Positives & Negatives of Bodybuilding

Bodybuilding is a controversial sport. For both male and female competitors, it becomes an all-consuming pursuit. Even though any professional athlete is completely committed to their sport, professional and amateur bodybuilders experience one of the most particularly rigorous and demanding lifestyles, both during preparation for shows and during their "off-season." Be aware there are both positives and negatives in bodybuilding and properly managing your approach to the sport is vital.

  1. Positive 1: Iron Will, Unshakeable Confidence

    • Completing a bodybuilding competition can boost your self-confidence and your discipline significantly. It takes a lot of self-belief to complete the rigorous preparation schedule and then get up on stage in very little clothing to be assessed in front of hundreds of people. You will learn how to train, what to eat and what lifestyle choices to make in order to reach your goals.

    Positive 2: Enviable Aesthetics

    • Bodybuilding creates amazing physiques. Preparation for a show can take three to six months of heavy training and dieting. Most competitors train twice a day -- they do one heavy weight session and also one strenuous cardio session. This can take up to four hours a day. Most competitors also follow a highly restrictive diet for the duration of their preparation. While this is very demanding, the aesthetic pay-off is high. Competitors enjoy the lean muscle definition and very low body-fat as the fruit of their efforts. They look buff in any type of clothing and can feel proud of their appearance at all times.

    Negative 1: Becoming Dysmorphic and Disorderly

    • Disordered eating and body dysmorphia are very common problems among bodybuilders. The constant focus on extremely rigid dietary habits and very heavy training loads can lead to obsessive behaviors. Depression and self-flagellation is very common after a show as well. This is because competitors will intentionally increase their caloric intake or lessen their training load to take the strain off their body, only to find later that they are no longer quite as lean as they were on stage. This can cause serious mental distress and anxiety, and propel the competitor into destructive overtraining and undereating behaviors.

    Negative 2: Hormone Horrors

    • Endocrine (hormonal) damage is fairly common in the bodybuilding community, as the combination of caloric restriction and extreme physical stress disrupts normal hormonal processes. Thyroid problems, adrenal fatigue and disrupted sexual function are all some of the negative outcomes. While these conditions don't develop overnight, they can cause serious long-term health problems and take a long time to recover from.