Six packs, bulging biceps and when muscles are 'just for show'

Six packs, bulging biceps and when muscles are ‘just for show’

Posted by author February 15, 2025 Fitness

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A chiseled chest. Bulging biceps. Adonis-like abs.

Gym rats push and pump weights to stay healthy and enjoy the side effect of looking buff in the process. But does achieving that muscular physique actually translate to peak physical fitness?

“People are always like, ‘Oh, you’ve got muscles, therefore you must be fit.’ I can tell you, for free, they’re for decorative purposes at best,” an influencer said in a TikTok with nearly 200,000 views. “They serve no real functional purpose.”

The truth is that everyone’s body looks different and will respond differently to exercise. Experts say that muscles indeed provide benefits but they are not an indication of overall fitness levels.

“When we talk about fitness, we’re combining many different components from aerobic capacity, to strength training, to power, to balance, to coordination, to speed and so much more,” says Sam Leicht, creator of queer fitness app Pridefit. “If this guy on TikTok has muscles, he’s already much fitter than the general population, but true fitness stems from balancing all of these components into one human.”

Different kinds of workouts mean different kinds of muscles

You likely see all kinds of people at the gym. Bodybuilders, powerlifters, you name it. But each person likely has varying goals to meet their health needs.

Bodybuilders, for example, focus on size, meaning “they’ll work high reps and low weight until muscle failure to break down the muscle fibers so that they’ll grow back bigger and stronger,” Leicht says. But a bodybuilder won’t be able to knock out deadlifts or pull-ups as well as a powerlifter who aims for heavy weights with low rep counts over several sets and rest in between.

“These athletes generally joke about being able to walk down the street as the strongest deadlifter in the world, and still be mistaken for being out of shape because they don’t have the ‘shred’ that we see with bodybuilders,” Leicht says.

That said, having muscles is still desirable, and something those who are used to their muscles may take for granted. “It is likely that that person is stronger than they realize because they have been muscular for most of their life,” says Tiago V. Barreira, associate professor at Syracuse University’s Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics. The only way to know how fit someone is would be “with actual fitness testing.”

‘I don’t want my muscles to be just for show’

People looking to build up their muscles while also staying fit should seek out advice from science-minded, educated professionals. It will likely include a combination of diet intake, body composition analysis, VO2 max assessment, joint assessment and more.

It also might be worth figuring out why you want to look a certain way, and whether social media comparisons are playing into your goals and/or whether something more serious like body dysmorphia is going on.

Overall, though, achieving bigger muscles shouldn’t come at the expense of an overall healthier lifestyle. “I don’t want my muscles to just be for show,” Leicht says. “I want them to be able to look good and rock a functional fitness workout and run a half marathon and have a heavy back squat. Most importantly, I want my training to reduce my risk of chronic disease and extend my health span as long as possible.”