Built, displayed, and surveilled: A bibliometric and thematic review of bodybuilding and physique-centered sport research (2015–2025)

Abstract

Bodybuilding has become a multidisciplinary research domain, yet its scholarship remains fragmented across performance science, enhancement, health, body image, and cultural inquiry. How these strands relate, develop, and reveal gaps in the evidence base remains insufficiently understood. This bibliometric and thematic review mapped 1033 Scopus-indexed records published from 2015 to 2025 using Bibliometrix/Biblioshiny and VOSviewer, complemented by interpretive thematic synthesis and population-visibility analysis. The findings revealed a field shaped by a persistent tension between physique optimization and its physiological, psychological, and social consequences. Training and nutrition formed a strong applied foundation, while enhancement and biomedical surveillance remained enduring concerns; psychosocial scholarship was substantial, whereas platformed physique visibility emerged more recently. The literature was also marked by uneven international collaboration and greater explicit visibility of male than female populations, alongside widespread demographic underreporting. These patterns suggest that the field’s multidisciplinary growth has not eliminated important population, geographical, and welfare-related blind spots. Hence. future research should couple evidence-informed physique preparation with broader attention to diversity, harm reduction, athlete welfare, and long-term sustainability.

The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Performance Enhancement & Health, 2026 · DOI ↗