Fitness and bodybuilding contests are getting weird and bizarre, and dangerously so. Most of these contests are preceded by weeks, sometimes months of grueling regimen.
Fitness and bodybuilding contests usually see participants going through a kind of self-torture, which includes starvation and sleep deprivation. The cruel activities to which they subject themselves often leave them with physical, mental and emotional nightmares.
Considering the serious business fitness contests have become, most participants go in for special workshops to get fit to walk the ramp. The categories that are popular include fitness model, bikini model, figure and bodybuilding.
Special training through exercise, dieting and fine-tuning of the body is included in the routine that the participants, of whom an increasing number are women, are required to follow for anything between 12 and 17 weeks.
More often than not, young women end up broken physically and mentally by these contests, which have become an extremely dangerous fad. What makes matters worse is that these women often place their trust in under-qualified trainers and so-called coaches, according to Mashable.
Overdoing exercises is also detrimental to health and fitness. Day after day of stretching the body excessively leads to stress on the heart and can eventually cause heart attack or stroke. This happens because too much exercise raises the risk of abnormal heart rhythm, called atrial fibrillation, reports Live Science.
There are several studies that show the link between heart health and moderate to vigorous exercise. While moderate exercises include brisk walking, jogging, swimming and cycling, vigorous intensify exercises involve aerobics, long-distance running, fast cycling and strenuous hiking. Both these types of exercises lower the risk of atrial fibrillation.
Overdoing these exercises, however, is paradoxically harmful for fitness and leaves a person physically and mentally impacted. What the fitness and bodybuilding contests seem to be doing is to encourage excessive exercise and a harsh regime that adversely affect the body and the mind.
Courtesy of: Health Aim