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Buffness and gym culture

Posted by Jose Carlos on December 20, 2004

In Reply to: Buffness and gym culture posted by Lewis on December 20, 2004

: : : : : : Hi:

: : : : : : What do you call the mindset of those men (mostly young men) who are obsessive about their physical appearance and spend most of their time in the gym, lifting weights and so on? This is not pure narcissism. It is a real syndrome. In Portuguese I have heard someone talk about 'vigorexia', but I don't know if a similar term has been coined in English.

: : : : : : JC

: : : : : Usually, fitness fanatic, with no gender restriction.

: : : :
: : : : "gay"

: : : Hey Word Camel:

: : : Do you mean to say that Arnold Schwarzenegger could possibly be gay?

: : : JC

: : Well, a gay icon, at least. *grin*.

: the current word for somebody exercising to the point of muscle definition (but not beyond) is 'buff'. it is rare for men to get it quite right - the gym I frequent could have almost all the men in 3 camps - weedy, flabby or muscle-bound - few men achieve 'buffness' - they mostly go on to muscle-bound or do not leave the 'flab over muscle' stage. I admit I started out porcine and, like many, am presently somewhere between flabby and muscle-bound - not looking like passing through a 'buff' stage on the way. must be genetics.

: the weedy ones never get there either - they get to look so that the muscles they get are brussel-sprouts on a stalk!

: there is a narcissistic/gay aspect to gym culture - some men love themselves so much that it rubs off onto their feelings towards other similarly muscled men. For the record, I am not volunteering to mention it to them, but I have noticed that it is rare that the women in the gym actually ogle those muscle-bound guys - I reckon they know that they would be wasting their time!

: About women in the gym: it is a natural law that us men cannot exercise with any moderation in the presence of women. so for those of us men that prefer Jamie Lee Curtis to Arnie, the rear aspect of the women on the machines in front are inspiration to get through 'the wall'.

: the continuum is weedy-flabby-buff-musclebound.

: L

Very astute observations. But I don't think it is all about genetics. Didn't you forget to mention the steroids?

And by the way, do you guys agree with the formation of this word: bodybuilding? Are they really building a body or is it rather muscles? Isn´t the body already built? You can enlarge it or perhaps enhance it, but not build it in the strict sense. Bodybuilding could be nothing more nothing less than a bait.

JC

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