by Geoff Roberts
One of our industries largest mysteries is the fear of “getting too big” and/or “getting bulky”. Bodybuilders spend years upon years taking anabolic drugs, eating five times as much protein as the average person, and training 6 days a week for over an hour in order to get huge and lean. Even with these extreme measures, some guys are unable to ever build an overly impressive physique. Why men and women alike insist on saying they “do not want to get too big” is beyond me. Obviously, not all of these people are naive enough to think that getting huge and muscular is accomplished by accidentally training too hard and eating right. That said, there has to be reasons people claim to fear getting too big, besides the ridiculous assumption that it happens uncontrollably overnight.
Working in supplement stores for the last six years, I have heard it all. It is not uncommon for a guy to walk into a store and proclaim “I want to put on some muscle, but I do not want to get huge like those guys you see in magazines, that’s gross.” These statements make me wonder, do sprinters go into Foot Locker and say “I want to get faster, but I do not want to get as fast as Usain Bolt, that’s disgusting.”? Do young football players approach their new strength and conditioning coach with “I need to become a better running back, but I do not want to be as good ad Adrian Peterson, hes way too good, that’s too much”? The silliness of statements like these goes far beyond words. When was the last time you heard a guy who works out regularly say that he looks good enough, he does not want to improve anymore? The same question can be asked for any other athlete. Have you ever heard an athlete say that he or she “good enough” and does not want to get any better? The only reason any person would make these claims is because they are afraid of the hard work it might take to make these improvements.
It would seem that some these people think that if it is possible to get as big as Jay Cutler and Phil Heath, than getting to the size of their favorite cross-fitter or fashion model must be fairly easy and take only a trivial amount of work. However, this foolish assumption can not possibly be the number one reason that guys decide to throw around these these asinine statements. It is more likely that most of these people are simply lazy and by stating that they do not want to “get huge” they are really just showing us that they do not want to work very hard. It would take years of hard work and dedication to look like an elite bodybuilder, but they might be able to go out and drink on weekends while missing meals and workouts, but still look like Ryan Reynolds or Hugh Jackman. Obviously they are sadly mistaken, and this is why they will never look like much of anything.
Women are just as guilty of these outrageous statements as men, if not more so. Every person who has been involved in the fitness industry for any amount of time has heard several females, if not hundreds, say “I do not want to get bulky.” Let us get something straight right off the bat. There are only two ways that a female can possibly get “bulky”. These two bulk-inducing factors are the abuse of steroids and getting fat. Pure, natural muscle will never make a girl “bulky”. Period and end of story. So as long as you do not get fat or load up on anabolic drugs, you will not get bulky, no matter what you do ladies.
Of course, the tainted minds of American girls who think Victoria’s Secret pukers look good, might have a different opinion of what bulky is. Some of these disillusioned girls think that girls who are 5’4” 120 pounds are “bulky” because they have a little bit of muscle on them. If you are not one of these brainwashed women, and your idea of bulky is accurate, you will never get bulky if you avoid drugs, beer and brownies. On a related note, muscles are attractive whether you like to admit it or not. Some girls will say they do not like big muscles (usually because they do not want to piss off their scrawny boyfriend or husband) and the same can be said for men who say they don’t like girls who are in really good shape (because their significant other is either fat or sickly skinny). Instead of wondering, go ahead and build some muscle and see for yourself if you get more positive comments and looks from the opposite sex. I promise that you will.