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What price beauty?


Baby Hercules
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"America the Beautiful" is a phenomenal documentary that takes a look at beauty from a few surprising angles. Some of the candid quotes caught on film will make you either laugh or shake your head and grimace.

Here's the trailer:

Here's the film (turn off your Adblock for Hulu): http://www.hulu.com/watch/198883/america-the-beautiful

 

He's got another one out and I'm looking forward to seeing it, especially since I have heard that he tries raw veganism, calls it a "fad diet," doesn't follow the nutritionist's instructions, and dumps it. Oh, well, I guess it takes all kinds. Here's the trailer:

And the website: http://americathebeautifuldoc.com/2/synopsis/

 

"Love your tree!"

 

Baby Herc

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The money quote was "if you care about your health, go to college"

 

Sad....

 

Yeah, I actually had a good laugh at that one...because I picked up weightlifting the first few weeks of college and reached one of my personal bests for fitness during my freshman year. Everyone else was putting on the Freshman 15; I lost 20.

 

Baby Herc

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Muscle Dysmorphia or "Bigorexia" is currently the male version of killing yourself to gain society's fickle approval of your appearance. It's when a guy looks in the mirror and sees skinny, no matter what his reality is. Below is a brief documentary on it but be warned: there are some spectacularly gross images, including icky medical stuff. On the humorous side, there's a few quotes from a young Schwarzenegger, doing nothing to improve his image as an oft-times crass bastard.

 

 

Expanded interview from same doc:

Looking closely at this guy's face and body language when he agonizes emotionally over his shape, he mirrors perfectly the pain of the women in the "America the Beautiful" documentary. Same blank expression, same eyes without light, same downcast gaze, same shame. To me, this guy is handsome, solid, has a nice wide back, and a fantastic smile for the millisecond that he actually flashes it. He could walk into any room in this appearance obsessed country and hold his own. It's an eye-opener to hear a man talk so candidly and intimately about disappointed body image. His "No Brain, No Gain" T-shirt is spectacularly brilliant apparel for a bodybuilding gym, though. I want one!

 

FYI: There are several researchers out there for BBC and National Geographic who are currently soliciting interviews from men and women who have Muscle Dysmorphia and would be willing to share their story for a documentary. A brief search of "muscle dysmorphia documentary" will pull them up or go to bodybuilding.com, ironmagazine.com, etc. and find their posts in the forums.

 

Baby Herc

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Muscle Dysmorphia or "Bigorexia" is currently the male version of killing yourself to gain society's fickle approval of your appearance. It's when a guy looks in the mirror and sees skinny, no matter what his reality is.

 

Interesting. When I was into the bodybuilding side of weight lifting in college I didn't care as much about size as some guys who seemed to be on a religious mission about it. I never had trouble with being too thin in my life, so I couldn't relate to their head trip. I trained because it felt good.

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I trained because it felt good.

 

 

I have the perfect test to determine whether or not a specific exercise regimen is right for you: Would you keep doing it even if you were told it would not alter your physical appearance in any way? Does it feel so good that you'd do it just to do it? Then, banzai!

 

Baby Herc

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MTV True Life "I'm on Steroids" follows three men who enter the world of steroids for a magazine cover in modeling, a mixed martial arts fighting match, and a strip contest at a club. Two win, one loses.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEsXOXRtHaA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUc23z2Al58

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ic2bo0SmgR0

 

Baby Herc

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I have the perfect test to determine whether or not a specific exercise regimen is right for you: Would you keep doing it even if you were told it would not alter your physical appearance in any way? Does it feel so good that you'd do it just to do it? Then, banzai!

 

I was never on an exercise regime I didn't enjoy ( aside from physical therapy exercises ). I've only stopped some exercise regimes, because they didn't like ME ( injuries/joint issues ) or lack of time. Yoga and weights were the big culprits there, both addictive and I could easily spend 2 hours a day on either.

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A genius, low-key documentary movie on plastic surgery and injectables filmed and directed by the daughter of a plastic surgeon. She keeps the camera rolling for those candid moments before and after the actual interviews and so the subjects reveal funny, gross, and shocking details about their worlds. Warning: potentially disturbing footage of surgeries, procedures, and some of the results of the Vietnam war. http://www.hulu.com/watch/214664/make-me-young-youth-knows-no-pain#s-p1-sundefined-i0 (Turn off your Adblocker to view Hulu.)

 

Baby Herc

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Thanks for posting! Just checked out this trailer. Documentaries are my favorite type of film to watch.

 

You're welcome and I agree: docs are my fav, too. They're addictive, I can't get enough of them. They're like travelogues for the mind. I hope other members post even more so that we have a sort of library of information on the topic for people to inspect.

 

Baby Herc

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This was awesome, beforewisdom, thanks! I've always been intrigued by giants and acromegaly--did a lot of research on Andre Roussimoff (Andre the Giant, Fezzik), Ted Cassidy (Lurch, Ruk), etc.--and even have a giant as one of the lead characters in my novel. The unique perspective on the world that these people offer is priceless. There are two young guys working at my New Seasons store who are over 6'8". One's bodily proportions is meso-ectomorph, so he looks normal-sized until you approach him, the other is clearly ecto, the stork look. He's a sweetheart and told me he has a kind of Doorway Yoga he does where he just automatically dips downward in a smooth motion through every door regardless of its size, to preserve his noggin. Airline travel must suck chunks for him but he's a fast bicyclist!

 

Andre the Giant Biography: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnvbZ9Arz1s

 

Baby Herc

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  • 1 month later...

Here's an interesting one, especially for a bodybuilding forum. Two different men who's muscles have called a revolt against them. One man's muscles don't listen to his commands, the other one's muscles shrink until they disappear. Watch these two stories with a keen eye and an open heart and I guarantee you that, from now on, every day in the gym will seem like paradise.

 

Baby Herc

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Bigorexia gives me pause...

 

Really wanted to make my arm muscles much larger but only made my arms smaller

--went from 11.5 to 10.00

All the while taking in more cals & working harder.

 

Dysmorphia = Cruel Mistress

 

Love the "Faux Food Fighter" thing. Awesome.

 

Try this on for size. I happen to believe, and I'm not alone in this, that the body responds more powerfully to thoughts than action. Which means that what you think about something is far more important than what anybody else says about it, or what you do about it. If you do what all the experts say because you think you are scrawny and need to get bigger, what carries more weight, the actions you are taking or the belief that you are scrawny? Clue: Many, many people hit the weights every day with an intensity that would impress Jay Cutler but they bring with them into the gym a muscle-shrinking mindset that says "I am not enough yet." Year after year, these people stay pretty small. They gotta get to the place of "This is working" before it will work. Seems like a mind scrambler, I know, but if you deeply desire physical change and passionately believe that you can accomplish more than what has been done before, are you wrong or are you an Olympic athlete? (Answer: you are an Olympic athlete. If Olympians only did what has been done before, no records would be broken, ever.)

 

To get in the mindset, review your facts: your are freakin' awesome. You are tight, strong, educated, experienced, you could teach anybody in the gym a thing or two about a leg workout. You have seen the dark side and you know what it feels like to break through it. You have felt the intoxicating euphoria of success, the sweetest mental morphine of them all. You've loved and you've built things. You are hot. You are funny. You've seen sunsets. You're gonna change everything they say.

 

Knowing all this, your biceps will grow. It's true. Hold onto it.

 

Baby Herc

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  • 2 weeks later...
Bigorexia gives me pause...

 

Really wanted to make my arm muscles much larger but only made my arms smaller

--went from 11.5 to 10.00

All the while taking in more cals & working harder.

 

Dysmorphia = Cruel Mistress

 

Love the "Faux Food Fighter" thing. Awesome.

 

Try this on for size. I happen to believe, and I'm not alone in this, that the body responds more powerfully to thoughts than action. Which means that what you think about something is far more important than what anybody else says about it, or what you do about it. If you do what all the experts say because you think you are scrawny and need to get bigger, what carries more weight, the actions you are taking or the belief that you are scrawny? Clue: Many, many people hit the weights every day with an intensity that would impress Jay Cutler but they bring with them into the gym a muscle-shrinking mindset that says "I am not enough yet." Year after year, these people stay pretty small. They gotta get to the place of "This is working" before it will work. Seems like a mind scrambler, I know, but if you deeply desire physical change and passionately believe that you can accomplish more than what has been done before, are you wrong or are you an Olympic athlete? (Answer: you are an Olympic athlete. If Olympians only did what has been done before, no records would be broken, ever.)

 

To get in the mindset, review your facts: your are freakin' awesome. You are tight, strong, educated, experienced, you could teach anybody in the gym a thing or two about a leg workout. You have seen the dark side and you know what it feels like to break through it. You have felt the intoxicating euphoria of success, the sweetest mental morphine of them all. You've loved and you've built things. You are hot. You are funny. You've seen sunsets. You're gonna change everything they say.

 

Knowing all this, your biceps will grow. It's true. Hold onto it.

 

Baby Herc

 

Hey thanks ~ that's really sweet

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

BDD, Body Dysmorphic Disorder, is a sneaky, horrible, silent disease that rips the sufferer's world apart. There is no part of the waking day that a BDD does not feel anxious and unworthy. Just walking from their car into a supermarket can bring on an panic attack that renders them weak and unable to breathe. Many cannot hold down jobs, most have few if any friends. Worst of all, no one understands. It's like an emotional cancer.

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUKlLpMg-eM

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