Proof that the bigger your muscles, the less nipples you have. And you thought it was only women in lingerie ads who were victims of the Nipple Eraser.By now you’ve probably seen the infamous video of Christina Ricci spanking Carson Daly in a one-armed push-up contest. Upon watching this, my second thought – right after “Carson Daly has a TV show?!? – was “her arms do not look like she could pull those kinds of party tricks.” And yet she does four of them, in high heels no less.
Me being who I am, of course had to immediately hop on the floor to see how many I could bang out. I got six if you count anything that involved me moving up and down a little. I got maybe one if you’re judging on good form. Although to be fair, her form sucks too. Me? Competitive? Nah…
Anecdotal Evidence
Christina proves that little arms can pack a big punch! Conventional wisdom says that muscle size is indicative of muscle strength but it turns out that the two are not always correlated. Case in point: In college I took an Aikido class in an effort to boost my self defense skills. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Aikido, it is a martial art based on doing forward and backward somersaults until your opponent gets so dizzy just watching you and that he falls over or until you puke, whichever comes first. Okay, so that’s how you do it if you’re really bad at it, which I was.
Our teacher, however, was very good at it. Sensei was a tiny little guy, maybe 5′ 4″ and a compact 120 pounds. But looks were very deceiving. He routinely threw men way over six feet tall and twice his body weight all the way across the room. The best part was that he smiled the whole time. If I ever have to die violently, I really hope he’s the one that kills me. (Did I really just write that??) He was just so nice as he flipped you backwards hard enough that your heart fibrillated on and off until finals. Plus he looked like he was barely moving. His opponents would be all lathered in sweat and his gi always remained perfectly tied and dry.
Lest you think it was all technique, Sensei was deceptively strong as well. He had very little obvious muscle mass and yet he literally bench-pressed his assistant – an overly enthusiastic guy who was 6’4″ 280 pounds and shared Sensei’s odd propensity for smiling through incongruous circumstances like, say, getting bench-pressed by an elf.
The Research
Dispelling time-honored body building lore, recent research suggests that muscle size is not indicative of strength. So if you are more interested in that ripped look, you’re better served by losing fat rather than trying to lift heavier to bulk up. Another less superficial conclusion is that just because you don’t have fitness model biceps doesn’t mean you aren’t strong. It’s all about what you can do. And if you can smile through it.
Photo Credit: PhotoshopDisasters
Sorry to let you know but, um, size IS everything. I hate to be the one to break this to you but it’s a fact of life. The bigger the better…mwahahahaha! Kidding. I’m being dumb and mean.
I always blame my inability to move past 12 pushups (two-handed) on the fact that I’m tall with tiny wrists and my long arms can’t push all 5’11” of me off the ground. Am I so busted now?
It’s so aggravating that seemingly 90% of my time discussing fitness with the uncouth is spent dispelling the differences between fitness and bodybuilding.
(The first is about What You Can DO, the second is about shaping how you look.)
I’m almost thankful that in a few discussions, Functionality is still the reigning king. I can happily confirm that when girls say “size DOES matter”, they’re still evaluating on the standard of performance. It’s just when we’re talking about muscles and bodybuilding that we must constantly repeat the mantra: it’s performance that matters. Only performance matters.
Was it Roosevelt that spun it thus — it’s not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog?
So true! I traipsed around many a power lifting tournament back in high school and was always surprised that the wiry guys often won their weight class over the really beefed up guys. I thought it was strange then, but I’ve since learned that big muscles do not equate to big strength.
That’s so nice to hear! Being a pretty little person I like the idea that I can be all strong and intense:)
“It’s not the size of the dog in the fight” it’s the BITE of the dog in the fight 🙂
I really like this post!! Of course I want strength to be more important than size, cause that’s the way I train.
Yeah, I had one of those “Karate” instructors too. He could wipe the mat with me! I loved that man!
conversly to the christina ricci thing is super buff,cut guys arent necessarily stronger than leaner, or even more over weight male counterparts. Every notice how olympic weight lifters actually seem kind pudgy and over weight, but then body builders-who are judged based on how the look, are super cut and rippling and, well, disgusting to add my opinion.
haha, I really liked the description of your Aikido Sensei.
As for me, I’ve always been deceptively strong, but more because I’ve always been rather out of shape looking.
Still, at a party in my last year of highschool, and a few people started arm wrestling. Wellll… I beat everyone handily enough. Even the guys, and I only had to struggle a couple times. Besides, I’d arm wrestled about 25 or 30 people by the end of the night… I was getting tired (end of excuses now!)
charlotte, you want selling out for moolah??? i got paid twenty bucks (pathetic, i should have asked for more!) to appears as an “excited” audience memeber for the carson daly show about three years ago. It was new at the time so maybe they couldnt get a real audience together without a casting call…
anyhow, i can barley do 12 “girl” push ups leslie, so dont feel weak, i have tiny wrists too. I used to be able to run 10 miles straight back when in marathon mode days though. its a bit of a trade off you know. Like on the reality show workout (you know, the one Mizfit and I are obsessed with), all the male trainers decided to do the 6 mile “mud run” but most couldn’t make it. They are used to weight trianing and lifting, not so much cardio and they dont perform as well. I dont know for sure as i am not a fitness expert, but i do think women are stronger than they may think they are. hello, we can deliver babies for goodness sake.
YAY-I love this post! I’m like Leslie (only I’m 5’10) and I like to think that I’m fit looking, but I tend to look a bit lanky. I get so sick of people offering to help me out when I’m lifting a heavy box or something. It’s all I can do not to say b*tch get outta my way! And it’s always some guy old enough to be my Daddy, he’s the only one I would let help me out. 🙂
Your sensei sounds like my Monster Man. He is small and has skinny arms, but that kid is STRONG! Interestingly, his skin is very “tight.” When ever I touch the skin on his feet or hands or shoulders I get the impression that it is barely containing him.