Tag Archive for 'david henry'

The Buff Zone 2: The Buffer Zone

Published
by
Kym Huynh
on May 23, 2007
in The Buff Zone
. 0 Comments

Sunday night and watching Carrie Bradshaw explain the intricacies of New York relationships, I begin to consider the relationships that define how bodybuilders interact with one another in contrast with what is normally seen between the male population in an everyday context. Most interesting to me is the breakdown of rules between male interaction, or dare I say, male bonding? Does bodybuilding allow us males to forgo the social fears of being perceived something other than straight among our peers and allow us an emotional freedom to interact with our peers without the constraints of commonly accepted social proprietary amongst males?

On the Iron Man wallpapers page are photos of David Henry, Toney Freeman and Mark Dugdale parading their gym-toned bodies for the world to see. Ironically, while their proud structures communicate a sub-liminal alpha-male status, their Zeus-like figures are framed by a 2 inch nylon-stretch bikini that could fit my 5 year-old nephew quite comfortably and make any botox patient jealous. This interesting dichotomy between alpha-maleness and the bikini that are usually only reserved for the die-hard partiers at the Mardi Gras and the fashion-challenged at local beaches provide a paradox that while is almost in-your-face in more ways than one, is commonly accepted. Does bodybuilding allow us to emasculate ourselves, served under the guise of a sport so masculine that it makes American football players look like they belong in the junior league?

The evidence is everywhere. At the 2007 Iron Man competition, vegetable-oiled men parade themselves in tight bikini-bottoms to an adoring crowd. In the photo gallery at bodybuilding.com, men observe and provide detailed critiques of other men’s bodies and in most cases, we post half-naked photos of ourselves on the Internet in the hopes that someone will tell us that we look a little bigger.

We all know that competitive beach volleyball players like the occasional arse slap every now and then. OK, maybe after every point they win, but served under the sport context, this is palatable by the general populace. From a bodybuilding context, why are straight bodybuilders allowed to look at quasi naked pictures of men, but still be considered straight? Is this a pandemonium or worse, a new threat to 21st century male heterosexuality? Or are the two extremes converging into a male hybrid ready to be embraced and universally adored by the world?

To the uninitiated, scratching under the surface of the bodybuilding community can be a scary experience. After the deluge of baritone voices and the clang of metal on metal, testosterone-induced grunts and stench of sweat, there is a common acceptance or sympathy that everyone is in the same boat. Perhaps it is this shared experience that has freed the male bodybuilder and allowed him to communicate openly with his peers. From this extremity, it is commonly accepted that perhaps, we are allowed to be a little emotional and emasculated, if it means at the end, we all become buff fitness-models who can draw the women like foreign bees to the air-vent in my room who stubbornly refuse to leave despite my best efforts.

Maybe without knowing, we are all aware of this unique phenomenon and while being unable to profess to it, we balance it by portraying a tough love mentality to each other as another way of saying, “Look buddy, I think you can really do it if you try. Common around the community are phrases like “Get off your arse : fatty, and “Shut up and squat, which is really another way of saying, “Go! Go! Go! You can do it! Flippant responses such as “O’RLY and “PITTB are really code for “I hear you! while responses to suicide threads such as, “Go ahead and die pussy, are really another way of telling another person that the only way they can become a better person in the long term is if they help themselves first. It’s a wooden stick, but strangely it works. This is what I refer to as the buffer zone. A zone that exists somewhere in the twilight zone, that translates our recognition of emotional responsibility into primitive grunts often accompanied by the eye-rolling of the female population and exclamations of “Men!

With the 2007 Iron Man about to start, it will be interesting to see how the competitors present themselves this year. Will the camaraderie of shared experience be more obvious that it was in previous years and will the future of bodybuilding incorporate highly choreographed routines that draw influences from callisthenics and jazz?

With the great selection of wallpapers now available to spruce up a desktop, there is no excuse for the die-hard bodybuilder to be ashamed of being a part of a movement filled with people who sympathize and work together to achieve a physique normally reserved for superheroes in comic books. Now if only my friends didn’t think I was gay for sporting a bodybuilding wallpaper.

The Buff Zone 1: Bodybuilding Obsession

Published
by
Kym Huynh
on May 23, 2007
in The Buff Zone
. 1 Comment

As I look at the astonishing physiques of 2007 Iron Man competitors David Henry (2nd last year), Toney Freeman (7th last year) and Mark Dugdale (5th last year), I can’t help but wonder what, if any, sacrifices were made to achieve their superhero-like proportions. Did they spend their lives meticulously planning what to eat, when to eat, when to sleep and when to workout? Just what exactly did they have to give up to achieve competitive status and could this undeniably attention-demanding “hobby be more than an interest so much that it can be considered an obsession?

As I sit here and contemplate this puzzler, I question in wonderment why little Johnson has been able to naturally grow an extra two inches in two months whilst the rest of my body; and by which I mean the most important area, my chest, has taken two years to grow this much. My mind wanders to a universal issue that confronts each self-proclaimed bodybuilder sooner or later; why are we so obsessed with this sport? Are we simply victims of this health kick of the 21st century where bodybuilding is the new black, or ironically, are we mindless addicts to a healthy activity so much that it becomes self-destructive, in an era where obesity is a soaring epidemic?

To answer this question, I looked inward as to why I started bodybuilding. Admittedly, my bodybuilding habits leave a lot to be desired and I’m probably the world’s worst bodybuilder, but as a self-proclaimed fitness junkie, it is an interesting contrast between why I shamelessly throw myself off huge rock ledges, and why I suffer hours of pain three times a week all for the goal of physical symmetry. And for what purpose other than to have the option of taking half-naked photos in the mirror because I’m too lazy to use the timer function on my digital camera, and then post them all over the Internet for everyone to see and have random strangers tell me that I look “a little bigger.

Without hesitation, I admit that the former is done in the search of adrenaline, the rush of adventure and the elation that occurs afterwards that often transforms me into what many people mistakenly believe to be an escaped patient from the local psychiatry ward on an endorphin overdose.

The latter? That’s an interesting one. At first, I reasoned that I was doing it for the opposite sex, after all, being a university student, I am constantly surrounded by very attractive members of the fairer sex. Then I realized hang on a second, maybe not. After all, if this was the case, once we, as males, are able to trick the opposite sex into marrying us (how clever are we!), we simply forgo the gym sessions and let ourselves go confident in the knowledge that the ability for a female to escape from a relationship is inversely proportionate to the achievement of marriage between two people.

I realize with a wry smile that I, like so many other bodybuilders, painstakingly monitor what we eat, when we eat and how we perform at the gym for more personal reasons, to make us feel attractive because maybe, just maybe, we get a rush from knowing that other people find us attractive.

This still doesn’t explain however why we look at ourselves in the mirror, measure ourselves for the umpteenth time and conclude that we still aren’t big enough. Do we simply, as a representative of a sect of the general populace, love ourselves with so much abandon that we put Paris Hilton’s music videos to shame? Do we get off seeing our own squat-perfected muscular butts while watching our pectorals perform the river dance?

To better understand this question, I asked a close friend, who tells me he does it because he no longer wants to be the fat kid, but despite maintaining a body fat percentage of 8%, which translates to pretty ripped, every time he looks in the mirror, he still sees the fat kid that greeted him in the mirror every year during his childhood. Personally, I want to eventually be so buff that the guys over at Abercrombie & Fitch say, “Oh dude! You’re so friggen ripped! Come model for us! to which I’ll reply, “Hell no!

So just how obsessed do we have to be to achieve our personal bodybuilding goals? Despite the health benefits of working out, the risk of being addicted can impact on our frame of mind leading to severe depression, negative self-image and low self-esteem effecting not only our psychological well-being, but also our physical health due to the possible abuse of our bodies. I don’t know if I’m addicted, but on reflection, I have been to the gym twice, been at an indoor rock climbing centre twice, and have spent half a day surfing at a local beach : and this was just in the last four days.

The question of whether each one of us is addicted to bodybuilding, is something personal that each one of us needs to answer and apparently isn’t as clear-cut as I expected. Sometimes, I don’t even know if I’m addicted to bodybuilding or just addicted to being so active but to be honest, if this is what it takes to achieve my bodybuilding goals, then guilty as charged.