[Möbius band]

May sound like a bit of a daft question but with the fitness craze getting a lot of followers in many countries in the past few years and with more and more men going to the gym to lift, have any of you guys been to any specific country where the percentage of men being built/lifting is significantly less than most Western countries/US? Could be a good idea to compile a data sheet of some sorts on this as it could allow to play niche lifter game.

Main reason I am asking is that in the past 3/4 years a LOT of guys have started lifting in my area and everyday I'm seeing the gym getting busier and busier.

[Rutting Elephant]

Almost no guys lift in Indonesia except the gays. Straight guys would rather play badminton or futsal (5-on-5 soccer on a field smaller than a basketball court).

[ballybally]

Any 3rd world country buddy ...

[scotian]

It doesn't seem very big in Colombia, there are good gyms there but it seems to be an upper class thing there, even at the gyms, you don't see too many jacked guys unlike in most English speaking countries.

[germanico]

(10-07-2014 07:30 PM)Möbius band Wrote:  

with the fitness craze getting a lot of followers in many countries in the past few years and with more and more men going to the gym to lift

Really?

Please, do tell me more.

[germanico]

Delete

[MidWest]

Well having been to Mexico so many times i'll say Mexico.

Gym culture is not strong there. They see it as a waste of time that could be used to work instead. I've never seen a dude be jacked up, maybe a guy here or there but not many. Contrast that with the U.S. where it seems like every guy is jacked up.


Upperclass Mexicans though are more into the gym thing.

[TigerMandingo]

France - just straight up skinny dudes over there. Not that they really need to get jacked. They do pretty well with their own women, who put out rather easily.

Russia - my home country. May seem controversial because a lot of people associate Russia with tough-ass dudes, but in reality Russian dudes don't really hit the gym that much. A lot of em are out of shape, as well. And again, Russian women don't place that much value on looks, so that may have something to do with it.

[one-two]

Also everybody smokes in Russia

[germanico]

(10-07-2014 08:01 PM)MidWest Wrote:  

Upperclass Mexicans though are more into the gym thing.

Its a status thing. Going to the gym means that you have the executive lifestyle and can afford the time and the money. Corporate gyms are popping up like mushrooms here in Mexico City.

[Dagnasty]

Most of Asia.

[zatara]

Gym culture has become so ingrained in large parts of the Anglosphere for guys I feel you now have to lift a lot to just remain average, nevermind get ahead. If youre in bars with middle class people who're mostly under 30 it seems like at least 50% of guys look like they lift decently these days. More in certain parts of Australia or the UK. Go to a beach party location like Cancun or Ibiza and I'd say closer to 80-90% of guys are in very good shape.

I've gotten lots of muscle related attention in Asia (China / Japan / Thailand) but you can get similar attention from just being white in these places, so they don't really fit the bill. In more westernised countries, Spain, Italy and France don't really have the gym rat culture in my experience. The guys there play football, if they do any exercise. They see going to the gym 3+ days a week to lift weights by yourself as 'pointless', in my conversations with them. As a result if you're in decent shape you'll get lots of attention from curious local girls, as long as you're in local bars where you'll stand out.

[Snowflake]

^ very true, in southern europe gym culture isn't big at all

[Americas]

Latin America can be like this. Although, to be fair, there are also places in Latin America where people don't lift but are in amazing shape (Brazil especially comes to mind). There is actually a much bigger outdoor gym culture in LA, you will see a lot of jacked guys working out in parks or on beach public gyms. Either that, or you will just see the most fit people really into sports and are really fit because of that. For the vast majority of lower class and middle class people, gyms are too expensive and people have more important priorities.

[Deluge]

Outside of hipsters (of which there are a lot of) there aren't many truly skinny guys in Australia. Most of the rest have alright muscle mass (though most aren't jacked by any means) or are fat. If you go to a run of the mill pleb tier club it'll seem like every single guy is muscular and tattooed while the girls are fatter then average too, it's a total shit show yet this is what most pickup guys even subject themselves to. There's exceptions (a couple elite tier clubs that have a preference for letting in stylish jacked dudes), but generally the thinner the girls are in a club, the less muscular the dudes are. No doubt socioeconomic status plays a huge role in this.

I'm convinced the Anglo gym culture is a direct reaction to the obesity epidemic. The guys need to pack on mass to compete for the remaining thin girls, or worst case have the mass for the chubby bitches find them attractive... dat dumpster diving. One of the most important indicators of attractiveness for a woman is how much larger than them in size a man is, and even fatties with their lower standards aren't completely exempt from that hard-wiring. This is why you'll notice fat chicks are one of the groups with a stronger preference for muscles than most.

[speeddemon]

(10-08-2014 10:14 AM)Deluge Wrote:  

Outside of hipsters (of which there are a lot of) there aren't many truly skinny guys in Australia. Most of the rest have alright muscle mass (though most aren't jacked by any means) or are fat. If you go to a run of the mill pleb tier club it'll seem like every single guy is muscular and tattooed while the girls are fatter then average too, it's a total shit show yet this is what most pickup guys even subject themselves to. There's exceptions (a couple elite tier clubs that have a preference for letting in stylish jacked dudes), but generally the thinner the girls are in a club, the less muscular the dudes are. No doubt socioeconomic status plays a huge role in this.

I'm convinced the Anglo gym culture is a direct reaction to the obesity epidemic. The guys need to pack on mass to compete for the remaining thin girls, or worst case have the mass for the chubby bitches find them attractive... dat dumpster diving. One of the most important indicators of attractiveness for a woman is how much larger than them in size a man is, and even fatties with their lower standards aren't completely exempt from that hard-wiring. This is why you'll notice fat chicks are one of the groups with a stronger preference for muscles than most.

Just to clarify: rich guys are normal sized and rich girls are skinny.

Everyone else is either fat (most girls/some guys) or muscular (some guys).

[3extra]

I second Mexico.

And echo Deluge's comments. Aus has the biggest gym culture out of all the places I've ever been to.

[Sherman]

I do weight lifting regularly in a gym in Mexico. There are plenty of gyms to lift weights here. Also, boxing is big. My gym has all the bags you need to get a good boxing work out and also a boxing ring.

[britchard]

German guys are pretty jacked usually, however the feminized Scandinavians aren't so much/at all. English guys go to the gym loads, but most of them have the more beef cake look as their diet is shit.

[Möbius band]

Interesting replies so far, from what I can gather; Asia guys don't lift,Mexico guys don't lift & Southern Europe/France guys don't.

Any data on Scandinavia and Eastern Europe [more specifically Poland and Hungary]?

And it's pretty widely known how big lifting culture is in Aussie land, but thanks to the guys for reaffirming this as I had only heard through online BB forums report. Seems like Zyzz and the 'aesthetics' crew really did leave a lasting impact there.

Here in the UK from what I've seen the middle/upper class guys are into fitness but not actual weight lifting but rather stuff like cycling/cross country/running.

In the area I live in, where there are a lot of ethnic guys, my gym is mostly filled with Pakistani guys, black guys and Eastern European guys and a lot of them are proper jacked. It's literally no added bonus to be a lifter in my area since so many of the guys do.

[zatara]

(10-08-2014 11:33 AM)Möbius band Wrote:  

Any data on Scandinavia and Eastern Europe [more specifically Poland and Hungary]?

My experience in Eastern Europe was that lifting is less common overall than in Anglo countries. The tanned, relatively built and low bf% 'aesthetics' style guys you'll see in working class areas of the UK or across Oz don't really exist. The middle class rugby-training bodies dont exist either. What you will find is a decent number of guys who have the powerlifter build - strong, but a bit fat. This is more common in Poland.

[britchard]

Oh yeah forgot to mention- in the UK, almost every EE immigrant (male) is jacked. Every single damn one.

[Seamus]

I've spent four or five years living abroad, and of the places I've lived not one has had as many big guys (combination of height and size) as I regularly see walking around in the States. Not to say these places didn't have "fitness cultures", just that fitness to a Latin American and fitness to a American might mean different things. A quick breakdown of the places I've spent the most time:

-China: Guys are tiny, usually skinny fat just like the women. I attribute it to a combination of lack of interest in lifting and shitty eating habits (too many carbs, not enough protein). I felt like a giant amongst men over there, and got tons of interest there for my size - above and beyond my smaller white friends - but without language ability it was very hard to close.

-Colombia: You'll see the occasional super cut/ripped guy walking around Medellin, but they're almost always lower class, doing their workouts in the outdoor prison-style gyms (which I love, by the way, although the sexy girls are always in the nice gyms). Once you move into the clubs and richer neighborhoods the number goes down drastically, and you hardly ever see a bodybuilder looking type anywhere. Bogota has even less of an emphasis on gym culture in my experience. Guys are also generally pretty short.

-Brazil: Surprisingly I didn't see as many big guys here as I was expecting, although granted I lived in Sao Paulo, away from Rio's beach culture. There were a lot of very in shape guys, but not that much of an emphasis on building big muscles like there is in the States. Like someone said earlier, think soccer player types. Just different priorities.

West Africa: Guys here are just naturally built, like nowhere else I've ever been. I'd regularly see dudes giving haircuts out of shacks with upper bodies as big as mine or bigger, with no gym around for miles. Don't go to Nigeria/Ghana/Togo/etc expecting to impress people with your muscles. East Africa is another story however.

[Deluge]

(10-08-2014 01:02 PM)zatara Wrote:  

(10-08-2014 11:33 AM)Möbius band Wrote:  

Any data on Scandinavia and Eastern Europe [more specifically Poland and Hungary]?

My experience in Eastern Europe was that lifting is less common overall than in Anglo countries. The tanned, relatively built and low bf% 'aesthetics' style guys you'll see in working class areas of the UK or across Oz don't really exist. The middle class rugby-training bodies dont exist either. What you will find is a decent number of guys who have the powerlifter build - strong, but a bit fat. This is more common in Poland.

One thing I've noticed with well-off girls is Oz is that although they mainly date within their own group (as most people in any income bracket do) when they do fuck "down", it's almost always with a jacked tattooed dude. Their male counterparts usually have alright mass from football/rowing in private school but virtually none are truly big. Also I've noticed the 8+ local born Asian girls almost exclusively date jacked Asian guys, of which there's a lot of.

[Demenxia]

The thing about EE is like, it seems they are genetically jacked. I'm not sure most of them go to the gym, but in clubs, you can see a lot of ppl with decent muscular shape.

Also, Turkey has a low jacked guy ratio, fyi.