Looks Are Decieving

Last time I talked about how most gyms are a waste of time and money. One of the reasons is the ideas the gym and their trainers have. They almost always focus on looks and not practicality. Of course a big reason is because most of the general public has come to confuse looks with actual athletic ability. The gyms are just meeting the public's expectations.
How did this happen? Much of the blame goes to bodybuilding and media, especially models and movies. People equate huge muscles with strength, speed, and overall athleticism. But what people don't understand is that having a 25 inch biceps or rippling abs isn't necessarily going to make you a better fighter, swimmer, soldier,etc. In fact, some of these overdeveloped muscles could hinder performance. Most Americans, especially men, seek to build huge biceps, huge pecs, huge quads, and tiny waistlines.While the slim waistline is good, the other things are one of the reasons for muscular imbalances, which can hinder performance, and in some cases even lead to injury. Huge pecs can lead to slouching and is a negative in sports like swimming and boxing. Seriously, the muscles people should work on , but are overwhelmingly neglected, are lats , hamstrings, glutes, and forearms.
People think Mr Olympia is the symbol of excellence but they're greatly mistaken. Professional bodybuilders through much of the year use moderate weights with high reps, follow very tight , often unhealthy diets( I recall reading one guy restricted his water intake to tea spoons ), along with tons of supplements. On contest day they also use various oils to make their muscles stand out. Of course the final push comes from a bottle or a needle ( lots of diuretics and of course steroids ).Think I'm exaggerating? Read any bodybuilding magazine. Most are quite honest. Look at the guys. There are champions who are under 5"10 yet weigh over 300 lbs!It's all for looks. They however are not necessarily super strong or fast unless they train specifically for such things.
TV and movies have also given us false ideas. One of the worst is Mike " the situation" from Jersey Shore. What can he do, besides shots? Even the Italian Stallion Stallone isn't real. I remember as a kid reading how he had 2% body fat during Rocky 3. Yeah, but he was living on  raw eggs and tuna, getting mercury poisoning in the process. No real boxer would train like he did. That's not to say boxers wouldn't train hard and eat right, becoming lean and muscular ( think Paciao or Mayweather ) but they certainly wouldn't be dizzy all day ( like Stallone himself admitted).
It wasn't always this way. The first bodybuilders, at the turn of the 20th century, would demonstrate feats of strength, as well as showing off their muscles. Guys like Arthur Saxon and Eugene Sandow ( who the Mr. Olympia trophy is named after ) would lift barbells with 1 arm or bend steel bars, while their muscles would stand out. This became the first display of muscles. But these guys, while bigger and defined than most people, they certainly weren't anywhere near the size of todays bodybuilders. Even the first wave of "modern bodybuilders " ( Arnold Schwarznegger, Franco Columbu, Dave Draper, Serge Nubret,etc.) trained for strength most of the year  ( heavy bench presses, heavy squats,etc.) with limited emphasis on sculpting ( flyes, tricep extensions,etc.) only during contest time. And they weren't built like dinosaurs ( Arnold at his peak was 6'2  and weighed 235 , a far cry from todays guys ).
Many people now equate size with strength , and even ridicule the lean, muscled look. 1 guy on Amazon, reviewing Pavel Tsatsouline's excellent strength training book , Power To The People, made the ridiculous claim that Tsatsouline  looked like a prisoner from a Soviet gulag! Pavel is 6'1, 175-185 lbs. While definitely no Mr. Olympia, the man hardly looks like that. I think that shows where the reviewers mind is. Pavel has also dead lifted 3 times his weight, can do 20 pull ups, and military press a 80 lb + kettle bell. His "gulag' like muscles seem to be doing just fine.
Remember, guys like Bruce Lee, Michael Phelps, Usain Bolt, and Manny Paciao may not come in a Calvin Klein ad or appear in Flex magazine, but their lean muscles certainly produced results .