I do power lifting (non-competitive), and while I'm noticeably muscular and lift more than most people at my gym (no competitive lifters there, so doesn't say all that much), I'm not nearly at peak muscle volume nor do I look nearly as big as body builders much smaller than me - leanness makes a huge difference to perceived muscle size. Still, from an hour 2-4 times a week (2 times a week at the moment), with no steroids, these are some of the benefits I've noticed that makes the time investment well worth it for me:
- More attention from people I'd want to find me attractive (and from some I don't...). E.g. after I started lifting weights I got my first "wow" responses when people saw pictures of me. I also saw a massive difference in how people responded when I went out to bars/nightclubs, ranging from comments to people suddenly opting to slider their hand on my stomach or chest when they wanted to get past me instead of tapping me on the shoulder, as well as getting my butt pinched. For the first time I had a woman pick me up from a club.
- Being able to do a lot of movements that I'd struggle with before without thinking about it, and lifting heavy stuff, whether it is sliding that 40kg sever into rails above head height without having to get someone to help me keep it stable, or casually lifting my son up or playing with him in ways that I couldn't have if I didn't have the strength I do (he's nearly 6 - he likes to climb onto my back when I'm sitting on the sofa and stand on my shoulders and jump down; people think both of us are crazy and that he'll hurt me, but it feels nice).
- Far fewer situations makes me feel tired or makes my muscles feel fatigured. E.g. I sprint up stairs where I used to walk up slowly (in fact, when I first started exercising, my knees were so weak that it had started to become painful for me to walk up a single flight of stairs, at age 25, because I was sitting all day and used elevators both at work and at home).
- Feeling safe in a lot of situations I'd have been scared in before. Just a few weeks ago someone was assaulted near our house, and I felt safe enough to run out and confront the guy while we waited for police (I'm in the UK, guns are not a concern; I was aware of the risk of knives, though, and made sure to keep my distance until I felt sure)
I don't know about your first point, but definitely all the rest apply to me. I don't look like a body builder, but I definitely feel and look more solid at 43.
Basically for the cost of a few hours a week you can +1 or +2 you strength and consitution scores.
I also notice calming and de-stressing effects from working out as well. I work long hours normally but I would still much rather go to the gym and workout then go home and lie on the couch, as I'd go insane at the lab if I didn't.
Yeah, definitely, but there are drawbacks too. if you already have a woman by your side that you want to spend rest of your life with (and judging by your comment about son, you should be there) - extra ladies attention is annoying as hell. If you are actually mentally a grown up, this ain't an impressive result as it might seem :)
(Yes, been/am there, but to impress ladies you don't need to be creepy muscular type. Just a sporty one. Especially if you care about quality of your partner, not just quantity).
as for strength - I find it much better to have real world-usable one, combined with endurance. Examples you describe are OK, but better use cases for me are - being able to climb that mountain (or just hike it), full day of of-piste skiing (its damn hard on quads) etc. In many sports, too much muscles has negative impact. For high altitude, common knowledge is that gym type muscular types struggle more up there. For climbing same. But that's me.
It also brings freedom in eating - keeping huge amount of muscles while doing some 3-week effort on Aconcagua... not really possible.
>to impress ladies you don't need to be creepy muscular type. Just a sporty one.
This is setting up a false dichotomy. Women (and men) generally don't find an inflated look attractive.
The parent was talking more about strength, rather than muscle volume "I'm not nearly at peak muscle volume nor do I look nearly as big as body builders much smaller than me".
I'm 150 pounds, but I can lift 250. I look strong, sure, but I'm even stronger than I look. I do barbell training, which I'm guessing is what the original comment's author does too.
Women seem to find this lean strength primally attractive. It's true the female attention could cause a problem, but this kind of strength will also make you more attractive to your partner, which is hardly a bad thing.
Strength is versatile too. I can hike a mountain, ski, run, and do pretty much any physical activity you can name. Chronic pain disappeared too. I'm sure I'd lose a bit of strength on a three week trip, but who cares? You can always get that back.
I can't comment on high altitude performance, but it sounds like you're referring to the inflated types there too.
He has a son, probably also a wife, he probably has a steady job. And he goes to the gym 2-4 times a week, for 1 to 2 hours each time. Lifting weights is one of the best things he can do, exercise wise, to his health. A 3-week effort on Aconcagua? When do you think the parent does that, and how often? Does he take his 6 year old son with him? I don't really see any drawbacks from him being powerlifting strong.
I do agree that the extra attention can be unwanted and negative sometimes. For example, I've worked out the whole time I've dated my girlfriend of around ~5 years. However, at the start we were in high school and I was super lean due to MMA and rugby. Now, that I'm older and lifting has finely started to obtain noticeable results/ having lost a bit of baby-face my girlfriend started to become a bit jealous/insecure with herself. No matter what I said, she wouldn't believe that I found her more attractive then everyone else. She understands its irrational but its hard to fight insecurities. At this point she has started going to the gym and is a much harder worker then me there.
With regards to fitness, I definitely agree that I prefer a practical definition of fitness level. I may not look gigantic compared to some of the guys in the gym, but I can both lift a lot of weight, run fast sprints and long distance runs. Its that type of fitness that is great for rugby.
Testosterone has a benefit in endurance sports too. It can help with the growth of both slow-twitch (lean, endurance muscles) as well as fast-twitch (bulk, power muscles).
Even if you ignore the muscle building, it can help with recovery which leads to being able to recover from harder (endurance) training sessions.
That's often the reason that endurance cyclists use it (illegally of course).
- More attention from people I'd want to find me attractive (and from some I don't...). E.g. after I started lifting weights I got my first "wow" responses when people saw pictures of me. I also saw a massive difference in how people responded when I went out to bars/nightclubs, ranging from comments to people suddenly opting to slider their hand on my stomach or chest when they wanted to get past me instead of tapping me on the shoulder, as well as getting my butt pinched. For the first time I had a woman pick me up from a club.
- Being able to do a lot of movements that I'd struggle with before without thinking about it, and lifting heavy stuff, whether it is sliding that 40kg sever into rails above head height without having to get someone to help me keep it stable, or casually lifting my son up or playing with him in ways that I couldn't have if I didn't have the strength I do (he's nearly 6 - he likes to climb onto my back when I'm sitting on the sofa and stand on my shoulders and jump down; people think both of us are crazy and that he'll hurt me, but it feels nice).
- Far fewer situations makes me feel tired or makes my muscles feel fatigured. E.g. I sprint up stairs where I used to walk up slowly (in fact, when I first started exercising, my knees were so weak that it had started to become painful for me to walk up a single flight of stairs, at age 25, because I was sitting all day and used elevators both at work and at home).
- Feeling safe in a lot of situations I'd have been scared in before. Just a few weeks ago someone was assaulted near our house, and I felt safe enough to run out and confront the guy while we waited for police (I'm in the UK, guns are not a concern; I was aware of the risk of knives, though, and made sure to keep my distance until I felt sure)