Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Let's be realistic. There is no way they all have huge hulking muscles if they don't. To be honest it never mentions anything about a gym in the books besides the training pit. Same goes for CSM s. PLUS their bodies are corrupted and maggot ridden... hmmm. All that aside. Are their space marines that are tall and slender too? Or are they all just hulking beasts?

I wonder how much one could bench press on average. Lol... 700 lbs.

Space marines have massive muscles because as part of their conversion and on going maintanance they have increased levels of muscle growth hormones and excess protein to build muscles.

Also the training grounds would allow for the muscles to get a work out anyway, they aren't just shooting ranges, they cover all types of combat including close combat.

In short space marines don't need to bench press when they have super science on their side.

Well, they probably weigh around 600 pounds if they are 7.5 feet tall with denser (and more) bones, denser musculature, an expanded chest cavity with additional organs, etc. So I imagine their bench press is pretty absurd, heh.

To answer the question though, I'm sure there's a pretty rigid exercise regimen they adhere to, as well as all sorts of fancy muscle-stimulation equipment.

Or perhaps they are like real world Marines and spend ungodly hours in the gym, buy overpriced supplements online and get illegal gak shipped to them from Canada and other parts of the world when they are deployed.

Well in that case i never hear about them eating any copious amounts of protien either. Not to mention that kind of training would make ones body slender as opposed to "hulking" as i always hear


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Veteran Sergeant wrote:Well, they probably weigh around 600 pounds if they are 7.5 feet tall with denser (and more) bones, denser musculature, an expanded chest cavity with additional organs, etc. So I imagine their bench press is pretty absurd, heh.

To answer the question though, I'm sure there's a pretty rigid exercise regimen they adhere to, as well as all sorts of fancy muscle-stimulation equipment.

Or perhaps they are like real world Marines and spend ungodly hours in the gym, buy overpriced supplements online and get illegal gak shipped to them from Canada and other parts of the world when they are deployed.

First off, entertaining how you described marines, as i am one and posting from the gym right now. Lmao. Anyhow yeah your posts make much more since than the first poster. More of a visual for me.

Honestly, you're talking about working out and serious dedication to physical fitness.


Have you seen the pics of the principal design guys who have worked at GW over the years or the Black Library authors?


I imagine that kind of thing isn't written about because, well, the authors don't have any idea what it would take. I mean, they don't know much about weapon design or warfare either, but that stuff is relatively easy to fake if you've seen enough action movies since the 40K fanbase isn't too overly concerned with realism or believability.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Brother Thomas wrote:Well in that case i never hear about them eating any copious amounts of protien either. Not to mention that kind of training would make ones body slender as opposed to "hulking" as i always hear


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Veteran Sergeant wrote:Well, they probably weigh around 600 pounds if they are 7.5 feet tall with denser (and more) bones, denser musculature, an expanded chest cavity with additional organs, etc. So I imagine their bench press is pretty absurd, heh.

To answer the question though, I'm sure there's a pretty rigid exercise regimen they adhere to, as well as all sorts of fancy muscle-stimulation equipment.

Or perhaps they are like real world Marines and spend ungodly hours in the gym, buy overpriced supplements online and get illegal gak shipped to them from Canada and other parts of the world when they are deployed.

First off, entertaining how you described marines, as i am one and posting from the gym right now. Lmao. Anyhow yeah your posts make much more since than the first poster. More of a visual for me.

I was a Marine for ten years, and I guessed from your avatar that you'd get the humor in it.

Haha, semper fi. Also i thougt about how nerdy and scrawny the writers must be too. Makes sense ^^ hey whatev, they make awesome books.

they are constantly working out in the battlefeild.. there is nothing more physically demanding then a lifetime of war

Yes. They call it "Battle."

even more reason for them to be slender, instead of "hulking"

The hulking is part of the process though, not a factor of their exercise regimen. Their skeletal structure is entirely different than a normal humans. Bones are thicker and denser to bear the additional weight they are carrying. Chest cavity is wider and deeper to accommodate more organs. Their musculature is also denser.

Real Marines are rarely hulking because the PFT is fundamentally flawed and skewed against big guys who will struggle doing pullups even though they can carry a 240 no sweat, and favors 5'5" Mexican guys with short arms who can run fast. The idea is to be lean and fit with effective muscular endurance. The human body responds to that kind of training in a certain way. The Space Marine is just genetically engineered to be absurdly strong, and probably has amazing cardio and muscular endurance by benefit of all the wacky modification he goes through. So his muscles are going to be more in line, physiologically, towards the kinds of physique you see on the best Marines, or MMA fighters. But they're just going to be hulking because that's the way they are made.

Lmao midget mexican arms. I can do 20 pullups easily but i weigh 200 pounds so i dont run so fast lol. But yeah, you definitely put tnings in perspective. I never really thought of it that way. Maybe i just think too in depth about this stuff. Anyhow what was your mos?

Possibly, but they are 'hulking' because they were designed to be that way. They are stuffed with extra organs and redundant systems, extra thick, dense, mutated bones, and have special organs that put their muscular development into overdrive. While I'm sure they do work out as part of their training, they are hulking, physically the reason they are hulking is for the same reason a gorilla is: it's biologically designed to grow to that size, regardless of exercise. They aren't humans anymore.

As to why they were designed that way, instead of to a possibly more effective, lean and fast physiology: Space Marines are as much (possibly more) of a psychological weapon than a tactical one. They were primarily designed to fight other humans. They fire noisy weapons that tear humans into bloody chunks. They come down from the sky in drop pods in the midst of enemy emplacements, then tear into their foes with chainswords. They wear bright colors and cary around pagentry, declaring their presence to all nearby. They charge fortified positions and are near impervious to small arms fire. And, yes, they are hulking 7-8 foot tall armored giants.

Part of their job is to be highly visible, spraying gory death into their foes. Their job is not only to kill a man, but to put the fear of the Emperor in his 30 friends and take the fight out of them. In most battles they don't want to be camoflaged, or fighting from a distance. They want to be up in your face and terrifying.

So, yeah, they are big. Bigger than is tactically necessary. But psychologically it gives them an edge that often causes entire planets to surrender once the Emperors "Angels of Death" begin to descend. In the minds of most humans they are not solders, they are mythical divine harbingers of destruction.

Heh. The mention of Space Marines working out makes me want to make "I'm Righteous And I Know It".

Saying you can't run because you weigh 200 pounds isn't always true. I was a marine for seven years out at 29 palms. I tipped the scales at around 194. I still ran the 3 miles in the low 17's. (About 17.10) give or take a little.

I get 2000 ish

In quite a few of the BL books - they shown training / working out

They go through a series of daily exercise rituals to maintain their physical condition, prevent things like muscle wastage.

Battle usually keeps them in top form though.

In salamander they work out. Without the aid of armor.

I don't usually link to Lexicanum, but in this case it's a direct copy from the Codex text rather than a subjective amalgamation of potentially incompatible sources, so ...
http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Daily_rituals_of_a_Space_Marine

I do not see "workouts" anywhere in there, but as has been mentioned before the effect of such activities may just as well be received from close quarters exercise and combat manoeuvre practice. Alternatively, space science may make it possible that such exercise is not needed in the first place.

Lastly, people who prefer the idea of actual workouts in some sort of "Astartes Gym" may of course also choose to discard GW's schedule for their personal interpretation of the setting. Artistic license is not a privilege of BL authors, after all, especially given that consistency was never meant to be strictly enforced throughout the franchise.

That's one blurb from one Codex that's fourteen years old. Given the amount of differentiating fluff, it's possible that could just be interpreted as "a day" not "every day".

That, and well, I already mentioned that nobody writing this fluff seems to be too terribly well versed in physical fitness or warfighting, lol.

It makes for an amusing read, but it's dangerous to take stuff like that too literally. After all, the Codex books, especially the older ones, are filled with stuff that contradicts later published material. But then again, you're one of those people who prefers to read everything literally and inflexibly, let's not forget before we point too many fingers at those who are willing to be flexible on the absolute validity of every single thing that's ever graced the pages of a GW project.

Why should I assume that the studio's stance on something has changed when they did not publish anything that contradicts it yet?

As I said, people don't have to stick to it. Just thought I'd throw the latest official GW stuff on the subject in here, just in case someone is interested in the original source material. Feel free to instead follow some licensed product or make up your own stuff if you will. This has nothing to do with "pointing fingers", but with recognizing that there are numerous individual interpretations on the subject instead of a single one. This needs to be kept in mind when examples are posted, lest the end result will be twisted by an attempt to merge it. It's why various Lexicanum articles look a bit weird.

Brother Thomas wrote:even more reason for them to be slender, instead of "hulking"

Keep in mind that a good deal of their combat-style involves using swordplay, which does produced thick arms, chest, and shoulders.

I think normal trainining with weapons and fighting in combat is enough of a workout to keep these muscles up, especially with increased muscle growth hormones n stuff.

The CSM cheat. The power of the warp is like anabolic steroids times 1000, which would make them the lazy marines who devote their time to more personally..... satisfying... pursuits.

Well, it's hard to know exactly what they'd need to do to gain and keep that gorilla-esque physique.

Us mortal humans go through a workout session, which exhausts and damages our muscles.

Our muscles respond to that damage and exhaustion by becoming bigger and stronger.

So what if the Marines can simply trigger that growth response, without the need to train?

Also, re them being bulky rather than slender: As a marine, you pretty much always want to be in close combat. At range, you're just a guy with a gun. A very expensive, numerically inferior, large, brightly coloured guy with a gun.

But in close combat you're an unstoppable juggernaut of destruction crushing fragile meatsack bodies with every movement. There's a moment in one of the Grey Knight novels where a squad of Grey Knights assault a building fortified and defended by the enemy, by using their armour and speed to cover the ground and then simply run straight through the walls!

Combat training in their practise cages perhaps?
Hefting a big sword about and swinging it about quickly for hours on end is bound to keep your muscles huge.

yellowfever wrote:Saying you can't run because you weigh 200 pounds isn't always true. I was a marine for seven years out at 29 palms. I tipped the scales at around 194. I still ran the 3 miles in the low 17's. (About 17.10) give or take a little.

Usain Bolt is about 190.

Anyhow, I would guess that they do work out. Whilst there is little mention of SM working out the Custodes most definatly do. They train in martial arts, do physical training and things like the blood games and simulated combat. They also spend alot of time in meditation, planing and guard dutys. I would guess it is like the work of a marine/para with the life of a monk.

They do workout, its called purging heretics and Xenos. But in all fairness I imagien that they do some form of PE and martial arts

Hell yeah they do! I bet they piss NO-xplode.

Yes, I think so. They have training exercises geared specifically towards improving strength.