To add to the chorus... the fitness models they use for these shots are: A) genetically endowed. No guarantee that you'll be one the people that have the six-pack... some people have smooth stomach muscles fiber...no amount of working out will give this type of person a six pack. B) spend waaay more time than average person training for just that look. They're fitness models. It's their job. C) have a whole team of people working to make the shots look the way they do... that includes a photographer, a stylists, a make-up artist, and a photo-retoucher using PhotoShop. What a good photographer can do with lighting is astounding. edit: That's not to say that you can't get close to this at some point. At 17... I dunno there are some issues with growth as it relates to age etc. While it's good to have a visual image to aspire to... it's also important to be aware of what goes into the manufacture of the images. They are many times not what they appear. Having worked as a photographer for many years I can tell you photos like this have a whole crew of people working to make them happen... they are very much manufactured images. Not that there aren't models out there who look like this there are... but when they hit the gym... they focus soley on the visual element of workouts at the expense of everything else. I'll post up a shot of one of mine to show you what I mean. The guy below was very fit at least in terms of how he looked... he did have a six pack... but he spent a huuuuuge amount of time in the gym just to get that... and keep it... and for the shot it helps that it's professionaly lit and photographed(by me) towards a commerical end and that he was oiled down to increase sheen and reflectance (by a stylist) counts for a lot. It's a very synthetic shot in that respect. So just bear that in mind when you start choosing images to try and live up to. FWIW... I ran into him a few weeks back and after only a short bit of time in the gym... he doesn't have any visible six pack at all. It's quite surprising how fast it dissappears. Hope that helps.
Flash verson of a magazine cover - before and after: http://www.i-am-bored.com/bored_link.cfm?link_id=14537 Model Evolution: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcFlxSlOKNI"]YouTube[/ame]
So you are claiming the producers of these films instrinsicly know which actors are genetically capable of doing this BEFORE they are cast? Or that they producers contact actors, then make them work out (for months) and THEN cast them? Interesting theory... As for "weed to action star" i'll see your Woody Allen and raise you Edward Norton: Compare him in fightclub to him in American History X. Or to go the other way Christian Bale in Batman Begins to him in The Machinist. Funny how all the actors who put in the effort are the ones who are "genetically capable" isn't it? Or maybe (just maybe) They worked really hard for it.
A) I was posting that article as an example of what you can achieve if you have mental toughness (you can apply that to whatever goal you wanted to achieve. B) They wanted a certain aesthetic for the film, so trained to produce it. ie they wanted the spartans to look like tough, enduring men, not male models.
Which sadly they failed miserably at. The whole lot in 300 pranced about yelling absurdities while looking like so many badly airbrushed Calvin Klein models. They swaggered around like the beefheads at big chain gyms who spend all their time doing barbell curls. Sorry... but they didn't look tough or enduring. They looked like caricatures. They looked more like male models than anything else. For as hairy as the vast majority of men are in that part of the world are (think Persians, Greeks and pretty much all mediteranean peoples) why on earth were they all waxed smooth like some homoerotic fantasy gone mad?! It's not all that surprising though really. Most people, Hollywood included, have a very warped idea of what tough, enduring men look like. They don't look like the actors in 300. Take a look at the tribal men in places in Borneo or in the Phillipines. Look at the physiques... a massive difference the beefcake they were showcasing in that dog of a film 300 and what real world tough, enduring men look like.
I enjoyed it myself, but then I went wanting to watch semi-naked men fight... and that's what I got. woohoo! (i've just realised I sound VERY gay right about now!) Oh and whilst I’m posting: I agree that trying to do massive amount of exercise whilst only 17 might be a bad idea. Though, you can always put in some decent foundations for when you are fully grown (which is what, early 20’s more or less?)
Good diet in complex carbs and lots of protein, weights and muscle building exerises. Running and eating 6 times a day. Go to a local gym and/or get a book by a lean, but mean dude. Gary
Yeah pretty much. Although I think you're exaggerating. I didn't say it's all down to genetics - I just said genetics will make it much more difficult for some people to reach certain goals, and almost impossible for some. Could you see Edward Norton becoming a 400lb bodybuilder? I know I couldnt. I have. In Fight Club you can see the muscle definitions in his arms and back, he certainly isn't what I'd consider a weed. From seeing that I could quite easily judge that he has the capability to put some decent mass on. Again, Christian Bale certainly isnt a rake. He has 'average' muscle mass and a well shaped frame, so I'd say he's capable of expanding on that. If he was very skinny with no muscle definition, no shoulder structure etc then maybe I'd agree with you a bit more. Or maybe (just maybe) genetics makes it much easier for certain actors to put mass on compared to others? Of course they worked hard for it, it's drastic changes in a short period of time. However I think down to genetics and who we are, it will be much more difficult for some people and much easier for others.
That would be my que. Wilson. All you have to do is send me a photo of you, and I'll take care of the rest. I Photoshop btw so it's not really a problem.
I also would bring up the point that (and I'm not going to guess who this does/doesn't apply to) an actor who's job it is to gain 20lb for a role in a very short space of time will probably do/take whatever they can, either legal or illegal, to add the mass.
