General Question about BB

[NewDude001]

Alright, my stats
5'8''
140 pounds
7-8% body fat

Current Fitness Routine
Mon- 10-15 minutes of HIIT
Tues- Rest
Wed- 1/2 mile repeats
Thurs- Rest
Friday- 3 Mile run
Sat- HIIT
Sun- Off

This is pretty much to maintain my physique and prep for soccer.

Right now I have a full shredded 6-pack in the morning, then it gets worse as the day goes on and I eat/drink water. I have good muscle definition and I'm by no means skinny. I'm happy with my physique, just wonder if I should put on more mass. I am going purely for a health and authentic build; I don't want an unnatural body builder's mass.

I was thinking about why the body has muscle mass and what a natural build would look like, what the ideal body would be. I came to these conclusions.

1.) Females don't like a body builder's frame because it is unnatural. If we look at this from an evolutionary standpoint, where would a woman find a body builder's body 10,000 years ago? Evolution didn't teach women to love HUGE men. Same with obese people, both are unnatural and therefore unattractive. I'm not saying muscles are unattractive, just saying pure bulk is not all it's cracked up to be.

2.) Humans have a set amount of muscles for maintenance and doing routine tasks such as walking, getting up, supporting body weight etc etc etc. This is directly proportionate to gravity and the amount of physical work you do. Again, from an evolutionary standpoint, our ancestors would have been on their feet all day long, hunting and gathering. It's known they were more muscular than modern day humans, but they were no Arnold.

So what I'm asking is how natural and logical would it be to beef up a little maybe to 155? Then maintain?
Maintaining = keeping same weight but doing more reps each time as you develop muscle endurance or exactly how does that work?

For a long while I was against any form of weightlifting because I knew it placed great stress on the body to adapt to the new conditions over and over, which probably had problems associated with it esp since I'm not done growing. Then I realized that I was basically doing weightlifting with wind sprints, so I started to reconsider. The body adapts and builds more muscle for the first month- 2 months and then if you don't add weight while continuing to lift you would basically be doing cardio at that point, building endurance as with distance running?

 

[Brian20o2]

I see nothing against bulking up a little. 140 seems small to me. Im 200 @ 5'8" and I dont look big.
Since you want to gain but stay lean and cut I would say 2-3 days In a gym with some coumpound excercises (Deads, Bench, Squat and maybe some Rows and Cleans) Along with a healthy clean diet (No junk and low Sugar). And I would keep the reps around 10 with prolly 4 sets per excercise. You could hit the gym on mon, wed and fri before your runs (Just dont work you legs to hard or wear yourself out(And dont do legs before HIIT)) Hope that helps.

 

[mrRuckus]

1.) Females don't like a body builder's frame because it is unnatural. If we look at this from an evolutionary standpoint, where would a woman find a body builder's body 10,000 years ago?

skinny little runt women like men flock over nowadays weren't attractive either. the attractive ones were the ones with meat on their bones.

yet what to do you know.. men like the skinny ones now. who would have thought that psychology goes beyond biology?

 

[reyalp]

skinny little runt women like men flock over nowadays weren't attractive either. the attractive ones were the ones with meat on their bones.

yet what to do you know.. men like the skinny ones now. who would have thought that psychology goes beyond biology?

exactly. men weren't as tall 10,000yrs ago, either. by his logic, women shouldn't like tall men.

 

[PeterNorthisawesome]

exactly. men weren't as tall 10,000yrs ago, either. by his logic, women shouldn't like tall men.

Actually I saw on the history channel and in my bio book that our ancestors like homoeractus, homosapiens and homoneandrathenis were pretty tall and big. Average was 5'10-6ft and around 160 pounds since their diet was mostly meat. So ya according to evolution women should like men who are near 6ft. Women like men with six-packs with a built body cuz it shows that their fit (sexually) and strong (security) it also shows that they have confidence and liek to take care of themselves. Women aren't attracted too much to bodybuilders cuz it shows that they spend too much time in the gym.

 

[Adone]

Actually I saw on the history channel and in my bio book that our ancestors like homoeractus, homosapiens and homoneandrathenis were pretty tall and big. Average was 5'10-6ft and around 160 pounds since their diet was mostly meat.

5'10 and 160 pounds is TALL and BIG?

 

[Brian20o2]

5'10 and 160 pounds is TALL and BIG?

Hahaha! Shaq is big and tall, 7' tall and 300 lbs. Tall is over 6'2 in my opinion and Big is over 220.

 

[NewDude001]

pfft, I love how no one answered my question

 

[reyalp]

Actually I saw on the history channel and in my bio book that our ancestors like homoeractus, homosapiens and homoneandrathenis were pretty tall and big. Average was 5'10-6ft and around 160 pounds since their diet was mostly meat. So ya according to evolution women should like men who are near 6ft. Women like men with six-packs with a built body cuz it shows that their fit (sexually) and strong (security) it also shows that they have confidence and liek to take care of themselves. Women aren't attracted too much to bodybuilders cuz it shows that they spend too much time in the gym.

10,000yrs ago means the Mesolithic period. Neanderthals weren't around in the Mesolithic period.

Of the remains discovered dating to the Mesolithic period, the average height is 5'7"

 

[reyalp]

pfft, I love how no one answered my question

Brian2o2 answered your question

 

[NewDude001]

Yeah, bad question I guess.

I was more wondering for instance if I was do pushups, say 100 each day. The muscle fibers would adapt at first, then if I don't increase the number or the way I perform them would the exercise become a cardio workout after a certain point? Same thing with say crunches?
I was just trying to find a way to equate jogging and lifting, at first when you start jogging your legs may be sore, but after a month or so you just get exhausted after the exercise and only burn calories without building muscles.

 

[Brian20o2]

Yeah, bad question I guess.

I was more wondering for instance if I was do pushups, say 100 each day. The muscle fibers would adapt at first, then if I don't increase the number or the way I perform them would the exercise become a cardio workout after a certain point? Same thing with say crunches?
I was just trying to find a way to equate jogging and lifting, at first when you start jogging your legs may be sore, but after a month or so you just get exhausted after the exercise and only burn calories without building muscles.

To a degree, Yes. Once you are able to do something many times over easily the muscles turn in a sense to endurance muscles meaning they can go for a long time but dont gain much strength once your there. Of course you can always add reps, go for consecutive (No pause), or change the excercise a little to work new and different muscles.
For example: I do pushups, usually about 40 in a row. Then I vary them and do a few more sets, like Wide/Narrow grip, Fist Pushups, and maybe Putting my legs up on a chair. That way I not only gain endurance but I am increasing my strength by working out other muscles not usually worked in just 1 exercise.

 

[Scoop]

at 5'8 and 140 you must be damn skinny. Sure you have a shredded six pack, but thats cause theres no other weight on your damn body. Your arms must be like what, 13 inches around? man bulk. Hit those weights hard. Get up to at least 160 then take a look at yourself in the mirror. I bet you will look 10 times better. You might even want to add more. Im 6'2 and 240, and i like being huge and shredded. But thats just me.