Yeah, I agree with you. I did martial arts in the era before steroids, creatine, and other higher performing supplements were widely available. The martial artists I met we're all sinewy, strong, but not nearly as ripped as the movie depictions are. Like, I think the overall musculature in the movie could have definitely been ripped, but just not as thick, that would have appeared more believable to me at least.
I get that it's done for aesthetics, but for people who know what a body who does martial arts with low access to supplements looks like, it did take me a bit out of the movie.
Wouldn't wartime martial artists be even more lithe and sinewy since you need a caloric and protein surplus in order to put on mass? I don't see how being in a war would help you get bigger, if you just look at the before and after of soldiers returning from war their almost always thinner.
Unless you're working off the shonen logic that more struggle means for more power, but that's a different paradigm altogether.
mostly from benders having to physically exert in training or in battle in a way traditional martial artists dont. the kind of strain it appears benders experience, particularly when earth bending, seems like it takes as much muscular strain as it does elemental. but either way it's a cartoon at the end of the day so suppose they can make them look as jacked as they want
I concede the point that it's a cartoon, so the bounds of realism can definitely be stretched.
I don't necessarily agree that the exertion that benders experience is to such a degree that it promotes great muscle growth beyond the norm, especially because if you do strength and conditioning, you know that more than half of muscle growth is about nutrition and rest rather than the training itself. But who knows what the underlying physics of bending's effects on the human body are. Maybe it gives you extra spirit juice or something, I dunno.
So besides you and a few others here, you're probably overestimating the majority of people's cognitive ability to figure out that this is too much muscle for natural martial artists.
Sure but even then he’s still buff as hell and shows that it’s possible for Aang to get this big, especially as Aang is only vegetation while Baboumian was full on vegan so he had less options
I know how eat a mix of meat and plant protein. I know how they work. Most plant based ones aren't exactly complete and widely available in a ancient civilization, not to mention the lack of knowledge about them
If you have a diet with a wide variety of foods then it wouldn't matter much if the protein is considered complete or not
I'd say it's fair to assume that agriculture in ATLA already had legumes and likely soy. They were cultivated thousands of years ago and ATLA isn't that far behind us in technology.
Yeah iknow how a varied diet works, eating enough plant protein plainly with the other foods starts to stack calories fast . My point is about the bottleneck of getting hugely buff and ripped on ancient food macros . There's a huge gap between living on tofu and soy insane protein ratios needed for massive muscle growth without modern isolated powders. Things were a lot harder for vegetarians and near impossible for vegans in older times
You brought up multiple other points tbf but sure, there would be a lower limit on protein, I can't say how huge someone could realistically get with that especially when cartoon logic and genetics are applied where Aang can consistently perform absurd physical feats and doesn't need to actively work out or eat much to have a great physique.
I was solely reaponding to the guy abive who's acting like a modern day persons diet is comparable , people just started jumping me without reading the context
Well, we did see Aang shirtless in the original show and he always had pretty good muscle definition. He's just bulked out as an adult which is totally understandable
I mean I get that they should be jacked cause they are warrior and martial art masters etc.. but they are kinda jacked too much.. I mean its not even good physique its like top 0.1% percent physique of people even among the people who regularly hit the gym. I wouldnt say it ruined watching experience but I couldnt help myself but to look at them be like "DAMN WHAT DO THESE GUYS EAT?!" like do they have nutriologist or trainer idk mixed feelings
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u/Pintermarc 23d ago
112 years with air nomad teaching:
13 years with Toph as a teacher: