Ann, kindly, while I respect your input, obsessiveness is everywhere in all sports. ALL sports. I categorically disagree with you that you have to compete in order to be a bodybuilder. I’ve been one for 45 years and never competed, never will. Nowhere in this article did I state or imply that only in bodybuilding is one obsessive. In most of my fitness articles I make it very clear that compulsive obsessiveness is dangerous whether it’s cycling or hiking or climbing or swimming. You have every right to your opinion, but if your input is going to be useful you might want to reread this article and note all the other different kinds of exercise and sports I noted, along with making it clear that overdoing it in anything is a bad idea.
As for your patently false claim that ONLY people who compete are bodybuilders, Ann, please see this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodybuilding. Those of us who do resistance training to build muscles and strength are bodybuilders. Those who compete as well are also bodybuilders, but you do not own the moniker. That’s a bit of a conceit. Here are the key lines out of the definition: Bodybuilding is the use of progressive resistance exercise to control and develop one’s musculature for aesthetic purposes.[1] An individual who engages in this activity is referred to as a bodybuilder.
Your comment is a disappointment because it doesn’t add value. I love comments in general, but not when you attack, but don’t clarify, and you make sweeping statements or generalizations that are patently false, and which demonstrate that you didn’t read the article carefully. Not only that you are insulting when you say” ignorance knows no bounds.” Really Ann? As a prize-winning journalist and multiple prize-winning author, I do my due diligence. As in, checking the definition of bodybuilding before I fire off a comment claiming that the only folks who are called bodybuilders are those who compete. With respect, Ann, that’s ignorant. You might wish to check your facts first.
The greater disappointment is that you might wish to check your bias at the virtual door before attacking a writer. I am very careful in my many, many, MANY articles (almost 2600, Ann, and another 500 on Linked In) about fitness that I speak to obsessiveness as a problem no matter the sport. There’s a reason I’m a top writer in Fitness, and that’s because I do my research before I write an opinion. If you intend to add value (and your comments only seem to be a put down, rather than to enlighten) you might wish to do the same.