Graded on the (Muscle) Curve

[drscott]

After a few weeks away working out in straightish gyms in NY-PA-DC, when I came back I had lost a few pounds of muscle mass. This always happens on long trips, since the workouts tend to be shorter and on unfamiliar equipment where you can't work yourself as hard.

What I didn't expect was to suddenly feel like a D-grade physique. I didn't look all that much different, but at Market Street I was surrounded by lots of nearly perfect specimens with good definition, where back East, while there are plenty of guys with muscle, the climate and diet tend to layer everyone (straight) over with extra fat. So the background against which I compare myself abruptly got more competitive and I felt uglier by comparison. Odd!

That effect faded, so by day 4 after return, I felt more or less B-grade, as usual. And one the guys I occasionally notice, a smaller but perfectly-built Italian fellow, chose today to approach me online and comment that he'd been admiring me for months. That pretty much completed my rehabilitation.

Comments

[omero-hassan.livejournal.com]

Isn't it funny how much one's body self-image varies? If I don't feel sore somewhere from my most recent workout, I don't feel "built," even though it's impossible that I look significantly different.

Anyway, I give you an A -- and I hardly ever give those out.