Big is King: When Body-building Becomes the Incubator for Body Dysmorphia and Insecurity

The Symptoms

"Wow, I can’t be racist to that!” says one of the teenagers. I came across a clip of a Middle Eastern fitness influencer filming content while using the online chat platform Omegle. He wore a loose t-shirt that covered his physique, then recorded strangers’ reactions to him revealing his muscles. When he was matched with a group of white teenagers, the first thing that one of them did was hurl racial slurs at him. However, as soon as the influencer flexed his muscles, their previously unserious expressions and contemptuous tone shifted almost instantly. They became visibly curious—and even a bit admiring.

Hoodie on to start -> hoodie off midway

Whichever gym I go to, there are guys who do this: they begin their workout wearing a hoodie, and take it off midway through their workout. It didn't spark my curiosity at first, but when it repeatedly occurred before my eyes, I began to wonder why. Then, one early evening, just another typical day on the bench, it suddenly came to me: they want to look big! In other words, they want to expose their body only when it's pumped: visually enhanced with more defined muscle and popped veins. As a result, they cover their bodies until that "armor" is ready. This behavior (yes, there is a name for it!) is called a "pump cover".

As an international student, I find the "big is king" mentality especially pronounced in the U.S., given the popularity of the muscle-building culture. Some expressions of this mentality manifest in fitness-related trends on social media: posting side-by-side photos of physique transformation to create a dramatic contrast, walking topless in public while recording pedestrians' reactions, teenagers who are already putting on tons of muslces while using compliment-fishing titles such as “smallest 13-year-old.” on their thirst traps posts; going back to the example of the Middle Eastern influencer, we see that being big even (at least temporarily) overrides someone's hostile, exclusive attitude.

I believe the mentality that being big brings attention and respect is related to mildly compulsive behaviors such as wearing a "pump cover" and other more aggressive behaviors, such as mocking those who look physically "mid" or "small", ego-lifting (lifting dangerously amount of weight to impress others or boost one's pride, often at the expense of proper form and technique), and using performance-enhancing drugs. In fact, a 2023 study by Hoseini & Hoseini surveyed over 3,600 resistance training practitioners and found that around 53% of men and 42% of women use anabolic androgenic steroids (AAS) to enhance their body-building results. Reports in Australia and the United States also indicate that teenagers as young as 15 are increasingly using illegal anabolic steroids to build muscle quickly. What amazes me the most is that even the side effects - hair loss, acne, sped-up ageing, and organ failure - seem not to matter to some when becoming big is at stake.

I'm well aware that getting bigger is not the only type of reward that bodybuilders seek. As a person who's been consistently working out 5 days a week over the past 12 years, I find the gradual process of building more strength and pushing more weight extremely fulfilling. Making progress on a life project and pushing your limit is undoubtedly a type of self-actualization that is generalizable to any other long-term goal. However, when looking big has become so important that people are now insecure about looking small AT THE FIRST 15 MINUTES of their workout session and are willingly accelerating the decay of their bodies, we might have a problem that we can't turn a blind eye to anymore.

There was a time when the subject of body dysmorphia and appearance-based insecurities was heavily directed toward women by the media. People criticized women's obsessions with putting on heavy make-up, taking extreme measures to lose weight, and worshipping top models' unrealistic beauty standards. Ironically, the increased popularity of workout and bodybuilding culture unveiled the "gender equality" of these obsessions: men's need for putting on a good pump, taking extreme measures to gain muscles, and worshiping top influencers' unrealistic physique standards. Disclaimer: There's no doubt that there are women athletes who take bodybuilding as seriously and achieve as amazing results as men. That being said, I believe it's worthwhile to put men under the spotlight when discussing gym culture, so it can serve as a comparison to those (conventionally) women-oriented topics on body dysmorphia and insecurities.

The First Step

So, what should we do about the "big is king" mentality that has gone out of control? I think the first step is to acknowledge how pervasive some bodybuilding-based compulsive behaviors are. Some examples include: finding every opportunity to pose and flex in front of every reflective surface, setting the physique's status quo to fitness influencers and professional bodybuilders' size, regularly ruminating on not looking big enough, and taking steroids while ignoring body's warning signs and hypnotizing oneself that they are "built differently" so are at lower risks. Another potentially useful tip is to perform a perspective shift: think about how these obsessive behaviors mirror others that you don't typically engage in (so you might have an easier time spotting where the problem resides). For example, one who is obsessed with gaining muscle can practice seeing the resemblance of this behavior to another person who is obsessed with losing weight, and realize that both behaviors can be healthy or deadly, and can potentially grow into toxic social comparisons. Below are some other comparisons that I think are interesting to make:

1. Worrying about not being big enough = worrying about not being slim enough

2. Lying about having a "natural" physique = lying about not having plastic surgery done
   

3. Needing a pump cover before showing your body = needing to put on makeup before going out

Concluding Thoughts

To push and to test the self's limit is one key to achieving excellence. However, when unrealistic physique standards are propagated as top-tier qualities, when using drugs as shortcuts becomes increasingly normalized, when symptoms of compulsive behaviors such as the need for a pump cover and showing off become more salient, when being big is the ticket to gaining basic respect in society, when the "big is king" mentality begins to interfere with and corrode the goal of staying physically and psychologically healthy, then it's time for us to re-evaluate what constitutes of "excellence" and the means to which we resort to get there.