Bodybuilding is like Gotham City

I was watching Joker a few nights ago with Joaquin Phoenix and like many things in life I started noticing the parallels in bodybuilding. This was my second time watching the movie since its release a few years back. I’m usually not a fan of many Marvel or DC movies (I think it’s DC) based on all of the politically correct bullshit that has to be in them now, but I’m definitely a fan of 2019’s Joker movie!

The movie is dark, more psychologically character exposing, and somewhat of a suspense movie with a few twists that you’d never guess. But I feel like the heart of the movie is an underdog story about a guy who truly wanted to be a good person but had gotten beaten down so bad physically and psychologically, that he just went over the edge and snapped one day.

Basically, this movie builds up by showing us a character with some already troublesome mental defects, which could have been hereditary or could have been developed from the way he was treated by society. As he’s battling with his own dark emotions on a day-to-day basis, he’s still trying to stay positive and make something of himself, even if THAT SOMETHING is just a clown entertaining kids at a hospital or swinging a sign around to attract business for a store.

But every time he tries to do something positive or build himself up, society knocks him back down again, furthering his belief that he could never make anything of himself. In all reality, the movie is more about bullying than just an average run-of-the-mill villain story.

You start to feel sympathy for the character as he continues to deal with society and its evilness constantly beating him down.

About 20 minutes into the movie, one of Arthur’s (The Joker’s real name) coworkers convinces him that he needs to carry something to protect himself and he gives him a revolver handgun to carry. Well, he doesn’t really give it to him, Arthur is expected to pay him down the road when he can get the money together.

So, Arthur carries around this revolver handgun without any intentions of harming anyone that isn’t trying to harm him. I don’t think he wanted to initially hurt anyone at all, he was just tired of people hurting him.

However, he does fantasize about the power the gun gives him and how carrying the gun makes him feel, which is exposed in a few of the scenes before Arthur loses it and kills 3 college aged kids who physically assault him on a subway.

The kids attack Arthur and Arthur blasts them out of fear for his own safety. But then the true turning point in the character’s development comes out, when that fear turns into anger. This can be seen when he chases one of them down who is limping from a gunshot wound to the leg. Arthur chases him down and puts the final bullet right into his back.

Immediately following the killings of the 3 young men that assaulted Arthur, the very next scene shows Arthur knock on a girl’s apartment door that he was interested in. She answers the door and Arthur immediately kisses her and plows his way into the apartment, determined to take some pussy!

This was honestly the part of the movie where I became a true fan of Arthur. I was ready to see Arthur start fighting back at a society that had beaten him down for so long, AND FUCK BRUCE WAYNE!

This was also when I started thinking about how so many guys in gym were once like Arthur was. I couldn’t help but think about how the gym to me was like holding that revolver and firing back at life!

In a lot of ways my own story on how I became involved with the gym was like Arthur’s story. Okay, maybe it wasn’t as bad as that, and I don’t think I was mentally ill. And I wasn’t dressed up like a clown and getting beatdowns on a weekly basis, or chain-smoking cigarettes in a therapist’s office bitching about my life.

But as I watched this movie, I couldn’t help but feel as though I could somehow relate to the Joker and his newfound power after he finally had enough and fought back at the world.

Don’t worry though, I’m not going to go hunting people down with a Colt .38 revolver. Instead, I choose to go to the gym and eventually start taking testosterone!

I was driving over to this girl’s house one night when I was 20 years old. She was older than me, she was 28 years old at the time. I remember making a deal with myself that my goal was to get her naked as quickly as possible and just take it like a lion!

This was different though; this was my first time ever hanging out with this girl and I didn’t know her. But I knew that I never had a Budweiser girl with big, fake tits before, and that was something that I needed to try!

It wasn’t more than 5 minutes at her house that I made my move, and before I knew it, I was smashing hot ass in her bedroom. THANK YOU, GYM, AND THANK YOU TESTOSTERONE!

Before the gym and developing my body, this was something I never would have had the confidence to do! No way, for one the chick would have been intimidating to me, and second off I wouldn’t have had the confidence or the balls to even try to walk up in her house like I owned it and bend that girl over!

I couldn’t help but think of how I was just like Arthur that night that I took that woman! The only difference was that I was killing the gym, not people! But you guys get the point by now.

NOBODY IS GOING TO FIGHT YOUR BATTLES FOR YOU

Whatever your situation in life might be, just know that nothing good and worthwhile will come your way. You have to go after everything in life, and the harder you push the more rewarding the experiences will be.

Sure, in the entire scheme of things banging some hot chick within the first 5 minutes you meet may seem shallow and empty, but I’m not just talking about blowing loads on big, fake tits here. I’m talking about actually going through the work it takes to develop your character enough to ask for that date, to ask for that promotion, to be able to have the confidence to NOT GIVE A FUCK!

The gym is about so much more than muscles, it’s about building a character that is strong enough to pull out that revolver on that subway, shoot back at life, and not give a fuck!

Have a problem with booze or pills? Guess what? NOBODY GIVES A FUCK! Go talk to a therapist all you want, keep getting on more script meds to further rewire your fucking brain, keep wasting your time. But guess what? NOBODY GIVES A FUCK AND NOBODY CAN HELP YOU!

Sitting in a therapist’s office and crying about your life isn’t exactly shooting back at life now, is it? DO YOU LEAVE THE FUCKING THERAPIST’S OFFICE WITH THE CONFIDENCE TO WALK THROUGH A CHICK’S DOOR AND TAKE THAT SHIT?

I DON’T THINK YOU DO; YOU LEAVE FEELING DEFEATED AND HELPLESS!

Now, the gym is a place you can leave out of, high on life itself, and damn proud!

The problem with getting older is that life can make you hopeless and weak if you let it. After so many letdowns, a lot of people feel like they’ve lost control over their lives and all they can do is coast through their days and keep taking the blows.

I think this is one of the reasons why I’m actually in a better mood and more focused during the first half of my diets; it’s because I feel like I’ve gained control and power back. Once again, I’m that guy walking through the hot beer models door and taking that bitch like some sort of wounded gazelle that just couldn’t quite keep up with the rest of the pack! (“Ah yes, sometimes nature is cruel in its lessons” in my best National Geographic voice)

Now, I said “First half of my diets” because after that it can be a little miserable, depending on how lean I’m getting.

I think that it’s all really not as over complicated as people make it out to be though. All you really have to do is ask yourself, “Do I feel like a loser or a winner? Do I feel helpless or powerful?

I believe that most bad habits come from letdowns. The habits continue because we know deep down inside that we are failing ourselves. It becomes this mind frame of, “Well what’s one more fuck-up going to do to me? It doesn’t matter because I’ve already fucked up!”

It’s like this with booze, pills, cigarettes, shitty food choices, you name it! It’s self-letdowns that continue to fuel the fire and keep that helpless lifestyle rolling in steady motion.

THE ONLY WAY TO CHANGE THIS IS TO FEEL POWERFUL AND DO THINGS THAT MAKE YOU FEEL LIKE YOU’VE GAINED CONTROL

If you pay attention to the Joker movie, you’ll see how the more that Arthur fights back against a fucked-up society, and the more he stands up for himself, the more normal he actually begins to act.

Yes, of course the character is a nutcase that murders people, but when I speak of “normal” I’m talking about how deliberate he is with his speech, how he can further formulate sentences without laughing or looking at the ground.

This is so much like the gym lifestyle and gaining control over your own body. As I watched this movie again, I couldn’t help but think about its relativity to what bodybuilding can do for somebody. I also wished that Arthur could use TRT to feel better about his life!

Building your body, feeling good about yourself, and having control over your life, is like shooting back at a fucked-up society! It’s very hard to establish relationships and honest communication with people when you don’t feel good about your life or who you are as a person.

If something doesn’t make you feel good, then it’s not worthwhile. And I’m not talking about when you’re high or drunk, I’m talking about those rides in the car by yourself where you think about who you truly are and what your life actually represents. WINNING… YOUR LIFE SHOULD REPRESENT WINNING!

You often cannot get anything accomplished by looking at the big picture. You have to dismantle that and look at small pieces of the puzzle as your weeks move forward. If you’re a drunk and you have this mental image of this amazing body, forget that image for now and focus on a more short-term realistic image. Maybe you focus on how you’d feel hitting good meals and the gym 6x this week rather than fucking up.

Maybe you focus on getting a better night’s rest this week and how much better it feels to be recovered and alert during the day than in a fog and groggy.

Focus on cardio and losing a steady 2-3 lbs this upcoming week rather than thinking you’ll look like Mr. America within a month!

I’ve heard it time and time again; “If I took what you took, I would look incredible in no time!”

No, you wouldn’t, you’re not strong enough to do what I do to this level. Stop talking about things you don’t know anything about!

If people would just shut the fuck up already and start going to work on something, we’d have a lot fewer social media videos of 400 lb tubs of shit acting like they’re the cat’s ass!

FAKE CONFIDENCE, FAKE WORK ETHIC, FAKE SOCIETY! PEOPLE WANT TO SHOW YOU WHAT THEY WANT YOU TO BELIEVE, NOT WHAT THEY’RE TRULY CAPABLE OF!

We live in a world where weakness and fragility are commended, and true grit is often hidden! I don’t respect that shit and I never will!

IT’S NOT OK TO BE WEAK, AND IT’S NOT OK TO BE POWERLESS.

THE TRUTH IS THAT THIS WORLD IS A LOT LIKE GOTHAM CITY, AND THERE ARE PEOPLE THAT EXIST TO TAKE FROM YOU AND KICK YOU WHEN YOU’RE DOWN!

POWER ONLY RISES, THE WEAK WILL FALL.

I SAY, IT’S BEST TO BE MORE LIKE ARTHUR FLECK AND START SHOOTING MOTHERFUCKERS WHEN THEY HAVE YOU DOWN ON THE GROUND!

(Don’t really shoot anyone, just take your fat ass to the gym already!) 

TRAIN HARD! – JD