Chasing perfection

It has been a casual observation that generally body builders all seem to have a mild form of body dysmorphic disorder. It seems to be the thing that gets them into the gym to begin with. They just want to add/ lose a little something off somewhere and before you know it, they are spending more time eating right and lifting right than they are actually living as other people know it.

A case in point is the other great love in one's life; the woman who is one small slave's hairdresser. Now some of you may think it strange to love your hairdresser, but a good one is hard to find around here and frankly anyone who can make you look five years younger, which a good one can do, is worthy of your love. Anyway one does digress... as is often the case :)

She started out in the gym because well, her personal life sucked and she wanted to get fit. Then she wanted to get strong. And then she found that she was blessed with one of those bodies that rewarded their owner with very visible results. She could pack on the muscle and grow and change...

A love affair bloomed...

Then there was the first comp where she placed third. For those of you who don't follow body builders, they are rather like many other small groups of specialised competitors. There is a lot of schmoozing and politics involved and friendships and sucking up and, and, and... To place like that in a first comp is quite an achievement.

Next thing her husband is gone. Well he was an ass and he didn't like the changes so stopped having sex with her. As one said he was an ass on so many levels. But that is not what this is about. So she did what any woman does during a break up, she made some radical changes in her life and her body and went into her next comp a lot more seriously than the first and a new life began.

A life that ended her up in hospital at one stage as her kidneys tried to put her on life support. Someone might have taken the diet a little too far and forgot the importance of water. She got a lot smarter after that and got a good coach who monitors everything she does and what she eats...

And they say that the O/p crowd is extreme...  but again one does digress.

She is not alone in this. A lovely customer came in today. Now she is a serious competitor. Actually she looks like the she hulk, only blond. Not a natural body (unlike the hairdresser) needless to say. You aren't going to get that big as a woman without help. 

We were chatting as we are wont to do and she was saying that the last comp will probably be her last. It nearly killed her and her kidneys. In fact she had to find a new doctor as her last one of many years was less than supportive. Apparently she didn't understand this was her life and how she lived it.

See you can't say to one of these girls you need to stop. It's not that simple. It is what they do and they are what they do. Their identity is wrapped up in the gym and the chasing of perfection, however strange that perfection may be to some. All of their positive feed back comes from coaches and fellow competitors and it is all backed by endorphin highs. It is a heady, narcissistic world.

Now the customer needs to get something checked out and she is avoiding the doctor because her blood work will be out of whack and her body fat is all over the place. In other words post comp she is eating like a pig (as they do) and she is feeling fat. To translate that she is probably still below 15% body fat and feels like she is over 30%. The mind is a dangerous place :)

Needless to say one spent some time convincing her to go to her doctor to get things checked out, rather than self diagnosing, and that her doctor won't care about her being post comp. If anything the doctor will probably be relieved that it is going to be her last comp and that she won't have to keep a difficult patient in check.

What has prompted this page of musings you may be wondering? Ah well in the middle of this the customer turned around and said you are looking good, while running a professional assessing eye over one. See most serious gym goers can assess body fat/ muscle composition at a glance and in a gym fat is a major factor. You want to look more muscled then you are going to need to reduce body fat.

See you think they are admiring your arse, they aren't. They are doing a fat check :D

It was high praise indeed... preens happily

Anyway at the moment the virus has cleared up, that damn soleus muscle had time to get better, the one good thing about being sick, and one was contemplating going for a run tomorrow. Then disaster struck. Spinning lightly in the kitchen to get something from a cupboard the damn muscle pulled again. It's this bloody cold weather we are having. Everything freezes up... bring back summer... there, one said it out loud.

And there one was, bemoaning the inability to get to the gym and run and feeling lazy and fat...

And that is how it starts, that path to damnation and dysmorphic disorders...

That feeling of being fat

Lifting gives you that high, but it is nothing in comparison to running.

Sighs endorphin junkies... we are a strange and fucked up lot