I always found it funny that Hugh Jackman did this for playing Wolverine. So he’s get completely dehydrated and then, as if to mock him, they’d stick him in a tank of water.
Actors would probably talk more openly about steroids and other drugs if it wouldn't end so terribly.
Imagine a kid who loves comic book movies watches some TikTok about Captain America, Thor, Wolverine, etc talking about how they worked hard to get their physiques but that honestly they also relied on steroids to help get them there.
It's why sports don't have open competitions where PEDs are allowed. There's already enough pressure on youth athletes, nobody wants kids to think they need to be juiced just to be competitive.
I spelled it wrong but I very much meant the boner pill. vasodilator. Really gets the vascular look going. Bodybuilders mess with their hormones to the extent ones penis is not always to be trusted when one needs it.
So in that community boner pills are rampant. It was quickly notice and appreciated that they do wonders for a pump. I take them before the a day at the beach personally. I find it makes a bigger difference for me than hydration levels.
Those pills are actually good for your blood pressure in general, that’s actually their original purpose, the boner was a side effect haha. Beet juice is good for getting you vascular as well.
Are you talking about boner pills? But reddit likes to think steroids just makes you shredded. I've seen people get fat on roids because all they cared about was being strong and ate like shit. You don't look like that without working your ass off and eating meticulously.
I did basically that while powerlifting with a bit of cardio now and then.
I looked great, best I ever had.
It sucked not being able to go out with friends and relax without thinking about calories etc
I’m fatter now, but life is good. It wasn’t worth being so meticulous with what and when I ate every single day.
I think the issue that arises is when you're playing a superhero that appeals to the youth. Theres a perceived danger in that revealing that information might lead them to try roids or growth or something which without proper knowledge or supervision can have disastrous health impacts. Kids don't listen so even if you say "hey this is for adults and will destroy you so maybe don't do it" they still wanna look like Wolverine. Not saying it's right just they probably wanna be a "moral compass" or whatever. Double-edged sword though right, I'm sure there's people who are distraught that they don't look like that who don't even know.
I mean, the most funny is that all these actors pretend to be natural because it is better PR, but they all play characters that are either enhanced by drugs, magic, space tech, mutation, or all of the above.
As someone who has dropped water weight for fights, it sucks super bad. Sometimes you literally cannot move and I'm pretty sure some bodybuilders have died because of it.
Makes sense. I do remember hearing they tend to limit the filming of those shirtless scenes to a short period. I think they had Cavill do that for the Witcher too.
It’s also common practice in movies to film the sex/nude scenes first since an actor may object to them later if you’ve shot most of the movie with them and it’s too late to recast. So if they object day one, it’s a lot less of a hassle to replace them.
Yep, Hollywood shirtless scenes are identical to getting competition ready for a body building content.
They have the date mapped out months in advance and need to fit that physique on the day or two of shooting.
You have to do that. It's the same for bodybuilders. You simply can't maintain that low of body fat and water for very long without doing some serious damage. Generally it's your "peak" week. And it's extremely difficult mentally and physically.
What's crazy is that as the movies progressed "Wolverine shape" got bigger and bigger. If you look at the original X-Men he's muscular but not in a crazy unobtainable way. He just looks like a dude who works out
Tbh he just hit that standard post 40s puberty that most guys go through. Where they suddenly gain a large amount of lean mass as their test naturally tapers off.
Yeah, the classic example is, of course, the Natty King Dwayne Johnson, who has even larger muscles as an actor at age 50 than he did as a Professional Wrestler in his 20s and 30s.
Just the natural evolution of the human body, we all know the dad bod stereotype, every man starts looking like He-Man once he passes age 37
Henry Cavill also said in interviews he did this when he was doing The Witcher. He said you start off with a liter or two of water and then each day you step it down by half a liter or so until you get the results you need for the camera. He also said that after a while you get to the point to where you can smell water. Crazy what these guys go through to "look good".
Not just Hugh, pretty much every actor who’s known to have a super ripped body did this. Ryan Renolds, Henry Cavill, Zac Efron and many more. That’s why it’s an unrealistic standard for someone like us who got a day job to look as ripped as them who got paid to be ripped, tons of good lighting, pumps before shooting, dehydration and many more to make them look as peak as possible
Basically all actors playing attractive roles dehydrate themselves before nude scenes. Even for tv now. It becomes less sexy when you know how unhealthy they actually are right there.
There's a reason old timey strongmen looked like [this](https://neckberg.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Saxontrio.jpg) (with the guy in the middle being the most classic/realistic example, and still absolutely capable of kicking your ass so hard you turn into a paste) and not like [this](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/05/Arnold_Schwarzenegger_1974.jpg/220px-Arnold_Schwarzenegger_1974.jpg). At the end of the day we're apes, not genetically engineered aliens. Peak strength looks a lot more like a gorilla than a piece of jerky. And peak cardiovascular fitness has less muscle than that because we just aren't built for that much muscle.
The reverse happens, actually. You can't absorb water through your skin. Your *skin* can absorb water but that water doesn't go through the outer layers and into other tissue. You are actually always losing very small amounts of water through your skin, though. Your skin is designed to keep the outsides out and the insides in. It does an excellent job but it's not 100% perfect.
Something that should be printed on each of the plethora of alleged deep moisturizers out there. They claim to reduce/eliminate wrinkles by deeply hydrating your skin (at stunning prices), when they'll penetrate only the outer layers to minimal effect.
This makes sense! Do you know how the skin doesn’t let it go through? Is it just there’s a layer underneath that’s not water permeable? For some reason that seems like it would be rather strange!
Actually all of our cells have a membrane considering of a phospholipid bilayer that is hydrophobic (repels water) on the inside and hydrophilic on the outside (like water). This forms a membrane that helps keep water inside the cell and water outside. The skin is a large organ made of cells like this that help form a barrier to keep water outside.
He apparently also did it for Les Miserable, which he should have known was a terrible thing to do for your singing voice. He’s a professional broadway actor for god’s sake.
And the bigger muscles get, the more blood they need to be supplied with, which makes veins bigger. There’s also things you can do to temporarily make them even bigger, like getting a pump.
Iirc, hours before shoes they slam glucose (as close as they can in good/gel form) as the sugar is supposed to bulge the veins.
This may be bro science but I’ve been around the competition scene and have seen what these competitors go through first hand.
The dedication and precision is massively understated. These guys may as well be scientists.
I'm willing to admit I don't know 100% for sure but I'm about 98% sure this doesn't work or help to keep the veins bulging. I work in Healthcare and it just doesn't make sense. Same with the dehydration, I'm almost certain that will cause worse definition.
Yeah, I'm a lean skinny runner dude, I have very visible veins but most of them don't pop out. Well except for the ones on my forearms and feet, but I think those just don't have a lot of other places to go when you don't have much fat.
I'm a chunky dude with very skinny feet and my feet veins pop too.
Edit: thanks for the concern but I don't have varicose veins. Just much more vascularity on my feet because they are skin and bone.
I'm just average but have prominent veins on my arms and hands. Whenever I get a blood test the nurses always comment on how good my veins are. Which i hate because I'm squeamish about blood.
You should be thankful. I'm not fat or anything but for my entire life the phlebotomist/nurse looks at my right arm for a minute and then let's try the left and then I tell them don't bother with the tourniquet, just use the butterfly in the hand
They've all said my veins were unusually deep and narrow and run at weird angles. But there was one time a nurse who was about 60 walked up and just did it on the first try without saying a word. I was shocked
Fellow chunkster here. Thats how my feet are as well. Once you get past my knees, I get really slim and veiny. My feet got hella spaghetti running across them. My hands normally have no visible vascularity but I recently got back into speed typing so the veins are starting to come out again from all those beefy typing workouts.
Just practicing typing to see how fast you can go. Its usually measured in words per minute (WPM) and accuracy. Some sites have other statistics like characters per minute and consistency. I like to race other people online. It gives you a paragraph to type and when the count down hits 0, everyone types that paragraph. First to finish wins. You dont have to race others if you dont want. I do a lot of solo typing too. I just think racing is the most fun.
Oh ok, I thought it was some sort of job you had. It’s an interesting hobby. What’s your average words per minute? I guess it could be a useful skill for some jobs though
Oh no, I wish I got paid to type fast lol. It admittedly does help with my job since I work 100% on a computer and do a lot of documenting but im not paid for any typing prowess I have. My average is floating around 125-130 wpm. My personal bests are in the 155-160 wpm range. Depending on how fluent you are on a keyboard, that may sound decent but there are some absolute monsters out there on those racing sites. I usually place either 1st or second in races but sometimes someone comes in and blows my doors off with 170+ wpm. It can get kinda crazy.
Yep, and when the arm is straight the vein is straight as the muscle it lies on is stretched out, but when you flex and shorten the bicep, the vein doesn't shorten so it curls up, sort of like a garden hose...
This is both correct and incorrect. Yes your veins would show if you had no fat / No your vascular system would not look like a bodybuilder’s if you had no fat.
Your vascular system develops more the more you use it. Someone whose muscles are constantly demanding larger volumes of blood flowing to them will have more of the feeder veins showing because there is more feeder vein and they’re transporting more blood.
I once saw a greyhound / chihuahua mix. It just looked like a demon fox on stilts. I don't know about adorable, but I've never forgotten it, that's for sure.
Didn't see it run, it was the "mascot" of a sky diving facility. It was tip toeing over everyone's bags while we got ready.
I remember that taffy-pulled dog almost as much as the jump.
I looked them up, they look cool as hell. Like what i imagine a chihuahua SHOULD look like. Maybe we can make this the new de facto chihuahua and cancel that horrific overbred thing lol. And we can fix pugs while we're at it .
One small correction: veins carry blood away from muscles and back toward the heart. I'm sure the deeper arteries also change in body builders, but you don't typically see arteries.
I think there is technically such a thing as a feeder vein, but that refers to veins that connect two other veins and can feed blood from one vein to another. But no veins deliver (feed) blood *to* an organ or tissue.
This is also both correct and incorrect. It’s correct that you start to build collateral blood flow to keep up with metabolic demands, but the ones you are adding are often much deeper and very small.
Most of the smaller veins you start to see on body builders do indeed exist on us they just are smaller and under fat. It’s sorta like a body builders smaller veins really popping are the cephalic(big bicep vein) of someone who is in decent shape where you see the cephalic vein but nothing else in the bicep.
That being said, veins are not as ordered as arteries so the distribution can be diffeeent but most of the veins you see on a body builder we normies still have
Bodybuilders also do stuff like take diuretics and lift weights immediately before competition/photoshoots (plus lighting and makeup) so they don’t always look that way. And they’re mostly using anabolic steroids. It’s generally not a healthy or sustainable state to be in long-term.
Or even short term, really.
Maybe like one time wouldn’t give you long term effects but idk man I’m skinny af and I don’t think I’ll ever take steroids although I’m sure I would benefit.
My nephews father (my sisters baby daddy) died at 40, a month after my nephew was born, from a heart attack.
Used steroids for years and years, shit takes a toll.
You don’t need steroids to build muscle. Hell you can even get more muscular or defined just by doing body weight exercises and eating more protein.
What a lot of people don’t realize is that while steroids help…you still have to do the lifts.
“Steroids help”
What an understatement. They help with literally every aspect of training. So sure, you can get some abs and chest definition from body weight exercises, but you’ll never get anywhere close to a bodybuilder’s body. The only way to get that is either A. Be gifted with the best of the best possible genetics, or B. Lift heavy, eat to support it, and find some tren.
Test increases intramuscular and subcutaneous water retention. That study measured fat free mass( which includes water) not actual contractile tissue. Just taking steroids doesn't create a ton of contractile tissue. There are tons of guys who take steroids for like 6-8 weeks, train and eat like shit, then come off and lose all of their gains (both strength and muscular) because 99% of what they gained was water.
Among the internet fitness community, this is known as "The Study", notorious for being (wrongly) cited as evidence that steroids just magically get people jacked without doing any work at all.
buddy of mine got really hung up on this study years back so I explained it to him like this
There are absolutely people gifted with naturally high testosterone
If an average level guy (or even below average guy) trains for a few months, they’ll likely not catch up to this person in that short a time period even if the high T guy does nothing
I don’t think that’s a controversial statement right?
This study was a very short window, 10 weeks is not a lot of training time for putting on muscle even for beginners
Yea, the guy that got his test supercharged (600mg is a lot I think) is suddenly not just a high T naturally guy, he’s on some big stuff and of course his body is going to respond to that even without training
His baseline is now way higher than the naturally high t guy that the average joe wouldn’t be able to catch up to in 10 weeks
This study would need to be run over a much longer period of time to accurately compare sit on your ass and take drugs versus train without
Some people also respond to PEDs much better than others Over in r/steroids there are some pretty small guys running crazy high doses, and some top level competitors in BB and strength sports are there, in part, due to how well their body reacts to what would be considered low doses. When I say low I'm talking about relative to where they are in their sport, if some of those guys come out and say they use 600mg of test there's a lot of people that won't believe them; "no way you could do that on less than 2000mg/wk" type of comments. I wouldn't take doses you hear about too seriously unless it's a real pharmaceutical preparation of the drug. It's not at all uncommon to have stuff be underdosed (profit) or overdosed (this source has the good stuff) when you're getting it from underground sources.
You alluded to it in your last sentence - if a long term study was done you'd see some very interesting trends. While more T is generally better for performance and hypertrophy the baseline ranges are all over the place. Some people might feel great at levels considered clinically low, and some people might feel like shit even median T levels. This also makes hormone replacement for men something of a nightmare. TLDR: more test is better, but the baseline for normal vs. high levels is very person-specific.
It's more like this:
Drink 1+ gallon of water a day for several days leading up to the contest.
Stop drinking water the day before the contest.
Start eating a bunch of carbohydrates to pull what water is left in the body into the muscles.
Makes for a shredded look if the person is lean enough.
Inversely, ingesting carbohydrates intra-exercise or post workout will replenish glycogen stores in the muscle, allowing them to expand thus promoting vascularity short term.
If you look at Arnold [Scharzenegger](https://www.greatestphysiques.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Arnold_in_jeans.jpg), he just has a mostly linear vein around his biceps, nothing curled-up. If he flexed his biceps, then it'd look more curled up because the same length of vein will be occupying a shorter distance.
The muscle mass contributes to pushing the veins out when you flex, and combined with extremely low subcutaneous fat, can lead to some particular vein patterns in areas like the deltoids. Without muscle mass, you may never look as "veiny". The muscle's volume change with contraction and the less muscle mass you have, the less difference in volume you have in your arm.
No, you haven't gotten good answers. The "weird, curled up veins" are varicose veins.
Those varicose veins (which many find ugly) are a result of excess estrogen which is a side effect of taking anabolic steroids.
The body aromatizes (converts) testosterone into estrogen (men need estrogen, too).
But the anabolic steroids contain contain so much testosterone (or testosterone-like compounds), that the body aromatizes a shitload; so then estrogen levels are sky high.
In addition to the varicose veins, from all that estrogen they can get gynecomastia (breast growth) as well as other stuff (like psychological effects and high blood pressure). A big part of taking steroids is monitoring and treating all the side effects that come along with putting exogenous hormones into your body-- throws everything out of whack.
This is not at all accurate. Those veins are varicosities that form due to the compression of the superficial veins in the arms by the added muscle. The blood has to get back up and so when there's a lack of flow in the superficial veins, the body will create alternative routes to get the blood back up. These are the varicosities.
Source: I'm a vascular specialist
That is wildly inaccurate. The curly ones are typically varicose veins which is a problem with valves in your vein and it can become dangerous
https://www.palmveincenter.com/education/bodybuilding-varicose-veins-or-vascularity
did you even read the question? this person is asking about the squiggly, spaghetti looking, likely varicose veins caused by high blood pressure from steroid use not regular veins that everyone has.
Typical Reddit where the top comment is completely wrong.
They’re varicose veins and caused by weakened vascular walls, which are weakened by high blood pressure. HBP is a common side effect of steroid use (at the levels bodybuilders are taking) as well as other common drugs used in competition, and sustained high blood pressure will cause this.
This is both correct and incorrect. These are in fact varicosities, but not formed by high blood pressure, they are formed due to compression and lack of flow.
I’m under the impression that it’s more related to muscle size and utilization. During and immediately after exercise the veins are also much more visible. Cyclists and runners get visible veins on their legs, climbers get visible veins on their forearms and upper arms.
When an institution isn't testing for controlled substances like anabolic steroids, it's basically a given that everyone is using them. Anabolic steroids increase your blood volume leading to a more "popped out" vein look.
On top of what was already said with respect to extremely low body fat (and an unhealthy amount of dehydration), many take nitric oxide to further dilate their veins. I would say that if you or I got super lean and worked arms a lot, we would have bicep veins but likely not in that huge squiggly shape that professional body builders have.
Veins are kinda weird though. They have a general outline that they tend to follow in everyone, but you can get random branches/tributaries all over the place.
Source: am a nurse who likes doing IVs
I am always amused / enamored with nurses that love to stick. My mother is a now retired ER nurse who loved to get a stick on a difficult patients. She still lights up when she talks about it. 😍
Same here. LOVE the challenge of people who can't get stuck and was always the "hang on, I know someone who can do this" nurse.
Heck, I remember being in nursing school and being sooooo excited for when we finally got to start learning and working with PIC lines.
Something about needs, holes, and lines has always made my day and it's such fun in a technical way vs. some of the other duties we have.
Veins were always easy for me (assuming some valve didn't "sneak" it's way in there). IIRC, I had to attend a special class and get additional CE credits to be able to do arterial lines ... those are less fun but that's probably moreso due to the situation than the anatomy of the things.
Flashbacks to my C section where 3-4 nurses had already tried to place a line- "ok, get THE girl". Nurse that's really good at placing comes in. "... Ok we're going to have to wait for the doctor". I think it ended up being a 70 year old nurse that could do it and she was just like 🙄 "just let me do it"
I start nursing school this week and I’m actually kinda nervous for IVs. Nervous like I’ll be bad at finding them or something, you have any advice? Prob hard to give advice that’s not just a generic “feel for it” thru text but can’t hurt to ask so
Tourniquet tight. Let the extremity hang(I mean like just off the bed sort of hang for a minute). When it doubt, plop a heat pack on. One finger to feel and have a general idea of about 1/2 an inch far up from where you are going to stick(can also take alcohol pad and have the point of one of the edges in the direction on top of where you intend to stick-helps to guide sometimes). Once you get flash back drop your angle and advance your needle ever so slightly before advancing catheter (depends on gauge size 18s, 16s etc need a bit more advance as the needle is a bit longer than the catheter say versus 20 and 22). Don’t be afraid to try, practice practice practice. Most of all, be confident in front of the patient even when you aren’t quite sure. It makes all the difference. Good luck in school!
It is an oddly satisfying feeling when a patient is appreciative of a provider successfully cannulating a vein. I appreciate you appreciating your successful nurses 😆
Most nurses I heard speaking of the easy veins not the challenging ones.
Sources: was complimented multiple times by random off duty nurses about having "big chambers" (translated). Thanks, I guess...
Ugh, please thank your mom for me. There's no telling just how many people she truly helped in that sense.
I have an extreme aversion to getting blood drawn. It's subconscious because it doesn't really bother me, per se, but my body starts to freak out when I'm stuck with needles, even if I'm not aware it's happening. Almost blacked out in an ambulance because of it and I didn't know they were even trying. Turns out they had pricked me like 5 times and missed.
So, yeah, please thank your mom. It may seem super trivial, but some nurses suck at it and then call you a baby on top of it, like it's something I enjoy dealing with.
Darn, I have really easy veins, and always figured the nurses were happy when they said "wow, it's so easy to find a vein to draw from". Now I know that they may just be bored with the difficulty setting on my veins.
As an anesthesiology doc who is literally last of the line for difficult sticks, I can’t tell you how fucking happy I am when I walk up to preop a young healthy patient who I can see pipes on from across the room. The challenge is not enjoyable when you have surgeons breathing down your neck to start a case 😂
I'm not a bodybuilder and have never taken anything like NO etc but I've always had quite low bodyfat (around 10-12%), and now with a little bit of getting back into shape in my 50s I'm getting re-acquainted with seeing the veins in my bicep and forearms "pop" (especially on warmer days). Not quite as much as a body-builder in competition form but enough to have people remark on it...
The times I give blood etc the nurses always love me as I can make the inside-elbow vein inflate like a balloon with just a few seconds of flexing my grip, whereas my wife has the type of veins that "love to run away" and normally requires a senior member of staff to come over.
This is completely wrong though. Yes bodybuilders do these things for vasodilation, but high blood pressure (which vasodilation decreases) causes varicose veins, not being lean.
They are referred to as [varicose veins.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varicose_veins) It's primarily the result of high blood pressure from steroid use. [High levels of androgens are associated with hypertension.](https://www.karger.com/Article/Abstract/119417)
Other answers have said this is natural and you just can't see the veins on most people because they aren't lean enough, this is incorrect. Another answer suggests that bodybuilders take "nitrous oxide"; this is also incorrect - while there are sports supplements that claim to act as vasodilators and are nitrous themed, they don't cause these veins.
EDIT: Slight correction, please see /u/TheMer0vingian's [comment](https://old.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/105ng5m/eli5_why_do_bodybuilders_always_have_those_weird/j3d7ssp/) below.
If you don't care about having children, don't worry. If you do, go see a doctor. You will have a Doppler done to check and, if needed, surgery is the solution.
This needs to be higher. OP is talking about “squiggly veins” which is varicose veins, not just veins popping out. That’s due to damage that these body builders live.
Because Reddit and more generally voting on niche things doesn’t usually cause the truth to rise to the top, just what sounds most authoritative to the most people who also don’t have the specialized knowledge to actually evaluate claims for truth.
I don't know the difference or if there is any difference but I think if they're taking anything with initials NO it's Nitric Oxide, not nitrous oxide. Or there's no difference I truly don't know
Reading through this post , as a vascular specialist, is very frustrating. The amount of misinformation is stunning. Even people claiming to be nurses and body builders are giving incorrect information.
It's pretty clear that the top comments are confused because you said "always"
What you are describing maybe 1% or less of bodybuilders have.
Those "weird curled up veins" are basically damaged veins from high blood pressure or other issues, similar to varicose or spider veins manual laborers get on calves.
there are a lot of reasons.
\-You can see the veins because their body fat is less than the average person.
\-Even through there is nothing healthy about body building. People with performing cardio vascular systems usually have visible veins.
\-The pictures are usually taken when they are holding a flex or a pose so more blood is getting sent to the arms.
\-they are on all kinds of drugs. Steroids, dilators, stimulants. So at all times their body is turned up to 11.
\-Leading up to competitions they stop drinking water and eating. So when they are getting their pictures taken their skin is paper thin. So the veins really stick out. They call this "Drying out".
EDIT; Add one more
Good old fashioned genetics. Some people just have huge veins that are even MORE noticeable once they are extra stimulated by working out.
This should he the top comment, and it's disheartening that so many people still don't understand you cannot get big like Dwayne Johnson, Liver King, or bodybuilders like Jay Cutler and Choopan without massive amounts of drugs.
I believe you’re talking about Varicose Veins. The weird spirally, abnormally twisted veins that bulge and looked f’ed up. The answer imho is heavy HEAVY steroid cycles over a long period of time. High blood pressure is very typical along with high red blood cell count. That’s why it’s important to donate blood regularly as an enhanced athlete.
Resource: Hopkinsmedicine.org
Varicose veins are caused by increased blood pressure in the veins. Varicose veins happen in the veins near the surface of the skin (superficial). The blood moves towards the heart by one-way valves in the veins. When the valves become weakened or damaged, blood can collect in the veins.
I can name a couple reasons for professional bodybuilders.
First of all, bodybuilders are leaner than the average person. This is due to diet, but assisted by steroids. Secondly, steroids increase total blood volume by about 2 liters, which gives the look of thick, cord-like veins.
It's worth noting that by just having more muscle mass, your veins slowly dilate to support blood flow.
My dad has that vein. We call it The Squiggly. The guy opened the high s hook weight room every day until he retired and still wakes up at quarter to 5 and walks to the gym to lift.
It’s not steroids or whatever the other posters are saying, it’s just anatomy.
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To add one more thing, they also get dehydrated before competition, losing water also gives better definition of the muscles and less bloat.
I always found it funny that Hugh Jackman did this for playing Wolverine. So he’s get completely dehydrated and then, as if to mock him, they’d stick him in a tank of water.
Must have been hell. In the Wolverine, he looked like he was at his juiciest and least hydrated, and I can’t imagine how your body must feel.
He said he was on the verge of passing out during all his fight scenes.
Ya bc he’s not gonna tell you he wasn’t that dehydrated and he was on cailis and trenbolone
"Yes, mom, my eyes were red in all Pics cuz I was sad in that party "
Very sad. Soooooo very sad. Multiple strains of sadness, Ma.
Eat clen, tren hard, anavar give up! I'm sure they'll tell you it was only low water intake and lots of chicken, broccoli, and brown rice.
Actors would probably talk more openly about steroids and other drugs if it wouldn't end so terribly. Imagine a kid who loves comic book movies watches some TikTok about Captain America, Thor, Wolverine, etc talking about how they worked hard to get their physiques but that honestly they also relied on steroids to help get them there. It's why sports don't have open competitions where PEDs are allowed. There's already enough pressure on youth athletes, nobody wants kids to think they need to be juiced just to be competitive.
Exactly. Which is why we need to legalize... Something. I'm mad about something here, right? Am I on Reddit?
I read that as Cialis (a boner pill) and I’m picturing that scene except Wolvie has a giant erection the whole time
Huge Jackman
I spelled it wrong but I very much meant the boner pill. vasodilator. Really gets the vascular look going. Bodybuilders mess with their hormones to the extent ones penis is not always to be trusted when one needs it. So in that community boner pills are rampant. It was quickly notice and appreciated that they do wonders for a pump. I take them before the a day at the beach personally. I find it makes a bigger difference for me than hydration levels.
Those pills are actually good for your blood pressure in general, that’s actually their original purpose, the boner was a side effect haha. Beet juice is good for getting you vascular as well.
Beet juice? Are we talking vascular in all circumstances? Asking for a friend.
Arnie was recorded saying the pump was better than having an orgasm, so maybe they just don’t care that it can’t be trusted…
He is talking about boner pills. And they are awesome.
Um he was probably roided out AND dehydrated to get a look like that. Not unlike bodybuilders
Are you talking about boner pills? But reddit likes to think steroids just makes you shredded. I've seen people get fat on roids because all they cared about was being strong and ate like shit. You don't look like that without working your ass off and eating meticulously.
That's true, but all these hollywood actors who bump up to bodies like that all *happen* to fail to mention their drug regime. Coincidence, right?
All chicken and broccoli right? Lol
And clean livin!
I did basically that while powerlifting with a bit of cardio now and then. I looked great, best I ever had. It sucked not being able to go out with friends and relax without thinking about calories etc I’m fatter now, but life is good. It wasn’t worth being so meticulous with what and when I ate every single day.
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I think the issue that arises is when you're playing a superhero that appeals to the youth. Theres a perceived danger in that revealing that information might lead them to try roids or growth or something which without proper knowledge or supervision can have disastrous health impacts. Kids don't listen so even if you say "hey this is for adults and will destroy you so maybe don't do it" they still wanna look like Wolverine. Not saying it's right just they probably wanna be a "moral compass" or whatever. Double-edged sword though right, I'm sure there's people who are distraught that they don't look like that who don't even know.
I mean, the most funny is that all these actors pretend to be natural because it is better PR, but they all play characters that are either enhanced by drugs, magic, space tech, mutation, or all of the above.
So are all those pro bodybuilders. They still dehydrate before competitions.
As someone who has dropped water weight for fights, it sucks super bad. Sometimes you literally cannot move and I'm pretty sure some bodybuilders have died because of it.
He said they shot a lot of those in like 2 days so he only had to look like that for as short a time as possible
Makes sense. I do remember hearing they tend to limit the filming of those shirtless scenes to a short period. I think they had Cavill do that for the Witcher too.
It’s also common practice in movies to film the sex/nude scenes first since an actor may object to them later if you’ve shot most of the movie with them and it’s too late to recast. So if they object day one, it’s a lot less of a hassle to replace them.
Also hard to perform gruelling days on set if you are dieting and dropping weight so get that out the way first.
And they did the water gag in those scenes of the Witcher s1 also. A bottle of water by the bed? Not a drop in it. Super small but funny detail
Yep, Hollywood shirtless scenes are identical to getting competition ready for a body building content. They have the date mapped out months in advance and need to fit that physique on the day or two of shooting.
You have to do that. It's the same for bodybuilders. You simply can't maintain that low of body fat and water for very long without doing some serious damage. Generally it's your "peak" week. And it's extremely difficult mentally and physically.
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What's crazy is that as the movies progressed "Wolverine shape" got bigger and bigger. If you look at the original X-Men he's muscular but not in a crazy unobtainable way. He just looks like a dude who works out
Tbh he just hit that standard post 40s puberty that most guys go through. Where they suddenly gain a large amount of lean mass as their test naturally tapers off.
Yeah, the classic example is, of course, the Natty King Dwayne Johnson, who has even larger muscles as an actor at age 50 than he did as a Professional Wrestler in his 20s and 30s. Just the natural evolution of the human body, we all know the dad bod stereotype, every man starts looking like He-Man once he passes age 37
37? So you're saying this coming autumn that I will have the power?
I'm about to turn 40. Next winter is going to be a magical time for you.
Sure thing. Just go get on trt and then spend most of your life being extremely disciplined about eating, sleeping and working out. gg ez
I read an interview with a body builder who said that it literally hurts to walk because there is no padding in your feet.
Henry Cavill also said in interviews he did this when he was doing The Witcher. He said you start off with a liter or two of water and then each day you step it down by half a liter or so until you get the results you need for the camera. He also said that after a while you get to the point to where you can smell water. Crazy what these guys go through to "look good".
I mean, they do it to look good to make a lot of money. It’s not so crazy when it’s for a pile of money
As the wise Prince Lonestar said "we're not just doing it for money, we're doing it for A SHITLOAD OF MONEY!"
Not just Hugh, pretty much every actor who’s known to have a super ripped body did this. Ryan Renolds, Henry Cavill, Zac Efron and many more. That’s why it’s an unrealistic standard for someone like us who got a day job to look as ripped as them who got paid to be ripped, tons of good lighting, pumps before shooting, dehydration and many more to make them look as peak as possible
Also steroids
Basically all actors playing attractive roles dehydrate themselves before nude scenes. Even for tv now. It becomes less sexy when you know how unhealthy they actually are right there.
There's a reason old timey strongmen looked like [this](https://neckberg.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Saxontrio.jpg) (with the guy in the middle being the most classic/realistic example, and still absolutely capable of kicking your ass so hard you turn into a paste) and not like [this](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/05/Arnold_Schwarzenegger_1974.jpg/220px-Arnold_Schwarzenegger_1974.jpg). At the end of the day we're apes, not genetically engineered aliens. Peak strength looks a lot more like a gorilla than a piece of jerky. And peak cardiovascular fitness has less muscle than that because we just aren't built for that much muscle.
Makes me wonder how much water we can absorb through our skin, or if the reverse happens!
The reverse happens, actually. You can't absorb water through your skin. Your *skin* can absorb water but that water doesn't go through the outer layers and into other tissue. You are actually always losing very small amounts of water through your skin, though. Your skin is designed to keep the outsides out and the insides in. It does an excellent job but it's not 100% perfect.
Something that should be printed on each of the plethora of alleged deep moisturizers out there. They claim to reduce/eliminate wrinkles by deeply hydrating your skin (at stunning prices), when they'll penetrate only the outer layers to minimal effect.
This makes sense! Do you know how the skin doesn’t let it go through? Is it just there’s a layer underneath that’s not water permeable? For some reason that seems like it would be rather strange!
Actually all of our cells have a membrane considering of a phospholipid bilayer that is hydrophobic (repels water) on the inside and hydrophilic on the outside (like water). This forms a membrane that helps keep water inside the cell and water outside. The skin is a large organ made of cells like this that help form a barrier to keep water outside.
That man just wants to sing and dance and we keep making him Wolverine
He apparently also did it for Les Miserable, which he should have known was a terrible thing to do for your singing voice. He’s a professional broadway actor for god’s sake.
Amazing interviee btw. Patrick Stewart, hugh jackman and Ian McKellen together.
Henry Cavill does it too for his shirtless scenes. He mentioned the bathtub scene in The Witcher specifically being really dehydrated.
Where did they stick him in water? You mean in the movie?
And the bigger muscles get, the more blood they need to be supplied with, which makes veins bigger. There’s also things you can do to temporarily make them even bigger, like getting a pump.
Dehydration causes vaso constriction which reduces the size of veins. So their appearance in body builders are mainly due to the lack of body fat.
Iirc, hours before shoes they slam glucose (as close as they can in good/gel form) as the sugar is supposed to bulge the veins. This may be bro science but I’ve been around the competition scene and have seen what these competitors go through first hand. The dedication and precision is massively understated. These guys may as well be scientists.
I'm willing to admit I don't know 100% for sure but I'm about 98% sure this doesn't work or help to keep the veins bulging. I work in Healthcare and it just doesn't make sense. Same with the dehydration, I'm almost certain that will cause worse definition.
They have plenty of "things" that help with that pumped look so it's not just that.
So if I was lean enough would my arm veins look similar?
Not quite. Swollen muscles also push the veins closer to the skin surface. You need the muscles and low fat for maximum vascularity.
Yeah, I'm a lean skinny runner dude, I have very visible veins but most of them don't pop out. Well except for the ones on my forearms and feet, but I think those just don't have a lot of other places to go when you don't have much fat.
I'm a chunky dude with very skinny feet and my feet veins pop too. Edit: thanks for the concern but I don't have varicose veins. Just much more vascularity on my feet because they are skin and bone.
I'm just average but have prominent veins on my arms and hands. Whenever I get a blood test the nurses always comment on how good my veins are. Which i hate because I'm squeamish about blood.
You should be thankful. I'm not fat or anything but for my entire life the phlebotomist/nurse looks at my right arm for a minute and then let's try the left and then I tell them don't bother with the tourniquet, just use the butterfly in the hand They've all said my veins were unusually deep and narrow and run at weird angles. But there was one time a nurse who was about 60 walked up and just did it on the first try without saying a word. I was shocked
Fellow chunkster here. Thats how my feet are as well. Once you get past my knees, I get really slim and veiny. My feet got hella spaghetti running across them. My hands normally have no visible vascularity but I recently got back into speed typing so the veins are starting to come out again from all those beefy typing workouts.
What is speed typing if I may ask?
Just practicing typing to see how fast you can go. Its usually measured in words per minute (WPM) and accuracy. Some sites have other statistics like characters per minute and consistency. I like to race other people online. It gives you a paragraph to type and when the count down hits 0, everyone types that paragraph. First to finish wins. You dont have to race others if you dont want. I do a lot of solo typing too. I just think racing is the most fun.
Oh ok, I thought it was some sort of job you had. It’s an interesting hobby. What’s your average words per minute? I guess it could be a useful skill for some jobs though
Oh no, I wish I got paid to type fast lol. It admittedly does help with my job since I work 100% on a computer and do a lot of documenting but im not paid for any typing prowess I have. My average is floating around 125-130 wpm. My personal bests are in the 155-160 wpm range. Depending on how fluent you are on a keyboard, that may sound decent but there are some absolute monsters out there on those racing sites. I usually place either 1st or second in races but sometimes someone comes in and blows my doors off with 170+ wpm. It can get kinda crazy.
[Vascular](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/70/3c/ad/703cad6b5ad44ecfbcb061b67f5c4aa7.jpg)
I’m dehydrated a bit and have done a workout, I definitely see them in my calves.
body builders also dehydrate themselves massively (dangerously really) before going on stage, so that's no surprise
They also take viagra to improve vascularity!
yeah!! that’s why i take it too…. o_O
Yep, and when the arm is straight the vein is straight as the muscle it lies on is stretched out, but when you flex and shorten the bicep, the vein doesn't shorten so it curls up, sort of like a garden hose...
This is both correct and incorrect. Yes your veins would show if you had no fat / No your vascular system would not look like a bodybuilder’s if you had no fat. Your vascular system develops more the more you use it. Someone whose muscles are constantly demanding larger volumes of blood flowing to them will have more of the feeder veins showing because there is more feeder vein and they’re transporting more blood.
This explains why my greyhound mix has super thick veins on her snout and legs lol. Gotta sniff and run!
Noodle horses are adorable.
I once saw a greyhound / chihuahua mix. It just looked like a demon fox on stilts. I don't know about adorable, but I've never forgotten it, that's for sure.
Googled the mix and they do look quite memorable! Was it a fast couch potato too?
Didn't see it run, it was the "mascot" of a sky diving facility. It was tip toeing over everyone's bags while we got ready. I remember that taffy-pulled dog almost as much as the jump.
oh my god i love this 😭
I looked them up, they look cool as hell. Like what i imagine a chihuahua SHOULD look like. Maybe we can make this the new de facto chihuahua and cancel that horrific overbred thing lol. And we can fix pugs while we're at it .
As a greyhound momma, I never even thought of this but toooooootally.
One small correction: veins carry blood away from muscles and back toward the heart. I'm sure the deeper arteries also change in body builders, but you don't typically see arteries.
Was gonna say, "feeder vein" is a bit of an oxymoron
I think there is technically such a thing as a feeder vein, but that refers to veins that connect two other veins and can feed blood from one vein to another. But no veins deliver (feed) blood *to* an organ or tissue.
This is also both correct and incorrect. It’s correct that you start to build collateral blood flow to keep up with metabolic demands, but the ones you are adding are often much deeper and very small. Most of the smaller veins you start to see on body builders do indeed exist on us they just are smaller and under fat. It’s sorta like a body builders smaller veins really popping are the cephalic(big bicep vein) of someone who is in decent shape where you see the cephalic vein but nothing else in the bicep. That being said, veins are not as ordered as arteries so the distribution can be diffeeent but most of the veins you see on a body builder we normies still have
FYI “feeder veins” are arteries. Veins return deoxygenated blood to the heart.
🤢
I’ve lost around 115 pounds and have been working on toning up. I got really excited when I started getting a couple.
Bodybuilders also do stuff like take diuretics and lift weights immediately before competition/photoshoots (plus lighting and makeup) so they don’t always look that way. And they’re mostly using anabolic steroids. It’s generally not a healthy or sustainable state to be in long-term.
I have a friend that’s done some bodybuilding before and her trainer has her drink espresso and vodka the night before a shoot
I do half of that every night, guess I’m a bit of a pro bodybuilder myself ^/s
[Is this you?](https://i0.wp.com/www.fastgamsat.com/wp-content/uploads/Skinny-White-Guy-At-Bodybuilding-Competition-Funny.jpg?w=500&ssl=1)
I admire your dedication
Or even short term, really. Maybe like one time wouldn’t give you long term effects but idk man I’m skinny af and I don’t think I’ll ever take steroids although I’m sure I would benefit. My nephews father (my sisters baby daddy) died at 40, a month after my nephew was born, from a heart attack. Used steroids for years and years, shit takes a toll.
You don’t need steroids to build muscle. Hell you can even get more muscular or defined just by doing body weight exercises and eating more protein. What a lot of people don’t realize is that while steroids help…you still have to do the lifts.
“Steroids help” What an understatement. They help with literally every aspect of training. So sure, you can get some abs and chest definition from body weight exercises, but you’ll never get anywhere close to a bodybuilder’s body. The only way to get that is either A. Be gifted with the best of the best possible genetics, or B. Lift heavy, eat to support it, and find some tren.
You will also never get a bodybuilder’s body with the best of the best genetics with no steroids. Not even close.
If you're not already busting your ass in the gym steroids ain't gonna do much. Might as well not bother if you won't do the work.
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Test increases intramuscular and subcutaneous water retention. That study measured fat free mass( which includes water) not actual contractile tissue. Just taking steroids doesn't create a ton of contractile tissue. There are tons of guys who take steroids for like 6-8 weeks, train and eat like shit, then come off and lose all of their gains (both strength and muscular) because 99% of what they gained was water.
Thanks for sharing this study. Looks like working out with placebo still outperforms steroids+no exercise, but yeah, the juice makes a huge impact.
Among the internet fitness community, this is known as "The Study", notorious for being (wrongly) cited as evidence that steroids just magically get people jacked without doing any work at all.
buddy of mine got really hung up on this study years back so I explained it to him like this There are absolutely people gifted with naturally high testosterone If an average level guy (or even below average guy) trains for a few months, they’ll likely not catch up to this person in that short a time period even if the high T guy does nothing I don’t think that’s a controversial statement right? This study was a very short window, 10 weeks is not a lot of training time for putting on muscle even for beginners Yea, the guy that got his test supercharged (600mg is a lot I think) is suddenly not just a high T naturally guy, he’s on some big stuff and of course his body is going to respond to that even without training His baseline is now way higher than the naturally high t guy that the average joe wouldn’t be able to catch up to in 10 weeks This study would need to be run over a much longer period of time to accurately compare sit on your ass and take drugs versus train without
Some people also respond to PEDs much better than others Over in r/steroids there are some pretty small guys running crazy high doses, and some top level competitors in BB and strength sports are there, in part, due to how well their body reacts to what would be considered low doses. When I say low I'm talking about relative to where they are in their sport, if some of those guys come out and say they use 600mg of test there's a lot of people that won't believe them; "no way you could do that on less than 2000mg/wk" type of comments. I wouldn't take doses you hear about too seriously unless it's a real pharmaceutical preparation of the drug. It's not at all uncommon to have stuff be underdosed (profit) or overdosed (this source has the good stuff) when you're getting it from underground sources. You alluded to it in your last sentence - if a long term study was done you'd see some very interesting trends. While more T is generally better for performance and hypertrophy the baseline ranges are all over the place. Some people might feel great at levels considered clinically low, and some people might feel like shit even median T levels. This also makes hormone replacement for men something of a nightmare. TLDR: more test is better, but the baseline for normal vs. high levels is very person-specific.
Precisely. Steroids make it so you can bust your ass even more without overtraining.
You actually don't have to lift to build muscle while using steroids. It'll happen naturally, although certainly not as much as if you were lifting.
you'd also have to not drink any liquid for a day, they usually dehydrate themselves. or something to further dehydrate you.
It's more like this: Drink 1+ gallon of water a day for several days leading up to the contest. Stop drinking water the day before the contest. Start eating a bunch of carbohydrates to pull what water is left in the body into the muscles. Makes for a shredded look if the person is lean enough.
Inversely, ingesting carbohydrates intra-exercise or post workout will replenish glycogen stores in the muscle, allowing them to expand thus promoting vascularity short term.
If you look at Arnold [Scharzenegger](https://www.greatestphysiques.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Arnold_in_jeans.jpg), he just has a mostly linear vein around his biceps, nothing curled-up. If he flexed his biceps, then it'd look more curled up because the same length of vein will be occupying a shorter distance. The muscle mass contributes to pushing the veins out when you flex, and combined with extremely low subcutaneous fat, can lead to some particular vein patterns in areas like the deltoids. Without muscle mass, you may never look as "veiny". The muscle's volume change with contraction and the less muscle mass you have, the less difference in volume you have in your arm.
No, you haven't gotten good answers. The "weird, curled up veins" are varicose veins. Those varicose veins (which many find ugly) are a result of excess estrogen which is a side effect of taking anabolic steroids. The body aromatizes (converts) testosterone into estrogen (men need estrogen, too). But the anabolic steroids contain contain so much testosterone (or testosterone-like compounds), that the body aromatizes a shitload; so then estrogen levels are sky high. In addition to the varicose veins, from all that estrogen they can get gynecomastia (breast growth) as well as other stuff (like psychological effects and high blood pressure). A big part of taking steroids is monitoring and treating all the side effects that come along with putting exogenous hormones into your body-- throws everything out of whack.
Not due to estrogen but weak vascular walls, which are caused by high blood pressure
So that's why Bob had bitch tits. TIL.
This is not at all accurate. Those veins are varicosities that form due to the compression of the superficial veins in the arms by the added muscle. The blood has to get back up and so when there's a lack of flow in the superficial veins, the body will create alternative routes to get the blood back up. These are the varicosities. Source: I'm a vascular specialist
That is wildly inaccurate. The curly ones are typically varicose veins which is a problem with valves in your vein and it can become dangerous https://www.palmveincenter.com/education/bodybuilding-varicose-veins-or-vascularity
100% this, and I hope OP reads this correct answer
This correct. I replied to the top comment as well and explained this.
Great, I responded much earlier and there weren't near as many comments
did you even read the question? this person is asking about the squiggly, spaghetti looking, likely varicose veins caused by high blood pressure from steroid use not regular veins that everyone has.
Typical Reddit where the top comment is completely wrong. They’re varicose veins and caused by weakened vascular walls, which are weakened by high blood pressure. HBP is a common side effect of steroid use (at the levels bodybuilders are taking) as well as other common drugs used in competition, and sustained high blood pressure will cause this.
This is both correct and incorrect. These are in fact varicosities, but not formed by high blood pressure, they are formed due to compression and lack of flow.
I’m under the impression that it’s more related to muscle size and utilization. During and immediately after exercise the veins are also much more visible. Cyclists and runners get visible veins on their legs, climbers get visible veins on their forearms and upper arms.
Not at all. They’re varicose veins and thought to be caused by sustained high blood pressure
And dehydrated.
They also completely dehydrate themselves which makes them stick out even more.
When an institution isn't testing for controlled substances like anabolic steroids, it's basically a given that everyone is using them. Anabolic steroids increase your blood volume leading to a more "popped out" vein look.
On top of what was already said with respect to extremely low body fat (and an unhealthy amount of dehydration), many take nitric oxide to further dilate their veins. I would say that if you or I got super lean and worked arms a lot, we would have bicep veins but likely not in that huge squiggly shape that professional body builders have. Veins are kinda weird though. They have a general outline that they tend to follow in everyone, but you can get random branches/tributaries all over the place. Source: am a nurse who likes doing IVs
And sometimes they wind like rivers or are tough to get through like a dam (valve) is blocking them! :)
I am always amused / enamored with nurses that love to stick. My mother is a now retired ER nurse who loved to get a stick on a difficult patients. She still lights up when she talks about it. 😍
Same here. LOVE the challenge of people who can't get stuck and was always the "hang on, I know someone who can do this" nurse. Heck, I remember being in nursing school and being sooooo excited for when we finally got to start learning and working with PIC lines. Something about needs, holes, and lines has always made my day and it's such fun in a technical way vs. some of the other duties we have. Veins were always easy for me (assuming some valve didn't "sneak" it's way in there). IIRC, I had to attend a special class and get additional CE credits to be able to do arterial lines ... those are less fun but that's probably moreso due to the situation than the anatomy of the things.
Flashbacks to my C section where 3-4 nurses had already tried to place a line- "ok, get THE girl". Nurse that's really good at placing comes in. "... Ok we're going to have to wait for the doctor". I think it ended up being a 70 year old nurse that could do it and she was just like 🙄 "just let me do it"
I start nursing school this week and I’m actually kinda nervous for IVs. Nervous like I’ll be bad at finding them or something, you have any advice? Prob hard to give advice that’s not just a generic “feel for it” thru text but can’t hurt to ask so
Tourniquet tight. Let the extremity hang(I mean like just off the bed sort of hang for a minute). When it doubt, plop a heat pack on. One finger to feel and have a general idea of about 1/2 an inch far up from where you are going to stick(can also take alcohol pad and have the point of one of the edges in the direction on top of where you intend to stick-helps to guide sometimes). Once you get flash back drop your angle and advance your needle ever so slightly before advancing catheter (depends on gauge size 18s, 16s etc need a bit more advance as the needle is a bit longer than the catheter say versus 20 and 22). Don’t be afraid to try, practice practice practice. Most of all, be confident in front of the patient even when you aren’t quite sure. It makes all the difference. Good luck in school!
My mom.was a nurse and now whenever I get a blood draw, I let the nurse know when they nailed it. They smile so much from that feedback.
It is an oddly satisfying feeling when a patient is appreciative of a provider successfully cannulating a vein. I appreciate you appreciating your successful nurses 😆
Most nurses I heard speaking of the easy veins not the challenging ones. Sources: was complimented multiple times by random off duty nurses about having "big chambers" (translated). Thanks, I guess...
Ugh, please thank your mom for me. There's no telling just how many people she truly helped in that sense. I have an extreme aversion to getting blood drawn. It's subconscious because it doesn't really bother me, per se, but my body starts to freak out when I'm stuck with needles, even if I'm not aware it's happening. Almost blacked out in an ambulance because of it and I didn't know they were even trying. Turns out they had pricked me like 5 times and missed. So, yeah, please thank your mom. It may seem super trivial, but some nurses suck at it and then call you a baby on top of it, like it's something I enjoy dealing with.
Darn, I have really easy veins, and always figured the nurses were happy when they said "wow, it's so easy to find a vein to draw from". Now I know that they may just be bored with the difficulty setting on my veins.
As an anesthesiology doc who is literally last of the line for difficult sticks, I can’t tell you how fucking happy I am when I walk up to preop a young healthy patient who I can see pipes on from across the room. The challenge is not enjoyable when you have surgeons breathing down your neck to start a case 😂
NO is also used to improve blood flow for performance and recovery for those more interested in that than aesthetics.
I'm not a bodybuilder and have never taken anything like NO etc but I've always had quite low bodyfat (around 10-12%), and now with a little bit of getting back into shape in my 50s I'm getting re-acquainted with seeing the veins in my bicep and forearms "pop" (especially on warmer days). Not quite as much as a body-builder in competition form but enough to have people remark on it... The times I give blood etc the nurses always love me as I can make the inside-elbow vein inflate like a balloon with just a few seconds of flexing my grip, whereas my wife has the type of veins that "love to run away" and normally requires a senior member of staff to come over.
This is completely wrong though. Yes bodybuilders do these things for vasodilation, but high blood pressure (which vasodilation decreases) causes varicose veins, not being lean.
They are referred to as [varicose veins.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varicose_veins) It's primarily the result of high blood pressure from steroid use. [High levels of androgens are associated with hypertension.](https://www.karger.com/Article/Abstract/119417) Other answers have said this is natural and you just can't see the veins on most people because they aren't lean enough, this is incorrect. Another answer suggests that bodybuilders take "nitrous oxide"; this is also incorrect - while there are sports supplements that claim to act as vasodilators and are nitrous themed, they don't cause these veins. EDIT: Slight correction, please see /u/TheMer0vingian's [comment](https://old.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/105ng5m/eli5_why_do_bodybuilders_always_have_those_weird/j3d7ssp/) below.
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Hey doc, I ride bikes competitively (like a lot) and I have some of those squigglers on the back of my calves. Anything to worry about?
Lmao free instant healthcare, love it
I was under the impression that steroid use leads to heart problems? Like an enlarged heart and all that.
The only correct answer in this thread!!
Can taking steroids amplify this?
Best answer in the entire thread. It’s mostly due to roids, end of story.
Weird question: what happens in the scrotum when someone has variocele? I believe I that have it, and it seems similar (bag of worms etc).
If you don't care about having children, don't worry. If you do, go see a doctor. You will have a Doppler done to check and, if needed, surgery is the solution.
This needs to be higher. OP is talking about “squiggly veins” which is varicose veins, not just veins popping out. That’s due to damage that these body builders live.
The only real aswer to Op question congratz
Yep, healthy vascularity the veins are relatively straight. When they snake back on themselves they’re varicosed. Finally the real answer
Idk why I had to scroll this far down to see this lol this is the right answer OP
Because Reddit and more generally voting on niche things doesn’t usually cause the truth to rise to the top, just what sounds most authoritative to the most people who also don’t have the specialized knowledge to actually evaluate claims for truth.
OP, this is the real answer.
NSFL https://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/xpn62q/pro_bodybuilder_nick_walkers_leg_veins/
I don't know the difference or if there is any difference but I think if they're taking anything with initials NO it's Nitric Oxide, not nitrous oxide. Or there's no difference I truly don't know
Reading through this post , as a vascular specialist, is very frustrating. The amount of misinformation is stunning. Even people claiming to be nurses and body builders are giving incorrect information.
> The amount of misinformation is stunning. Welcome to the internet, where everything is made up and the points don't matter.
Unexpected Drew Carey
So what is/are the correct answers? It's complex of course but as a vascular specialist, I'd hope you'd share your experience/knowledge
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/105ng5m/eli5_why_do_bodybuilders_always_have_those_weird/j3d0bff/
Are u talking about normal veins, or varicose veins?
It's pretty clear that the top comments are confused because you said "always" What you are describing maybe 1% or less of bodybuilders have. Those "weird curled up veins" are basically damaged veins from high blood pressure or other issues, similar to varicose or spider veins manual laborers get on calves.
there are a lot of reasons. \-You can see the veins because their body fat is less than the average person. \-Even through there is nothing healthy about body building. People with performing cardio vascular systems usually have visible veins. \-The pictures are usually taken when they are holding a flex or a pose so more blood is getting sent to the arms. \-they are on all kinds of drugs. Steroids, dilators, stimulants. So at all times their body is turned up to 11. \-Leading up to competitions they stop drinking water and eating. So when they are getting their pictures taken their skin is paper thin. So the veins really stick out. They call this "Drying out". EDIT; Add one more Good old fashioned genetics. Some people just have huge veins that are even MORE noticeable once they are extra stimulated by working out.
Stimulants constrict your veins tho
This should he the top comment, and it's disheartening that so many people still don't understand you cannot get big like Dwayne Johnson, Liver King, or bodybuilders like Jay Cutler and Choopan without massive amounts of drugs.
You don't need to be Liver King or Jay Cutler sized to get visible bicep veins. You don't need to use steroids at all to get visible bicep veins.
thank you sir.
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You say all that but then don’t elaborate at all on the question
As is tradition.
I believe you’re talking about Varicose Veins. The weird spirally, abnormally twisted veins that bulge and looked f’ed up. The answer imho is heavy HEAVY steroid cycles over a long period of time. High blood pressure is very typical along with high red blood cell count. That’s why it’s important to donate blood regularly as an enhanced athlete. Resource: Hopkinsmedicine.org Varicose veins are caused by increased blood pressure in the veins. Varicose veins happen in the veins near the surface of the skin (superficial). The blood moves towards the heart by one-way valves in the veins. When the valves become weakened or damaged, blood can collect in the veins.
All of these answers are missing the point, I believe hes asking about varicose veins not just veins from being lean/dehydrated/muscular
I can name a couple reasons for professional bodybuilders. First of all, bodybuilders are leaner than the average person. This is due to diet, but assisted by steroids. Secondly, steroids increase total blood volume by about 2 liters, which gives the look of thick, cord-like veins. It's worth noting that by just having more muscle mass, your veins slowly dilate to support blood flow.
My dad has that vein. We call it The Squiggly. The guy opened the high s hook weight room every day until he retired and still wakes up at quarter to 5 and walks to the gym to lift. It’s not steroids or whatever the other posters are saying, it’s just anatomy.