Basic HTML Version
26
| TOUCHLINE
MAGAZINE.COM
FEATURE -
GETTING BIG
GETTING BIG
HOW BODY TRANSFORMATION IS NO JOKE
S
ociety doesn’t seem to have
much time for well-muscled
people. The Ancient Greeks
and Romans had all sorts of time
for admiring men who valued low
body-fat ratios and cannon-ball
delts, but since the seventies, body
builders have been derided.
The insults are pretty standard:
these people are muscle-heads,
obsessed freaks who work out
because they have no purpose for
their empty heads. At worst, they
are aggressive, hyper-masculine
steroid junkies.
This complex net of reactions
- from admiration, to wariness,
to condescension- surely has
some psychological root cause,
but generally speaking, the body
builder is a misunderstood being.
Getting big is no joke. It takes
a level of dedication that few can
match. It intrudes on every aspect
of life, to the extent that any given
body-builder conducts him or
herself in the same fashion as an
elite sports person.
Arnold Schwarzenegger –body
building icon, ex-governor and star
of 80s blockbusters- encapsulates
the effort required. When people in
the past said, “I would never want a
body like yours”, he would reassure
them by saying: “don’t worry, you
never will.”
Getting big, really big, requires
research and reading on a PhD
level of commitment. Diet, sleep,
exercise and body knowledge
are all components that must be
addressed if shirts are to be torn
and veins are to be popped.
All body-builders are acutely
aware of the fact that getting big is
70% about diet. To build muscle, the
body must enter a calorific surplus.
The numbers are staggering, and
also very specific. While many less
dedicated lifters will ball-park it,
the true dynamos will hit the exact
number of daily calories with the
precision of an Olympic archer on
the range.
These people can be heard
talking about “macros” as they
munch their way through their
third portion of tuna, broccoli and
brown rice mush. They can take one
look at a plate of food and know
the precise number of calories it
provides, and can even break it
down into proteins, carbohydrates
and fats. They seem to have some
oscillating pie graph in their heads.
Choosing the right number
requires a mathematic formula that
accounts for age, size, weight and
body type. The average male who is
engaged in this body development
will eat between 500 and 1000 more
calories than his body requires.
When we talk elite, this number can
go up. Significantly.
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson,
perhaps best known for clenching
his muscles to shatter a plaster
cast after a broken arm in Fast
and The Furious 7, eats about 5000
calories per day.
And while eating to excess
sounds like fun, The Rock has to be
constantly vigilant against gaining
fat. His 5000 has to be clean. He
eats seven meals per day. Three of
them include steamed cod. All have
green, starchy vegetables.
Each day he eats about 1.5 kilos
of meat. And a dozen eggs.
The Rock can afford to pay
others to make and supply his
meals. But there are plenty of body
builders who don’t have this luxury.
TimothyMottram