i have it. from what i see from google, extreme vascularity is a desirable aesthetic for bodybuilders. see, e.g., www.female-bodybuilding-photos.com/4images/details.php?image_id=38 (which looks like a more muscular female version of my legs) and www.female-bodybuilding-photos.com/4images/details.php?image_id=199 (which looks like a more muscular female version of my arms). In fact, check out the whole site for an interesting trip to bizarro-bodybuilder-land. Its a hoot. Back in our world, LVL, i have noticed, also seems to have “extreme vascularity” and a fair bit of muscle so I’m in good company there. (I do very little weights these days but have a genetic disposition to gain muscle and muscle definition easily, and I’m just a muscular dude. Bummer really when it would be so easy for me to be a 200lbs+ body builder and I want to be a 165lbs- endurance athlete.)
But my question is, given the important physiological role of blood and blood transportation system, does extreme vascularity have any effect, good or bad, on aerobic capacity and/or endurance performance? also, and this is what I worry about, is todays extreme vascularity tomorrows varicose veins?
somewhat of an esoteric post but any comments would be appreciated.
If probably just means you are very lean so your vessels are more noticeable… I’m like that too. I don’t think that means your vascularity is inherently different, with the exception of capillary density which is increased with endurance training.
In other words, the phrase refers to a look, not a physiologic condition.
Me to. The BB look has never done much for me be it with males or females. Any of the serious BB’s that I’ve known personally have been into the roids in a big way, male or female. They definately live in their own sub culture.
dated one for a while… she made a good cyclist actually, but I couldnt handle the “you’re too skinny, wanna go lift” barbs… I used to be big when I sprinted in college and would never do it again!
“Something very disturbing about a woman with calves that distinctly resemble a honey baked ham.” ! not to mention the rest of her! the one thing I will say for these folks is that they follow through on a dream. I just dont get the dream. In fact, it seems more like a nightmare. But what I find straight up absurd is the average joe at the gym. You know, the frat guy with baseball cap that works so hard on his biceps (guns or pipes as he’d probably call them) that he ends up looking ridiculously top heavy - massive neck, back and “guns” but little atrophied calves and chicken legs. completely useless physiologically for anything other than strutting up and down the beach trying to flex and look cool at the same time.
thanks to jhc though for that explanation. makes sense to me and glad to know my veins probably won’t explode or bunch up in little knots.
that’s hilarious… it’s true though, it will be 100 degress outside and every guy in my gym will be wearing warm-up pants and a string-tanktop showing some man boob
My first wife was a good friend of a pro BB named Kay Baxter. She was quite a big name in the pro BB circuit back in the 80’s before she was killed in a car accident. Her photos were always in Weiders magazines. Kay had started off as an aerobic instructor and then got into bodybuilding. She got into the roids in a big way and it was amazing watching the transformation not only of her musculature but voice, jaw line, etc.
we’ve got a group of roid-munchers at my gym, they look retarded… actually one guy looks like he has downs syndrome, don’t know if this is natural look or roid related… I don’t know if the girl I dated used anything, she wasn’t too big, but she had some serious mental issues?
You know, the frat guy with baseball cap that works so hard on his biceps (guns or pipes as he’d probably call them) that he ends up looking ridiculously top heavy - massive neck, back and “guns” but little atrophied calves and chicken legs. completely useless physiologically for anything other than strutting up and down the beach trying to flex and look cool at the same time.
Why do you have to call me out like that?!?!??! (minus the frat part).
I cruush you leetle tri ath a leeets wit my bahhh hahhhnndds, ya. And den I go guvahn Caleefornia.
yep just shows up when yer body fat % goes down. I have vascularity…weight workouts are lite weights hi reps so no muscle mass build but those veins just show up with no fat left to cover em…
My brother and i are the same size. We work out the same. By a Machine (I know not accurate but great for bragging rights) I have less body fat . He is very vascular which appears to be muscular. It really looks great. He has these veins running across legs and biceps.
jhc: A lot of people make fun of cyclists too, with the huge quads and little skinny tyrannosaurus arms that could barely curl a full water bottle.
Funny…that brings a flashback of Hamilton without a shirt on when they were talking about his crash!
I keep thinking I’m scrawny, until I see a picture of myself, surely I could lose another 20 lbs…but, just like I did in wrestling at school, I’m not going to purposefully lose weight just to make a number. If I weigh less doing long distance training, so be it. If I stay at 180…that’s fine, too. But, 200 was way too much for me to haul around the run course during a triathlon…it took almost 10 years of non-body-building lifting to lose that 20 lbs. of mostly useless meat. Oh, yeah…I have prominent veins, too.