My latest on Mike Matthews website

[smokeyjones]

I believe you. The question is whether you're trying to impress other men i.e. lifters in a gym or look good to the average woman.

In the age of Tinder and Ryan Gosling, abs arms and leanness > your deadlift numbers, when it comes to an impressive physique. Yes, this is a tangent from the article -- whose point is "do deadlifts," and I'm pretty sure everyone on this forum already does -- but when Rip dismisses ab and arm training as unimportant, some impressionable young kids like me listen to him and then regret it later.

Rubbish, you've surely heard dozens, if not hundreds of opinions on how you should look and train. You knew the argument for teh abz before you heard Rip's opinion. If you found his argument more compelling then that's on you. Plenty of people add in curls, there is even a method on how to do them in the book because Rip understands that, to a certain degree, a bro has to bro. Not to mention the original program includes plenty of core work, as well as chin ups/pull ups. If you care about visible abs then diet for a few months and get them. Then you can take some sweet tinder picts in front of the mirror while you left your shirt up with your free hand. #sexy

I don't really understand what you think the pay off will be though. It's completely irrelevant if you're talking about partner material and overkill for the vast majority of tinder girls. As long as you clean up semi decent and you aren't a complete fatty you're probably meeting requirements.

[MarthaF]

Just find yourselves a girl who lifts, you dumbasses. Then you'll only have to worry about your total to impress her.

[Mark Rippetoe]

Thanks to Martha for the clarity.

[BlackCoffee]

Train like a powerlifter and eat like a bodybuilder, you fools.

[dbp]

Curls might not be that important in the scheme of things compared to the big lifts, but why not do them? It takes all of maybe 3 minutes. There's no way in hell they'll impede recovery, and it increased strength in any part of your body is never a bad thing.

There's no downside.

[Pluripotent]

I.e., I looked more "muscular" at 165 lbs than at 190.

Wait...what?

Seriously, this has to be a troll. Can't be real. There is no way you look "muscular" at 165. You might look gaunt, but that's not the same thing. How tall are you? I'm 5'10" and have gained almost 40 lbs. doing SS, now weighing 180 and I still barely look like I even lift, even with body fat around 12-15%. Trimming down BF would not help matters at this point. There is no way a 165 lbs bro looks muscular...except perhaps with some good makeup artists and proper lighting...maybe.

[Dr.T]

My field is female body Attractiveness, but I have thought and read enough about general Attractiveness to offer some comments, which echo some of the observations already made.

Common sense, experience and observation will tell you that male and female attractiveness are very different. Think about porn. Porn for males requires no story, sound or words. Female porn (romance novels, i.e. Fifty Shades) requires no visuals, and is all story, tension, mystery and emotion.

Women become more Attractive by improving shapes, colors, movements, and visuals.

Men become more Attractive by improving their success, speech, actions, and story.

Of course, men improving their visuals and women improving their actions can help on the margins, but these are not the most efficient ways for each sex to increase Attractiveness. Several posters have already pointed this out.

Given this, my guess is that the confidence and postural changes a male gains with posterior strength would be much more effective in increasing male Attractiveness than any change in body shape. As in all things the opposite is true of the female.

I can recall a few studies on Attractiveness and male body shape (again, a minor contributor).
1) Larger torso/arm length: leg length ratio (think gorilla) more attractive for men. (Opposite for women, as always)
2) Waist:hip ratio 0.9 for men (<0.7 for women, opposite as always)
3) V-shaped torso for men (latissimus dorsi, deltoid, pectoralis major). We can extrapolate that the opposite is true for women, though I don’t think it was addressed.

[marcf]

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[MarthaF]

Thanks to Martha for the clarity.

I hope it did something! :-P

[Dr.T]

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That just about sums it up.