4 Horrible Truths About Pro Bodybuilding

Here’s what you need to know… Chasing a pro card turns you into an asshole. If you have a girlfriend or spouse, you’ll probably end up cheating on her. Contest prep makes you hurt everybody you love. The drugs, brutal dieting, hard training, and contest prep will make you hate the world and the world hate you. Trying to become a pro will likely leave you broke. Even if you do win a show or two, the prize money won’t come close to covering your expenses. Becoming a pro will likely wreck your health and cause you to die young. The amount of muscle mass you need to acquire, the drugs, and the yo-yo dieting will ruin your health. There are good things about pro bodybuilding, too. You’ll meet great people, learn a lot about your body and mind, and have the potential to become a more determined, passionate, intense, human being. Drinking Crankcase Oil By most definitions, I’ve been a success in my chosen field. I’ve built a career in bodybuilding over the course of 20 years. I’ve won Israel’s national bodybuilding title 5 times. I earned my pro card and had a respectable showing in the Mr. Olympia. Perhaps more importantly, I’ve coached hundreds of athletes. But looking back on it, I can see that there are things I sacrificed that weren’t worth sacrificing. So when I walk into a commercial gym and see a motivated young kid who’ll do anything and everything to get a pro card, my instinct is to sit him down and have a conversation about his goals and dreams. I want to make damn sure he understands what he’s getting himself into. He needs to realize his chances of actually becoming a professional bodybuilder are stacked against him and the path is often ugly and soul draining. The late Steve Michalik once said he’d drink crankcase oil to get further in the sport, and that was for the Mr. America contest, an amateur competition. I would ask this motivated young kid if he’s willing to “drink crankcase oil” to get where he wants to go, because that would be the easy part of the journey. I’d then make sure he understood the following points: 1 – Bodybuilding is a very selfish and mentally destructive sport. To do well, you need to become a self-centered asshole. It’s the nature of this sport and it’s not a matter of “if” it will affect you, but by how much. Some individuals are more affected than others, but the use of certain “supplements” for an extended period of time will cause profound psychological effects, including changes in personality. You’ll experience increased aggression and anger. It may be over something as inconsequential as someone talking too loud or looking at you the wrong way. The most trivial incident might become goddamn HUGE AND ANNOYING. You’ll have no patience, a short temper, and will feel sluggish during most of your day. Simple things will become huge chores. Increased libido will plague you. If you have a girlfriend or spouse, you’ll probably end up cheating on her. If you have any underlying, previously dormant mental issue like OCD or an eating disorder, these “supplements” will make it rear its ugly head and increase exponentially in power. Depression, anxiety, and shortness of breath will all become part of your daily life. And rest assured, if you’re planning on becoming a pro bodybuilder, you’re going to need and use a lot of these volatile drugs (there, I said it). It’s just another thing that needs to be done in order to compete at the highest levels (the same as every other professional sport, for that matter). But when you combine all this with an obsession with your body fat and how much you weigh, with looking at yourself in the mirror multiple times a day, and, in general, living a life where every action from eating, to breathing, to sleeping is about improving your outside appearance, selfishness and self-centeredness are inevitable. It’ll affect your personality, and at the end of the day when you leave the gym and the competition is over, these changes don’t disappear and you’ll still need to deal with life outside of bodybuilding. 2 – You will hurt the people you love and you may end up alone. To this day, after more than twenty years in the industry, I still haven’t met a bodybuilder who’s prepared for a show without seriously affecting his or her marriage. When you diet, you become cranky, tired, and moody. You hate the world. When you diet, the first person you lash out at is typically your spouse – the person who generally provides you with the most support. Ironic, isn’t it? I’ve seen couples break up, separate, and even get divorced after lousy show preps. The higher the level, the more drugs involved, the more severe the drama. And don’t think you’ll treat your friends or family any better, either. The drugs, combined with the brutal diet, the hard training, the cardio, and the final pre-contest week with its dehydration and carb load/depletion will take any bad situation and exponentially increase it. Anyone who thinks this won’t happen to them is
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