Posted by Trextacy on t-nation

Honestly, you aren't being paranoid. There is nothing "natural" about wanting to be unnaturally large, hypertrophy your muscles, gaining 50+ lbs of extra tissue, etc. If you analogize your body to a house, bodybuilding is like adding another story- your energy costs, maintenance costs, etc. will go up. The toll one's body takes constantly creating new tissue, gaining fat, losing fat, the supplements, excess calories, heavly loads, etc. can only cause parts to wear out sooner. Unfortunately, it only takes one critical organ wearing out to kill you. OTOH, oxidative stress is pretty high in those who engage in large amounts of steady state cardio. So, it's not like those folks have it much better necessarily. Bottom line- the pursuit of physical perfection (however you define it) is a young man's dream. Like many things, a young man's dreams seem foolish to an older wiser man. Sure, there are some meatheads out there who wish they would've gone bonkers with the weights when they were younger, but for the most part, most mature, wise, older men would tell you to lift, run, eat healthily, manage stress, but don't put "adding as much muscle to your frame as possible" as a worthy or important goal... Certainly not worth all of the expense, effort, time, etc. that is required. It will just go away, and you will be left empty. As many of us know, it can be an all encompassing, 24/7/365 thing. I am 29 and have a high stress job. I am not yet married, but will be soon. Honestly, if I add some more muscle and transition around age 32-33 to more of a maintenance regime I will be happy. Sure, I would've done things differently in the past, but to he honest the journey and learning process has been fun and valuable, even if my own stupidity/ignorance cost me "gains" in the past. I will always lift and work out, but I will compete with myself, want to look good and be healthy, even if that doesn't mean adding a shit load of new muscle. If I were approaching 40 (like you), I would scrap any dreams about adding more than 15 or so pounds of new muscle. What's the point? You will probably fail (unless you gain a bunch of fat in the process...yippee). But, assume you achieve that goal- you would then just have to maintain it at your age. In all likelihood, you won't, and will just feel bummed about losing it. The excess calories and supplementation it would take you to do that at your age would definitely come at a cost. So, bottom line- "bodybuilding" (the hardcore version that is promoted here) is a zero sum game after a point that does take its toll on a person's body. I say build it while you are young and go for it, but at a reasonable age it's probably time to put one's energy into general health and make dietary decisions based on something other than building new tissue.