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What do you see in the mirror?

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Lamo! Youre the only one who has seen pics of face and know my true beauty, lol Where you been brotha?

I Didn't Choose the Swolle Life, The Swolle Life Chose Me
Forums. BUT its that time again so be back to posting probably tonight. And yes you are a beautiful one lol
 
men are just as bad as women...lol... no matter how good we look - reach the body fat % that you always dreamed off, it's never enough. And every time you go through a bulk stage, you look back at those cut pics and say - OMG I'm so fat! Yet, the real world sees you are super cut and lean and extremely sexy... especially in our superhuman world, we are never satisfied and keep wanting more. Very disturbing how bad our body dysmorphia is from that first day you stepped foot in the gym and it gets worse the moment you decide to use AAS and enter the amazing superhuman dark side!
 
men are just as bad as women...lol... no matter how good we look - reach the body fat % that you always dreamed off, it's never enough. And every time you go through a bulk stage, you look back at those cut pics and say - OMG I'm so fat! Yet, the real world sees you are super cut and lean and extremely sexy... especially in our superhuman world, we are never satisfied and keep wanting more. Very disturbing how bad our body dysmorphia is from that first day you stepped foot in the gym and it gets worse the moment you decide to use AAS and enter the amazing superhuman dark side!

you sound hot
 
you sound hot

MK every time a chick comes in:

4612865f29b40f102678b8dfd5fdf819.jpg
 
Lmao!!!

That's cute!

Well, there's enough members who know what I look like across several boards and..... I may or may not have been told that before... ;) Hehehehe....so I'll leave it at that.
 
men are just as bad as women...lol... no matter how good we look - reach the body fat % that you always dreamed off, it's never enough. And every time you go through a bulk stage, you look back at those cut pics and say - OMG I'm so fat! Yet, the real world sees you are super cut and lean and extremely sexy... especially in our superhuman world, we are never satisfied and keep wanting more. Very disturbing how bad our body dysmorphia is from that first day you stepped foot in the gym and it gets worse the moment you decide to use AAS and enter the amazing superhuman dark side!

DAMN, isn't this the truth!!
 
men are just as bad as women...lol... no matter how good we look - reach the body fat % that you always dreamed off, it's never enough. And every time you go through a bulk stage, you look back at those cut pics and say - OMG I'm so fat! Yet, the real world sees you are super cut and lean and extremely sexy... especially in our superhuman world, we are never satisfied and keep wanting more. Very disturbing how bad our body dysmorphia is from that first day you stepped foot in the gym and it gets worse the moment you decide to use AAS and enter the amazing superhuman dark side!
tenor.gif
 
I see a guy who's 6 ft tall 230lbs and lean(ish) and has limbs that are too long to look thick and dense. No matter how big I get I still feel like I look long and lanky.

A lot of us have some degree of body dysmorphia. But it's what drives us to never be satisfied and keep improving. It can also work against us though if we let it get out of hand. Over-eating and over-bulking are common things I see with guys striving to be huge. You can only pack on so much muscle in so much time even with AAS but some are just in such a rush because they hate what they see in the mirror.


I was always the skinny guy. 6 ft 160 lbs up until I started lifting in college. I still have the skinny guy mentality and I still feel like a skinny guy even at 230 lbs and 13% bf. I'm easily one of the biggest guys at my gym...at least out of the guys that go at the same time as me. Yet I still find myself sizing up guys that are half my size and wondering if I'm as big as them. It's a mind fuck. It's like I have no perception of what I actually look like and just go by what other people tell me. I'll be in public, at the beach for example with my girl and see a guy whom I think is huge and be like "babe would you still be with me if I was THAT big?" to which she'll respond "You ARE that big. You're actually bigger than him." Similar situation have happened several times and it blows me away. But there are also people who act unimpressed who tend to take you back down a notch and make you think you're not all that impressive. The old guys with their "I used to be big like you." bullshit. As if we're all a dime a dozen and any schmuck can toss around weights and get big. We all know they weren't half your size. But then I'll have random days of clarity where my skewed perception is gone and I can actually see myself for what I truly look like. I feel really good on those days.

I hate mirrors. They are too inconsistent. Slight irregularities in shape and contour can completely change the way you look. Think of those funny carnival mirrors but to a much lesser extent...or better yet when you see your reflection on a black car and it stretches you wide and makes it look like you have massive arms. Plus we all know gym mirrors are slightly warped to make people look bigger. That's my theory and I'm sticking to it. If you really want to see yourself clearly, the way other people do...scrap the mirror and look at yourself in pictures and videos. Then you can get a real third person view and you'll have other people around you for scale and comparison.

Bro I have never related to a post more than I have to EVERYTHING you said concerning the way see myself in the mirror. I bug my girl so much about what I currently look like. She sees this tall lean built man whose has a superior body compared to most and all I see is the same stick figure that I was when I was 19 (now 31).

Thanks so much for letting me know I’m not alone in this way of thinking. I was beginning to think I was crazy lol.
 
Bro I have never related to a post more than I have to EVERYTHING you said concerning the way see myself in the mirror. I bug my girl so much about what I currently look like. She sees this tall lean built man whose has a superior body compared to most and all I see is the same stick figure that I was when I was 19 (now 31).

Thanks so much for letting me know I’m not alone in this way of thinking. I was beginning to think I was crazy lol.
You're FAR from alone bro. I'd be willing to bet way more than half the guys here feel the same way. Body image issues are sort of generalized as a predominantly female trait. Same with talking about your problems and feelings. That's why you won't hear thus subject mentioned much on the forums even though a majority of us probably deal with it every day. But that's why we're all so crazy about our diets and training because we are never satisfied with what we see. You can take it as a negative and call it body dysmorphia, OCD, whateer you wanna call it....or you can take it as a positive and realize it's what drives us to be great and stray from average.
 
I see Two different freaks, it depends if I’m post workout or pre but I’m always thinking there should be a little more “muscle” than I see but I get told all the time I’m “jacked”
Or “whatever” so one day a long time ago I finally believed that shit so I guess it’s true lol


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Get Shredded!
I see Two different freaks, it depends if I’m post workout or pre but I’m always thinking there should be a little more “muscle” than I see but I get told all the time I’m “jacked”
Or “whatever” so one day a long time ago I finally believed that shit so I guess it’s true lol


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Ahh yes the deception of the pump. I'm also convinced that gyms skew their mirrors jusssst slightly enough that it makes you look slightly bigger than normal mirrors. Combine that with a sick pump and you don't even recognize yourself. Then you get home and look in your own mirror only to see...

tenor.gif
 
I think we all take Arnold's words a little too far when he said "the mirror is not to admire, it's to criticize." That's actually a paraphrase and probably shouldn't have quotes around it. Regardless, I think most of us take this mentality to whole different level. I mean, yea, Arnold said it and therefore it is up there with the commandments, but don't forget, Arnold also had tremendous, almost narcistic levels of confidence. He was also extremely motivated and positive; therefore, when he saw something he didn't like (i.e. his legs), he didn't get discouraged over it, he put on a pair of tights so he would have to see his weakness every time he passed a mirror and he went to the gym twice a day and hit legs three times a week until he was satisfied.

That said, body dysmorphia is no joke. It's crazy how, at least for me (and it sounds like for many of you as well), one comment can alter the entire day. Sometimes the comment is might be meant as a compliment, but I hear it differently. For example, one time I was out of the gym for almost two months due to an injury that I had been fighting through but realized I had to let it heal. I had also been working full time and going to night school on top of that, so my cortisol levels were already pretty high I'm guessing. Anyway, I cut back on my calorie intake since I wasn't using it up in the gym, and had just finished a light cycle of just Test E at 600 mg a week. By this time, I had been out of the gym for 2 months, off the gear, and only on a mild amount of Nolvadex. Now I think I was about 32 when this happened, which means I had about 16 - 17 years of lifting under my belt (with a few breaks here and there) and I had been completely natural till 30. looking back, of course I still had most of my gains from that cycle, not to mention that the muscle I built from 16 to 30 had given me a solid foundation. In fact, I think I pretty much just dropped the excess water weight being retained by the test, and although I decreased my daily calories, I kept my macros close to the same,just cut back on carbs and tried to keep it in the 1:1 or 1:1.5 protein:carb ratio. Anyway, I went tanning the same place I normally go and the girl at the counter always recognized me. This time, we do the "hi, how you doing, how you been" thing, and she adds that I look like I lost weight. She definitely meant it in a positive way, but I took as "damn your puny. Can you bench the bar by itself yet? I mean all that work, all those years, and you finally look just skinny instead of skinny fat." So, while avoiding eye contact because of my shame, I replied, "oh, yea, been real busy, hard to find time to eat" instead of, "oh, thanks, appreciate that." I probably came off as an ass-hole which always happens with insecure people. So back to the question about what I see in the mirror, not only is do I see something different than what most people see, I hear something different too.

But to answer the question, I'm most satisfied with what I see when I look at myself first thing in the am. That's when I think I look the most cut and leanest, and with that comes those separation lines, increased vascularity, especially after a few push-ups and some shadow boxing, and that's really the only time I can accidentally catch a glimpse of my serratus anterior popping out without having specifically tried to make it happen. Of course this is on good days. Other days I see someone who tries to lift and has some muscle, but would probably fall into the "dad bod" category even though, like everyone else has said, Other people see something much more positive. For years I've hear about body dysmorphia as if it's gender specific and applies to women and teenage girls who develop eating disorders, anorexia, bulimia, and so on. I had a very good friend who was actually my roommate when I was like 22 who had bulimia. I don't know what she threw up as she literally lived off of popcorn and egg whites (and not massive portions of egg whites like we eat). She had a large coffee in the am with skim milk and sugar. That was the only sugar she had all day and anytime she ate anything different, she would throw it up. I really cared about her but walked a thin line because if I said anything she'd close up and not tell me anything anymore. She only opened up to me because I wasn't judgmental or condescending and didn't preach at her with generic, uninformed statements about health. I just told her that I worried about her and that if she wanted help or to talk, that I'd be there. Dysmorphia with women is serious shit, and I'm by no means belittling it, but they tend to deal with it through eating disorders whereas men eventually resort to chemical use, starting with supplements, then to gear, then to hormones / peptides, and sometimes shit like insulin and other really dangerous stuff. Women also receive more sympathy and have support groups and shit. I'm not saying that they shouldn't, just that maybe men should too. Then again, these forums can be support groups in a lot of ways. Except there's always some ass-hole that is so insecure they have tear apart posts from people being vulnerable or sharing something personal that they are dealing with. That's one thing I love about the lifting community, stereotypes aside, most people who really live this life are positive, inspiring, and just encourage people to be their best and are always willing to help.
 
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I always see its time for another cycle, or that I should have upped the current cycle more.
 
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