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- From: krw@cbnewsk.cb.att.com (keith.r.smith)
- Newsgroups: misc.fitness
- Subject: Re: The fittest people on the planet.
- Keywords: balance in life
- Message-ID: <1993Jan27.195449.14975@cbnewsk.cb.att.com>
- Date: 27 Jan 93 19:54:49 GMT
- References: <1jm16oINNoik@bnsgd245.bnr.co.uk> <C1Hnyw.5zy@csn.org> <1k6dfuINNi49@mojo.eng.umd.edu>
- Distribution: usa
- Organization: AT&T
- Lines: 82
-
- In article <1k6dfuINNi49@mojo.eng.umd.edu> georgec@eng.umd.edu (George B. Clark) writes:
- >In article <C1Hnyw.5zy@csn.org> pae@teal.csn.org (Phil Earnhardt) writes:
- >>In article <1jm16oINNoik@bnsgd245.bnr.co.uk> laurie@bnr.co.uk (Laurie Constantin) writes:
- >>
- >>>It's very sad that bodybuilding and powerlifting can be at both extremes of
- >>>the health scale - on the one hand, recreational body builders and
- >>>powerlifters (and natural competitors in those sports) are probably a group
- >>>of the healthiest, fittest people on the planet.
- >
- >"Healthiest, fittest people on the planet" is hardly describes a
- >bodybuilder. To become a world-class bodybuilder, a person must make
- >great compromises in their health.
-
- Please respond to what the man wrote! He was describing recreational/natural
- bodybuilders and powerlifters. He did not even imply that such folx are the
- _only_ group of exceptionally healthy/fit persons, but _a_ group that is among
- the healthiest/fittest on the planet. I say that his comments still stand.
- He was _not_ talking about world-class bodybuilders!
- (we all know that they do some crazy/dangerous stuff to take their physiques
- to that level)
-
- >These people eat an unnatural diet.
-
- This is an unsupportable "blanket" statement! It may or may not be true
- for a given individual. Who is to say that a recreational/fitness bodybuilder
- is gonna have a diet any stranger than that of a boxer or a gymnast?
-
- >They take drugs.
-
- May I remind you that Laurie was talking about _natural_ powerlifters and
- bodybuilders.
-
- >Once every two weeks, they must lift extremely
- >heavy weights to achieve maximum strength, and these routines are
- >dangerous, especially if they are not supervised by a sports-medicine
- >physician.
-
- Assuming for sake of discussion, that this is true, are you saying that
- once a person has trained long enough, and consistently enough, and has
- been injury-free long enough to develop the strength required to work
- with the big weights (assuming, for now, that that is indeed what he is
- doing), then that that person could get to that point w/o _becoming_
- exceptionally fit/healthy? Remember that we are talking about _natural_
- trainees here.
- >
- >In addition, world-class bodybuilders have weak hearts relative to their
- >body sizes because the intensity of their strength training leaves them no
- >energy for aerobic training.
-
- Johnny Fuller, a world-class bodybuilder who was competing in the 70's
- and 80's, was also running _marathons_ during that time. He was also an
- avowed "30-rep-man", meaning that he did all/most of his exercises in
- sets of 30 reps. Try doing 30-rep-sets of squats with any respectable
- weight, and see if it doesn't leave your chest heaving. I remember reading
- that Serge Nubret was doing 20 sets of 20 in the bench press with 225 lbs.
- He weighed in at somewhere about 200 at that time, at a height of about
- 5'9". If you can do 20x20 with a given weight, with little rest between
- sets, you can best believe the the weight is nowhere near your max, and
- further, that you are training more for work output, than pure strength.
- One is most likely to risk injury by trying to go too heavy w/o proper
- warmup and/or proper form.......
- But I digress, as Laurie was _not_ talking about world-class bodybuilders.
- >
- >By the way, "fitness or being fit" by definition refers only to the heart,
- >and since bodybuilders are focused on their skeletal muscles, fitness is
- >inappropriate terminology.
-
- This is pure bunk! There are more ways than one to measure fitness.
- A true bodybuilding regimen will include some parts muscle-building,
- some parts fat-burning (ie., aerobics), and some parts attention to
- diet, and allowing proper time for recovery. We are talking about
- all-around body conditioning here.
-
- Let me close by saying that once you get in a coupla' years of hard,
- consistent, natural training in most any athletic endeavor, ie., once
- you are well beyond the "novice" stage, it is safe to say that you
- are more-than-a-little healthy and fit.
- >
- >On the other hand, bodybuilders are highly motivated people, and they
- >deserve admiration for having achieved a very difficult goal.
-
- Keith R
-