[DVY]

@Slubu- those guys have been lifting for at least 5-10 years. Eating everything in sight (sometimes massgainers too), creatine, etc. You have nothing to worry about if you are just starting.

Lift heavy for 2-3 years, then if you really start getting too "big", stop the heavy weights and do cardio and youll muscles will strip down naturally.

[Screwston]

Do any of you big guys try to push around smaller guys? As in side checking them in a crowded space or staring them down? Being a bully.

My uncle is 5'8 and about 165 pounds of muscle. He has a a great upper chest, flat stomach, back and arms. I've seen bigger and taller guys get intimidated by him just when he's walking around at a store and shit. You can see it in their eyes and face. I mean he's average height and not some huge body builder, but I guess it's because he has an asshole face/bald head or something.

[Magic Bullets]

I like a routine which is like Stronglifts and combines isolation movements. I like the idea of looking aesethetic, while being strong at the same time. Houstin's uncle sounds like me, being shorter often doesn't recquire carrying a lot of mass. Marky Mark was about 5''7 -5''8 and not super heavy and had a more than descent physique. Focussing purely on scale weight is ignoring the visual look, anyone can weigh 220 and even at 6 foot it still doesn't guarantee that you will have a developed looking body. If you go to any gym and see guys training heavy relative to their body, they will usually have the best bodies and more often than not they aren't necessarilly mass monsters either.

[Ironbound]

(01-26-2013 11:56 AM)slubu Wrote:  

(01-25-2013 01:36 AM)scorpion Wrote:  

Strength and muscle size are two different things. The only thing people respond to in the real world is your muscle size and definition. They don't know or care how much weight you can lift. They just know if your body looks strong and impressive or not. If you want to generate the maximum response from people, focus on bodybuilding specifically to build muscle, not to put up bigger numbers on your lifts.

Can someone expand on this? I really want to add on more muscle size and definition. I'm currently doing the Stronglifts 5x5 program and actually love it. I find it cool that I can lift this much coming from being very weak.

But I do see a lot of other guys doing it and some are just bulky/fat but super strong. I have no interest in this. Yet I see other ripped guys doing isolation exercises like bicep curls on machines. So now I'm confused.

I'll just be honest, I prefer aesthetics over how strong I am. Is Stronglifts the wrong program?

Generally, it's like this. A novice (someone who has never lifted heavy weights, generally) will respond to ANY form of training. A program like Stronglifts and Starting Strength (which are inheretly the same, for the most part) induce a form of adaptation that produces muscle in the most optimal way, at least in the beginning (hence, "noob" gains). The Squat, benchpress and deadlift are compound excersises, and thus workout nearly every major muscle group. In the beginning, it's better to use a strength based program, as size is built more optimally like this. Beginners should never do bodybuilding routines that the pros do, it'll only mess them up. Once a person has hit an intermediate level of lifting, they can switch over to a more hypertrophy (size based) program, which generally builds more physical muscle mass, than strength.

Look up writings by Mark Rippetoe, a famous and amazing strength coach.

[Magic Bullets]

Realistically there is only so much muscle you can carry on your frame before you no longer look aesethic. The main reason guys go on the gear is so they can be big and lean. A lot of natural guys slip into what I call the fatboy lifter look, while they can be very strong they lack definition which is the reality of a very high proportion of guys in the gym. They spend most of their time cutting back and continually repeating the process, under the assumption they are adding muscle each time they do a cutting cycle. Having a good strength to weight ratio also contributes to giving you a harder and more vascular look, while not having to bulk.