Buff Dudes | The Bodybuilder's Burden @buffdudes | Uploaded October 2024 | Updated October 2024, 9 hours ago.
Like the lemmings who hurl themselves over the cliff, the bodybuilder is drawn to the destructive quality of the weights. He seeks The Pump; a fleeting nirvana, something which is constantly chased but never fully owned. A symphony of pain and triumph in bold defiance of the inevitable decay of the flesh.
Some look at this neverending pursuit with desire, and others with disdain. He himself can only see the potential to grow even larger, trapped in a prison of his own design.
But what haunts me is that in all the straining faces of these men, with all their dreams and all their mighty physiques, I see only a foolish attempt to outlast the inevitable fate which will befall us all: time. There is no secret kinship with the dumbbells, only the cold, hard reality of steel and gravity. And in the end, the pump will fade. But the weights will remain. Calling out again to be lifted, much like a siren in Homer's The Odyssey, luring yet another unsuspecting bro to participate in his own self-destruction.
It is a choice most cannot fully seem to fathom, but hiding inside the madness of the bros there is symbolic beauty to be found. Tearing oneself down to rebuild themselves anew. A muscular phoenix rising from the ashes of their weaker selves. Manipulating the bodies' evolutionary response to stress in order to mold themselves into a structure no less as beautiful as the Greek Parthenon, and yet, just as doomed to sink back into the earth from whence it came.
And so it goes on for eternity. The optimistic dream. A transcension of class, creed and origin to become something more. An ascension to Olympus to stand qualified amongst one's heroes, looking at those who doubted them who now stand shackled to their convictions so far below.
The countless time and hardship it took to arrive at this moment is truly magnificent, but alas it fades once more, just another handful of reps out of reach.
This is 'The Bodybuilder's Burden'.
Like the lemmings who hurl themselves over the cliff, the bodybuilder is drawn to the destructive quality of the weights. He seeks The Pump; a fleeting nirvana, something which is constantly chased but never fully owned. A symphony of pain and triumph in bold defiance of the inevitable decay of the flesh.
Some look at this neverending pursuit with desire, and others with disdain. He himself can only see the potential to grow even larger, trapped in a prison of his own design.
But what haunts me is that in all the straining faces of these men, with all their dreams and all their mighty physiques, I see only a foolish attempt to outlast the inevitable fate which will befall us all: time. There is no secret kinship with the dumbbells, only the cold, hard reality of steel and gravity. And in the end, the pump will fade. But the weights will remain. Calling out again to be lifted, much like a siren in Homer's The Odyssey, luring yet another unsuspecting bro to participate in his own self-destruction.
It is a choice most cannot fully seem to fathom, but hiding inside the madness of the bros there is symbolic beauty to be found. Tearing oneself down to rebuild themselves anew. A muscular phoenix rising from the ashes of their weaker selves. Manipulating the bodies' evolutionary response to stress in order to mold themselves into a structure no less as beautiful as the Greek Parthenon, and yet, just as doomed to sink back into the earth from whence it came.
And so it goes on for eternity. The optimistic dream. A transcension of class, creed and origin to become something more. An ascension to Olympus to stand qualified amongst one's heroes, looking at those who doubted them who now stand shackled to their convictions so far below.
The countless time and hardship it took to arrive at this moment is truly magnificent, but alas it fades once more, just another handful of reps out of reach.
This is 'The Bodybuilder's Burden'.
