physical culture vs. body building
ByProbably the greatest influence on the fitness world as we know it is by someone you may have never heard of (unless you have been on my blog or are in the know). His name is Eugen Sandow. Back in the day (think 1800s) he was a strong man who was able to press 300lbs over his head and did things like bend coins and horse shoes and such. All this at a body weight of a mere 180lbs. Now he used to work for a traveling carnival doing stunts like extremely heavy lifting, breaking chains, bending rods etc. One thing the carnival owner noticed was that people seemed to be more in awe of the level of muscularity he displayed as much as they were in his Herculean might. The carnival owner then persuaded him to perform acts of “muscle displays” as part of his show. These muscle displays essentially formed into bodybuilding contests and posedowns as we know them today. As a matter of fact the Mr. Olympia trophy actually has a statue of Sandow on top of it in his honor and is called a Sandow. Sandow was a huge proponent of physical culture.
Now what is the difference you might be asking. Well a former Mr. New Jersey bodybuilder and star trainer once said to me “The winner of the contest is always the least healthy in the room.” Now what he meant by that is that to win the body builders put themselves at such low levels of bodyfat and sacrifice their health for the appearance that would win the show. Physical culture was about health and strength as a life style. Body builders sacrifice their strength and health. Thats not how I roll and its not how Sandow wanted things done. In fact he once wrote in his book that “One should train for strength and not just look alone.”
I wish it wasn’t like that but there is hope. Pavel Tsatsouline and his band of RKC’s (of which I am included) train for strength and train people for strength using a lot of the same principles that were used way back in the day but with modern science helping out too. I encourage you to look at things the way we do. Leave a comment and tell me what you thlink.
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4 Comments
March 24th, 2009 at 1:20 am
“The winner of the contest is always the least healthy in the room”. Damn right.
During these contests there is always someone ending up to the hospital because of dehydration.
These bodybuilding guys have a terrific attitude toward training, but what for? Symmetry, proportion, definition, smallest body fat percentage possible.
Absolutely nothing regarding TRUE fitness.
I mean, when these guys quit, what can they say about their activities? “I spent my life at the gym to look good”.
About looking good: these guys (and, please, don’t make me think about bodybuilding gals) are ugly. They don’t even seem human at all.
I started training “the right way” last summer: but I’ve always been an athlete, I’ve always played basketball and my physical culture is build around being a better player.
During the last match I overpowered a couple of bigger and taller opponents: I just went to the basket a couple of times in a “you-can’t-stop-me” fashion, using my upper-body strength to push them away.
So when people ask me why I do workouts almost everyday, my answers is: “come to the basketball game”.
March 24th, 2009 at 11:22 am
Hey David
Though I believe the bodybuilding community has a lot to offer and I respect how much discipline they have they have just gotten out of control with people going to the hospital and such. Lately there seems to be paradigm shift from bodybuilding and such to more well rounded programs which led to the uprise of the RKC, CST and Crossfit camps.
Its funny you mentioned basketball. It is one sport that I absolutely suck at. If I make a shot I am lucky to hit the backboard (yeah its that bad). When I was on that cruise earlier this year I met a trainer who has pretty much the exact same philosophy as me. I told him I tell people to train for performance and eat for vanity and I train people for health, strength, conditioning and the looks that come with it and he said he did too but just never worded it like that. When we were talking about our individual performance goals I told him mine was to be able to press a lot of weight overhead and his was to improve his vertical leap. He actually trains a couple pro basketball players. You can check his stuff out at http://www.highoctanefitness.com/exclusivetips.html. I don’t know if you remember when I talked about that cruise I went on and I proposed and someone else got inspired by me to propose…It was him.
Crazy right?
March 24th, 2009 at 2:29 pm
There is nothing wrong with looking good. Thick legs, washboard abs, huge guns who doesn’t want this? However, if you train for strength, with a bit of heart healthy cardio, and eat healthy you will look like this. Can these fluffed up bodybuilders do even 6 pull ups or run a mile? probably very few. So how functional are your huge arms when you need to escape a burning house or carry a family member to safety?
Is any of there appearance going to stick with them after they retire (case in point Arnie god bless him)? Not much. How many people know of someones grandpa who still can kick ass and work hard because 20,30,40 years ago he did real work for a living and ate real food? I know mine could, good lord the man would pack out the deer from his hunting trips over his shoulders into his 70s. Train for functional strength and endurance, eat healthy and appropriately and I can guarentee you’ll start turning heads whether in the gym or the grocery store.
Wanna be big and look great, tell me what body building magazines this man reads
-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sW2fd7PeKR0
Kirk Karwoski could squat over a grand for rep! (don’t hink any of his other numbers were paltry either)
well thats my $.02
March 24th, 2009 at 4:24 pm
Exactly!