Bodybuilder: You Must Avoid Getting These

Some bodybuilders can get something which you would usually hear only women talking about after fast weight gain due to pregnancy. However bodybuilders can also suffer the same affliction. What is this problem? Well it's stretch marks, and bodybuilders can get them from bulking up too quickly from doing lots of weight training. These blemishes can be a real pain, especially when you are trying to look as good as possible, and if you are competing they can be a big downfall for you.

What Are Stretch Marks?
As a human you have three layers of skin, these are the hypodermis, dermis and epidermis. The layer in which stretch marks occur is the dermis layer. Most of the time your skin has sufficient elasticity in it to be able to cope with your growth, unfortunately, during major growth spurts, such as during puberty, pregnancy and rapid muscle growth, you overcome your skins elastic potential. This causes the elastic fibres of the dermis to rupture, thus causing the stretch marks.
Bodybuilders get stretch marks by building muscle mass to fast and thus putting on weight too quickly. To some extent they will disappear eventually. However when they first appear, the stretch marks can appear in a range of colour from pink to brown, and also darker shades of purple. In time your stretch marks will gradually become less noticeable and fade to a lighter colour. Often this will be a few shades lighter than your normal skin colour.

How To Stop Stretch Marks
There a number of creams and products available that claim to reduce the appearance of stretch marks, however a lot like wrinkle creams, few if any actually do any good or work. There are other solutions which are believed to work such as fish oil and vitamin E; however, you're probably better going without. If you are serious about bodybuilding and bulking up BIG, then you should really take preventative measures to stop stretch marks appearing in the first place.

Prevention Tips
There are a number of ways to prevent getting stretch marks, primarily by building yourself up slowly and not trying to get massive fast. Slow and steady wins the race. When you are building muscle, try to lose weight at the same time, as to some extent this will help balance for some of the muscle growth and reduce the stress on the dermis. If you smoke, quit. As smoking reduces the elasticity of your skin, plus it is really bad for your health and training efforts. As an extreme measure you can get your stretch marks reduced by laser treatment, but you should speak to your doctor about this and only consider it if they are really bad.
By: Bob Giddy