Why Have So Many Bodybuilders Died Too Soon?
Relentless Pursuit
By IFBB Pro Josh Wade
Presented by Allmax Nutrition
Why Have So Many Bodybuilders Died Too Soon?
“Don’t be fooled into thinking that looking good on the surface, being lean and believing you’re healthy means you’re not putting yourself at some risk of harming your health or even shortening your life.”
I’m going to share my opinions on what I believe contributed to the deaths of too many young bodybuilders as of recently. You don’t have to agree with me. You’re free to do whatever you want and take whatever you decide, but don’t be fooled into thinking that looking good on the surface, being lean and believing you’re healthy means you’re not putting yourself at some risk of harming your health or even shortening your life.
I competed for over 14 years and was completely in denial that I was doing anything to harm myself. I did my lab work, cycled on and off and took the gear needed, when needed, to look and perform my best. Because I thought I was doing this safely and responsibly, I didn’t believe there would be any long-term side effects.
There have been many people I know and a few that I was very close to that have passed away over the last couple of years that still hurt me almost every day. Those deaths might be related to gear usage, might be preexisting or hereditary health conditions or some completely different unknown cause. But whatever the cause, it still hurts and affects more than just the person that has passed away.
As bodybuilders, especially large open bodybuilders, the amount of muscle we carry on a daily basis is not healthy and puts an extreme amount of stress on the heart. In the off-season I would get up to upper 260s. Although it might have been uncomfortable bending over and doing things as simple as putting on my socks, I didn’t think about the stress and strain I was putting on my heart just being that heavy. Cardiac muscle tissue is completely different from skeletal muscle tissue. Cardiac muscle tissue performs coordinated contractions that allow your body to pump blood through your circulatory system. This is done involuntarily unlike skeletal muscle tissue that you can flex and control yourself. Think about how much harder your heart has to work the heavier you are, while training using heavy loads as your heart rate increases and decreases. That’s not even taking into account that most of us using gear have an elevated hematocrit (thickening of blood) that puts even more strain on the heart trying to force that thick blood through vessels and arteries. Add another factor like plaque in the arteries into the equation and you could be a ticking time bomb for a heart attack. There is a simple test called a Coronary Calcium score test that can be done to measure any plaque in your arteries. It’s a CT scan of your heart and has multiple range categories such as 0-11: No to minimal plaque burden, 11-100: mild plaque burden, and so on. Luckily for me my score showed up as a 1, which makes me very unlikely to have a blockage that would cause a heart attack. That same test showed normal heart size and rhythm.
Since the heart is a muscle, it can grow using anabolics, and that’s not a muscle you want to grow. If it enlarges and thickens it won’t work as efficiently and although it doesn’t always produce symptoms, sometimes it could cause trouble breathing, fatigue, swollen ankles/feet/legs/abdomen and/or neck veins. For bodybuilders, constant elevated blood pressure is one of the main issues and something that needs to be constantly monitored. That’s why they call it the “silent killer.” You can feel perfectly fine then one day you don’t, and if you don’t get it addressed immediately that’s when a heart attack can take you out.
Most bodybuilders don’t do cardiovascular exercise in the off-season, which I personally think is a huge mistake and why I program some year-round for most of my clients. When your weight does get up higher in the off-season it’s that much more important to keep your heart working as efficiently as possible, which will also keep hematocrit lower. Simple cardio exercise like walking, running, biking or swimming is a great way to keep blood circulating, which helps prevent it from thickening.
Constant elevation of your blood pressure and cholesterol are what usually causes fat plaques in the arteries that feed the heart muscle. If a portion of that plaque ruptures, it can suddenly block one of the vessels and cause the heart muscle to begin to die because it’s starved for oxygen and nutrients. This can also occur if a blood clot forms in one of the arteries of the heart, which can happen right after a plaque rupture.
The sport of bodybuilding, like many others, has evolved. Competitors are now pushing the limits further and further in terms of getting bigger, harder and more vascular. I believe social media has contributed to that in big part due to the fact that competitors are constantly posting updates and check-ins, which shows who you are competing against and what they look like, while a lot of the time being so filtered it’s not what they truly look like. Still, we see those pictures and we push harder whether it be training or unfortunately more using more harmful drugs to get leaner, more peeled, maintain size while getting leaner etc., all while causing more internal harm despite looking amazing on the outside.
That’s where I think a big problem lies when people take all these things: thinking it won’t happen to me, it’s only for a short period of time, or even worse as I’m guilty of, thinking I’m Superman and nothing can hurt me!
To conclude, although all my lab work looks good, very minimal plaque in my arteries, my weight never got too out of hand, I stayed physically fit and cycled on off as safely as possible, but there is no guarantee I didn’t cause any harm that’s not visible and those are choices I and we all have to live with. No matter what you do PLEASE get into your doctor, get your lab work done constantly, get a Coronary Calcium score test done and an echocardiogram and always keep in mind there is life after bodybuilding!
Live your life, love yourself and never be regretful of your decisions!
Strengthening the Immune System
With the COVID-19 situation, I’ve been getting a lot of inquiries as to which supplements can strengthen the immune system and help prevent infection. These are the supplements that I take every day year-round for immune system function and antioxidants, but they are even more beneficial at times of stress or sickness.
Allmax Immune-Boosting stack
Glutamine: 10g 3x day, upon rising, post-workout and before bed.
R+ALA: 2 caps (300mg) with first and last meal.
CytoGreens: 1 scoop upon rising.
Vitastack: 1 multipack with first meal.
Omega 3: 2g with first and last meal.
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