I Am Afraid of Getting Too Big

Thats right, I said it. Alright, I am taking a piss or whatever the brits say. But seriously.

I am 6’1" approx 200lbs. I think I am at the perfect weight. I know a lot of you are laughing about the skinny internet warrior. But let me explain.

I enjoy bodybuilding. I enjoy exercise and building muscle. And every now and then I wish I could bulk up more, because I would like a little more size. But recently I have gotten into rock climbing and kickboxing.

Rock climbing -

I can see where I should actually lose weight to excell. But I don’t want to be the typical skinny guy. I also see where I am having a much more difficult time than others. I can see where any more weight gain would come as a detriment. I really enjoy this activity. I love the thrill of figuring out a problem, or getting to the top. So I need a compromise.

Kickboxing -

Weight gain would help me with strength for picking people up and throwing. But increasing weight tends to decrease stamina. I am not competing as of yet, but once i get good someday I would like to try out fighting. The lower the weight I can maintain, the greater my reach comes to my advantage.

So all in all, I have come to a point where my body satisfaction and my lifestyle have come to odds. Maybe i will come back to gaining weight at some point. But for now, I am happy with the personal compromise that I have made between size and performance.

I come to T-Nation to argue with people and discuss various topics. Sometimes I get schooled. Sometimes I leave better enlightened. I just hope that the “size > all” people can respect my stance.

PS. Now I have the difficult task. Trying to maximize LBM/FM ratio per my prefered weight.

Rock climbing - I’ve read threads that recommends that rock climbers do NOT train their lower body, only their upper body.

Kickboxing - size causes less stamina? Bullshit. One advantage of staying small is that you’ll be harder to hit.

And the clueless oscar goes to…

[quote]BF Bullpup wrote:
Kickboxing - size causes less stamina? Bullshit. One advantage of staying small is that you’ll be harder to hit.[/quote]

Rock Climbing: you’re right.

Kick boxing: Depends on what you mean by bigger. For your frame and weight class if you gained another 10 lbs of lean mass you most likely wouldn’t feel anything but better. If you went from 200 to 230 then you would notice a big change. It mainly depends on how you personally feel and how you perform, which is different for every person. You say 200 is best for you so I’ll take you at your word.

On getting schooled and flamed: Keep in mind you are on neither a rock climbing nor kick boxing website. The focus here is bodybuilding so it’s no surprise that the advice given is to get bigger, or more cut, or whatever. Yes getting bigger is somewhat synonymous with getting stronger so you have the strength sports angle/form, but the main focus is purely aesthetics.

That’s like going to a soccer website and complaining that no one there appreciates basketball.

[quote]BF Bullpup wrote:
Rock climbing - I’ve read threads that recommends that rock climbers do NOT train their lower body, only their upper body.

Kickboxing - size causes less stamina? Bullshit. One advantage of staying small is that you’ll be harder to hit.[/quote]

Yeah, I guess the thought is that your legs hold a lot of meat. Less squats = less weight.

You are seriously going to debate that heavier people have less gas in the tank? Why don’t you watch some heavyweight fights and compare with welter weight fights. And harder to hit? What?

[quote]medevac wrote:
On getting schooled and flamed: Keep in mind you are on neither a rock climbing nor kick boxing website. The focus here is bodybuilding so it’s no surprise that the advice given is to get bigger, or more cut, or whatever. Yes getting bigger is somewhat synonymous with getting stronger so you have the strength sports angle/form, but the main focus is purely aesthetics.

That’s like going to a soccer website and complaining that no one there appreciates basketball.

[/quote]

QFT. Yeah, this pretty much sums it up.

[quote]medevac wrote:
Rock Climbing: you’re right.

Kick boxing: Depends on what you mean by bigger. For your frame and weight class if you gained another 10 lbs of lean mass you most likely wouldn’t feel anything but better. If you went from 200 to 230 then you would notice a big change. It mainly depends on how you personally feel and how you perform, which is different for every person. You say 200 is best for you so I’ll take you at your word.

On getting schooled and flamed: Keep in mind you are on neither a rock climbing nor kick boxing website. The focus here is bodybuilding so it’s no surprise that the advice given is to get bigger, or more cut, or whatever. Yes getting bigger is somewhat synonymous with getting stronger so you have the strength sports angle/form, but the main focus is purely aesthetics.

That’s like going to a soccer website and complaining that no one there appreciates basketball.

[/quote]

Well I am really just enjoying the workout and sparring. I don’t really know a lot from the competition aspects. How do the weight classes work? I looked it up and found a wikipedia article. Would this be accurate?

I also assumed that the bodybuilding forum was a place to discuss the building of one’s body for a purpose. My purpose is to find a balance in between looking good and excelling in the activities that i enjoy. I never really thought to take it literal, as 99% of the posters do not prance about in their skibis on stage.

Isn’t there a rock climbing and kickboxing site you can visit?

And btw, you shouldn’t be “afraid” of getting too big. It has been said a million times before. You won’t wake up one day and say “Oh shit, I’ve gotten too big.”

[quote]Chickenmcnug wrote:

I also assumed that the bodybuilding forum was a place to discuss the building of one’s body for a purpose. [/quote]

It’s not. I doubt anyone cares if some guy is “building” his body so that he looks more like a woman for his school play in which he plays Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz. This is a bodybuilding section of a bodybuilding web site focused on gaining more muscle and getting stronger. Why is it so hard to stay on topic in here?

Rockclimbing now falls under “bodybuilding”? There are no rockclimbing websites for you to vent on?

[quote]Chickenmcnug wrote:

Kickboxing -

Weight gain would help me with strength for picking people up and throwing. But increasing weight tends to decrease stamina. I am not competing as of yet, but once i get good someday I would like to try out fighting. The lower the weight I can maintain, the greater my reach comes to my advantage.
[/quote]

Crocop, Andy Hug, Hoost are all in the 220-240 range and haven’t the slightest problem with stamina.

Why do you?

I guess I’m just confused how somebody starts two threads a few days apart, one purporting to give advice on how to get big, the other admitting to not wanting to get big himself. WTF?

http://www.rockclimbing.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi

http://www.mykickboxing.com/forum.htm

Here, now go away and let the bodybuilders have their forum back. Cripes…

you should absolutely be afraid of getting too big.

lol. The title was a joke to get people’s attention. I understand that I am not in any danger of getting “too big”.

I personally have worked my weight up from 170lbs-210lbs then dropped to 200ish through using my knowledge of nutrition and weightlifting. I know a little bit about bodybuilding, anatomy, metabolism. Not to sound like an ego, but i believe I have more pieces of the puzzle in my box than most of the people that contribute here.

But I am not building my body to show off my new bananna hamock to men on a stage with different color spotlights. Thats a little out of my comfort zone. And I think its laughable that I am being berated by people who have never stepped on stage themselves.

I am not building my body to be a rockclimber. OR else I would find a rock climbing website. Nor am I focused on being a kickboxer. I agree that there are much better places to gather information for those pursuits.

What all of these things have in common is that they are all physical exercise that help me in my pursuit of building my perfect body and enjoying my life.

I am merely reporting that I have found the weight that I enjoy most and am now going to focus on streamlining my physique at that weight. Which I believe still constitutes “bodybuilding”. But lets face the facts, unless you step on stage you aren’t bodybuilding either.

Maybe you are all right though. There is probably a better website to visit.

I understand what you are saying. But what I and others are trying to say is, this forum is for “bodybuilding.” It’s meant for people who want to step on stage to discuss how to do that.

For some reason that idea has been lost.

[quote]Chickenmcnug wrote:

lol. The title was a joke to get people’s attention. I understand that I am not in any danger of getting “too big”.

I personally have worked my weight up from 170lbs-210lbs then dropped to 200ish through using my knowledge of nutrition and weightlifting. I know a little bit about bodybuilding, anatomy, metabolism. Not to sound like an ego, but i believe I have more pieces of the puzzle in my box than most of the people that contribute here.

But I am not building my body to show off my new bananna hamock to men on a stage with different color spotlights. Thats a little out of my comfort zone. And I think its laughable that I am being berated by people who have never stepped on stage themselves.

I am not building my body to be a rockclimber. OR else I would find a rock climbing website. Nor am I focused on being a kickboxer. I agree that there are much better places to gather information for those pursuits.

What all of these things have in common is that they are all physical exercise that help me in my pursuit of building my perfect body and enjoying my life.

I am merely reporting that I have found the weight that I enjoy most and am now going to focus on streamlining my physique at that weight. Which I believe still constitutes “bodybuilding”. But lets face the facts, unless you step on stage you aren’t bodybuilding either.

Maybe you are all right though. There is probably a better website to visit.
[/quote]

[quote]Chickenmcnug wrote:
Well I am really just enjoying the workout and sparring. I don’t really know a lot from the competition aspects. How do the weight classes work? I looked it up and found a wikipedia article. Would this be accurate?[/quote]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kickboxing_weight_classes[/quote]

I used to kick box (muy thai) but not competitively. I think that weight classes are dependent on the organization, so they won’t necessarily be consistent.

[quote]Chickenmcnug wrote:
I also assumed that the bodybuilding forum was a place to discuss the building of one’s body for a purpose. My purpose is to find a balance in between looking good and excelling in the activities that i enjoy. I never really thought to take it literal, as 99% of the posters do not prance about in their skibis on stage.
[/quote]

I think you have a pretty myopic view of bodybuilding. It is not about being on stage and competing with a tan and briefs, any more that “swimming” is about winning gold in the butterfly stroke in China.

By definition, it is using exercise to change the appearance for aesthetic purposes mainly, with strength and sport improvements being corollaries but definitely secondary. Yes one might like to get stronger as well, or clean up their diet for health reasons, or whatever…but the main purpose is looking how you want to look through exercise (whether that look is Zane or Coleman). I prefer to think of it as a type of body control, but definitely with an ideal of muscle, decent body fat, etc.

By “the building one’s body for a purpose” you may as well throw marathon running, progressive forearm training for badminton, and bulimia in there as well.

[quote]Chickenmcnug wrote:

lol. The title was a joke to get people’s attention. I understand that I am not in any danger of getting “too big”.

I personally have worked my weight up from 170lbs-210lbs then dropped to 200ish through using my knowledge of nutrition and weightlifting. I know a little bit about bodybuilding, anatomy, metabolism. Not to sound like an ego, but i believe I have more pieces of the puzzle in my box than most of the people that contribute here.

But I am not building my body to show off my new bananna hamock to men on a stage with different color spotlights. Thats a little out of my comfort zone. And I think its laughable that I am being berated by people who have never stepped on stage themselves.

I am not building my body to be a rockclimber. OR else I would find a rock climbing website. Nor am I focused on being a kickboxer. I agree that there are much better places to gather information for those pursuits.

What all of these things have in common is that they are all physical exercise that help me in my pursuit of building my perfect body and enjoying my life.

I am merely reporting that I have found the weight that I enjoy most and am now going to focus on streamlining my physique at that weight. Which I believe still constitutes “bodybuilding”. But lets face the facts, unless you step on stage you aren’t bodybuilding either.

Maybe you are all right though. There is probably a better website to visit.
[/quote]

I have never been on stage and I don’t plan on competing. I’m not berating you because I’ve been there, I’m berating you because you have seriously skewed views on bodybuilding (which is your right) but you’re POSTING THEM ON A BODYBUILDING WEBSITE.

You would have gotten a very different response if you posted this in the OT and asked “who here rock climbs”? and asked the exact same questions. Maybe you just lack some internet communication skills.

Anyway good luck with rock climbing (I love it even though there are no real mountains around here). It’s a good time of year to be into it.

[quote]Chickenmcnug wrote:
You are seriously going to debate that heavier people have less gas in the tank? Why don’t you watch some heavyweight fights and compare with welter weight fights.[/quote]
I know the bigger I get the more gas in the tank I have for manual labor - which is surprising because I’ve always been good at it. Now, if you gave me a proportionately bigger shovel and heavier dirt, I might tire faster.

Heavyweights need to expend more energy in the ring because they have bigger opponents than welterweights. If you put a heavyweight and a welterweight of comparable class in the ring against, say, a light heavy, who do you think would run out of gas first? To be honest, I don’t know, but I suspect the welterweight would get worn out by having to work harder against a bigger opponent.

Chickenmcnug You Are Out Of Fucking Line

This is a bodybuilding website.

Don’t come on here and ask about this type of bullshit. (UNLESS YOU HAVE TITS)

How funny is it that everyone is dog cussing Chicken, yet AmandaSC has a thread on kayaking in the bodybuilding section and nobody says shit.

(Just an observation, don’t get pissy; no offense Chickenmcnug and AmandaSC)

[quote]LankyMofo wrote:
Isn’t there a rock climbing and kickboxing site you can visit?

And btw, you shouldn’t be “afraid” of getting too big. It has been said a million times before. You won’t wake up one day and say “Oh shit, I’ve gotten too big.”[/quote]

I did once, it was awesome.