Honor cultures endorse the ideology that self, family, and property must be defended from threats and affronts with violence and aggressive means (Nisbett, 1993; Cohen & Nisbett, 1994). Recent research has shown that one way men proactively respond to threats is by engaging in muscle-building activities as men higher in masculine honor beliefs have been shown to have higher muscularity and body image concerns (Saucier et al., 2018). That said, little research has examined or tried to parse out specifically why men are motivated toward body image concerns and muscle building. We proposed three motivations for muscularity in men higher in masculine honor beliefs: adherence (based on other men's perceptions of how much you adhere to the ideology), fulfillment (based on how much you personally believe you adhere to the ideology), and interpersonal (based on how much women believe you adhere to the ideology). In the current study, participants completed filler questionnaires and then were told their masculinity score, based on those responses, was in the 17th percentile for men (threatened condition which we further manipulated as threatening their adherence, fulfillment, or threatening them interpersonally) or in the 83rd percentile for men (control). Men higher in masculine honor beliefs reported higher motivations for muscularity regardless of type of motivation, extending findings from previous literature. This was unaffected by the type of threat that they experienced. This seems to suggest that all of the motivations for muscularity are equally weighted in terms of threat response, and men respond with the same intensity. However, the correlational analysis showed that masculine honor beliefs had the strongest positive association with muscular drives related to personal reputation and reputation in other men's eyes. These results suggest that personal and societal reputations are the most salient to men higher in masculine honor beliefs, which explains why men are motivated to gain muscle and become intimidating to others. By engaging in muscle-building activities, men proactively protect themselves, their family, and their property from honor threats.