What is it about muscle?

[Speaker]

Well there's the when did it happen thread asking about when you first realized you were attracted to muscle. How about what do you think it is about huge musclemen that makes them attractive to us?

Personally i think it's because muscle just simply is a symbol of strength and power and that is pretty hot to most people. Kind of simple but i want to see what you guys think about muscle.

[abbraxis]

Jealousy.

It's all it's ever been.

This is why I made the "Is it just me" thread because when I see a muscled man I don't think, "damn, I want to bone him" I think, "damn, I want to BE him".

All my life I've been small, puny, unnoticed and freakishly geeky... so it would be a nice change of pace to be the cocky, arrogant jock. Actually, it's not even that I want to be that. I just want to be confident... and since I'm NOT confident in the way I look I envy the people that are.

[ARCHEON]

Speaker, I'm so glad you launched this thread. I have a different take on the, "What is it about muscle" issue.

Have you ever noticed that regular folk from all walks of life begin to act strange when really big muscles enter a room? I'm not talking about the usual worshippers who tend to fall into two distinct camps: 1) fawn all over the stud or, 2) silently suffer in secret. I'm talking about average women, straight men, old, young, children, etc. Why is it that regular folk seem to get weirded out when big muscles are around?

Do you think the dynamic of the room changes or do people start to sort of put on different personas? I've personally witnessed the gamut of emotional reaction in all kinds of people when a 20" arm enters the room and I've always found it fascinating. I've seen normally calm men become angry for no immediately apparent reason. In addition, women who are generally good-natured all of a sudden show phenomenal contempt when a 58" inch chest approaches. Children are the most interesting to watch because they tend to be guileless. They either become more playful or recede into absolute shyness unless the big galook plays with them and then it's major party time. Most children I've seen love to play with the "big" guy.

It's much more than muscle being a symbol of strength. It's something far more emotionally complex and embedded in our psyche. Big muscles triggers all kinds of reactions. Lust, fear, resentment, excitement, rage and many more emotions too numerous to list. Why is that?

[divis24]

Let's not forget that a thick, hard body resembles a hard cock come to life. (Not that otherwise it's dead... you know what I mean)

Especially if the muscleguy's bald.

[rextorres]

A guy with muscle radiates confidence, strength, agility and good health. These are qualities that everyone is attracted to when seen in another person.

[fillups44]

Interesting Topic!

I don't think that everyone is necessarily attracted to big muscles. I have seen some folks of both sexes treat a guy with big muscles with derision as if he has nothing to do in his life but stare in the mirror and pump iron (and there can be some truth to this statement for serious bodybuilders). Bodybuilders can be dismissed as stupid, arrogant and vain before they even utter a word to confirm or deny this assumption.

Women with huge breasts also get extreme reactions from the public at large as do really obese people. Physical non conformity in many ways inspires reactions from the people who are "normal" (think of racist reactions that can be similar).

My own attraction started very early as I enjoyed superhero comics and Charles Atlas ads AND peeking at muscle magazines (which made me feel dirty and excited) as early as six or seven years old. For some reason guys that were super developed inspired me both to be like them (so I'm a gym rat---although not super developed) and to be attracted to them.

I don't know exactly what it is but I do know some people see that kind of development as gross and completely unattractive and I can't understand THAT reaction!!!

[bigun]

I have always equated massive muscles with masculinity. Growing up, I always compared myself, the pensive, non athletic boy, to others. I was tired of them making fun of me and I wanted to "show them" I was masculine too. I would watch other guys who were huge, and I wanted to be like them. I studied them, read about them, worked out in the secret of my basement at night. Even today, when I see them, I have deep respect for what they have achieved and hope that one day, if I work hard enough, I can be a role model for someone else.

[jerseyflex]

Originally Posted by ARCHEON

Speaker, I'm so glad you launched this thread. I have a different take on the, "What is it about muscle" issue.

Have you ever noticed that regular folk from all walks of life begin to act strange when really big muscles enter a room? I'm not talking about the usual worshippers who tend to fall into two distinct camps: 1) fawn all over the stud or, 2) silently suffer in secret. I'm talking about average women, straight men, old, young, children, etc. Why is it that regular folk seem to get weirded out when big muscles are around?

Do you think the dynamic of the room changes or do people start to sort of put on different personas? I've personally witnessed the gamut of emotional reaction in all kinds of people when a 20" arm enters the room and I've always found it fascinating. I've seen normally calm men become angry -- for no immediately apparent reason. In addition, women who are generally good-natured -- all of a sudden show phenomenal contempt when a 58" inch chest approaches. Children are the most interesting to watch because they tend to be guileless. They either become more playful or recede into absolute shyness -- unless the big galook plays with them and then it's major party time. Most children I've seen love to play with the "big" guy.

It's much more than muscle being a symbol of strength. It's something far more emotionally complex and embedded in our psyche. Big muscles triggers all kinds of reactions. Lust, fear, resentment, excitement, rage and many more emotions too numerous to list. Why is that?

Every one of the replies so far is on the mark but this one in particular. I think it may be deep in our psyche due to evolution ("only the strong survive") but for many it is the allure of the perceived strength and therefore power they perceive to hold over the regulars or "mortals"

ever been in a crowded bar or room when someone over 7 feet tall enters the room towering over everyone? same thing - people get goofy. i was on a sports team in college and lived with athletes. one year i lived across the hall from a 7' 3" hoops player. every single time - and i do mean every single time we went bar hopping at least one girl would ask him how well hung he was given his height ("Is it big too?" - "is EVERYTHING bigger?" - etc).....every night out he could get some play if he wanted because all he had to do was say "would you like to find out?" and 9 out of ten times they did.............that made lots of guys very jealous.

when i was young big muscle was cool now it seems to be the object of ire and derision ("stupid meathead" - "dumb jock" - "idiot musclehead" - etc) and the "in" look now seems to be the hard bodied / defined A & F model look

[BergMuscle]

There's plenty more feedback on this topic in this thread. Check it out.

[Username3]

for me, I just like the look of it.
I dunno, I find it attractive but I'm not 100% sure why

[boricua1]

I'm not real obvious about it but when I see huge muscle on a guy at first I think that's too much. Then this overwhelming feeling of desire and attractiveness takes over. Just recently I seen this guy at the gym, that one can tell he's buff as hell but always wears shirts that cover up his size. So finally this particular day the guy was working out with a bunch of other muscleheads and decides to take of the shirt he had, in which he reveals a muscle shirt with this utterly huge upper body with monsterous shoulders.

I mean, so big that it didn't look like he had a neck , it just looked like a big slab of beef. Now that's just an over developed range of muscles that typically I would not find attractive but for some reason just his shear size and the power it exuded had me craving to bust out of my clothes. I just wanted to feel them. Then a range of muscle growth fantasies started to rush in my head with this guy in them.

I see plenty of really thick muscle heads. Don't get me wrong I like proportional and lean guys but my libido goes wild for guys that get massively thick. Watching guys get bigger is just hot. At times after a workout I'll have to relieve myself

[RPM]

I'm going to jump on the "representation of strength" bandwagon.

I don't think there's any need to go into a case study on why strength is beneficial in all areas of life, even to somebody who's not interested in winning World's Strongest Man or whatever. Everybody knows there's so much more you can do in all areas of life the stronger you are, no matter how much they try to convince themselves it's unnecessary and they're just fine where they are (which I think most often accounts for the harsh reactions to the 20" arms - their world's being turned upside-down).

While I realize it's not always scientifically accurate that "bigger = stronger", there's still growth involved in any kind of strength, even if it's a stringy guy like Bruce Lee or a puffy dude like Ron Coleman.

Either way, in most cases the majority of guys gain significant size as they grow stronger, and there's no separating the two. As much as I love seeing big guys and imagining how strong they must be, it's far far more of a thrill to see them actually perform it. Flexing and feeling and all that is a great intro, but you gotta get down to business sometime.

Muscle is the representative, but strength is what's being represented; in other words, the preview looks nice, but I'd rather see the actual movie. True, I dislike the "fat" physique of most strongmen and prefer watching bodybuilding over WSM, but those guys like Mariusz Pudzianowski and Tom Owen who build their strongman-functional bodies to look like other bodybuilders will always be the cream of the crop for me.

Seriously, I'm sure everybody knows my obsession by now, but I'll never forget the first time I saw Tom Owen perform. It was a stupid infomercial for one of those 2,000 ab master devices, boring on and on about theirs being the latest and greatest, then there were some pro athlete testimonials, then suddenly it switches to "World's Strongest Abs". This guy steps onto a parking lot in only these tiny shorts in front of some big crowd, yelling and flexing and pounding his stomach, lays down in front of this tiny ramp, has this huge moving truck drive over his abs, and gets back up and starts flexing some more like nothing just happened. That took all my ab punching/hammering/beating standards for "strength" and... well, drove a truck over them :P Seriously, how much more brute and raw can you get than that? Shot by cannons, maybe.

So yeah I pretty much love and admire strength, for all its possibilities and all the reactions to it, and the body its development results in is by proxy something I also admire.

[tanky]

I think it's the fact that a guy has opted to look like that. Other male features which receive praise are handsome looks and huge cocks. Whilst these are great let's face it, you're either born with these attributes or you're not. But no-one is born huge and muscular, not to the extent we're talking about here anyway, and so the fact that the guy has CHOSEN to look like that is the hottest thing in the world.

He could have gone his whole life as a regular sized guy, maybe carrying a bit of muscle and a nice six-pack but something drove him to just push it further and further and further, to build what is, how ever you look at it, a huge excess of muscle that he simply doesn't need but for some reason really wants. And then there's the other elements of bodybuilding, the dieting, the supplements, the tanning, the oiling, the shaving.....it's a complete lifestyle choice. But WHY?

I just can't get my head around it, it defies all logic, especially given that, as has been stated here, so many people seem to HATE the result! And so all in all I find the whole IDEA of a bodybuilder, what he does, how he does it and, more to the point, WHY he does it completely baffling in the most wonderful way. THAT and the fact that muscles are friggin' gorgeous to look at and feel of course!

[ARCHEON]

Originally Posted by tanky

...it defies all logic, especially given that, as has been stated here, so many people seem to HATE the result! And so all in all I find the whole IDEA of a bodybuilder, what he does, how he does it and, more to the point, WHY he does it completely baffling in the most wonderful way. THAT and the fact that muscles are friggin' gorgeous to look at and feel of course!

Perfectly expressed.

And yet, why do so many people on YouTube write such derogatory terms when describing bodybuilders and their bodies? The name calling, the accusations, the derision that comes from merely dedicating oneself to a sport and the discipline it takes to envision and create an aesthetic ideal? Why would this bother people so? Who is it harming? And why do people who don't necessarily approve of this seem to invest so much emotional acrimony? It's been identified as jealousy in an earlier reply to this thread. But I think it's more than that. I suspect, deep down, in its most basic form, it's guilt.

[ushersdick]

Originally Posted by abbraxis

Jealousy.

It's all it's ever been.

This is why I made the "Is it just me" thread because when I see a muscled man I don't think, "damn, I want to bone him" I think, "damn, I want to BE him".

All my life I've been small, puny, unnoticed and freakishly geeky... so it would be a nice change of pace to be the cocky, arrogant jock. Actually, it's not even that I want to be that. I just want to be confident... and since I'm NOT confident in the way I look I envy the people that are.

yeah same, whats so hot is thinking about how great it must be being huge, and thinking how horny id be all the time if i was as big as him.