"Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the biggest of them all?

Some of the muscle gods at my gym spend an inordinate amount of time flexing in front of the mirrors. Isn’t this just another form of bragging, “Hey look at me!”—or worse, pure narcissism?

My guess is that you’re an ectomorph like me, so that whatever tendencies you have toward narcissism, they are not manifested by prancing and flexing in front of a crowd. Sure, there may be some testosterone driven competition between bodybuilders that accounts for their posing, just as golfers boast about their birdies and Scrabble players, the number of triple-score words in a game. Everything in moderation.

Still, there’s also a legitimate reason for your muscle gods to check themselves out: The best way to see a muscle group is to flex it. And how do you see your pecs? That’s right, you take your shirt off. A competitive bodybuilder explained to me: “Anyone who is training for a bodybuilding competition should be practicing his posing at least an hour per day.” Nevertheless, this man admits that some guys do indeed pose “just to show off.” But, hey, nobody’s forcing you to look at these guys!"