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What exactly is bigorexia?
This article will take you 4 minutes to read. Feel free to leave your questions in the comment section, they will be answered!
Bigorexia simply is an addiction to sports but also describes someone who goes to the gym and feels skinny even though his muscular mass is far from ridiculous.
If you have bigorexia, you’re simply never satisfied with your muscle mass. Each time you look at yourself in the mirror it feels like you’ve decreased in size or that you are too fat when you are shredded. It’s kind of a reverse anorexia.
It’s been reported that 1/10 people going to the gym now suffer from bigorexia according to that article from the independent. Surprising? Not really.
Why does bigorexia happen?
If you take it that most of the people who go to the gym are not satisfied with their body in the first place and that humans hardly get satisfied by their achievements, this isn’t a surprise.
The sport easily becomes addictive once you get results. Being 24/7 with your own body also does not help. We are always more judgmental with our own bodies. Once you reach a certain level you’ll usually want more dopamine and get to a new level. You wish you’d be pumped all the time and your goal always is to make it to that next step.
You can squat 230kg, bench 180kg and deadlift 250kg but that isn’t it yet.
If some say being rich won’t make you happy, some might say that getting as big as you can get or be in a super shape won’t make you happy either.
If you trust your friends for 10 minutes when they tell you that you have a great shape in the gym but forget about it a day later, that is a welcoming to the world of bigorexia.
What’s some solution to help you cope with bigorexia?
Because if you have it, it’s hard.
It’s actually not funny and when it comes to the solutions, it’s always the same thing.
It’s often about confidence issues or just the fact you’re a unsatisfied individual who always wants more.
Apart from the good old talks which would recommend you to go to the psychiatrist, we want to bring a different kind of article which will help you feel better and less lonely in that fight. Again, it concerns 10 to 20% of the lads hitting the gym.
Measure yourself
Measuring yourself is key. Numbers don’t lie. If it stays the same, it stays the same. Therefore, it definitely is in your head. Use a simple measure tape and learn how to measure your body using the higher extremities.
Trust your friends and family
Yes it’s not easy to do so. They tell you you’re big or in great shape but you tell them you’re small or don’t look right!
If you have bigorexia, this is a normal thing to do to ask your friends if you’ve lost muscle but they might get annoyed.
Just listen to them when they tell you you’re massive, they’re right!
Laugh about it
Take it easy and take the pressure off. Try to make it less serious. Mention to your friends that you’ve lost 40% of your gains in one night but you’ll fight to get 60% the next day.
Does bigorexia ever fully go away?
It is definitely possible to get rid of bigorexia, but it isn’t easy. You would have to recognize you got this issue and then seek help and want to get rid of it.
It also comes down to say that of course, your bigorexia can push you to a better level because you always want more. Curing this issue might have an impact on your results. It depends how bad was your bigorexia and if you were overtraining.
In most cases, it can be a fuel to do better. But unless you are going to compete or are an elite athlete, considering “healing your bigorexia” is an idea to consider.
You should also try and re-define your purpose for going to the gym.
Where bigorexia becomes a huge issue
This is when you might want to use steroids. This is pushing the issue further.
Pushing your level to the next one through bigorexia can already take a lot out of your mental and physical energy but if you start going the steroids route then it might be time to take a step back.
If you get to the point where you have to use poison to get bigger, you might want to reconsider what the gym brings to your life.
If you’re going to compete for mister Olympia and bodybuilding is your whole life, that’s understandable. But if you’re a gym regular, it is something to question yourself with.
Last piece of advice
Consider rewriting your gym goals and how do you want it to contribute to your life.
If you know you actually would like to get into something else at some point with your life but you simply don’t seem to let go of the gym, seek help.
If you are ok with it and feel like you’ll have a full career in the bodybuilding world, you might consider it as something you want to live with but be good at coping with it.
Have you ever suffered bigorexia? What does it feel like? Do you have any tips?
Let us know in the comments!
