seriously now… I like to wear ems so I can see progress, and I can see my body gettin all red and stuffs (like during shrugs, I love that…). I look in the mirror and think, this is who I am, a collection of slabs of meet on a skeleton, that can do and move anything given enough time.
Because being arrogant and admiring yourself in a gym just tends to piss people off, myself included. Personally, I have a lot respect for a guy with humility who goes and works his ass off every day. I don’t respect people who go to a weightroom to show everybody how huge they are and put on shows by loading up a bar with 45lb plates and attempting to do curls with it that look more like power cleans. I guess it would be okay to do so if you lift in a gym loaded with nasty bloated pro bodybuilders. But I wouldn’t try it in a westside-type gym. If Louie Simmons caught someone admiring their physique in his gym, I’d hate to see what Louie would do to the poor bastard.
Louis is a powerlifter. Powerlifters are not bodybuilders. In a bodybuiding gym it’s common to see guys posing in front of the mirror to see how things are going. Here are some facts, I have the studies to back them up, I swear, but they fell under my couch or soemthing: Hammer or pajama pants make you look like a clown, spandex = gay, cut off sweats = moron, wife beater = redneck. Now that we have those “facts” out of the way…some guys like to sweat when they workout so they wear more clothes. Some guys generate a lot of heat and don’t like a river of sweat running down the crack of their ass so they wear less clothes. If a guy is huge it doesn’t matter what he’s wearing you’ll probably still feel inadequate. In order to combat these feelings you are compelled to make comments about his apparel…behind his extremely wide back of course…after all, you do want to be able to walk and chew after you leave the gym. To summarize, clothes don’t make the man, they just make him sweat.
What the hell is a wife beater? As far as tank tops go I agree with SteelyEyes it’s about comfort, there are no huge guys at the gym I train at and no one really poses mid workout, but plenty wear tanks during the summer. Eg me, summer = shorts + tank, winter = track pants, long sleeve t shirt, sweat top, and beanie. Dress for the temperature.
The guys who wear tanks and such don’t really bother me as long as they just go about thier business. I usually wear a sleevless shirt when I lift. Its just that the beater-wearing types at my gym are also the ones who like to put on shows by flexing in front of a mirror or lifting weights beyond thier ability to do correctly. And I shouldn’t say they bother me; I just like to laugh at them. And seeing someone huge doesn’t automatically make everyone else feel inadequate because, believe it or not, some of us don’t center our training around being big or the world’s greatest sex machine.
A wife beater is basically a sleevless version of an undershirt, and its really tight fitting. Does anybody know how it got its name though?
It got its name from Cops. Everytime you saw some beer bellied ignorant idiot on that show. Usually with his wife/girlfriends blood on the front explaining to the cops that she desearved it. Most of the time that blood of hers was on a “wife beater”. Peace.
Why are there so many threads with people complaining about what other people in the gym look like, and what they do? Who cares! Do your own fucking thing. If a guy wants to wear a tank top to get some motivation, let him do it. Who the fuck are you to say what he should wear? And, who the fuck cares what Louie Simmons says? This guy isn’t working out in Louie’s gym.
Yeah, I usually try to stick to the more constructive posts myself most of the time. Sometimes its just fun to get in on the pointless arguments. The “Punk Kids” post was funny as hell, even if it didn’t resolve anything.
I agree with you Horatio Sanz. Too much bashing concerning what people are wearing and what they do. I know at one time I used to criticize (to myself) some things that people did in the gym. That came from having some knowledge. But like they say, “A little knowledge is dangerous”. Now I look to see what people do, but no matter how fucked up it looks, I never dismiss it. Bodybuilding will never be a science. There are too many variables.
I think Freeb that you are what the public’s image of a male bobybuilder is…arrogant and stupid. LOook at your spelling dude. You probably talk like Rocky and look like one of those beer bellied wife beaters on Cops. Stop gloating over your traps and looking in the mirror and get back in school. You and your kind make it difficult for the rest of us to be taken seriously.
How bout saying “Im a grown ass man. If i wanna wear a damn leotard to the gym i can.” Were what you want. who cares what other people think. Now if you wear blue jeans you need to be beat. How can that be comfortable.
I second the motion on the blue jeans thing. To take it a step further, there was an idiot down in the gym where I work out the other night that not only had the blue jeans kicking, but he also had no shirt. Five foot nothing, a hundred nothing (as if that makes any dif). As if I had to say it, I work out at the YMCA. I’m thinking I need to move to a bigger city.
yes ChrisF I am the stereotypical male body builder both “arrogant and stupid.”
oh wait… I’m a computer geek (MCSE Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer, I am a card carrying certified computer geek). I wear glasses to the gym because I think contats are for people who “sell out to the cult of beauty.”
I’m 23 6’3" I weigh about 215 pounds, I’ve been seriously working out for 3 years during which time I put on about 40pounds of something or other (hopefully mostly muscle).
You seem to have a lot of anger in you bro… just relax and let people do their own thing. My spelling… well I like to appear more ignorant then I really am since I enjoy it when people question my intellect after a paragraph of text on their computer screen.
I like wearing tanks (not tight ones) to the gym for the reasons above… and come to think of it I sweat like a pig so I’m sure that not wearing a tshirt helps keep that “fresh” feeling all workout long.
oh and another damned thing…
last Sunday (bicep and tricep day) my damned gym had a leak in the changing rooms or something so no one was allowed to go in there:
I asked: can I work out?
desk dood: yes you can you just can’t change
so I went to my car and in the 40 degree weather put on my trusty sweat encrusted tank, and I left the jeans I had to carry my gym membership card thing and id in the pockets of it (plus I didn’t feel like changing pants in 40 degree weather and in the open)
anyway… I worked out in my jeans
and it wasn’t the best but I got in a decent workout
and isn’t that what this whole testosterone.net thing is all about? working out… overcoming resistance… killing those tho oppose you?
The reason wife beaters get a bad rap are cuz the ppl that wear them, at least in my experience, tend to be the younger highschool kids who think they’re hard but aren’t. Usually we just make fun of these kids. There’s also a difference between a wife beater and those fashionable sleeveless shirts those male models wear. Unless you’re a kid with an identity crisis or ur posing for CK, dont wear wife beaters in public.
Freeb - nice post. LOL! However, you really SHOULD watch your spelling… Where did wife-beaters come from? I would say at least the 50’s, with Brando wearing one in “A Streetcar Named Desire”. Don’t remember if he actually BEAT Blanche or not, but he was a dangerous looking dude (for the time). I don’t know what all the fuss is about tank-tops. Let’s face it, short of not wearing anything at all on your upper body nothing else is as comfortable or permits the range of movement without “Cloth Interference” (CI) - and CI increases exponentially as you build up a sweat. So I wear 'em all the time. I’ve never had anyone say anything to me about it, and I would seriously question the priorities of anyone who did. What the hell does it matter to anyone else what I wear? And yes, I occasionally pose to check things, and no, I’m not the largest guy in the gym. If you don’t like it, don’t look. Pretty simple.
Thanks
People who hate those who wear wifebeaters are fat fucks who look horrible in them. Hey fat fucks: Lose some rolls, you fat pieces of shit! Meanwhile, I’ll be struttin’ around in my suave, pearly white, cottonmade, wifebeater! I don’t hit women, but look magnifico in my little wifebeater. And hey fat fuck, spot me while I atempt 315, will ya, tubby? I have abs, you have flabs! Oh, that’s rich, Tillie!
Who gives a shit what people wear? If you have time to stare and criticize others because of what they wear, then you have too much time on your hands and you need to focus on your workouts more. Aside from that, when people mature, then tend to spend less time using their energy to “make fun” of others. Personally, I use that energy to work out and improve other aspects of my life. When guys are uncomfortable with others wearing a little less than a t-shirt it’s usually because they are insecure about themselves. I’ve seen some of the strangest outfits ever. Old men wearing body suits (these guys have guts) older, slightly obese women wearing similar spandex, the afformentioned wanna be “og” gangsta killas in high school wearing wife beaters, etc. You know what? I could give a rat’s ass and don’t devote one second of my time to think “damn I hate those guys” or walk over to someone and make comments about them. Nope, I get in, workout, and I get out.