It’s getting a trend these days, people just want to be bigger, better and strong. They just assume that being bigger and stronger will make them better but that’s not the case. I’m going to divide this post into two parts. There’s a part where I’ll talk about being bigger and stronger and a part where I talk about getting better. Our society has evolved strangely, to be honest. We always assume that the bigger guy is the strongest and will beat the shit out of other smaller guys. People assume that all these big, strong guys are confident. Normal people just have a strange vision of the world. Someone once told me that it sounds disrespectful to call other people ‘normal’ but I don’t mean it that way.
The majority of the people assume that they’re normal because they’re representing 99% of the people. It’s all a matter of perception. This perception eventually defines their reality. They act like most people so they have to be normal right? This isn’t true. They’re just following the herd but they don’t want to admit it.
Bigger, better, stronger. Is it better?
I noticed that a lot of people envy the big guy when he enters a room. But let me share some stories that make me realize that being bigger isn’t always better. It all depends on what you want. So I used to do weightlifting before I got into MMA. There was a point where I got injured by lifting too heavy and decided to do more bodyweight stuff once I was injury-free. I remember that I was doing pistol squats close to the squat rack (most gym rats would probably label this as a gym crime). I was doing my final last set when a guy started doing heavy squats. He was a lot bigger and stronger than me but he was looking at my pistol squats.
He laughed at it with his training partner and continued until they wanted to give it a try as well. They both tried it and failed at their first attempt. They assumed that they would be able to do it because they were bigger and stronger but their ego got crushed big time. The big guy is mostly the guy that’s very stiff in what they do because they isolate every single muscle (there are exceptions). They can’t use their whole body in a fluent movement. That’s a big restriction in my eyes. I even stopped weight lifting as soon as I started doing MMA. I just noticed that I was extremely stiff and far from functional.
Bigger isn’t better in my eyes
I just realized that you don’t need the biggest arms or chest. It doesn’t matter because what’s the point if you can’t do anything with it. Sure you can bench tons of weight but you can’t do a single muscle-up (learn here how to do it). So I’m still not the biggest framed guy but I don’t complain about it. I like it this way. I’m in shape and I’m functional as well. In the end, you’ve got to decide what you want. I don’t want to trade in my functionality for a bigger frame.
Bigger, better, stronger. Is it better?
Now let’s take a look at the bigger guy’s confidence. Again there are exceptions to this rule. I had a buddy who started lifting around the same time as I did. We were both not that confident but he quickly started using steroids. He didn’t tell anybody but everybody knew it. He was a prick to anybody smaller or out of shape. His attitude towards women wasn’t respectful either. He thought that he would be the top dog because he was so big but he wasn’t. He was just arrogant and people started avoiding him. Some girls liked his body but they didn’t like his attitude so he was chasing girls after a while. It was fake confidence and he still doesn’t get it to this day on. You can’t inject confidence. You have to develop it.
He’s the guy that would come into an MMA gym with the attitude that he can take anyone and get his ass kicked by everybody. You can be as big as the Hulk but mentally just as small as Bruce Banner so why don’t you try to look like Bruce Banner (maybe a bit more in shape) while being mentally as big as the Hulk?
So how do I do it Alex? Read books and forget about the looks!
Bigger isn’t always better even if you’re stronger. Bodybuilding learned me a lot though.
Get a free audiobook and a 30-day trial
Subscribe if you haven’t already
It’s now possible to follow me on Patreon as well. It’s a place where you can support me for all the free content that I share.
You can also follow me on snapchat for a look behind the scenes. My username is alexdw92
Till next time
Alex
