So her is my frank discussion regarding my own physique journey and learning, the hard way, what is real and what is illusion. This will include lots of pics: these are for the discussion & should not be thought of as examples to measure yourself against CW: Body Dysmorphia

The place to start is with pictures. We are flooded with them. Men now are as prevalent as women showing off their physiques in ever increasingly more intimate detail. Advertising, motivation posters, and don't forget Instagram all selling "this is what a man looks like"

Lets start with photoshoots. I will talk later about the 2 week, 2 day, and 2 hour pre-shoot most every great physique model goes through to get here, but number 1 is experience of shooting physiques of the photographer and lighting. Same shot & pose w /different light & exposure

Then we get into post processing - no body shape changes (which is a WHOLE other topic) but just sweetening the shot for what the focus is meant to be. -in this case "look at those F*ing ABS" (never mind the rest in comparison looks completly unnatural...)

Next up... that pose. The above is what we like to call in the cosplay community "the Twist" Here is me as just a baby cosplayer learning it for the first time. What it does is make your waist look smaller and your shoulders broader.

In fitness and cosfitness photography it is even more extreme and you literally train to get a better one and truly it is excruciating to hold it for long periods. Really good folks can all but rotate 90 degrees so their shoulders and hips are perpendicular. my face = it hurts!

So here are some of the illusions that just rely on the Photographer and the model "in the moment" there are lots more, but I didn't use them myself and don't have examples.

This is the end of part 1 of this but will be adding more to this same thread soon. [End 1] #DnDFitness

Ok so now we come to Dadbod posts. The reality is folks aren't camera ready all the time -life happens, but also LIVING happens. Sometimes fitness is your focus and other times it just isn't. Also these are folks usually caught in a screen capture without any of the tricks above

This was really tough for me to do, but here is my physique now, in the middle is what I used to think of as my worst "dadbod" & left is me at my most lean and cut. Flexing in pics is so ingrained it took me multiple tries to stand in front of a lens and not at least tense my abs

It is insidious how we have been trained to present ourselves in even "casual shots" show off perfection and not reality (that middle shot? Flexing like my life depended on it... and staged)

Zac and Chris are still not far off the shape you are used to seeing them in, but don't have the benefit of the photographer making them look great. The big one is also they don't have the benefit of some of that last second prep we will talk about - mainly a muscle pump.

The Chris H pics really demonstrate this. The thing I want you to pay attention to is the arms in lifting and dancing photos, and in the shirtless one the difference between casual swimming on the beach and surfing (a workout) In trained bodies that pump can be night and day.

Now me? I haven't been to a gym for heavy lifting since March. I literally drank craft beers last night, just ate breakfast, and have been living off coffee. But I want to make a point here about these comparisons we subject ourselves and others to. Here is me with Twist and Pump

Now I have a LOT more sins I am trying to hide, but I also know if I had to I am 6-8 weeks from being truly photo ready, and less if I can fake it in a controlled environment. How do I know that? Because I have done it. #DnDFitness [end part2]

Wow, ok, Selfies. Where the heck to start. I could do a PhD on this but lets just go with "Selfies are a lie." & yes, I know I am bringing you all a timeline full of that special kind of lie everyday. A selfie isn't a casual quick snapshot, or very rarely is, they are advertising

plain and simple. I personally am trying to capture whatever joy I have in that moment, but yeah, Even my "good mornings" take multiple tries to make sure I "capture the story" I am trying to tell. Lets do some examples. First a day in the life of Squall's Selfies

Now lets really examine a whole story unfolding in this case the receiving my D&D mug: Mug arrives, Get a photo concept: "make it seem like a relic or treasure from on high", head outside to normal good light position for a shot using selfie tripod. Shot sucks, can't see logo...

Head inside, grab the good afternoon light that bounces off the 2 story house into the office. Take selfie.

Ugh! bad expression and think "hey I should wear the t-shirt they sent too" Go change T-shirt

Got shirt, got light, refine expression - take Selfie.

Idiot! you blocked the Dungeons and Dragons on your T-shirt. Expression still kinda crap...

Ok change position of my arm... I got this! Take Selfie.

ARE YOU KIDDINGME! Now your hand is blocking the writing. Come on Man! Get it together! (wow my arm looks kinda big there though... I wonder if I can out angle the mug. *thinks thoughts*)

Ok I can do this pull it all together here Squall
*only paying attention to getting bicep in the prime out-angle spot in the corner of the frame.* pushes up sleeve to make it really pop & does some air curls.

Take Selfie

Ugh! again with the hand. But DAYMN arm looking good!

One last try... We got this! Take Selfie.

Logo good, shirt text good, expression good... arm looks smaller.

[posts previous pic with big arm]

So what is the point of all this to the actual discussion? I am about to talk about how visual goals can be a super positive thing and lots of folks think "casual pics" of fitness folks are a good place to look....

They ARE NOT. There is a whole science to using lens physics to do "in camera" what lots of folks use photoshop to do. Here are examples of me accidentally out angling pros who are both a ton bigger than me.

So next part is gonna be tricky as we are going to pivot to how if you can recognize the illusions and not let them embed themselves in your self worth, they can be amazing motivators and honestly helped me achieve things I never thought I could and make amazing memories [end 3]

DISCLAIMER: I have Dysmorphia but I have been able create a partnership with it that is healthy for me and my Life. I am an unpartnered Asexual with a 8-5 job and no kids so the amount of time I am able to spend on Workouts, nutrition, and sleep is NOT realistic for most folks.

First, I have been doing this for a LONG time & getting to where I was in those photoshoots & cosfitness photos was over a decade into my fitness journey. I have bulked. I have cut. I have only once "hard" cut water, but did use water manipulation for photoshoots and appearances

Throughout all of it (heck my whole life really) I have had men that were my "ideal" my "I wanna look like that!" to strive for - some realistic, some not so realistic - but when I kept my head on straight they drove me to really push and not give up.

In a way it gave me something concrete to look to trying to recreate, and once I knew about all the illusions above, I could train myself to recreate them as well.

So how? How is it done? welp, Cardio, Chicken & Broccoli. That is the cutting part, Bulking is worse. When done correctly is is gonna be a ton harder than any cut. You are eating until you are nauseous every 2 hours, no drinking, & 8-10 hours of sleep are required. fluffy as hell

You are going to be lifting crazy amounts of weight (I volume train for this phase) I would clock 2,000,000 pound months (sets X reps X weight). You will need a good soft tissue guy to keep your muscles injury free and growing - this is not normal massage it is excruciating.

But your body will change. It will respond to fit that image in your head. Little by little the work and diet pays off. You just can't get into the trap of the before and after "super soldier scene" fallacy. The pics you see online are months & months apart & years in the making.

and eventually you find yourself a couple weeks out from that event you have been training for and it is time to make some responsible decisions about what's next. [end part 4]

I jumped through the bulk doing exactly what I warned against: here are the pics from April -August. I didn't cut as much as "grow lean" which means I kept calories tightly controlled to continue to build muscle & used its metabolism to burn the fat. 11 mos time for 15lbs mass.

Ok so you have added muscle and you have cut fat without crazy crash dieting. You are two weeks out from your big event / photo shoot. No matter what you decide is best for you it is time to drink LOTS of water and cut out (most) caffeine and sugar.

and when I mean lots 1.5 - 2 gallons for a guy lots. You should be peeing every hour lots. LOTS. Here is why, it is gonna do wonders for your skin and if you want to manipulate water but not cut water this is a safe way to do it.

I have the most pics from when I hard cut so I am gonna use those but I will tell you were to veer off and can show you results of that too. Here is me 2 weeks out from DragonCon 2013 which was my biggest most serious cut - when I went all in as a personal goal.

So these are terrible but even with the shaky hand you can see what is happening. By drinking lots of water you are training your body to not hold water. This is 7 days later.

At the end of second week and 2 days out I reduced my water from 1.5 gallons to 1.5 L.

1 day out I dropped water to 1 L and added in some carbs (in this case with Nick) You can really see here in my face how after just 24 hours water is drawing out of my skin. I then drove through the night in an open jeep which really pulled water out of me.

Day of. Just sips of water and been eating hard real sugar candy through the drive all night. Wake up and look flat and stringy as hell and water is pulling to my skin - was just so disappointed, then my buddy who had done this before hands me 2 real sugar sodas: "Chug these"

With nothing to lose I did. I kid you not it was like my muscles were inflating in the elevator and my skin was shrink wrapping. The rest is in the photos.

So just to show everyone how ephemeral that kind of cut really is (and again the illusion) the above were taken on Thursday afternoon, the below Saturday night. Skin and abs tell it all.

So 2 weeks later I had the cowboy photoshoot that y'all are probably sick of seeing, for that all I did was up my water intake one week before and then drop it the day before and had a sweet tea right before as my liquid sugar.

Here is the thing - none of that works if you aren't within 10% or less BF%. I have seen many a folks, including fellow Spartans try and it really isn't gonna change much. ALSO, this dried out look is not sustainable and is only good for specific photos selling a specific look.

Now don't crucify me, but a 10%-12% BF IS sustainable and not unhealthy or "unfun" depending on your lifestyle. All my beach and Cosplay Fit photos were at that and I love how my body looks and feels in that range

The next year at DragonCon I didn't do any of the water stuff other than just staying well hydrated and it resulted in all the Spartan pics you see posted of me. That is when I realized the tricks and illusion really do more than the dehydration except in the most extreme cases.

I think that is all folks.... If I missed anything please feel free to ask after this post so I don't break the thread. I'm not sure if I covered what people asked or any of what people were wanting or expecting. I can certainly dive deeper into any of this especially dysmorphia

if folks are interested. Or how to wrangle & defeat or at least come to terms & a truce with the pressures being put on men to, with the advent of the MCU, to look like superheroes. Thanks for bearing with me all day, and I hope this at least helps someone out there. #DnDFitness