Pro Bodybuilders...what do you think?

You know it'd be deleted. Or you'd be torn a new a-hole. Or both.

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Marc C. David
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Lou Ferigno is still MASSIVE though

PowerH,

Sorry for the delayed response, I been busy the last few days. What I read was his column in Muscular Development, what he said in there was he wished that his kidney disease could be contributed to steroid use... that way he wouldn't have to worry about his children inheriting his "faulty" genes. I haven't seen anything on him saying roiding accelerated his condition, but if you say he was quoted as saying that I believe you. I'm just careful about the media and what they say about steroids. They would have you believe they provide no results and that the side effects are just astronomical... which just isn't true. I'm in no way advocating the use of steroids nor have I ever used them, but if you've been in the gym longer that a year you know 3 or 4 guys who are using who can tell you otherwise.

D

It was in the San Jose Mercury News, I can look up the article and see exactly what words they used, but what I understood from reading the article was that he knew he had a family history of this kidney problem, and while overall he thought that steroids weren't nearly as dangerous as the establishment would lead us to believe, he conceded that everything he took caused him to have the kidney problems earlier in life.

However, he could have been referring to the diuretics he used to cut up for competition, and he's been hospitalized twice because of dehydration from them. Lord knows that can't be good for your kidneys.

He also said that he thought the drugs he was now taking to treat his kidney transplant are much more toxic than anything he took while bodybuilding. He also said that what the steroids did to him mentally was much worse than what they did to him physically.

Of course, this is coming from someone who had a fantastic career as a bodybuilder, and he couldn't have done that without the steroids, so I wouldn't exactly call him unbiased. He also said that he had to be big to make money, and the only way to stay big was to take steroids. Personally, I'm glad my career doesn't depend on my physique.

My personal opinion is that steroids are a class III controlled substance because of politics instead of actual hard science. They do put stress on your circulatory system (higher cholesterol, higher blood pressure) and they do make people more aggressive. Oral steroids stress the liver. Of course, people who exercise regularly are a lot healthier than the general population anyway, and the only people who should even be considering steroids are people who are already doing the best they can with hard work, smart training, and good diet, yet still want to gain MORE muscle. I can't count the number of out-of-shape teenagers I've talked to who are all interested in steroids but lose interest when you tell them that you have to work out for them to do any good! Steroids are NOT a quick fix or a magic pill, and that's what the vast majority of these wannabes are looking for.

Like anything else in life, there's a risk and a benefit. Most of the newbies who are asking about steroids have, in my opinion, a distorted view of the benefits of bodybuilding compared to the effort required. They are looking at magazines showing men who have genetics better than 99% of the population, and who are probably taking steroids on top of that. Just like teenage girls who look a rail-thin supermodels and end up with eating disorders, these young men are looking at extreme images of masculinity and want to emulate them.

In case anyone is wondering, I myself am taking Androgel in order to keep my testosterone at a healthy, normal level. When I don't take it I feel like crap and even if I do my best at the gym, I don't seem to get much by way of results. I love the stuff, it helps my appetite, my mood, and my results, but this is taking me from LOW testosterone to "High normal" (normal for ME). I don't have any personal experience in going from "normal" to "science experiment", but I imagine like everything else in life, it's a law of diminishing returns, with health risks increasing faster than benefits as you exceed the normal range.

<soapbox = off>

Great post... It's hard to argue with a squirrel with such deadly weapons.

My personal opinion is that steroids are a class III controlled substance because of politics instead of actual hard science.

It's because they work. And there's enough hard science to show the risks associated are too great for the general population. Kinda like ephedra. Jr. Meth as it was called. It works but over-use and such lead to too much media attention and deaths and so it's off the shelves in CA. Going to a controlled substance.

Roids could be the same. Uncontrolled abuse lead to too many problems. Plus, it's usually the long term affects that take people out. Skin problems, mood, accelerated issues.

Like Flex.. sure it was genetic. But maybe he would have had the issues he's having now at 50 if it wasn't for the fact he boosted up his test and accelerated the problems.

So while steroids may not have caused the problem, he sure got sick and had medical problems at a very young age when such afflictions in his family probably happened only to his grandparents (much older). If flex never took roids, and we go with his family genetics, I'm willing to wager he would be talking about his kidney issues.. but he's be 56 years old. I don't think he's even in his mid-thirties yes.

Marc C. David
Support DB! Buy your supplements at Supplements101.com

I find it interesting that they are finding all these long-term health problems associated with women taking synthetic estrogen...I think there's a political bias against making men more "male" that doesn't exist when it comes to making women more "female" (hormonally speaking). Estrogen is still not a controlled substance. Of course, you don't have any pro athletes taking estrogen to beat out the competition, either.

It is all about media attention. The "155 deaths!" associated with Ephendra was over a nearly ten-year period. You start putting that in perspective and you see that many, many people were taking Ephedra for a long, long time, and the danger begins to seem much, much lower. With steroids, any time a pro bodybuilder gets sick, they blame it on the steroids. Some of the health problems are no doubt steroid related, but many others are not. It's similar to the "dangers" of silicone breast implants. Scientific studies show that the percentage of women who got autoimmune problems with breast impalnts was the SAME as the percentage of women without breast impalnts who got the same autoimmune problems. But the media can't resist showing an angry woman waving her (removed) breast implants in front of a camera, and so the implants get banned. Of course, they are still popping silicone implants into MEN (chest, calf, even testicle) without any worry.

But, to sum up...NO, you aren't going to get as big as Ronnie Coleman or Jay Cutler without steroids. Even with steroids, it's safe to say that you aren't going to get that big, unless you have better genetics than 99% of the population, and are willing to devote your entire life to bodybuilding.

Great set of posts PowerH... I concur with your sentinments

I know im a bit late but I saw a program with chris titus in it and he basically said he uses steroids and you wont get as big is he is w/out them.

"If spot reduction worked people who chew gum would have skinny faces"

Wow! An honest bodybuilder! I am impressed!

Anyone remember how Charles Atlas sold those isometrics systems? This is the guy with the "98 pound weakling" getting sand kicked at him on the beach by the beefy asshole. Curiously, the equipment and program he was selling was pretty much the exact opposite of what HE did to get big. Of course, back then so few people knew anything aobut bodybuilding, it really WAS a trade secret.

Wow! An honest bodybuilder! I am impressed!

Craig Titus wouldn't lie about that. A very good acquaintance of mine at the gym had a training session with him. Titus asked if he was on the juice. No. Was he going to be? No. Then he was wasting his time. He'd never be competitor at that level.

And it's true.

Now I can't verify the above. Nor did I quote it exact. It was "something like that 1 year ago when he told me."

But it makes sense that Craig wouldn't lie.

Marc C. David
Support DB! Buy your supplements at Supplements101.com

If memory serves, years ago I read in interview with Titus, and I came to the concolusion that while he was a bit of an asshole, he was a 100% sincere, honest, no-bull**** asshole, and I LIKED him!

Visit his site..

Criag Titus

Wear glasses. And don't look at the screen too long.

Marc C. David
Support DB! Buy your supplements at Supplements101.com

Just say NO to animated backgrounds! Man, he's gonna be listed in "Web pages that Suck" if he's not careful!

I second that notion. I left the site after the background loaded. He might as well put the blink tag in there as well.

I would say his site is already in the "webpages that suck" catalog.

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