All in the dose and duration. A “beginner” cycle once a year or so is akin to having a few beers on Friday night. What many of the pro BBers and strength athletes do is like drinking a liter of vodka every night. Most people can’t get away with the latter for decades on end. I think the guys perma blasting grams of AAS on top of other stuff are likely to have health complications.
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All good points.
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For this analogy to hold it needs to be phrased as “and could kill you.”
There is no science that taking AAS “will” kill you.
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Just to be clear, I don’t think steroids WILL kill you. Used in sufficient dosages, however, for sufficient lengths of time, they will certainly increase your chances of dying prematurely. Here’s something I wrote 30 years ago: "Here’s a good trivia question borrowed from Dan Duchaine’s Underground Steroid Handbook: if you lined up a bottle of Dianabol (a popular steroid), a bottle of Lasix (a diuretic used by heart patients and bodybuilders who want to ‘cut up’ for a competition), a bottle of Valium, a bottle of aspirin, and a bottle of Slow-K (a potassium supplement), which one, upon eating a 100 tablets, wouldn’t kill you? Well, most likely the Dianabol.
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You bet they were…
But you don’t know, and neither do any of us, nor do the researchers in the article, which is my entire point. Something or a combination of things is killing these guys. Are steroids a contributing factor? They may be or they may not be, Is it the steroids killing these guys, is it the other illegal drugs you’re assuming they’re taking? If they are snorting coke, smoking meth, or popping opioids, is that what is killing them? What if they are completely clean except for the steroids? It is this uncertainty that makes it not worth it in my opinion. Until I know something more concrete, it’s not worth it to eat from that bowl, especially if I’m not getting on stage competing and just doing this for pure aesthetics. I’d rather just train hard, eat clean, a live an athletic lifestyle, even if it means I’m not quite so jacked and not quite so big.
I’ve been a collegiate strength and conditioning coach for nearly 15 years, so I’ve read more sports science studies full of statistics about training athletes and athletic performance than I care to count, and I can’t start to tell you how many times those statistics and the realities on the ground, standing in a room full of college athletes are diametrically opposed.
M&Ms is all I have, and to me, it perfectly sums up the question. You obviously don’t think there’s a problem here and you obviously think it’s worth it to keep eating from that bowl.
Until we have a more definitive answer than you think they were also doing other illicit drugs and that’s what really killed them, I don’t think it’s worth the risk for someone who is not about to step on the stage at the Olympia or the Arnold. Perhaps you are training to step on stage at the Arnold or the Olympic stage and so to you it just may be worth it, but I would still question it.
If I thought there was even a remote chance it could kill me, I wouldn’t eat a single one. I’m not a gambler so I guess that influences my thought process.
It’s the “most likely” part I don’t like. There’s a lot of wiggle room in “most likely.”
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The vax was promoted as stopping people from getting the virus, It didn’t. Then it was supposed to stop you from passing it on, It didn’t. Then it was supposed to lessen the severity of the virus if you caught it. It didn’t.
The seatbelt argument is not eqivalent. There is statistical evidence that supports the effectiveness of seatbelts in the reduction of road toll since they became mandatory.
They were never meant to be a total solution to car accidents. The vaccine was promoted as the total answer.
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On this we agree. As I stated earlier, I’m not doing it anymore. Why? Because you have to keep upping your doses for continuing returns. It’s not worth any risk to me anymore despite how small plus that risk grows as your dosages increase IMO.
Awesome. Gives some context to what your background is. What is your exposure to anabolics? The real shit hits the fan with the introduction of insulin and HGH as well.
Your argument is too hyperbolic and not based in reason for me to let it stand unchallenged.
There is no remote chance that anyone could accidently kill themselves with AAS. Your bowl of M&M’s analogy is comical, at best. Physical harm comes from a conscience decision to use high dosage and over long durations.
I find nothing wrong with anyone deciding not to use AAS. I support anyone deciding to lift drug free. It is a valid choice.
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If you trust the MSM they would have you believe that Creatine is a drug instead of a dietary supplement that is actually beneficial for your health. They are absolutely clueless.
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Man, I don’t know how we got off on this Covid sidebar, but this I can’t resist responding to. Replace “didn’t” with “did” in all your responses and I can relax. But no vaccine or treatment or protocol is 100% effective. At best, the vaccines were effective in 90% of cases. I’d recommend not using the 10% for whom it didn’t work as your argument. The thing is, If your immune system was shitty in the first place, as it is in many elderly folk, the vaccine would likely have had little effect. This is true of all vaccines, even this mRNA vaccine. It likely saved hundreds of thousands of lives, and I suspect 99.9% of all epidemiologists, virologists, and microbiologists would agree.
I’ve strength coached multiple sports at mid-major and small D1 schools, plus a short stint coaching for the Chinese Olympic team before covid terminated that job, so no, I’ve not had any exposure to anabolics because all of the above are illegal, both in the NCAA and at the Olympic level.
Your best option, if you want to remain employed, at both those levels, is to not even discuss the topic, other than to emphatically say DON’T DO IT, and remind your athletes that they are subject to random drug testing.
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It’s not hyperbolic, and it is indeed based on reason. It’s simple: in my profession, everything is guided by the risk vs reward ratio. If the possible reward doesn’t outweigh the possible risk, then it’s best to stay away from it. To put it another way, if the potential risk outweighs the potential reward, why do it? Is it worth the risk?
Your M&M’s analogy is as laughable as telling girls to hold an aspirin between their knees as a contraceptive.
And if it is your profession, you need a better analogy unless your students all have a double digit IQ.
Exactly.
@bluethunder90 i don’t think we are talking apples and oranges at all. You are the type that sees even a small risk as unacceptable. I get it and I’ve come around to that too as I get older. That doesn’t take away from my point that they are not that bad based on the statistics we know. You’re prob the same guy that wouldn’t consider sky diving. Too risky. But the chance of you dying from that is far more imminent and statistically far greater than using anabolics based on what we know. There no harm in being risk adverse. It just doesn’t diminish that steroids, stand alone, and with reasonable use just aren’t that detrimental to your life.
Now, the drugs for contest prep as well as HGH, insulin, and thyroid meds are way riskier as @TC_Luoma described. I love that post by the way TC.
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The key word that was said in the post is “promoted”…this is how the vaccine was presented to the public
they lied from the beginning, which is how conspiracy theories begin…with a lie
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I am NOT on any “side” wrt the big C (funny that doesn’t mean cancer these days…smh), but let’s not forget people from the bestest of the bestest research universities have gotten in trouble for manipulating research data. (the latest being the President of Stanford lol)
Truth is never black or white, be wary out there.
Even natural bodybuilding in a competitive setting is far removed from notions of preserving health and longevity
Since when is it healthy to dip down to 5% BF?
Crash dieting, draining barbell workouts etc. So many bodybuilders wind up with countless orthopaedic afflictions requiring invasive surgical procedures to treat.
Saying bodybuilding is good for your health is like saying boxing is good for you because it provides one with cat like reflexes, dexterity and amazing cardiovascular conditioning
But there’s just that pesky prospect of incurring irreversible brain damage.
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Hi TC, Love your articles, but I can’t agree with you on the jab. Here is a video discussing official data about covid deaths, late 2022, NSW Australia. Worth a watch if you have the time. Later in the video it shows data. The people with the most vaccinations were the most recorded as dying from covid. The one’s with no vax were the least likely to die from covid.
2 + 2 = 5 ~ New South Wales Edition (bitchute.com)
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