The use of steroids is not necessarily implied to be greatly concerned with muscularity and leanness, according to researchers.
According to Timothy Baghurst, a visiting assistant professor of kinesiology at the University of Arkansas, and second author Daniel Kissinger, an assistant professor of counselor education, there is no difference between bodybuilders who make use of steroids and those who did not when it comes to characteristics associated with muscle dysmorphia.
Muscle dysmorphia is a body disorder in which an individual is obsessed with the idea that he does not have a lean, muscular body though he has a great body in reality.
From Timesofindia.indiatimes.com:
Kissinger said: “One of the problems associated with classifying muscular dysmorphia is that, while it is receiving increasing attention in the mental health literature, muscle dysmorphia is not recognized by the American Psychological Association as a distinct mental illness.”
Baghurst divided bodybuilders into sub-groups of “natural” and “non-natural”. Natural bodybuilding referred to competitions in which partakers were drug-tested, and had to pass a polygraph in relation to their lack of prohibited drug use.
Non-natural bodybuilding referred to those competitions in which participants were not required to pass a polygraph, nor were they drug tested before the to competition.
Baghurst discovered: “By separating natural and non-natural bodybuilders, I found that either group is equally likely to have all of the traits of muscle dysmorphia with the exception of pharmacological use.”
He further found the males who were pumping iron to enhance their physique, but were not bodybuilders, also bared few characteristics linked with muscle dysmorphia including dissatisfaction with their size and symmetry.
Baghurst said that this is an important finding since it shows how some one does need to be big and huge to have issues concerning his body fat or muscularity.
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