How is muscularity an indicator of genetic fitness?

SeemedGood · 2020-12-31T06:09:09+00:00

...everybody has the same potential to build muscle.

Nope. Everybody has potential to build muscle, but not everybody has the same potential. It’s much easier for some than others and particular muscle groups may be more prevalent among some than others.

TheMailmanic · 2020-12-31T06:38:56+00:00

since everybody has the same potential to build muscle.

Absolutely not. Look up the myostatin gene... it, along with other genetic factors, strongly affects muscle building ability. Some guys barely lift and can be lean and muscular. Depends on many intrinsic factors

wekacuck · 2020-12-31T06:47:47+00:00

Yeah it doesn't make sense as a generic genetic fitness marker.

Strength on its own does make sense as an immediate thing for a woman to be attracted to in terms of potential mates being able to protect, hunt, build, farm, perform heavy labor grunt work etc. Those aren't really necessary in modern life, but guys who are able to be strong would obviously have evolutionary selection pressure.

I tend to have this mental model of thinking about a man and woman naked and alone in a forest where there are wild animals and bandits/rapists. To me that sort of captures the evolutionary pressures. Anything that gives an advantage in that setup seems to be attractive. A useful or practical muscularity (particularly relative to other men) is obviously a desirable trait in that setup.

angels-fan · 2020-12-31T06:00:22+00:00

Men that go to the gym are cheating biology.

Women don't care how the sausage is made. They just want the end product.

We didn't evolve with gyms. We evolved where naturally muscular men were the only muscular men. Evolution doesn't care how the muscles get there, our lizard brain only cares that they are there.

SherbertBacon · 2020-12-31T06:54:15+00:00

Maybe I'm looking at this wrong and the attraction towards muscular males is that they can better protect a woman's offspring?

That's right, the offspring and her. And they are more capable/likely to be able to successfully hunt.

So is muscularity really an indicator of genetic fitness?

I've never heard it mark genetic fitness. Maybe insofar as you can't build muscle unless you're running around hunting and cooperating in groups, have sufficient testosterone, etc. So any man lacking muscle must be severely unfit to even undertake these activities. But this seems secondary to the general provider/capability indicators mentioned above.

youbigsausage · 2020-12-31T06:38:38+00:00

I think it's probably more about muscular males being able to provide more food for the kids, by being more able to kill wild animals, thus making it more likely that the woman's kids reach childbearing age and continue her genes.

Of course gyms have been around about a millionth of the time that humans needed to hunt wild animals to survive.

And I think gathering and especially farming were around also a small fraction of the time that hunting was around. Brains were more valuable for farming than brawn (I suppose!), so women should have evolved some to prefer brainy men. But we would still expect women to prefer brawn over brains.

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Dizzy-Programmer-101 · 2020-12-31T06:01:35+00:00

Muscularity indicates the potential for muscle, higher testosterone, more “safety,” and discipline

Banned_BY_SOYMEN · 2020-12-31T06:29:25+00:00

In the wild, men would actively use their muscles to hunt, kill, and gather resources — hence, they didn’t experience the muscular atrophy we see of our sedentary population. However, there are clear genetic patterns that are more conducive to better strength and hypertrophy potential.

Shirley_Schmidthoe · 2020-12-31T07:28:08+00:00

Maybe a strongman's body is an indicator of genetic fitness.

But this "muscular" stuff as in what's achieved by cutting body fat isn't.

These aren't bodies build for performance and professional athletes look nothing like that.

this is what genetic fitness looks like.

Sufficient-Ad-3586 · 2020-12-31T08:54:35+00:00

So for me I’ve always respected physical strength. I may be biased since I’m big into lifting myself but when a stranger is lifting a PR heavy weight I can’t help but get pumped and cheer them on. To me, even though I’m a straight man, I find muscular strong men very pleasing to look at.

Genetics DO matter to an extent, I guarantee no matter how much Michael Cera lifts he will never be as big or strong as Eddie Hall, i know those are extreme ends of the spectrum but you get my point.

Evolutionary, muscles correspond with strength and the ability to protect from predators or rival tribes which is why some women get weak in the knees from a barrel chest or broad shoulders.

AidsVictim · 2020-12-31T08:54:38+00:00

Notable levels of muscularity are just a strong male secondary sex characteristic. It also carries a sort of status or prestige in a social sense since it implies physical power to other men and women. It's the same thing with women and big tits - they aren't practically necessary or correlate to any strong genetic fitness (environmentally they signal nourishment success) but plenty of men like them all the same.

But this seems a bit contradictory since everybody has the same potential to build muscle. A fat or scrawny male still is able to become muscular if he chooses to.

As others have noted that assumption isn't true. In the "natural" world only some men with the right genetics build up notable levels of muscle, although most men in a group might be lean and have some development depending on group lifestyle.

Amazing-Row-5963 · 2020-12-31T11:47:25+00:00

This is because of natural selections in humans. The top of the hierarchy of men, always get many women, while the bottom gets what they can. Men have always been the ones fighting for women's attention. A staggering fact is that around 50 percent of men in history never had any offspring, this is much lower for women.

So, being muscular makes you look like you can handle yourself, protect others and also have healthy genes to pass down to your children. This is a no brainer, and no not everyone can become as muscular as he chooses to. I am puzzled how don't people know this. An example look at a fitness model with a huge butt. Most women could train for 10 years and would never have that much muscle there. This is same for men and women and it varies between body parts.

But, yes everyone can be muscular enough to attract women. It's just that in a hunter-gatherer society, ONLY those who get fed well and have amazing genes would be muscular, others would be skinny.

moneygang4life · 2020-12-31T12:48:47+00:00

Look up gene expression

jdobrila · 2020-12-31T06:56:07+00:00

First of all, female attraction to muscles is greatly overstated. Look at how hunter-gatherers actually look like, it's nothing like gym rats. Or hell just look at kpop, these guys are muscular(you have to be when you dance) but still lean.

Second of all, muscles just make you look more masculine. Your shoulders and back get wider, forearms thicker, etc. This has little to do with muscles themselves.

Title	How is muscularity an indicator of genetic fitness?
Author	jasonfrank403
Upvotes	1
Comments	58
Date	December 31, 2020 5:54 AM UTC (5 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/PurplePillDebate
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/PurplePillDebate/comments/knk7fe/how_is_muscularity_an_indicator_of_genetic_fitness/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/PurplePillDebate/how-is-muscularity-an-indicator-of-genetic-fitness.354013 https://theredarchive.com/post/354013

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