Staring Into A Broken Mirror
The more years you spend developing your physique, the more likely you are to develop the condition know as body dysmorphia. Body dysmorphia can affect anyone training; from experienced athletes with decades under their belt to the novices that’s looking to try a cookie cutter celebrity workout program to look like their idol.
So many men and women in the past have been misled by entertainers and influencers, whether its was through admittance in the use of steroids or unrealistic expectations with their extremely strict diets. Getting advice from these authorities of the industry never seemed legit and their images aren’t relatable to yourself.
This is because everyone has become programmed to think like everyone else and chase what everyone wants as well. Doing what the herd is doing is the behavior of individuals with a poor self-image. The self-image is controls every action, decision, and thought within your mind and will determine how you truly feel on the inside as your body changes.
The effects of body dysmorphia can be brutal in the long run, with self-sabotaging behaviors emerging later on in adulthood that are projected onto other people or inflicting some kind of self-harm toward themselves.
In this article I’m show why the healthy self-image is most vital tool to build for your mind and how to prevent the inevitable ruin that lies ahead from chasing images that are not your own.
The Realities of Body Dysmorphia in Bodybuilding
A person self-diagnosed or identified as having body dysmorphia has a particular flaw(s) that they’re focusing on at the cost of their self-esteem or self-image. Regardless of the image viewed in the mirror, how that individual feels is not matching to what they’re viewing through their own eyes.
Dysmorphia is often stemmed from early childhood trauma through verbal or physical abuse from authority figures or peers from the same age group. The perceptions of yourself was formed from other people in your community, family, or friend circle.
Generally, this is what spawned the beginning of bodybuilding, as frail, unathletic men could now compensate for their small stature with larger muscles and a defined physique. This is a marketing clipping from one of the first bodybuilder/personal trainers in the United States, Charles Atlas:
A bodybuilder crafting the perfect aesthetics for their frame may get closer where they’ve always wanted to be, but this may be counterintuitive to what they’ve been told as children. If that person feels the same way they were as a kid, that person will still have the thoughts that they’re not good enough.
That’s usually when people start to overcompensate and anabolics, hormone replacement, and extra hours in the gym each week become options to make sure they reach this image. Overcompensation has spilled out of fitness community and reached plastic surgeons and body recontouring specialists performing an increasing amount of procedures for both genders.
The self-image concept mentioned before is what a person thinks of themself, what they perceive others think of themself, and the way someone would like to be. This concept is not only physical, but psychological, moral, intellectual, and sexually as well.
The difference between who a person wants to be and who a person really is the called the ideal self vs. the real self. Someone who believes they are far from their ideal self will develop a poor self-image; they don’t believe they can reach this image of self.
When a person develops this mindset of a poor self-image, this can cause this person to project this image onto others. An example of this is an overweight person criticizing someone else as fat or a childhood bully projecting the behavior of an abusive father in the home out towards his/her other classmates in school.
Part of the reason why bodybuilding took off in the 1980s was because of the movie stars and action heros seen on the screens back in those days. There was Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Dolph Lundgren, Lou Ferrigno, and a few other legends. These guys had militaristic physiques that became idolized and set as the new standard for masculinity.
The standards for masculinity intimidates most and stops people from expressing their true selves. Homosexual men tend to develop body dysmorphia more often from not meeting these imposed standards in the gay community in comparison to heterosexual men.
This is why it’s very important to correct this part of the psyche while making lasting changes to the physical body. This is one of the biggest reasons why people fail to reach their goals (see Other Reasons Why People Fail to Obtain Their Dream Physique).
Fixing The Self-Image
Everyone has a self-image that is far from their true self, but this image can be improved regularly to obtain the ideal self with time. Improving the self-image is both with mental and physical work and doesn’t come easily for those with poor persistence.
Mental work involves simple exercises like meditation, breath work (see Methods for Breathe Work), visualization, and positive self-talk. These methods are not taken serious by most, but rarely are people consistently committing to this work for 5+ years without showing any results.
Disregard for this daily mental work is the leading cause of why worldwide mental illness awareness is becoming more relevant in today’s times.
Physical work involves your workout routine along with photos taken of yourself that show your progress. Professional pictures are best as you’ll see yourself in better resolution and taken with better angles.
This should be done often, at least monthly if not every single year. For a successful body recompositiom during a 12 week workout program it’s a requirement for my clients to include weekly progress photos as this is easier than gauging results from measurements.
A healthy self-image is one who works on progressing themselves each and every time they perform to reach their ideal. A poor image attempts to mirror another’s self-image for internal happiness. Imitating others only benefits you in the short run but fails to bring long satisfaction with yourself.
The Wrap Up
Body dysmorphia is a serious issue that’s affecting a large population of both males and females due to psychological damage done in children’s early years. Changing the outer physical appearance will only bring temporary satisfaction and happiness if deep internal work is not done beforehand. Find healthy healing modalities that strength and build confidence to aid in your fitness journey regardless of where you’re starting.
One Response
Heya i am for the first time here. I came across this board and I find It truly useful & it helped me out much. I hope to give something back and aid others like you aided me.