Vanity vs Numbers

[pumpedup86]

Vanity vs Numbers


What do you want more?

To be able to look in the mirror and see the complete package, a 12 pack, a body which women tremble at the knees when they see you walk into a room.

Or do you lift weights to break Personal bests. The numbers mean more to you then what you look like. You would rather walk into the bar stand next to the "perfect specimen of a male" and listen in to his conversation about how he pounded out 15 reps of 70kg bench press (knowing full well he is at least 80kg), while you snicker to yourself knowing that only 4 hours earlier your 70kg frame pushed out 3 reps of 100kg.

I am all for the blokes who work out for the vanity, hell i too used to train for this exact reason. Until i realized that numbers don't lie, and people do. If you have just pushed a 120kg bench press, forever you will know that until you break it your PB is set at that mark. When you train to look good, people will never tell you that in actual fact, your not perfect at all.

One thing is for sure, I would rather push my body to the limits, push the most weight that I can, then sprint as fast as I can for as long as I can, rather then bicep curl my way to another meaningless and false complement.

 

[callan]

numbers for me, sure a person who wants vanity may look strong, but big is not strong (not saying that all bodybuilders are not strong)... but id pick strength over size any day...

 

[Fadi]

meaningless and false complement.

Each to their own really.

We're comparing apples with oranges here which makes for an inaccurate judgment. Bodybuilding is bodybuilding and strength training is strength training...then you've got power, which is yet another fruit added to the apples and oranges above. So take your pick and train for it, whilst at the same time respecting the other athlete that trains differently from you and who is seeking a totally different reward from you.


Fadi.

 

[Bazza20]

Both

 

[DKD]

To be extremely desirable to females, to have them give you the eye, to have lots of attention from good looking women......or to have internal feeling of satisfaction that you increased a PB by 5kg...........lol, no contest, no contest at all.......THE FORMER!

 

[dave]

To be extremely desirable to females, to have them give you the eye, to have lots of attention from good looking women......or to have internal feeling of satisfaction that you increased a PB by 5kg...........lol, no contest, no contest at all.......THE FORMER!

PBs all the way baby!

You don't have to go either way unless you want to be a pro BB or PL you can do both as long as you structure your training program correctly.

 

[The Hulk]

To be extremely desirable to females, to have them give you the eye, to have lots of attention from good looking women......or to have internal feeling of satisfaction that you increased a PB by 5kg...........lol, no contest, no contest at all.......THE FORMER!

Yes Yes...

Don't think I'm suitable for strength.
Everytime I train strength style and get to new PB's, in good form, I always get injured soon after.
Really don't care about the numbers, just muscle growth.

Just recently dropped weights (due to injury) to less than half of previous lifts and and really feeling the targeted muscles work hard, more than ever when chasing numbers.

 

[BigJim]

Eat sensibly and keep trying to get stronger and there is no reason why you cant have both.

Just cause you want to get strong doesnt mean you have to be a fatty..

Greg "Mutant" Doucette:

205kg x 6
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dInSioKyuTU&playnext=1&list=PLF3AF4151C4897710[/ame]


[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WojLZjGY8hw[/ame]

 

[Rugby88]

You should train for both - 2 many ppl who train get caught up in the "eating whatever, getting fat etc etc" mindset - hell I was in it last yr...but at the end of the day unless your a top powerlifter and even then its a small circle of ppl that know about you, your numbers dont mean shit....and then if you dont compete but your training for strength no1 gives a shit about how much you squat...no1 will even ask you about it if you dont look the part.

For me if you train for strength you should look like you train, eat like a bodybuilder but train like a powerlifter...

At the end of the day its the way you look that ppl see not what ur doing in the gym...ppl couldnt careless about that...besides a small few within that "strength, powerlifting circle"

Plus what gets me - if powerlifters did eat better then there performance is going to be alot better...fuck the maccas and pizza off and eat steak and pasta...

 

[Bench Polkov]

There's no reason you can't be both. I'm going to be dropping weight divisions for both competitiveness and aesthetic reason. I promised myself abs for my 30th birthday and I want to go for national placings and records next year.

 

[Big Mick]

You should train for both - 2 many ppl who train get caught up in the "eating whatever, getting fat etc etc" mindset - hell I was in it last yr...but at the end of the day unless your a top powerlifter and even then its a small circle of ppl that know about you, your numbers dont mean shit....and then if you dont compete but your training for strength no1 gives a shit about how much you squat...no1 will even ask you about it if you dont look the part.

For me if you train for strength you should look like you train, eat like a bodybuilder but train like a powerlifter...

At the end of the day its the way you look that ppl see not what ur doing in the gym...ppl couldnt careless about that...besides a small few within that "strength, powerlifting circle"

Plus what gets me - if powerlifters did eat better then there performance is going to be alot better...fuck the maccas and pizza off and eat steak and pasta...

^^^^^^^^^^^^^ This is it for me, I am 43 married with two children stereo type with a nice middle age spread

I train for strength, health, to look good, to be out of the ordinary, I love getting comments, especially from woman, great ego boost.

I train hard and heavy (for me) on the weights, I add weight as soon as I can, using basic compound excercises for over all conditioning, I do 2-3 cardio sessions for every weight session and have started adding Kettlebells between weight sessions as well.

What do I want, I want to be mid 40's with a 6 pack, I want to look strong, lean and ripped, I want to be able to lift heavy to match the look, I want to be able to squat 160kg, yet run 5km, and rep out 100 push ups. I want to be healthy, fit, strong, fast and look the part.

So everyones training and diet is different, everyones starting point is different, everyones needs, wants and desires are different.

A lot of people my age at my work are taking blood pressure medication, diabetes medication, and they breathe like they are having a heart attack after two flights of stairs, and they look terrible with their fat guts and flabby arms, and some are ten years my junior.

So I say each to their own, to get back to the original question - Both is important to me, I want to look good and be strong, but mostly teh general people around you do not give a crap if you can bench 140kg, but carry a fat gut, no offence to anyone but the fat powerlifter does not impress anyone except other power lifters, yet a 6 pack will impress everyone around you when you take your shirt off at the beach or when mowing the lawn

 

[cunniff1981]

I guess I want to look like I could rip someone or something apart, but also want to be strong enough to do it.
So to be as strong as you look is a good option.

 

[ener]

atm I am doing a more strength focused routine, but everyone wants to look good

 

[Tregs]

I will say both I want to be really strong but look good aswell

 

[DKD]

I only need to be strong enough to rip a hole in a pair of stockings.

 

[Goosey]

They only just need to look at me and the stockings come off

 

[thechosenone]

I wanna look like batista lol

 

[ener]

I only need to be strong enough to rip a hole in a pair of stockings.

They only just need to look at me and the stockings come off

you guys should get a room, then DKD wont need to flex to get his stockings off anymore

 

[thechosenone]

I thought gaining muscle is all about training for str?

Altho i see high school kids in the gym that are ripped and have veiny biceps a 6 pack ripped chest but there weak as piss

 

[pistachio]

To be extremely desirable to females, to have them give you the eye, to have lots of attention from good looking women......or to have internal feeling of satisfaction that you increased a PB by 5kg...........lol, no contest, no contest at all.......THE FORMER!

agreed!

no contest IMO. that said, I'm reasonably strong anyway by most people's standards.

but I would MUCH rather look awesome and do say 200/150/250 then bust a gut and probably cause myself injuries and get to 250/180/300 or whatever.

if I was completely piss weak, then I would probably want a bit of strength first.