Sheer Madness

[BigGreen]

I know the psychological mechanisms through which I'm accordingly deluded, but how in the hell can I, sitting at 6'3" 250 as of this afternoon, feel so disgustingly TINY today. I was training a guy today and started thinking that he was bigger than me in every plausible way, to the point I wanted to cut the session short so I could start my workout...i should mention that this guy is 5'8" and 180 pounds at about 30% bodyfat! Yet, I literally felt much more out of shape than him. Sometimes this is just a pure sickness.

[mass junkie]

I know the psychological mechanisms through which I'm accordingly deluded, but how in the hell can I, sitting at 6'3" 250 as of this afternoon, feel so disgustingly TINY today. I was training a guy today and started thinking that he was bigger than me in every plausible way, to the point I wanted to cut the session short so I could start my workout...i should mention that this guy is 5'8" and 180 pounds at about 30% bodyfat! Yet, I literally felt much more out of shape than him. Sometimes this is just a pure sickness.

must be the lack of AR posting getting to ya...

[BigGreen]

While I'm lacking, I never was able to pull away like I needed to. Nevertheless, test prep has gone **** well and I've managed to at least retain a presence. I'm back "full time" in about five or six days with a new cycle to boot!!

[mass junkie]

While I'm lacking, I never was able to pull away like I needed to. Nevertheless, test prep has gone **** well and I've managed to at least retain a presence. I'm back "full time" in about five or six days with a new cycle to boot!!

Good to hear it.....I didnt know you were still living the lifestyle...I just assumed that you just put it on hold until test prep was over.....but good to hear your still in the gym. Maybe a nice little cycle will help you feel a little better about yourself... Mind if I ask what you your cycle looks like?

[bigol'legs]

cause your 6'3"

you should be around 300 lbs..

[rambo]

cause your 6'3"

you should be around 300 lbs..

Pipe down, chachi. BG I agree that we are victims of the most constructive illness known to mankind. I went further into this same topic on a thread quite a while back. We have a mutated strand of the Adonis Complex, we will never be big enough. I have days when I look in the mirror and want to vomit. I have days when I think I'm huge. It's part of the sickness.

Here it is: http://www.anabolicreview.com/vbulle...ghlight=adonis

[BigGreen]

Mind if I ask what you your cycle looks like?

It's going to be (of course) a test e base at 500mg/week for 10-15 weeks depending on how I respond. I'd like to tack deca or eq on top but I'm having trouble deciding which it'll be and will either go with the simple test only cycle or decide "at the buzzer" when I place my order tomorrow. Eq'll probably win. Other than that, nothing fancy...just throwing on as much weight as possible before a fina/prop cutter after recovering from the first. I'd really like to see 275 without getting sloppy fat...we'll see. I'd wanted to wait until 255 to hit this up, but I'm running out of time and I've sort of run into a wall at 250-251.

[50%Natural]

Shooot, I would've killed a doc for some gh when I was 10 if I would've know I would top out at 5'8. My dad is 6'3 so I had high hopes but they feel well short. I hate lookin up at you guys especially if they are big. I think every juicer has this obession with personal appearance or why else would you juice? You weren't satisfied with your personal appearance so you juiced. Sure, people say I did it for chicks and what not but if they say so then they are in denial about why they juice. I started juicing cause I wasn't satisfied with my personal appearance and I don't know if I will ever stop. Best of luck biggreen.

[Tock]

Yeah, it's called:
Reverse Anorexia in Bodybuilders

Here's an excerpt from one website with info:
http://www.vanderbilt.edu/AnS/psycho...ogy/buffed.htm

Bodybuilders who exhibit reverse anorexia strive constantly to gain more lean body mass, but even when successful persist in believing their size is inadequate. Pope et al. (1993) found that 8% of their bodybuilder subjects insisted that they were ver small when they were really big and muscular. This belief affected their daily lives in a myriad of ways. Some of these bodybuilders stated that they would wear heavy clothing, even in the summer, to hide their inadequate size. The percentage of the bodybuilders in the study with a history of anorexia nervosa was 2.8% which is considerably more than the 0.02% rate currently recorded among all American men. The authors suggested that media idealizes the large muscular body form for men just as it endorses the waif-like appearance for women Unfortunately, the study lacks a control group with which to compare their results. The majority of the primarily qualitative data obtained in the experiment, through the Structured Clinical Interview (SCID), may be subject to a slight interpretative bias. Whether individuals prone to reverse anorexia are disproportionately attracted to bodybuilding or the sport actually encourages such behavior (or both) remains unclear. The study, however, provided preliminary evidence for the existence of a reverse anorexia syndrome arnon ,g bodybuilders.

[Tock]

. . . and more from
www.lisabavington.net/eliteathletes01232003.htm


Male Athletes in Bodybuilding

Men are also being sold the beauty myth, but the male version isn't thin - it's big. The image of the modern day muscleman isn't confined to the pages of a few publications aimed at the health-conscious, either. He is everywhere; as a movie star, action toy, model, pop star, and TV presenter. (Q-online, 2001) This idea has previously always been a female concern. It was women alone whom society defined by the way they looked, but men now feel required to achieve the so-called perfect body, being granted the right to feel what women have been dealing with for years. Having squeezed the female market to saturation point, the beauty industry has turned to the untapped male sector. (Q-online, 2001) In The Adonis Complex, women may feel more under pressure to attain the vital statistics of a toothpick, but it is a preoccupation with not being big enough that is causing men to obsess about their own structural failings. “Bigorexia” has been coined as the flip side to dieting where its victims are hell-bent to beef up like a hulk and deal with the consequences later. (Pope,1994)

While anorexics starve themselves to skin and bone but still think they look fat, bodybuilders who exhibit reverse anorexia strive constantly to gain more lean body mass, but even when successful persist in believing their size is inadequate. (Hitt, 1999) A surprising number of men have body image disorders and, despite their massive muscularity, perceive themselves as small. It is estimated that around 10% of the men in any hard-core gym have bigorexia, ranging from mild to crippling. (Wells, 2000)

This belief affects their daily lives in a myriad of ways. Some bodybuilders wear heavy clothing, even in the summer, to hide their inadequate size. Some even skip important events such as class reunions, weddings, or other social events, so no one will see their bodies and snicker at their (self-perceived) skinniness. (Wells, 2000) In fact, the shame can be so widespread in men that it becomes an all-consuming quest that blots out fulfilling responsibilities to family and work, passing up higher-paying jobs or the chance to cultivate relationships with seemingly ideal mates because those things could interfere with their workouts. (Wells, 2000) They ignore injuries like pulled muscles or torn ligaments, and continue lifting the weights they know will make them huge using anabolic steroids in such frightening amounts, normal body function is impaired in order to pursue the extreme size they so desire. (Wells, 2000) The media idealizes the large muscular body form for men just as it endorses the waif-like appearance for women. The fear of being too small leads to a high degree of body dissatisfaction among bodybuilders, who have greater body dissatisfaction and exhibited greater bulimic tendencies compared to other male athletes. (Wells, 2000)

To normal individuals or people who lift weights recreationally, they do not understand why bodybuilders risk their health to look like “freaks” when most people think they look disgusting. Although many bodybuilders, to some extent, may exhibit symptoms of this body dysmorphia, no one represents the extreme version of the freak's freak, more than Gregg Valentino. (Shugart, 2002) (See Figures 1 - 5) Greg is not a liked man by any means; in fact, he's quite possibly the most despised man in bodybuilding. To most athletes, he has destroyed his body and is a laughingstock and an embarrassment to the sport that gives bodybuilding a bad name. Now in his 40’s, he’s been in jail and suffered a myriad of problems relating to his quest to have the biggest arms on the planet. “The minute I started I fell in love with it because my body responded incredibly. Within the first month I smacked an inch on my arms. Then I just went hog wild…I just kept going with it.” He got frustrated when he saw a lot of guys passing him in the gym who had just started out lifting weights, while he was training slowly, making gains over the years. He also felt like I'd earned it. Gregg admits only in trying to be a freak and a steady mob of fans that still go nuts wanting his pictures, although he claims to be embarrassed by all the attention he receives. (Shugart, 2002)

His motivation lies in the fact that he’s got small man (Napoleon) complex. With 27-inch arms, at 5'5" with a 27-inch waist, he knows he looks ridiculous, but if he can't grow taller, then “I'm going to be the biggest freak I can be.” (Shugart, 2002) Greg still believes that he is not “muscle bound” at all and his goals for the future include having 30-inch arms and, hopefully, still being alive. It should be known that although Gregg identifies himself as a bodybuilder, he is in no way representative of bodybuilders in general as he does not compete, nor does he strive for symmetry or balance. He is truly a man who represents an extreme form of this disorder and something that obviously went terribly wrong somewhere along the way. (Shugart, 2002)

Gregg’s appearance though extreme even for bodybuilders represents a shift that has illuminated the striking influence of sports on body image satisfaction in men. This may be because the standards for male beauty are changing, in the same way the ascent of the super-thin fashion model has been followed by decades of rise in eating disorders among U.S. women. (Wells, 2000) The importance of a fit physique has grown increasingly salient to men in modem society as indicated by the rise of hyper masculine action heroes such as Arnold Schwartzenegger and Sylvester Stallone. (Hitt, 1999) The bodybuilders' obsessional behavior resembles anorexia nervosa with remarkable similarity except that the drive for enormous muscles replaces the drive for thinness. The muscle-bound action heroes of today rival the gorgeous supermodels as cultural icons in today’s society. These images prey on skinny adolescent boys around the world teased by school bullies who resolve to fight back. They begin in a frenzy of weightlifting seeking to attain size above all else forsaking family and fiends in their quest. (Hitt, 1999)

Action toys, for years, have been aimed at young men to start them off on the road to wanting. Whether it was "Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots" in the 60’s or "X-Men" today, the message is the same: Being mortal just isn’t enough. Having super power and super strength is where it’s at. Even the waist, chest, and biceps measurements of GI Joe and 'Star Wars' male action figures marketed over the past 30 years have grown more muscular and developed increasingly sharp muscular definition. The 1998 "GI Joe Extreme" dwarfs the earlier "Joes" with much greater musculature. (Wells, 2000) (See Figure 6)

It is important to examine the relationship between these types of cultural messages and the incidence of body disorders in both sexes. We’re all exposed daily to often unnaturally muscular male images and atypically thin women. But more often, men who are bigorexics and women who are anorexics are suffering inside from a legitimate disorder, and the images in the media just exacerbate what is happening within. (Wells, 2000)

[bigol'legs]

**** im not reading all that.. just get bigger itd be faster!!

[BigGreen]

BigGreen, Peter North understands that you feel inferior to The Champ, as you most certainly should, however, there is no reason to let the board know about your sad story dealing with repeated failure trying to live in the shadows of The King. There are two things you can do about it: Nothing and Like It!!

HOOSIER DADDY!!

PN

Much like little Hitler failed to learn from little Napolean, Peter North fails to learn from "The Rock". The Rock may have been a wise-cracking fan favorite, but Vince still ran the company and could take him out at any time. Let's not forget that as league commish I have the power to adjust point totals, change team names and otherwise wreak havoc on this league a la Vince McMahon. Perhaps going into the playoffs you will be known as the "Drag Queen Daddies" or something to that effect.

[Juggernaut]

And while you two cast dispersions back and forth Juggernaut strides away with the FF ring. Peter hasn't recognized who the real "Daddy" is and Big Green.........well he's so small he's not even worth sweating about. hahahahaha

BG, I've seen your pictures................you are far from small and even further from being out of shape. In fact you have the frame work most would kill for.........height. I'd trade 30 or 40 pounds for 3 more inches of height…….you can gain muscle (with time and perseverance) but you can’t get any taller.

[BigGreen]

but you can’t get any taller.

Is that some sort of challenge? Well, you're on. The bet is who can gain two inches of height by the summer equinox. In the event of a tie, it's a race across the British Empire by hot air ballon to determine the winner!! What's at stake? I'm not sure yet...perhaps our standing as gentlemen is all that is necessary.

By the way, i've made some playoff predictions over at the FF homepage if you're interested in seeing what this "swami" says.

[rambo]

Is that some sort of challenge? Well, you're on. The bet is who can gain two inches of height by the summer equinox. In the event of a tie, it's a race across the British Empire by hot air ballon to determine the winner!! What's at stake? I'm not sure yet...perhaps our standing as gentlemen is all that is necessary.

I'll accept your challenge and raise the stakes. Loser must not only sacrifice gentleman standing, but must also lose two inches.. of his manlihood. I hate tall people.

[Pheedno]

I am bigger than you in every considerable persuasion......except height and weight. Length, girth, and brain size belong to me though

Just thought you could use a pick-me-up

[Juggernaut]

I'll accept your challenge and raise the stakes. Loser must not only sacrifice gentleman standing, but must also lose two inches.. of his manlihood. I hate tall people.

Well then you'll have to count me out of this challenge................if I lose 2" inches of manhood.............I'll have no manhood! *Juggernaut looking down...shaking head* I just can't run the risk. hahahahaha

BG, I just posted a thread about the playoffs.

[Mart651]

I know the psychological mechanisms through which I'm accordingly deluded, but how in the hell can I, sitting at 6'3" 250 as of this afternoon, feel so disgustingly TINY today. I was training a guy today and started thinking that he was bigger than me in every plausible way, to the point I wanted to cut the session short so I could start my workout...i should mention that this guy is 5'8" and 180 pounds at about 30% bodyfat! Yet, I literally felt much more out of shape than him. Sometimes this is just a pure sickness.

Maybe you should train me. I'm 5'10 190 at this size I would probably just scare the S H I T out of you and make you feel real small.

[groverman1]

I'm 5 inches....AROUND. Just messin that **** happens to everyone. Just turn it around into a postitve and smash the weights.