Home » » Weight Training » Cyber Muscleheads?

Cyber Muscleheads?

© Matt Danielson

In my daily life I encounter a lot people who have different kinds of prejudice about bodybuilders. They range from "Oh, those muscles are just for looks" to "You bodybuilders must be the silliest primadonnas on earth," and the ever-popular: "Oh, so you're on steroids then, huh?" Sometimes it's funny to hear the geuine stupidity of certain people, but mostly it's just boring.

Collission of prejudice
However, there's another widely spread prejudice - The computer geek!
Except for in California, many people seem to be stuck with the image of a dorky Bill Gates-kind of person whenever someone is the least serious about computers. The Computer Geek has thick glasses, narrow shoulders and a voucher-kind of neck, combined with a grayish skintone and nerdy haircut.

How does this mix with the image of the self-centered, mindless bodybuilder, complete with the tanned face, pumped biceps and problems when trying to read the back of his protein cans?

...Pretty much like a militant feminist at a party at Playboy Mansion. Boy, sometimes you can really SEE the collision in their heads!

Making it worse
I'm Swedish, and have an American girlfriend. Currently she lives with me in Sweden, and the most common question we get is: "How did the two of you meet?" I'm a bodybuilder and she's into fitness. Few keep an entirely straight face as we answer: "The Internet!" OK, we didn't meet on any of the infamous IRC chatrooms, but we did start out as penpals some 2.5 years ago, and from there it grew to engagement and living together.

The serious side of it
Alright, I think you get the idea - and as you're reading this, chances are you're nodding your head in recognition. But why does it have to be like that, really? Prejudice is something terrible when it's about race, religion and social layers - but when applied to bodybuilders it's appearently all OK. Some people might be in the game for the wrong reasons, but the majority of them sure aren't. And to make it professionally, you have to be slightly nuts, but considering what percentage THOSE make out of the total number of gym-trainers ... Well, it's something like claiming that every Democrat has this thing for young interns - judging from Clintons behaviour.

Overcoming prejudice
The bright side of things is when people get over their fears of gyms and their disrespect for people who're into computers. The "computer geeks" are the ones who'll benefit most from a few weekly sessions in the gym, just like the gym-rat will discover a brave new world once he learns to master a computer. Speaking for myself, there's few things that gives me the satisfaction as a trainer as helping a "geek" on the path to physical fitness - and possibly dispell a bad self-image with roots all the way from childhood.

The copyright of the article Cyber Muscleheads? in Weight Training is owned by . Permission to republish Cyber Muscleheads? in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.