h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A590483

This should prove invaluable to anybody in the sport. It's my own, and I felt it just had to be written. People need to know.

You may wish to talk about the difference between weight-lifting and body-building...

You might want to lose or at least reduce the 'man walks into store' bit. It is amusing, but also detracts, ( I feel ), from the article.

You also might want to put some of the dietary info in a table, to make it easier to read.

Good article, though.

BTW, I used weight-training as an adjunct to martial arts for years, and had friends who were body-builders, and another who was a competitive power lifter -- as you noted, there is a world of difference...

Hi Scottish Guy,

nice article I must say. I do agree with Taliesin about reducing or removing the 'man walks into store' bit.

The diet thing. Are you writing this for your general common or garden body builder because I thought the diet varied depending on what stage your training is at - ie. in the build up to a competition the diet is adjusted so that body fat is reduced as much as possible so that muscle shows more whereas during muscle builfing periods, the presence of fat under the skin doesn't matter too much as muscle build up is what is necessary.

Also, it might be nice to highlight more obviously the differences between weightlifting (ie strength training) and bodybuilding.
In the past I used to weight train but it was not to body build but to build strength as I was a rugby player. As I recall it your average body builder might be a strong guy but your average weightlifter (or powerlifter) has smaller muscles but is stronger.

I would recommend removing the comment about female body builders being gross. Some might find this offensive and/or sexist although for me I agree with you but that is just my opinion others would disagree

Anyway, nice work again, can't fail to make it into the guide eventually.

Orcus

I have to say that I think this Entry is seriously sexist. As Orcus has pointed out, all female bodybuilders (and I believe there are a lot of them around) are dismissed with one offensive remark. Most of the Entry seems to assume that its readership is exclusively male - for instance, the references to "man breasts", and the highly dubious comment about hash turning you into "a bit of a woose".

One way around this might be to retitle the Entry "Bodybuilding for men". But whatever, that remark about female bodybuiders MUST go.

OK, this entry is on a good move, now that the "a man walks into"-bit is gone along with the sexist remarks.

When it comes to the part about the training itself, you are slightly unclear, which is good, because people tend to recommend all sorts of ways to become a heap of muscles.

Some say that doing a hundred reps from time to time is a good thing, while others tend to recommend four reps in five sets. Personally, I go with eight reps in three sets, and sometimes fifteen reps in three sets to work on the "slow" muscle fibers. The herd I belong to, would say that doing twelve reps is a waste of time.

Generally, I think experimenting is a good thing, and finding out what fits you best. Maybe there should be a passage about that?

I would also be very happy if you could put steroides on the "things to avoid"-list. Too many bodybuilders end up in a bad spiral where they take so many steroides that they have to supplement with a little amphetamine and so on. If this entry could contribute just a little bit in the fight against that, it would be a very good thing.

the title has changed into 'Male Bodybuilding' without a word from Scottish Guy The 'woose' is still there but I can't find out what a 'woose' is. I didn't see the previous version so I don't know which other changes have been made.

'Woose' (more commonly spelt 'wuss') means roughly the same as 'wimp' - that is, a 'weak' man who doesn't behave in a stereotypically 'manly' way.

No matter how it is spelled, is 'wuss' considered a valid word for the purposes of an Edited guide entry?

Perhaps a better term would be something like: 'sissy', or the already noted, and very popular, 'wimp', both of which do not carry the unfortunate sexist connotation of 'wuss/woose'

In case you are unaware, the term 'wuss' is a shortened variant of 'wussy', -- an amalgamation of 'wimp', and, er, 'pussy', which in this particular useage does not denote a feline...

OIC

Where abouts does it say woose or wuss?

It says 'woose' in the section on marijuana, under the 'Things to avoid like the plague' header.

That's all the changes been made.

Editorial Note: This conversation has been moved from 'Peer Review' to 'Male Bodybuilding'.

This thread has been moved out of the Peer Review Forum because your entry has now been recommended for the Edited Guide.

You can find out what will happen to your entry here: http://www.h2g2.com/SubEditors-Process

Congratulations!

Hi, just dropping by to say nice one!

Your entry will now be sent to a sub-editor for editing/mangling () and will then be polished by the in-house editing team before its debut on the front page.

Good work and keep writing

Orcus