Bulking Up?

[Rory]

Sorry But why would one want to do this I do some basic excersices: Push ups and sit ups and I jog in the morning but no serious heavy intense training. What are the benifits of doing this (If any) and why do people do this. At my gym (I row a 5 mile row 3 times a week at my gym) It seems as though the more muscular people have a much harder time doing cardio excersices and I think that In the end the cardio exercises are better parameters to follow for how healthy you are than how much you can lift.

[IronFist]

Why would you want to do what? Bulk up?

Here are 3 reasons in no particular order:

To look better

To increase bodyweight for athletic advantage

Because in some cases it's easier to gain strength if you gain size with it

I think that In the end the cardio exercises are better parameters to follow for how healthy you are than how much you can lift.

Well, bulking isn't the only way to increase how much you can lift. You can also gain strength without gaining muscle mass.

Cardio is a very good way to get healthy, but so is weight lifting, provided you don't take it to the unhealthy extreme that pro bodybuilders do.

But if you avoid lifting weights, what happens if one day your life depends on your ability to lift a 200lb object?

Lifting weights (properly) also helps prevent injury. For example, deadlifts will make your lower back very strong. If you're carrying something one day and you bend wrong, for example, if your lower back is strong you might recover from it like nothing happened, whereas someone who doesn't have a strong lower back may end up in the hospital.

[Toby]

Originally posted by Rory
At my gym (I row a 5 mile row 3 times a week at my gym) It seems as though the more muscular people have a much harder time doing cardio excersices and I think that In the end the cardio exercises are better parameters to follow for how healthy you are than how much you can lift. You can be big and do cardio work at the same time. It's probably just that the big people at your gym don't do endurance work at all because it can reduce your muscle and hence strength and size. As to health, I'm pretty sure that it's a fact that resistance training is very beneficial to old people in reducing the likelihood of having bone problems, not to mention the many benefits I can see to being strong (Iron gave some examples). E.g. I find it easy to lift and move furniture.

As to why bulk up - so I can use my superior mass to push around skinny ectomorphs at MA :D. It really makes a difference. I'm at the heavy end of the scale in my MA classes, and I and a couple of my heavy classmates have a clear advantage against people with equal skill. Sometimes it sucks, though. I find BWE harder than skinny people. Another example: I used to run on the beach. I went once with my brother. He weighs 15-20kg less than me. Same height. He floated on the surface like he was running on the road. I sank to past my ankles with each step. He disappeared into the distance. I wallowed like a hippo. Still, I prefer being heavy. I'd actually prefer to be 10kg of muscle heavier, but that won't happen. I'm lifting personal maxes anyway, and I don't have time to do hypertrophy workouts.

[jun_erh]

I saw a fight on ESPN the other day. totally out of shape dude totally killed some WWE looking guy. anyone else see the fight?


I saw another great one, this guy was totally killing the other guy, it looked like it was going to be a one rund knock out, but the other guy turned around and clocked the guy and that was it, one punch.


Persnally, I work out because I am way below the curve in terms of muscle. I've been bench pressing for like a year and can do maybe a hundred pounds. I'm super flexible and have great cardio both just naturally, but if yu don't have ANY muscle you're going to have a hard time getting results from your techniques.

[CD Lee]

Jun-erh

Hey I agree with you on the muscle issue. I do an internal art, and believe there is a definate law of diminishing returns on gaining muscle mass and being able to use it well to fight with.

However, I also completely believe that there is an opposite situation that I call the law of weaker returns. This is a point of muscle mass, that if a person decreases any amount of muscle, their performance and technique begin to degrade.

Right? So take world class runner for example. It just so happens that based on physics, oxygen VO2MAX, effeciency of mass over distance, strength, etc. that a miler's bodyweight tends to be 2 lbs. per inch of height, barring few exceptions. So if you are 5'9, that is 138 lbs. This is specific to running super human fast mile. If the miler gains more pure muscle mass, it brings into play more gravity, oxygen use, and stress to the joints, etc. They have a very hard time ever weighing more than this optimum standard and beating others at the standard. If they lose more muscle mass to gain more oxygen effeciency, then they lose too much strength, to grind out the four laps at the fastest pace. It is a balance for some given goal. For Summo, this is not a good weight to move 400 lb. moving objects.

Common physics says that for our skeletons to move, they have to have at least muscles to move them, and tendons to attach them to the bones. Effeciency and strenth, plus flexibility come into play after that for any number of uses.