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I can lift weights on a barbell that are pretty good for a person my age, as a result of several years of regular training.

A person with a forklift can lift a lot more weight. Why does that change how I feel about what I can do unassisted?

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That's true but the point of working out for regular people is to benefit their body, look good, feel good and have that strength vs. the average person who doesn't work out, not so much to be useful lifting heavy objects.

To your point, a lot of hobbies are about creating something that wasn't possible before without the investment of time, which is one reason it's rewarding. If people could just take a pill to get muscles to skip all the training, I'm sure a lot of people who put in time to train regularly would feel cheated out of their accomplishment, especially if nobody could tell if they did it manually or with a pill and if everybody started to have the same musculature with no effort.

Well as it would so happen, they sort of can. There are lifters and bodybuilders in any gym that are taking steroids. Do they still have to do work, yes, but they can achieve results that are not possible for a "natty" lifter. Doesn't affect how I feel about what I can do, nor do I feel cheated, because I really am only competing with myself.

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