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Weight training can be a safe, healthy way to maintain overall strength and stay leaner. But a lot of people get caught up in getting big which requires eating more than you body needs to maintain itself.
It takes a lot of dedication to eat the right food at the right time and be a disciplined eater. So these beefy guys start seeing themselves get bigger and feeling stronger and size a big bench press becomes the goal, not overall health and fitness.
Doing heavy training stimulates appetite as well as human growth hormone. In every gym there are guys on some form of synthetic testosterone under a doctor's prescription and others look on the black market. Some of the big, strong, bloated looking guys are probably getting some help.
I get it if you're training to be a professional athlete or you need to be big and strong for your job. But to live a long, healthy life, you should probably stay pretty lean, and not carry excess weight whether in the form of fat or huge amounts of muscle.
OP, you DO realize that the men in Iceland's gyms look different from those in most of the rest of the world, don't you?
Icelanders are (but not for long, considering the disastrous immigration underway) very special. Your country has some of the biggest and most magnificent men on the planet. They may look "fat" to you. But to much of the rest of the world, they look SCRUMPTIOUS/awesome/monumental.
My Decorator and my Ad Man welcome any excuse for a stopover at Reykjavik. And I don't mind the eye candy there, either.
The bodybuilders/powerlifters of Iceland are what men in the rest of the world WANT to look like.
Iceland has a long tradition of strongman and strength sports, or so I'm told. Benedikt Magnusson with his world record deadlifts, 8 WSM competitions, etc...Don't know how popular it is there internally, but it has to have some following to provide the level of competitors they provide. And, you don't set a record deadlift or win WSM worrying about whether or not your abs are visible.
Iceland has a long tradition of strongman and strength sports, or so I'm told. Benedikt Magnusson with his world record deadlifts, 8 WSM competitions, etc...Don't know how popular it is there internally, but it has to have some following to provide the level of competitors they provide. And, you don't set a record deadlift or win WSM worrying about whether or not your abs are visible.
Thor Bjornsson, a powerlifter who was on Game of Thrones is one of those Icelandic giants. 6'9 and 400+ pounds.
Fascinating article. The first guy pictured (Stefan) is a perfect example of what the OP is talking about: Strong as hell, but not ripped.
8 to 10K calories a day? Man, that's just not sustainable for very many years. Makes me wonder how many of these guys transition to a healthy lifestyle at some point.
Well, they're Vikings after all, so maybe they just don't care about that. "No *******" LOL.
They probably don't have a single weight in that gym that I could lift.
Juram: Thor is pictured in post #53 of this thread.
OP maybe they've wandered of the healthy train? Or maybe you shouldn't worry about what others are doing and focus on yourself.
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