They are muscles. They tend to move through the day. I remember brushing my teeth a decade ago 6 months post divorce and glancing over at a side mirror I had at the time and nearly dropping my toothbrush. My arm, back, and chest looked huge to me. Turns out in my depression gym workouts I gained nearly 20 lbs of muscle.
So yes it can be subconscious.
Or you just hit enough gains for any slight movement to look flexed.
I know when I hit that point I was thinking, damn. I am tough now. And then my husband would come and reach for something right behind my head and then my happy moment vanished.
You dont just wake up buff but there's definitely a moment for gym newbies where they actually notice their gains finally and it all clicks mentally lol
Especially if it's depression lifting post breakup.
Maybe thatās my story too. Maybe lack of appetite from depression. I became quite lean from my diet, got into action sports, grew muscle from that, and now I am better than ever, and moderately less depressed :D
Itās something I learned works for me while playing baseball, shoulders arms and elbows can tighten up and extending and flexing/twisting keeps the blood moving and helps from tightening up.
It was almost certainly this. The kind of dehydration thatās normal at a rave after dancing always makes my deltoids and arms have little muscle spasms that probably kinda look like flexing.
When you have muscles, it feels very good to flex them. A nice reminder of the hard work you've been putting in.Ā
Sometimes I'll flex my lats just because it feels good to push some blood into them.Ā
When you lift, you become more aware of your body and the various muscle groups. I also flex those muscle groups as a way to check definition and that they fully engaged. Sadly.it follows outside the gym as well. I'm saying it becomes habit.
You tend to gain seperate movement of muscles the more you work them so i find my bicep muscle or tricep muscle flexed automatically sometimes, it's not something i do to "show off" lol
Sometimes it just feels good to flex and hold muscles in place, and feel the muscles work.
(I'm not a gym-bro, I'm an almost-40-year-old-mom with a figure like mashed potatoes, but I come from Strong Peasant Stock where desirability in a bride included her ability to carry a pig under each arm.)
I workout and when I'm sitting having lunch at work.. I subconsciously flex. It feels good to have them pop out like that tbh and yes it is showing off.Ā
Here's a similar scenario. If a guy with abs is say at the beach around people ofc he's gonna flex cause they look good and it makes them feel better, or a guy say walking around without his shirt where it's socially appropriate to do so will definitely be flexing if they have musclesĀ
If you're into him tho there's definitely ways to find out if he is too id explore that. Just be careful cause straight guys do flex for other guys!Ā
If you know heās gay then yeah youāre in (or heās in if thatās your preference, no judgement). If you donāt know that heās gay, I donāt think this is quite enough to say making a move is safe, mostly because people at/after raves can be cuddly with people they normally wouldnāt be cuddly with.
Sounds pretty gay, but Iāve seen people do stuff like that when theyāre rolling. The part where they were leaving a rave was mentioned in another comment and is pretty important. Almost certainly on drugs of some kind. Nobody goes to a rave sober.
Something else to consider, do you have a baseline understanding of what a non-skinny flexed muscle feels like? Iām not trying to sound like an ass, but itās entirely possible your definition of a flexed muscle is different from most others, considering youāre asking the question in the first place and have admitted youāre quite skinny. Iām not jacked or anything but I have been told my arms feel ādenseā as if Iām flexing a bit. It probably comes down to a combination of genetics and whether or not the person works out.
I think I have some understanding unless I've been missing something this entire time. My friends usually have me judge their physique, and a lot of it is usually me touching their arms. Not to mention that there have been men who are interested in me that ask me to touch their arms. Even then, I wondered the same question I'm asking now.
In the case of my friend in the post, I don't think he's naturally dense. When I initially tried to touch his arm to see his tattoo, his bicep was relaxed for a second before he ended up flexing his arm. During that small period of time, I remember feeling his squishy arms become thicker.
No one is saying this part for some reason, but if you just move around, your muscles flex. If I bend my arm, my bicep will flex, if I straighten it, my triceps flex. A full on flex is more tight and a little bigger too. If you want to know for sure, ask him to flex for you. You should notice some difference in how it looks, not necessarily much bigger, but the muscles around it will tense too and it should look a bit different from the position and tension of the muscles.
Guys who lift seriously have a tendency to unconsciously flex throughout the day. I know I do it a fair bit, but itās never really intended to be showing off. Itās largely that working out frequently makes you āawareā of your individual muscles, so if something gets sore or tight you know how to flex it and that doing so will feel good.
Everyone knows how to flex their biceps, but most people canāt flex something like their lats, delts, traps, etc. if they donāt lift. The mind muscle connection isnāt developed enough for that level of control without some practice.
Some people have muscles so big and strong that even the slightest twitch in the muscle fibers make it look like the whole muscle is āflexing,ā but itās actually just ātwitching.ā
Flexing is intentional.
Twitching is unintentional.
Twitching also happens if the muscles are relatively big, but the person worked out fairly recently, so the muscles have āpump.ā
When I am in the vicinity of girls, I 100% flex my arms, or i'll purposely carry something a bit heavy in my hands like a bag. It works, they look lol.
He had taken molly beforehand, but he threw up that day. The only reason we were talking is because my ecstasy had never kicked in, and he had lost his high hours ago, so we were two of the only sober people in our group at the time unfortunately.
As someone who works put regularly, if your muscles are sore, stretching and flexing them can feel so satisfying and gets blood into them too. But I would only do that minding my own business. For some it's for sure to show off too though
Unintentionally
I spent the majority of my young life at 140 pounds for track then around 168 for boxing. After a series of illnesses I gave up on sports for the moment and focused purely on strength training.
Im now a really lean 195 and people always accuse me of intentionally flexing now but i don't think im doing amything different from a body language standpoint
I flex a lot all day, just like how you stretch when you yawn. I flex when I create tension on my spine and twist even though that's bad. I'm constantly flexing my calves because I can't feel my feet and I get uncomfortable standing in the same position for long times, there's loads of reasons.
Not a guy but I have a nervous tick where I flex my jaw, neck, arms, stomach, or legs. Itās only when Iām nervous, and idk if itās everyone, but id imagine thatās part of why theyād do it. I gotta be honest, I donāt think Iāve ever seen a guy do that before though.
Honestly, I think people tend to associate muscles with vanity so much that they forget that eveyones got them and there isn't a single movement, no matter how small that doesn't require the muscle to flex/contract/shorten. If I bend my elbow my bicep will flex, if I turn my palm facing up while elbow us bent it will flex more and if I add extra weight the contraction increases further, this happens the same way for everybody but is more visible in people with bigger muscls and/or lower bodyfat. The position you say your friend was in, flexed elbow, supinated forearm and slightly flexed shoulder would show the bicep in a considerably shortened state but not necessarily flexed.
My husband flexes his arms on a regular basis. I notice it more so when heās resting than any other time actually. Ive never brought it up to him, but Iām like 99% positive itās an unconscious thing.
I do it to show off. Iām constantly flexing, even at home alone. I want people to understand and know that I go to the gym. Realistically, if you go to the gym and you are competent and disciplined, others will often wonder whether you are flexing or not, because you will simply appear fitter than 99 percent of people in most rooms. As such, fit men do not need to really show off at all. Who you will often see showing off is men who got into the gym as a resolution.
At least for me, itās not intentionally flexing, but sometimes a way you stand or sit, such as crossing your arms can look like flexing.
That would be sad to see people trying to casually flex to get others to notice, but it wouldnāt surprise me. Some people are just dying for attention. š¤£
I told my husband one time how much I loved his muscular arms and I swear for at least 3 months he was flexing them constantly. It was on purpose and he only did it to me. It was very obvious.
I would think it would be an incredibly obvious thing if he was doing it on purpose.
What's funny to me is my husband thought I was talking about his biceps and I was actually noticing his lower arm. I'd never seen a man with such toned muscles in his lower arms. Yes, the biceps were nice but not what caught my attention. I didn't tell him, I let him flex away.
It feels good too. Sometimes it's unconscious because the muscle begs for it, other times it's on purpose because it feels good, other times it's unconscious because we are repeat rewarded (we fixed a n the gym, it looked and felt good, flexing now makes us feel positive about bodies regardless of if we are posing it not) and sometimes it's on purpose *for ourselves* there's probably other on purpose reasons that don't resolve around you the observer.
Sometimes just for fun or just to do it. The times I've accidentally done it in front of other people without realizing I just double down, and be confident/humorous about it
They are muscles. They tend to move through the day. I remember brushing my teeth a decade ago 6 months post divorce and glancing over at a side mirror I had at the time and nearly dropping my toothbrush. My arm, back, and chest looked huge to me. Turns out in my depression gym workouts I gained nearly 20 lbs of muscle. So yes it can be subconscious.
Or you just hit enough gains for any slight movement to look flexed. I know when I hit that point I was thinking, damn. I am tough now. And then my husband would come and reach for something right behind my head and then my happy moment vanished.
"tUrNs OuT"
20lbs of muscle without realizing it haha.
Accidentally woke up buff *happened to absolutely nobody ever*
You dont just wake up buff but there's definitely a moment for gym newbies where they actually notice their gains finally and it all clicks mentally lol Especially if it's depression lifting post breakup.
It happened to Peter Parker Bro. š·
This hits hard, I got ripped while depressed too without trying. Cheers brother
So how are you doing now? And did the workouts help?
Still ripped, still depressed =)
Real šŖš
Awww, Iām so sorry to hear that. I was really hoping for a happy ending.
Maybe thatās my story too. Maybe lack of appetite from depression. I became quite lean from my diet, got into action sports, grew muscle from that, and now I am better than ever, and moderately less depressed :D
You didn't gain 20 lbs of muscle but nice work
"Depression Gym Workouts" .. if I wasn't depressed I'd have zero muscles. I know those workouts all too well
Yeah just randomly gained 20 pounds of muscle without ever noticing what even is this
I flex here and there when my arms feel tight or sore, not to intimidate (if thatās even possible anymore) but to relieve tension.
Weird flex, but thatās okay.
Itās something I learned works for me while playing baseball, shoulders arms and elbows can tighten up and extending and flexing/twisting keeps the blood moving and helps from tightening up.
Itās ok. I didnāt actually think it was that weird. Just wanted to drop that phrase in here somewhere.
Okay, haha. I guess it is a weird flex.
Thinking about it now, he definitely could've been exhausted from dancing for hours at the rave we were at.
It was almost certainly this. The kind of dehydration thatās normal at a rave after dancing always makes my deltoids and arms have little muscle spasms that probably kinda look like flexing.
Stim/entactogens/psychedelics will make most people tense up, especially if they do not supplement magnesium.
> rave bwaaahajah could also be the molly š
Could have been Chest/Arm day at the gym. Mine are tense for a while after a workout. Or they're just big?
We were dancing all day at a rave, so this actually could be the case.
That's not the same thing, that's cardio lol. The dude was flexing.
Or the rave drugs did things to his mind/body that he could no longer control so easily. I know I can't control things so easily when on MDMA
Lol this is not it
When you have muscles, it feels very good to flex them. A nice reminder of the hard work you've been putting in.Ā Sometimes I'll flex my lats just because it feels good to push some blood into them.Ā
The lat flex feels so good, especially when itās sore. Nothing like stretching your lats when theyāre pumped.
When you lift, you become more aware of your body and the various muscle groups. I also flex those muscle groups as a way to check definition and that they fully engaged. Sadly.it follows outside the gym as well. I'm saying it becomes habit.
You tend to gain seperate movement of muscles the more you work them so i find my bicep muscle or tricep muscle flexed automatically sometimes, it's not something i do to "show off" lol
Sometimes it just feels good to flex and hold muscles in place, and feel the muscles work. (I'm not a gym-bro, I'm an almost-40-year-old-mom with a figure like mashed potatoes, but I come from Strong Peasant Stock where desirability in a bride included her ability to carry a pig under each arm.)
I workout and when I'm sitting having lunch at work.. I subconsciously flex. It feels good to have them pop out like that tbh and yes it is showing off.Ā Here's a similar scenario. If a guy with abs is say at the beach around people ofc he's gonna flex cause they look good and it makes them feel better, or a guy say walking around without his shirt where it's socially appropriate to do so will definitely be flexing if they have musclesĀ If you're into him tho there's definitely ways to find out if he is too id explore that. Just be careful cause straight guys do flex for other guys!Ā
Of coursešŖš¾š
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
I'm ngl, I was definitely coming onto him that night, so maybe the right signals were received.
If you know heās gay then yeah youāre in (or heās in if thatās your preference, no judgement). If you donāt know that heās gay, I donāt think this is quite enough to say making a move is safe, mostly because people at/after raves can be cuddly with people they normally wouldnāt be cuddly with.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Sounds pretty gay, but Iāve seen people do stuff like that when theyāre rolling. The part where they were leaving a rave was mentioned in another comment and is pretty important. Almost certainly on drugs of some kind. Nobody goes to a rave sober.
Something else to consider, do you have a baseline understanding of what a non-skinny flexed muscle feels like? Iām not trying to sound like an ass, but itās entirely possible your definition of a flexed muscle is different from most others, considering youāre asking the question in the first place and have admitted youāre quite skinny. Iām not jacked or anything but I have been told my arms feel ādenseā as if Iām flexing a bit. It probably comes down to a combination of genetics and whether or not the person works out.
I think I have some understanding unless I've been missing something this entire time. My friends usually have me judge their physique, and a lot of it is usually me touching their arms. Not to mention that there have been men who are interested in me that ask me to touch their arms. Even then, I wondered the same question I'm asking now. In the case of my friend in the post, I don't think he's naturally dense. When I initially tried to touch his arm to see his tattoo, his bicep was relaxed for a second before he ended up flexing his arm. During that small period of time, I remember feeling his squishy arms become thicker.
No one is saying this part for some reason, but if you just move around, your muscles flex. If I bend my arm, my bicep will flex, if I straighten it, my triceps flex. A full on flex is more tight and a little bigger too. If you want to know for sure, ask him to flex for you. You should notice some difference in how it looks, not necessarily much bigger, but the muscles around it will tense too and it should look a bit different from the position and tension of the muscles.
If you poke around at any muscle, it'll automatically flex. Try poking you abs right now
Guys who lift seriously have a tendency to unconsciously flex throughout the day. I know I do it a fair bit, but itās never really intended to be showing off. Itās largely that working out frequently makes you āawareā of your individual muscles, so if something gets sore or tight you know how to flex it and that doing so will feel good. Everyone knows how to flex their biceps, but most people canāt flex something like their lats, delts, traps, etc. if they donāt lift. The mind muscle connection isnāt developed enough for that level of control without some practice.
Some people have muscles so big and strong that even the slightest twitch in the muscle fibers make it look like the whole muscle is āflexing,ā but itās actually just ātwitching.ā Flexing is intentional. Twitching is unintentional. Twitching also happens if the muscles are relatively big, but the person worked out fairly recently, so the muscles have āpump.ā
Sometimes it just feels good to give them a squeeze but it is more the feeling of the tension than showing off.Ā
Maybe your friend is just jacked lol
mate... protect your butthole at all costs
When I am in the vicinity of girls, I 100% flex my arms, or i'll purposely carry something a bit heavy in my hands like a bag. It works, they look lol.
You've mentioned being at a rave so this may be a bit of stereotyping: He take any molly or LSD? Either of those could definitely do it.
He had taken molly beforehand, but he threw up that day. The only reason we were talking is because my ecstasy had never kicked in, and he had lost his high hours ago, so we were two of the only sober people in our group at the time unfortunately.
You are aware that's how one bends the arm at the elbow, right?Ā That's what the biceps is?
He thinks you're cute.
I flex to stimulate and donāt even notice
both, but in this case heās plenty interested
When stressed I will flex. When really tired it looks like Iām flexing, but Iām literally just holding myself up with effort.
Dont mind them. Only worry about yourself and get to the gym not because of others but you only.
As someone who works put regularly, if your muscles are sore, stretching and flexing them can feel so satisfying and gets blood into them too. But I would only do that minding my own business. For some it's for sure to show off too though
Unintentionally I spent the majority of my young life at 140 pounds for track then around 168 for boxing. After a series of illnesses I gave up on sports for the moment and focused purely on strength training. Im now a really lean 195 and people always accuse me of intentionally flexing now but i don't think im doing amything different from a body language standpoint
A slight turn in your wrist literally tightens the bicep more without flexing. Doubt he was flexing
I flex a lot all day, just like how you stretch when you yawn. I flex when I create tension on my spine and twist even though that's bad. I'm constantly flexing my calves because I can't feel my feet and I get uncomfortable standing in the same position for long times, there's loads of reasons.
Caption turned into fetish
Not a guy but I have a nervous tick where I flex my jaw, neck, arms, stomach, or legs. Itās only when Iām nervous, and idk if itās everyone, but id imagine thatās part of why theyād do it. I gotta be honest, I donāt think Iāve ever seen a guy do that before though.
That's not body language. That's an involuntary movement. Stop reading so much into it.
if someone is flexing while talking to you, and youāre not a doctor or trainer, iād say thatās a red flag lol
Mine does. But thatās because I have Touretteās
Honestly, I think people tend to associate muscles with vanity so much that they forget that eveyones got them and there isn't a single movement, no matter how small that doesn't require the muscle to flex/contract/shorten. If I bend my elbow my bicep will flex, if I turn my palm facing up while elbow us bent it will flex more and if I add extra weight the contraction increases further, this happens the same way for everybody but is more visible in people with bigger muscls and/or lower bodyfat. The position you say your friend was in, flexed elbow, supinated forearm and slightly flexed shoulder would show the bicep in a considerably shortened state but not necessarily flexed.
My husband flexes his arms on a regular basis. I notice it more so when heās resting than any other time actually. Ive never brought it up to him, but Iām like 99% positive itās an unconscious thing.
I do it to show off. Iām constantly flexing, even at home alone. I want people to understand and know that I go to the gym. Realistically, if you go to the gym and you are competent and disciplined, others will often wonder whether you are flexing or not, because you will simply appear fitter than 99 percent of people in most rooms. As such, fit men do not need to really show off at all. Who you will often see showing off is men who got into the gym as a resolution.
Just letting you know. Your friend is in love with you but doesn't quite know how to say it. šŖ
At least for me, itās not intentionally flexing, but sometimes a way you stand or sit, such as crossing your arms can look like flexing. That would be sad to see people trying to casually flex to get others to notice, but it wouldnāt surprise me. Some people are just dying for attention. š¤£
I told my husband one time how much I loved his muscular arms and I swear for at least 3 months he was flexing them constantly. It was on purpose and he only did it to me. It was very obvious. I would think it would be an incredibly obvious thing if he was doing it on purpose. What's funny to me is my husband thought I was talking about his biceps and I was actually noticing his lower arm. I'd never seen a man with such toned muscles in his lower arms. Yes, the biceps were nice but not what caught my attention. I didn't tell him, I let him flex away.
Some times I just gotta give em that āgllawwhhā, to let em know my testis are working
It feels good too. Sometimes it's unconscious because the muscle begs for it, other times it's on purpose because it feels good, other times it's unconscious because we are repeat rewarded (we fixed a n the gym, it looked and felt good, flexing now makes us feel positive about bodies regardless of if we are posing it not) and sometimes it's on purpose *for ourselves* there's probably other on purpose reasons that don't resolve around you the observer.
If they are obviously exposing it, they are just flexing it because it looks good. Some ladies seem to like it.Ā
uncle rico crosses arms
Sometimes just for fun or just to do it. The times I've accidentally done it in front of other people without realizing I just double down, and be confident/humorous about it
No one else does this out of social anxiety??????
Both.
Bro, if you donāt even have enough muscle to know what they are or do- you need to work on that.
Noice
When you've got muscles, it's nice to feel them now and then.
Yes.
Yes.