Opinions are for suckers. Mark Twight has the facts and the pictures and videos to back it up. Find “The Captain” video.
It appears everyone has an opinion about “300” and how the actors and stunt crew achieved the level of fitness – and consequentially, appearance – for the movie. I have read that it was all CGI, make-up, steroids, etc. However, no one has come right out and said, “those guys worked really hard and had the self-discipline to control what they put into their mouths.” Which is what I suggest: have the self-discipline to control what comes out of your mouth, especially if you are ignorant about the topic being discussed.
Here are a few quotes pulled from the forum of a website, whose owner also purports to have an idea about what it took for the guys to do what they did. Not that his imagination is wrong, he just doesn’t know. Plenty of other quotes may be pulled from know-it-all fitness sites but these few offer the fodder needed for the rant that follows.
“Many of you will know from your own experiences (and common sense) that 8 weeks of training will not transform you from a normal guy into the actors in 300. Nor will 2 or 3 years without roids. Sorry, but thats just the way it is.”
“The actors in 300 are not normal guys, they all will have trained and juiced for years before this and have already been massively well developed.”
“Note, these guys didn’t get this athletically trimmed in a couple months. 6 months minimum with diet.”
“Anyone who thinks that these guys went from “normal” to what they were in the film in anything less than years is very naive, probably through no real fault of there own… Furthermore the vast majority if not all of them will have taken steroids”
“No amount of training, bodybuilding or otherwise, would allow you to develop a physique anywhere near as good as these guys without gear. Go to your local gym and see how many people come close.”
Yeah, go to your local gym and see what passes for work. Even the people engaged in bodybuilding efforts or performing (and I mean “performing” in the sense of acting) short, high intensity cross-training circuits aren’t doing anything meaningful. Watch how people eat while they are in the gym, rushing to swill the latest greatest 500-calorie recovery drink within a 20-minute post-training window after burning a whopping 300 calories on an elliptical machine. This will give you a clue about how they eat when no one is watching and you’ll know everything you need to know about why they can’t “come close” to having a memorable physique (often their stated goal).
Being more forgiving these days, I try not to criticize those who are doing their best with the limited knowledge they have, because they are trying, they are in the gym, they read what the so-called fitness intelligentsia put out, they are hopeful, and they are actually doing the work and not pretending it’s anything other than what it is.
The guy who earns my scorn is the ass who tries to disguise his drooping belly with a baggy t-shirt and pushes his chest out whenever a girl walks by because he has convinced himself he’s “not like the rest.” He’s the guy who offers free advice about training just because he’s one step ahead of the poor guy who has to listen. And the most annoying pricks are the ones who say, “I’ve tried to get that ripped (muscular, lean, fit, fast, whatever) and I can’t do it so it’s impossible that anyone else can do it without chemicals.” Those who aren’t the real thing always find an excuse for their failings when confronted by the real thing. Or they cast the accomplishments of anyone further up the food chain as having been achieved by cheating.
read more here.