Big Is Inside

It’s not uncommon for us bodybuilders to imagine ourselves as contemporary superheroes.  We imagine ourselves to have physical abilities beyond the scope of mere mortals.

And although it seems more the product of imagination than biology, I can actually attest that it’s true.

I have superpowers.

I am coming out of the superhero closet.  

But it is not super strength (I wish) nor the ability to fly (unless I am thrown).  It is my ears.

Yes, in spite of trying to develop a superhero physique, I actually have superhero ears.  

Bummer.

But it’s still pretty cool.  I don’t have super hearing, though.  No, my power is a little different . . .

My ears can "hear math."  

Like if you played music in a crowded, noisy, my ear can discern rhythm and tempo and pull out the music from the clatter.  My ear communicates with my brain so fast, it can identify music based on the mathematics of sound . . .

And I don’t even have to use a calculator.

And – I know, I know – you all claim to have this same superpower.

But here’s my REAL edge:

I CAN SEE MATH.

That’s right.  Just like my ear can hear music through mathematics, creating balance and form from sound, so too can my eye perceive symmetry through mathematics, and create balance and form from sight.

It’s in my biology.  I was born with it.  My eye is programmed with a mathematical equation built into it.  Whenever I see a form that is balanced and symmetrical, my eye registers it.

How do i know the vision is symmetrical?  Well, it always falls under the same ratio.  Whenever something is symmetrically balanced – and this is what we often call "beauty" – the object somehow fits a ratio of 1.618.

Now, stay with me.

I said I can SEE and HEAR math – never claimed to be great with EXPLAINING it.

So let me pick an example.  let’s see . . . I know: take a dolphin.  Think, in your mind, of the profile of a dolphin.  As if it was swimming by.   Now, notice where his eye is on his body.  Got the image?  Good.

If you divided the length of his body at that point, it would create two sections, a longer half and a shorter half.  Then if you divided the length of the longer by the length of the shorts, it would equal 1.618.

And I SEE this.  Without a calculator.  I don’t even have to measure the damn dolphin to know it’s true.

And i see it all over the place in nature around me.  Wherever I see this math, this ratio of 1.618, it is always with something that is beautiful and balanced.

Obviuously this little ability of mine comes in handy a lot in bodybuilding as well.  Whenever I see a body that is perfectly symmetrical, it is because the bodybuilder is holding himself (posing) in a way that represents the ratio 1.618.  he is holding himself in such a way where his body has a "longer half" and a "Shorter half", and the division between the two equals 1.618.

Now that division point isn’t the eye (like with the dolphin), but it could be the placement of his hands, or the definition of his abds, or the position of his knees . . . Always in a symmetrical form there is that 1.618 . . .

This weird mathematical phenomena has been studied for millenia.  The Greeks called this "The Golden Section", or "The Golden Ratio."  They gave it a name – phi – which is a name like that good old number pi we learned in geometry.

See, the Greeks did not see a difference between the natural world and the scientific.  So, by their thinking, there HAD to be a "formula" to describe beauty, or at least to describe balance.  The joke of the matter is that they were correct.

There is a formula for symmetry in nature: 1.618.

AND THE HUMAN EYE IS PROGRAMMED WITH IT!

Woops – did I let that slip?  Oh well.  Might as well come clean.

EVERY human eye is PROGRAMMED with the ability to perceive the ratio 1.618, or phi.  It is just like our ears.  Our ears are "programmed" to "hear math".  This is how we understand the difference between music (which has audible symmetry) as different from noise (which is audible chaos).  So too our EYES are programmed with the ability to see math . . .

Since the Greeks, countless masters in arts, engineerring and (duh) mathematics have studied this phenomena.  Great works of art are created, and after the fact people take measurements and discover phi all over the sculpture or painting.  Buildings are erected with the ratios of phi imbued into their structure, and we are dran in to their spaces.  Beautiful people are revered and admired, and we find measurements of phi in their face, on their torso, and all over their form.  

And I can SEE this.

Okay okay, EVERYONE can see this.

But is everyone LOOKING?

The term "symmetry" is much pandied about among bodybuilders.  We talk about it as if it were a half-half proposition.  We say "top is balanced to bottom" or "side balanced to side."  When, in reality, the human eye perceives "balance" as something very different . . .

Still don’t buy it?

Well THINK of the HUMAN EYE.  In a "perfect face" the eye is roughly at the "phi point" on the face. That is, if you used the eye as a point of division on the face – just like we did with the dolphin – then you would have two halves; a longer half and a shorter half.  If you divide the longer by the shorter you very often get – ta da! – 1.618.

Now, this means BOTH eyes are placed on the face at the phi points.

This means they are already situated at a point that responds to the number 1.618 . . .

Doesn’t it make sense – biological sense – that our eye would be genetically programmed with this ratio as our estimate of a balanced form?

And if us bodybuilders are SO concerned with symmetry, shouldn’t we become DEEPLY intimate with this equation?  Shouldn’t we be more concerned with how we PERCEIVE symmetry if we are trying to ACHIEVE it?

Now no one (or at least very few of us) is born with a body covered with perfect demarcations of the Phi ratio.  Likewis,e as we get older and our bodies change, what once looked balanced may no longer be so in a few years.  

This fact is where bodybuilding is born.  We are "chasing Phi" as we change the shapes of our physiques.  Where we once were not symmetrical, we grow a muscle or create a vascular line, and suddenly – like music – the mathematics shift into place and we are perceived as balanced.

Our posing likewise follows suit with these mathematical ideals.  We shift and contort our bodies and the new shapes we create somehow register to the human eye as "balanced".  This is why great posing is NOT the process of "hiding flaws" or "fooling the eye."  It is, in fact, the process of PLAYING INTO THE EEYE.

Solid posing works with the natural biology of human perception in a mathematical cooperation.

It is NOT about tricks.  And it is NOT about preference.  

Even thought hat is so often what we are told.

See, when people (or judges) criticize a physique for not being "symmetrical", even though they are often correct, but sadly they do not know the REASONS WHY.  So they try to explain "why" and it gets all jumbled and mixed up.  In reality, it is merely the human eye doing what it does so well: calculating the ratios of what it sees to determine what forms have symmetry, and what does not.  Just like our ear is constantly calculating mathematical shifts in volume, tone, pitch and tempo in order to determine what is music and speech, and what is noice or static.  Judges try to be fancy, and use esteric terms to defend their perception.

All they need is the damn math.  Can’t argue with biology.  No need to eloquent dissertations on what one thinks of balance and artistry.  All you need is an eyeball and a calculator to defend your call.

But, unfortunately, now we have all these "myths" out there about "what is symmetrical" and "what looks right."

Meanwhile, our eyes already know.  We were BORN with the ability to spot it.

But so many bodybuilders are busy buying into what they are TOLD symmetry is.  Their confidence is undermined by those supposed "authorities" on the sport.

Symmetry is a series of mathematically authenticated proportions.  Phi is one element to the term, but even with that it is not the ONLY math involved.  However, ironically, OPINION really has no room in the assessment of symmetry.

But I seem to be one of the only bodybuilders who knows about this . . . I am one of the few who learned his superpower:

My eye can SEE math!

Everyone else’s may be able to as well, but I am AWARE of my superpower . . .

Now, if only I didn’t look so dorky in a spandex bodysuit . . .

Ever notice how a lot of gymnasts look, well, JACKED ALL THE TIME?  Granted, they need to pull the leg mass up a little, but so many of them have upper bodies are just unfairly well proportioned.  Someone mentioned this to me recently, and it made me recall a bit of history about our sport.  

Seems we bodybuilders owe a bit of social cred to our gymnastic brothers.  The gymnasts gave us our "mythological home" on the West Coast.  You see, it was the gymnasts – not the meatheads – who got Venice, Ca the nickname "muscle beach."

It starts during the depression.  Hollywood saw a LOT of out of work stuntmen/women, as well as the fallout of post-circus-era performers and acrobats tryong to shift into Hollywood film life.

With so little money to be had, only the BEST of these physical performers would find work. This DEMANDED that they be at the top of their game.

Yet, this was the Depression, and money to pay for a training facility was scarce. Likewise, this was the 30’s ? it was not like there were gyms on every other corner like today.

Now, in order to keep youth delinquency down, the Mayor of Venice took what little funding he had and built a playground rigfht aloing Venice beach. Monkey bars, rings, swings ? all sorts of stuff. A way to keep youths occupied to perhaps cut back on crime . . .

However, it was not necessarily the kids who took to this equipment. It was the adults. Specifically, the same contingent of work-hungry stuntment, acrobats and post circus performers.

They would use Venice Beach as their makeshift training center. And as we all know from this forum thread, the way a gymnast body develops is quite impressive.

So, put yourself in the eys of the time . . . during the depression, most folks were pretty thin. People were nationally poor ? like thrid world country level of poor. So, to see these gymnastic people tumbling, swinging and flipping must have been quite impressive.

Indeed, the bodies of these athletes may not have been much compared to TODAY’s dtandards, but as compared with the average thin American, well, the big delts, chiseled abs and wide backs must have looked CRAZY big!

So the locals nicknamed the area "muscle beach."

it wouldn’t be for another 20 or so years before the first of the bodybuilders would start infultrating the area. The muscleheads (whose culture, by the way, had originally developed on the EAST coast, and NOT the west) heard of this legendary "muscle beach" and said "that’s where I belong!" Slowly, then more rapidly, the muscle men flooded Venicve.

We all sort of know how things went from their. Gold’s Gym, the Venice Beach Weight Pit, Atlas and Reeves, the Weider Empire, Schwarzenegger, Mr. O., spandex and leg warmers, aerobics, chain gyms, andro, and on and on to the present . . .

But in the end, a piece of our bodybuilding subculture’s legend and mythology emanated from the gymnasts . . .

Anyone who loves this sport’s mystique, or is romanced by the cool world of bodybuilding owes a nod to our jacked ˆ if smaller legged – gymnastic brothers & sisters.

I am SO glad to see more and more big, boated growth guts in the IFBB.

It does my heart good.  No really.  I mean, I am sure all the pharmeceutical excess of these guys isn’t doing THEIR hearts any good.  But I am glad for it.

I hope Dennis James’ enjoys his prolonged third trimester.  I really am glad to see Jay Cutler loosening his belt.  Victor Martinez’s standing upright for men with big middles is just a grand thing.  Marcus Ruhl proves that even the full figured have a place in the ranks.  And of course, our favorite prego, Mr. Coleman, whose kidney and liver definition were simply astounding.

Makes me glad.

In fact, I STRONGLY hope the IFBB sport continues that way.  I DEEPLY and PROFOUNDLY hope that the IFBB competitors become more grotesque, more preposterous, and more distorted.

Seriosuly.

Then even casual spectators will begin to accept that there are a LOT of drugs in these boys.  it will be unavoidable: people will see that is not a contest of presenting a physique, it is a contest of presenting a distortion of a physique.  

In the end, it is about how exaggerated can you become yet stil survive.  It is a contest of who has the strongest internal organs rather than the external muscles.  

And i am VERY happy about it.

It reminds me of wrestling.  Wrestling has two faces.  First, there’s "pro" wrestlin, and everyone everyone knows about that.  No one would argue against how hard pro wrestlers work.  These guys are genuinely athletes, and genuinely in great condition to be able to do all that they do.  And there is a spectacle of athletic prowess that requires skill, agility and prowess.

But let’s not kid ourselves.  Pro wrestling may be a sport – but a COMPETITIVE sport?  That’s a little challenging . . . it’s a sporting ENTERTAINMENT . . . but meanwhile, back as recently as the 80’s were some people who STILL believed that pro wrestling was not staged.  They honestly thought that this was a true contest.  It took a few decades before people got the hang of it:

Po wrestling: yes a sport; no, not quite an authentic contest.

Nowadays, we "get" that it is supposed to be about entertainment.  It is about being "wowed", blown away, thrilled.  

But then then there’s "real" wrestling.  Olympic or collegiate or classical wrestling — however you want to call it — this "authentic" version of wrestling is going on all the time.  The masses rarely hear about it.  It’s just about never covered on widespread media.  But somewhere in local gyms or tournaments it continues, unhampered, healthy and competitive.  And even if we rarely SEE this side of the sport, we all sort of quietly agree that it is somehow the "more authentic" approach to the competitive aspects of the sport.

No one says Pro Wrestling ain’t a sport, just that the Olympic wrestling is where the authentic sense of sporting competition resides; without fanfare, without showboating, according to discernable rules, and open to mastery.

And that’s a nice little point, but this is a bodybuilding blog . . . not a wrestling one.

So, back to my bloated boys on the IFBB.  

Just like their pro wrestler bretheren of Triple H, Hulk Hogan and John Cena, there is NO MISTAKING that Dexter Jackson, Jason Arntz and Albert Breckles are just as hard working.  These IFBB bodybuilders are, like it or not, genuine athletes.  They are working damn hard to do what they want to do.

So, therefore, IFBB bodybuilding is, like pro wrestling, definitely a SPORT.

But the analogy works to further the poit . . . because, also like pro wrestling, we in the public address are left to wonder: "so just how much of a COMPETITIVE sport is it?"

I mean, a STRONG argument could be made that, these days, IFBB shows are jjst that: SHOWS.  They are a bit more of an entertainment than a contest.  They are a chance to see something wild and fascinating and rare.  We get to see our wildest fantasies for muscle come to life!  We get to see bizarre proportions and wild shapes.  The sights boggle the mind and shocks our expectations!  

But when you think about, it’s all planned.  They may not necessarily know the winner, but they sure as hell know what’s going to happen in the contest.  They pick their criteria, and the judges upholding that criteria are the same powers who are setting the standards for the contest itself.  It is a pre-planned entertainment.  Whichever athlete had the body that survived under the most rigorous conditions of pharmeceutical excess in order to match the criteria is named the winner.  Then the next time they do it again, and again . . . . and the audiences buy into it eagerly.

Where does the spectacle end and the skill begin?  Where are the discernable, consistant rules and criteria to "the game"?  Where is the authenticity?

Let’s face it: the IFBB is heading the way of pro wrestling . . . slowly it is transforming into a fun, imaginative freak show.  

Right now, we are to bodybuilding as people were to wrestling in the 80’s.  Mnay people have already figured out that IFBB bodybuilding isn’t authentic in it’s sense of competition.  Yet many wild fans and hopefuls cling madly to the notion that yes, yes! YES! THIS IFBB STUFF IS REAL!

Regardless, I stick with the sensible minds, and push the analogy further.  

I think: "if IFBB bodybuilding is analogous to pro wrestling, then what part of bodybuilding is analogous to real, Olympic wrestling?"

Is there an "Olympic bodybuidling?"

Well, I personally think so.

But I think it is still stuck in the shadow of it’s noisy little brother, the IFBB.

There is still going on out there a more "authentic" version of competitive bodybuilding.  it is smaller, quieter, and harder to access than the IFBB show.  But it is more closely related to it’s original basis rooted in thousands of years of study of the human form combined with the science of human development.  it is the part of the sport that has retained it’s focus on the quality of presentation, rather than magnitude of impression.

But this side of the sport is still trying to get it’s footing.  It is muchly associated with natural shows, but even a few non-tested events have hearkened back to sensible principles.  

But one thing is for certain: genuine "Olympic" bodybuilding will not emerge until it is disassociated from the IFBB "pro bodybuilding’ entertainment.  Much of this disassociation is in the hands of the athletes and organizations who keep this degree of authenticity.  However, a portion belongs to the IFBB.

In order for Olympic bodybuilding to emerge, the IFBB will first need to be more widely regarded as farce.  I don’t mean a farce in a negative way.  Think of how the Simpson’s is a farce of family life, or how pro wrestling is a farce of Olympic wrestling: I mean a respectable, understandable, well-loved farcical version of bodybuilding. As this occurs, it will leave more room for the authentic, Olympic-based version of the sport of bodybuilding.

So, one of the ways the IFBB will be seen as a farce is if the bodes within the sport become more, well, farcical.  As the boys become more wildly exaggerated, so too will the perception of authenticity slowly wane.  

We will always love the show put on by the IFBB boys, but we will just begin seeing it — and enjoying it — for what it is.  Specifically, as something seperate from Olympic bodybuilding, even if it looks very similar.  

So, I am all for the growth of growth guts.  I am all for bizarre new proportions and demented, freakish dimensions of human muscle.  

Bring it on.

As these guts grow, so too grows the possibility that one day they will become seperate from the sport I am so fond of.

Go boys!  GROW!  God bless those guts!  Onward to victory!

Short and sweet gang:

"DISSENTION IS NOT DISLOYALTY."

This goes for all of us.

To dissent from the mainstream, and offer alternative ideas, or to challenge perspectives, or just to throw humor out there – this is NOT being disloyal.

In a sane, democratic space, dissension from the norm is what helps create changes.  It is IMPORTANT to challenge authority in meaningful, respectful ways.  

Merely challenging authority is not a sign of disloyalty.  In fact, isn’t it the opposite?  Isn’t disloyalty about working AGAINST the authority in insidious ways?  Trying to undermine?  Isn’t staging a challenge in a public and direct manner more respectful of authority – and therefore more LOYAL?

This principal goes for all things, but this is a bodybuilding blog.  So, the reason I bring it up here is that in bodybuilding there is LOTS AND LOTS of unnamed authority.  Lots of beliefs people hold to be "the only way" or "the correct way."  And there are lots of products and providers whom people feel should be beyond reproach.  As if we should never take them to task . . .

Let me apologize if these thoughts are unnattached to direct examples.  I hope you understand my point, however.  I myself have been known to launch quite a few assaults on the status quo over the years.  But it was not to create a disloyalty towards the bodybuilding mainstream.  It is only ever to incite and inspire more useful, critical and productive thinking among athletes.  

Besides to name all the examples of where people show blind loyalty withhout dissent would take a MUCH longer blog.

And this one was short and sweet.  Which, in a way, sort of dissents from the importance of the point . . .

You know, that dissention is not the same as disloyalty . . .

For my readers (all two of you) I have GREAT news!

I AM OFFICIALLY THE MOST RIDICULOUS BLOG ON THE INTERNET!

I had no idea such surveys were conducted, so this was all news to me! What an austere privilege!  I wonder what the criteria were?  

I got some exciting news from someone recently:

"This is the most ridiculous blog on the site. Quit being a jealous hater and get a life"

I am envious of the guy.  How HE got to be on the committee to elect the most ridiculous blog on the net, I will never know.  Or perhaps he is only in charge of the "jealous hater" contingent?  Oh no!  Wait a sec!  Maybe I am not THE most ridiculous blog, but only the most ridiculous in a single category!  WHAT A BUMMER!  Well, I’ll know better when my certificate arrives.

I do get a certificate for this, right?

In fact, what were the criteria again?

Hopefully the esteemed unnamed-poster will let me know those criteria soon.  After all, he is the lucky delegate who gets to bestow these honors, so I imagine he is deftly informed.  

From all I can tell, the main criteria is that one must not agree with the masses.  This is vital for ridiculousness.  If MOST of the people agree on something, then it is RIDICULOUS to challenge it.  Those few people who do not agree should be left in abject silence without a voice.  Any alternative is, indeed, ridiculous.

Also, I gleen from his note to me that to be considered ridiculous you must NOT challenge thinking.  No no.  Do not do ANYTHING to inspire alternative thought.  It is truly a ridiculous thing to even play devil’s advocate, let alone offer alternative perspectives.  Put that crazy idea away!

Really, what kind of world did I think I was LIVING in?  Putting out alternative ideas.  MADMAN!

No, ridiculous.

Thanks for the honors.  I am sure my readers (both of them) will be tickled with glee.  

Please spread the good news: I am officially ridiculous!

Okay, i keep seeing the term "natty" out there.  

I guess it is a slang abbreviation for the term "natural"?

Wait – when the frick was THIS decided?  When did I become "NATTY"?

Look, I have to BEG a removal of this status!  I AM JUST NOT COOL OR HIP OR SLICK ENOUGH FOR IT!  

I mean, seriously, I am so underqualified to be labelled something as hyper-contempo as "natty".  So to go ahead and refer to myself in a term as cool as that would be sort of hypocritical.  

Youmust understand: I am a bit of a bodybuilding dork freak.  I am HARDLY Hollister-hip enough for a cool SoBeach term like "natty"  It just wouldn’t fit – I would be a FRAUD!  In order to avoid the hypocrisy, my ONLY option would be to go on steroids!  

PLEASE help me stay clean (or rather, stay "natty" if you don’t understand what I mean) by not using this term!  

I mean, I appreciate the original IDEA behind the effort.  Is it not a marketing coup to retrofit the term "natural bodybuilding" in order to make it more appealling to a younger demographic?  Brilliant!  Lord knows that them wacky kids were having a tough enough time understanding other complex words in our society — really HARD words like "vote", "contraceptive" and "Federline" — so it always helps to put an X-box spin on these important issues of the day.  Pure capitalistic genius, right?!  Bravo!

Yet, although a sign of remarkable innovation, in the meantime it leaves us, well, "normal" people out in the cold.  What about those of us who don’t quite sit at the virtual "cool kids table" in the grand cafeteria we call bodybuilding?  What should plain, everyday, non-hip, "normal" bodybuilders be called?  Will I be therefore need to start being called "normy"?  Or "Normy-natty"?  "Normanatty"?  Ooh ooh!  We could maybe make it sort of eurostyled: "norminaté"!

But even then, I look at my ragged tank tops, my beat up wrestling sneakers used for leg-day, and my floppy sweatpants and realize again that if I am not cool enough for "natty", then I could NEVER be not cool enough for norminaté!

To me, this new term "natty" seems questionable, anyway.  Doesn’t "natty" sound suspiciously like "nasty"?  Or like the 80’s retro term for nasty, "nappy"?  I had a hard time being okay with it at first.  I thought I was being insulted!

So, I am left to wonder if maybe it’s in the name of efficiency that the term has arisen.  "Natty" has five letters, while "natural" has an EXHAUSTING-to-type seven.  How much collective time have we as a bodybuilding community saved with the elimination of two letters from our forums?  With the use of the term spreading like wildfire, one can only conclude that the time savings, when accumulated, must be adding a profound amount of liberated time into each natty bodybuilder’s schedule.  (At last!  The "natty" bodybuilder has an expra 18 seconds of training time per day, while the rest of us dinosaur "natural" bodybuilders are robbed of those apparently crucial mass-building moments.)  How much time have I lost – no wait – how much MASS have I lost by opting to speak the ENGLISH LANGUAGE all these years?  Mindboggling and terrifying to think I could be another 20 lbs. heavier if only my linguistics were more youth market oriented!

Perhaps I have this all wrong, but nonetheless I am still very concerned.  I don’t know when the marketing meeting was held, and I wish I could have attended.  I had no idea that the drop in sales surrounding the word "natural" compelled them to offer this slick upgrade.  In that same vein, have we registered it — to protect it from the marketing schemes of steroid users?  (Or are they just called "sterry" now?)  Shouldn’t natty be written: "natty®"?  Just don’t want the juice™ lawyers coming down on us for infringement.

As a matter of fact – wait – maybe I am WAY out of it.  Have we already found a new, hot name for  bodybuilding ITSELF?  I mean, I already look like a total dork every time I patiently take away the t-y and add the u-r-a-l.  But even if I’m a nerd for not yet adopting "natty", I don’t want to next become a total relic!  What is the term for bodybuilding now, in the age of the "natty" athlete (or is it just "nathlete")?  Bodybuildy?  Beedy-buildy?  B-to-the-B-ding?!  PLEASE HELP ME!  I don’t want to excluded from bobudig’s great linguistic shift!

All I ask is that, from here on out, please keep me posted.  I know I probably look like a REAL weener, but my only excuse for not being as cool as the rest of you is that — forgive me — I have been focusing on my bodybuilding itself, rather than on how cool I SPEAK about my bodybuilding.  I know, I know: my bad.  Perhaps I should spend less time worrying about my exercise and eating and put more time into worrying about how I MARKET my exercise and eating.  Sadly, I have no other defense.  

And in all likelihood I will miss any further changes because I am FOOLISHLY focusing on the actual work and progress of my natural bodybuilding.

Woops!  I meant natty bobing.

I am SUCH a know it all.  I am surprised any of you are even READING these.  What a pompous windbag!  I mean, what am I – "The Official Authority On All Things?!"  I sometimes crack myself up on how I write like I am the law . . . Trust me it ain’t that way IN MY HEAD.  That’s just how I articulate it onto the page.  Er — um — onto the screen.

In fact, I was just telling someone on here today that "articualtion" is probably among the most important qualities a bodybuilder can ever strive to possess.  (So you’d think I’d be more conscientious, right?!)  

It all came up from a great response from a someone who posts under the name "zebrasix" (cool handle – I think I know zebra’s 4 and 13, but am not sure).  She responded:

"i saw [your] thread. i thought you articulated yourself very well and brought out a side of contest prep "gurus" that you really don’t see mentioned that much"

(She was responding to my blog post: http://blog.bodybuilding.com/The_Real_XN/2007/03/20/let-gurus-off-the-hook-the-real-gurus/)

I was SO flattered.  And grateful that she recognized me for ARTICULATION.  

VERY cool zebrasix.

I mean, think about it: aren’t ALL the physique sports about "articulation"?  Isn’t that sort of a foundation of our goals?

In the physique sports we are attempting to articulate ideas through our bodies.  Ideas about image, power, gender, drive, strength determinatioon, sex, intelligence – a whole plethora of ideas expressed through the flesh.  Without an understanding of what it is we are trying to express, how will he know whether we are doing the right job?

But at the VERY minimum — even if you don’t go in for all that deep stuff — we physique athletes are trying to AT LEAST articulate the scope of our work.  We work and work and work, and our given sport is a means for articulation of that work.  Whether it’s powerlifting, fitness, or bodybuilding, we strive to have our work, effort and drive so well "articulated" in our physiques presentations that it can be assessed.

In fact, is this not what the essence of judging is all about?  Judging who is the best at articulating the work with their physique?  Mull that over a little . . .  

Articulation, in fact, is what delineates the physique sports from one another; where the focus of articulation isplaced defines each physique sport:

• In powerlifting, the articulation of the work is in the action itself.  
• In fitness, the articulation of the work is the sequence of actions.  
• In bodybuilding, the articulation of the work is in the presentation of the result of the actions.

But in all cases, it is about how well one can "articulate" the idea behind their work.

When someone recognizes my physique, I get excited for the fact that I have articulated something.  But just as important – and sometimes more vital – is when I am capable of articulating something that someone else can relate to.

I wish more bodybuilders would focus on their articulation – be it verbally, physically or procedurally.  I imagine there’d be a lot FEWER headaches and frustrations out there . . .

Lord knows my know-it-all brand of articulation has no doubt been the source of quite a few . . . !