How strange it would be if animals had to go to gyms to get exercise the way we have to.

In modern western societies the availability and amount of food we’ve come to accept as normal is actually causing a health crisis. Obesity, diabetes, CVD and the various inflammatory disorders that are on the rise can all be strongly linked to simply eating too much and not exercising enough.

The issue is not that your body has anything inherently wrong with it (as most diet and fitness marketers would have you believe…see ‘broken metabolism’ marketing for an example).

The real issue is that we’ve become accustomed to eating massive portion sizes and performing no activity in our daily routine. We’re built to move, and we’re built to eat food when it’s around but last through stretches of time when food is scarce, but the reverse is now true…food is never scarce, and we never move.

Another societal norm we accept is the legal classification of various drugs.

It’s ok for women to take estrogen but it’s taboo for men to take testosterone.

It’s legal to get rip roaring drunk on alcohol until you’ve got liver cirrhosis but cocaine is taboo.

It’s legal to smoke cigarettes until you’ve got terminal lung cancer, but it’s taboo to smoke weed.

In some countries anabolic steroids are over the counter items you can purchase and self administer, in other countries it requires a perscription.

It’s legal to get laproscopic band surgery or liposuction to help reduce bodyfat, but it is frowned upon to take various stimulant drugs such as clenbuterol, HGH or other agents that help reduce bodyfat.

In the end your body is a machine that will eventually break down and slowly lose function as you age. Fighting this reducing function should be one of your primary concerns throughout your life, and any intervention (legal or not) should be your right to use if it will improve the quality of your life.

The research and information available on the health benefits and effects of drugs, supplements, and various food items will also be larger and greater than any governing body could ever hope to understand or regulate, this means it’s up to you to take an active role in your own health as much as possible, because nobody else is going to do it for you.

John

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

Eugen 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 is that he died 10 years before testosterone was discovered…so you know he could have never used steroids.

Eugen Sandow vs Arnold Schwarzenegger

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.

Eugen Sandow was the real deal and a body size that can be attained without steroids…on the other hand here are some examples of the type of size that can only be built using steroids: Steroid Muscle

John