You know who Jessica Lucero is, right? US National Champion, World Team member, one of our top American female weightlifters for a long time…I’m sure you know her. Well, a few years ago, Jess wrote an article for the Catalyst Athletics website about body issues in women’s weightlifting. It was a huge hit, generating a lot of attention and positive input for the way she analyzed the big spectrum of physical appearance and body image with female lifters.
 
It didn’t surprise me that the article was such a success. First of all, she nailed it. Second, the topic of female body issues in our sport has been a deep one ever since women started making the decision to pick up barbells. I started weightlifting back in the 1980s, when the women’s division was extremely small. Almost no ladies were doing it. And if you talked to the average woman about it back then, you got a pretty consistent answer about why they were reluctant to lift weights. They didn’t want to get muscular and look like men. I probably heard this exact sentiment a thousand times back in those days. Women had the mentality that they would “get all muscly” and lose their femininity if they became weightlifters.
 
Times have changed, and I don’t seem to hear this old line much anymore. Culturally, things are much different than they used to be in terms of female self-perception, and women’s weightlifting is a huge thing now, which is fantastic. However, the impact of Jessica’s article from just a few years ago tells us that the old concerns about how women see themselves when they lift weights aren’t totally dead.
 
Now, let’s shift gears a little bit. Not long ago, I was watching a documentary about strongman athletes. One of the guys they interviewed was Brian Shaw, who is one of the most dominant strongmen of all time. My ears perked up when Brian started talking about the body issues he and his fellow competitors experienced.
 
Huh? What the hell? Brian Shaw is 6’8 and weighs 440 lbs. Many of his peers in the sport are around the same size. How in the world can guys like this have psychological issues with their body image?
 
Basically, he was describing the mental pressure they all feel to stay huge and physically imposing. He called it “bigorexia.” In a way, it’s the polar opposite of female body issues, where the struggle is to stay as small and petite as possible. There’s actually a clinical name for it, too. It’s called muscle dysmorphia. It has its own Wikipedia page, although the conversation there is more focused on bodybuilding-style physique stuff. For male strength athletes like weightlifters, powerlifters, and strongmen, we’re talking about how it screws with your head when you get obsessed with looking like a mountain of muscle, and you start to freak out and panic if you think you’re getting skinny and weak.
 
Sounds silly, right? Maybe. But Brian’s words struck a chord with me. I’ve experienced some slight twinges of bigorexia over the years, along with many other dudes I’ve trained with. It’s a real thing, and we’re going to talk about it. And you ladies should be interested in this topic as well. If you’re a woman and you’re reading this magazine, you’re probably a strength athlete of some kind. That means there’s a good chance you’ll wind up dating/marrying a male strength athlete (or coaching them). You never know…Mr. Wonderful might turn into a horrible pain in the ass from time to time, and bigorexia might have something to do with it. Don’t you want to have the necessary tools to talk him into behaving like a semi-decent human being with a balanced outlook on himself, instead of a muscled-up whack job who inhales a pound of ground beef whenever somebody tells him he looks like he’s lost weight? Trust me, this might save you some aggravation in the future. Read on, my friends.
 
First, the Naysayers
 
One of the interesting things about this topic is the fact that several people might think it’s a bunch of bullcrap right from the beginning. When I considered writing about this, I knew I would have to issue a kind of advance rebuttal against those who don’t buy it as a legitimate subject.
 
A lot of people won’t want to acknowledge the possibility of men having mental struggles about the way they look, you know? Culturally, we’re in a place where men are seen as privileged members of a patriarchy that sits on top of a mountain. Men are part of a global good-old-boys club that chortles and drinks beer while everybody else deals with real problems. That’s the idea that gets socially rammed down our throats these days, and it makes a lot of people resistant to the idea that men might face any of the same difficulties as women.
 
First, let me make it clear that I absolutely don’t believe men have the same level of trouble with body image as women. In a nutshell, I believe male strength athletes can struggle with issues of their physical appearance, but I’ll completely acknowledge that women typically have it much worse. Women get pounded with visual images, words, comments, and expectations that men simply don’t have to live with. Just my opinion.
 
However, we shouldn’t view this subject like it’s a contest between men and women, tallying up points to see who has the hardest road. I don’t think that approach makes for a very useful conversation. We’ve got enough adversarial mindset in our current culture to keep us agitated for a long time, and I’m not interested in contributing to it by making this issue into some kind of dysfunction competition. Let’s just settle with the idea that women have their own difficulties, and men have some, too. They’re separate things, so let’s not try to match them against each other.
 
What it is
 
So now that we’ve decided to discuss this in an intelligent way, let’s talk about exactly what bigorexia is. It’s not complicated at all.
 
When a man becomes a strength athlete, muscle growth is part of the package. If he trains hard for a long time, he’ll likely develop a strong, powerful looking physique. In the male world, this is generally seen favorably. Muscularity is almost universally regarded as a visual sign of masculine strength, all over the world. I probably don’t need to belabor this point. It’s a known fact.
 
Some men reach a point where their muscular builds become a central part of their personal identity. They come to view themselves as big strong men. This brings confidence and self-esteem. It often comes with compliments, respect, and sexual attraction. There’s also less chance of getting pushed around or disrespected when you’re muscular and strong, so there’s a kind of protective element that goes along with it. When men have lived this way for a long time, the identity becomes ingrained deeper and deeper.
 
Interestingly, bigorexia can take different forms, depending on the man’s sport. If we’re talking about strongmen or powerlifters, the obsession is probably with sheer size. Strength athletes like this awe people with the simple enormity of their presence. Their shoulders, legs, traps, arms, and neck are massive spectacles of brawn, and it gets a reaction. Most people love it. Some are turned off, but they keep it quiet if that’s their opinion. When you’re a big mountain type of guy, you get a lot more flattery than disdain.
 
With CrossFitters or other strength athletes who tend to stay leaner, the bigorexia might not be centered on being…big. With guys like this, the body issues are often focused on ripped abs or other “cosmetic” muscles. Being as big as a house isn’t the preoccupation. It’s much more about fitness-style muscularity.
 
Either way, you get the point. The strength athlete lifestyle has given the man a particular physical look. He likes it. Other people like it. It gives him respect, internally and externally. But if it starts to slip away…
 
How it Plays out
 
Loss of this physical appearance can sometimes equal a loss of self-esteem. The man’s body starts to look weak, so he starts to feel weak. I remember an old college roommate of mine from many years ago. He was a football player who stood around 6’4 and carried a fearsome 300 lb. physique. One night, we were having a party and a pretty girl said to him, “Have you lost weight? You look slimmer than the last time I saw you.” She meant it as a compliment, but he was on the phone ordering a pizza ten minutes later. Funny story, but you get the point. As big and strong as he was, he had an insecurity beneath the surface that went haywire at the slightest suggestion that he might be losing his He-Man stature.
 
Obviously, that’s an extreme. Most guys, even if they suffer from a touch of bigorexia, aren’t that delicate. However, it’s not uncommon for male strength athletes to develop a kind of reliance on their muscular appearance. This creates a need to keep it. Now, we have to acknowledge that there’s something positive in this, don’t you think? If a man is strong and well-built, that’s a good thing. And the desire to maintain that physique is going to lead to a long commitment to working hard and training. That’s not a negative. When people decide to make lifting weights and staying strong a lifetime pursuit, there’s a whole lot of good that goes along with that.
 
But, as with all things, it can go in a bad direction if it gets taken too far. Bigorexia can turn into a syndrome where it’s not about healthy commitment to training and maintaining a muscular appearance. It can morph into a mindset of desperation, where the man places too much emphasis on what he looks like. Perceived negative changes to his physique can make him irritable, moody, and angry. This can lead to the whole laundry list of dysfunctional behaviors that follow when somebody has personality problems: lashing out at others, self-destruction, drugs, gluttonous eating (or starvation, if we’re talking about washboard abs), etc.
Listen, we can speak honestly about this. I’ve been in weightlifting for over 30 years. I’ve been immersed in a world of strength athletes for most of my life. Have I seen scores of men who turn into train wrecks over bigorexia? No, I haven’t. As I said in the beginning of this article, I don’t think this is something that usually goes off the deep end. Most of the time, guys don’t go haywire with this stuff, from what I’ve seen. I don’t want to make it sound like bigorexia is a raging epidemic that’s wrecking an entire section of the world’s population, because I don’t think it is.
 
But…I can also say from experience and observation that it’s not simply a myth. It might not touch millions of men’s lives, but it’s real and it does happen, probably a little more often than you think. Men are usually trained not to talk about what’s bothering them, so it’s possible that there might be more guys suffering from it than I’ve personally seen. Bottom line: it’s a worthwhile thing to understand if you’ve got any male strength athletes in your life.
 
Origins and Treatment
 
Where does this come from? What’s the cause of bigorexia, the origin? Insecurity, mainly. That’s all I think it is. Men blow the importance of their physique totally out of proportion and lose their ability to keep life in healthy perspective. They equate their muscular builds with their self-worth, to a degree that makes them mentally sketchy. They do this because they’re insecure about themselves. Where does the insecurity come from? I don’t know. Where do ANY of our insecurities come from? Childhood? History of abuse? Social pressure? Figuring out why people lack confidence is a deep ocean, and I don’t want to make this article 300 pages long by diving into it. Let’s just agree that men with bigorexia have some kind of internal trouble with how they view their self-worth.
 
How should this be treated? Actually, let’s ask a better question. WHO should treat it? Listen, I’m going to go off the rails here. The next couple of paragraphs are going to seem harsh, cruel, and possibly destructive. I want to acknowledge up front that my perspective on this isn’t going to be politically correct or compassionate. Just make sure you understand that this is simply my personal opinion, nothing more. If you think I’m full of shit and my words are horrible, I respect your opinion. So, read on at your own risk:
 
Who should treat bigorexia? The man should treat it himself. He should grow up, toughen up, and straighten himself out. Bigorexia is nothing more than a big guy acting like a little baby. And in my opinion, the best treatment is when the people around him refuse to play into it.
 
That’s not a very modern-generation answer, admittedly. Nowadays, we’re supposed to treat every problem like it’s a serious problem because we don’t want to be harsh or unfeeling towards others. Telling a man to sack up and quit complaining doesn’t go over very well in our current culture. But it’s my article, so I can say whatever I want.
 
Now…I also need to state that I understand the seriousness of legitimate emotional problems and eating disorders. If a man is truly suffering from these, the worst thing you can do is simply tell him to snap out of it. I’ve had a few close people in my life who dealt with legitimate depression and mental trouble, and I know it needs to be taken very seriously. If a man honestly needs professional treatment, he should get it.
 
But those are the extreme cases, the people who need real medical help. For all the rest of the guys who are making a mountain out of a molehill when it comes to their physique, let’s not buy into their drama like they’re battling lung cancer or something. It’s okay to be tough with people sometimes. If the guy lashes out, don’t put up with it. If he whines, be a good listener but don’t keep it rolling by helping him blow it up bigger and bigger.
 
I thought this topic was worthwhile to write about because I believe men can deal with body issues in weightlifting and other strength sports. I think it can be real, and it’s good to talk about such things. However, I’m a man myself, and I have confidence in my perspective on the way male weightlifters need to be treated and talked to. This is often simply a vanity issue, and it shouldn’t be overindulged. Out of a sense of general human kindness, I think the first course of action when dealing with people should always be understanding and helpfulness. But for better or worse, I’m also a believer in tough love. Sometimes, it's the right course of action.