To paraphrase the great Ronnie Coleman, “Everybody wants to be a bodybuilder, but nobody wants to lift heavy ass weights.” 

Ok two issues, plenty of guys will lift the heavy ass weights.  “Heavy ass” is subjective, so we’ll leave that part alone, but plenty of GUYS (mostly) are putting in the time and effort in the gym.  That’s not really at issue.  Now…”everybody wants to be a bodybuilder.”  Really?  If "yes," why exactly?

Well, if you do, here are some hard truths that no one will tell you ahead of time…. THESE ARE THE UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES OF GETTING BIG AND RIPPED:

No competitive (successful) bodybuilder in any division looks great year-round…in fact, it’s likely a total of 1-2 months per year that they look like you think they do…and those months correspond with shows!  You think Bumstead looks great during the Summer at the beach?  Really depends on when the Olympia is scheduled to figure out when he starts prep, and what you think “looks great” is…definitely not stage great.

Here’s the great one…the general public will assume you’re stupid.  I’m talking Appalachian, 3rd grade drop-out stupid.  In fact, the bigger you get the more stupid they will assume you are.  And we’re talking supply and demand inverse relationship stuff here…so the bigger muscles you have, the more stupid they will think you are.  So…Ramy = jellyfish-level dumb, Mark Zuckerburg = billionaire-level smart.  You will not be taken seriously about anything, even working out…because, that’s like, actual…”science stuff.”  Bro Science doesn't count, and is actually a future post…

I really hope I’m wrong about this one…I really wish to be proven wrong about this one…but you’ll (mostly guys) look for any excuse to either wear a tank top with anything, or worse…just take your top off anywhere.  Seriously…we had a volunteer help out with our booth at the Arnold this year and after a few minutes he took off his Flex Wheeler Signature Series shirt and worked the rest of the shift in jeans, work boots, and…a tank top…no really…he wore “that” outfit in public willingly.

You won't want to eat anything that tastes good...ever.  Don’t fall into the trap where you won’t EVER eat anything tasty…it’s really not worth it.  Outside of prep, I enjoy life…but I’m the cynic writing this blog post.  That same nipple-head volunteer from the Arnold also brought all of his food with him in baggies…not a big deal as he’s in prep.  But he had his girlfriend doing the same thing…she doesn’t compete.  Yet, she’s eating a contest prep diet for a bodybuilder…WHY???

Now…here’s the harshest irony.  Most girls really don’t go for the guys with too much muscle, that look like "bodybuilders."  I know, it sucks that you started this journey to look like Flex or CBum or Ramy…only to find out that the vast majority of women are turned off by guys that look like that.  Do you hear that?  That’s the universe laughing at you…

Don’t believe me…ask the successful, competitive bodybuilder in the gym to take inventory of the last 10 people that complimented their physiques.  Now ask them what percentage of those 10 compliments came from women?  How about what percentage were women that didn’t either work in the industry or compete themselves?  Or even more specifically, check out the recent IG post Flex put up of him posing during the ‘98 Arnold.  Now, take inventory of the likes and comments.  I’ll bet you 99+% are guys…actually, don’t take that bet because I have the analytics… 

Better yet, take the girls you’re trying to get attention from, or the women at school or work, or even the women in the movies you watch…now look at their significant others.  Do they look like CBum (who I feel is more “normal ripped”) or do they look like Justin Beiber or Ezra Miller?  Let’s go down the list...name one Hollywood starlet you lust after that is linked to someone that looks like CBum, let alone Ramy…closest I can think of is Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively.  Let me make this simple for you…although there will be some exceptions, winning an NPC show is not the way to attract that hot Alpha Phi in your Econ class…

Now, if you’re doing this for you, knock yourself out.  You will find some great people in the gym.  You will learn about yourself.  If you don’t take it too far your health will benefit.  If you do it intelligently you will learn about exercise science and nutrition and lifestyle.  I simply advocate taking a serious look inward prior to starting your journey, have a well-thought out reason for doing so.