The Dark Side Of Bodybuilding

For most people, a bodybuilding regimen is wholly positive. A routine of weight training, cardio, and balanced nutrition will yield many health benefits, including stronger muscles, greater stamina, and healthier bones and joints (via Bodybuilding). It will also help control body weight and decrease the chances of heart disease, high cholesterol, and numerous other maladies. Perhaps bodybuilding's most gratifying benefit is its release of endorphins in the brain, which can help to reduce stress, anxiety, and depression.

However, bodybuilding is not always a healthy, balanced sport. Both amateur and professional bodybuilders push their bodies to extremes, and may use cocktails of drugs — namely steroids — to achieve their goals. These drugs can create a litany of health issues such as heart disease, liver failure, and infertility, among many others (via the Mayo Clinic).

There are psychological consequences, too. Competitive bodybuilding requires an obsessive dedication to regimen and routine, sometimes at the expense of friends and family. It can also be hard for bodybuilders to establish a fixed limit on their goals. Some will get lost in the rabbit hole of muscle dysmorphia, a mental disorder that convinces bodybuilders that they are never big enough. So, without discounting its many benefits, here is the dark side of bodybuilding.

The following article contains references to addiction, abuse, and mental health struggles. If you or anyone you know is experiencing these issues, help is available. Contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).

According to Dr. Tanya Bunsell, female bodybuilders are often labeled "grotesque," "fake," "freak," "narcissistic," "pornographic," and "scary." A 17-year-old bodybuilder told her, "People can be so cruel. I've had people shout out their car window at me 'are you a geezer?', or stop me out in the street when I'm shopping and ask me 'are you a man or a woman?'"

Bunsell, who frequented gyms and worked backstage at competitions, investigated why women pursue bodybuilding. Many told her that they began lifting to control how they look and feel, often after childbirth, rehab, alcoholism, and eating disorders. The gym became a sanctuary for many of these women. 

Regrettably, some women may never find the sanctuary of the weight room, since they report feeling "overwhelmed" or "intimidated" by the often male-dominated spaces (via Insider). "Gym anxiety is so common," said powerlifting coach Lis Saunders, "...even though I have lots of lifting and coaching experience now, I still feel anxious every time I go to the gym." 

Also known as bubble gut, HGH bloat, and various other names, Palumboism refers to the phenomenon of distended, bulbous bellies amongst advanced professional bodybuilders (via Healthline). The condition is named after Dave Palumbo, who was one of the first bodybuilders to develop a gut that had bloated out of proportion. "No one knows exactly what that is," said six-time Mr. Olympia Dorian Yates, "but I started using insulin as an anabolic in '96 – '97 and my stomach started to get a bit distended, so I think this is the cause." According to Healthline, bodybuilders take insulin because it helps muscles to absorb protein and other nutrients.

As described by BabbleTop, Palumboism has been observed in leading bodybuilders such as Phil Heath, Kai Greene, and Ronnie Coleman. In 2015, Arnold Schwarzenegger criticized this trend in bodybuilding, "So many of those guys have their stomachs sticking out ... it used to be that you should have a v-shaped body, now it's kind of like a bottle-shaped body."

Synthol is a "site enhancement oil" that can be injected to bring fullness to specific body parts, especially the biceps and triceps (via Generation Iron). Synthol users will simply inject the substance into the desired area, pumping it up.

In 2017, the late Rich Piana said, "I used synthol probably 12 years ago. I didn't like it ... it blurred my muscles and made my muscles look weird and it is incredibly painful ... it is very hard to train ... you're going to have to take some painkillers while you train because it's so painful." Numerous other bodybuilders have admitted to synthol use, including Milos Sarcev, who almost died when his ex-wife accidentally injected synthol into his vein, sending the oil to his heart.

The most infamous synthol cases have occurred on the furthest fringes of bodybuilding. An extreme example is Valdir Segato, a Brazilian construction worker who engorged his arms, shoulders, chest, and traps with huge doses of site enhancement oil. "The doctors tell me to stop it," Segato said, "But it's my decision to use it because I want to, because I like to." Segato died aged 55 on July 26, 2022 (via UOL).

With their broad shoulders and bulging muscles, bodybuilders may appear to be a picture of confidence. However, it has been recognized that some bodybuilders suffer from muscle dysmorphia or, as some call it, "bigorexia."

"Bigorexia is a term that refers to a reverse case of anorexia nervosa," said Dr. Harrison Pope, a leading authority on male body image issues, "it is a sort of obsessive-compulsive disorder, and it is particularly prevalent in guys who get into competitive bodybuilding and use anabolic steroids." Such men typically have considerable muscle mass yet still see themselves as weak or inadequate.

Several bodybuilders have spoken about their body image issues. Craig Golias, an enormous 350lb bodybuilder from Las Vegas, told Generation Iron, "I am addicted to getting big... even when you're the biggest you still want to get bigger... I would definitely say I have bigorexia because I am never satisfied." Bigorexia is by no means confined to professionals and Instagram stars such as Golias, who has over 1 million followers. According to the BBC, one in ten gym-going men are affected by muscle dysmorphia. Bigorexia affects women, too. Competitive bodybuilder Ana Snyder said, "If you already struggle with body image issues, attaining what the outside world (or judges) views as the perfect aesthetic does not guarantee that you will see a different person in the mirror."

In the run-up to a competition, many bodybuilders will radically alter their diet to eliminate as much body fat as possible. According to Muscle Insider, these crash diets can lead to metabolic damage and adrenal fatigue. These three issues can be managed with considered nutrition plans and smart training regimens, but individual requirements vary, and discovering them can be a risky matter of trial and error.

For example, if a bodybuilder begins a sudden and sustained withdrawal of carbohydrates, they may suffer fatigue that would likely be made much worse by their intense workout plan. Also, once carbohydrates are reintroduced to the bodybuilder's diet, their body may struggle to regulate the ensuing insulin, which could trigger blood sugar crashes and develop stores of fat.

Then there is the issue of adrenal fatigue, which can be caused by crash dieting and thyroid issues. Professional bodybuilder Tammy Strome writes that adrenal fatigue is typically found in "highly driven" individuals, who pack intense workloads into regimented schedules. Bodybuilders very much fit that description, and they are likely to ignore the signs of adrenal fatigue in pursuit of their goals.

Ultimately, a major problem with the sport of bodybuilding is that bodybuilders are dying young and with alarming regularity. In recent years, bodybuilders such as Rich Piana, Dallas McCarver, Jerry Ward, John Meadows, Cedric McMillan, Shawn Roden, and George Peterson have died, all of them in their 40s, 30s, and even 20s. The cause of death is often heat disease or cardiac arrest, although some deaths, like Rich Piana's, could not be fully determined.

Dr. Thomas O'Connor attributes much of this mortality to drug use (via Muscle and Fitness). "It's not just steroids. It's insulin, human growth hormone (HGH), clenbuterol, diuretics ... drug use now is off the chart on the recreational guy and the pros." O'Connor believes contemporary drug use is ten times greater than during the 1970s "Golden Era," which was ruled by Arnold Schwarzenegger — an admitted steroid user. Compared to today's bodybuilders, O'Connor called Schwarzenegger "a church boy ... which is why he's still alive."