“Pregnant bodybuilders” or why bodybuilders do have big guts?

If you are a bodybuilders and time from time watch bodybuilding competitions you have certainly noticed that some of competitors have large guts, looking totally anesthetic. Large shoulders, big legs, amazing amounts of muscle mass, but waist is really large and stomach looks distended.

What is the cause for this? Are steroids the ones to be blamed? What is known for well is that “distended gut” became a problem, so that IFBB  (International Federation of Bodybuilding and Fitness) took action and changed judging criteria, putting more accent on thinner waists, V-shape and overall balanced bodies.

What cause bodybuilders look like 8 months pregnancy?

Bodybuilders like Schwarzenegger never come up on competitions with any belly at all. And this is not because back in days bodybuilders were not taking steroids. They also administrated different types of gears but somehow they skipped big gut effect.

Here are the reasons:

1. The massive use of HGH, IGF-1 and insulin

These drugs were not created yet. Schwarzenegger’ pears used traditional steroids in quite moderate dosage. This cannot be said about nowadays steroids users.

Along with the introduction of these drugs, the tendency to take more for bigger results came a normal. What people miss out or just are ignoring are the side effects of HGH abuse.

-Increase in size of internal organs (liver, stomach, pancreas, colon, and others);

-Diabetes, high blood pressure and vascular diseases;

-Atypical growth of hands and feet, and quite probably face too.

A very good article published on The guardian” The dangers of human growth hormones” presents real people who faced HGH side effects. Really worth reading.

2. Eating elephant amounts of food

The habit to eat extra large amounts of food during every meal over years may turn into that big gut. Indeed, you have to eat more to gain weight, but in some people this may turn in larger stomach.

Having more than 6 meals a day in enormous quantity force just pushes your muscle outward instead of inwards. Suffering of bloating just worsens the situation.

What to do? Try to eat as much as you need to be higher than your maintenance level for gaining weight, but do not exaggerate with portions and number of meals. Also, eating clean helps a lot.

3. Lifting hard in the gym

The reason for hard lifting to cause big belly consist in the pressure you put on your abs muscle when lifting weights and the trying to stabilize the core. Usually, you push the outwards in order to keep balance, and so they weaken.

The solution is not to avoid such exercises as deadlifts, squats or bench presses since they are the basic of an bodybuilding workout. More productive would be to pull your belly when lift weights. As a powerlifter you can ignore these tips, but as a bodybuilder you have to apply it.

4. Genetics

You are born with a handful of body features you cannot change in spite of all your efforts. You have no control at all over you body type or bone and you have to take them as they are.

There are balanced bodies, but many people have long legs and short torso or vice versa. Individuals with shorter torso are more prone to develop distension, especially if you add to the equation the above mentioned causes.