MESO-Rx Exclusive Is bodybuilding good or bad for mental health - Mair Underwood

[MESO-Rx Administrator]

Our favorite anthropologist @MairUnderwood(Researcher) is back with her first of many original articles for MESO-Rx:

"Ïs bodybuilding good or bad for mental health?"

Please take a look and leave your comments below.

Is Bodybuilding Good or Bad for Mental Health?

Explore the nuanced relationship between bodybuilding and mental health in this insightful article. Delve into the cultural significance and psychological complexities of bodybuilding, highlighting both its benefits and risks. From obsessive behaviors to empowering self-awareness, understand how...

thinksteroids.com

 

[Millard]

Thank you @MairUnderwood(Researcher) for sharing your research directly with the members of our community. It's nice to have academics truly interest in supporting and helping those that use steroids and other PEDs. As stated in your bio:

She has been particularly focussed on enhancement drug use, and she works to increase understanding of, and support for, people who use enhancement drugs. Her life’s mission is to help people have good relationships with their bodies, and to have a good relationship with her body herself.

Thank you.

Nice article - I look forward to the next one!

 

[Silentlemon1011]

lol
@MairUnderwood(Researcher)
One line in that article described me perfectly.
"One minute I look amazing, the next day I'm disgusted"

It's hilarious, one day I think "Holy fuck, I look fantastic"
The next, I watch a show or a PL competition and I think
"Damn it, John Haack looks inhuman and look at guys like Olivas midsection"
I gotta up my game!

I think overall, bodybuilding Powerlidting has been an absolute blessing in my life

 

[Logan44551]

lol
@MairUnderwood(Researcher)
One line in that article described me perfectly.
"One minute I look amazing, the next day I'm disgusted"

It's hilarious, one day I think "Holy fuck, I look fantastic"
The next, I watch a show or a PL competition and I think
"Damn it, John Haack looks inhuman and look at guys like Olivas midsection"
I gotta up my game!

I think overall, bodybuilding Powerlidting has been an absolute blessing in my life

Yeah, I'm pretty sure everyone else n this board related the that one. Best I can hope for is more days thinking I look good than disgusted days. It's definitely been a blessing for me.

 

[Skarpyona]

It's a blessing and a curse. If you're modest, and do it for the health benefits, than by all means it's very healthy. However I think a lot of us here are very competitive, it isn't enough to be healthy and strong. Always gotta keep pushing the envelope.

I'll be the first to admit, I do it for health reasons first, but vanity is a very very close second, and I can lose track of priorities when balls deep in a cycle.

 

[FR0Z3N_B0MB3RRR]

I m not afraid of messing up with my health tryna catching my dream body...

better dead than skinny fat... FOR ME... other people are happy while having a shitty body so power to them...

I won’t compete ever I think, but wanna have my share in the Fit industry... but mainly I do it for me, because I wanna see a jacked guy in the fuckin mirror and say “yeah \m/“ instead of an average skinny motherfucker... I sucked all my life, I look at old pics and I ve fuckin goosebumps... no way I would quit... better dying with honor than living defeated (for me.. you do what the fuck you wanna, have kids wife play golf sing happy birthday feel happy etc etc )

 

[Millard]

It's a blessing and a curse. If you're modest, and do it for the health benefits, than by all means it's very healthy. However I think a lot of us here are very competitive, it isn't enough to be healthy and strong. Always gotta keep pushing the envelope.

I'll be the first to admit, I do it for health reasons first, but vanity is a very very close second, and I can lose track of priorities when balls deep in a cycle.

I m not afraid of messing up with my health tryna catching my dream body...

better dead than skinny fat... FOR ME... other people are happy while having a shitty body so power to them...

I think the pursuit of mental health and physical health, although related, are two different things. I guess some would argue that pursuing any activity which may hurt physical health must be mentally unhealthy. But I don't think that is necessarily the case.

So many people feel the need to signal that they are bodybuilding for (physical) health to be accepted. But why?

Humans engage in all kinds of risky behaviors that are socially accepted without feeling the need to justify participation as a health pursuit.

Why can't it be mentally healthy to bodybuild just because it adds to the quality of our lives in one way or another?

 

[Millard]

lol
@MairUnderwood(Researcher)
One line in that article described me perfectly.
"One minute I look amazing, the next day I'm disgusted"

It's hilarious, one day I think "Holy fuck, I look fantastic"
The next, I watch a show or a PL competition and I think
"Damn it, John Haack looks inhuman and look at guys like Olivas midsection"
I gotta up my game!

I think overall, bodybuilding Powerlidting has been an absolute blessing in my life

These feelings are often normal. It doesn't always mean we have mental health problems. I don't want to minimize the issue because there are people who experience clinically significant psychological issues.

But if the person is functioning at a high level without distress, there isn't a serious mental health issue.

It's like when most college students take their first introductory psychology class, they start worrying they have all these psychological disorders. They don't.

Sure, people can experience symptoms associated with certain psychological disorders but if they don't meet all of the criteria, have a high level of functioning and don't show distress, they absolutely do not have those disorders.

As the article says, the relationship between bodybuilding is complex. I am really looking forward to seeing @MairUnderwood(Researcher) share and analyze her experiences in the bodybuilding trenches to unravel these issues.

 

[RzSco]

I can logically and thoroughly justify what I'm doing in terms of my exercise, diet and drug use as being the lifestyle that will bring me the most benefit personally.

At the same time, most people will judge me as being crazy for what I do. I am not crazy. I am simply optimising my life using the most effective means available.

What I consider crazy is denying ones imperfectedness when it it blatantly obvious, and doing nothing to rectify that state.

 

[FR0Z3N_B0MB3RRR]

cmon what the fuck are we talking about... just think 3 seconds.. who are the people that say idiocy about what the fuck they think we re doing ? Who could fuckin care about their thoughts ? Since you’re on meso, re watch some videos from Ronnie Coleman, Jay Cutler, Arnold, Shawn Ray, you name it...

Follow instagram pages like Milos Sarcev ones and start caring more about that kind of people and their thoughts... I just feel sorry for the normal people out there that couldn’t understand a fuck.. who fuckin cares...

Again... WHO ... FUCKIN ... CARES...

 

[MairUnderwood(Researcher)]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure everyone else n this board related the that one. Best I can hope for is more days thinking I look good than disgusted days. It's definitely been a blessing for me.

That's what I am aiming for too. Maybe one day I will be zen enough to think I look great everyday, but by then I'll probably be 80 and everyone else will think i look haggard af!

 

[Eman]

Maybe one day I will be zen enough to think I look great everyday

Why be zen when you can take primobolan?

Get with the times, Mair.

 

[Silentlemon1011]

These feelings are often normal. It doesn't always mean we have mental health problems. I don't want to minimize the issue because there are people who experience clinically significant psychological issues.

But if the person is functioning at a high level without distress, there isn't a serious mental health issue.

It's like when most college students take their first introductory psychology class, they start worrying they have all these psychological disorders. They don't.

Sure, people can experience symptoms associated with certain psychological disorders but if they don't meet all of the criteria, have a high level of functioning and don't show distress, they absolutely do not have those disorders.

As the article says, the relationship between bodybuilding is complex. I am really looking forward to seeing @MairUnderwood(Researcher) share and analyze her experiences in the bodybuilding trenches to unravel these issues.

I think its perfectly healthy to be honest.
just like a baseball player wants to crank more home runs.
Like a Lawyer wants to improve their skills and win more cases.

It's only a mental health issue if you abandon other facets of life and destroy things around you to pursue the "Drea. of perfection"

You talk to a lot of guys on Meso
W are mostly family men
Arent many guys here who wouldnt skip a workout to spend times with their loved ones
Or crush a pint of Double chocolate fudge icecream with their wife watching a movie

How is this pursuit any different?

That's what I am aiming for too. Maybe one day I will be zen enough to think I look great everyday, but by then I'll probably be 80 and everyone else will think i look haggard af!

Tbh, who needs that Zen?

Are you going to one day think "Ya know what, I've learned enough and researched enough, fuck educating myself"

Naw, growth and change is what the human condition is about.

The second I stop growing and learning, put me in the ground, it's all over anyways lol.

Why be zen when you can take primobolan?

Get with the times, Mair.

This is gospel

 

[Eman]

This is gospel

I've been giving subtle nudges for Mair to juice up for like 4 years now... One of these days, by God, it's going to take.

 

[Logan44551]

These feelings are often normal. It doesn't always mean we have mental health problems. I don't want to minimize the issue because there are people who experience clinically significant psychological issues.

But if the person is functioning at a high level without distress, there isn't a serious mental health issue.

It's like when most college students take their first introductory psychology class, they start worrying they have all these psychological disorders. They don't.

Sure, people can experience symptoms associated with certain psychological disorders but if they don't meet all of the criteria, have a high level of functioning and don't show distress, they absolutely do not have those disorders.

As the article says, the relationship between bodybuilding is complex. I am really looking forward to seeing @MairUnderwood(Researcher) share and analyze her experiences in the bodybuilding trenches to unravel these issues.

Is that you in the new AVI @Millard ?

 

[MairUnderwood(Researcher)]

I think its perfectly healthy to be honest.
just like a baseball player wants to crank more home runs.
Like a Lawyer wants to improve their skills and win more cases.

I think it definitely CAN be healthy, but I am not sure it always is for everyone. As I said there are some guys who felt it was the practice that made them suffer mentally, and I am not sure that letting go of other facets of their life was something they chose to do.

Tbh, who needs that Zen?

I think i will always challenge myself as you say, but i would like to be doing it from more of a space where I feel enough as I am and just want to see how far I can go, then from a space of not being enough and feeling like I need to improve to be worthwhile. That's the kind of zen I am talking about

 

[MairUnderwood(Researcher)]

I've been giving subtle nudges for Mair to juice up for like 4 years now... One of these days, by God, it's going to take.

well, that would be proper immersion in the community wouldn't it? then I would be a real anthropologist!

 

[Millard]

I think its perfectly healthy to be honest.
just like a baseball player wants to crank more home runs.
Like a Lawyer wants to improve their skills and win more cases.

It's only a mental health issue if you abandon other facets of life and destroy things around you to pursue the "Drea. of perfection"

You talk to a lot of guys on Meso
W are mostly family men
Arent many guys here who wouldnt skip a workout to spend times with their loved ones
Or crush a pint of Double chocolate fudge icecream with their wife watching a movie

How is this pursuit any different?

Finding the perfect balance can sometimes be tricky too. To complicate matter even more, a healthy balance for one person may be an unhealthy balance for another given everyone's unique circumstances. Furthermore, that perfect balance is never static - it requires constant adjustments over time. The one truth for everyone is that there are only 24 hours in every day. There just isn't enough time.

So for me, it started simple when I was in school. My passions were only academics and bodybuilding and I had plenty of time. Over time, I develop new passions/interests and I am not one to give up old passions. So you get a new job, get married, have kids, find a new hobby, etc, etc.

Each one requires readjusting the balance and responsibility for your significant other, your family, your job, your community and of course yourself

 

[Millard]

Is that you in the new AVI @Millard ?

Yes, it is me in the new avatar (from an old pic). I rediscovered this pic a few weeks ago. Looking at it now, at the risk of being immodest, I look fucking badass in the pic. But I never remember looking anywhere near that good at the time the pic was taken. That probably has something to do with that weird body image / bodybuilding relationship.

 

[Millard]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure everyone else n this board related the that one. Best I can hope for is more days thinking I look good than disgusted days. It's definitely been a blessing for me.

That's what I am aiming for too. Maybe one day I will be zen enough to think I look great everyday, but by then I'll probably be 80 and everyone else will think i look haggard af!

Bodybuilding promises radical transformation. I think these feelings have a lot to do with the degree to which we invest in this promise. We believe we have freedom of choice to completely change our physical appearance. So we may sometimes be unhappy because we feel we have the power to look better. When we get older maybe we no longer feel it is a choice, therefore we are no longer troubled since it is out of our control?

I've been trying to apply a perspective outlined by psychologist Dan Gilbert to bodybuilding. It's the idea of "natural happiness" vs. "synthetic happiness".

I THINK as far as bodybuilding goes, "natural happiness" would be believing bodybuilding (with its training, nutrition, drug regimens) gives you the choice of complete transformation and actually creating that comic-book hero physique.

And "synthetic happiness" would be believing physique can not be significantly changed for whatever reason and learning to think and feel differently about your bodies.

If everyone could have what they wanted, of course they would want to be "naturally happy" with a perfect body.

Yet "synthetic happiness" is just as real and may be even more long-term and stable.

So what should we strive for?