Vulnerable discipline: Experiences of male competitive bodybuilders

Abstract

The aim was to understand experiences of male competitive bodybuilders from a non-pathologizing perspective. Six male Norwegian competitive bodybuilders were interviewed. The interviews were analysed using a meaning condensation procedure resulting in five themes: being proud of capacity for discipline, seeing a perfectionist attitude as a necessary evil, experiencing recognition within the bodybuilding community, being stigmatized outside the bodybuilding community and going on stage to display a capacity for willpower and discipline. We suggest that bodybuilders may be stigmatized for breaking social norms: by their distinctive appearance, by the way they handle suspected drug use and by challenging gender norms.

Keywords

bodybuilding gender Hermeneutics phenomenology stigmatization

Introduction

In competitive bodybuilding, the muscular ideal is worshipped and quantified, and to some individuals, bodybuilding constitutes a continuous struggle for perfection (Mosley, 2008). Competitive male bodybuilders are highly visible and they want to be visible. Studies of competitive male bodybuilders have tended to pursue research questions based on a pathological perspective, assuming that the behaviours and lifestyles of bodybuilders reflect some form of psychiatric problem (e.g. Peters and Phelps, 2001). In this interview-based study of six competitive male bodybuilders, we explored their experiences from a non-suspicious but interested perspective, rather than presuming some pathology. Our analysis led us to consider the factors underlying their feeling of stigmatization, including their alternative ways of presenting gender.

The appearance of the male body seems to be receiving increasing attention in industrialized societies (Pope et al., 2000). For example, in Europe, the number of memberships in commercial fitness centres is increasing, growing from 21.5 million in 2005 to 40.7 million in 2008 (Ablondi et al., 2008). In a survey of 4464 Norwegian men aged 20 years, Barland and Tangen (2009) found that 69 per cent reported that they wanted a larger muscle mass, and the physical ideal seemed to be a slim but muscular body. The same was reported by Cohane and Pope (2001) in their review of 17 studies of US men in other age groups. In the study of Barland and Tangen (2009), 74 per cent of men said that their main motivation in exercising was to become fitter, whereas the second most important motivation was to have a more athletic body (54%). These studies indicate that increasing numbers of men are using fitness centres and that a majority strive towards the muscular ideal.

Competitive bodybuilding is an activity that aims to increase the muscle mass, symmetry and definition of the body. The bodybuilder strives towards what is seen as a perfectly proportioned body, with as little body fat as possible (Peters and Phelps, 2001). This is achieved with a regime of exercising with weights and an especially designed nutrition programme, often divided into cycles of ‘off-season’ (the period in which the bodybuilder usually increases his muscle mass through a systematic and massive intake of nutrients and supplements and hard exercise) and ‘on-season’ (the period, varying from 3 to 6 months in which the bodybuilder prepares for an upcoming competition, when the main aim is to maintain his muscle mass and increase the definition and symmetry of his body). During competition, participants display their bodies to a panel of judges who allocate points based on accepted aesthetic norms (Mosley, 2008). An important goal in bodybuilding is to build a ‘big body’, combining mass (volume), definition (the degree to which each muscle stands out visually as a separate entity/unit) and form (the overall proportions and symmetry of the body). Ideally, the bodybuilder has 2–3 per cent body fat on the day of competition (Linder, 2007).

Typically, studies of competitive bodybuilders have been conducted from the perspective of pathologization, including an ethnographic study of various bodybuilder groups in the United States (see Klein, 1993). Among the descriptions presented by Klein, he stated that bodybuilding seemed to be a compensation for feelings of inferiority, with narcissistic expression. He also claimed that the bodybuilding community is characterized by authoritarian attitudes, with a highly hierarchical structure (Klein, 1993). Other studies have focused on psychological characteristics, such as disturbances in body image and self-esteem see the review by Goldfield et al. (1998), compulsion, perfectionism, anhedonia and pathological narcissism (Davis and Scott-Robertson, 2000, in an analysis of a female sample) or body image satisfaction and symptoms of body dysmorphy (Peters and Phelps, 2001).

Some studies have pointed to the potentially positive aspects of bodybuilding. Among 382 bodybuilders (63% female) in New Zealand, Probert et al. (2007) found indications that bodybuilding not only concerns the body’s appearance but also ‘mental–physical engagement’, with advantages such as increased ‘life control’, empowerment, health, balance and well-being. In a case study of one male bodybuilder and one elite bodybuilding community in the United Kingdom, Sparkes et al. (2005) found that bodybuilding might be a strategy to establish an identity and to maintain contact with a social group. In addition, within a non-pathological approach, Wright et al. (2000) studied the use of anabolic steroids and motivations for anabolic steroid use in a survey among UK bodybuilders, stating that there is a strong need to understand this type of health behaviour among bodybuilders because some groups within the bodybuilder community reported to consume high levels of steroids.

In summary, most studies of bodybuilders are conducted from a pathologizing perspective and are based on quantitative measures. Few studies have investigated bodybuilders’ own experiences, and in the present study, we wanted to understand more about the lifestyle and experiences of male competitive bodybuilders from their own perspective. The research question was as follows: How do male competitive bodybuilders experience their lifestyle as a bodybuilder?

Methods

Methodology

The study was conducted with a hermeneutic–phenomenological approach (Alvesson and Sköldberg, 2009; Gadamer, 2003; Heidegger, 1926; McLeod, 2001; Malterud, 1993, 2001a, 2001b), the hermeneutic element concerning the interpretative part of the study and the phenomenological element concerning the life worlds and experiences of the informants (Malterud, 1993). According to Gadamer (1989), the experiences of informants can be approached more closely through a fusion of the researchers’ and the participants’ horizons. The interpretative aspect in this process is not only central but also unavoidable. Throughout the study, we used an open-ended explorative approach in which the participants were asked to relate, in their own words, their specific experiences of competitive bodybuilding, in individual in-depth interviews.

Recruitment and sample

The participants were recruited through three Internet sources: facebook.com, iform.no and treningsforum.no. Treningsforum.no and Iform.no are two of Norway’s largest net-based fitness forums, where several bodybuilders present themselves with their profiles. We invited all the bodybuilders with a profile on one of these sites to participate in the study. Facebook.com was used in those cases where no email address was given in the profile information on the other sites. One participant was recruited through another participant (‘snowballing’ technique). The inclusion criterion was that the subject was a practising competitive bodybuilder (had competed before and intended to compete again). The sample consisted of six male Norwegian competitive bodybuilders aged 20–60 years, employed and living in Norwegian cities. The participants had practised competitive bodybuilding from 3 to 20 years. Half of them had a college education or higher. All the subjects trained and exercised in commercial fitness centres and were members of bodybuilding communities. All had a history of high ranking within competitive bodybuilding.

Interviews

The interviews were conducted by the first two authors, with one interviewer per informant. Each interview was audiotaped and lasted for 50–75 minutes. Three interviews were conducted in the home of participants, two at fitness centers, one in a restaurant and one in a car. The interviews were based on a semi-structured interview guide, which was followed in a flexible way, with five main topics: ‘the beginning’, ‘the body’, ‘the competition’, ‘the future’ and an open category where the participants could supply with any information they wanted to convey. Each theme was introduced with an open-ended question, for example, ‘What would you say that the body means to you?’ The questions were followed-up depending on how much the participant elaborated. We tried to make it possible for the participants to relate both their positive and negative experiences, asking questions such as ‘Do you remember a situation in which you felt that you were rewarded for all your training and exercise?’ We did not specifically ask about the use of illegal performance-enhancing substances. The interviews were transcribed verbatim.

Analysis

We followed a meaning condensation procedure (Malterud, 1993, 2001a, 2001b) to identify the content and variety of the experiences of the participants using the following steps:

Thoroughly reading through the transcribed interviews, trying to form a main impression of the experiences of the informants and to capture possibly important elements.

Identifying meaning units through thorough reading and discussion of the interviews. A ‘meaning unit’ is a section of the text that encapsulates one aspect of meaning as it relates to the experience of the informant and is identified by a spontaneous shift in the meaning of the text (Giorgi, 2009).

Constructing larger categories of themes through the combination of meaning units based on (1) sameness in content within and between interviews and (2) several meaning units that seem to relate to the same themes within each interview.

Finally, summarizing the contents of the main categories into what we considered the most representative of the experiences as they emerged from the transcripts.

Reflexivity

Pre-understandings are the experiences, hypotheses, perspectives, prejudices and frames of reference of the researchers that influence any part of the research process (Malterud, 1993). To make our own pre-understandings clear, we briefly note that the authors of the present work are Scandinavian males from a rich industrialized country and trained psychologists (two newly educated and one university researcher). We are inspired by a social constructionist approach, seeing people’s behaviours as reflecting reciprocal conditioning within a given situation and context. The first two authors have experience in exercising in various commercial fitness centres. Our pre-understandings may contain elements of suspicion and pathologizing tendencies, but we have attempted to approach a ‘merging of horizons’ as closely as possible by constantly reflecting on our own pre-understandings before, during and after the interviews and being curious and open-minded about the experiences that the participants shared with us. During the close readings of the text material and during the detailed analyses we deliberately discussed our own possible preconceptions and how these may have coloured the interpretations.

Ethics

This study was approved by the Norwegian Data Directorate. The interviews were conducted in a non-confronting manner, avoiding pathology-inspired questions about the bodybuilding culture.

Findings

The informants conveyed a way of living that was centred and structured around meaningful bodybuilding activities, which absorbed their attention 24 hours a day. The experiences of the informants, as analysed and identified in the transcribed texts, involved five main themes: being proud of their capacity for discipline, seeing a perfectionist attitude as a necessary evil, experiencing recognition within the bodybuilding community, being stigmatized outside the bodybuilding community and going on stage to display a capacity for willpower and discipline. All participants are represented in the quotations. We have allocated a pseudonym to the participants. This study concerns the experience of bodybuilding and not the persons as such. Due to this, and to the need for anonymity, we do not provide personal information of the participants, and we have changed some information in some quotations. Five of six participants are referred to as ‘most’, three of four as ‘several’ and one of two as ‘some’.

Being proud of their capacity for discipline

Most participants emphasized that willpower was a major requirement for successful bodybuilding and that they were proud of having this characteristic. Discipline was especially associated with the periods of dieting, which often begin 3–6 months before a competition.

What is important with bodybuilding, for those who train correctly, you need to work hard, you have to be disciplined, you have to be regular. This has transfer value to others aspects of life because you learn to give priority, you learn to focus, you get things done, you are able to shut out everything else. This is a very, very positive effect. When you do bodybuilding, you learn to set up ambitions, to focus and to achieve them. (Blade)

Here, we see how the informant emphasizes willpower as a prerequisite for the hard regime that is necessary when competing in bodybuilding. Overall, the participants seemed to experience the lifestyle of the competitive bodybuilder as a way of living that increased their willpower, leading to positive generalizations in other areas of their lives.

Most participants told how the lifestyle of the competitive bodybuilder, especially the period of dieting, puts pressure on social relations, which increases the need for discipline – to endure challenges and stick to the plan:

Diet, actually egoistic, the last time I was on diet I sat eating rice and chicken at my son’s birthday party while all the others ate cake. My family tells me, not my own, but my wife’s, that they feel a little bit put off. (Thor)

Most participants stressed that dieting was essential and that eating correctly constituted a major element of competitive bodybuilding.

Mastering performance-enhancing drugs also seemed to be a part of the discipline complex. One participant openly described his own successful mastering of drug use:

Yes, it makes a difference with reasonable doses and lengths, not the least with health check-ups. I did one [a health check] just now, just before a competition, and then I received a message to come soon to see if a drug that affects the kidneys had been lowered. So, you have a little control. So I don’t really have any negative things to say about it. But positive, that goes for itself. (Olav)

He said he had only had positive experiences with drug use. He distinguished between the use and misuse of drugs and stated that controlled and careful use was necessary for a long-term career in bodybuilding. Two other participants reported their experiences with drugs more indirectly but supported the first informant. The participants who described using drugs maintained that they managed their drug use and that this management was vital to achieving muscle growth.

Seeing a perfectionist attitude as a necessary evil

Several participants described their never-ending concern for improvement, reporting that they never achieved complete satisfaction with themselves. They saw this attitude as a necessary requirement for getting in shape for a competition, for achieving optimal sculpturing of their competition bodies:

If you want to show up, you need to be perfectionist, you need to be able to look for your weaknesses. If not, you will not achieve much … I am not a person who is easily satisfied. This concerns basically everything, it is my biggest weakness. I want to be on top of one thing and to be content with that. That must be a wonderful feeling. Wonderful to be content with one thing and to stop there. Terribly frustrating. (Thor)

Another participant stated,

Low fat levels and a vascular appearance is not easy to maintain 365 days a year. So the dissatisfaction can be greater in bodybuilding compared with other sports. It is not easy. (Blade)

The participants set a high standard. Dissatisfaction seems inevitable. However, this sacrifice was at the same time acknowledged as necessary to excel in bodybuilding.

Experiencing recognition within the bodybuilding community

All the informants reported a strong cohesion of the bodybuilding community and that this had been an important source of support and recognition, especially during their periods of dieting. However, one of the participants also described a community that could be brutal and critical. Another participant reported that it can be too body-focused from time to time and that ‘back-stabbing’ can occur. However, the positive aspects of the community were mainly cited, and the sense of cohesion in the bodybuilding community was emphasized. Several of the participants related that access to support from the community had been very important to their success during competitions:

The companionship was perhaps what I liked the most of the whole dieting, the companionship with the club I competed for, my bodybuilder friends. They measured my fat percent, adjusted my diet, looked at my fitness level day by day. I trained with friends, posing, rehearsing posing in order to pose as well as possible on stage. Followed me all the time, adjusted me a little bit up and a little bit backwards, and so on. When you stand there yourself, you have no control, you don’t know how you’re standing. You must always have a person to look at you, one feels flat, feel that you have no pressure in your body. You may be in your best shape, but are not able to see it yourself. Then you are dependent on, the best bodybuilders always have someone to help out. (Henry)

From the interviews, we could see that the bodybuilding community was an important source of acknowledgement of the demanding lifestyle of a competitive bodybuilder and that the bodybuilding community was vital for an individual’s success in competitions. The informants seemed to be dependent on the support, assessment and feedback of others in the period approaching a competition, when their self-critical capacity was actually reduced by heavy dieting.

All the participants experienced huge physical changes when approaching a competition. They told of the reduction in physical functioning that occurred as a consequence of heavy dieting. When approaching a competition, their bodies consisted of almost pure muscles, giving an impression of strength. However, at this point, they were actually at their weakest physically.

Recognition seems to be central to the bodybuilding community. Most participants reported that they valued and became motivated by feedback from authority figures in the community:

When an acknowledged [name of competing bodybuilder] said: good shape like, you looked bloody well! Then it is like, ‘ooh – nice’. Then you like feel. It actually looked good, then I have done a good job. (Olav)

These authority figures were often previously or presently active bodybuilders who had been successful and who took on the role of mentors to other bodybuilders. This involved supervising their nutrition and dieting, supervising their exercise and providing support and assessment.

Being stigmatized outside the bodybuilding community

Most of the participants saw bodybuilders as a stigmatized group. They reported negative prejudice towards their outlook, and several participants believed that this was based on envy or ignorance of what it really means to be a competitive bodybuilder. They maintained that this was typical of the Norwegian culture, which they believed is characterized by a strong ethic that one should never believe oneself to be or stand out as better than other people (janteloven):

It is quite weird, in a way, when you are above average here in Norway, people: who the fuck does he think he is? I have been over in the US a few times, and it is like, fuck, people are impressed, and come up to you wanting to take pictures and say hello. But here … they believe that you are like this to show off. (Henry)

Most participants felt somewhat misunderstood and unfairly treated in Norwegian society today and that they seldom received the recognition they deserve. The informants desired recognition outside the bodybuilding community; they wanted to display their bodies and be recognized for them and what is required to build them. At the same time, they wanted to be regarded as independent, not requiring recognition by people outside the bodybuilding community.

Most informants expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that the use of drugs was often the focus when the media showed any interest in bodybuilding:

Very often when you sit there talking about bodybuilding, the question pops up. I have been through many interviews and have explicitly stated what I think. (Pierre)

It seemed important to the informants to be acknowledged for the hard work and willpower they believe are required to succeed in competitive bodybuilding. The participants considered the focus on drug use as misplaced, deflecting attention from the real concerns of competitive bodybuilding.

However, at the same time, they also reported no clear-cut lack of recognition outside their own group, it might even be too much attention. Most informants reported some situations in which the feedback seemed to be positive regarding being a competitive bodybuilder, both from their own groups and from society as a whole. Several pointed to the fact that they are admired and recognized for their bodies, and some emphasized that they had become more attractive to women. Most seemed to believe that they had found an arena in which to test their own limits:

…, but when you go out, or wherever I go, or whoever I meet, it inevitably ends up with body talk within 5–10 minutes. I can see this becomes like tiresome sometimes, one thinks about the body all the time. Everything centres on the body, nothing on how you are as a person. (Xavier)

The second part of this statement reflects the experiences of several informants: that from time to time, they found the strong focus on their bodies by others very tiresome.

Going on stage: Displaying a capacity for willpower and discipline

While relating their experiences of hunger, body pain and lack of energy, the participants also emphasized competition as a positive experience. Most participants expressed their satisfaction at displaying their achievements to an audience and expressing their personal characteristics through their bodies:

… You feel on top of the world, it is something very unique, maybe it is the same people feel when they become an Olympic champion in a sprint. You feel it, you see it on yourself, you feel so wired. It feels so very good if you are in good shape. No other feelings can compare with it, it feels so good. The body is who I am, the body cannot lie. (Blade)

This statement shows how the successful achievement of fitness and control during a competition can produce a euphoric feeling, and how the prepared body is a vehicle for displaying personal characteristics that the informant considers positive. The prepared competition body was seen as expressing valuable personal characteristics such as discipline and willpower. This quotation shows how successful preparation emerges as ‘proof’ that the participant is in possession of abilities and characteristics that he and the bodybuilding community value. We also see how the culmination of a period of dieting and going on stage was experienced as something that distinguished the informants from bodybuilders who do not participate in competition. This distinction was emphasized by most participants. It seems that the participants wanted to convey that competitive bodybuilding is a lifestyle for only those few individuals with the necessary abilities. All the participants stated that the competition was the peak and the driving force behind the project of building their bodies.

Discussion: Between recognition and stigmatization

The aim of the present analysis was to understand more about the lifestyle and experiences of male competitive bodybuilders. The six informants conveyed how competitive bodybuilding was to them a demanding, absorbing and meaningful lifestyle that also entailed a certain vulnerability and lack of recognition from the wider society. The essence of their experiences seemed to centre around the tension between, on the one hand, being recognized for the competence and sacrifice that this lifestyle requires and, on the other hand, being stigmatized by the negative stereotypes associated with the lifestyle. In this section, we will specifically address this tension.

The informants reported being offended by Norwegian society at the same time as they displayed themselves, literally, on stage. Erving Goffman (1959) provides an interactional account of this phenomenon. He claims that a performance is always established through and judged by an audience. It is through the judgment of the audience that the performance is given value. Goffman asserts that morally correct expositions entail recognition and social standing. Within these terms, a morally correct performance brings respect in our society. We can ask whether bodybuilders are stigmatized and looked upon as immoral because they violate morally correct behaviours, representing something different and deviant. We can also ask whether bodybuilders display something so different from the norm that the wider society does not have the terms to grasp it. We suggest that competitive bodybuilders may violate social norms in various ways, and we will briefly discuss three possibly overlapping areas: appearance, suspected drug use and the challenge to gender norms. These areas may be understood as indications of possible pathology. However, we believe that they may just as well be understood as non-pathological phenomena that stem from a meaningful way of life for these informants.

First is their exaggerated appearance. One of the defining aspects of bodybuilding is the development of an extraordinary body shape and appearance corresponding to perceived masculine ideals of developing muscles (see De Visser et al., 2009). This ‘physical prowess’ representing a part of orthodox masculinity may, however, be associated with negative stereotypes due to the exaggeration and that bodybuilders emerge as persons who may not understand contemporary notions of masculinity, which involves lean but not brutal-looking bodies (see De Visser et al., 2009, on notions of masculinity). Although elite athletes often develop specialized bodies to allow them to perform at very high sporting levels, for bodybuilders the development of their bodies is the main purpose of bodybuilding. This may make bodybuilders especially vulnerable to the negative stereotypes associated with an exaggerated bodily appearance: these stereotypes concern the very motive for their activity. Thus, in this stigmatization process, not only the activity is questioned or an aspect of it but implicitly also the value of the person performing that activity is called into question. The person may become degraded.

Second is the suspected drug use. Drug use in sports violates formal and informal norms of fair play, and in ordinary sports, ‘dopers’ are typically considered cheats and severely punished. Few studies have assessed the prevalence of drug use in bodybuilding communities. In the Norwegian media, and according to our informants, there exists a widespread notion that many bodybuilders use performance-enhancing drugs. Norheim (2008) investigated the use of performance-enhancing drugs among high-school teenagers in Norwegian schools and found that 7 per cent of the boys had tried illegal performance-enhancing drugs. Drug use was even more prevalent in more specialized groups, such as people in gyms. The Swedish Public Health Institute found that up to 21 per cent of gym members who focused on strength training had used anabolic steroids (Statens Folkhälsoinstitut, 2009). Moreover, bodybuilding communities are not typically subjected to the same routine doping controls as other sporting disciplines. Therefore, single individuals within the bodybuilder communities may be under constant suspicion of drug use. Whether or not there is a kernel of truth in these suspicions, bodybuilders may be typically perceived as violating the social norms of mainstream sports. Today, bodybuilders may feel that they have to lie about any performance-enhancing drugs taken because these drugs are illegal. However, the transparency of these lies may mean that people laugh at them and refuse to take them seriously. The process of obvious lying among interacting individuals violates one of the fundamental conditions for communication (see Grice, 1975/1989). We can also speculate that the combination of their unique appearance and their need to refute their use of drugs seriously compromises their credibility, which might contribute further to their stigmatization (see morality, as outlined by Goffman, 1959). Accusations such as drug use, shameless lying and unfair play are loaded with stigma.

Third is that bodybuilders violate gender norms in several ways, by exaggerating their male attributes while also performing feminine acts. We were struck by how the informants reported to display stereotypical masculine features, such as large muscles, while exhibiting behaviours commonly associated with feminine activities, such as hair removal and the use of face and body make-up. The very stage performances of bodybuilders involve these combinations: displaying both traditionally masculine features (such as flexing the muscles, roaring and body postures, including ‘broad walking’ and making the body looking big) and traditionally feminine expressions (such as ballet postures, make-up and hair removal). Furthermore, male bodybuilders may violate gender norms in the explicit objectification of their own bodies since criteria for successful bodybuilding are purely connected to aesthetics. This is in contrast to other sports, in which the purpose is to demonstrate skill (running, lifting, dancing, etc.) and bodily appearance is less important and secondary to skill. More generally, if we consider gender from a social constructionist perspective where one sees gender not as an essence of a person but as something continuously constructed and performed (e.g. Connell, 2009), we may ask the following question: Does competitive male bodybuilding represent an experimenting with gender, especially in the actual display on stage, thus introducing a certain ambiguity to gender? This contradictory expression of gender may even be seen as an alternative to contemporary hegemonic masculinity. Hegemonic masculinity refers to the relationships between men within hierarchies, where certain ways of ‘doing’ gender confer a certain status compared with other ways of ‘doing’ it (see Connell, 2009). One may also interpret bodybuilding as activities involving a production of ‘masculine capital’ (as formulated by De Visser et al., 2009), a capital that is not big enough to balance out the feminine elements in bodybuilding, resulting in forms of prejudice and stigmatization. Overall, we believe that challenging the hegemonic gender norms may contribute to the stigmatization of bodybuilders.

Comparisons with earlier findings

Our findings are consistent in several ways with the descriptions of competitive bodybuilding given in earlier studies conducted in other countries. Peters and Phelps (2001) also found that bodybuilders continuously strived towards a certain bodybuilding body ideal. The participants in that study mentioned perfectionism as a central component of the bodybuilder lifestyle. Most participants reported body dissatisfaction and an incessant need to transform their bodies. Our findings were also consistent with Wright et al. (2000) who revealed that steroid users were less likely to be concerned about physical side effects and that many users believed that steroids were not harmful in moderation. As in our study, Probert et al. (2007) maintained that there is more to bodybuilding than bodily appearance. The participants in their study reported that the lifestyle also led to gains such as enhanced ‘life control’, empowerment, health benefits, balance and well-being. These researchers also found that although bodybuilders display much the same visible body characteristics, they show great individual variation in the functions and meanings the expression attributes (Probert et al., 2007). In that study, most of the participants experienced several benefits associated with the lifestyle, including enhanced discipline, attractiveness to the opposite sex and health benefits.

Non-pathologizing perspective

The present study is based on a curious non-pathologizing approach, whereas most earlier studies have been conducted from a pathological perspective. Thus, the same behaviours and experiences might be interpreted as meaningful behaviours that warrant respect (as in the present study) or as unhealthy behaviours and lifestyles (as in most other studies). For example, Klein (1993) reported a bodybuilding community as characterized by hypermasculinity, authoritarian attitudes and a hierarchical structure. In the present sample, we recognized some of the same features but only as parts of a wider and more complex picture and not necessarily as indicators of unhealthy behaviours or negative and authoritarian attitudes. Goldfield et al. (1998) also reported a higher prevalence of eating disorders and disturbed body images among male competitive bodybuilders compared with the control group. In the present study, some of the same themes were prevalent but can be put into the context of the necessary and painful requirements for success on stage, while also reflecting willpower and discipline.

Reflections on the methods

We want to briefly comment on our methods. First, not all the meaning units were related to our main findings and were omitted from sections ‘Findings’ and ‘Discussion: between recognition and stigmatization’.Second, no statistical generalization was possible because of the unique sample, but the results may be externally valid because of the in-depth analysis and interpretation (Malterud, 1993, 2001a, 2001b). Third, our own pre-understandings will have played a role in all aspects of the study (design, recruitment, interview questions, interview process and themes, analysis and writing up the findings). What is presented as the experiences of the participants will necessarilybe coloured by the interpretations of the researchers.

Conclusion

From a non-pathologizing perspective, we have shown that the experiences of male competitive bodybuilders seem to involve contradictory feelings, including both pride and an awareness of their stigmatization. Male competitive bodybuilding seems to be a complex activity that entails much personal sacrifice, including a strict diet that interferes with personal daily family life and social life, which is often the case for athletes in various sports disciplines. Male competitive bodybuilding also involves important contradictions that may contribute to its stigmatization, such as the violation of social norms of appearance, the way suspected drug use is handled and the challenge to gender norms. Perhaps, the most complex of these concerns involves gender norms. Here, the competitors seem to challenge present-day mainstream notions of masculinity, not only by adhering to the old-fashioned criteria of masculinity but also by simultaneously performing overly feminine acts on stage. Thus, they may represent an alternative way of expressing masculinity.

Footnotes

Funding

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

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