An example of what steroids can do. Jose Canseco, the only honest man in baseball.

So I guess the general theme this week is “hormones”. So the next topic that we’re going to cover was sent in by Jason and this is about steroid muscle vs natural muscle.

This is a tricky topic because most celebrities, athletes and bodybuilders don’t admit or disclose the drugs they use so it’s hard to match a look with the drugs it took to get that look.

In other words, even though certain athletes have openly admitted to steroid use we still don’t know how much they used, for how long and most of all, we can never know for certain how big, strong and lean they would have been if they didn’t use.

So we’re left guessing and putting together the puzzle with only some of the pieces and no idea what the puzzle picture really looks like.

If you’ve been around the steroid sub culture or used them for any length of time they you have a good idea of what they can do and how your body will change…and how fast it will change.

You also gain some appreciation and insight into spotting other steroid users. There are a few characteristics that just become obvious if you’ve been on the inside.

1) Rapid strength gain. It’s pretty obvious when a guy is using drugs because is overall strength and the rate of is strength gain are massively accelerated.

2) Rounding bloated look. the muscle bellies of a guy on steroids seem to have a rounder, fuller more bloated look that natural guys can never really achieve. This is a subtle difference that many non users wont notice. But guys in the know can pick it out pretty easily as they can remember when they had the same effect and also know that it’s impossible to get that effect without drugs.

3) Overall size. There is a limit to natural muscle growth and when you see a guy who is simply far too big for his frame it becomes obvious that he’s using some extra help to get there.

4) Facial bloating. Many steroids will change the look of the face giving it a slightly fuller/bloated look. This is a dead giveaway for many guys.

These are just some of the visual cues that a guy is using steroids.

Natural guys who want to build muscle should try not to use a steroid induced look as their ideal that they’re shooting for. With that said it will be difficult to know if the person who you are role modeling uses drugs or not. The 4 guidelines above are at least a start to know if you’re chasing an ideal that you simply cannot catch without drugs.

If you don’t want to use drugs then you need to find a body image ideal that is drug free so you can set your expectations accordingly.

If you you do use drugs then the sky is the limit and the more you use the bigger you’ll get. But the quality of your look will still come down to conditioning and how and what you use and how much you use.

The bottom line with drug use is that the person with the best genetics to begin with will still look the best given the same amount of drugs (I’m talking competition level here).

It doesn’t really matter to me which path you’re on, it’s your body and its your rules so knock yourself out. I don’t believe anyone else has the right to tell you what you can or can’t put into your body. It’s really the only piece of property you have in the world that is mostly yours (and even with that the gov still tries to tell you what you can and can’t do with it)

Anyway, the point is to try and set a body image ideal that is consistent with what you’re doing to achieve it.

For guys and muscle building it typically boils down to:

a) Whether you are using drugs or not

b) Finding a body image ideal that was built using drugs or not

That latter is the tricky part as most steroid user’s don’t broadcast their use. The only way to know for sure is if you know them personally.

John

How Do You Make The Descision to Use Steroids or Not?

Alek sent in a very interesting question. He simply asked what are the real objective reasons for not using steroids.

This is a good question because there is much misinformation about steroids in the general media, and the side effects and potential negative effects are usually associated with massive doses.

What then are the objective reasons to avoid steroid use?

First of all any drug taken on a chronic basis will have some side effects to deal with. In the case of testosterone and it’s derivatives the side effects (no matter how mild the drug or dose) are as follows:

Aromatization of some testosterone to estrogen and then estrogen based side effects (development of breast tissue is the most obvious)

Hair Loss (not too many guys would trade a head of hair for slightly bigger muscles)

Raised blood lipids and cholesterol. This is one of the side effects that can directly increase risk of heart disease.

Potential increased risk of prostate cancer.

Acne (it’s person to person, not everyone gets this reaction)

And finally, there is likely a set of completely unknown side effects that the scientific community has yet to uncover or have a chance to study.

This list (while not complete) is a good starting point of ‘con’s’ to using steroids. If a guy wanted to use them he would have to weigh out these vs the ‘pro’s’.

Depending on the dose testosterone can be a benefit to many guys, it’s even prescribed as an anti-depressant and to elevate mood and well being.

It may also be of use for men who are beyond 50 years of age and want to replace some testosterone to restore their circulating levels back to those of a 30 year old. This may actually be beneficial for longevity and quality of life. This is analogous in some respects to hormone replacement therapy for post menopausal women.

In the end it should be up to each individual to decide what they want to do with their body. Collecting unbiased and objective information is the key to making an informed descision.

John

Steroids are the real workhorses in bodybuilding

Bodybuilding isn’t a display of discipline in the gym, or superior work ethic, or good program design, or superior genetics. It’s mostly a display of access to and willingness to take drugs of all kinds.

To get anywhere in bodybuilding some combination of the following types of drugs will commonly be used.

Testosterone and its derivatives (both oral and injectable)

Diuretics (both oral and injectable)

Insulin

Growth Hormone

Stimulants (ranging from ephedrine, to thyroid hormone and even cocaine)

Given this background of drug use there is little practical advice you can take from bodybuilding circles that will apply to your training and fitness goals.

And don’t kid yourself, many ‘fitness models’ are also using some combination of these drugs as well.

Bodybuilders represent the most exrteme case and most people don’t want to go as far as they do. However they represent what is possible and thus present a choice of what people could have if they wanted it.

A continuum of potential body shape and size is created. The far left is defined by no workouts and no attention to calorie intake (average couch potato), the far right is defined by massive drug use and rigorous attention to diet detail (high level bodybuilder)

The rest of us are somewhere between these two extremes. All you have to do is choose how far along the spectrum you want to go to get the look you are after.

John

In the past 7-10 years there has been an explosion of live action comic book super hero movies, and I’m loving it!

Which one looks more impressive?

But the celebrities that are chosen to play the super heroes never quite measure up to the expectations I have in my mind.

Many guys who grew up reading comic books (or even glanced through them from time to time) have an idea of what they think a super hero should look like…and they’re always larger than life.

Believe it or not some guys actually set these cartoon images of their favorite super hero as their mental image of the ideal body. This of course is a completely unrealistic ideal but it’s part of what drives some guys to use steroids…the need to be something special/bigger/different/to stand out in a crowd.

This is partly why many of us are left unimpressed when we see a celebrity depicting the image of our favorite hero.

Hugh Jackman is in great shape and was a great pic for wolverine, but have a look at the picture above comparing the cartoon image of wolverine to Jackman…

A real person with a realistic body is never as impressive as what a cartoonist can do.

Superheroes are just supposed to be different, larger than life…so unless every superhero is computer generated we’ll have to go with what hollywood has to offer.

I suppose we have to look at these movies with the following mindset: “This is what wolverine (or any superhero) might have looked like if he were a real person”

John

Here is a good comparison picture of Eugene Sandow vs Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Sandow is known as the first real bodybuilder and gained international fame for doing the first bodybuilding style poses for crowds of people. The interesting thing about Sandow is that he died 10 years before testosterone was discovered…so you know he could have never used steroids.

During his time Sandow was considered one of the biggest and best built men in the world, he was the gold standard for bodybuilding before testosterone was discovered. As soon as testosterone was discovered and steroids were being dosed in people Arnold became the new gold standard. I’m sure the sheer size of Arnold vs Sandow just goes to show you how much of a difference drugs can make.

Basically these pictures show you what the gold standard for a muscular body was before and after the discovery of steroids.

John

Here are a few pictures of people who have admitted to using steroids. If you think you can look like these guys without steroids…you’re wrong. If any of these guys are the type of muscle size you want, then you gotta do what they did to get there. I’ve included a couple before an after to show you how dramatic of a change Canseco and McGwire had.

The only honest man in baseball.

—————————————————————————————————————————————————

Wouldn't admit it until now...who was he fooling?

—————————————————————————————————————————————————

This is not attainable without drugs.

—————————————————————————————————————————————————

Clip from a movie when he admits to using steroids.

—————————————————————————————————————————————————

Take a good look at each guy.

And lets be clear. You cannot look like any of these guys without using drugs.

If you thought you could then you’re mistaken.

Each of these guys has publicly admitted to using steroids.

If you still want to look like these guys, then you need to find a local steroid dealer…end of story.

Have a great Saturday!

John

I was having a recent discussion with someone about building muscle and the limits to this process. As usual they were shocked and a bit taken back when I said that muscle growth is very strictly limited.

This is Just Hard Work in the Gym...yeah right!

I’m not suggesting that muscle growth through weight training isn’t possible. I’m suggesting that it is more limited than we are lead to believe.

To add to that I am also suggesting that 2-3 pounds of actual muscle growth looks very big and it’s not realistic or necessary to set a goal of building 20 or 30 pounds of muscle.

It would seem that athletes, bodybuilders, celebrities and fitness models are the images and ideals’ many guys look at for their image of the body they want to build.

So is this a realistic image to have?

Lets do a quick inventory of public figures we know have been caught or suspected of using steroids,GH, or some other banned performance enhancing drugs:

Arnold Schwarzenegger

Sylvester Stallone

Hulk Hogan (and probably 90% of all wrestlers)

All professional or national level bodybuilders (this includes the women)

99% of all amateur bodybuilders

Most fitness models

Mark McGwire

Jose Canseco

Alex Rodriguez

Jason Giambi

Ken Caminiti

Rafael Palmeiro

Barry Bonds

Roger Clemens

Bill Romanowski

Shawne Merriman

So if the size and look of any of these guys is something that you were using as your ideal (but you don’t want to use drugs) then you’ll have to find another ideal…a much smaller one.

And if you are using any other guy who is of a similar size to these guys, it’s a good bet they are also using drugs…once again, you gotta find a different model.

My point is this:

If it looks like a duck, and it walks like a duck…it’s probably a duck.

If a guy looks as big as Arnold or McGwire or Canseco, they probably did the same things to get there (that means they did steroids)

If this is how big you want to be, then you have to use drugs to get there.

I’m not making a moral statement, I couldn’t care less if you choose to use drugs or not. In fact I have many good friends who use copious amounts of steroids and they’re perfectly happy to use them and they don’t hide it. They’re just happy being really really big.

Just be honest with yourself.

If your goal is massive hulking muscle size, then the only way to do it is with steroids.

If your goal is a classy looking muscular physique, then you can most certainly do that naturally.

John

Mark McGwire finally admitted he uses steroids for a period of 10 years.

This is hardly surprising considering how big this guy was. Have a look at this picture. If you want to look like this, then you need to use drugs.

You can't get an arm this big without drugs, and he admitted it!

This is part of the reason so many guys get caught up in the trap of trying to be bigger and never getting there. Many guys will look to sports figures such as McGwire or Bonds, or some other pro athlete and assume that it is possible to get to the same size without drugs.

If you don’t know these guys personally you will never know if they are taking drugs or not.

I’d guess that most major league baseball players who are in any sort of shape that people look up to are on some kind of performance enhancing drugs.

We’ve seen a bunch of them get busted now including McGwire, A-Rod, Palmeiro, Clemens, Sosa and on and on.

You’d have to be pretty naive to think these guys were the only guys who did it and that the rest of them are ‘clean’.

It seems logical to conclude that if these guys did them, then that is simply what it takes to compete at the major league level, and by default most guys who are excelling at that level are also using.

And this is just baseball. I would guess that most of the NFL and NCAA football players are also using many different drugs considering they have hundreds of guys as big or bigger than McGwire.

The bottom line is that it’s rather obvious that most of the fitness models, bodybuilders, pro athletes (and even some celebrities) are using drugs or other items to enhance their body.

If you seriously want to look like them you also have to be prepared to do what they’re doing to get that look.

The choice is yours to make.

John

It seems that many guys who are trying to build bigger muscles and ‘bulk up’ really don’t know what they’re talking about and don’t even know what it is that they want. I think any statement about building bigger muscles or bulking up needs to be qualified.

If you hear a guy say: “I want to bulk up and put on muscle” what he should be saying is: “I want to bulk up and put on as much muscle as possible without using steroids”

The qualification of steroid use or not dramatically changes what “bulk up” and “put on muscle” even means.

And this is where the breakdown occurs between many guys expectation of how much muscle they think they can build vs what they actually experience.

Many novice, intermediate and even some advanced lifters are reading magazines and taking supplements but looking at pictures and idolizing athletes and bodybuilders who all take steroids. The false assumption is that you can get steroid like gains without using steroids.

So the following two lists are the priority lists, thoughts and decisions that go through the head of two different guys: one who does and one who doesn’t use steroids:

Guy who uses steroids

1. I want to get as big as possible

2. I want to get as strong as possible

3. I’ll take whatever drugs get the job done

Guy who doesn’t use steroids

1. I want to be as big as possible without drugs

2. I want to be as strong as possible without drugs

3. I’m scared of drugs and want to recreate drug like gains without using them

4. I’ll try to recreate drug like gains with supplements

5.  I’m worried what others will think of me if I use drugs

6. I’m still really scared about side effects

7. I’ve been training for years and still can’t grow as fast as ‘big guys’

I must need more protein and supplements

8. I’m scared of drugs and their side effects

9. I must not be eating enough to gain like the ‘big guys’ so I’ll eat more

10. There must be some special workout technique I’m missing that will make me gain muscle faster so I will subscribe to dozens of ‘muscle building’ newsletters

11. I’m scared of drugs and their side effects.

And thats it. That is the real difference between guys who do what it takes to be really big, and guys who think they want to be that big.

I’m not saying that every guy who lifts weights must use steroids. What I am saying is that if your goal is steroid like size, then the only way to achieve it is with steroids. <– this seems pretty obvious.

Many of the muscle building and strength building marketing that you see uses models, bodybuilders and athletes who are using drugs. And you as the reader end up believing that a special workout or supplement can give you the gains that only drugs can produce. Eventually you blame yourself for lousy genetics, not enough protein in your diet, the wrong supplement routine or simply not pushing hard enough in the gym. All of these things are false.

The real problem was setting an unattainable goal in the first place. (this preys on the male body dysmorphia complex that we all have even slight twinges of: the need to be bigger and stronger than the next guy over)

Until the fitness/nutrition/diet/supplement industry lets you in on the secret that all of their models use drugs, you will always be left guessing and wondering what amount of muscle size and conditioning is truly possible without them.

John