Burning pewter and working out...

[SwiftSteel he/him]

So if a Thug were to flare their pewter and start doing some crazy bench-pressing, would they gain muscle after a certain amount of time doing this?  Or would the fact that pewter is aiding your muscles mean that you end up with no gaining of muscle mass?

 

I know this isn't really a "Mistborn" question, I just kind of got curious.

[king of nowhere]

your muscles are still doing part of the work. you'll have to bench press much more, but you'll eventually build muscles

[kroen]

I think the process won't be any more effective than working out without pewter. Adding to what king of nowhere said, your muscles indeed do part of the work but most of it is done by the pewter. So for example, lifting a 50kg weight while burning pewter will build your muscles in the same rate at wich lifting a 10kg weight without pewter would.

Edited May 12, 2013 by kroen

[Isomere]

 "Any investiture, over time, will slowly change one’s personality, no matter how small that investiture." source (use CNTL-F: investiture) 

 

I'd say that burning Pewter may build your muscles even without exercising, Just pulling out that Physically focused power makes your Investiture rub all friendly like with your Identity's physical bits, and well, you know the rest. 

[Phantom Monstrosity]

"Any investiture, over time, will slowly change one’s personality, no matter how small that investiture." source (use CNTL-F: investiture) 

 

I'd say that burning Pewter may build your muscles even without exercising, Just pulling out that Physically focused power makes your Investiture rub all friendly like with your Identity's physical bits, and well, you know the rest.

I think extrapolating from personality to physical form isn't a jump you can necessarily make.

[Voidus]

I think extrapolating from personality to physical form isn't a jump you can necessarily make.

No it's not, but we do have Savantism for physical change.

[Phantom Monstrosity]

No it's not, but we do have Savantism for physical change.

I think that's a bit different, though. Savantism happens because you're cutting channels into your spiritweb from overuing the power, not just from having the power per se.

[Voidus]

I think that's a bit different, though. Savantism happens because you're cutting channels into your spiritweb from overuing the power, not just from having the power per se.

Oh I agree, just casually using pewter wouldn't help, otherwise Vin would be rather less slight of frame by HoA I just meant that there is a known mechanism for power causing physical changes to the body, you'd just need a heck of a lot of pewter for it.

[Phantom Monstrosity]

Oh I agree, just casually using pewter wouldn't help, otherwise Vin would be rather less slight of frame by HoA I just meant that there is a known mechanism for power causing physical changes to the body, you'd just need a heck of a lot of pewter for it.

I'm not sure being a pewter savant wouldn't make you weaker when not burning pewter, just like how spook became numb and unable to feel things when he turned off his tin.

[Voidus]

I figured it'd just be a pewter drag, but like 500x worse.

[SwiftSteel he/him]

I'm not sure being a pewter savant wouldn't make you weaker when not burning pewter, just like how spook became numb and unable to feel things when he turned off his tin.

 

It would probably make sense if they FELT weaker, but I don't think they actually physically would be.

[Bigtones he/him]

Pewter is basically like steroids. Steroids itself doesn't give you more muscles, but gives you the ability to push harder for longer.

[skaa he/him]

The Brandon quote only mentioned change in personality, so that implies mental change. A Pewter savant might become more obsessed with physical strength, so he might try to exercise more whenever he's out of pewter just so he'll feel less weak. In that case, Pewter would be an indirect cause of muscle gain. Other than that, I don't think any amount of Pewter Allomancy will directly increase someone's muscle mass without enough exercise.

 

I think that's the point of Pewter Feruchemy's different behavior: When a Brute taps Strength, he's regaining his own muscle mass that he stored previously, so his muscles grow (as we've seen in the books). When a Thug burns Pewter, he's getting strength from Preservation, so his muscle mass stays the same.

 

I wonder what happens when a Brute-Thug Twinborn Compounds Strength. Maybe Brandon has answered this before. Does anyone know?

Edited May 23, 2013 by skaa

[Millennium]

I'd imagine that any muscle mass gained from working out while pewter-enhanced would transfer proportionally to the non-enhanced self, but only proportionally. Using the time-honored tradition of numeres ex recto for my numbers here, you might have to bench press 500 pounds while pewter-enhanced to get the same benefits as bench pressing 100 pounds while non-enhanced.

 

In other words, you could do it, but it wouldn't really provide much in the way of extra benefit.