Boys hit by body blues

Jeremey (correct) Hay, 18, with mate Andrew McKinnon, 18, at Shoal Bay in Port Stephens. The pair are an example of the growing number of teenage boys that are right into their fitness. Picture: Liam Driver Source: The Sunday Telegraph

Jeremey (correct) Hay, 18, at Shoal Bay in Port Stephens. Jeremey is an example of the growing number of teenage boys that are right into their fitness. Picture: Liam Driver Source: The Sunday Telegraph

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No, they're not different ways to prepare lettuce - they're adjectives many teenage boys would like to apply to their own bodies.

Spending time staring at their own reflection and flexing their "guns" - that's biceps to you and me - has been a rite of passage for adolescents since the invention of mirrors.

But obsession with looks, particularly among boys, has skyrocketed in recent years, thanks in part to social media, which gives them unprecedented access to their celebrity idols and has made the "selfie" ubiquitous.

While body dissatisfaction and eating disorders are well documented among young women, experts now say young men are catching up.

On the surface, many boys in their late teens appear fitter than ever - bulging biceps often adorned with sleeve tattoos, glistening pecs and six-packs so sharp they could grate cheese.

The truth is, the six-days-a-week workouts and protein-heavy diets are most likely only giving the illusion of fitness, Butterfly Foundation chief executive Christine Morgan says.

"It probably is the opposite because we know that the healthiest approach is a balanced diet and healthy, balanced exercise, and when something tips into excessive then you're getting into really dangerous territory," she says.

At best, these boys are placing too much emphasis on their appearance and associating achieving the "right" shape with success and attracting the opposite sex.

But they could be doing themselves harm. Excessive workouts can lead to injury and impede schoolwork as other activities are put on the backburner and the gym is given top priority.

There is also a risk of developing a fully blown psychological disorder known as muscle dysmorphia, or "reverse anorexia", which is categorised by a marked preoccupation with one's physique not being muscular enough, despite the sufferer often possessing above-average muscularity.

While the number of men afflicted with the disorder is unknown, some estimates place it on par with anorexia among adolescent women, which affects one in 100.

 Aziz "Zyzz" Sergeyevich Shavershian - a 22-year-old amateur body-builder and cult figure on Facebook - died in August last year after suffering cardiac arrest while holidaying in Thailand.

While his death was attributed to an undiagnosed congenital heart condition, Zyzz had been known to spend three to four hours a day in the gym. His brother, Said, a 26-year-old body builder known as Chestbrah, had days earlier been fined $400 for possession of anabolic steroids.

The fixation on fitness is becoming such a problem, some boys' schools are putting a limit on the number of sessions students can do in school gyms, Morgan says.

Christian Marchegiani, boxing and conditioning coach for the Sydney Swans and Australian Cricket Team, who was also a coach on Nine's Excess Baggage, travels around the country talking to students at primary and secondary schools.

He says the boys are motivated by a lack of confidence and self-esteem, but also feel pressured by the idea that girls only go for the guys who are "buff" and have a six-pack.

"What you've got to look at as well is the people that they're idolising," Marchegiani says. "Twenty years ago, rugby league and rugby union players and boxers didn't look like Sonny Bill Williams does today or Quade Cooper or Danny Green or Anthony Mundine. Twenty years ago footballers weren't pretty boys. They were fat, they were chubby - they had moustaches."

He says Facebook, Twitter and Instagram had also helped foster the obsession with image, with teenagers getting a sense of validation from people clicking "like" or commenting on their photographs.

"I know so many kids that rely on that - they live by that," Marchegiani says. "They say, 'I've got 20 likes on this photo', or 'These girls commented on it'."

Personal trainer at Fitness First Mosman, Rob Mack, says he's noticed an increase in teenage boys working out, although few seem to know what they're doing.

"There's only a select few that get any significant results," Mack says. "A lot of them come in there and flap their arms around a bit and leave."

He says steroids are probably not widely used among teenagers because of the expense - they can cost $1300 for a week or fortnight's worth - and the fact they're only available on the black market.

Others say compulsive gym-going in teenage years is a risk factor for steroid use in the following decade, with kids being influenced by bigger gym junkies who are on the gear.

However, protein supplements are hugely popular among late adolescents, despite offering limited results according to Mack, who did his final university research paper on the benefits of creatine, an ingredient in many of the products.

"It's only been shown to work in the elite of elite sprinters," Mack says. "Rather than seeing muscle size or gain, it is water retained in the body. The kidneys start working overtime to actually process it."

Shane Daly, co-owner of Australian Sports Nutrition in Neutral Bay, says a lot of teenage boys come in to ask about supplements, but reject the bulkiness of past icons such as Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone in favour of a leaner look.

"The trend has definitely changed where, rather than wanting to be big and muscley, they want to be ripped and shredded," Daly says.

He says protein supplements like shakes help many young men bulk up, but they need to speak to an expert to find out which product is right for their shape.

"Anything taken in excess is dangerous," he says. "We advise three protein shakes on a training day maximum. On a non-training day have two. But I've had a middle-aged guy come in and say he's taking eight proteins a day because he doesn't want to eat. I said, 'Mate, how are you going to the toilet?' You need food. You can't rely on this.

"The younger guys are a lot more cautious. They know the dangers of using in excess but I'm sure there's a minority out there that think taking more protein means they will be increasing muscle. The majority of those people don't go into supplement stores. They buy online and do it themselves."

He says teens are motivated by the unrealistic bodies portrayed in movies and on television, achieved by male stars who do 14 weeks of extreme training and restrict calories just to look good during the short period of the film shoot.

"These kids think this guy maintains it all his life, but he doesn't," Daly says. "There are kids out there that try to mimic that and get themselves into trouble."

Nutritionist Michele Chevalley Hedge, who conducts school programs and workshops on adolescent nutrition, says some boys are "forgetting real food" in their obsession with body beautiful.

"There's a bit of protein powder madness," Hedge says. "When you're living on protein powders, you're going to put yourself into a very inflammatory, acidic state."

Andrew McKinnon, an 18-year-old from Nelson Bay, near Newcastle, has spent the past two years training five or six times a week, eating six meals a day of "clean" food divided into 40 per cent protein, 40 per cent carbohydrates and 20 per cent fat.

All that effort to achieve the bodybuilding look known as "aesthetics", made popular by the late Zyzz, and impress both young women and other men.

"A lot of people my age are into steroids but I don't believe in it," McKinnon says. "I treat my body as a temple. I make sure what goes into my body is natural. I try to eat and stay clean. I rarely touch alcohol. Definitely (drank) at Schoolies, though. You only live once."

The young man typically starts his day with a breakfast of oats and egg whites, morning tea is chicken breast and brown rice, lunch is Atlantic salmon and sweet potato, a workout is followed by a protein shake, dinner of red meat and broccoli, then a protein shake before bed.

But while many young women do appreciate the effort, it can backfire, Marchegiani says. "The girls like it to a certain point," he says. "The thing the girls like is bragging to their friends that they're going out with so-and-so who is big and tough and has a good body. But then the boys take it too far and start looking ridiculously big or they take more time to get ready than the girls and some girls are mature enough to think, 'I don't want to be with a guy that does more with his hair than I do'."

But as long as the hair - and guns - look good on Facebook, it's unlikely many of the boys will care.