Is professional bodybuilding past 40 healthy? Jay Cutler has his doubts.
The sport of bodybuilding is one of the most extreme sports, when it comes to putting stress on the human body. 4X Mr. Olympia Jay Cutler questions if competing past 40 is the right thing to do.
In the past 10-15 years, the average age for a professional bodybuilder is getting higher. Professional bodybuilders in the past used to retire from the sport between 30-35 years of age, the maximum 40.
Other than a few, such as Albert Beckles and Dexter Jackson, who competed into their later years from a young age, some start their professional career’s close to 40.
The sport of bodybuilding puts a lot of stress on the human body and especially the heart. Extreme diets, heavy training and also performance enhancing drugs (PED’s).
Training and following a good clean diet, is perfectly healthy, but when the athlete takes it to another level, that is when the athlete needs to be careful.
The name of the game is being the most conditioned and biggest bodybuilder on stage. The achieve that look, the athlete has to push his or her body to the limit, sometime to the point that it is not healthy.
Jay Cutler discusses bodybuilding and health
In his latest podcast ‘Cutler Cast’, Cutler discusses the darker side of bodybuilding.
Jay talks about his time at the top of the sport and how he felt walking around at 290lbs. Even though he felt good, he knew he could not continue maintaining that weight, for health reasons.
At the age of 40, Cutler walked away from competitive bodybuilding and immediately started to downsize.
In the last couple of years, there has been a drastic increase in the death of professional bodybuilders, between the ages of 40 and 50.
Some of these bodybuilders led extreme lives, taking a high level of PED’s and suffered the effects later on in their lives, while other were active competitors.
The sudden deaths of George Peterson and just recently, 2018 Mr. Olympia Shawn Rhoden has raised a number of questions about the sport of bodybuilding.
Is competitive bodybuilding at a high level safe after the age of 40? Is it safe to take such high level of PED’s after 40?
Jay Cutler knows the sport very well, and is well informed about what happens behind the scenes.
On is show, Cutler gives the impression to his viewers that he has his doubts about how safe competitive bodybuilding is after 40.
“I think people are just running scared at this point, think ‘Oh my gosh, bodybuilding is so dangerous.’ I think anything in life is, nutrition and whatever else, and we obviously push ourselves. I think our biggest fear now is, when you’re 290, 5-foot-9 or 10, you’re considered obese. So it puts a lot of strain on the heart. Although I felt pretty good at 290, I knew I couldn’t maintain that for a long time, hence I walked away at 40 years old,” Cutler said.
“Although I felt pretty good at 290, I knew I couldn’t maintain that for a long time, hence I walked away at 40 years old” – Jay Cutler
“I look back, when I first started bodybuilding, and I watched Lee Haney retire at 31, Dorian Yates retired at like 37, Lee Labrada stepped away, Shawn Ray stepped away early in their careers, their early thirties or whatever.
“I just feel that this has transitioned to an older person’s game, which I don’t know if that’s the best thing for your health, to really be pushing yourself in your forties, to get in shape, up and down like a yo-yo, being depleted and being dehydrated to that extent…
“I watched Lee Haney retire at 31, Dorian Yates retired at like 37, Lee Labrada stepped away, Shawn Ray stepped away early in their careers, their early thirties” – Jay Cutler
“The truth is, when you start pushing limitations of your physique, it doesn’t matter what the age is, the amount of foods we eat is astronomical,” Cutler added.
Health checks for professional bodybuilders
The professional bodybuilder should have regular health checks during the year. Many neglect getting their heart checked and this could end up being deadly.
A number of top representatives of the sport believe that a number of deaths could have been avoided if the athlete was more conscious about their health.
Walking around at 300lbs after the age of 40 is very stressful on the body and especially the heart.
Some bodybuilders have difficulty walking off stage due to heavy breathing.
It is a known fact that some bodybuilders needed medical attention during competitions and immediately afterwards, some at a really young age.
With all the deaths in the industry, it should be a priority that all professional athletes show a clean bill of health, in regards to heart and other vital organs.
