Whiny gym rat mentality

Serious question here: Are gym rats really as pessimistic and neurotic as they appear on social media? If so, why are they so unwilling to admit how pathetic it is?

I recently re-watched part of Pumping Iron and I found myself struck by just how positive, warm and friendly most of the contenders (especially Arnold) were. It's such a far cry from the typical Insta page (or /fit post) which is all about shitty self-esteem, broken relationships, self-comparison, drugs and then using that neuroticism as a sort of motivator.

Zack Telander spoke about this and he was spot-on.

People constantly use the language of pain to describe gym, yet I thinking the average gym rat has a pretty decent life these days and gym itself is a blessing, not some self-induced torture.

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  1. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    people on the internet are losers. all the coolest most interesting people with the most going on in their lives aren't online barely at all.

  2. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    Forgot to post the Zack clip: https://youtu.be/CcYuQiqaUK4?t=252

    relevant clip is at 4:12

  3. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    >Arnold
    >Positive
    He bullied Lou the entire movie. He constantly fricked with other contestants to make them insecure. All of his success is basically one big bullying tactic.

  4. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    It's nihilistic zoomer shit.
    Nothing like working out with a likeminded friend or a random regular working in, with friendly talk in between sets. I didn't even bring my phone until recently, but finally the awful gym music broke me and I am wearing earphones playing comfy 2000's era metal doing my shit in my worn out sweatpants.

    >t. millennial raised on SS powerbloatshitting

  5. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    What the frick are you on about? Do you even lift, or do you just live vicariously through the media you watch?

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      No I lift plenty, but only for 2 years so I wouldn't consider myself that well-acquainted with everything.

      My gym is mostly filled with middle-to-elderly aged patrons (I'm 24) so I genuinely haven't spoken to that many lifters in my demographic.

      >Arnold
      >Positive
      He bullied Lou the entire movie. He constantly fricked with other contestants to make them insecure. All of his success is basically one big bullying tactic.

      Fair point. I'm more concerned about his attitude towards himself though. Arnold was always going on and on about wanting to conquer and be better, but he certainly doesn't hate himself.

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        I do seem to remember Arnold talking about image issues, especially if he skipped a workout (which was obviously rare). Can't remember where

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        If you want a real positive gym role model look to him. Soon he'll beat Arnold's record too. He's the most popular BODYBUILDER of all time because of his personality and good looks obviously, not famous because of acting.

        • 1 year ago
          Anonymous

          Still too fricking roided kind of look. Arnold looked better, because they were less lean and the spray tan wasn't a thing. They were juiced up too but at least it still looked "healthy" and full of vitality, not like an overgrown and dried out raisin.

          Natty bodybuilding at much higher bodyfat (12-16%) should become a thing, people can actually relate and without dieting down to emulate roided bodybuilding natties can actually look impressively big, strong and healthy. Preferably as a triathlon with feats of strength as a scoring metric too.

          • 1 year ago
            Anonymous

            Well they still spray tanned but you're right about the conditioning. Looking "full" was more of a thing then. Back when the open class looked more like how they're trying to look in classic, but because of the weight limits on classic now, the classic guys are actually the most peeled and dry of all the classes as a symptom of actually cutting weight and losing some size.

          • 1 year ago
            Anonymous

            >people can actually relate and without dieting down to emulate roided bodybuilding natties

            Based but agreed. My one issue with Arnold, CBum and most of their contemporaries is the slight cognitive dissonance involved in looking up to somebody you physically, chemically and phyisologically cannot be. I view them as extreme athletes; what they do on camera is genuinely entertaining - but they are not motivating at all.

            >Preferably as a triathlon with feats of strength as a scoring metric too.
            Pretty much described World's Strongest Man except with an aesthetic component. I've really gotten into watching their event for just that reason.

            • 1 year ago
              Anonymous

              WSM is just as roided as bodybuilding but they're pushing the bloat instead of conditioning. Even more unhealthy because they have just as much or even more muscle mass at a way higher body weight with bigger transient blood pressure spikes and resting heart rates.

              • 1 year ago
                Anonymous

                Elaborate? call me naive but I genuinely know very little about roiding in WSM.

                That being said, at least they use their roid for genuine feats of strength. My monkey brain loves that.

              • 1 year ago
                Anonymous

                I don't know what the exact stack might look like but probably a lot of GH and test. Not sure how comprehensive the screening they do as their "drug test" during the show is, but having a high testosterone level and growth might not be acknowledged in the testing parameters.

              • 1 year ago
                Anonymous

                Drug testing is generally a joke but I imagine it's relatively small in WSM. I just don't see there being stakes as high in that kind of setting. Bodybuilders obsess over their natty card and how their initial physiologies affect them. WSM on the other hand is basically just putting on a show.

              • 1 year ago
                Anonymous

                They are roided to their gills as well. There's a "drug testing" clause to make it TV friendly, but in practice nobody gets tested.
                But it's called "Worlds strongest man", so it makes sense. Having that title with a competition of a bunch of natties that will get out lifted by random gym rat roiders doesn't make sense. It makes sense that it's a contest of the worlds strongest men, by any means necessary and at any cost.
                The same can't be said for bodybuilding which has its roots in physical culture which ostensibly is about health. Even in natty bodybuilding dieting down to single digit bodyfat isn't healthy at all, especially for women.

              • 1 year ago
                Anonymous

                >That being said, at least they use their roid for genuine feats of strength.
                It's not really a genuine feat of strength if they're roiding, though.

                I could lift a giant tyre with a forklift any day of the week, but you'd say "that's cheating, you used a forklift!" Well, what's the difference between me using a tool to lift a heavy thing and them using a tool - the outrageous doses of steroids - to lift a heavy thing?

                >"well, they had to work hard and train and"
                b***h please, do you have any idea how expensive a decent forklift is. You bet your ass I'd have to work hard to afford one, especially in this economy.

                By all means, admire the spectacle, but it's not any more virtuous than driving a telehandler in reality.

        • 1 year ago
          Anonymous

          I genuinely know very little about what Chris is like off-stage. I don't watch any of his videos. His fanbase can be a little cringe even though he himself seems to be a solid guy.

          • 1 year ago
            Anonymous

            The fanbase is massive so it spans from zoomers to boomers. He's just the ultimate gym bro who started as a high school football player then the gym Chad in college.

  6. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    I just lift man. I view myself as a gym workhorse that just puts in the work.

  7. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    >first go to gym in 2007
    >learned I could get PE credits if I signed up for the gym at the community college and had enough hours logged there
    >cool I hate PE
    >go to gym
    >it's open, friendly, people chat to each other, there's laughing and it's an overall upbeat atmosphere
    >saw a guy bench 215 and it blew my fricking mind
    >we chat, he tells me 215 is good but nothing special, he gives me lifting tips, becomes my gym bro
    >get some noob gains
    >get my PE credits, don't go back to the gym for a decade
    >sign up for a commercial gym in 2017
    >walk in, it's so different
    >everybody by themselves with headphones in
    >nobody speaks to anyone, even groups of friends who come together just work out with their headphones in, listening to their own playlists
    >people wait for you to finish your sets instead of asking to work in with you, where you could then smalltalk
    >it's such a lonely, isolating experience
    >only a few old guys walk around chatting to other old people like I remember
    Really highlights how much is being lost socially as we steamroll into the future. Okay, boomer done.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      Yeah we're fricked socially and I'm definitely guilty of the headphones thing. To be honest, I can't concentrate without music because of the garbage they play

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        >the garbage they play
        It's actually amazing.
        If you asked me to put together the most awful playlist I could imagine, I couldn't do worse.
        Fricking auto-tuned Black person babble on full blast. Gym has rules about sexual approaches/harassment, and yet the music they are blasting is lyrically 50% about dunking loads in hoes that aren't worth shit, it's surreal listening to this while watching the sad faced yoga pant thots walk around.
        Normiesphere in general has become an absurdist comedy show.

        • 1 year ago
          Anonymous

          This is something i cannot understand. People are afraid to say the word black when refering to a black person, constantly filtering themselves not to accidentally appear sexist, and then every retail store or gym or whatever has music blasting with homie this, homie that, frick my pussy, suck my dick and so on.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      Born in 90, man what you said really hit home. People act like it's just different now but not necessarily worse. They don't know what was lost.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      Sorry anon it's my fault, but I was listening alone to music back in 2007 going to middle school because I was an autist then too. Just hard to relate to lean thin kids who hang out with their childhood friends when you arrive later.

      Back in 2015 I kept doing the same thing except with lifting. Again, hard to relate to 60 year old dudes lifting, women, or the roided asian dude.
      I just can't cope with the music. Now I am back to my home gym being asocial because again, I don't relate to people and I either look scary or moronic. Probably some of both.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      It true current Gym culture in 2023 is isolating. I’ve made a few friends because we’re all regulars, but everything is in social decline.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      https://i.imgur.com/Ye0nM64.png

      Born in 90, man what you said really hit home. People act like it's just different now but not necessarily worse. They don't know what was lost.

      >Go to the gym at around 4/5am
      >Live near a beach
      >Give is popping off, pretty much everyone knows each other to some degree and chats in between sets.
      >At least half the guys are at 1/2/3/4 or higher.
      >Girls all extremely hot and actually lift.
      >Also they dress extra loose so the boys can get a nice test boost.
      Feels good.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      OP here, thanks for your insight boomer anon. I really did suspect this was the case but could never prove it.

      I feel like gyms *should* be a social space since they are one of very few remaining settings wherein people regularly share in an activity together (that isn't work).

      I won't necessarily say it's *worse* since I really do like being able to focus - but it's strange to thing gym used to have direct social gains too.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      Go to a powerlifting/strength gym, much better sense of community

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      protip: the reason I put headphones in is because I don't want to fricking talk to you, c**t. What you think is "decline" is a good thing from my perspective. Stop fricking holding me hostage with my own politeness by starting conversations that I don't fricking want to have.

      You pathetic fricking morons who think there's only one way to live and everything else is decline disgust me. Such a lack of courage.

  8. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    Why are even looking at gym zoomers on chinktok?
    Are you a 12 yo girl?

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      It may sound like a meme but at the end of the day, they're all media representations of what people *think* lifting is.

  9. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    Pain reminds you the joy you felt was real, and vice versa.
    It is only through viewing and committing acts through the lens of its negation that the legitimacy of the act itself is affirmed and made more vivid. The act relies on its 'Other,' so to speak.
    It IS important to confront your nihilism; and far more essential that you choose to rise above nonetheless. Happiness is fragile, anon. Lifting affirms it.

  10. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    >warm and friendly especially Arnold
    He quite literally says in the video that he was sabotaging Lou the entire competition.

  11. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    Yes. Even the positivity is a veneer.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      The text you posted reeks of neuroticism. The act of going to this length to complain about everyone else mode of behaviour/existence in a gym is a performative act itself rooted in ego, if I also had paralysis by analysis as a hobby. And it isn't even true, the writer must have terrible social skills if his experience in receiving or giving advice is anywhere close to what he is writing.

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        It seems accurate to me, which is why I saved it. Also,
        >thinking deeply about the world is bad
        Tell me you're moronic without telling me you're moronic. I get that you might not be interested in long conversations about people's motivations but I find it fascinating.

        • 1 year ago
          Anonymous

          No, I am the exact kind of person who could've written something like that when I was 18 years old. Then I lost the edginess, became sociable and realized how useless it is living your live from the perspective of everything that can be constructed to be a negative, is a negative.

          • 1 year ago
            Anonymous

            >realized how useless it is living your live from the perspective of everything that can be constructed to be a negative, is a negative.
            That's not what's occurring in the image though. You're leaping to assumptions about what has been written and the motivations behind it because you hate the person that you used to be and are performatively trying to differentiate yourself from that person by opposing anything you perceive as potentially similar to him.

            Ultimately they're not my posts so believe whatever you want, we'll never know whether anon is a dumbass or a genius when we can't ask him questions, but the notion of performative behaviour that he outlines has a lot of utility and seems, to my mind, broadly accurate and broadly unhelpful - exactly as described.

  12. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    I see lifting as an outlet so i don't need to go around the rest of my life a rageful pos.
    Probably could do fighting instead but i never found it fun.
    In normal life if i get angry instead of exploding I just bottle it up and release it at the gym.
    People in my life now think I've dealt with all my old anger issues.

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