the trunk isn’t pretty.

But to gaze upon your vessel with approval, to take your body’s design into your OWN hands, there is deep profundity in this.

It is a choice we make as humans whether to have a body that looks like it’s been etched out of stone or out of cheese - I have pondered on what triggers that choice/that need to seek perfection in one’s reflection, but all I know is it is a choice I too have made, and am not happy with myself unless I am moulding myself into the best me I can be… but I am not sure why.

[finishedman]

A strong body is also a tool. Check the personality behind that strength.

[Gamer]

I think it’s a matter of consistency. If we could all just push a button and magically have our best possible physique given our genetics, we would do so. So it’s not a matter of whether we want that body, but how much we want it, and what we’re willing to do to get it. And then it comes to what are we willing to do to get the things we want in general. And then often it comes down to convincing ourselves we don’t want them after all. And then we wonder where depression and angst come from. Plato had abs. He was no fool, that one.

Build your body and your mind will take a lesson and grow, too. That is the only constant I have observed in all my days. Physical state and fitness level ALWAYS change your philosophy, often for the better.

There’s always a philosophy for everyone. Direct versus removed. Both are equally valid, but one is miserable. You can remove yourself or immerse yourself. You can negate yourself or magnify yourself. You can feel free or infinitely imprisoned. Change your body and your philosophy will move toward the good philosophies. It never was about logic. It was about what you had for lunch. What kind of testosterone you’re producing. How your body feels, firm and formed, or vacuous and diffuse. How can your soul know what shape it wants to be in if your stomach can’t even decide what shape it is? Our body’s inform us all day long, of what we are, of what is possible, of how free or how victimized we are. Of how DEFINED or AMORPHOUS we are. Bodybuilding is fuel for bold philosophy that breathes. The philosophies we embrace when our bodies are weak and flabby – we only embrace these philosophies because of our body and they are not our best. Your best philosophy comes to you when you are living a life of personal bests in general.

[finishedman]

I have completely accepted my present condition. I never think of comparing it to something that’s not me as I am now. It would only be the thought of a better state that would keep me from coming to terms with life as it is. There is no problem with my present life.