A few months ago, at a Filipino community gathering here in the East Bay-one of those lively, food-laden afternoons where lumpia disappears faster than conversation, I found myself watching a group of young men off to the side. They were polite, well-dressed, quietly confident in that distinctly American way, but what caught my attention was not what they said, but how they carried themselves. Their posture, their fitted shirts, the careful choreography of their appearance, it all felt intentional, almost studied.
Later, in conversation, one of them mentioned his “cutting phase,” another talked about supplements he ordered online, and a third casually referenced a “cycle” as if discussing a new workout routine. The language was familiar, but the ease with which it was spoken was not. There was no sense of hesitation, no acknowledgment of risk-only optimization.
It struck me how far we have come from the bodies I remember growing up around. The men in my family-uncles, cousins, family friends were not sculpted in the modern sense, but they were undeniably strong. Strength showed up in other ways: carrying heavy trays at family parties, working long hours, showing up reliably. No one measured protein intake or tracked macros. There was pride, but not preoccupation.
My professional life, of course, has trained me to listen for what is not being said. At the FDA, I have spent years evaluating substances that promise improvement-drugs, supplements, interventions that exist in that gray space between innovation and risk. What I hear now, in these casual conversations among young men, echoes a familiar pattern: products marketed with confidence, used with enthusiasm, and understood only partially.
Performance-enhancing drugs, including anabolic steroids and SARMs, are often framed as tools-efficient, targeted, effective. But biologically, they are blunt instruments. They alter hormonal pathways that regulate not just muscle growth, but mood, fertility, cardiovascular health. In regulated settings, these risks are studied, monitored, and weighed carefully. Outside of that framework, ordered online, shared among peers-the margin for harm widens considerably.
What concerns me is not only the pharmacology, but the cultural momentum behind it. Among Filipino-Americans, there has always been a quiet negotiation of identity-balancing heritage with assimilation, modesty with visibility. For many young men, the body becomes a kind of shorthand, a way to claim presence in spaces where they may have once felt peripheral. To be muscular is to be seen. To be seen is, perhaps, to belong.
But belonging, when mediated through comparison, can become a moving target. Social media does not simply reflect reality; it amplifies and distorts it. The physiques that circulate most widely are often the least representative-enhanced, filtered, sometimes chemically assisted. Yet they set the standard. And against that standard, even disciplined effort can feel insufficient.
I think about this often in the context of risk. In my work, we talk about benefit-risk balance as if it were a calculation, something that can be neatly quantified. But in real life, especially for young people, the equation is emotional. The benefit is immediate: admiration, confidence, social validation. The risks, cardiovascular strain, endocrine disruption, long-term metabolic consequences are distant, abstract, and therefore easier to discount.
At that same gathering, one of the older Titos, someone closer to my generation laughed as he watched the younger men compare gym routines. “We used to compete over who made the best adobo,” he said. It was a joke, but also a reminder. Our metrics of worth were different. Not necessarily better, but less externally calibrated.
I do not think the answer is to dismiss this generation’s concerns or to romanticize our own past. The desire to improve oneself, to feel confident in one’s body, is deeply human. But I do wonder whether we have narrowed the definition of improvement too much. Muscle has become a proxy for health, when in fact health is far more complex-cardiovascular resilience, metabolic balance, mental well-being, longevity.
From where I stand, at the intersection of science, regulation, and lived experience, the more urgent task is not to discourage ambition, but to broaden perspective. To remind young men that their bodies are not just surfaces to refine, but systems to sustain. That strength is not only what is visible, but what endures.
And perhaps, in communities like ours, we can offer something steadier: a sense of belonging that is not contingent on optimization. A reminder that you are already part of something=family, culture, history that does not require enhancement.
In the end, the question is not whether young men will strive to become better versions of themselves. They will. The question is how they define “better,” and at what cost.
- The Concept: Originating from online masculinity and "incel" forums in the early 2010s, looksmaxxing views physical appearance as a quantifiable and improvable metric for social capital.
- The Spectrum: It ranges from "softmaxxing" (skincare and haircuts) to extreme methods like cosmetic surgeries, intentional bone-shaping, and illicit pharmaceuticals.
- Viral Influence: Influencers like "Clavicular" (Braden Peters) have mainstreamed these trends, often promoting highly dangerous lifestyles as "shortcuts" to looking attractive.
- Unregulated Compounds: While traditional anabolic steroid use among teens has actually declined, young men are increasingly turning to a gray market of largely untested compounds.
- Unapproved Substances: Various research chemicals and selective androgen receptor modulators are frequently ordered online despite not being approved for human consumption by regulatory bodies.
- Health Risks: Medical experts warn that these alternative compounds carry massive, unknown long-term health risks, including hormone disruption, cardiovascular damage, and significant psychological effects.
- Massive Uptake: With the glorification of specific gym cultures online, sports nutrition supplement use has significantly increased.
- Usage Trends: Studies indicate a substantial rise in the use of common supplements like creatine among both adolescent boys and girls over the last couple of decades.
- Professional Guidance: While some supplements are legal for adults, many pediatricians advise adolescents against use without medical supervision due to limited safety data regarding long-term impacts on developing bodies.
- The Halo Effect: The looksmaxxing community is heavily tied to the belief that physical appearance dictates social success, causing individuals to obsess over perceived flaws.
- Extreme Behaviors: At its most severe, the subculture has popularized hazardous practices such as attempting to manually reshape facial structures through physical trauma and the misuse of prescription stimulants for rapid fat loss.
- Mental Health: Experts in psychiatry note that this hyper-focus on rigid beauty standards correlates directly with rising body dysmorphia, loneliness, and depression among adolescent boys.
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