Not a week passes by when we do not hear some news of a bodybuilder passing away. Recently, the news of Jo Lindner passing away at the young age of 30 shook the bodybuilding and fitness community.

Watch a video version of this article here:

Reason Behind Jo Lindner’s Death

Before you jump to the conclusion that it was steroids, the real reason was an aneurysm. In English, it means that his artery burst due to swelling or ballooning. But this does not change the fact that steroids are the biggest reason behind the deaths of many bodybuilders in history.  

Is Bodybuilding Healthy?  

Bodybuilding is not healthy, but… it was healthy. It was one of the healthiest sports in the world until steroids barged in through the door. The purpose of bodybuilding was to become stronger, more muscular, healthier, and live a long and happy life.  

If you look at bronze and silver era bodybuilders, they presented the epitome of health. Most of them lived very long and healthy lives while still being jacked in their 60s. Climbing the stairs in their 80s was not a challenge for them.  

Fast forward to today, competitive bodybuilders are just as unhealthy as obese individuals. Both run the risk of dying from a heart attack at any moment. Both stuff food in their mouths all day.  

Yeah! One group exercises a lot more than the other. But the side-effects of steroids are enough to compensate for that.

Why Is Bodybuilding Unhealthy? 

The first reason is just what you guessed, steroids. Here is an in-depth explanation on the downsides of steroids by Dr. Rohan Fonseca.

1: Steroids Effect On Body

Steroids themselves can be broadly classified into 2 classes. Adreno corticoids secreted by your adrenal gland and sex steroids secreted by the gonads. Adreno corticoids help your immune system and are those  drugs prescribed by your doctor when you might have asthma or allergies. Sex steroids may be prescribed to you for certain conditions and deficiencies by your doctor. Look at the list closely of the functions of sex steroids especially the last point where it activates DNA for protein synthesis. In other words it helps build muscle faster and better and there is no arguing that. 

Now anabolic steroids used in bodybuilding are synthetic compounds which mimic naturally occurring sex hormones as a tool to build muscle. Sounds all great until now doesn’t it? You know the rules. 

If something is too good to be true it generally is. 

Let’s look at the downsides of anabolic steroids and how it affects your body starting right at the top, your brain.

How Steroids affect your brain

In a study which included individuals on cycle, past users and non users of anabolic steroids, it was found that the use of anabolic steroids impaired connectivity in the amygdala. This is a small part of the brain that controls emotions. As a consequence the individual on anabolics has problems controlling emotions, think roid rage, its real. With this he also gets attention deficiency, develops dependency to anabolics, in other words addicted to the anabolics, and also has a higher chance of getting addicted to alcohol and other illegal psychotropic drugs. In short anabolics change your behavior. In addition, when off anabolics you develop depression.

How steroids affect your heart

Anabolic steroids affect the heart by increasing your risk of atherosclerosis. They reduce HDL, your good cholesterol and increase LDL which are one of they key factors in developing blockages to the vessels of the heart. They also increase your blood pressure in two main ways. Anabolics cause water retention creating a temporary increase in your blood pressure. Just as anabolics cause your skeletal muscle to grow they can also influence the heart muscle and cause it to grow.  The heart is also a muscle remember. An enlarged heart further increases your blood pressure and also the vessels supplying the heart may become inefficient leading to a heart attack. 

How steroids affect your liver

Anabolics are metabolized in the liver. Making your liver work harder increases blood liver enzymes. One can stress organs only so much before they give up. Compound this with the increased risk of alcohol and recreational drug use the end result will be permanent damage to the vessels of the liver and increased chances of liver cancer.

How steroids affect your kidneys

Large amount of muscle mass stress the kidneys by increasing the filtration rate and not only that anabolics are also directly toxic to the kidneys. It was observed that anabolic overuse caused protein leakage from the glomeruli in the kidneys and caused an irreversible condition known as glomerulosclerosis.

How steroids affect your hormones

I have just touched on some of the harmful and toxic effects of anabolic steroids, but I have left the best for last.  With the use of anabolic steroids you will essentially lose the function of your pee pee and risk getting gynecomastia . This could happen in just one cycle or in several. Only remember no one ever does one cycle. Due to the brain altering side effects of anabolics you are bound to get hooked. You will forever be dependent on some exogenous replacement for function. And did I mention these substances also cost a lot of money?

Dr. Rohan Fonseca also has a YouTube channel. Definitely check it out for some of the best health and fitness content.

Steroids are just one part of the equation. Bodybuilding has many other aspects that are just as unhealthy. If you follow any of this while being natural, you are still going to be gutting your health.  

2: Shredded = Dreaded

Being lean is healthy. Being shredded is not. 

Fat is essential for survival. It helps in regulating hormones, maintaining immunity, and keeping you energetic. All of this starts to crumble once you go below your body’s optimal body fat level.  

1: Your energy levels will go down. Everything you do will feel much harder. 

2: Your immunity will go down. You will start falling sick more frequently. Common colds will become more common. 

3: Your testosterone goes down. Fats are essential for regulating hormones. Without them, things start to fall apart. 

4: Your recovery goes down. Expect your muscles to stay sore for longer. This might not be the case when vitamin S is used. 

5: Your strength goes down. Your body needs optimal fat levels and calories to build muscle. When shredded, your body’s priority is retaining fat for survival. It does not care about muscles. Again, vitamin S does the trick. That is why bodybuilders build muscles during a cut. 

And not everything goes down. 

6: Your hunger levels go up. Whether you are at the gym, work, the park, theater, food is all you will think about. Tell me again why bodybuilders and obese people are not the same. 

7: Your anger levels also go up. Add roids to the equation, and roid rage becomes a real thing. Even the smallest inconvenience is enough to trigger you. 

Andreas Munzer was one bodybuilder who passed away due to trying to maintain an extremely low body fat percentage.

3: Eat, Eat, Eat

Wait! Is that not what fat people do all day?  

Bodybuilders have no choice but to stuff themselves during the offseason and starve themselves to get shredded before the show. These extreme fluctuations in body composition are not healthy in any way.  

Most bodybuilders will agree that the diet is the hardest part of bodybuilding. The training is easy. Getting huge amounts of food is hard. That is why they must eat every two hours. Some even set alarms to wake up in the middle of the night to eat. How is that healthy?  

After bulking to around 20% bodyfat, it is time to get below 5% bodyfat, stage lean condition. That level of leanness is unhealthy, and the extreme methods used to achieve it make it even worse.

4: Extreme Dehydration

Bodybuilders dehydrate themselves before the show to make their muscles look more prominent, dry, and grainy. So, no water for 24-48 hours before stepping on the stage. It also includes cutting out salt and carbs from the diet, as they retain water. 

In the worst cases, this severe dehydration can lead to heart failure. For example, Mohammed Benaziza passed away dues to this exact reason. 

Terrible headaches and cramps are quite common when your body gets dehydrated to such an extent.

5: Bodybuilding Will Not Make You Happy

If you believe that getting shredded and dehydrated to a stage-lean condition will make you happy, then you are absolutely wrong. Ask any bodybuilder, and they will tell you only one thing: They feel the worst when they look their best. 

Only a bodybuilder will be able to understand the pain behind the smile. 

As mentioned earlier, the headaches and cramps are going to get a hold of you. Even if it did not happen to you, being dehydrated is not pleasant in any way. Ask Eddie Hall. 

Also, you do not feel great anyway when you are shredded. Your body is literally fighting for survival when you become shredded. And when you do not feel good, nothing in life is going to please you. Whether you are at a fun fair, theater, or playing video games, you will not feel happy.

6: Pre-Workout Overdose 

Pre-workout supplements are a waste of money and provide no benefit other than a tingling sensation, which some people enjoy. Some pre-workouts contain a high concentration of caffeine and overdose of it can lead to death. Even a trainer passed away due to a pre-workout overdose from a miscalculation. 

You should not require a stimulant to workout. Will you be taking pre-workouts in your 60s? The motivation should come from within.

Is Bodybuilding Worth It?

You know what will make you feel happy? Winning thousands of dollars and raising the flag of your country when you win a bodybuilding competition. If you are a competitive bodybuilder, all of the above points become secondary. When you have to reach the top in any sport, making sacrifices is a must, bodybuilding or otherwise. 

If you are not competing, then you have no business taking steroids, getting down to unhealthy body fat percentages, eating chicken, rice, and broccoli, or cutting out essential salt and carbs. Following these bodybuilding protocols will only lead to misery. 

Even copying the workouts of bodybuilders will not yield any hypertrophy benefits for you.  

But this does not mean that working out or going to the gym is unhealthy. Many people, after reading the news of some bodybuilders dying, jump to the conclusion that working out is unhealthy and causes. On top of that, there are some videos available of average people having a heart attack in the gym. This creates more negativity regarding the gym and lifting weights. 

People get heart attacks at random times and places. The gym is just one of them. It is not the cause of the problem. Refer to this article for more information: Why do people die at the gym? Does intense workout cause heart attack? 

And bodybuilders follow many unhealthy practices that lead to death or heart attacks. Training is not part of the problem.

The Need to Separate Bodybuilding from Fitness

Fitness and bodybuilding are not the same. Fitness is about getting stronger, faster, flexible, agile, and increasing endurance and longevity. All of this is healthy.  

Bodybuilding, for now, is just increasing your muscle size by any means possible and getting peeled to the bone. That is not healthy. 

The problem is that many bodybuilders are propagating themselves as fitness influencers and most fitness influencers, are no good either. 

Now that you know how fitness and bodybuilding are different, tell me how steroids help with becoming fitter. Fitness is about leading a long and healthy life. Steroids do exactly the opposite of that. Steroids have nothing to do with fitness, and any person on steroids has no right to call himself a fitness icon or influencer.

Next up are dirty bulking and dirty cutting. Getting bulked up and shredded every year is just not possible for most natural people. This is why natural bodybuilders compete after a gap of 2–3 years. 

Bulking and cutting in a smaller range is okay and required for hypertrophy, e.g., 12%-18% body fat. But extreme bulk and cuts are going to take a toll on your body. Once again, it has nothing to do with fitness. 

If you are in an extreme survival situation, maybe a zombie apocalypse or stuck in the backrooms, being shredded at 5% bodyfat is only going to make it worse. You will not have the strength to fight, and if you try running, you will run out of breath very soon. Again, the polar opposite of fitness. 

Cutting out carbs and salt is only going to make you miss out on many essential nutrients. 

All of this is not fitness. 

As the definition and purpose of bodybuilding have changed from the Bronze Era to today, the definition of fitness is also on the verge of changing due to the rise of steroid-loaded fitness influencers. This must be stopped. A clear line has to be drawn between bodybuilding and fitness, and bodybuilding principles have to be separated from the fitness industry.

Apart from social media, many gym trainers are bodybuilders who believe that winning a bodybuilding competition makes them a fitness trainer as well. They end up copy-pasting bodybuilding workouts and diet plans onto beginners who do not need them. In worst cases, they end up selling steroids as well to generate more money. Such bodybuilders have to be kept as far away as possible from the fitness industry.

Most average people are already intimidated by the gym, and these things scare them further. No one is returning to the gym if his body is wrecked by a 40-set bodybuilding workout.

Embrace Fitness

Do not be scared by the news of bodybuilders passing away. Working out and dieting are two of the healthiest things you can do. If you are intimidated by the gym, you can start at home. My eBook, Reincarnation: The Definitive Fitness Guide is all about home workouts. It has everything from baby steps to leaps, so you can train at your pace.

If you like videos, then definitely check out my YouTube Channel and Instagram for awesome videos.

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