going deep into gym culture and ‘looking jacked’ has actively negative marginal returns, including in terms of attractiveness and also the injury risk rises a lot.
The attractiveness claim here is overstated. For almost everyone, more muscle improves attractiveness. And for the small minority who might exceed mainstream preferences (eg amateur bodybuilders, ) their sexual prospects likely still improve because their social circles shift accordingly. Gym rate communities genuinely find more jacked more attractive, so someone who “overdoes it” by normie standards is typically selecting into contexts where that’s a plus, not a minus.
The one possible exception is short men, who can start looking disproportionate past a certain point. But even as someone who’s 5′5″ and fairly muscular, I’d say I’m probably still seeing positive marginal returns though I’m not 100%. Obviously women are also an exception to this but that’s a more complicated topic.
The attractiveness claim here is overstated. For almost everyone, more muscle improves attractiveness. And for the small minority who might exceed mainstream preferences (eg amateur bodybuilders, ) their sexual prospects likely still improve because their social circles shift accordingly. Gym rate communities genuinely find more jacked more attractive, so someone who “overdoes it” by normie standards is typically selecting into contexts where that’s a plus, not a minus.
The one possible exception is short men, who can start looking disproportionate past a certain point. But even as someone who’s 5′5″ and fairly muscular, I’d say I’m probably still seeing positive marginal returns though I’m not 100%. Obviously women are also an exception to this but that’s a more complicated topic.