Pewter Exercise

[Oudeis]

Eight months after Vin's training begins, eight months of regular meals, Kelsier notes that she's incredibly scrawny still. It seems that despite physical exercise almost every night, she has developed almost no actual muscles, not even flesh.

 

When Ham almost gives Vin some pewter training, he mentions that he only burns it when he has to, to get a bit of an edge in a fight. Ham is big and muscular. When he first arrives at Clubs's, he also grabs a bunch of baywraps to eat.

 

There are several times someone who turns out to be a Thug or a Mistborn are not given away by looking especially muscular.

 

With admittedly very little evidence, I hesitantly propose the following: When you burn pewter, your own muscles get none of the exercise, because pewter is doing the work. However, it still uses up metabolic energy at an increased rate (Ham's appetite, Vin's scrawniness). Whether burning pewter alone simply makes your body burn calories faster, the way it increases your balance, or whether the things you do while burning pewter use up calories, I'm not sure.

[Lazarus52980]

This seems very reasonable to me.  Burning it all the time could even cause overall muscle atrophy from "lack of use".

 

I wonder if the same thing could happen with your bones?  Osteoporosis of the bones since they never need to be "used" in the normal way?  This could make a true pewter savant a very odd dichotomy.

[natc]

I believe Miles has brought up pewter savants before, in relation to Tarson and regeneration. Of course, the man was koloss blooded so any physical deficiencies would probably be less noticeable.

It's an interesting thing to consider. Building muscle mass normally involves some really slight tear to the tissues themselves, resulting in soreness while getting fixed later, but Pewter makes you superhumanly durable as well as strong enough that your muscles are probably rarely taxed to the limit. Judging from Spook's weakened senses, a pewter savant probably would be somewhat frail and weaker normally as well.

[Guest]

This is actually discussed by Elend and Ham in Mistborn 2:

 

WoA, Ch6

“How did she do that, Ham?” Elend asked. “The jump, I mean. That leap seemed inhuman, even for an Allomancer.”

“Used steel, didn’t she?” Spook said.

Ham shook his head. “No, I doubt it.”

“Then how?” Elend asked. “Allomancers draw strength from their metals,” Ham said, sighing and putting his foot down. “Some can squeeze out more than others—but the real power comes from the metal itself, not the person’s body.”

Elend paused. “So?”

“So,” Ham said, “an Allomancer doesn’t have to be physically strong to be incredibly powerful. If Vin were a Feruchemist, it would be different—if you ever see Sazed increase his strength, his muscles will grow larger. But withAllomancy, all the strength comes directly from the metal.

“Now, most Thugs—myself included—figure that making their bodies strong will only add to their power. After all, a muscular man burning pewter will be that much stronger than a regular man of the same Allomantic power.”

Ham rubbed his chin, eyeing the passage Vin had left through. “But…well, I’m beginning to think that there might be another way. Vin’s a thin little thing, but when she burns pewter, she grows several times stronger than any normal warrior. She packs all that strength into a small body, and doesn’t have to bother with the weight of massive muscles. She’s like…an insect. Far stronger than her mass or her body would indicate. So, when she jumps, she can jump. ”

 

So yes, you're right about a Pewter workout not acting like a regular workout, and that being why she isn't putting on muscle, but I think you're wrong about the calorie burning.

 

Ham's large appetite and large muscles are a result of his non-Pewter workout and the food required to power his large muscles and high metabolism. I suspect there's also an element of Cognitive Aspect here, but it would be mild with Pewter (Basically, Ham sees himself as having big muscles, so the Pewter leaves them in place and maybe even adds a bit extra)

 

Vin, on the other hand, is a tiny person who doesn't bother working out and is used to food being very scarce. As such, her metabolism is more focused on energy conservation, and her habits regarding food would limit her intake and prevent much weight gain (things like eating slowly and taking small bites would limit her food intake even though she has plentiful food available). Again, like Ham, I suspect there's also a mild Cognitive Aspect at work such that Vin views herself has thin and small which is then causing the Pewter to do a larger than normal amount of the "heavy lifting".

[soulcastJam]

Pewter isn't forging her muscles so her muscle size shouldn't be affected by how she views them cognitively.

[VindicationKnight]

It's also possible Ham is just a big eater. That does happen  He spends a lot of time as a solider hiding his pewter doing a lot of physical activity. His muscles, and appetite, seem entirely normal to me.

[Guest]

Pewter isn't forging her muscles so her muscle size shouldn't be affected by how she views them cognitively.

I'm not saying the Pewter is shaping the muscle mass, I'm saying that if both Vin and Ham lifted a 200lb weight Vin would lift 180 with Pewter and 20 with her muscles but Ham would lift 150 with Pewter and 50 with his muscles. As a result of that difference, Ham builds muscle while Vin stays tiny.

[VindicationKnight]

I'm not saying the Pewter is shaping the muscle mass, I'm saying that if both Vin and Ham lifted a 200lb weight Vin would lift 180 with Pewter and 20 with her muscles but Ham would lift 150 with Pewter and 50 with his muscles. As a result of that difference, Ham builds muscle while Vin stays tiny.

 

I'll have to check  but I'm fairly sure that characters within the book note that with tiny variations, Thugs get the same amount of power from their pewter. The boost they receive should be nearly identical (with small differences for the power of the Allomancer in question.)