How did you start bodybuilding?

Danielle.

not the best of questions bro, any hobby could be considered deviant, depends who you are and your interests and opinions, i think modifying cars is deviant, listening to punk is deviant, eating junk food is deviant, smoking is deviant, drinking is deviant, but bodybuilding? not in my opinion

yes about 50-60 years ago bodybuilding was weird, it was for freaks, bodybuilders were nothing like the guys today, they were pretty loopy and belonged in the circus, muscles were not cool back then, and people who wanted to build muscles were considered very strange

but all that changed, the one guy who totally changed the direction of BBing and revolutionized the whole fitness industry was Arnold Schwarzenegger, he made muscles cool, very COOL, his films had a huge impact on everyone, everyone wanted to be big and strong like Arnold, he had everything, all the women, the money, the fame, the personality, the carisma.... after that came Sly, Vin, the Rock... and a whole host of other muscled up heros, nowadays BBing is huge, i wouldn't say it is that big in the UK but in 10 years it will be, but in America everyone who is anyone works out, 3% of high-school kids in America have taken/tried steroids, in a school of 5000 kids thats 150, i know it dosen't sound like much but in my school/college i only know of 1 guy that juiced (and i don't even think he started until he left college), so that is how big BBing is over there, everyone wants the perfect body these days, girls want to be thin guys want to be ripped, if you are testing the hypothesis of whether or not BBing should be considered deviant? well... i think it is undoubtably false, i'd like to see these reports stating otherwise, if i were you i'd go with that then and just rip them apart as being outdated, either that or change you're question to finding out why people start bodybuilding, or why is bodybuilding so popular, or why people decide to take steroids, hypothesis to test bodybuildings effects on self-esteem and confidence would be a good one, there are loads you could do

i hate greg....he deserves to be put down, he is a disgrace to the sport IMO, steroid abuse is wrong...but it would be avoided if steroids were legalised and avaliable for use under doctor supervision (that would make for another good question...should steroids be legalized?), i'm not a fan of synthol, it dosen't interest me at all to be honest

hopefully that helps you out a bit, good luck with your dissertation sounds very interesting

Danielle.

double post, my bad

Gail

I had an obsession with big guys from the age of around 13, which sounds perverse but it wasn't, I was just amazed by the sheer size and scale of the physiques these guys had. While my mates had posters of wham, boy george and duran duran (showing my age now) on their bedroom walls, I had arnold, sergio and franco on my wall. Think my parents were a bit worried about me!

I trained with weights from late teens onwards, but did lots of aerobics for years, until my tendons gave way, then I started bodybuilding and have never looked back.