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Not sure I want them
I have often heard the phrase "rippling muscles" and never really thought about it. In fact, like most people, I've probably accepted it as a description of some hulking thug/bouncer or other well defined male specimen. I've never heard of a woman so described.
However, thinking about the phrase I realised that those with bulked up or steroid fed muscles, don't have them ripple. They are often as hard as rock and only move slowly in conjunction with other such sized muscles.
There is a medical condition where one's muscles do ripple, usually involuntarily but I don't believe it is a condition limited to body builder types. http://www.rightdiagnosis.com/r/rippling_muscle_disease/intro.htm
So maybe the next time we think about using the phrase as the new Ross Poldark is currently being referred to, we should probably think again, unless we are describing someone's affliction.
http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/leisure/national/11838556.Find_out_the_secret_to_Poldark_star_Aidan_Turner_s_rippling_muscles/
However, thinking about the phrase I realised that those with bulked up or steroid fed muscles, don't have them ripple. They are often as hard as rock and only move slowly in conjunction with other such sized muscles.
There is a medical condition where one's muscles do ripple, usually involuntarily but I don't believe it is a condition limited to body builder types. http://www.rightdiagnosis.com/r/rippling_muscle_disease/intro.htm
So maybe the next time we think about using the phrase as the new Ross Poldark is currently being referred to, we should probably think again, unless we are describing someone's affliction.
http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/leisure/national/11838556.Find_out_the_secret_to_Poldark_star_Aidan_Turner_s_rippling_muscles/
Comments
Cliches are odd. Sometimes they so accurately describe something it's clear to see why they're over used, but in other cases they don't make much sense. eg as skinny as a rake - rakes aren't particularly skinny. The handles are fairly thin, but no skinnier than those of most other types of garden tool (Or could I be thinking of the wrong type of rake?) And are cucumbers, which need warm weather to grow, really any cooler than other fruits and vegetables?
agree with your comments re clichés and many may not use them but the reason I raised the discussion in the first place was prompted when I was seeking out my next book to read. I started a book by an author who has published at least 6 well liked crime fiction books and I was dissuaded from going further when this very cliché became the final straw in what I found was uninteresting flowery prose in the prologue. II may go back to it one day but for now, I've chosen something else to read.
Well, PM, it was about meat.
Nuff said.
Carol, I couldn't possibly comment.
But I suspect that the image word doesn't refer to movement, but the undulation of the definition of the muscles, and as such it is a perfectly apposite description.
The excellent writers here though would be well able to find other descriptions.
What ways could you use to describe the body of a stereotypically muscle bound bouncer type?
As for your son, if Opportunity Knocks were still around on TV, he may be able to take the winning slot away from Tony Holland -
Having said that, yes, it's an over-used cliche, as everyone here will agree.
*oils body and flexes biceps*
Halfway through turned it off.
As for rippling muscles - I can't stand even to look at those poseurs.
It's the same with over-inflated boobs - I find them disgusting and un-lovely.
*takes half an hour to squeeze self through door while peering over, over-inflated boobs*
Looks like I'd best leave then, Lizy