[quote]TheWeapon77 wrote:
Tragic, he looked great when he won his card, everyone said he was a real nice and humble guy.[/quote]
Most people rag on his horrible performance as a pro, but if you dig through his online writings, Greg actually admitted that the show he turned pro at was perhaps the only time he ever peaked well. Sad to say that if you look at some of his worse contest pics, you start to wonder just what the guy was doing to himself in the name of pursuing the sport he loved.
Definitely worth hunting down the few pieces he authored.
S[/quote]
To be upfront, he used too much oil and too much gear. Sometimes the passion and drive can affect you negatively if you make the wrong decision on how to pursue it.
Why is it so bad to die at 44? To have spent most of your adult life pursuing your passion (whether successful or not) whilst remaining a decent human being is a pretty good life I’d say. Obviously, I cannot speak for Greg and say he was indeed happy. Who knows? However, I hate the thought of being old - a shriveled and weak shadow of your former self that is highly dependent on others and where a common cold could be the end of you.
Death is expected when you get old and it plays on your mind. I’ve seen all my grandparents go out this way, and with plenty of suffering before the end. Going out the way we came in is not for me. Retired is just another word for expired in my book. It’s all downhill from there.
[quote]James Brown wrote:
Why is it so bad to die at 44? To have spent most of your adult life pursuing your passion (whether successful or not) whilst remaining a decent human being is a pretty good life I’d say. Obviously, I cannot speak for Greg and say he was indeed happy. Who knows? However, I hate the thought of being old - a shriveled and weak shadow of your former self that is highly dependent on others and where a common cold could be the end of you.
Death is expected when you get old and it plays on your mind. I’ve seen all my grandparents go out this way, and with plenty of suffering before the end. Going out the way we came in is not for me. Retired is just another word for expired in my book. It’s all downhill from there.[/quote]
That is the most pessimistic thing I have heard in a very long time. Why live to 30? Everyone knows your 20’s are the most fun of your life.
“Retired” means you do not have to work anymore if you choose not to and do the things you truly enjoy. Kovacs definitely enjoyed what he did.
[quote]James Brown wrote:
Why is it so bad to die at 44?[/quote]
Seriously?
Maybe he wanted to see his kids (assumption) graduate high school and university, get married and have children of their own.
What’s the point in enjoying life if you can no longer be a 300lb bodybuilder tho eh?[/quote]
Maybe he did, but my point is that surely it’s better to go out when you aren’t expecting it, rather than knowing death is imminent while the thoughts of your unfulfilled dreams/goals play with your mind. One shouldn’t consider the age to which a person lived a sound criteria by which to judge whether their death was acceptable. The only reason you would consider someone “too young” to have died, would be because you wanted them to live longer, i.e. for your benefit. Not that I consider being selfish a bad thing.
I’m rambling now, but I hope my interpretation is clear.
[quote]James Brown wrote:
Why is it so bad to die at 44?[/quote]
Seriously?
Maybe he wanted to see his kids (assumption) graduate high school and university, get married and have children of their own.
What’s the point in enjoying life if you can no longer be a 300lb bodybuilder tho eh?[/quote]
Maybe he did, but my point is that surely it’s better to go out when you aren’t expecting it, rather than knowing death is imminent while the thoughts of your unfulfilled dreams/goals play with your mind. One shouldn’t consider the age to which a person lived a sound criteria by which to judge whether their death was acceptable. The only reason you would consider someone “too young” to have died, would be because you wanted them to live longer, i.e. for your benefit. Not that I consider being selfish a bad thing.
I’m rambling now, but I hope my interpretation is clear.[/quote]
I don’t intend to be a shadow of anything going into my 50s. Though I kind of agree on the retiring thing, but there are people working hard and living life into their 90s+.
At forty I’m just getting back to serious lifting, after life got in the way for a decade, wives, kids, buisness, I’m now looking to spend the next 10-15 years breaking records/goals I set in my 20s, from a PLing point of view. I have a 6yr daughter I want to watch grow up, another buisness venture I have planned, I’m on my third wife, whos in her 20s, money in the bank for a change. I’m just entering the best years of my life right now, but you want to get knocked off at 44, and be happy about it. I just don’t understand, mabey because when your in your 20s you don’t realize how quick time flys, and your 40, in a blink of an eye. See if you feel the same way when your 40, LOL
I’m sure many of us have heard the old story about how if you ask any competitive athlete if they’d willingly sacrifice 5 years off their lives in exchange for reaching the upper echelons of their sport, the majority would jump at the chance. This is of course a decision made during the most driven years of an athlete’s life.
I would assume, if presented the same question, closer to the ‘end’, when fully retired from competition, having built a life, loved ones, and interests aside from the sport, that one’s perspective may be different.
I can’t speak for Greg, but I know that my own mindset is a bit different now (post serious injury/surgery, married etc) than it was just a couple of years ago (single, 100% healthy, and gunning for a Pro Card.)
[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:
I’m sure many of us have heard the old story about how if you ask any competitive athlete if they’d willingly sacrifice 5 years off their lives in exchange for reaching the upper echelons of their sport, the majority would jump at the chance. This is of course a decision made during the most driven years of an athlete’s life.
I would assume, if presented the same question, closer to the ‘end’, when fully retired from competition, having built a life, loved ones, and interests aside from the sport, that one’s perspective may be different.
I can’t speak for Greg, but I know that my own mindset is a bit different now (post serious injury/surgery, married etc) than it was just a couple of years ago (single, 100% healthy, and gunning for a Pro Card.)
S[/quote]
5 years is a lot different than cutting your life in half
I get what you’re saying though and agree. Priorities definitely change as you get older.
Was he still pushing his body before he died? He’s been off the scene for quite a while, not sure if this was his past catching up to him or if he was still pushing hard?
A lot of the piss takers have got a real surprise coming and many of them won’t weight half of what Greg weighed when it happens! How many sad gits blindly follow ridiculous cycles just to look good at the Arnold Expo? The reaper will still be waiting for them.
A friend of mine, Dr Mike Graham, did a study on the reversability of side effects in long-term steroid users (20+ years use), most of these guys were in their late 40’s. Nearly 10 percent of them died during the course of the study! As for the “speculative” link with homocysteine levels, -nothing speculative there, they had the highest homocysteine levels of all subjects. Brian Batcheldor
[quote]EuroGuru wrote:
A lot of the piss takers have got a real surprise coming and many of them won’t weight half of what Greg weighed when it happens! How many sad gits blindly follow ridiculous cycles just to look good at the Arnold Expo? The reaper will still be waiting for them.
A friend of mine, Dr Mike Graham, did a study on the reversability of side effects in long-term steroid users (20+ years use), most of these guys were in their late 40’s. Nearly 10 percent of them died during the course of the study! As for the “speculative” link with homocysteine levels, -nothing speculative there, they had the highest homocysteine levels of all subjects. Brian Batcheldor[/quote]
What percentage of the 40 year olds in the control group died during the course of the study?
I’m no expert on PEDs by any stretch, but I saw this and decided it might be interesting for some people to read and discuss. -S
This is a quote DANTE (of Dog Crap Training) posted up in reference to Greg’s death:
I can always tell who has kids and who doesnt have kids when I see people post that its ok to die at 44 if you lived a great life. Trust me with this…34 is right around the corner, 38 comes right after that and youll be 44 and thinking “wow im already 44, that went by quick”…You do not want to be dying of heart failure in your early 40’s with a beautiful wife near your hospital bed and three little children asking “Daddy when are you coming home”?..(and your not)…and they have nobody as a father thru their formulative years because you were so self absorbed as a bodybuilder you didnt think of the future gameplan of health.
See people will argue against this till they are blue in the face because you cannot inject 3cc’s tommorow if there is potential you could die down the road. So how do they deal with it? They use the “well it happened to that guy because of this…and it wont happen to me” … I post on a pretty hardcore board and there is quite a few people with kidney failure and heart attacks (kidney failure at 29 and heart attacks at 37…things like that)…just look at this last couple years off the top of my head… Brad Hillenbaugh (kidney failure), Nasser, Kovacs, Duvall, Daniele Seccarecci, Art Atwood, Mattarrazzo (heart), Luke wood…its getting ridiculous. I remember in the early 90’s when GH was insanely expensive and everyone was saying Strydom was using 6ius a day…and people were out of their minds thinking that was such a large dose. Nowadays? Thats a middleweight at a county show’s dose. Back in the 90’s… 1000mg of test was considered a pretty hefty dose. Thats a starter cycle for alot of these guys who want it so bad nowadays.
Everyone wants to be a bodybuilder tommorow and now you got a slew of young, impressionables who think there is a secret besides extreme mesomorphic genes and response…and these guys listening to this Boston Loyd kid who is what 22 years old and using 13 grams of stuff? And he justifies himself by telling people thats what everyone does? How the hell would a 22 year old kid from northern cali know what a pro bodybuilder from Florida, Texas, or New York does? Does Boston Loyd know what YOU right now who is reading this does juice wise? No he doesnt and he doesnt know what 400 different pro bodybuilders do.
The battle cry used to be “where are the bodies…if steroids are so bad?”…well you are seeing them now. The late 90’s into the 2000’s and the increased access and lower prices due to the internet …brought on a huge amount of terribly insecure “junky-like” bodybuilders who didnt think longterm.
And you are starting to see the bodies…but what is coming up? what are we going to see from the last 8 years? It will be ridiculous. Its gotten outrageous with the dosages used and you are going to see alot of people dying and health maladies over the next decade. I watched that Loyd video of him beating his chest saying his blood work was ok. Did Kovacs die 2 months after his abuse? Nasser? Artwood? No they didnt…Virtually any 22 year old kid who abuses himself isnt going to drop dead at 23! But 15-20 years later? Thats is where there is going to be an accumalation of damage.
What are we seeing over and over of late? Heart failure. The science is there! Anabolic Steroids, Growth Hormone, and Hypertrophy of the Heart
You combine grams of testosterone with large doses of Growth hormone over time…what is going to happen to you is in the literature above and the consequences below.
Anthony M. D’Arezzo Obituary: View Anthony D’Arezzo’s Obituary by The Providence Journal
See people only read about so and so pro bodybuilder who succumbs…nobody hears about the 3rd place finisher of MR Podunk who wanted it so bad and ended up dying at age 47 from his usage.
[quote]James Brown wrote:
Why is it so bad to die at 44? To have spent most of your adult life pursuing your passion (whether successful or not) whilst remaining a decent human being is a pretty good life I’d say. Obviously, I cannot speak for Greg and say he was indeed happy. Who knows? However, I hate the thought of being old [/quote]
…it is bad because 44 is still a long way from being old. For comparison, Jennifer Aniston is 44, Brad Pitt is 49, Tom Cruise 51, Hugh Jackman 45, Wentworth Miller (Prison Break) is 41. All of them are far from being old and a shadow of their former selves.
WOW, it’s to bad the guys that should get this, won’t. I got 20yr kids in my gym, messing with insulin, growth hormones, plus I here up to 2500 of gear on top of that. I have a small gym, in a small town, and have atleast 6 kids, playing this game, thinking they’ll get they’re pic in a magazine someday, I just don’t get it.
What ever happened to putting the work in, setting aside 5yrs to do a slow bulk. I don’t know, I’ve made some bad choices along the way, but this trend worries me. Thanks Stu, and Dante, I guess, I might post this at the gym, not that it will help
The heavy doses of steroids will/do lead to renal failure and ANY ventricular hypertrophy is bad. You think taking high doses of anabolics in order to grow bigger muscles that you work out twice a week isn’t going to build up the hardest working muscle in your body? Getting hyooooooge is awesome but when your heart is getting swole too… That’s not good.
