Looking For Natty Physiques Among BBoys (Breakdancing and natural muscle construction analysis)

| by Truth Seeker |

Bboy Darkness from the original Gamblerz crew

Around 2007/8/9, I was interested in breakdancing/bboying. I never practiced seriously, but I did put some effort into it. But it wasn’t exactly for me. I got lots and lots of elbow pain.

I don’t know the scene today, but at the time, Koreans were the ultimate kings believe it or not. I was following the original Rivers crew that at the time included many legendary bboys such as Physicx, Born, C4…etc.

I was familiar with the entire Korean lineup and knew many other names as well (Hong10, Darkness, Noodle, Baek, TheEnd…etc.)

I thought that many of those guys had pretty good physiques. Keep in mind that during that era, the Internet wasn’t nearly as flooded with muscular men. Today, social media is overcrowded with Tren-addicts.

And I wasn’t training with weights myself (apart from one summer doing P90X for 2 months).

So, many of those guys appeared “big” to me. Today, their physiques are laughable by modern standards.

I remember watching the video below and thinking that the guy (BBOY Zero-Nine) was built like a tank.

What’s even more ironic is that one time while I was watching the video, my sister came into the room and said “nice body” totally unprovoked by me.

Similar retrospections reveal that steroids have greatly reconditioned our perception of how a muscular natural man looks.

Are bboys natural?

Some bboys probably lift and inject for the sake of bigger muscles, but the dance/activity itself doesn’t require injections, and apart from the hybrids who bodybuild and bboy, naturality reigns supreme.

Bboying is based on skills, specific joint conditioning, and flexibility. Also, the lighter you are, the easier it is to perform because you are manipulating your bodyweight.

One of the biggest bboys at the time was Junior from France. I used to watch him do planche push-ups on his fingertips and think that the guy was ultra-big. And to be honest, he has a pretty decent upper body (he was bigger than the image above), but still not nearly as impressive as what the cancer known as social media promotes today.

Strength? 

In the next photo, you see bboy Physicx from the original Rivers crew. In his prime, he was considered one of the strongest bboys on the planet due to the very peculiar moves that he could perform.

Physicx in his prime

As you can see he wasn’t big by any means. And one can certainly build a larger upper body even naturally if the perseverance is there.

The reality is that bboying requires a lot of specific upper body joint strength and conditioning, but super big muscles are not required nor produced by the activity.

2Pac’s Physique = Ideal For Bboying

Ultimately, most bboys have a version of the 2Pac physique – somewhat lean, somewhat muscular but still very light.

That’s a decent look for naturals, but you don’t have to break your body doing airflares to get it.

Bboying = Suboptimal 

Bboying for muscle growth is the equivalent of playing tennis to get bigger forearms. It can work to an extent, but there are more optimal pathways to your goals.

Only power move training builds some muscle. The rest (toprock, footwork…etc.) is just conditioning.

Power moves would be the gymnastic elements (e.g., handstand, flares…etc.). Those will produce some shoulder girdle and triceps hypertrophy, but many muscle groups like the biceps and lats will remain somewhat untrained.

And of course, the legs. Bboys need flexible and light legs. You will never see a dedicated bboy with tree trunk legs. Most bboys simply stretch their legs and never train them unless there’s a medical reason to. And I 100% understand that. Any leg mass past the basic level needed for normal existence is a detriment to the activity.

Sure. You need some hip explosiveness to do backflips and whatnot, but since you are only manipulating your bodyweight excess lower body mass is detrimental.

Leanness 

Not every bboy has a set of six-pack abs, but most are fairly lean.

Good luck finding a fat bboy. Not saying they don’t exist but are super rare since every ounce of fat makes the activity way harder.

Calisthenics For The Win

The fastest, cheapest, and most convenient way to a “bboy physique” is to simply do bodyweight training and reduce your calories if you consider yourself fat

Not only that, but calisthenics will produce a more balanced look since pull-ups and the like hit the arm flexors and the back where as bboy training is focused on the delts, triceps, and traps.

I recommend reading the following article if you are new to dips and pull-ups.

You can also use the search function with “dips” and “pull-ups” as keywords, and you will find a lot of articles on the site dedicated to those exercises.

And if you don’t feel like skipping leg day, you can do this simple leg workout at home.

Thank you for reading. 

– Natty

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2 comments

  1. Aoi

    Hey, Truth!
    I remember: 2007, 08, 09.
    Guys who did basic calisthenics , (push ups, dips, pull ups)
    Were considered muscular / fit.
    Now the threshold is so high that it is unattainable, by natural standards, (unless freaky genetics: wide clavicles full muscle bellies).
    Truth be told, the pressure is not only on men! The ladies have it bad too, I’ve never seen so many young women with tattoos and piercings, and big lips walking down the street like It’s something normal.

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