Are Men with Big Muscles Necessarily Dimwitted?

Why is it that men with big muscles or a hulking body are stereotyped as not being very bright? You’ll note that in cartoons, at least the cartoons of yesteryear, the big strong thug is always dull-witted. In movies, big thugs aren’t very bright, either. Remember the huge bald man in the first Indiana Jones movie who gets chopped up by the airplane’s propellers?

This stereotype certainly originated from skinny scrawny guys, geeks, nerds, who were jealous, so these nerds hunted for a flaw in the guys with the enviable physiques. Since they had perfect physiques, large muscles, the only remaining area for a flaw was the brain, and hence, the stereotype was born.

At a place I used to work, I overhead a man from Pakistan deliberately saying out loud how people with big muscles weren’t very intelligent; people who lifted heavy weights didn’t have a whole lot of brains. This man was about 6-4 and 102 pounds.

He was making these statements deliberately loud so that I could hear, because he knew that I was really into weight lifting, and I was the only person there who was into lifting weights. So I then said, loud enough for him to hear, that men with balding heads (and he definitely was balding) weren’t very bright, and as a man lost his hair, his I.Q. dropped along with it.

The Pakistani man found this quite offensive and responded, “Ohhh, that’s not truuuue, that is not truuueee!” Ha ha, I got him good! I mention his national origin because in his culture, women are expected to be subservient, and men aim to control them; though this happens in all cultures, but it’s less prevalent in Western cultures.

Anyways…if anything, a commitment to bodybuilding, power-lifting or any kind of weight lifting enhances mental faculties. Not only does it increase blood flow, and therefore oxygen and nutrients to the brain, but it develops a person’s ability to focus and concentrate, plus set goals and keep track of things.

Many studies show that exercise, including weight lifting, lowers risk of dementia and lowers risk of Alzheimer’s.

Many big guys used to be scrawny little things. So how is it that building muscle causes I.Q. to drop? Conversely, there is a stereotype that scrawny, weak-looking men, especially those with glasses, are very brainy. Well gee, this isn’t necessarily true, either.

I will admit, however, that I always see a few muscle heads at the gym acting like complete jerks. Perhaps this fuels the stereotype, especially when they loudly grunt during their lifts. Often, they talk very loud in a deep, husky voice. But this is just show, to come off as macho as possible. Perhaps during their pre-workout days, they were skinny and were pushed around by bullies.

So the macho attitude and loud voice were created as a coping mechanism, and so was the gorilla-like gait — all to appear threatening so that nobody dare ever messes with them again.

But lifting weights does not lower intelligence! I pump heavy iron, and I am a writer, and aren’t writers supposed to be…brainy?

So go ahead, pump iron and build muscle mass. It will lower risk of Alzheimer’s, lower risk of dementia, and improve concentration.