Sept. 14, 1901, in the Royal Albert Hall in London, was the first ever recorded bodybuilding competition, under the title “The Great Competition.” From this point on, the sport rose to even greater heights than it had been before.
Bodybuilding arguably reached its “Golden Age” from the 1960s to the mid-80s due to the extreme competitions, like the “Mr. Olympia,” and athletes it produced, such as Tom “Quadfather” Platz, Arnold “The Austrian Oak’ Schwarzenegger, Chris “Diamond Calves” Dickerson, Mike “Mr. Heavy Duty” Mentzer and many more.
As time continued to pass, more and more people started to compete. Peaking in the late 90s to early 2000s, athletes such as Lee Priest, Nassar El Sonbaty, Dorian Yates and Kevin Levrone stepped on stage.
They had wide, striated and symmetrical physiques — the ideal body for a bodybuilder. However, the dangers they took to achieve such a body wouldn’t go unnoticed. As a bodybuilder, the goal is to get bigger and stronger as time progresses.
To do this, there are two main processes they need to follow. “Bulking” or undergoing a “Caloric Surplus” (eating calories than you burn) to gain mass and muscle, thus becoming stronger, and “cutting” or undergoing a “caloric deficit” (eating fewer calories than you burn) to lose body fat and expose the underlying muscle.
While this may seem simple to most, doing this for long periods can become exhausting and monotonous. The body can only grow so much muscle without the enhancement of steroids. Therefore, professional bodybuilders tend to take a multitude of substances to perform various tasks to make their job easier and grow more than what the human body is capable of.
The prolific consumption of steroids is necessary for a professional bodybuilder, and even though it does contribute to their physical appearance, they risk leaving their off-stage and retirement condition in shambles.
A prime example is Ronnie Coleman, the eight-time Mr. Olympia winner, after he had stepped off the stage and retired from his bodybuilding career. Coleman drastically underwent physical deterioration after undergoing multiple surgeries to the back that would eventually put him in a wheelchair, and this was the lucky side of the retirement life of a professional. Bodybuilders who live exactly like Coleman won’t make it out the same way.
Steroids continue to be refined and uncovered in the present day, often leaving fitness influencers and bodybuilders to fall victim to the same deterioration or worse. For example, Joe Linder, a 30-year-old German fitness influencer, died of a steroid-linked aneurysm in 2023.
Now, Jodi Vance, at 20 years old, has passed away due to dehydration-linked heart failure. Speculated to have been using Diuretics, a pill to increase urination levels, among other drugs, Vance was a prominent figure in the bodybuilding industry for women. She commonly shared her journey through social media on the account “jodi.vance.fit,” and placed third at the 2024 National Physique Committee Battle of Texas, becoming an inspiration to all of those who watched.
However, her magazine dreams of becoming a true professional bodybuilder abruptly ended on Feb. 27, 2025, when she paid the price for her heavy usage of supplements. According to the Columbus Dispatch, “Vance had not been drinking water in the days leading up to the event and had been throwing up.”
This begs the question: if Vance knew she was slowly killing herself with drugs, why did she continue to take them? The answer: the growing obsession every great athlete has for their sport. Bodybuilders and other athletes often push their bodies to their absolute limit to achieve their desired results.
Sometimes they push themselves over the mental and physical edge.
As the bodybuilding scene begins to unfold for the youth, more and more high schoolers immerse themselves in gym culture. At Ida B. Wells High School, IBW senior Elle Hohl and IBW freshman Nolan Wilson are young bodybuilders who want to educate and inspire others in their fitness journey, and hope to drive others away from the lifestyle that awaits them without proper guidance.
Both Hohl and Wilson encourage young bodybuilders to push past comparison when starting. “Nobody is looking at you at all. Nobody cares about you. [I mean] like everybody cares, [but] nobody is focusing on what you look like — you know exactly where your progress stands,” says Hohl.
“Though you may compare yourself to others on the first day, stay in your lane and keep being consistent,” says Wilson. “Often, I see people try supplements the first month in the gym, thinking it’s a necessity, and while it’s helpful, it’s never something someone needs in order to grow.”
This is a common issue in bodybuilding and gym culture as a whole. Many bodybuilders tend to compare themselves to others on social media or in person, and find themselves obsessed with trying to achieve a physique that isn’t attainable without rare genetics, steroids or both.
Hohl and Wilson say this is a shared experience of everyone in bodybuilding, and they hope it can help prospects stay out of the pattern of comparison. Wilson adds, “I’ve definitely been there for sure, I mean, everyone has at some point,” says Wilson. “If anything, I use it as a driving point, making sure I catch up to that guy. When I feel like I’ve caught up to him, there’s another guy who makes me want to catch up to him. Creating a cycle of sorts — there’s always going to be someone bigger or better than you at something. Don’t dwell on it, cause there’s someone who’s trying to catch up to you as well.”
“Usually, if you’re putting the effort, the progress is forward,” says Hohl. “When you’re in that gym and you’re [thinking], ‘you know, I feel like people are judging me. I feel like they’re doing better than I. Guess what? They’re probably thinking the same thing about another person.”
Bodybuilding, while a highly lucrative career, can have many severe side effects. Jo Linder, Jodi Vance, Ronnie Coleman and all of those who proceed and succeed these bodybuilders are all lessons for new bodybuilders to learn from.
With proper guidance and effort to create a healthy environment for themselves, bodybuilders of the future can avoid becoming a statistic, not of fatalities in following their passion, but those who’ve achieved their full potential in something that they love.
