Great blog post from best selling author Hugh Howie

[Groove]

"I think it was everyone. We were watching Thor, and Chris Hemsworth just peeled off his shirt for the first time, and I swear the air just went out of the entire theater."

 

http://www.hughhowey.com/lets-be-unrealistic/

[Hazard]

I was pretty impressed by Hemsworth when I saw Thor 2 last night.

But the second thought that went through my head was: he's had three years of strength training and diet management under his belt now - which means enough time to have packed 40 lbs of lean mass on. Then I smiled, because I realized I was seeing something similar to where I might be three years from now.

The first thought I had incidentally was: Jesus Christ that man is beautiful; he gets to play life on easy mode. Lucky bastard.

[Guzzi]

If you follow the links on that site, there's also some really good examples of just how far airbrushing/ photoshop-ing goes in our media.  Quite ridiculous and very worth reading.

 

Very interesting link, thanks Groove

[Ahyar Dreamspark]

I could totally look like Chris within the next few years. If I had a Y chromosome and was 10" taller :\

 

I dunno. I've been "comparing up" and giving myself unrealistic fitness goals for the last few years and it's worked relatively well. If I know from the get-go that a goal (say, the elusive single-digit body fat percentage) is unrealistic, I won't be so hard on myself when I find out that I can't quite attain it. I will feel proud of myself for getting close to it, though, and will continue to strive to achieve it, just in case I can get a little bit closer by tweaking a lifestyle habit here or there (and believe me, I can think of at least three major lifestyle habits to tweak off the top of my head right now.)

 

It's like an asymptote: I get closer and closer to the unrealistic goal and never reach it...but I can still look (and feel!) damn good getting closer and closer XD

 

Also:

 

"I think what is healthy is to hear how an actor suffers in order to fool us for just a moment or two."

 

Suffer? Working out is supposed to be fun. Sure, it's temporary suffering, but you gotta' admit that the post-workout feeling is a pretty damned good one

[insanity]

I could totally look like Chris within the next few years. If I had a Y chromosome and was 10" taller :\

 

I dunno. I've been "comparing up" and giving myself unrealistic fitness goals for the last few years and it's worked relatively well. If I know from the get-go that a goal (say, the elusive single-digit body fat percentage) is unrealistic, I won't be so hard on myself when I find out that I can't quite attain it. I will feel proud of myself for getting close to it, though, and will continue to strive to achieve it, just in case I can get a little bit closer by tweaking a lifestyle habit here or there (and believe me, I can think of at least three major lifestyle habits to tweak off the top of my head right now.)

 

It's like an asymptote: I get closer and closer to the unrealistic goal and never reach it...but I can still look (and feel!) damn good getting closer and closer XD

 

Also:

 

"I think what is healthy is to hear how an actor suffers in order to fool us for just a moment or two."

 

Suffer? Working out is supposed to be fun. Sure, it's temporary suffering, but you gotta' admit that the post-workout feeling is a pretty damned good one

The difference between you and a lot of people, is that you don't make it and are proud that you got close, realizing that it was a damn near impossible goal to begin with...

 

Others won't make it and they give up completely.