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“Be all you can Be” or learn to be content with what you have? We often say, “No pain, no gain,” but when does the “pain” no longer proportionally match the “gain”? More importantly: How well are you able to objectively assess this? How do you find the right balance in fitness and bodybuilding? How far do you go for that desired figure, what are “normal” efforts, and when do they become “extreme”?
Finding Balance
If someone has a very strong conviction supported by weaker arguments, I quickly tend to express the opposite opinion. Not so much because I disagree with the person, but mainly because I always find it annoying when things are presented in a one-sided and simplified manner.
Always trying to find the balance or the middle ground can sometimes be quite difficult in a world where extreme opinions always seem to shout louder than moderation. This applies to lighter matters such as world politics, religion, and philosophy, but also to important matters such as “How much effort is a good body worth?”
“Be all you can be!”
On one hand, the media shouts that everyone could have a good figure. Sometimes explicitly by presenting you with miracle cures, other times by setting the bar high by portraying the bodies of trained models as the ideal of beauty.
We all know the discussions about too thin models on catwalks and magazine covers. These would create an unattainable beauty ideal. Something you could also say about the large number of photos of dry and muscular bodies that we are nowadays treated to via, for example, social media.
Every day, fitness quotes come by to remind you that while you’re reading them, you should actually be in the gym. You see photos of other people’s “meal prep” passing by and feel guilty that you’re not cooking your chicken with broccoli and sweet potato for a week.
As a fitness photographer, I contribute to this of course. However, that doesn’t mean that I look at this whole development without any criticism. Hypocritical? Possibly. Nevertheless, I would like to bring some balance and talk about the possibility of going too far in training and nutrition.
“Learn to accept yourself and find the true source of your dissatisfaction”
On the other hand, we have the “Oprah approach,” for lack of a better name. Learning to appreciate what you have. Being happy with yourself. This from the idea that no matter how dry and/or muscular you are, you will never be satisfied if “you don’t accept yourself and don’t seek the true source of your unhappiness.”
Rather airy words, but you probably understand what I mean.
Being Lazy vs. Overdoing It
Now, both perspectives have their pros and cons.
There are cases where people go overboard in training and nutrition. Sacrificing everything for a better physique, never considering whether it’s all worth it. This is especially sad in those cases where one has such a distorted self-image that satisfaction with one’s own body never comes. Oprah would say, “If with all that time, effort, and sacrifices you’re still not satisfied with the result, then the problem probably doesn’t lie with the result but with the satisfaction itself. No matter how hard you train and how much broccoli, sweet potato, and chicken you eat, you’ll never be happy.”
On the other hand, there’s the risk of being content with any result. A potbelly caused by a couch? “No problem, I’m happy and content with who I am.” If you’re content with everything, you’ll never be motivated to make the improvements you’re potentially capable of.
Balance is Relative
These are of course the extremes, people who do nothing at all for a good physique and others who do everything for their physique and prioritize it above all else. What is now a good middle ground, a good balance?
This is, of course, relative. Firstly, some people need to make much less effort than others for the same result and vice versa. One can have a
six-pack and a social life, while another has to live like a Spartan for a washboard stomach. It’s not so much about which result you’re going for, but how much effort you have to put in to achieve that result.
But there’s also not one answer to the question “How much time and effort is normal to spend on your physique?” It depends on what other things you have to sacrifice for this. If you have oceans of time, training five times a week seems less obsessive than when you’re trying to cram this into a routine of work, family, and other hobbies with all your might. Actually, you have no time, but still “have” to go to the gym, which leads to stress. For you and the people around you. Also when it comes to nutrition. Never eating together, but always sitting down with your own meal doesn’t always make it more enjoyable.
Spending 200 euros a month on supplements is fine if you have a well-filled bank account and are single. However, if you have a girlfriend or partner and children, you will often wonder whether that money has found the best destination. Ten times to the cinema, four times eating out, or 2 millimeters larger biceps? And that’s assuming all those supplements actually have an effect.
Balance is Subjective
What you consider normal, someone else might find obsessive. But that other person “doesn’t understand you,” “doesn’t know anything about fitness and nutrition,” and therefore can’t tell you anything meaningful.
When someone knows nothing about “your world,” you are quickly inclined to think, “What do you know?” and ignore their opinion. But what if you yourself are no longer objectively able to judge whether you’re going too far? Then you need the opinions of others.
“Muscle dysmorphia” or reverse anorexia, when you always feel too small and no longer have a realistic self-image. Reverse anorexia may not be the scientific name, but it is a better description of the problem. When someone with a beer belly tells someone with anorexia that the person is too thin, he may be absolutely right despite his own beer belly. Someone who never trains can still easily see that you are considerably more muscular than the average person (and “the” ideal of beauty) while you never find yourself big enough. You need these kinds of people to maintain your balance despite or precisely because of their ignorance. And I know they can be really annoying. You can also ask another bodybuilder, someone from “your world,” whether you’re going overboard in your training and nutrition. However, you may wonder how good the advice is that one person with anorexia would give to another person with anorexia. So you’ll need them both and constantly pit them against each other to keep perspective.
“Setting Goals”
It is very popular to advise to “set goals.” It is also by definition good advice if the main priority is to achieve a concrete result. Instead of “a good figure,” for example, set a goal to achieve a certain body fat percentage or body weight over a certain period of time.
As indicated, however, it varies per person how large the relative effort is that must be made for this. You may find that you have to turn into a “fitness freak” for this (high goal/less predisposition) and then proudly wear this label at all costs.
I have previously described how you can also give yourself an effort obligation as a goal. Then you turn the whole story around. What place do I think training and nutrition should have in my life? “Training three times a week and a diet that is challenging but not exhausting. I make sure the basics are good, but allow myself an occasional indulgence.” You have no idea what result this will lead to, but whatever it is, it fits into your life in the right way.
What is ultimately more important: the end destination or the journey? It’s a personal decision, but I try to keep them in balance. I don’t want to end up in Syria with a beautiful cruise ship, but I also don’t want to row to paradise in a rowboat.
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“Be all you can Be” or learn to be content with what you have? We often say, “No pain, no gain,” but when does the “pain” no longer proportionally match the “gain”? More importantly: How well are you able to objectively assess this? How do you find the right balance in fitness and bodybuilding? How far do you go for that desired figure, what are “normal” efforts, and when do they become “extreme”?
Finding Balance
If someone has a very strong conviction supported by weaker arguments, I quickly tend to express the opposite opinion. Not so much because I disagree with the person, but mainly because I always find it annoying when things are presented in a one-sided and simplified manner.
Always trying to find the balance or the middle ground can sometimes be quite difficult in a world where extreme opinions always seem to shout louder than moderation. This applies to lighter matters such as world politics, religion, and philosophy, but also to important matters such as “How much effort is a good body worth?”
“Be all you can be!”
On one hand, the media shouts that everyone could have a good figure. Sometimes explicitly by presenting you with miracle cures, other times by setting the bar high by portraying the bodies of trained models as the ideal of beauty.
We all know the discussions about too thin models on catwalks and magazine covers. These would create an unattainable beauty ideal. Something you could also say about the large number of photos of dry and muscular bodies that we are nowadays treated to via, for example, social media.
Every day, fitness quotes come by to remind you that while you’re reading them, you should actually be in the gym. You see photos of other people’s “meal prep” passing by and feel guilty that you’re not cooking your chicken with broccoli and sweet potato for a week.
As a fitness photographer, I contribute to this of course. However, that doesn’t mean that I look at this whole development without any criticism. Hypocritical? Possibly. Nevertheless, I would like to bring some balance and talk about the possibility of going too far in training and nutrition.
“Learn to accept yourself and find the true source of your dissatisfaction”
On the other hand, we have the “Oprah approach,” for lack of a better name. Learning to appreciate what you have. Being happy with yourself. This from the idea that no matter how dry and/or muscular you are, you will never be satisfied if “you don’t accept yourself and don’t seek the true source of your unhappiness.”
Rather airy words, but you probably understand what I mean.
Being Lazy vs. Overdoing It
Now, both perspectives have their pros and cons.
There are cases where people go overboard in training and nutrition. Sacrificing everything for a better physique, never considering whether it’s all worth it. This is especially sad in those cases where one has such a distorted self-image that satisfaction with one’s own body never comes. Oprah would say, “If with all that time, effort, and sacrifices you’re still not satisfied with the result, then the problem probably doesn’t lie with the result but with the satisfaction itself. No matter how hard you train and how much broccoli, sweet potato, and chicken you eat, you’ll never be happy.”
On the other hand, there’s the risk of being content with any result. A potbelly caused by a couch? “No problem, I’m happy and content with who I am.” If you’re content with everything, you’ll never be motivated to make the improvements you’re potentially capable of.
Balance is Relative
These are of course the extremes, people who do nothing at all for a good physique and others who do everything for their physique and prioritize it above all else. What is now a good middle ground, a good balance?
This is, of course, relative. Firstly, some people need to make much less effort than others for the same result and vice versa. One can have a
six-pack and a social life, while another has to live like a Spartan for a washboard stomach. It’s not so much about which result you’re going for, but how much effort you have to put in to achieve that result.
But there’s also not one answer to the question “How much time and effort is normal to spend on your physique?” It depends on what other things you have to sacrifice for this. If you have oceans of time, training five times a week seems less obsessive than when you’re trying to cram this into a routine of work, family, and other hobbies with all your might. Actually, you have no time, but still “have” to go to the gym, which leads to stress. For you and the people around you. Also when it comes to nutrition. Never eating together, but always sitting down with your own meal doesn’t always make it more enjoyable.
Spending 200 euros a month on supplements is fine if you have a well-filled bank account and are single. However, if you have a girlfriend or partner and children, you will often wonder whether that money has found the best destination. Ten times to the cinema, four times eating out, or 2 millimeters larger biceps? And that’s assuming all those supplements actually have an effect.
Balance is Subjective
What you consider normal, someone else might find obsessive. But that other person “doesn’t understand you,” “doesn’t know anything about fitness and nutrition,” and therefore can’t tell you anything meaningful.
When someone knows nothing about “your world,” you are quickly inclined to think, “What do you know?” and ignore their opinion. But what if you yourself are no longer objectively able to judge whether you’re going too far? Then you need the opinions of others.
“Muscle dysmorphia” or reverse anorexia, when you always feel too small and no longer have a realistic self-image. Reverse anorexia may not be the scientific name, but it is a better description of the problem. When someone with a beer belly tells someone with anorexia that the person is too thin, he may be absolutely right despite his own beer belly. Someone who never trains can still easily see that you are considerably more muscular than the average person (and “the” ideal of beauty) while you never find yourself big enough. You need these kinds of people to maintain your balance despite or precisely because of their ignorance. And I know they can be really annoying. You can also ask another bodybuilder, someone from “your world,” whether you’re going overboard in your training and nutrition. However, you may wonder how good the advice is that one person with anorexia would give to another person with anorexia. So you’ll need them both and constantly pit them against each other to keep perspective.
“Setting Goals”
It is very popular to advise to “set goals.” It is also by definition good advice if the main priority is to achieve a concrete result. Instead of “a good figure,” for example, set a goal to achieve a certain body fat percentage or body weight over a certain period of time.
As indicated, however, it varies per person how large the relative effort is that must be made for this. You may find that you have to turn into a “fitness freak” for this (high goal/less predisposition) and then proudly wear this label at all costs.
I have previously described how you can also give yourself an effort obligation as a goal. Then you turn the whole story around. What place do I think training and nutrition should have in my life? “Training three times a week and a diet that is challenging but not exhausting. I make sure the basics are good, but allow myself an occasional indulgence.” You have no idea what result this will lead to, but whatever it is, it fits into your life in the right way.
What is ultimately more important: the end destination or the journey? It’s a personal decision, but I try to keep them in balance. I don’t want to end up in Syria with a beautiful cruise ship, but I also don’t want to row to paradise in a rowboat.
