[Bob Smith]

TOPIC 8: HEAVY VS. LIGHT

Heavy vs. Light this is a common observation... but the intensity you use while training doesnt change the muscle "shape", however, people who do heavy, multijoint exercises like deadlifts, squats, rows, etc, build the muscles that make you seem thick, like the abdominal muscles, the spinal erectors and the middle and upper back, the glutes, hamstrings, etc. people who do mostly isolation exercises and dont go heavy enough to really challenge the bodies core or the stabilizer muscles usually have bigger arms, chest, quads, but lack the development in the other muscles in the body.

in my mind, the way to tell if a guy has trained hard is to look at their spinal erectors. its impossible to do the "big" exercises for years without developing big, strong erectors. i know this may be a little different than most people, but i think guys who have big pecs and arms, but have NO spinal erectors, no abdominal hypertrophy, big quads but flat hamstrings, wide shoulders but no traps, etc, just look stupid. i just plain dont like that look. a big pair of legs ought to have a lot of adductor mass, big hamstrings, etc. a wide back ought to have big traps and big erectors. it just doesnt look right if you dont have complete development.

i hate to shamelessly plug the owner of this board, but there is a pic of him. now im not a BBer and ill admit i would not train for that look. and i will also say that he s not a really, really massive guy. however, i think that he looks like what a BBer ought to look like, at least from what i could see from the front. unlike a lot of "recreational" bodybuilders you see, his thighs arent all quads, hes got a lot of adductor mass, and i bet hes got hamstrings to since i doubt he got those adductors without squatting and deadlifting correctly.

if you look at his upper body, he doesnt just have big "pecs" out of proportion to everything else like a lot of guys who do more benching than everything else put together, the guys got traps, shoulders, etc, all his muscles are proportional to each other. i dont know what he looks like from the back, but i bet hes got good erectors and back thickness since i doubt he got traps like that without doing deadlifts and rows. overall, the guy looks really good and proportional, like i would envision what a BBer ought to look like.

of course, i will admit, that when i see a guy like *******, who obviously has done a few squats, has strong legs, has obvioulsy done a lot of pulling like deadlifts and rowing etc., looks pretty athletic, is that its just such a damn shame that hes into BBing, cause i bet hed make a great olympic lifter or discus thrower or something like that! if i ever meet *******, i guarantee you ill try to teach him to snatch! oh well, just another potential champion lifter lost to the dark side!