How big is big enough?
Personaly I prefer the kind of muscles on footballers (soccer-players), cyclists and rowers. Basically nothing too big, and with enough fat so that it doesn’t feel like you’re hugging a piece of furniture.
My “perfect” man would have a build similar to Freddie Ljungberg, the Arsenal footballer, and Calvin Klein model 
If you don’t know what he looks like this:
http://www.hellomagazine.com/fashion/2004/12/17/freddieljungberg/
will help.
I’m not into guys, but here’s Mrs. Six’s take when it comes to muscles:
Definition is much more important than bulk. Bruce Lee was 5’ 7" tall and about 135 lbs., and she finds him extremely sexy.
She also finds trim and in good shape more attractive than big muscles. Pierce Brosnan, 50 years old and with a three days growth of beard in After the Sunset was very attractive.
As for size, if you’re going to go for big guys, it should be a guy who’s naturally big, but in good shape without looking like a comic book character. Kevin Sorbo, another 50ish guy, is her favorite big guy.
5’5" IS NOT SHORT!
I do not find bodybuilder types sexy at all. I like thin, muscular men who don’t look like they spend their life in a gym.
There’s this guy at a club I go to and he’s always hitting on me, the thing is, he’s all muscly, tan, etc. and it’s just a total turnoff. Besides the fact that I’m engaged, I would never go out with someone who looked like that. I would find it kind of embarassing.
DO you find you have to be bulked up bigger than that footballer next to you? Do you have to have the lowest % bodyfat in the gym?
I detest some tiny [5’6"] guy who feels like he has to bulk up…reminds me of a toy poodle trying to look intimidating.
If you are doing the ‘i have to be 10x better because I am small’, go yap at someone else. My husband is 5’7, same height I happen to be, which is on the small side for an adult male in this culture. He is in good physical shape because he hauls the garbage to the dump, cuts our fire wood, digs fence holes…he works around the property when he is not at his money job. He never felt the need to go bulk up because he was shorter than everybody else in his division on the boat.
If you work out for your general health and because you happen to like running/swimming/weight lifting, that is one thing but working out because you have to have the most impressive set of pecs around to compensate for being on the low end of the height totempole is pathetic. Let people like you for your personality not your body. I happen to prefer tall [6’ or taller] men with a larger frame, like Till from Rammstein, but I went with personality and emotion, and got a 5’7 version of Till. I could have had any guy I wanted, and I went with personality.
I like men who are fit, and athletic but not with muscle definition carved out.
I mean I work out, but it would be intimidating and a turn off to date a man with a better body than me!
But all women have different opinions on what is “thier type”.
Ahnold and his ilk are definitely not to my taste.
I like a guy who’s muscular, but not bulging–very lean and sleek, understated strength.
:: Drooling over irishgirls’ link.::
Uh. yeah. What she said. That’s the muscelus maximus for me.
(Whew! Is it hot in here or is it just him?)
Guys don’t always body build because they have an inferiority complex. A lot of guys do it just because they like that aesthetic. I used to read all the mags and that ideal is interesting. I don’t personally find it attractive but I admire it. You seem to believe other people should conform to your ideals and find attractive what you do.
I love you.
See that’s what I keep saying. I actually believe I’m relatively tall and I tower over the other women in my family. But then I go rowing and my teammates are all 5’9" or taller and they keep pointing out how tiny I am. Dang it, I gotta find some shorter friends…
So far this has been pretty illuminating. But now I have another request of the ladies. So far you’ve been able to show me pics of guys you find hot, but I only have a vague sense of what you find unattractive (too many veins, no neck, looks like he spends all day in the gym, ect). Can you provide some pics or names of some guys who you think are too muscular so we have something to compare?
Ew! Nasty! Gross, gross, gross, gross, gross. Ok, too obvious?
Blech! Oogey! Scary. Ohmygod, is that a woman?! Trying too hard Classic “too-veiny” Classic “I’m a doofus” Bwaa-ha-ha-ha! And finally, Triceps should not be bigger than biceps!
You cannot imagine how tired I am of hearing about over-compensation. It’s not at all the same as the situation you illustrate above. Notice how only the little body builders were accused of over-compensating? Are there no average or tall body builders?
Yap, toy poodle. I get it.
Not my ideal but he’s got very nice proportions.
Frank Zane is one of the old school, 70’s body builders (from Arnolds era). He’s always come in really, really cut but he really doesn’t have insane mass like the current guys do.
Those guys are amateurs and if they weren’t posing and all oiled up, a lot of the women here would find them just right. Muscle but not overly-muscular and cut. The pose is what’s throwing you off. I’ve posted a link to me posing before and my arms look huge. But it’s just the pose. In real-life I look [rul=http://www.funtigo.com/tremorviolet?b=193006&c=896843&p=start]normal to thin.
Now, these guys totally have the overly-coiffed, “I spend waaay too much time looking in the mirror” look.
[quote]
Scary.
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He’s a big guy and a footbal player; he’s gonna have muscle.
Probably steroids. It’s an aesthetic I don’t find attractive (although what I think is ideal for a woman is probably more muscular than waht most people consider ideal) but I understand the appeal. It’s tiring to always be the “weak” one.
Actually, if you have any muscle on your arms at all, your triceps are gonna be bigger than your biceps. The bicep is a small but noticible muscle. The triceps are much larger.
Anyway, my point isn’t to argue with you but to offer a different perspective.
At the professional level, they’re actually pretty rare.
I dunno, Dorian is 5’10 1/2" and Lee Haney was 5’11". There was little tiny Flavio but I think most of the guys are around 5’8"-ish at least. It is true the muscle will look proportionally bigger on a shorter guy (Arnold was an anomaly at his height as was Lou Ferrigno) but I don’t think body builders are that much shorter than average.
I’ve read a couple reports from guys who were backstage at a bodybuilding contest who said they towered over the contestants, and I don’t think the reporters were all that tall.
Now tremorviolet’s damn sexy! But she’s a she, so probably irrelevant to this thread. But just the right amount of definition and mass for a lady to still look ladylike but strong and sassy. And abs I’d kill for peeking out from below that shirt.
And you’re right about the tricep thing. I was going to edit that on preview to “bulbous”, but I somehow hit Submit Reply instead. While the tricep is bigger, I prefer it lean and elongated, like yours, not rounded like the bicep. Maybe that’s just a posing thing, although I’d expect an adducted arm to have a relaxed and elongated tricep.
I was also going to edit a huge IN MY HUMBLE OPINION to the bottom of my post, but I guess y’all can figure that out. 
And average in US men is just over 5’9", so the 5’8" bodybiiulders are technically shorter than average, but not by much.
:o Thank you! And I gotta just say, it’s all about the pose. Stand the right way, turning slightly at the waist, throwing out your chest, and sucking in your gut and suddenly you have a tiny waist and abs…
