Forty or more years ago, drugs played little part in bodybuilding. The first we heard of drug use in sport was in the late 1950s and top level bodybuilders were starting to use Dianabol in the early 60s. It was about this time that all the major drug companies thought that they could make lots of money if they developed their own steroid drugs and almost all the steroid drugs which are still in use today were developed then. Of course steroids were never the great bonanza that drug companies expected and when the first reports of drug use in sports started to appear, a lot of companies abandoned the products. There are lots of steroids that had patents registered but were never fully developed – some of them quite good products too.
Right through the sixties and seventies there was major use of orals and some bodybuilders of the time have suffered liver and kidney problems, which were probably exacerbated by the use of large amounts of such drugs over very long periods. In the seventies, as a young bodybuilder, I never used more than 10 x 5mg Dianabol tablets per day and even that was not for long periods. More normal was 4 to 6 Dianabol per day with 200 mg per week of an injectible [Deca or Testoviron] the total intake was about 300 to 400mg per week maximum. Pretty basic stuff compared with today.
But that was a fairly normal stack at the time. Some guys used more, usually via extra orals – the fact was that those drugs did produce gains. Now, even novice level competitors use 1000mg per week [and some use much more] including some quite toxic substances like Oxymetholone, Halotestin, Parabolan, etc. I know that some of these are only obtainable with other names from various suppliers outside of Europe but the toxic effects of the basic drugs remain.
Some novice bodybuilders use some impressive stacks these days. As your aspiring top bodybuilder moves up the competitive ladder doses of steroids continue to increase and then we find that there are various other products thrown in. Like DNP [di-nitro-phenol], various diuretic products, anti-catabolic drugs [Aminoglutethimide (Orimeten)], Nubain even, prostaglandins, IGF-1 [perhaps], plus insulin and growth hormone. The costs are rising not only in sheer money terms – and with growth hormone on the list; we are talking about serious money – but also in health risk terms. I know of many instances of health problems linked to these sorts of drugs.
The youth of today has a very blasé attitude to drugs and who can blame them. The Establishment makes lots of noises about cigarettes but does little – after all the UK government still collects £8,000,000,000 per year in taxes from smokers; and that’s about 5 times what it costs to treat smoking related diseases. The young do not believe anything they are told about the dangers of recreational drugs.
These dangers are often much exaggerated and they will learn only by their own experiences. Many who come into bodybuilding used or still do use various recreational substances and deciding to take a few bodybuilding drugs as well does not faze them. For those who are serious about their bodybuilding, it should be mandatory that all the recreational stuff is abandoned. But many will not and the load on their body systems will be increased as their kidneys and livers [particularly] try to cope with the heavy loads of toxins.
In bodybuilding at all levels, doses of steroids and other performance enhancing drugs have increased and are still increasing and we have to start to believe that this is having an effect on the health of competitors. All bodybuilders at the top levels are using very high doses of steroids and other drugs. Take no notice of those who say that they only use low doses and that it’s the other bodybuilders who use far more than they do. Don’t believe it; they are lying.
There may be the odd one who has incredible genetics and can grow and get into condition with much less gear than other bodybuilders. But if this is true, then if he used more, he could, perhaps, be the best in the world. Will he still say he will not use more? If you think, no, he will not use more, you have a different understanding of bodybuilders than the one that I have. What would I do in that position? I would use more and more until I started to get problems! Anyway, we believe that problems happen to other people. It is reality.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
I couldn’t agree with you more Mick, what frightens me is the amount of young men out there taking high amounts of steroids who don’t even train. This stems from the belief that if you load up on testerone you will look like Dorian Yates no matter what your life-style is.The other madness that I totally disagree with is non-diabetics using insulin what a wonderful and dangerous way to get yourself an extended gut.
ello mick this is the last gear corse i took it was a short corse but high dose 30 days.the first 10 days 750mg mg of test ie testoviron or sust every day fo ten days.then the next 10 days was 400mg of decca a day with 10 dianabol taken at 2 with each meal and with a low dose asprin 2 increase the affect of it .then the last ten days i used test prop 200 mg a day ,thats it done ,i went from 17stone 7lbs to over 19 stone in 30 days my strengh hit the roof and i trained like a lunatic with my mate who took the same corse you could see people in the gym just looking at the 2 of us and wondering what the fucks goin on .how could they look like monsters in a couple of weeks.i also eat food of ten men took the vitamins ,aminos ect.i ended up holding on to about a stone of what i put on.this was about 5 years ago ive never hit another corse yet as ive ad a few problems at home to deal with my mother past away in 2004 and have found it hard to get back i train a few times a week on my own gym at the moment its a cracking gym body express pro 400lb stack on it.im carryin about 3 stone of shite 21 stone 5 pounds at 6 foot 5 .i think i fucked myself up takin charlie and speed for the last couple of year to fight the depresion i stop training for a couple of year and drank and eat pizza and shit.now im back doin a bit and few mile on my bike low carb diet but struggling to get back in shape.takin zispin anti dep aswell think that as sumat 2 do with weight gain.38 years old now so steady away.want to get down to about 18 stone then should look ok.
Mick Of course your rightProblems only happen to the other guy.And if why any chance you get an eleavated liver test or obnormal kidney result. Then cease or at least slow down and it,ll go away.Not always the case with kidneys..Iguanfuckentee you no one……………….,,,,,,,s listening. You still have to preach, just inhopes someone listens. ED I still have the package insert that came with the first dianabol box I ever tried. I read it and it scared the shit out of me for over 30 yrs. Finally said fuck fuck it let,s do it That pk. insert was from 1967. I am probally your only client older than you. p.s. still can,t get on the web site to subscribe to No Bull
many,many tries I think Ill end up mmailing the money to ya
t
True you must quite the drinking and worst recreational drugs when on a cycle. But you publish this article criticizing steriods with a picture of an impressive body builder that reminds most of us how important it is to use it. most guys on juice don’t end up looking like that, they wonder why? the truth is if you really want to look like that you have to have the balls to do some large doses.
interesting article, i read somewhere recently that Lee Priest claims to use winstrol and nolovadex and nothing else when preparing for competition. Is he talking shit or a true genetic freak?