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The industry is awful. Prep is objectively unhealthy. Those are facts. They don't preclude a former competitor from being proud of the physique they built.
Nothing weird or contradictory about it at all. You should go outside more.
Basically you're saying they are hypocrites. Criticising on one hand while still supporting on the other. They are probably not aware they are doing it. The PEDs and the dieting are what makes it unhealthy. As well as constantly lifting weights that are too heavy, can wear on the joints and bring on early osteo-arthritis and other conditions, e.g. Ronnie Coleman. 😬 I think the issue is probably more the blind eye that the fitness industry turns to these issues. Where there's a lot of recognition and reward for looking a certain way that ultimately is incredibly unhealthy to achieve. Making the drugs illegal means their use is completely unregulated and unmonitored. E.g. there may be healthier options that create similar results that no-one is looking at. But coming back to your point, people are just complicated sometimes and a lot of us are blind or lack self-awareness in certain areas. Even though it's obvious to others. You could gently try to point out their contradictions to them without being judgemental or negative about it. But you may run the risk of being blocked etc... for doing so. 🤔
I would suggest just ignoring everything that is written on social networks. Not only because the value of this is approximately equal to the noise of cars outside the window, but also because the person on the social network is in some self-isolation and says a little more, dirtier and harsher than he would say in a real dialogue or correspondence. In many ways, communication on a social network is talking to yourself. In essence, “get out of there while you still have your health,” they say to themselves.
Besides, it's better for them to demonize the industry and make newcomers think twice about it than to tell tales of how it's safe, easy and enjoyable.
I think it’s the tension between their knowing they looked fucking awesome but their health was shit
It is a good thing that older, experienced bodybuilders are describing their past experience, the heights they attained and the fallout from such (esp. the after-effects of various performance enhancing compounds of a synthetic nature). None are perfect. Their individual stories are important. Best is to reserve judgement and take the varied information for what it is: information.
Lots of good points have already been made, but something else that I think should be considered is the impact of survivorship bias. We have threads filled with hundreds of posts about bodybuilders and fitness influencers who outright disappear from competitions and social media. While their motivations for that are only known to them, I think it's pretty easy to speculate that for many of them, they disappeared as a way to signify closing a chapter in their lives and moving on to another one. I see far more of this happening than older bodybuilders criticizing the industry while posting throwback pics.
And on that topic, like others have said, being proud of what you have accomplished while being critical of the industry and its practices aren't necessarily a contradiction. Bodybuilding organizations have been known for shady shit for decades (loved reading the WaPo's expose last year,) and with the spike in bodybuilders and fitness influencers dying relatively young (the most recent to my knowledge being Shelly Yakmichuk at 52,) I think it's more important to have those conversations, even if you are proud of what you accomplished as a bodybuilder and like to reminisce, than it is to pretend like there is nothing wrong and that bodybuilding is nothing but a positive experience.
Lots of good points have already been made, but something else that I think should be considered is the impact of survivorship bias.
No surprise at all coming from you, but that is a BRILLIANT point. I can’t say I’ve ever been a part of convo around survivorship bias as it pertains to this industry.
Full disclosure: I credit much of my own life to the sport, its competitors, and its fans.
i was thinking about this kind of thing the other day--pretty rare for people to do anything "forever". Sports rely heavily on youthfulness but damage the body in different ways. Heck, even something "light" on the body like baseball--non contact,low running, whatever--some guys are good for like 2 yearsand then disappear. i look at it no different than if someone chose to keep some kind of shrine to their past or some photos from when they were younger and doing different things around the house.
they probably look fondly at that time. sometimes they might still make money off of it. austin st john, one-time power ranger, is all about PR on his instagram. he played an (iconic) character for like 2 years in the early 90s and is still talking about it.
as much as i would like them to keep it 100 people are want to remember the past. i think the ones that really did love it but realized they had to stop (whether it was forced on them or they had to make a choice bewteeen it and something else) look back fondly, while others (like shannon courtney, famously) felt like they were kind of forced into it because they were good at it, but eventually put it down.l she never posts throwbacks the closest was a flex from like 2 years ago (which was current at the time) but she emphasized that she wasn't going back. perhaps there was some bit about it she liked, but not the overall.
it's probably annoying to us because for many we wish they hadn't quit at the time they did , likely in or around the best shape of their life. same deal as like michael jordan inexplicably quitting after a 3-peat to play baseball, like wtf? to bring it back to shannon, it was hard for me to grasp how someone was so close to the pinnacle of the sport, and likely could've gotten wbb back to the olympia on her own, would just drop out--except someone like her has active disdain for bodybuilding, in hindsight and doesn't post old photos for attention.
Well said FP909. People do change as they age and new things appear to them...new challenges, new opportunities, new ways of dealing with Life. I doubt very few bodybuilders go into the thing thinking that they will remain in it past the age of 38...Life goes on for them and power to them.
Disclaimers: Everyone's allowed to change their minds. Everyone is allowed to move on from a place and then reminisce about it later, with or without regrets. Whatever.
I make the choice to follow some people on social media and also, "The Algorithm" suggests accounts I might be interested in.
I've been around a long time, during which hundreds of competitors have shared their disdain for competitive bodybuilding (includes figure, fitness, bikini, etc). Whether it was supplements, judging standards, cost to compete vs lack of financial opportunities, etc., the complaints have always been there.
But instead of a simple "I didn't win, so this shit sucks!" gripe, social media has enabled if not encouraged many former competitors to go on long-form rants against the industry. Their reasons are their own and I'm not judging anyone's decision to speak on their experience in the way that works for them. Many say "I'm doing this in hopes of 'saving' just one person" or something like that, but for most part, the majority just want to get something off their chest. And that's OK, too. Often, people should be honest with their emotions.
But when that same athlete - who has written all these think pieces and done Instagram lives and YouTube segments about how "unhealthy" the sport is, encouraging others to "get out while you still have your health!" - posts throwback "look at me onstage! This show was the best I ever looked!" content, well, that's just weird. Often, they'll do it on the weekend of a big event like the Arnold, Olympia, or Nationals, which just makes it even stranger to me.
I don't hate them for it and will probably keep following, and hey, people are allowed to be weird, but seeking praise and validation for something you claim to have hated and to now be recovering from chips away at your credibility. Humans are complicated, but I think this sort of behavior tilts toward dishonesty. No one is being hurt directly by the contradiction, but I think it's a little messy.