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Cycling and those damn skinny arms...

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Road Cycling “It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best, since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them. Thus you remember them as they actually are, while in a motor car only a high hill impresses you, and you have no such accurate remembrance of country you have driven through as you gain by riding a bicycle.” -- Ernest Hemingway

Cycling and those damn skinny arms...

Old 11-05-10, 03:48 PM
  #276  
Mansram01
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My arms have always been skinny but surprisingly not weak. I would like to work out on my arms more often but I'm a cyclist and that's what I choose to do. I ride and ride and then ride some more. Is it unhealthy? I don't think so. Maybe an imbalanced workout but my heart rate is low and I feel rather darn good. Isn't that important. If I was to work out my arms, they get more tone, but I really don't really think my arms would gain serious mass.
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Old 11-05-10, 04:19 PM
  #277  
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I wondered how this thread got to go on for this much pages on and on, and then I realized, this is road cycling forum... so.. never mind... enjoy
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Old 11-05-10, 08:49 PM
  #278  
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face palm at the whole thread.
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Old 11-05-10, 09:13 PM
  #279  
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better than fat ankles
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Old 11-05-10, 09:23 PM
  #280  
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Originally Posted by rusted_rider
better than fat ankles
But they're genetic
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Old 07-14-19, 10:09 AM
  #281  
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Funny thread. Who cares? I don’t. Now I’m ordering a double meat Whataburger with cheese and large fries but I’m not concerned. I will ride the calories off on the bike. What about us medium arm guys?
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Old 07-14-19, 10:47 AM
  #282  
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Originally Posted by Hondo Gravel
Funny thread. Who cares? I don’t. Now I’m ordering a double meat Whataburger with cheese and large fries but I’m not concerned. I will ride the calories off on the bike. What about us medium arm guys?
They're all wondering why you felt compelled to post on a decade-old thread.
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Old 07-14-19, 01:06 PM
  #283  
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its alive.....
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Old 07-14-19, 03:14 PM
  #284  
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Originally Posted by Hondo Gravel
Funny thread. Who cares? I don’t. Now I’m ordering a double meat Whataburger with cheese and large fries but I’m not concerned. I will ride the calories off on the bike. What about us medium arm guys?
I'm genuinely curious what compelled you to awaken a decade old zombie thread with the white hot take of "who cares"???
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Old 07-14-19, 06:23 PM
  #285  
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Old 07-14-19, 06:35 PM
  #286  
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What’s the zombie thread smilie? There should be one.

For now, this will have to do:

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Addiction is all about class.
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Old 07-14-19, 06:57 PM
  #287  
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Ok, I was looking up information about how emaciated some pro riders appear. This thread showed up from the dead. I am interested about being on the line of being super fit or super sick. Since I post on this forum frequently I figured I would add something. It’s an old thread so what not worth getting all bent out of shape over.
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Old 07-14-19, 07:02 PM
  #288  
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Thanks for answering. My two cents is nothing wrong with updating or bumping an old thread, but this one is probably a troll thread to begin with.
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Old 07-14-19, 07:07 PM
  #289  
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Originally Posted by frankum
I laugh everytime I see a cyclist with those skinny muscle-less looking arms. Makes me just want to run over and punch 'em in the arm and probably snap a bone. Anywho, I lift weights & swim and make sure I don't get nasty skinny arms. Thoughts?
Michael Rasmussen, 2007 tour de france leader who was removed from the tour halfway through when his contract was cut. Admitted to doping. Hmm, never heard of this story.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mich...ssen_(cyclist)

What an ironic time to revive the zombie thread.
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Old 07-14-19, 09:13 PM
  #290  
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Originally Posted by Sixty Fiver
I'm built very similarly to this guy (same height, weight, and arms) and am probably one of the few that isn't too fat for the sport...



Up until a few years ago I was an apprentice machinist and it was a extremely physically demanding job with a great deal of heavy lifting... a common task was to drill out hydraulic brake discs which weighed 120 pounds (I weighed 145) and because of their design had to be dead lifted and set into the jig.

I did hundreds and hundreds of these and there wasn't much in our shop that weighed less than 40 pounds... and we were always wrestling with steel.

I'd shovel tons of slag every day... that's hundred and hundreds of reps with significant weights.

I only gained a little bit of weight but got totally ripped doing this for two years... at 43 I now know that short of using steroids, all the weight lifting in the world will not bulk me up as I have a genetic pre-disposition to be lean and compact which make cycling an ideal sport.

I never found my size to be a detriment when I trained, taught, and competed in martial arts and as a rock climber, lighter and stronger was always better than carrying any extra weight.
Exactly.

One of the toughest son-of-sams I've ever known ...had skinny arms. Well, skinny arms, skinny legs, skinny all over. But you know what, he kicked some serious a$$ in the years I knew him. Big musclebound jerks, that thought because they were bigger than him ...they were better (sound familiar?). But they were sadly mistaken. Yeah, he was quite frail, but frail doesn't equate to weak.

If you ever get over being shallow, you realize it ain't the size of the dog in the fight ...its the size of the fight in the dog.

In every aspect.
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Old 07-15-19, 08:15 AM
  #291  
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Originally Posted by lukasz
So you're rating the attractiveness of other men.
This sums it up. Personally I work out since I like a balanced body but it had never occurred to me that skinny arms were an issue, *especially for cycling
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Old 07-15-19, 10:22 AM
  #292  
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Originally Posted by frankum
...Makes me just want to run over and punch 'em in the arm ...Thoughts?
My thoughts:
1) Seek counseling. Your reaction to another person with whom you have had no interaction of any kind is a violent act?
2) The fellow in the photo is wearing the maillot jaune and you're obviously, um, not. Jealous? See #1 .
3) Great post. Keep it up.
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Old 07-15-19, 11:48 AM
  #293  
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Originally Posted by Phil_gretz
My thoughts:
1) Seek counseling. Your reaction to another person with whom you have had no interaction of any kind is a violent act?
2) The fellow in the photo is wearing the maillot jaune and you're obviously, um, not. Jealous? See #1 .
3) Great post. Keep it up.
Post is 10 years old and probably a troll for some lols the statute of limitations for getting butt hurt over it has long past.
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Old 07-15-19, 01:12 PM
  #294  
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I have skinny arms and skinny legs... and a beer gut.
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Old 07-15-19, 01:17 PM
  #295  
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Old 09-27-20, 07:47 PM
  #296  
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I agree with their choice because they do not need bigger arms for their healthy lifestyle. For myself, my body choices are different. I don't want my arms and upper body to look like that so I do bodybuilding as an amateur because I am not competitive enough to do things like taking steroids and I don't want to look like Ronnie Coleman either. I would never be willing to shrink the muscles in my upper body to save weight so I could be lighter and pedal faster just as I would not want to put on body fat to excel in sumo wrestling or have more momentum to hit harder in football, cumulative cognitive as in IQ damaging concussions and all. Still, in the case of bike riders who develop their leg muscles and economize on weight by not building upper body muscles, I can't find fault because it does not damage anything.

Last edited by LAJ; 09-28-20 at 07:55 AM. Reason: Deleted off topic portion.
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Old 09-27-20, 10:04 PM
  #297  
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Originally Posted by drbarney1
I agree with their choice because they do not need bigger arms for their healthy lifestyle.
Good to see your arms are still strong enough to dredge up zombie threads.
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Old 09-28-20, 07:12 AM
  #298  
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Originally Posted by cubewheels
If you're a lightweight rider, you have an option to pedal out of the saddle for longer periods.. This will help beef up the arms!

I do a lot of out of the saddle riding lately and now look kinda like Popeye. Beefy arms and legs but with thin torso!
Got you beat on the Popeye look: 5'8", 120 pounds, a total of 55 years of fast training rides with a lot of climbing out of the saddle (including on track bikes in very hilly southern Connecticut and Baltimore County), and my upper arms persist in being no larger than my forearms.
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Old 10-04-20, 07:23 PM
  #299  
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What an interesting style of how to compose the muscles in your body. I can do chin-ups, 6 reps with 75 pounds added to a weight belt and 8 to 9 with 50 pounds added but I only weigh about 155 pounds which is not much to pull-up. I have been working out for years. I am in my 70s and my squat and bench press ire far less impressive but they keep me from getting sarcopenia so my chest and quadracepts look they way I want. Few people in modern culture accept that we get more choice than we might think in what shape body we decide we want to live in.
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