These two terms are very common among body builders and in body building literature. Some use these two terms, professional and natural, interchangeably in body building talks. This is as a result of misinformation abundant in the industry. Nothing could be as far from the truth, because in reality, professional and natural body building are two conceptual meanings worlds apart. So what does the term professional body building refer to? In the contemporary body building industry, a professional body builder means a body builder who engages in the practice for competitive purposes and has already won necessary qualifying contests. A professional body builder develops his body muscles and tones them up as a career and as a way of making a living. To qualify for the title of a professional body builder, a person must have progressed competitively from being a body building amateur until he earns the 'pro card' from the regulating organization in his jurisdiction. In the US and many other developed nations, such a pro card issued by the IFBB. Professional body builders have earned the right to individually compete in registered or sanctioned body building contests such as the Arnold Classic, the night of Champions among other prestigious body building competitions. In some contests especially in Australia, professional body builders can indeed compete as a part of a team. Good performance ratings or placing in world standings after each of these sanctioned contests, earns the participants a right to compete at the Mr. Olympia. Mr. Olympia contest is the single title currently esteemed as the highest possible accolade in professional body building circles. What about natural body building? Natural body building is the endeavor of building compact, voluminous and well toned muscles by natural means, that is, without using synthetic performance enhancers and supplements. Natural body building is the antonym of substance enabled muscle building and underscores the importance of allowing the body to grow and develop muscles through natural processes and substances. All natural body building contests involve routine tests for synthetic illegal substances. Any body builder found to have even marginal traces of any of the listed substances is automatically banned from future contests. Substance abuse testing is commonly done on impromptu samples of urine, although most regulating bodies especially in the west are currently high tech gadgets for chemical analysis of the blood. In natural body building, what may qualify as substance abuse may be the use of any substance prohibited by legal and regulatory bodies. Such definitions vary across the foray of natural federations, and in most times do not necessarily incorporate only the substances listed as illegal by laws of the particular jurisdiction. In a nut shell, natural body building abhors such substances as Anabolic Steroids, Diuretics, Prohormone, Human Hormone Concentrates and all other synthetic performance enhancing substances. In practice, most of these substances are widespread and in frequent use by professional body builders despite being banned by most natural organizations. Currently dominant natural body building organizations include Natural Physique Association (NPA), North American Natural Body Building Federation (NANBF), among others. While professional body builders stick to their trade for the high dollar, natural body builders persistently assert that their efforts are primarily focused not only on competition but also on a healthy lifestyle.
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