Bodybuilding: The New Form of Drug Abuse

It is incredible what people do to improve their body from losing weight to building muscle. I can't believe they would even put their self in harms way but it happens every day. Excellent post on how times have change from real body building to damaging your body for maximum muscle gains.

To me losing weight and building muscle should be about health first it often isn’t especially if the person is prone to disordered behaviors. I would try to lift weights in high school but when I was actually losing weight for the first time at 17 the female body builders actually made me not want to lift. I didn’t know that female body builders could look natural.
I like that female body building is now embracing that natural look. I want to be strong and healthy. I do not want even supplements not cleared first by a doctor. Some supplements can be dangerous in their own right. I mean just look at Ephedria. It’s too easy to do ephedria wrong.

What I love is this quote: "In the USA nearly four out of five users are non-athletes who take these drugs with the sole intention of improving physical appearance." Um, isn't that why people use diet pills? or Propecia? or why plastic surgery is booming? I don't get why it's news that people are taking drugs that help you look better, in order to look better... ;-)

To get to the size of those big bodybuilders (the really big ones) takes a lot of dedication, time & focus. They have to be obsessed about it to be the best.

I can definately see how Steriods would be very tempting. Especially when you train your guts out, and some young punk comes along in half the time using steroids and he is bigger!

I wonder if its the competition prize money, edorsements, vanity, and for some guys, attracting certain lady types, or just the urge for perfection, or a combination of everything, as the reason for all the drug abuse. But I think its also just laziness. We'll find whatever shortcuts we can to acheive a certain result, even if we know that shortcut can cost us our health and lives. *shrug*

About supplements: There are plenty of natural bodybuilders that say you do not need supplements. A good nutrional plan is all you should need in most cases. I dunno about you but I think their hard work and results speak for themselves. Assuming they are actually honest about their natural bodybuiilding ways. Of course I don't think I've seen natural bodybuilders as big as the biggest roid pumped bodybuilders...

"From a male perspective - the pressure is strong. The bulked and ripped male physiques that grace the magazine covers always catch my eye. I walk away feeling slightly more scrawnier and just a bit more flabbier."

I don't think you speak for most males, although I understand that it's journalistically tempting to try to cook up a counterpart to eating disorders in women.

I think most men look at body builders as freaks, and would tend to aspire more to the coverboys of Swimming World.

I know a few women who find bodybuilders as freaks.

But, as a guy I don't see them as freaks but it is unnatural looking. I certainly cringe seeing their muscles bulge in competition and while training. It gives me the feeling that they are about to burst open or snap at the tendons. Ow...

Most women I know (including me) think that the too-muscular bodybuilder look is gross gross GROSS. Just looking at the pics in the article, I find the one from 2005 to be downright scary, and the one from the 1940s slightly odd, but certainly 100% more attractive!
Not that people should do things based on what others find attractive...I was more responding to the comment above about most women seeing bodybuilders as freaks.

Perhaps its the "uncanny valley" affect [wikipedia]. In this case, the more muscular one looks, the less human they appear?

I'm an 18 year old girl. I have to say that I don't find really muscular guys particularly attractive and I don't think other girls I know do either. However boys seem very interested in gaining muscle mass. Perhaps being muscular is more about competition between guys then an attempt to be attractive to females. Actually, I suspect that female thinness ideal is more about competition and status between women then about what men are attracted to. I don't think that men are attracted to sticks any more then women like body builders. Any of the guys here want to comment?

Quite a few women find the overly muscular body gross, not just some. The only 'slightly odd' thing about the 1948 photo is that it doesn't match with today's standards. Back then, it was about representing the physicaly fit male body, developed naturally to its optimum. Optimum meaning a still practical and functioning body.

The over done body building of today, represents - unfortunately - a large portion of society today...everything bigger and bigger, bulked up like some cartoon action creature (Hulk) or ultra-Rambo type.

Yes, they are freaks, in the sense that freak is something unnatural and far out of the norm. Those fellows who turn themselves into such grotesque proportions can barely move and are SLOW, they are so inflexible - amongst a list of other 'can't do's' because the body is developed beyond practical and usable - as were were meant to be.

When one of those mags are in front of me (waiting to pay the petrol, etc) I find it almost revolting and can't help but think 'How can someone DO that to themselves'.

First thing in my mine (I know it is unfair) is: big and dumb and too wrapped up in themselves to have room for much else. It's lifetime maintenance.

For me, and many, many other women, a light athletic body, v-shaped, nothing overly developed is really, really attractive.

Of course, nothing is even more attractive than a good character and personality and intellegence, even if the arms and the rest are 'normal'.

The point of this new research about drug use is this: It is not so much about huge competitive bodybuilders (ala Ronnie Coleman) - but about normal guys wanting to get ripped. I think the pic of Ronnie Coleman has confused this. The juxtaposition of those 2 photos shows how much things have changed in sixty-odd years.

Perhaps it depends what social circle you are in... but I've seen many many men who lose some fat, then go on to begin a process of building muscles. They aren't looking to build ridiculously huge biceps - they are after the 6-pack abs and the solid pectorals... Think "Men's Health"...

The stats quoted in the article above are sampled from ordinary gyms in the UK - not comptetitive bodybuilders. Not from competing sportsmen.

When I talk to ordinary guys at the gym - they say they are "bodybuilding".

For many, the term bodybuilding is synonymous with weight lifting.

Anyway. Here's what I get out of this: Steroid use is far far higher than I imagined. I think that's something worth writing about...

Great article about the real issues going on in gyms today. The issues of steroids, growth hormone and diet drugs goes directly against the true health and fitness foundation of really what it really means to be physically fit and to live a healthy lifestyle.

These individuals are simply drug users who are using illegal substances to "cheat" in order for quick gains in muscle mass and strength. Many of them don't want to invest the time to put forth the hard work to eat right and train correctly to attain an impressive physique. Its very unfortunate for the younger kids who are growing up and see Bonds and many other "enhanced" professional athletes who have used steroids and other performance enhancing drugs to reach the next level of their profession, break records and earn multi-million dollar contracts due to cheating. There is no doubt many of these athletes are truly gifted individuals, but when you start taking illegal substances in order to break records which are "pure", its completely unethical and sad for the players who attained these previous records naturally and with hard work and determination.

The biggest issue with steroids and performance enhancing drugs is the mental aspect of the individuals who take them. They start to get bigger and stronger during their cycle but once they get off the drugs, they usually have caused so much damage to their natural testosterone levels, that they crash and lose a large amount of the muscle they gained. Because their t-levels are messed up, many times they end up smaller then they were before they started their cycle. This turns into a huge psychological effect for them and they start hearing their friends and others in the gym saying, "Man what happened? Your so much smaller!". This is extremely hard to take for guys who have blown up from explosive gains while they were on their cycle only to find out that now all their gains are gone and they need to do something fast. This turn into a viscous never ending cycle of steroid use and their off-cycles start to diminish more and more. Their body's receptor sites start to need higher and higher dosages of steroids in order to keep growing and then their mental "muscle dysmorphia" sets in. Although they may be 250 pounds of lean muscle with 8% body fat, they still look in the mirror and see themselves as skinny! This is a serious psychological issue which many steroid users deal with. Let alone the issues with finding their next cycle and a good source of legit gear. Its a never ending cycle of unhealthy drug abuse, mental anguish and illegal usage.

We receive hundreds of email messages everyday about men and even women going through these serious issues with steroids and illegal performance enhancing drugs. We run a "Steroid Free Zone" on our site and try our best to provide as much quality information on healthy nutritional choices and strength training exercises to get into shape the right way in order to live a healthy lifestyle.

We hope this helps others who have had any thoughts about gaining more muscle or increasing strength with the use of steroids. Stay away from these damaging substances and make the choice to live a healthy and drug free lifestyle!

I think that information like this needs to get out to more people in the mainstream. Before I started reading more fitness magazines and health sites, I thought that the majority of the bodybuilders I saw were completely natural, and it used to completely baffle me that they could look like that.

Thanks for sharing the news...

I'M 16 YEARS OLD.I STARTED EXERSICE AT 5 AN NOW MY ARMS I HAVE ARE ONLY 65CM.IS IT GOOD.I CAN STAND ONLY 390-400 WEIGHT I'M 220HEIGHT AND MY WEIGHT IS 150 KILOS BUT I HAVE MANY MUSCLES ON DAY SOMEONE HIT ME AND I DON'T FELL ANYTHING BUT HIS HAND HAS PROBLEM.BUT I DON'T KNOW IF I CAN JOIN TO A COMPETITION AND IF SOMEONE IS STRONGEST THAN ME