55 replies to this topic

[scrubmetender]

Yes there can be a connection. Whey protein is a milk protein so too much of it will give you acne if you're sensitive to dairy. Not only that but when you're taking a given supplement you should drink much more water than normal.

I'm not sure about steroids, never tried myself but there's a whole community out there that think they're pretty safe IF done correctly. I think it has a lot more to do with the way they're taken than anything else, but obviously if you abuse them the possible side effects will become more prominent.

[Some_Guy]

I've been lifting for some 20 odd years now (yes, I'm that old) and I do believe there is a connection. However, let's face it, some people are just predisposed to getting acne. I think if you are and you lift (heavy), it will exacerbate your acne condition. Is it the increase in Test levels from doing heavy squats? Or...is it from the stress that weightlifting causes on your body overall? Is it just sweating for a long time non stop? Maybe it's bacteria in the weight room from all the other sweaty guys....many of whom do not wipe down the equipment when they splooge them with their sweat.

When I was much younger (and stupider), I used to take all these supplements that I would read about in BB mags. Some of those supplements definitely caused massive breakouts. Any old lifters here remember that Hot Rox? It have yohimbe in it which was suppose to increase Test production. That crap would make guys break out like crazy. I tried HMB when it came on the market. Same thing. Made you horny, made you break out. Did any of those things make you bigger...hard to say.

We have a lot of guys taking gear at my gym and...most of them have pretty funky acne. Back, neck, etc. Might be me but...most of them are bald too. I dunno if it's a Test > DHT > Male pattern baldness thing. I know at least one guy who takes gear who is being followed by his derm, he's pretty clear. He also has all his hair so I am not sure if he is using some DHT blocking agent on his scalp.

[White Fox]

Any more inputs on this subject?

[Silvitni]

now I didn't check if there were any females in this discussien.. but I have also had acne since I started training seriously, about 3years ago, my training is about every day 7months in the year, the remainder of the year I just try keeping my form..

here you guys talk much about bacne and acne in the forehead, I do not have bacne and my forehead is pretty clear, are there any "sign" that are especially for acne from training?

[White Fox]

now I didn't check if there were any females in this discussien.. but I have also had acne since I started training seriously, about 3years ago, my training is about every day 7months in the year, the remainder of the year I just try keeping my form..

here you guys talk much about bacne and acne in the forehead, I do not have bacne and my forehead is pretty clear, are there any "sign" that are especially for acne from training?

What do you mean by training. Most of the guys posting in this thread are serious lifters. I doubt running, aerobics etc. has any negative effect on acne, quite the opposite actually.

Where do you get acne?

[Silvitni]

WOW!! I don't run or do aerobics, seriously just because I'm a girl?
I mainly spend my time on the rowing machine and weights, getting a pretty strict program from a OL-winner, so it is a pretty hard program or so I tend to think?!?
..not that I want it to be the excersise, when my dermotologist told me this probably was the reason for my acne and that I should stop all sort of weightlifting and hard excersise, and maybe just run! in a moderat pace! - I almost burst into tears (jey girly!!;))

I have acne on my chin and cheeks, back around the ears (/the jawline).. but since I started Isotretinoin I did get a break-out on my back, where there usually hasn't been anything (worth mentioning).

sorry for my poor english btw;) and new to this soe if I'm totally in the wrong place, please say!:)

[White Fox]

WOW!! I don't run or do aerobics, seriously just because I'm a girl?
I mainly spend my time on the rowing machine and weights, getting a pretty strict program from a OL-winner, so it is a pretty hard program or so I tend to think?!?
..not that I want it to be the excersise, when my dermotologist told me this probably was the reason for my acne and that I should stop all sort of weightlifting and hard excersise, and maybe just run! in a moderat pace! - I almost burst into tears (jey girly!!;))

I have acne on my chin and cheeks, back around the ears (/the jawline).. but since I started Isotretinoin I did get a break-out on my back, where there usually hasn't been anything (worth mentioning).

sorry for my poor english btw;) and new to this soe if I'm totally in the wrong place, please say!:)

How long have you been on Isotretinoin? That you got a breakout on you back when starting Isotretinoin isn't uncommon since you have to expect an initial breakout when starting to use it.

Most dermatologists know nothing about acne and it's relation to lifestyle and food so I think you have found the one derm out there that actually says bodybuilding and acne are related.

However, if you recently started your course of Isotretinoin you should be hopeful since a lot of people has cleared their acne completely by using it. Good luck!

[White Fox]

I have now come to a point where I feel like I have tried eveything except accutane. Before I try that last resort, I'm thinking about completely stopping all weightlifting for 1 month to see if this makes my acne go away. It's very hard to just give it up, but I have to give every possibility a try before going on accutane.

However, I will be doing some running, rowing and probably some bodyweight exersises.

So, is there any bodybuilders with acne out there that's with me?

[ChiBEARS54]

I have now come to a point where I feel like I have tried eveything except accutane. Before I try that last resort, I'm thinking about completely stopping all weightlifting for 1 month to see if this makes my acne go away. It's very hard to just give it up, but I have to give every possibility a try before going on accutane.

However, I will be doing some running, rowing and probably some bodyweight exersises.

So, is there any bodybuilders with acne out there that's with me?

If your really desperate then i would go visit your derm and ask about accutane. It's the only thing that really worked for me, and i don't have any regrets taking it. It's been almost a year since my last dose and the only real problem is the occasional breakout on my face. I still feel that lifting weights is the problem, and the only way to calm my acne down is talking full week breaks from the gym. Seems to help, but it doesn't make things perfect. As i approach my 21st birthday, I just keep hoping that i'll grow out of it!!

[bballer88]

little input on this i gave up lifting for past couple of months becasue of my skin, and belive or not my skin has been improving not drasticly just very slow, i finally just got back into the gym did a full week 5 day split, and what do you know im starting to break out again out of no where, but idk if you can fully blame it on the gym, maybe the suplments, the high intese exercises? the extra food intake? probly a combo of all of them, it sux ehter lift and break out, or dont and get clear, i think I am goign to just continue to lift and say fuck it what happnes happnes.

[trevor930]

Bodybuilder/MMA fighter here... with acne... on the fore head and face. Yea i don't know if lifting and training in general has an affect on my acne. I don't know of any reason why it would, i do hear the bacteria thing thought, that could be a possibility. I did screw around with some supplements a few months back that were completely unnecessary and probably really screwed with my hormones/testosterone/digestive system. I think they might have helped to worsen my acne. Now i only use a whey protein isolate and i try to use it twice a day max. But hey if my derm told me to give up lifting/training, i would tell her to go fuck herself because theres just no way.

[captshiner]

the idea that heavy squats or lifts increases in testosterone or anything else similar for that matter is so minute it isn't even worth talking about.. probably spread by the same person who said you need to squat for big arms or some bs like that

head over to the nutrition section, a lot of guys end up with bad diets loaded with with too high a glycemic load. try decreasing carb intake, carb intake per meal and such and see if that makes a difference. even on the combination of testosterone and trenbolone (which is 4x as androgenic as testosterone) i didn't get any acne on cycle provided my diet was in order

[Ennuh]

Working out lets your body release histamine which can be a problem if you are histamine intolerant. Working can deplete more of your body's vitamine reserves. You should supplement stuff.
Also, if you work out you eat more which means you also eat more of the stuff you might be allergic too. Allergy doesn't mean you die from it but that some toxins leave your body through your skin which can cause acne.

Try fish oil, vitamin c, alpha lipoic acid, magnesium & vitamin b6 + a multivitamin like emergen-C (not centrum because that contains iodine)!!

I work out 2-3 times a work and have no problem any more.

[White Fox]

Experiment: Two months without bodybuilding too see if my body acne is induced by pumping iron

Introduction:
I primarily get itchy pustules and pastules on the shoulders, chest, upper back/neck and forehead. It may be a combination of acne and Pityrosporum folliculitis - I really don't know and doctrors/derms doesn't seem to know shit.
For a long time I wondered wether bodybuilding was causing or contributing to my body acne.
Therefore I finaly decided to give it up for a couple of months to see what happened
I have been pumping iron steadily for several years and for the first time I took a long break. For almost two months(February 18th-April 12th) I only did some cardiovascular excersises like running.

Results:
After nearly 2 months of no bodybuilding I can safely say that Bodybuilding doesn't affect my acne. It seems that my acne have bad and good periodes wether I work out or not. Therefore my advice to people wondering if their acne is caused by lifting weights is to look for other solutions than to stop hitting the gym. Anyways I don't regret quitting for a couple of months to be sure that bodybuilding wasn't the cause.

The only thing I can say is that I had somewhat more energy during these two months because I wan't putting as much stress on my body.

[CTM1978]

Hi there, just joined this board to give you some info on a recent acne, what I now believe to be Pityrosporum Folliculitis, breakout that I had and how it related to weight-lifting

I've been a regular gym member for about 16 months and don't usually get acne except for the summer months when I'm sweating a bit more. At that point I get a few more pimples that I usually do. They're annoying but die down when it gets cooler and are virtually non-existent during the winter.

Anywho, I've been slacking off the last two months because of various bullshit and decided last week to get off my ass and get back to my routine. I went last Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Each day I did my regular routine but I decided to increase the amount of weight I had been lifting by 20 pounds. My routine is this, I do 60 leg lifts at 400 pound which is my usual then I work on my waist i.e. sit ups, leg lifts to the waist etc..... followed by 15 minutes of speed walking (1 mile). Then I curl, pulldown and bench press 70 pound, 20 times each. Another 15 minutes on the treadmill and I'm done. Not exactly heavy duty.

But last week I (like a moron) said "hey, when I do my curls, pulldowns and presses I'll put an extra 20 pounds on". BIG MISTAKE. By Wednesday night I had a bunch of large (what appear to be) pimples on my left temple (right to you). By Thursday night I had another batch of large pimples (?) on my right temple. By Friday night I had lots of little red pimple like spots all over my forehead, BUT, I didn't have them anywhere else on my face. Just from the temples and the forehead. They literally started right where the veins are on my temples and only moved upwards.

I researched "forehead acne" and found out about "Pityrosporum Folliculitis". I suspected that it might be what's causing my problem because it appears that I may have contracted a yeast infection from my girlfriend who I regularly give *ahem* oral pleasure....And as I've found out, Pityrosporum Folliculitis is caused by a build-up of yeast. So, I suspect that the yeast, combined with the sudden burst of testosterone and oil secretion from the weightlifting may have caused this outbreak.

Now, I have a doctor but he's a moron, so, I decided that since this appears to be a yeast infection, I would go to my pharmacy and get whatever was available for yeast infections. I bought a pill for 20 bucks called Canes Oral. Just one pill, took it on Saturday and have been applying Monistat to my forehead and even bought a bottle of Nizoral which I used to shampoo.

So far, my skin is already looking MUCH better. Almost completely clear except that the spots on my right temples seem to be multiplying. I'm not sure what they are because their small lumps, sore to the touch and when I popped one a clear fluid came out. Now, this morning it looked like there were a dozen of them, spaced out about 1 centimeter each. I used some Tea Tree Oil and placed a strip of Duct Tape on them just on the off chance that they might be warts of some kind, maybe that I caught from the gym.

I'll report back in one week and let you all know how it goes.

[maistro]

I believe weight lifting causes my acne to flair up. Pains me to say it as it is my main source of excercise and loved nothing more than adding muscle and the pain of it all. I will give it up though, i want to be clear from now and i don't believe there is a point in being muscly if your body is obliterated by acne.

I even try to now moderate my weights and incorporate sweat inducing cardio but im not sure if it will do enough. I'll give it this last week to see how things go.