To hell with Aesthetics!!!! Who's with me?

[statesboroga_keith]

but for the gym rat trying to have 'ripped abs' and sexy bicepts this would look more like;

curls, curls, check mirror, flyes, curls, check mirror, situps, mirror, crunches, long soul destroying boring cardio on machine.

Protein shake which tastes like baby vomit, skip meal, avoid all food with carbs & fat

+1 lol

[August West]

So, who else is resolved to follow the program (SS and/or PP) and EAT, get strong, AND DONT WORRY ABOUT LOSING or GAINING a 6 pack???

This is my focus. I try not to eat filthy, but I don't stress about gaining fat. I know how to lose weight if that ever becomes important to me. For now I just want to get as strong as possible. Everyone cares about their looks to some degree, but it would be pointless for me to obsess over bodyfat percentages when my primary goal is to get stronger than I've ever been. Adding 25 pounds of bodyweight has put 110 pounds on my squat, 35+ on bench, and similar gains everywhere else. Looking like the strong badass I aspire to be is an ancillary goal; that goal just doesn't happen to include chiseled abs. Right now following the program is more important to me.

[kunnar]

Being lean is important. But for me it is not about aesthetics, it is about athleticism. Jumping higher or running or doing chinups is harder if you carry lot of unnecessary fat. Maybe i am minority here, but i think that these are also important things, not just squat numbers.

[misspelledgeoff]

the one titled "jacked and tan"? lol

Christ, can people not even read other people's posts any more?

Look at my fucking log. Do you even think I'd be on the SS boards if I wanted to look like an Abercrombie model?

[mcsquared]

Right now, I'm concerned with getting stronger than I've ever been before. If that means bulking up and gaining some weight/fat, then sure, I'm cool with that. Once I'm where I wanna be in terms of strength, I'm prepared to maintain that and attempt to cut what unnecessary fat I have. This is not purely aesthetic though, as a member of the military they have certain standards in terms of BMI/Waist measurement and I need to be able to run 1.5 miles to a specific standard. Does aesthetics play a role? Yes, but its not the full reason. Thats just my thought, of course.

[Gary Gibson]

There is a certain look that only certain people seem to be able to get where it looks like their traps are popping out of their shirts.

This is at least 1/3 of the reasons I'm keeping power cleans in my programming year round from now on. The results after just one week are clear as day.

So I guess I do care about how I look a bit even though I want to be as strong as possible. Again, I really feel that I'm lucky insofar as I won't have to worry about getting disproportionately lardy. Just not in my genetic cards.

[Mr.City]

I think there's nothing wrong with being concerned about your looks. I mean, that is the reason why many of us started training in the first place. There's got to be a middle ground. If you look at the training logs of some of these kids on bb.com, they're stalling with a bench in the mid- hundreds and a squat in the lower 200's. You look at their weight, and you see that they're barely around 130-160 lbs. Even if they have bodybuilding goals in mind, they're going about it all wrong.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, don't turn into a goddamn garbage disposal just because you lift. Eat to grow, eat within reason. After all, isn't reason what this is all about?

[PMDL]

Lifting hard plus eating right (hint: it's not the Zone or retarded versions of Paleo) will generally get you looking as nice as you care to look.

Most people are looking for an easy formula to be pretty, including the folks here hanging on to SS + Paleo or whatever. Don't even get me started on CrossFit.

Turns out that busting ass with basic exercises and eating enough to grow, if you're small, or eating to lose fat if you're a fatass, will end up creating as nice an aesthetic as your particular body will allow.

[El Viejo]

Lifting hard plus eating right (hint: it's not the Zone or retarded versions of Paleo) will generally get you looking as nice as you care to look.

Most people are looking for an easy formula to be pretty, including the folks here hanging on to SS + Paleo or whatever. Don't even get me started on CrossFit.

Turns out that busting ass with basic exercises and eating enough to grow, if you're small, or eating to lose fat if you're a fatass, will end up creating as nice an aesthetic as your particular body will allow.

I starting to like what PMDL has to say.

[JCavin]

I don't really care that I look strong.

As long as I feel healthy i'm okay.