The term bodybuilding brings many connotations ranging from an oafish activity to one of narcissism. Considering this, the activity itself has been branded as one that is only suitable for the young, athletic or vain.
As the nation grows ever more sick from non-communicable diseases that are evidently linked from sedentary lifestyles and nutrient sparse diets, a lifestyle exists that could provide to be the protype health care system – namely the bodybuilder lifestyle.
What I hope to show you by the end of this chapter is the numerous health benefits of natural bodybuilding to reaffirm your desire to build and strengthen your body.  Once the desire is fuelled the rest of the book should provide you with evidence based training and nutrition to help you achieve your goals.
At present one of the greatest threats is coronary heart disease, yet weight training which is the corner stone of bodybuilding is has been proven time and time again to be effective in strengthening the capacity and function of the heart. Pu et al (2001) showed that women with chronic heart failure who strength trained had improvements in exercise capacity and muscular strength and endurance which aided there condition and quality of life. Likewise when a combination of resistance training and cardiovascular training was combined it had greater effects than those exercise modalities alone or no training in left ventricular function of those with congestive heart failure (Dalardelle et al 2002).
Hypokinetic diseases are not limited to heart conditions, as the nation grows less and less active diabetes is rapidly growing. Regular exercise of both resistance and cardiovascular training has been shown to improve glucose tolerance  in type two diabetics through an increase in insulin sensitivity (wasserman and zinman 1994). In fact it has been long known that exercise will positively effect all diseases linked to obesity or sedentary lifestyles such as high cholesterol, heart disease hypertension and the list goes on.
One major issue for females and the currently aging process is that of osteoporosis and it has been highlighted that strength training can improve bone density by as much as three percent within as little as sixteen weeks of resistance training (ryan et al 1994). Osteoporosis is not the only musculoskeletal problem faced by the general public that can benefit from resistance training as implemented by a bodybuilder.  Arthritis is a common ailment for many individuals and it has been shown that joint erosion can be halted within six months of weight training (Hakkinen 1994).
The list is endless as more and more studies validate the efficacy of performing weight training and adopting a diet that mirrors a bodybuilding lifestyle, having stated this it is only prudent to bring up the issues of drugs within bodybuilding.
An array of drugs can be used in the pursuit of muscle development by both competitive and recreational bodybuilders from steroids, growth hormone, insulin and stimulants. For these powerful drugs to exert such a positive effect on the body there will inevitable be powerfull changes on other tissues and organs in the body. Many of these drugs can have side effects ranging from minor ailments such as acne to major issues such as heart problems and with drugs like insulin the potential for coma and death.

Considering this the question that would be asked – is it worth using these drugs to increase the rate and potential gain of bodybuilding? In the authors opinion the answer is no, not when appreciable strength and size can be built naturally and there are avenues for competing clean with federation such as the BNBF.