This is one of those Medium stories that, I think, epitomizes the original philosophy that inspired Medium in the first place.. The tamed honesty is awesome dude — you refused to get caught up in that world while also respectfully providing your surprisingly unbiased story. Kudos!

I think we’re getting to a point in our civilization where, either through achieving unprecedented levels of comfort or capability, we’re able to pursue health and wellness in highly regimented (and flaunted) ways. This creates a tremendous demand for all things fitness that becomes saturated with misguided ventures and misinformation. Like you say, health and education isn’t all that important unless it generates revenue.

With respect to competitive body building in particular, it’s one of those fringe areas that sees an enthusiastic following. It’ll probably be around a while despite the adverse physiological effects but there are worse formats out there (i.e. modeling promoting anorexia). Nonetheless, changes to health and fitness are coming with innovative, science-backed methodologies and measurements shaping a new frontier of physicality.

Unfortunately, that doesn’t guarantee that things will get better anytime soon.

Awesome read, thanks man!

Not sure why this story isn’t being curated more expansively by Medium..