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Quitting competition is one thing, I can understand that. What I don't get is completely quitting working out and going back to average housewife look
Most don’t. They still keep active and fit but without the PEDs and extreme dieting. What you consider “average housewife” is actually someone who is still in shape.
I think we’re so used to seeing these geared athletes that we forget what a regular fit woman looks like.
Even as a guy, I was never a bodybuilder but in good shape with abs and stuff but while I still take care of myself I couldn’t keep up the lifestyle… you just want a beer and pizza sometimes, take a week off and watch a series on Netflix. Especially now when the standards are so insanely high online. I don’t think you can follow the lifestyle long term unless it’s your full-time job or you’re obsessed to the point of a legitimate mental illness. Sorry, but that’s the way I see it.
I think this has been mentioned in bits and pieces, but bodybuilding (as a sport) has a natural shelf life for all practitioners. The thing that draws most people to bodybuilding, be they male or female, is progress. Just the idea of waking up every morning stronger, faster, and better than you were the day before is intoxicating on its own.
However, this is by nature unsustainable in the long-term, especially for women. The reason you see so many newcomers blow up (both in terms of muscle mass and presence on the scene), and then disappear just as quickly as they arrived, is because they hit their limits. Some do it sooner than others, some extend their runway by turning up the dosage, but, ultimately, they all hit the point where they can’t go any further.
Once you’ve hit that point, and proven to yourself that you can accomplish something few others can (usually while having given yourself life-long health issues/repercussions as a result), the benefits of maintaining that comic-book physique are pretty much nonexistent. There are few people who are willing to spend 24/7, day in, day out, of the best years of their lives eating, lifting, and sleeping in the name of stagnancy (unless it’s someone like Natalia Trukhina, who I’m pretty sure is chemically dependent on tren at this point).
You’ll also notice that a large number of these women who quit stay fit, but just at a more-reasonable level. Dani Reardon, Slava Galagan, and Yeon Woo Jhi are a couple good recent examples. They clearly enjoy the healthy lifestyle, but aren’t interested in pumping themselves full of PEDs for the rest of their lives.
Most don’t. They still keep active and fit but without the PEDs and extreme dieting. What you consider “average housewife” is actually someone who is still in shape.
I think we’re so used to seeing these geared athletes that we forget what a regular fit woman looks like.
There are plenty of professional sports with very strict testing where the women still look huge and/or ripped, so the notion that I'd see a woman without peds as an average housewife is completely ridiculous.
Women bodybuilders who are huge and ripped have to work three times as hard to achieve that look with PED's. But their choice of bodybuilding style does not last long because of the effects of PED's has on their bodies. Plus if they want to get pregnant and have children they better do it before they get into bodybuilding. Bodybuilding is a very serious sport and not to be taken lightly. With bodybuilding there's very little incentives in the end because with these huge and ripped women comes the mocking, the harrassment, the downright disgusted look that people have against them. Nutrition companies don't want anything to do with them at all and will not sponsor them either unless their on Herbiceps or Wings of Strength which will feature them.
All of the above comments are very sensible. I think a lot of women are advised to go into Crossfit instead. That seems to be the new "in" sport. Similar, but not as extreme, and more "acceptable". Competitions are more widely publicised, more opportunities for sponsorship, and it doesn't cause nutrition companies to run away.
I think the primary reason is the lack of money in the sport. I think another reason is maintaining a certain look that is hard to stay on top of. I think those that turn pro probably burn out unless they are looking to make it to Olympia. My question, obviously most of these women love fitness and it’s a lifestyle, maybe someone in here has a better idea, do a lot of these women stop and come back to the sport later? It appears to be a sport where a lot experience burn out and then return.