my bodybuilding goals

I haven't written in this blog for a while, but this seems like the right blog for posts in this category.

I diagnosed my self with diabetes. I have a blood glucose tester and when I eat carbs or sugar my blood glucose shoots way up over 200, close to 300 actually. this explains a lot of the symptoms of feeling like crap all the time that I had been experiencing. Since this discovery, I have been following a strict low carb diet and and have taken up body building training.

If I didn't have diabetes, I probably wouldn't do it. Because really, I think bodybuilding a goofy sport. The people competing at the highest levels are just freaks. They are pumped full of steroids, and have physiqiues way out of porportion to anyone who has walked the earth previously, its unrelated to athletic skill in any other sport. Being close to 300 lbs with 2% bodyfat not looking human, with sprayed on orange tan and oil, posing in a thong...I mean its just idiotic. These are unhealthy, unbalanced people.

So taken to extremes, body building is idiotic. Even not taken to an extreme, its simply a beauty contest. So in that sense it could be construed as being shallow. Its all about aesthetics. In a boxing match or a tennis match, you beat the other person you win. Body building is more like figure skating or a beauty pageant. Its all about impressing the judges by reaching an aesthetic ideal.

But that is not to say bodybuilding can't serve a purpose, in reaching positive goals. I think improving ones phsique is a good goal, strength training is a good goal, health is a good goal, being more confident and attractive is a good goal. I think body building can be a means to an end in these goals.

Also I think I think there is a specific way body building can improve symptoms of diabetes. Because by having a high porportion of muscle in relation to bodyfat, you make your body more receptive to insulin. Type two diabetes is caused by the body becoming insulin resistent. Bodybuilding fits in beautifully with this. Because in body building that is one of the main goals, building muscle and reducing body fat. It alsmost the only thing it accomplishes. So I figued this wold be the best direct route and the subject from which I would get the best direct advice on how to accomplish this.

So anyway, I have been doing this for about a month. I joined a gym. I have been trying to define my goals. A lot of people that engage in body building don't want to look like freaks, that is not uncommon to have that opinion. The truth is though, that without taking steroids, its pretty hard, so most people are in little danger of becoming a freak, even with taking all these steroids to be a freak you need really good genetics, to start with.

But what is my goal? How would I like to look?

I wrote earlier that I would like to look like Frank Frazetta's rendition of Conan the Barbarian. Which I think is a good goal. One thing not quite tangible about it though is that, its a painting and Frazetta, though had excellent skill in rendering human anatomy, he did exagerate for effect.

I can look at these paintings and speculate, just what Conan's porportions would be, but it would be impossible to know for sure. I did however find this website about this thing called the "grecian ideal" it takes into account the porportions of Greek statues. It can be broken down to a formula. It allows you to calculate what your ideal porportions would be based on the thickness of your wrist.

I found out from this that I already have pretty close to ideal porportions. With a 7.5 inch wrist, I am fairly big boned, for exapmple I have friend who is 6'2" 275 and he has a a seven inch wrist.

According to this formula I should have a 48" chest, 18" arms, 18" neck, 18" calves, 25" thighs and a 34" waist.

The fact is I am pretty damn close to that already. My legs especially are naturally well developed, with 18" calves and 24" thighs no matter what I do. If I am a total couch potato, I will have strong legs. My calves especially are the calves of a pro-body builder just from pure genetics. This is also a bodypart nearly impossible to improve if you aren't blessed genetically.

Within a month of body building, I have already gotten my arms from 15" to 17." 15 inch arms are actually pretty big. One thing though is that the measurement with the arms is supposed to be "cold" that is not pumped up from working out. Cold my arms are 15" Wich this measurement requirement of having to be "cold" doesn't exactly make sense to me because body builders don't compete "cold" they pump their muscles up for competition.

I am 5'8" and 205, I estimate my body fat percentage to be about 14%

I found another website that calculates that based on ratio of abdomen to neck size. According to my height and weight, bone structure, neck size abdomen ratio, I have 14% bodyfat.

For general health, doctors recomend 12% bodyfat. So supposedly I am only 2 lbs short of my ideal weight. This is unacceptable to me. For a few reasons.

First of all, even with strong legs, 200 or more lbs on a 5'8" frame is heavy. I can't run regularly without risking injury. I used to run in college and I weighed anywhere from 170 to 180 lbs. This was still a pretty massive build for a long distance runner. Most runners my height weighed 130 or 140 lbs. Its a matter of physics that a runner my size and build wouldn't do as well. I was quite lean, but lean has nothing to do with it. A chubby 160 lber with narrower hips and a lighter frame would have a biomechanical advantage in an endurance race.

Since college my skeleton has continued to mature and thicken, so that my lean body mass has actually increased. I probably have about 175 lbs of lean body mass. So to add about 6% bodyfat to that frame, would give me an ideal weight of 185 lbs.

So that is my goal, weightwise.

Another rason for wanting low bodyfat is aesthetics. I have a body type that could be described as "mesendomorph" That is a combination of mesomorph and endomorph. A pure mesomorph has wide shoulders and narrow hips. Its a matter of bone structure. their torso is shaped like a 'V.' I don't have an exagerated "V" I have a combination of a V and a wide rectangle, more like an "H" but a bit wider at the top. I cannot change the bone structure of my hips. I actually have little fat concentrated around my hips. My waist is actually 32 inches, but my abdomen is "34" My hips are below my waistline and at their widest part their are the bony projections just below the skin. There is no way to make this any narrower. But because of my larger bone structure of the hips, there is more surface area for muscle attachment, So I have very powerful legs.

I am also long waisted, that that means my abdomen has a lot of surface area to store fat. Its a long "H" shaped torso. So that means that a little bit of fat deposited on there become more like an "()" shape, really quickly. Wheras a person with a naturally "V" shaped torso and a short waist could get good bit of chubbiness around the waist and it would take a long time to show up.

My shoulders are pretty wide though naturally and my chest is somewhat developed, so when I wear a large or extra large t-shirt, the shirt has the effect of laying like a tent, and making me look fatter than I am. Plus my lats are underdeveloped and insert rather high on my torso. Lats that are long and insert low, exagerate the "V" shape. To top it off, I have a barrel shaped ribcage, which makes me look fat also.

So for aesthetic reasons, because of my natural shape, in order to to look in shape and muscular, I need to have low bodyfat. I probably should wear closer fitting shirts too.

So summarizing all of this I have an idea of what my goals are and how to reach them. I have decent mass already. I need more defintiion. The definition is there under the fat, I just ned to reduce my body fat and bring it out more. My core is pretty strong, but I won't get a six pack untill I cut fat. My legs are already as large and well developed at they will ever need to be to reach my aesthetic ideal.

My weakst body parts are my chest and lats. I need to focus on them and build more mass. Developing my lats, even though they insert high, will bring out a v shape. My chest is also not as well developed as it could be.

My arms are pretty good, they will naturally improve as I work my chest and abs. My shoulders are above average already, but I should try to exagerate their development even more to bring out more of a V shape. This should be encouraging to my morale because they respond really well to training. So its good positive feedback.