[quote]buffd_samurai wrote:
[quote]Hospitaller wrote:
[quote]waylanderxx wrote:
Kind of an unrelated question but I’m curious nonetheless. Is it ever difficult to train or just get that mental intensity going when you workout knowing that you are 20+ LBM smaller than you were during your “prime”? Does it ever seem pointless?
I mean no disrespect, I’m just curious how guys who have been big AAS users handle training mentally when they decide to step away from it. [/quote]
I personally don’t have any difficulty, because basically my priorities in life shifted. Before, my focus was only on myself, what I wanted. I loved working out, but since I only cared about myself I got sucked into wanting to get bigger and bigger…it became my whole identity. NOW things are different, my faith, my family come before myself…I still love to lift, it’s my “hobby”, my fun/release time. I love to train for the sheerjoy it gives me. I do it now, not to be huge, but more to stay healthy and strong - for my wife and kids! Doesn’t ever seem pointless looking at it this way[/quote]
An excellent question, and an excellent answer in these two posts.
In my case, I never used high dosages in any of my cycles and my longest cycles lasted 12 weeks…most were alot less that this. When I 1st took up weight training, my intent was never to use steroids in the beginning, and I didn’t start using them til I had roughly a good 12 years of natural training under my belt. My “steroid” gains were slow but consistent, and I strongly believe my approach (and my obsession with “safety”) resulted in helping me reach close to the biggest bang for the minimum amount of assistance.
Going back to natural training after knowing the enhanced recuperative and nutrition partitioning effects of anabolics was difficult, but nevertheless a good "perspective’ change for me. For awhile there, I expected that due to my “smart” anabolic intake approach (what I thought was smart that is) that I would keep a majority of my gains if I kept up with the level of training I was capable of doing when using assistance. What I have discovered is that one can keep a fairly good amount of gains made, but it will never be at that level as when you were “on”. The assistance also guarded you against training injuries if you trained smartly…that guard is gone when the assistance is gone and so even more care must be taken when designing training approaches…especially how you plan your heavy training loads.
I would by completely dishonest if I said I would never use anabolics again. Anabolics, to me, are simply NOT the evil that the media and die hard naturalists believe them to be. I think the kamikaze steroid users are the ones to give steroid use for physique or strength enhancement a bad name, but there are still a few of us around who I believe used these substances as “tools” and real “supplemention” rather than relying on them solely.
And this is why certain supplement advertisement “phrases” really catch my eye such as “feeling pumped all the time”, or “nutrient partitioner”. As I have mentioned in livespills and other posts, these are getting into that beautiful realm of what my experience with low dosage anabolics has been. Most of these phrases are advertised by, in my humble opinion, less reputable companies than Biotest, but they still catch my eye nonetheless.
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buffd, I agree with you about the “evils” of anabolic steroids being WAY overblown. For me, when I say I will never go there again (other than my hrt, of course!) is more becase of my own self-inflicted negative experiences. I started out with moderate, very well researched conservative cycles, but I got too caught up in the results, and the whole sub-culture in general, which lead me to going way overboard.
So for me, I just don’t want to take the chance of going there again, especially with a great/beautiful wife and kids to consider now! I don’t see anything wrong at all with the RESPONSIBLE use of anabolics by other people though
