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Resistance training has become universally accepted as beneficial in the development of sport performance by improving strength and motor capabilities (Fleck & Kraemer, 1997). Recently it has been shown that many individuals who become involved with resistance training activities in an attempt to increase health status may become consumed by these activities, to the point where they may think of nothing else. The clinical term for this is exercise dependence, which can manifest itself in many ways. One such example of exercise dependence is muscle dysmorphia, a disease characterized by an obsessive preoccupation by an individual with the musculature of their physique, to the point that it dictates the individual's physical, mental, and social perceptions of both themselves and others (Lantz, Rhea, & Cornelius, 2002).
Muscle Dysmorphia
Muscle dysmorphia is a widespread phenomenon (Pope, Philips, & Olivardia, 2000). Pope et al. approximate the number of men and women affected by muscle dysmorphia to be in the hundreds of thousands. Muscle dysmorphia is sometimes characterized as reverse anorexia, as the etiologies of muscle dysmorphia and anorexia are remarkably similar. The only substantial difference is that people suffering from anorexia attempt drastic weight loss, while those suffering from muscle dysmorphia attempt drastic weight gain (Pope, Katz, & Hudson, 1993). Analysis of three Psychology Today surveys showed that both men and women have become increasingly dissatisfied with their bodies (Thompson, Heinberg, Altabe, & TantleffDunn, 1999). In the 1996 survey, 63% of men reported dissatisfaction with their mid torso, compared with 36% in the 1972 survey. Forty-three percent of men in 1996 were dissatisfied with their overall appearance, compared with 15% in the 1972 survey. Another study revealed that over 95% of college aged males expressed dissatisfaction with some aspect of their body (Mishkind, Rodin, Silberstein & Striegel-Moore, 1986). An overwhelming majority of males reported favoring a mesomorphic physique over an ectomorphic physique, as a muscular physique was seen as a symbolic embodiment of masculinity and a masculine personality. This striving for a masculine physique, well documented in McCreary, Saucier, & Courtenay (2005), is a result of men adopting a more traditionally masculine role and experiencing greater levels of gender role conflict. These levels of gender role conflict relate to both society's expectations of them and their inability to balance work and leisure (McCreary et al.). Additionally, it is known that positive body image is inversely related with muscle dysmorphia, whereby those with higher scores on the Muscle Dysmorphia Inventory (MDI) will display poorer constructs of body image (Lantz et al., 2002).
Lantz and colleagues (Lantz et al., 2002) have created a specific model explaining muscle dysmorphia. When individuals begin resistance training, they often experience increases in self esteem and body satisfaction due to muscular development (Lantz et al.). Because of these initial increases in self-esteem and body satisfaction, some individuals begin to invest great energy and time in resistance training. For these individuals, resistance training becomes a pathological behavior (Lantz et al.). That is, they may become dependent on exercise, desire body symmetry, constrain their diet, abuse pharmacological substances, and engage in supplementation use. These aforementioned behaviors are reinforced by increases in muscularity, while perceiving their bodies to be smaller and weaker than they really are. Negative consequences resulting from muscle dysmorphia include alienation, narcissism, and positive deviance (Lantz et al.). Because individuals begin to remove themselves from social situations due to a fear of being perceived as displaying small musculature and to ensure that their resistance training schedule continues unimpeded, the alienation is self-imposed. Further demonstrating the negative consequences of muscle dysmorphia, Smith and Hale (2003), found that individuals who scored the highest on the Bodybuilding Dependence Scale, a scale that displayed a significant relationShip with muscle dysmorphia, reported low levels of subjective wellbeing.
Muscle dysmorphia can be subdivided into three components, including a personality component (personality traits), a psychological component (comments from parents and peers about their body shape) and a media ideal component (print and television advertisements) (Pope et al., 2000). Specifically, this study examines the personality component of muscle dysmorphia by analyzing narcissism, self-esteem, and perfectionism, as well as practice variables associated with muscle dysmorphia.
Personality Components
Although research has not specifically examined the relationship between narcissism and muscle dysmorphia, similarities seem to exist between the two variables. Narcissism is defined as a deep infatuation with oneself that leads to an exclusion of others (Akhtar & Thomson, 1982). Similarly, individuals with muscle dysmorphia have also been shown to forsake social activities to pursue the enhancement of their physiques (Pope, Gruber, Choi, Olivardia, & Phillips, 1997). Both narcissism (Morrison, 1995; Watson, Grisham, Trotter, & Biderman, 1984) and muscle dysmorphia (Lantz, Rhea, & Mayhew, 2001) are characteristically observed in men with low self-esteem. Additonally, both narcissism (Carroll, 1989) and muscle dysmorphia (Duncan, 1985) are linked to adoption of a masculine sex role and the desire to be as large and muscular as possible. Furthermore, research has shown that women with clinical eating disorders had higher levels of narcissism than women without an eating disorder (Steiger, Jabalpurwala, Champagne, & Stotland, 1997). The similarities between anorexia and muscle dysmorphia (Pope et al., 1993) coupled with the similar characteristics of people with narcissism and people with muscle dysmorphia suggests a relationship may exist between narcissism and muscle dysmorphia.
Low self-esteem and depression have been found to be related to body dissatisfaction (Lantz et al., 2002). Body dissatisfaction varies, depending on the value an individual places on his/her body (Wrohlewska, 1997). Body dissatisfaction has been shown to be an important precipitating influence for self-improvement through resistance training (Lantz et al., 2001). Low levels of self-esteem typically provide a catalyst in individuals beginning resistance training programs (Lantz et al., 2002). Klein (1992) showed that bodybuilders compensate for low feelings of self-esteem by building up their physiques. Many of the bodybuilders examined by Klein whom exhibited symptoms of muscle dysmorphia began weightlifting to disguise some other unattractive characteristic that was detrimental to their self-esteem. In a related study, males who...
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