Im in the same boat. Luckily im out of the dating scene so I stopped caring and focus more on strength and conditioning.
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Male Body Image in Modern Television and Film
- Thread starter RDreamer
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Im in the same boat. Luckily im out of the dating scene so I stopped caring and focus more on strength and conditioning.
Yeah, I imagine things shake out a bit differently when you're incredibly wealthy, building muscle is literally your day job, and you have multiple people monitoring literally every move you make and everything you put in your body.
But I mean, does that mean he does steroids? Or does he just have the right group of people surrounding him?
I definitely agree that there is an unrealistic image of men out there.
However that article keeps saying "He can't be in shape - he's a geek!", or "he's too busy!" Being a geek and being busy doesn't mean you can't be ripped. All you need is a good diet and an hour a day in the gym and you can be ripped, even if you spend the rest of the day writing code.
However that article keeps saying "He can't be in shape - he's a geek!", or "he's too busy!" Being a geek and being busy doesn't mean you can't be ripped. All you need is a good diet and an hour a day in the gym and you can be ripped, even if you spend the rest of the day writing code.
He can train all he wants, hell he can train in his sleep if that's what you want to believe, but you don't achieve that body in months, it will take years of religious dieting and exercise, unless you use steroids. He achieved it in months...
Remember when Daniel Jackson was more ripped than Jack O'Neill?
There's a meme about this which makes me laugh every time. Apparently Christopher Judge got Michael Shanks into lifting on set.
I suppose it sort of makes sense given that Daniel ends up as some sort of black ops guy at the end of the series.
I think the moment we stepped over the line was Hugh Jackman in The Wolverine:
And the creepiest example of the dehydration thing from recent years was definitely Zack Efron in that Baywatch reboot. His skin looked like leather.
Part of the problem here is that studies about the broader psychological impact of male body images simply don't exist, or are in their nascent stages. There were a couple of studies a few years ago which suggested that the primary motivator for men at the gym was guilt and image rather than any particular desire to be fit. It's also evident that PED abuse is reaching epidemic proportions among the younger male population. At least in Britain, steroid usage is rampant:
Some estimates place usage at up to a million people, which in a population of 61 million is a fair percentage.
As someone who used to workout five days a week an hour and fourty five minutes a day just to not be obese, you can piss off with this attitude.
There is nothing easy about it. Especially getting to a place where you are visibly toned and jacked.
Apparently that's not feasible according to some of the defeatists in this thread.
Yup. It takes an incredible amount of time and dedication. I did it for awhile. I looked great. I was miserable. I toned it way way back. Much happier now.
Besides, there are better uses of time that will help you attract women (if that is your goal). Be well read, be well traveled, know a thing or two about wine, cooking, be able to fascinate between the finer things in life and enjoying the creature comforts of everyday life. This takes actually enjoying these things....Not just a knowledge of them. So long as you aren't truly unfortunately looking and can articulate your thoughts on the above topics into coherent sentences, then its going to work to some extent for you. (Oh, and don't be a creep).
This is mostly untrue. It's significantly harder to find the free time to spend an hour a day in the gym if you work a full-time job, and if you aren't getting 8-9 hours of sleep a night on top of that, forget it. In addition, having a sedentary job is directly bad for your health and fitness (every hour of sitting a day undoes 20-30 minutes of working out in terms of health benefits). Your anecdotal experience might be that you can find time to work out "just" an hour today and look sort of like the guy in the OP, but if so, then you're blessed with good genes. These actors aren't spending 1 hour a day in the gym, they're spending 3+, just like the top athletes in the world spend all day doing only activities that contribute to their fitness (or at the very least, don't take away from it).
no that's what i'm saying, he had a support network (backed by the largest entertainment company in the world, who were betting on him to help launch their ambitious, multibillion dollar film project) that normal people do not
Yeah, male body image in (mainly) US tv shows and movies are ridiculous. I was actually positively surprised when Asa Butterfield in Sex Education went shirtless and he just looks like a regular scrawny dude. I am so conditionned by Hollywood that I was expecting him to be hiding a six pack under there.
One of the most ridiculous ones I encountered is this:
Look, I love The Edge of Seventeen. It's a great coming of age movie, but this is just ridiculous. This guy is the awkward nerd-type character. He's painfully unsuccessful with the ladies and his big idea for a romantic gesture is making a cringey dorky flash animation movie. However, he also happens to have a perfect six-pack and a great body. The craziest thing about the scene isn't necessarily his body (I guess you could make an argument that a lonely rich kid would spend a lot of time in his home gym), no it's how Hailee Steinfeld doesn't even acknowledge this. How does this teen girl not notice that this guy has pretty much literally the perfect body?
Then again, I guess The Edge of Seventeen does it both ways around, since Hailee Steinfeld is also playing some unattractive loser, while in fact she's absolutely gorgeous.
Yeah this stuck out to me too, but also that the actor is like 30 in that scene. But you can have a great body and still be super awkward with dating and such, so it's not too unbelievable. But his age is more noticeable, even though he looks youngish.
It really only becomes super annoying when your character is supposed to be a schlubby or an alcoholic but is chiseled. Does not compute.
So....you're not one of the lazy ones? Did I say everyone who can't lost weight was lazy? No. I said a lot. Emphasis on many but not all.
Holy FUCK this thread triggered a bunch of you. That guy in here calling himself normal and buff isn't crazy. Lots of people have normal, complicated lives and still manage to workout. You only need to lift maybe 3 times a week to be more muscular than the majority of males on the planet.
Justin Theroux's leftovers body isn't even impressive.
Justin Theroux's leftovers body isn't even impressive.
Shrug.
I don't look anything like that but whatever... good on them. All the examples in this thread? They're great looking men. I'm not gonna have body image issues because I instead indulge in fatty, sugary foods and only work out a few hours a week instead of 20+ hours a week. If 90% of men worked out as much as a "good looking Hollywood actor" did, they'd look equally as good.
I don't look anything like that but whatever... good on them. All the examples in this thread? They're great looking men. I'm not gonna have body image issues because I instead indulge in fatty, sugary foods and only work out a few hours a week instead of 20+ hours a week. If 90% of men worked out as much as a "good looking Hollywood actor" did, they'd look equally as good.
Well it is definitely difficult to come up with the will power, no question about that. Who wants to cut pizza and beer out their life and replace it with broccoli, or go on a long run and wear out their body? But from the practical standpoint, there is nothing physically stopping most people from doing it if they have a mind to.
Where did you get that information? The idea that sitting down for 2 hours undoes your weightlifting session is so obviously absurd.
Was gonna say this, and I'm by no means a gym rat. I go 5 times a week, 1.5 - 2 hrs a day. It's the diet and forcing myself to lift HEAVY. No cardio, no abs. High reps and good form sculpted my beautiful Adonis-like physique.
What is this based on? He has a team that helps him and if you regulate to a tee you can absolutely get that body within a 3-6 months.
Theory, everybody having a sixpack devalues the sixpack and makes the chubby "just a tiny bit over weight" bod look a lot better.
Anyone?
Anyone?
Building that much muscle in that short a time probably still means he's using PEDs. At peak Thor form, Chris is gigantic. The other side of it is that staying that lean for an entire shoot with that much muscle mass is extremely difficult without some form of chemical assistance.
I'm not saying he doesn't work day-in-day-out for that physique, but the limits for the (un-assisted) human body are much lower than people think based on popular media.
Which body? The Thor one? Nah.
Getting skinny is the easy part. The hard part is building muscle.
What you are doing here is gaslighting people's lived experiences and is incredibly unhelpful. Most people who work full time jobs and have a social life do not have the capacity or energy to dedicate to getting an absolutely perfect body like you are describing. An intensive HIIT workout regiment with weight training (to failure) bulked me up, and dropped 30 pounds of fat. But it never got me anywhere near a rippling body.
Look dude, people aren't saying it's impossible to get ripped or be in basically good shape or health, they're objecting to the ridiculous machismo of posts like "all I do is curls 15 minutes a day and I'm fucking jacked like a pro powerlifter." This thread was supposed to be about critiquing an unrealistic standard of beauty for men that requires doing a lot of very specific exercises or being genetically lucky. Having people come in and be like "I don't see what the problem is because I look better than that and I don't even try" is incredibly rude to those of us who have had to work very hard, struggled with body dysmporhia or eating disorders, or simply, for any number of reasons, can't look like that no matter how hard we try. And on top of that, blaming those people by insinuating that "lots" of them are lazy is even worse. Good for you if you're jacked as hell, but most of us don't care one way or the other and aren't judging you either positively or negatively for it. The fact that you feel the need to make this thread about your own ability to live up to this standard is just more evidence of how damaging and toxic it is.
https://qz.com/223160/why-not-even-...sitting-all-day-and-what-you-can-do-about-it/
There are a lot more studies confirming this effect as well, and anecdotally, the difference between me doing the same cycling regimen while in college in which I had to move around a lot more and now that I work a full-time job where I sit for hours a day is astronomical. It makes a big difference. "Undoes" is wrong, but it makes it significantly harder to maintain fitness.
Dude, you are fucking nuts if you think you can achieve that body in 3 to 6 months, you are delusional. Not even having a team around you 24/7 would make you look like that in 3 months.
See guys, this is a clear example of why the representation of people in movies and tv has ruined the perception of normal guys, there are people out there who think this is achievable in 3 month of eating fruit and protein hahahaha.
3 Months for 30 pounds of muscle and 7/8% body fat (maybe less). Hell even gaining 30 pounds of just fat in 3 months is hard but wth...
Just so yu know, this is 3 months of just exercise, dieting and doing not much else, with a nutritionist and a PT.
Yes, he look just like Thor...
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You look ripped Cat Party. Bet you could bench a Scion TC!
Anyway, I've been "hitting the gym" 3/4 times a week and running for the past 6 months odd. Also been eating pretty well most of the time. But, no way in hell will I ever approach TV beauty standards. For most people these physiques are completely unrealistic.
I do think this is worse for women, but yeah it's quite prevalent for men as well.
Starting out, 15 with good form is very hard.
5 is a much better starting point. Rest. 5 more if you can.
Hah alright dude. All I see from a lot of people are defeatists attitude. You do you.
Ive not body shamed anyone here or exhibited any toxicity towards anyone.
I even encouraged people not to look to tv and movies as validations. I even said it's awful. But what I responded to is the notion that the pic in the op was unhealthy or unattainable when it's not.
The defeatists attitude is always prevalent in threads like these.
But you do you. Good luck with everything.
I don't have a problem with actors being in shape, everyone should strive to eat healthy and lift weights, but the OP is correct that the guy in the OP is too shredded and people who want to look like him will likely dehydrate/starve themselves to try and achieve it, that's not safe or healthy.
Some of the super heroes are also probelmatic, Evans, Hemsworth and Cavil are huge, and most people aren't going to achieve that type of size/body fat% without taking something that they shouldn't be taking.
Some of the super heroes are also probelmatic, Evans, Hemsworth and Cavil are huge, and most people aren't going to achieve that type of size/body fat% without taking something that they shouldn't be taking.
Really, though? I've trained with people with NO gym experience who had MASSIVE gains in the first month. And some where it's taken some time. Everyone is different.
Because...? Here's a recent article quoting the American College of Cardiology:
https://www.wellandgood.com/good-sweat/fitness-tips-trainer-nuun/
You can decide this is not true because it's counterintuitive, but sitting is really bad for you
What a coincidence, have been binging The Leftovers recently, was not expecting it in the OP.
I really enjoyed looking at Justin's ripped physique though. Good looking guy.
I really enjoyed looking at Justin's ripped physique though. Good looking guy.
It doesn't really make much of a difference. At 6'3, being that huge and lean at the same time is highly suspect.
Yeah, the way men are portrayed is nothing like the way women are. sure, there are lots of straight up ripped dudes in unexpected places now, but they are still not the baseline. They tend to stand out. Women on the other hand are virtually required to be skinny in order to appear on your screen, and it's been that way forever. There are exceptions, but they are just that--exceptions.