“Natural bodybuilding fosters empowerment when balanced with healthy habits and supportive environments.”
Natural bodybuilder, Victoria Lavigne outside the venue of her first competition hosted by the Canadian Physique Alliance on June 1st, 2024, in Calgary, Alta.
Gaining traction in the mid-twentieth century, natural bodybuilding garnered significant attention on the North American stage in the 1990s.
Continuing to flourish today, the trending #GymTok is attached to over 26 million TikTok videos — underscoring the growing popularity of natural bodybuilding in the modern fitness landscape.
Natural bodybuilding explained.
Social media influencers see themselves as personalities to be consumed by others. Fitness influencers have also played a role in developing an online subculture that’s centered around bodybuilding.
However, new research says that the impact this has had on viewers is not entirely positive.
Natural bodybuilder, Victoria Lavigne remembers doubting her physical appearance after seeing social media posts by veterans of the sport in the days leading up to her first competition hosted by the Canadian Physique Alliance last June.
“The closer I got to my show, I felt like I wasn’t big enough,” said Lavigne.
“You’re comparing yourself to everyone you’re seeing online who you may be competing against and who have been doing this for years.”
Muscle dysmorphia is defined as feeling of obsessive preoccupation about one’s muscular physique.
Despite it not being an eating disorder, experts say it shares similar behaviour when someone’s “eating habits are driven by an all-consuming concern with improving the mass and leanness of their muscles,” according to the International OCD Foundation.
Instead of using anabolic steroids to reach their physical goals, natural bodybuilders undergo strict dietary and fitness routines in the months leading up to their competition.
Starting with the bulk phase, bodybuilders spend two to three months consuming a hyper-caloric diet paired with consistent gym attendance with the goal of maximizing their muscle development.
“The bodybuilding world shows you that what you put into your body is important.”
Transitioning to the “cut,” or contest preparation phase, bodybuilders spend the months nearing their competition sharply reducing their caloric intake to shed excess body fat while maintaining the muscle mass gained during the bulk phase.
Pointing to the drastic change in energetic consumption, some professionalscriticize the routine as having harmful health effects.
However, registered dietitian and instructor at Mount Royal University, Carrie Mullin Innes finds that the contest preparation routine performed by natural bodybuilders is only harmful to one’s health when done so in extremes.
“Some people will do it in such a manner that maybe they’ve cut carbs a little too much,” said Mullin Innes. “And when our blood glucose isn’t ideal, we get kinda cranky and irritable so we don’t feel as good.”
Transitioning from the competition back to a regular routine is a period where Mullin Innes sees that bodybuilders are vulnerable to developing disordered eating behaviour.
“I definitely have seen people who develop binge eating and who struggle with going through the cuts repeated times,” said Mullin Innes. “It usually comes from a place of feeling restricted.”
Voicing her experience with eating disorders, Lavigne says her past made her hesitant to engage in the dietary routine prescribed by her trainer while preparing for her first show.
“That’s something that I always tried to steer clear of just because I was worried what would happen to my mental and physical health as a result,” said Lavigne.
In managing to maintain a healthy relationship with food during post-competition, Lavigne credits the support of her coach and members of the fitness community and looks back at the affirmations she told herself.
“I reminded myself how I want to feel and that being lean like that is not sustainable,” said Lavigne. “I remembered that my body is so much more about what it can do and what it feels like and what it allows me to do in life than what it looks like.”
While recent research raises concerns about the negative effects of the dietary habits adopted by natural bodybuilders and the impact of social media fitness influencers on viewer’s body image, both Mullin Innes and Lavigne agree that the sport offers positive benefits, so long as healthy habits are maintained.
“Natural bodybuilder, Victoria Lavigne, on-stage at the Canadian Physique Alliance competition, where she placed 1st in True Novice, 1st in Novice, 1st in Class C and 2nd across all wellness categories.”
“The bodybuilding world shows you that what you put into your body is important,” said Lavigne. “If you remember the goal in mind and that it’s that goal and that food is not the enemy, it’s actually helping you reach that goal, I think you can create healthy habits no matter what.”
Competing in her second natural bodybuilding competition next fall, Lavigne says that the sport has helped her to feel more comfortable in her skin and confident in her femininity.
“Putting myself through this extreme challenge…made me realize that what you put into your body [and] who you surround yourself with truly impacts you,” said Lavigne. “It’s made me grow to love life and myself more and more if anything.”
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