You can’t deny the fact that having strong muscles is one of the best things to do for your body. It allows you to live a healthy lifestyle and develop good habits in order to maintain them. It’s also a great way to make daily activities that require physical strength much easier and to top it off you can look good and impress everybody around you. However, everything has its limits and that’s the case for muscles too, looking too big is not something that everybody thrives towards. Have you ever been to a bodybuilding show or competition and seen all the outstanding athletes that have huge muscles? Have you ever stopped and wondered if those are just for show and if they’re liable for real-life situations? In other words, are big muscles useless?
It’s true that big muscles can be considered useless for typical people looking to only get fit but for professional bodybuilders, big muscles are a necessity since they tend to go on shows that require them to be as big as possible.
In this article, we’ll talk about if big muscles are really useless, the main point of having them, and if it’s healthy to have them.
Table of Contents
Are Big Muscles Useless?
I remember last year, I decided to watch Mr.Olympia for the first time ever. If you’re somehow not sure what that is, it’s pretty much an annual professional bodybuilding competition where different athletes compete with each other to see who has the best balance of big, muscular, and lean. There are other factors that affect the final score but those 3 are the most important ones.
Since I was an aspiring bodybuilder myself, one of the best ways that got me motivated was by checking different competitions and shows to see what the male body is capable of achieving and see where hard work and dedication can get you.
I remember that as soon as I laid my eyes on Mr.Olympia’s athletes, my jaw literally dropped. How can those guys be that big? Every single one of them had huge muscles, especially the winner of 2021’s Mr.Olympia Mamdouh Elssbiay, otherwise known as “Big Ramy”. He had muscles in some parts of his body that I didn’t even know existed which was fascinating and motivating at the same time. To be able to reach that point is not something that anybody can do.
And that got me thinking, how can those guys live their daily lives with big muscles like that? Sure it’s impressive, but isn’t it useless to have huge muscles? Surely, those big arms and legs will get in the way of many normal activities, and that’s when I figured it out.
For average people like you and me, having big muscles can definitely be considered useless and inefficient since we spend most of our time doing normal activities that don’t require them, but for professional bodybuilders, that’s literally their job and they spend more time in the gym than they do in normal activities so it’s more efficient for them to have big muscles.
And most of the “big” guys that you see are either professional bodybuilders, powerlifters, or just prefer to look that way.
What’s The Point of Having Big Muscles?
As I mentioned in the beginning, there are many reasons why some guys prefer having big muscles:
For Bodybuilding Shows
The majority of guys that you see with huge muscles, especially the ones that have a low body fat percentage (meaning that you can see their veins and their muscles aren’t “full”) are probably professional bodybuilders preparing for their shows.
They’re the likes of Big Ramy, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Phil Heath, and so on. These types of guys sacrifice living a normal life to pursue professional bodybuilding which is definitely not easy. They spend countless hours in the gym to sculpt the most perfect body in order to grab the best score and win their shows.
And winning is what allows them to amass a following, grab the attention of sponsors, and make bodybuilding their day jobs. In other words, being “big” is their personal brand.
For Powerlifting
There is also a chance that the big guys that you see are powerlifters, especially the ones that appear more “fat” but still look big. If you’re not sure what powerlifting means, in simple terms, it’s essentially a sport that consists of lifting the heaviest weight that you possibly can while performing a bench press, squat, or deadlift for one rep.
In order to achieve this and be considered one of the best, you need to have a huge body that consists of both muscles and fat. And there are some times when powerlifters can look even bigger than professional bodybuilders.
And just like bodybuilding, powerlifters can make a living through prize money from competitions, sponsorships, coaching services, and by building a personal brand through social media and monetizing it. In other words, being “big” is what pays them the bills.
To Look Intimidating
This is probably only a minority but there are some guys that build huge muscles just to look intimidating and give that “don’t mess with me” look. Although it’s rare, you’ll see them from time to time and you can easily distinguish them from professional bodybuilders and powerlifters by their mean-looking faces and intimidating aura.
Is it Healthy To Have Huge Muscles?
Having huge muscles is not healthy since the only way they can be achieved is by using drugs and performance-boosting supplements which are dangerous for the body in the long term.
All the professional bodybuilders, powerlifters, or simply guys that prefer looking intimidating with big muscles all share one thing in common. They all use drugs and performance boosters. When you get to a point of competing, staying natural simply doesn’t cut it anymore. In order to join the big leagues, you have to sacrifice a lot of things, and that includes the health of your muscles and your body.
Conclusion:
If you ever see someone with big muscles, you now know that he’s either a professional bodybuilder that’s preparing for his show, a powerlifter who can lift tons of weight, or simply a guy that wants to look that way for attention or for intimidating purposes.