Our culture

[mulman]

Introduction

In my view, I believe due to the negative media intrusion on our bodybuilding culture, people believe that all bodybuilders are ignorant, aesthetics obsessed, and just plain dumb ass muscle heads. I have seen multiple articles in mainstream British tabloid newspapers claiming that supplements are steroids but they don?t argue the fact that supplements are just that - supplements for your diet, or that they are bad for the body , one example tried to point out that Creatine was bad for you by trying to change the way your muscles are used during exercise! this wasn?t backed by any evidence apart from so called experts claiming the ?facts?. Another event that I saw completely blown out of proportion was the court case of Craig Titus and Kelly Ryan, some newspapers even went as far as saying that bodybuilding had increased their aggression due to steroids and raised testosterone levels this may have been a contributing factor to the case but most papers claimed it was definitely true and again got their band of ten a penny experts to confirm it.

I think as a collective we need to fight to alter this image of our hobby/lifestyle it is detrimental to our sport and our culture. In my experience, when you say to people you are a bodybuilder they automatically assume you take steroids or other performance enhancing drugs which I think personally is complimentary (but I guess you could take it as offensively!). Most of us have worked hard to gain the muscles that we have and we will continue to do so, and don?t want to be tarnished with this image that we are all ?roided up to our eyeballs, In my opinion even if some bodybuilders do use steroids it is their body, their life and their personal choice and I don?t believe they should be hounded by the government or the public.

I believe that some people can also be intimidated by bodybuilders because they cannot understand why we train in the fashion we do or why we put ourselves through virtual torture when we diet and train. This happens all over the world with all different issues not just bodybuilding I just believe it is people being scared of what they don?t know enough about

My Experiences

One example for me is when I was at a party with some friends and a few of the ?others? (people who do not bodybuild!) and they kept asking ?why aren?t you drinking?? and my response was ?I don?t need to drink to have a good time and even if I did I?d then feel **** tomorrow when I could get into the gym and grow some more?. to which they responded by saying I was a freak and why couldn?t I be like other students

Another example was at college when I had just come out of the gym after doing a hard session of bi?s, tri?s and chest and seeing as I had not had much sleep the night before I was more than a little cranky, just as I sat down with my chicken and tuna salad, one of my friends came over and started quizzing me about steroids and as you can guess by now, I detest the thought of people thinking I use steroids, so without thinking I snapped and shouted at him and to my annoyance he walked off and said to his friend ?oh it must be the drugs making him angry? this is what annoys me about the ?others? their ignorance to sporting supplements and other manipulations of the body e.g. lowering sodium intake and dropping carbs before a contest. Like I said before I think this is because they are just scared of what they don?t know or they don?t want to understand.

This has happened to me numerous times with protein shakes when people have said ?that?s cheating? they don?t seem to understand that the supplements are just a helping hand because it would be either impossible or extremely hard to get all our essential nutrients daily in the diet that is available to us when at college or at work. I believe the negative attitude starts when the media incorrectly label all athletes that are exceptionally talented at their chosen sport take steroids because this then transfers to other sports due to the ?others? saying , ?oh if that sprinter can do it then why can?t that weightlifter or that rugby player do it as well?

Another stereotype I have been confronted with in daily life is the belief that bodybuilders have eating disorders, for example I was at a friends house and they decided to order out and because it was around 10 P.M I said I would instead just have a shake and some fruit and automatically one of the people that was with us decided I had an eating disorder, I tried to argue my way out, I even tried reasoning (which is rare!) but she was stubborn and would not accept it would actually be better for me in the end than eating a greasy and saturated fat loaded, cheap pizza.

How do we change it?

I believe if we can just show the world that we have some exceptional people among us for example Bob Cicherillo (one of my idols!) who is articulate, funny, and well educated we can change this image that all bodybuilders are stupid and vain, or perhaps if we show some of the pro?s have great business minds for example Jay Cutler, also the majority of our pro bodybuilders have degrees in kinesiology and other human sciences which details that this person must have an in depth degree of knowledge and the ability to learn which in turn tells us they are an intelligent person.

How can a person who can tell you how the intricate processes of the human body work and that has studied kinesiology be stupider than someone who chooses to take a different route and study say for example philosophy.
We need to expose the fact that we all have something to offer apart from muscular bodies (we think so anyway!).



P.S I?m not this miserable all the time!
Thanks for reading, there should be more articles soon. Any comments, suggestions or ideas just email me.
Josh Mullin. (mulman55@hotmail.com)