Conditioning Research

I saw someone had posted this video on their blog today. Say what you want about their form or their old school bodybuilding, I think this is pretty inspiring. Guys who have made their own weights and equipment and are training hard in a difficult and poor part of the world . These guys would be somewhat bemused with all the introspection that we indulge in about training and the sectarian warfare that goes on. The other thing to note is that these guys will be unlikely to have access to the drugs that pollute much western bodybuilding. What you see in these physiques is probably at the upper end of what is possible naturally for most.

Well some studies just make you go "eh?" Exercise dependence and the drive for muscularity in male bodybuilders, power lifters, and fitness lifters. Researchers have hypothesized differences in exercise dependence and drive for muscularity between bodybuilders and power lifters, while others have not found the predicted differences. This study assessed 146 weight lifters (bodybuilders, n=59; power lifters, n=47; fitness lifters, n=40) on the Exercise Dependence Scale, Bodybuilding Dependence Scale, and the Drive for Muscularity Scale. Results showed that bodybuilders and power lifters were significantly higher than fitness lifters on EDS Total, 7 EDS scales, and the 3 BDS scales. In contrast, power lifters were found to be significantly higher on DMS Total and DMS Behavior scales than bodybuilders. The regression results suggest that exercise dependence may be directly related to the drive for muscularity. First of all it is surprising that there are three scales: Exercise De...

While we are on the subject of bodybuilding I thought I'd point you to a new book from Rusty of Fitness Blackbook. (Rusty was one of the top fitness bloggers mentioned in the popular blog Zen Habits recently and he referred to this blog as one of his sources of information and inspiration which was very nice of him. This is returning the favour!) He has called the book Visual Impact . I have a copy and it is a good read and good value compared to some of the other stuff out there. The focus is very much on appearance - not the primal / evolutionary stuff I often feature. More of a "how to look like the guy off the front of Mens Fitness" and there are some interesting tips on diet to tweak appearance that I might try one day. The style is a lot like Rusty's excellent FREE report - The Vacation Body Blueprint - that I mentioned before . One of the things Rusty majors on in the book is the idea of avoiding building massive legs. After a basic level of devel...

hat tip. My interest in bodybuilding dwindled when I realised the influence of steroids. I saw friends grow massive on gear and I just stayed the same as a disillusioned natural! My story is similar to this one. What is instructive in this video is how "normal" a lot of these guys look. They look good, athletic but not huge.