Bodybuilders are predisposed to being extremists. I will admit it. Nobody has to workout as much, or as hard, as I do just to be healthy and in good shape. This extremist tendency is necessary to achieve any where near our full potential, but how do you keep from crossing the line into too much? It is not healthy for any man to be 5'9" tall and weigh 250 pounds. It doesn't matter how low his body fat.  And no woman should pay such a high price to win anything. 

I am becoming more and more anti-steriods by the day. It has occurred to me that the answer to the question of "how do you keep from crossing the line into too much" is to stay natural. The body is designed with hormones that keep each other within healthy limits. It works fine until you override the natural checks and balances by taking anabolic steroids. 

If you are just starting out in bodybuilding and you've decided to stay natural, let me give you a golden piece of advice. Start with realistic expectations. It doesn't matter how many of the fancy supplements you take, it is unrealistic to expect to look like the anabolic steroid using pro bodybuilder in the glossy supplement ads. This web site was a huge help to get me to understand how much is possible naturally:

http://www.weightrainer.net/potential.html

For the ladies out there please don't let the photo above scare you away from weight training. Stay natural and you will never have to worry about your femininity no matter how hard you train or how strong you get. Blessed is the women who practices the discipline of weight training without mortgaging her femininity by taking anabolic steroids.

My theory is simple. If I maximize my natural hormones to a high normal state, that will be enough to reach 95% of my genetic muscular potential.  This is one extremist that will be completely satisfied with 95%.

Daily Grind Saturday February 2, 2013

Warm-up

--Standing Drills #1

--Ropa Dope 10 Spot

--Indian Clubs 10 Spot (first time since I got the 3 pound clubs a couple of weeks ago that I did the whole 10 minutes without having to put the clubs down because of fatigue. Yeah baby! I've been waiting for that.)

Giant Set

--Xman-Band-O-Resistance 5 sets of 10 reps

--Kettlebell snatches 44 pound bell, 5 sets of 10 reps with each hand 

Workout Quality: A1+, so much more than physical