Hello,
I've just received another amazing question from a fellow fitness enthusiast, Dr.Fox aka the Lifting Dermatologist. This question is about people reactions to high vascularity. Specifically, some people tend to have not very positive reactions to those of us with bulging veins and really low body fat percentage. As always, the question is quite multifaceted - there are several components to it.
First of all, let's talk about the most general aspects of it and I have 3 things to say here:
1. As athletes or people who strive for better esthetics, we always try to achieve a very lean muscular mass and vascularity is an indicator of two things - first, low body fat percentage and second, the "pump" as in every time we workout we actually compress our deep veins and the venous blood flow shunts into the superficial veins and makes them bulge. In both aspects, we usually try to look leaner, more muscular and more vascular. And unfortunately, sometimes we overdo it to the point when we look like we have a legit vascular problem like deep vein thrombosis.
2. The second aspect is body image. I think it would be safe to say that people who want to transform their body and try to achieve certain esthetics might have certain degree of insecurity about their body image, myself included (totally guilty of that!). We carefully design our workout routines, our nutrition plans, obsessively follow them, check out body weight and the way we look in the mirror and on our photos. That also plays a role in the way we respond to different reactions and comments related our vascularity and sometimes we misunderstand them as we are quite sensitive to criticisms (we're our worst critics in many cases!).
3. The last thing I'd like to mention is related to the external observers i.e. people who make these comments. In majority of cases they are not bodybuilders and they don't share our esthetic ideals and they simply don't understand what it takes to get to certain level of body fat, muscularity or vascularity. From their standpoint we just look abnormal, which doesn't mean bad or unhealthy, we just literally deviate from the population norm and it catches their eye and they might make a comment that would sound like a concern to us, not obviously a malevolent one. Also, they might be a bit envious too as not everyone has enough determination and discipline to reach a very low body fat percentage and high degree of muscularity.
So, as a rule of thumb - take any comment as a recognition of your literally outstanding (it does stand out!) physique and enjoy it. Maybe it's worth to reflect on your own goals, esthetic standards, but there is definitely no point in dwelling too much on these comments. In the end of the day we live in a slightly different world!
Finally, I'd like to say, Dr.Fox, that in your particular situation you were talking to your colleagues, who, I assume, were physicians and, to be specific, they were dermatologists. They are people who are trained for many years to look at person's skin and assess their health based on their skin condition. Also, we all are trained to recognize the signs of vascular diseases and unless they are lifting docs as ourselves, they don't think about weight loss of pumping muscles. The very first thing that crosses their mind is likely deep vein thrombosis. So, I wasn't surprized at all to hear that you got lots of comments about your vascularity from your colleagues and, again, I would take these comments as token of appreciation of your great physique. I hope that it answers your question, and I'm looking forward to hearing new ones.
Sincerely Yours,
Dr.Sam