You began an intensive weightlifting program to pack loads of muscles every month. Though half through, you notice red or purple lines streaking across the pecs and at the apes of your biceps and armpits. These are stretch marks!
While many people link these with rapid growth during pregnancy, weight gain, or puberty, few link them with workouts. A rapid rise in the sizing of muscular tissues because of bodybuilding and weight lifting is often because of these marks, especially in men.
What Are Stretch Marks? The stretch marks are the absence – actually holes in the dermis. Consider the balloon. As you stretch it or blow it, at a certain point before your balloon rips off, you will see the material's color fading off, getting the very thing and ripples or bubbles. That’s how human skin does.
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Stretch marks show weaknesses in your skin when a lot of tension is put over it for a long time. Your skin is active and living, so it responds constantly. Thus as your outs stretch over it, it starts to grow.
Though, these are not scars. Scars have a healing reaction. That is how your body provides additional collagen for bolstering a weak wound or spot.
Within your skin tissues, stretch marks are like deep scars, which form because of a fast growth rate in that skin area compared to other areas. It means that these skin stretches have passed their limit of elasticity, leaving marks. These marks will generally be red or purple as they format first and get fade away into a white, silvery line with time.
For bodybuilders, workout programs are intense and strict, thus resulting in a faster increase in the sizing of muscular areas like thighs and biceps. It can result in more stretch marks occurring in these areas.
Read more: The Necessity of Stretching for Bodybuilding
You may find relief knowing that there is practically no person who doesn’t have them. Every person gets stretch marks if his/her skin gets stretched sufficiently and at a particular pace.
It has all to do with the structure of collagen within your skin. However, few skin kinds don’t seem to get stretch marks; or these marks are imperceptible. It can’t be said that there exists an ideal skin kind to minimize the appearance of marks; however, usually, these marks are carried by people with lesser red tones in the skin and very fair complexions.
Though, there exists a vulnerability for redheads. Even these people have got fair skin complexions; they own many blood vessels within the skin. Thus, they are much more prone to having pink or red stretch marks.
Of course, these marks are more common in females that are pregnant. However, anyone who is heavyweight can face the emergence of these marks. Males, particularly bodybuilders, use a heavy intake of anabolic steroids, grow a lot, perform twice a day, put on loads of weight, and get stretch marks on their chests, arms, and even on their backs.
Men who develop more risks are those everybody jealous of in the gym (unless they have stretch marks): rapid growers. Such guys are the ones that put more than two months in their training programs and get results instantaneously. They eat like the horse, bulk is always crazy, they grow fast, and it is unbelievable how big they get. However, there’s just a lot of skin on the body; as your muscles attain a particular size, stretches start to appear on your skin.
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It is tough advice to follow while you are following your workout program. But, increasing the size slowly can give your body skin more time to alter body mass. This means it will get more flexible and thus less stretchy with time.
It can be easy to follow; however, you need to make sure that you eat foods that have nutrients that are also good for the skin. They may include zinc, antioxidants, and zinc. By maintaining the skin’s health internally, it gets suppler and much more resilient against impairment.
Many products exist in the market that helps in preventing, reducing, and eliminating stretch marks. Along with maintaining the skin’s health internally by consuming a nutritious diet, you can maintain it outside by keeping your skin moisturized. A lot of the products are used for care as well as prevention, making it cost-effective for you.
These products contain ingredients including Vitamin E and A, cocoa butter, and shea butter which are highly effective; however, if you need something much more heavy-duty, you can go for retinoid treatment. Retinoids must never be used whilst pregnancy as they may affect your unborn baby.
Find it here: https://www.whatsteroids.com/CoccaButter.
Those people who prefer oil-based products can go for bio-oil. This oil comprises PurCellin oil, and many people have successfully prevented, reduced, and eliminated stretch marks with this oil. Alternatively, you can also go for natural oils like olive oil and coconut oil, which both have a lot of antioxidants and nutrients absorbed by your skin.
Find it here: https://www.whatsteroids.com/Bio-Oil
In the case of bodybuilders, often workout programs contradict the advice to prevent stretch marks. But, if you can wait a little longer to achieve the gym targets, you can achieve the results still that you want while reducing the risk of the marks.
If you have stretch marks already, you probably will be searching to reduce the appearance and eliminate these marks. So, continue using the preventive methods given above to prevent them. In particular, while using topical products, the sooner you begin, the more efficiency you get.
If you don’t have marks, begin applying the removal cream as early as you see them. Ideally, it Is while they get to the red/purple stage as your skin starts to respond when they change their color. Massage your skin in a circular pattern as it encourages blood circulation within the skin, bringing nutrients and oxygen into the cell internally.
Few light wavelengths are considered to help in healing. Infrared radiations that penetrate deep into the skin can heat your skin at lower levels, enhancing cell processes and encouraging the creation of elastin and collagen, which maintain skin suppleness. In therapy using red light, you can enhance the healing processes and improve the cream products' effectiveness for marks.
You can do this at your home as there exist a lot of products in the market which is safe to use at home by untrained professionals. You can save that cost that your dermatologist can change for the same treatment. IPL (intense pulsed light can also be very effective for removing stretch marks).
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This is used for reducing the stretch marks appearance by softening of skin area around them and evening your skin tone. It may not diminish the marks if used alone, but therapies such as IPL can enhance the product absorption within your skin and bring more results. You can also microdermabrasion at home with at-home kits available in the market.
Certain procedures work well in minimizing the stretch marks appearance. However, they don’t work perfectly. Why? You can never cure your marks.
Having that said, one of the amazing treatments for these marks is to use a series of carbon dioxide treatments in the form of a laser directed at your skin. In response to the laser, your skin may develop an inflammatory response, which improves and heals the appearance of your stretch marks. Some lattice-like scars may develop within your skin, but these aren’t seeable from the top. Such treatment can improve the vigor of this deep layer in the skin, and the appearance of your marks gets dulled out.
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Another option for reducing your mark’s appearance is Ultherapy. It is a skin-tightening process in which a heat beam burns a small hole deep in your skin. This hole is not made on top of your skin; its area depends on what is being treated. The main problem with this treatment is that it is done on losing parts of the body, like the neck area. It can treat your marks up to a particular degree. However, the results aren’t very amazing.
As a whole, you can look for the best preventative method for your stretch marks. Curing them as early as possible is better to get the best results. If you maintain a healthy diet and avoid any rapid weight loss or gain, you can easily get rid of them.
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