TheGoodDoctor’s BodyBlog

Hi guys, welcome to the latest blog from your favorite chiropractor, the good doctor

I want to talk about a topic today that everyone is aware of and few talk about<strong />: that being the use of anabolic steroids.

Now in case you are living in an alternate reality, i want to tell you something: In bodybuilding, anabolic steroid use is everywhere! Yep, everywhere. Your bodybuilding heros, 99% of them are on the gear. The latest Mr Olympia contest, everyone is juicing. This is a fact.

Years and years ago, i was naieve enough to think all pros are clean. Now that is not to say there are pro’s who are not juicing. Many compete in drug tested federations (I will talk about this later) and some of my personal hero’s compete drug free (Jim Cordova, you the man!!).

But as a collective, steroid use is rampant.

Now this is something I want to talk about today. You see, as i have have mentioned in previous blogs, i have many friends who lift and compete in both bodybuilding and powerlifting…………………………..
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And 90% of them are juicing.

In fact they call me "Mr natural" because i am the only one not taking any gear. Nor do i plan to. But at the same time this gives me a unique perspective, because you get to sit back and observe the effects without having to touch them yourself, kinda of like some real life scientific experiement.

Before i say any more i am not actually anti steroid. They are just not for me. I dont take them because truth be told i am kind of scared of them and more importantly it would take away from my sense of individual achievement. I am not going to sit here and preach high and mighty about how evil and dangerous they are, its a personal choice. If you want to take them i am not going to stop you. But at the same time they are not for me, and never will be.

Now back to what i was saying. From an objective standpoint, based purely on what i have seen, it would seem the dangers of steroid use is exagerated. All of my friends who are juicing, and have done for many years, have yet to experience any major health problems. The common thing that tends to happen is that all have experienced testicular atrophy, but then what do you expect when you are pumping your body choc full of synthetic hormones!?!

I do try to educate them of potential dangers, but again i am not their father: if they wish to put these substances into their body, so be it.

A couple of things are very noticable with steroid use:

i) Users are able to keep leaner much easier the most people

ii) They have a greater "cheat allowance" then the normal bodybuilder

iii) The are able to retain, even gain muscle, during cutting phases.

But in regards to death, increased aggresion, heart and cardiac problems ect, i have yet to see any.

So why am i not vehemently anti steroid being a natural drug free bodybuilder and health professional? Because the are "anti roid arguments" tend to be somewhat hypocritical in my opinion.

Lets take a few:

i) steroid use is unnatural: True, but then again, is eating 7 meals a day, consuming creatine, amino acids, downing protein shakes really any more natural either? Not in my opinion. Healthier? absolutely! But certainly not "natural" patterns of food consumption by any means

ii) Steroid use is dangerous: I tend to agree, but simply put, the scientific evidence to validate such an opinion simply does not exist. It one thing to oppose steroid use morally (which i do somewhat) but from on objective scientific perspective more research needs to be done.

Lets get back to natural federations of bodybuilding. I was talking to a whole lot of bodybuilding friends who have competed far longer then i have. We got talking about steroid use. I told them i was clean and proud to be competing natural and in a natural federation……………what happened next is not something i will soon forget. They laughed!

When i asked them why there were laughing they said "Do you really think everyone who competes in a natural federation is natural?"

"Well, yeah"

"My friend, everyone knows exactly when the drug test is going to be. Hell, i can show you how to pass a drug test no problem"

I was about to interject, but then i realised: he was dead serious. That got me down for a while, because as much as i hate to admit it he was serious and had a valid point.

There are guys those who compete drug free and i admire very much, jim cordova, brian whitaker are heros of mine, but for the most point, a hell of a lot of people are juicing.

This isn’t a pro or anti steroid argument either way. It just my personal observation. If you really want to juice then i cant stop you. But at the same time steroids are not for me, and never will be.

The good doctor 

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This entry was posted on Monday, September 29th, 2008 at 6:07 pm and is filed under Training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.