Baby Faced Bodybuilders

Baby Faced BodybuildersMost of us go to the gym to lose weight and subtly tone our bodies - if we go at all. And most of us think bodybuilders look gross and unnatural. So why is it that some teenagers are dedicating their lives to this extreme sport?

This surprising, energetic and gripping documentary follows teenagers whose bodybuilding obsession is so extreme it's becoming a clinical problem. We delve into the minds of three young bodybuilders and discover how they got to the point where they wanted to be weirdly big.

Danny is preparing for his first big competition by transforming his body in a matter of weeks. He is 'bigorexic' - psychologically obsessed with being big - and it has taken over his life. Meanwhile 15- year-old Chapelle excitedly plans a trip to meet her heroine Avril, a female bodybuilding legend.

We reveal how an obsession with bodybuilding can rule your life. And we talk to their families and friends to find out what they think of it all.

Watch the full documentary now

Part 1

Part 2

Ratings: 6.06/10 from 17 users.

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34 Comments / User Reviews

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  1. Curt

    I have my doubts about the safety of this for kids that young, but the one father in particular has no clue what he's doing, and his kids are going to get hurt.

  2. Chad

    The young girl will be on steroids as soon as someone has the nerve to provide them to her. When she was talking how it will take ages to get where she wants, you can see she would juice right now. I have been in the bodybuilding scene. When you get frustrated, the first thing that happens is the pursuit for steroids! If she keeps training it is a matter of time 'til someone offers her the juice.

  3. Michael Osmium

    I like how the quality looks like it was ripped from analogue tv to a VCR and then encoded with 128kbps flash video, and then the audio de syncs! Fascinating how self perception changes.

  4. Yusiley S

    I personally like muscular men, but the ones who are sported on muscle magazines are too extreme, even for me. The ones shown in this video are really good looking though. As for women body builders, women don't win either way... we're either too big or too thin... too muscular or too fat... etc etc etc. Men aren't scrutinize as women are and whatever size they may be they're more accepting than whatever size a woman is. That's patriarchal bs for you. Anyways... I'm fortunate to have found a guy who is very attractive, humble, noble and yes he is larger than I am, so even if I gain twenty pounds I'll still look petite and thinner than him (I'm 120 ibs, yet I'm consider obese by Miami stupid bs standards). I'm telling ya ladies... go with a larger guy. He'll always find you feminine and sexy. Oh and if he is one of these muscular fellows even better. ^_^ These muscle bound fellows have more love than the skinny sh!ts sported on fashion bs magazines. F^ck twig guys. Muscle guys like soft, squishy females, so stop starving yourselves ladies.

    As for viewing the dark side of steroids... that's what the Gregg Valentino documentary is for. This is a doc about young people who are pursuing their dream in becoming a professional body builder and there is nothing wrong with that. I rather have my kid body building than ending up being an unemployed homeless junkie. Will there be steroids involved... maybe and if so I'll make sure my kid gets the latest physician, therapist and nutritionist around to supervise him or her in the process so there would be less negative side effects. Seriously people lack of information and lack of supervision of expert doctors will always end up bad. That's a no brainer. ...but that's like every sport or extreme diet and exercise regime... no expert advise or supervision and things will go bad. Steroids in moderation and expert supervision will result in fantastic results with little or no negative side effects at all. Hell you can die from excess water or overtaking a certain vitamin.

    I agree with a previous poster... the mom is hilarious. She is the last person who should be giving out comments about steroids being bad, especially when she has a cigarette in hand.

  5. Frank N. Blunt

    Someone mentioned the analogy "discipline beyond the military kind" but I see vast differences in the risks and reasons for service compared to that faced by an athlete bodybuilder. Athletes abuse the words warrior and soldier all too often without regard for the distinction. It's undermining if not disregarding the sacrifice, suffering, and hardships imposed during military service.
    Sure the military is getting abused, misused, and exploited by the politicians, bureaucrats, facilities, and agencies that supposedly support them; so the propaganda is quite opposite than the reality I've experienced. Even the objectives should be questioned and criticized much more by citizens as well as putting those on the line that dare to sacrifice others for profit - especially the cheap patriots evading their obligations to public revenue then imposing their debt upon others without being held accountable for their incompetence and crimes.
    The supposed budget crisis is due to revenue problems since the wrong people are indulged as others have to suffer from hardship as civic services are eliminated, infrastructure deteriorates, and people like me can't even get the compensation or medical treatment I need.
    So still respect and take notice that at least one person has been more concerned with preventing waste/fraud/abuse of resources, defending your rights from attack by either domestic or foreign threats (difficult to determine these days), and using power for peace rather than indulging the war profiteers and warmongers that want to enhance their portfolios at the expense of others that must suffer form destruction and tragedy.
    Take care of yourself, one another, and most important get together and take action. Thanks for your time and hopefully I can return it someday.

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  7. Jason K

    16:14 ???? Univers isnt the ultimate international BB comp, The Mr Olympia is!

  8. Captain Obvious

    Razor said it all. It is a sport where you have to take drugs to be competitive. You give up your entire life ( obsession anyone?) to turn yourself into some kind of chemically enhanced freak. Nothing wrong with steroids if you don't mind chicks growing dicks or men with breasts.

  9. RazorDiamond

    Inspirational doc! As an amateur bodybuilder myself, i can understand why 'outsiders' don't really connect with the sport. It takes ALOT of getting used to actually being around real life bodybuilders to gain an eye for that type of physique. No normal person sees a bodybuilder for the first time and thinks 'wooow, thats beautiful'.

    Having that said, i challange anyone to find a sport out there that is as tough to do as bodybuilding. When taking everything into account, like the famous Jay Cutler said; 'it's a 24-hour thing' these guys train 2, sometimes 3 times a day (every single time to absolute failure) and the rest of their time consists of either cooking, eating and sleeping. It is probably the hardest lifestyle to maintain. It takes discipline beyond the military kind, and there's no way out once you really get big.

    I think the steroids is not something to discuss in a doc like this. Normal people will never understand the role steroids play in this sport, nor will they ever understand that steroids dont have to cause harm. They give SUSTANON to cancer patients for god's sake!

    And how great to see that an accomplished bodybuilder like Avril is actually in our humble prescenece on this lovely site!

  10. Joe

    Competitive body building is not a good sport close to 100% of the athletes take serious amounts of steroids.

    The reason no one respects the women is because they aren't women. The drugs they take begin to turn them into men. Some of the female east german olympic swimmers took so many steroids that they actually became men!

    I will admit that you don't just take steroids and blow up to that size. These men and women??? still work extremely hard in the gym and focus on form to achieve their symmetry. Over all I would say the negatives far out weigh the positives in extreme body building.

  11. Fernando

    F@#$ this parents... so being a slave of the system is better than pursuit your dream?!

  12. Nick The Greek Bodybuilding Athlete

    Bigorexia along with muscle dysmorphia are two very serious conditions most bodybuilders & strength training athletes live with. I wonder if one can exist without the other..

  13. avril

    it wasnt going to be a doc discussing the dark side..its children for gods sake!! or had you missed that point..

  14. Mike

    What they don't talk about is the dark side of it, and no, living out of grilled fish and rice cakes isn't a healthy diet. We all need sugar, salt and fat in our bodies, to look big and cut the body will have to overwork, the colesterol levels of a bodybuilder are through the roof and mood swings are normal for someone that hasn't got a regular diet and takes supplements to aid the cause. And talking about supplements, every bodybuilder has taken them. The regular stuff like creatine, arginine and protein isn't enough to grow big and cut. That is just the begining. To look like that you need to take stuff like deca, dbol and winstrol.
    Bodybuilding is that sport that will give you heart attacks the same way that ballet is the sport that will leave you crippled.

  15. avril

    i was a little wary of this documentary to begin with as we have all heard the horror stories of the makers twisting it to make it "better telly"..but infact we all got copies of it to preview before it went out..and i have to say they made it well..

    too much has been said about danny and his fish and rice cakes statement..
    he on a diet and a pre comp diet is usually pretty samey..and eating every 2-3 hours is normal..

    for a change it was a positive documentary about bodybuilding and not the usual negative one..

  16. Rob

    Thanks for posting this, I wanted to see it after seeing a clip on you tube.

    Bodybuilding is only going to become more and more popular. We're living in an image concious world. When I started working out 15 years ago there were mainly working class guys in the gym. Now you see middle class Doctors, lawyers etc who want to build muscle.

  17. H.Ghpills

    The body build is one of the famous sport in today's time .Every second person wants to become the body builder to attract others.

  18. Garth

    I like how his mom at about 14:15 in the fisrt part says how she thinks it so bad what he's doing to his body as she has a cigerette in her hand. HAHA

  19. bloke

    Id have to say the average bloke is living the life of a normal bloke, blokes in general look for a bloke amoung blokes to study and work towards. sometimes blokes are a good form of being and doing hence blokism. bloke?

  20. wally

    bodybuilding is a good hobby , but like anything can get out of hand. but these kids are lifting and look good, feel good, at least they are not out drinking , doing drugs , partying , i mean they are leading a healthy lifestyle. to the average weak , out of shape person, id rather be hooked on working out then look like the average person.

  21. Mike

    I thought this doc was pretty interesting. It tells it the way it is when it all starts. If you're into competitive bodybuilding, you need to be dead serious about it as it will consume your life. The models that people take on as examples are normally extreme bodybuilders that do nothing but that.

    Ok, there's only a certain percentage of bodybuilders that actually compete, the rest go to the gym to be "big and strong" and generally, they don't actually do neither unless they take on the "easy way out". It's very hard to maintain a regular lifestyle at home and at work when your mood is up and down like a yo-yo. The diet and supplementation is very important and it's easy to spend over £80 a month to go to the gym, and in my book, that is an extremelly high amount of money!

  22. loli

    Let me clear up that comment..peoples mouths are moving and the sound is like way off :)

  23. Frank

    Good, but the whole issue of steroids was left out.

  24. pete

    they really stooped low for this one, this doc is absolutely stupid, i mean the first kid got like 5 lbs of muscle on him , and they got him eating fish every two hours........lolz........what a joke.

  25. hmm

    fish and a rice cake.. fish and a rice cake.. glad he didn't forget to tan his face for the competition.. lol

  26. Charles B.

    Ok. Thanks. To be honest, I was thinking, "Hum. I wonder if they can even get pregnant!" I watched the "What is Sexy?" doc and it said that men were pretty good at picking out the most "fertile" women just from their shape. Lucky me, my wife had all the right "curves" and we had our babies right away as we had no time to spare. LOL!

    But, isn't that interesting. That lady body builder said that male body builders were looked up to by other men, but even other women as well as the men looked down on the female body builders. I guess the gender stereotypes are hard to shake, aren't they?

  27. Raya

    Charles B.: You're very welcome. I don't usually comment but I just had to on this one. Glad you got something out of it. And Yes to your question. Any extreme amount of exercise, be it dance, running or weightlifting can cause a change to a woman's normal system such as would be caused by anorexia. Excessive exercise causes changes in natural hormone levels. The increase in testosterone and the decrease in estrogen while weightlifting probably has effect on a woman's cycle in addition to the body's natural tendency to shut down functions unnecessary to immediate survival when under intense long term physical stress.

    AidenGarcia: It is advisable to postpone bodybuilding until a person has finished growing. Actual changes in body/skeletal structure occur when a person starts before they reach maturity. This age can vary anywhere between 14-17 for females and 16-22 in males (later for men due to extended growth years.) While a person should not engage in bodybuilding before they have reached maturity, this does not mean that they cannot learn and practice some of the basics of weightlifting before this time. Moderation is the necessary key element between healthful practices and injury.

  28. AidenGarcia | bodybuilding programs

    The Article was great,thanks for the info it really helps me a lot....Factors like height, weight and a large musculo-skeletal frame are all challenges for the superheavy weight bodybuilder when trying to build the degree of size and muscularity that make the muscles of the leg an equal balance to upper body condition.My quesion is what particular age you can start bodybuilding?

  29. pierre

    nah, my sister was anorexic and she could ride a bike just fine ;-)

  30. Charles B.

    "Bigorexic"? Hum. Sounded really funny at first, but then it proved to be a little dangerous, in fact.

    Raya: Thanks for the post. That was great information not mentioned in the doc. I had to tell my wife, "No, honey, those are the women body builders." LOL! They scare me too! I wonder if their bodybuilding has influenced their "cycle" like Anorexia does. Do you know?

    1. Kateye70

      The lower a woman's body fat is, the less likely she is to ovulate, since the body registers low body fat as counterproductive to a healthy pregnancy. Doesn't matter whether the low body fat is due to over-exercising or under-eating, it's the same message: "not ready to make a baby".

      I'm not, by the way, saying that women shouldn't have strong, healthy muscles. But body extremes are grotesque in either sex, imho.

  31. Raya

    This documentary was an interesting perspective on a subject that was at the forefront of my childhood. My father used to be a world class body builder and held several records, one for largest chest in proportion to waist size. I believe it was 58" to 32". This was right before the the time of steroids and Schwarzenegger. (Its probably due to his abhorrence to the unnaturalness of steroids that I made it out of the ol testes at 73. Yeah. There's a picture for you.)

    I can definitely see the positive effects of body building including better self image, and physique. However some long term effects can also be noted that this documentary did not cover. At 84 my father is still working out three days a week in his gym with his cat. He has had at this point, shoulder surgery and five vertebrae removed from his neck. His spine is also going through a process of calcification, apparently growing bones between bones, and he has very defined curvature of the spine. Some of these medical problems are a product of age but my belief is that most of these issues were exaggerated by his many years of body building.

    What really struck home with this documentary is that my father started in his young teens just like the kids in this documentary. I could see the emotions these young men were feeling and immediately saw the connection of what drove them all.
    Has anyone ever noticed that many people who are bodybuilders used to be unusually small or feel some other inferiority that they use bodybuilding to make up for?

    My dad started teaching me to weight lift and do exercises like dips when I was 6. I only started to leave off when I was around 12 and took a good look at a poster of female body builder finalists. They scared the hell out of me. They have now found that working out at a young age impacts the growth of an individual, (look at gymnasts, ect), to the point of changing the skeletal structure. To this day I believe weightlifting at a young age shaped the way I look today, with a slightly more muscular build than my sisters.

    Oh well its all just interesting. Thanks for the site! :D

  32. Circle

    As the videos play the sound gets further and further out of sync. Interesting none the less.