Stretch Marks

Skin does not bounce back if it's been stretched by rapid growth due to pregnancy, weight gain, or extreme weight loss. Instead, it becomes decorated by a form of scarring called stretch marks, or striae. Stretch marks often start off as reddish or purplish in color and then become glossy skin that appears streaked in silver or white.

Stretch marks occur in the dermis, the elastic middle layer of skin that allows it to retain its shape. When constantly stretched, the dermis can break down leaving behind stretch marks.

Men and women can get stretch marks on several areas of their bodies, including the abdominal area, thighs, hips, breasts, upper arms or lower back.

What Can I Do About Stretch Marks?

There are some treatment options for stretch marks, none of which work very well. The degree of success with any treatment will be impacted by your age, your skin tone and even your diet. Treatment options include:

Prescription methods. Tretinoin cream or laser therapy can be used to address unwanted stretch marks.
Over-the-counter products. Over-the-counter stretch mark treatments are available but not particularly effective. Moisturizers can help with appearance and itchiness. Sunless tanning products can help mask stretch marks.

It's best to be in the care of a cosmetic surgeon or dermatologist. He or she can determine which treatment approach is best for you.

Stretch marks occur when the elastic middle layer of skin called the dermis is stretched. Stretching leads to a breakdown of connective tissue, inflammation, and then scar formation as the injury heals. It's the scarring that causes stretch marks to appear. Stretch marks are common during puberty and rapid growth spurts in adolescence (they typically heal by the late teens or early 20s), pregnancy, excessive weight gain and obesity, when muscle mass increases rapidly and stretches the skin (like during bodybuilding), and sometimes when individuals use topical or high doses of ingested steroids for many weeks or months. Stretch marks are not a health risk but can be cosmetically unappealing.

As for prevention, lotions and creams are largely ineffective and costly (although some of the tanning creams may cover up stretch marks but not heal them), and there isn't any medication that you can take to prevent or remove them either. However, if your stretch marks are from rapid increases in muscle mass due to weight lifting as you report in your question (your doctor can help assess what they're from if you're not sure), then you ought to try reducing the intensity of your workouts in the areas of your body that are affected to prevent muscle mass from increasing quickly. You report that your arms are affected, and so you might try reducing the weight during biceps curls, triceps press-downs and kickbacks, and any other exercise that works the muscle under the skin where the stretch marks appear. There's no guarantee that this will work, but it's worth a try. Reducing body fat may also be helpful since stretch marks tend to appear more in fatty areas of the body (abdomen, upper arms, thighs, and buttocks), but again, you won't know if it works until you try.

Stretch marks tend to fade over time, but it's a wait-and-see game as to how much. If reducing the intensity of your training doesn't work and they continue to upset you even after they diminish, then you might consider a consult with a dermatologist to discuss surgical, laser, and other possible treatments. Your primary care physician can make the appropriate referral