I don’t care what body part you’re talking about, just because it’s bigger doesn’t make it better. And yes, that includes the big teets and schlongs – whether they are natural or paid for.
Bigger often has a hypnotic effect. You see a woman with big knockers and it’s hard to take your eyes off her – especially if she’s got the contrast of a slim waist going for her.
Same goes for people with big biceps, pecs, lats, foerarms, thighs, calves and so on. Even big hands and feet will grab attention. As will a tongue two sizes too long.
About the only time that bigger tends to discourage you from looking closer is when it’s a big fat gut or a crack-exposed plumber’s boot-ocks.
Well, on second though, a head that’s too big is hard to gaze at, too.
Anyway, I think you get the first point I’m trying to make. Yet, here comes the kicker – in the world of fitness, strength and combat – a lot of people think that bigger means stronger, that it means you’ve got more power.
In some cases this is true – but you’d be amazed at how many people there are with big muscles
who are not strong. And you may also be stunned to discover how many people who are not big
muscular specimens are, for some odd reason, incredibly strong.
So I always get a good laugh when I read about how “important” it is to add size to your arms – or some such non-sense.
When I was young and dumb I thought having big pecs and biceps was cool. I learned to jiggle my teets on command via muscle control, as well as my biceps and thighs. And when I competed against others I looked at the size of their guns, shoulders, back, legs and so on – and then I compared their muscle size to mine and tried to figure out who was the better athlete.
I turned out wrong so often I don’t want to go into greater detail. As a wrestler at the U. of Iowa and later on, Edinboro, I learned that gun and pec size had almost nothing to do with how tough someone was. Or how strong.
One of the ultimate lessons came from none-other than Dan Gable himself, the head wrestling coach when I was at Iowa. He didn’t have big biceps, thighs, calves or pecs – yet he beat the living crap out of everyone in the room who did.
When it came to running stairs with someone on your back, I remember struggling to cart Gable to the top – and he weighed about 155 pounds. Then when it was his turn, he carried me to the top like I was no heavier than a feather.
Put our legs side by side and if you came from the big muscles school of hypnosis – you’d assume I was stronger. Not a chance.
Why is this?
I believe, based on my study of martial arts, that muscular size is way, way over-rated. But I wont’ stop there. I’ll even go so far as to say that muscular strength is over-rated.
What? How can I say such a thing?
I can say it for a few reasons:
1. Your internal organs have more to do with the strength of your muscles than you realize. Take the guy with big guns and give him a kidney stone and we’ll see how freaking tough he is. Every time you pull, curl, twist, jump or squat, you’re not just using your muscles, your kidneys are working as well.
And that’s just one of the main organs that dictate overall body strength.
2. Your tendons – when properly trained and strengthened, will give you a massive advantage over anyone with big muscles. Just because your muscles are large doesn’t mean your tendons and ligaments are strong. In fact, regardless of their size, a little inflammation in the elbow and knees can sink your game pretty low very fast.
3. Breathing – almost all people with big muscles don’t know the first thing about how to regulate their breath in such a way to maximize their strength and endurance. Sure, they know how to inhale and exhale when doing a bench press – but that’s about as far as it goes.
How much further can you go? A helluva lot further. In fact, by proper training of the breath, mixed with tendon strengthening, mixed with exercises to harmonize and tone your internal organs, you’ll do your body as well as your mind, far more good than picking up a dumbbell or barbell to do a set of curls.
Nothing wrong with doing some curls, if that’s your bowl of cereal, but let’s get serious. Big muscles don’t make the man – or the woman. They may look nice – they may draw a crowd – but when it comes to real battle – mental as well as physical battle – they won’t help you much.
Far more important is what you cannot see – that which won’t draw a crowd, that which very few people have any grasp of.
It’s the difference between external appearances (most of which are deeply shallow) versus internal strength and power.
And no, I’m not talking about mind power. I’m talking about physical/mental or psycho-physical internal strength and power.
If this subject interests you, let me know and I’ll consider creating a product that shows what I’m talking about.
Have a great weekend.
Matt Furey
Author of Combat Conditioning – the #1 book in the world on functional fitness for fitness and combat sports