What's your ideal level of muscularity to maintain (and your minimum)?

[WilliamSmith]

Do you guys have any role models or at least a target level of muscularity you want to achieve and surpass?

I've had it with the Dolph-esque "Army of One" level of muscularity and am aiming to try to come close to doubling my muscles in the next year, as well as doubling my strength for practical reasons (as well as vanity).

I'm trying to come up with a good disciplined system to punish myself until I achieve these goals. It would actually be fun to have a little competition, but I can't quite think how to go about that, since my friend IRL who's a great guy nonetheless basically pussed out on the fitness challenge because he got a new girlfriend he likes and is always smoking pot, LOL, and I'm not going to post any pics online since I'm cautious (at least for now).

Chet Yorton is definitely my "role model" in terms of build (I don't know anything about his personal life, but like Dave Draper he maintained awesome muscularity up until his late 70s when he died).
Draper is one of my favorites and I give a rave review to his books and recommend them, he just isn't my own role model since he's more of a classical mesomorph.
I have a little more in common buildwise with Frank Zane than Yorton (I mean in terms of a preset genetic build toward being more ectomorphic, not actually being at the "champion" level Zane achieved), and he is another good one.

I'd love to be a big mass of beef and brawn like Reg Park, Arnold, or Gary Strydom, but they're just not quite as realistic a role model since they're more classically mesomorphic.

Young Chet Yorton:


Nearer middle-aged (not exactly sure how old, I'd guess mid-late 40s here):


Now we're talking: 77 years old! If I maintain half that mass in my 70s I'd be very proud, but @!#$ it, I won't go with a half-assed goal, I'll see how close I can actually come to achieving this.


Here is the exact pic I had as my main visual role model in my 20s, though I only got all Frank Zane's books in recent years (they're good) and never knew anything about him personally since I don't follow the sport of bodybuilding since I'm just into the muscle building and Conan the Barbarian fantasies. I never got close to this level in terms of being that chisseled and competition-ready, but I still transformed so much in my 20's by shooting for this level that I impressed myself, too bad I started drinking so damned much the last 10 years, LOL.

[WilliamSmith]

Enough about me, what about you guys?

@Lucas88 we talked about musclebuilding a bit by email (even though I understand you were originally just an MMA guy without focusing on lifting, and had some funny stories about "bodybuilders" blowing out their cardio fast in the MMA gym, LOL).

@Cornfed what about you? You already have good achievements. Did you have a role model or rough target of someone you wanted to compete with or equal in muscle mass, like how Arnold was once obsessed with becoming a beast like Reg Park?
Did you explain in any of your videos how you punish yourself / motivate yourself?

Anyone else?

It does get addictive to lift. I'm going to sign off and go lift for the rest of the night!

[Lucas88]

Enough about me, what about you guys?

@Lucas88 we talked about musclebuilding a bit by email (even though I understand you were originally just an MMA guy without focusing on lifting, and had some funny stories about "bodybuilders" blowing out their cardio fast in the MMA gym, LOL).

I used to lift when I was competing in Brazilian Jiujitsu in my late teens but since my early 20s I haven't done much lifting at all and have mostly just done MMA training and bodyweight exercises.

I'm built like a MMA fighter. I'm athletic and explosive but not overly muscular.

I often grapple with a certain contradiction. Sometimes I want to become bulkier for aesthetic reasons but at the same time I know that a larger and more swole bodybuilder physique could hinder athletic performance and I've always given priority to my martial arts training.

Moreover, bodybuilding and martial arts training don't seem to go well together. Bodybuilders tend to gas out quickly in grappling and sparring due to the excessive muscle mass that they carry while obsessively practicing martial arts can burn off muscle mass. MMA coach Firas Zahabi talks about this and says that people who do a lot of martial arts training usually become skinny.

I'd like to get a little more muscular while retaining functionality for MMA but I really don't think that I could handle martial arts training and a serious weight lifting routine at the same time. At least not naturally. However, with steroids it would be a different story. If I were on the juice, I'd happily add a few weight lifting sessions to my martial arts schedule. I'd feel like a beast and wouldn't have to worry about recovery.

Although a pro wrestler and not a MMA fighter, I always thought that Chris Benoit had an ideal physique, one that combined good muscle mass with functionality, especially for a smaller guy who stood at 5'11".







Of course, the above is Chris Benoit with steroids. Pre-steroids Chris Benoit looked like this:



Steroids really are a godsend. They're the key to becoming superhuman.

I wish there was a way to take them without them shrinking your balls and turning off your endogenous testosterone production. If there was, I wouldn't hesitate to take them.

Back to Chris Benoit, the sensationalist media initially blamed steroid abuse for the double homicide-suicide, but I don't believe that steroids made Benoit kill himself and his family. The autopsy showed that Benoit had the brain of an 85 year-old Alzheimer's patient due to all of the head trauma that he suffered during his wrestling career. Surely it was advanced CTE that made him lose his mind and commit the horrendous crimes that he did.

[MarcosZeitola]

Ideally my level of muscularity is that of a rockclimber; lean, supremely strong, with insane grip strength and large forearms. Pure functional strength and fitness, no show muscles.

[galii]

My level depends in which context I am. If I am in monk mode I don't care much about it. In the past on disco mode it was a bit more.

[yick]

I have broad shoulders and I am pretty strong, I am also over six foot so I want to taper down the bulk into something where I can wear nice clothes - not massively bothered about gaining muscularity as I prefer cardio anyway, my thighs and calves are rock solid.

I work out plenty with power twisters and resistance bands. They're enough for my needs.

[MrMan]

So 'level of masculinity' means amount of muscle? What about Charles Bronson as an old man? He was masculine, but not necessarily all that muscular, or he didn't show it. Or that old cowboy from city slickers. He was a masculine tough old man, but I don't think he was buff.

The muscles you show look like the 'fluff' kind that shows, rather than the strongest kind of muscles.

I trained with a former high school wrestling champ. He taught me to do seven reps until I reached my max, then do as many on each weight until I couldn't lift that weight, step down, until I couldn't lift the bar. That made me really strong, but my muscles weren't that impressive. He said body builders did reps at high weights, I think it was. Anyway, he called what they had 'fluff.' He said they were strong, but the strength training led to stronger muscles.

My guess is in 99% of cases, steroids are needed for some serious fluff.

These days I do lighter weight lifting, maxing out, sometimes, but not stepping down like I used to. I'm in my 50's now. I do want to maintain muscle mass.

The strength training did seem to attack fat when I was younger, though, but doesn't seem as effective now.

[Lucas88]

I trained with a former high school wrestling champ. He taught me to do seven reps until I reached my max, then do as many on each weight until I couldn't lift that weight, step down, until I couldn't lift the bar. That made me really strong, but my muscles weren't that impressive. He said body builders did reps at high weights, I think it was. Anyway, he called what they had 'fluff.' He said they were strong, but the strength training led to stronger muscles.

Low reps (4-6) with heavier weights stimulates the fast-twitch muscle fibers and therefore increases explosive power. This is obviously beneficial for many athletic activities including wrestling and MMA.

High reps (8-12) with lighter weights on the other hand gives rise to hypertrophy. That's why bodybuilders typically lift with higher reps.

Often people with explosive power aren't tremendously bulky. They are simply able to recruit more fast-twitch muscle fibers than the average person and therefore produce explosive movements.

[WilliamSmith]

So 'level of masculinity' means amount of muscle? What about Charles Bronson as an old man? He was masculine, but not necessarily all that muscular, or he didn't show it. Or that old cowboy from city slickers. He was a masculine tough old man, but I don't think he was buff.

@MrMan
Yeah, I agree on how muscle mass and masculinity aren't the same obviously (and Bronson's quite a badass, agree there too), but notice how the title of the thread is "What's your ideal level of muscularity to maintain (and your minimum)?"
(Making it clear to the meanest intelligence in case even that was too confusing for you when your head's spinning from throwing yourself on the ground to kiss the feet of the jews who hate your main man Jesus: Muscularity, is what I was asking about, not "masculinity.")