Certainly - I think that bodybuilders think that a very muscly frame is the ideal look, which I don’t agree with. They spend a lot of time and energy (and money) on trying to achieve that look, and the result is that they look (to me) fairly ridiculous, after all that time and effort and money. I mean, it’s not for me to tell them how to live their lives, and they’re free to do as they please, but I don’t appreciate the results and wouldn’t choose to have a bodybuilder as a significant other because I would feel that they are wasting their time and effort and money. I don’t go up to muscly people and tell them this, but we were asked for our opinions in this thread, and that is mine.
Ew. Not only no, but hell no. I’m a hetero gal, but female body builders are equally as gross as male ones.
Male here, also voting yes on being attracted to female bodybuilders.
Hmm. I voted yes, but might be skewing your results since I neglected the heterosexual skew and existence of female bodybuilders.
I voted no. Fit, athletic girls? Love 'em. A woman who could beat me in an arm-wrestling contest? Sure. Bodybuilders who are so over-muscled that they’re no longer person-shaped? No.
For me, it just depends on the particular body builder; have seen some women’s muscle pics I don’t prefer and some that looked pretty darned good.
I voted “woman/neutral” as I am not turned on sexually by bodybuilders (of either sex.)
However, I have read books and seen movies about the discipline and training it takes to accomplish what they do. I really admire those bodybuilders who achieve what they do through diet and training only (no drugs). Also, IMO women bodybuilders should train for and be judged on the same categories/elements as the men–outdated notions of “the feminine form” be d@mn3d!
All right thanks. I will admit that it’s an uncommon thing to aspire to.
Nope. Men with nicely toned bodies = hot. But bodybuilders tend to be nothing BUT muscle, and then you start seeing their veins, and that creeps me out. I HATE it when you can see veins like that! Ick.
And by “toned” I mean like your average athlete – think oh, a hockey player. (I’m a big hockey fan).
Eric Godard of the Dallas Stars.
Marc-Andre Fleury of the Pittsburgh Penguins
Football:
Troy Polamalu
Or maybe Ewan Mcgregor, or Christian Bale, as he looks in the Batman movies.
I think some female bodybuilders are hot, some aren’t. As a straight male I’m not interested in any male bodybuilders.
The thing is, the bodybuilders and powerlifters I have known don’t look like the pictures. Those pictures are the extremes of how they can look with oil, pumping, flexing to max, good lighting and, for magazine pictures, a bit of photoshopping too . I assume most bodybuilders don’t oil themselves for day-to-day activites.
You also tend to see bodybuilders in photos when they are dieted down for contest. They look drawn and veiny, which rarely makes anyone look their best, but it is what they are being judged on.
I’ll go along with that. Like I said, a little goes a long way.
Straight male. I very much like how a toned, athletic woman looks…but bodybuilders (of both sexes), when they’re in competition, just look absolutely freakish to me. No, thanks.
Straight female. I don’t like the bodybuilder look in anyone, I am repelled by it. In the picture to which TheChileanBlob refers, I too prefer the middle guy’s looks-- because he doesn’t look like a serious bodybuilder.
Natural male bodybuilders can look pretty good, but are still too bulky for my tastes. Natural female bodybuilders usually look amazing, except when they have a contest in less than a month and cut their body fat down to unflattering level/get sprayed oompa-loompa.
People on steroids look utterly gross.
I love bodybuilders, Vin Diesel style, but the competitive look does nothing for me.
I dated a competitive (male) bodybuilder for a while.
He was huge - maybe that was the attraction because I like large (not fat) men. Unfortunately he was dumb as a box of rocks and really self-centered.
I went out with him as an experiment of sorts, to see if it would challenge my perception of bodybuilder/faux muscle-type men as dumb and self-centered, and sadly it didn’t.
Also he made a big deal of refusing to lift heavy things or open jars for people who assumed he’d be strong or handy in a practical sense. He was quite emphatic about the fact his muscles were trained and honed for show, not actual use. I don’t know if this is typical or not.
Bottom line, I find the “I spend 8 hours a day training at the gym” look ridiculous at best and really unattractive at worst.
Big, athletic, muscular guys generally, absent the obessive gym rat look? Yum.
Never been a bodybuilder but I’ve been a serious weight lifter for most of my life, and I have to echo this. I know most of the SDMB are fat and out of shape and have no idea what it looks like inside a gym, but the truth of the matter is I’ve seen far more female (casual) body builders who look hot that I’ve seen ones who look like freaks.
I think in this case maybe a picture is worth a thousand words:
Here is a woman who is a body builder but obviously not a freak or anything of that nature.
Here is Iris Kyle, 2011 Ms. Olympia’s personal website. I will admit, she scares me.
Here is Phil Heath, 2011 Mr. Olympia, I do not think (as a straight man) that is an attractive look. However I do think some things need to be considered:
-
He is in an exaggerated, competition type pose, this will make him look less normal right off the bat.
-
He is oiled up, this will make him look less normal right off the bat.
-
Before competition, body builders cut, this means they operate at a huge caloric deficit for some weeks to shred body fat, they do not live like this year round, thus they do not look like that year round.
Even right after Mr. Olympia, in normal civilian clothing I think Phil Heath looks a lot closer to “normal, but really buff” versus “muscle monster.”
If you look at this page about Heath, there is a video at the bottom where he’s dressed in normal clothing right after competition. I honestly think, while he’s obviously heavily muscled, he doesn’t look like an inhuman monster in that video, and that’s right after competition. Six weeks later when he’s not cutting, I bet you he looks different.
I just want to comment on 1. That is not the physique of a bodybuilder, natural or otherwise. Fitness competitor maybe, but bodybuilder definitely not. 2. That is definitely a steroid-enhanced female-bodybuilder (eww)
I didn’t really finish my thought.
My point was not that Heath doesn’t look a bit huge even in his video, but that he is like the pinnacle of the sport. Guys who compete at the amateur level won’t look at defined as Phil Heath even out of oil, and in the offseason when they haven’t been cutting and they aren’t posing, just walking around in normal clothes, I very seriously doubt most people would even notice them as being “super muscular.”
It’s only in recent history that freakish levels of size have taken over the sport, in the 60s and 70s a more natural look was desired.
Here is a picture of Lou Ferrigno as a younger man, not in a competition pose. He’s big, but I don’t think he looks like a freak, and aside from the fact his face could use some work I very seriously doubt someone like him would have any problems finding women to go home with him (I believe Ferrigno was actually very awkward and shy, so he probably wasn’t super successful with the ladies.)
Here is what he looked like in competition: Link Again, he would have been cutting for awhile before that, oiled up, unnatural pose, lighting is different from real life etc. He goes from being someone who looks “really big” to someone who looks a bit unnatural.
And again, Ferrigno is Mr. Olympia level. Imagine a “normal” body builder may not look like Lou did out of competition in competition, and the rest of the year they are just going to look like fit, built guys, and they aren’t going to be posing 100% of the time either, they will look a lot more natural not posing.