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A STEROID STORY

A few years ago I had the opportunity to learn almost first hand about Steroids.

I had the opportunity to train two particular friends that I had known for 15 years.

I knew them from one of the gyms that I had trained.

 . One was 26 years old with good genetics and he weighed about 165 and the other friend was a 35 year steel fabricator who was and is super strong at the body weight of 175lbs. His strength is due to great genetics and the hard work he puts in as a steel fabricator.

However, for a common reason that plagues many people – which I will explain at a later date – both of them suffered from their bench press not being very remarkable and the 35 year old had trouble putting muscle mass on his chest. The 26 year old, though not exceptionally strong in the bench had very good chest development.

Every other muscle group they had no such problems.

They started to train with me in earnest, because they figured that if an old duffer of 42 years like me could achieve a 480 lbs bench and sport a 55 inch chest – without ever taking steroids & suffering from very average genetics– then surely, as two young genetically gifted stallions they could do no worse.

At the time I took them under my wing they both could only do 250 lbs on the bench for 6 to 8 reps and he could only bench 315 lbs for 1 rep. The Younger guy consistenly did two more reps on the bench with 250 and he could do 325 for 1 rep.

This is all he could do after years of training

The 26 year old had been training consistently since he was 10 and the older guy since he was 18 years of age.

The young guy was tempted into taking steroids. At first he was uneasy about telling me his intentions because I have a reputation as someone that doesn’t believe in them – at least for most people aside from their sometimes needed medical use or for certain professional athletes who want to lengthen their professional careers.

In my almost forty years of training I have met many people who have talked to me about their steroid use and the benefits enjoyed and the bad side effects some of them have experienced.

But this was my first opportunity to see someone who has never done steroids before to start using them from the ground floor up – so to speak.

The 26 year old comes from a wealthy family and he works for his family business.

Bottom line – he is friggen rich! And he is very smart and very educated and he could afford the best advice from endocrinologist of whom many are also fanatical weight trainers.

Despite my warnings about the dangers of steroids and no matter how much I tried to convince him that the gains he wanted can be gotten without steroids – albeit it takes a little longer – but with more permanent results. He had grown impatient was adamant that he was determined to go the course.

He was more than a little fearful that because of his decision to use steroids I would no longer respect or have affection for him and that I would forbid him to train with me. I assured him that I still have affection for him… he is after all not unlike a surrogate son to me.

A part of me – the scientific parts was curious.

I made certain conditions that he had to follow. I wanted to know what drugs he was taking and how much dosage he was using and how he was mixing various combinations.

I wanted him to tell me how he felt and to alert me to every side affect he may experience.

Of course I had to take his word on what and how he was doing this because I forbad him from ever doing any of the drugs in front of me, nor was he allowed to have anything on his person when he came to my residence to visit or to the gym where we both would train.

Now before I go further, I want to emphasis that while many people who are tempted into the life of steroid use, are by nature lazy, undisciplined and looking for something for nothing. My two friends do not fall into that category. In fact, I cannot think of any other lifters who possess better work ethic or training intensity or are able to stay more discipline or focused. I met a few that are their equal in that regard, but none superior.  It was because that they are in a small percent of the population of people that do a lot of the right things, it is easy to understand their frustration and why some people get tempted.

Now, getting back to his drug régime

The various drugs he was taking was enormous in price and how he combined them and cycled them was complex and very scientific as per his various doctors instructions.

(I MUST STATE THAT I HAVE NO IDEA IF HIS DOCTORS PROVIDED THESE DRUGS OR IF HE ATTAINED THEM THROUGH LESS LEGITIMATE SOURCES) This was a situation where I practiced the credo – I won’t ask and you don’t tell.

  I found myself in the remarkable and questionable position of observing like a Nazi researcher.

The one aspect of his development that I could easily observe and control was his training and the training of my other friend.

Now even though I really have not taken the time or trouble to learn all the complexities of what steroids do and how, I have learned that some have more to do with size, while others have more to do with strength and some give you more macadamizing effects – sometimes too much like excessive body hair and baldness and enlarge prostate and so forth. The whole régime that these doctors set him up on was to start low, increase dosage, change combinations decrease dosage towards the end of the cycle then – all with the intent of trying to balance and achieve the best strength and mass building levels without getting too overly masculine or getting the pesky side affects that some of these drugs are suppose to impart.

In addition to all of this, he was required to take drugs that did not build muscle and strength but were used a few weeks prior to help him to lessen any potential side affects that some of the drugs may give him. Also, he was required to take specific non-anabolic drugs during the cycle to deal with estrogens and so forth and finally towards the end of his cycle he was required to start introducing certain drugs that would keep his testicles shutting all the way down and to jump start them after he went of the steroids so that he did not suffer from rebound affect. He had to take few of them for quite awhile after his cycle.

He went on a 16 week cycle.

Now in my opinion that is a hell-of-a lot of trouble and money to put on size and strength that is attainable without all that fuss

My other friend who is 35 years old decided to stay training clean!

Both of them were on a mission to build their high rep and 1 rep strength in the bench.

My 35 year-old friend desperately wanted to get a lot more muscle mass on his chest.

Both of them wanted to gain a lot of muscular body weight.

One thing to note – insofar as their desire and frustration about not having the mass and strength they saw I had and they wanted. I could clearly see what would have given them my level of development and strength and beyond what I have achieved since they are quite a bit much more genetically superior to me.

From my experience they both need to follow certain protocols in a very specific manner.

Now it would be too intensive to describe to you how I wanted them to train or to tell you why they wanted to train in a different arrangement, but let’s just cover those details at another time.

The 26 year old did not want to follow my instructions completely, he wanted to do everything I demanded, but, he wanted to change the order of certain protocols.

The 35 year old was tempted for the same reasoning to do what the 26 year old wanted to do. However, I talked the 35 year old to follow my plan that had worked so well for me.

The next 16 weeks was very educational!

Our goal was to increase the first set by 10 lbs. a week for 16 weeks.

Most people would say, “Big deal, who wouldn’t want to increase that much that consistently?”

Both of these guys were also choking down 8,000 calories a day of high protein and carbs and fats. They have always had high metabolisms while I seem to do well with under 2,000 – sometimes as low as 1,000 calories.

At the end of 16 weeks the 26 year old and the 35 year old had reach bodyweights of 210 and 230 respectively,

Both of them were still under 10% body fat. The 26 year old was down to 6% while the 35 year old was at or 9%. Not bad considering all of the calories that had chocked down. As a side-note both of them were at 6% body fat when they started and both of them are 5 ft.7 & 5 ft. 9 respectively.

The 26 year old was training with 350 on the bench for 6 reps and benching 410 for 1 rep.

The 35 year old was training with 315 for 8 to 10 reps and he could do 380 for 1 rep. and he was doing 25 reps with 225 lbs. for more than a few sets; whereas the 26 year old could not beat that performance.

Despite starting off a little ahead and having just a bit better leverages than my 35 year old friend, the 26 year old on steroids could only do 35 pounds more for his primary bench and only 30 lbs more for 1 rep and with shorter arms and slightly bigger chest.

All other strength gains in every muscle group had gone up just as dramatically in the two lifters with the steel fab guy kicking ass in the dead lift – where is natural strength lay.

Considering the money spent on steroids and the many times a day he was forced to inject or ingest – I was not impressed with his results compared to the 35 year old. Especially when you consider that 26 year olds tend to have more naturally occurring testosterone than 35 year olds (And certainly more than us 5O plus duffers).

In addition to the expense and trouble, the 26 year old started to get bitch tits within two weeks and had to take special medication and apply a special cream to his nipples. He also developed a nasty case of back acne and though baldness does not run in his family as it does mine and though he has enough hair for three men, he started to shed hair from his scalp like a long hair dog in the heat of summer. This stopped when he went off his cycle.

So let us look at what both of them gained.

26 year old – gained 65 lbs. of none lean weight (muscle and water weight)

35 year old – gained roughly 30 lbs of lean tissue and his body fat only went up by 2%.

26 year old – increased primary set by 100 lbs if you choice to ignore the fact that he was performing his first set for 2 less reps a 25% decrease in his rep performance from where he started.

35 year old – gained 65 lbs. in his primary bench set and from 6 reps he increase his performance by 2 to 4 reps which is a 33% to 66% increase in rep performance from where he had started.

26 year old – gained 85 lbs on his 1 rep maximum.

35 year old – gained 65 lbs on his 1 rep maximum

Roughly they both increased the same percentage on their one rep max from where they were.

Now many people would be tempted to say, who cares, the one guy gained more lean weight and more strength in two out of the three rep parameters.

But let’s look further where it really starts to get interesting.

Now that the 26 year old was off the steroid cycle he was on a cycle of taking drugs that would combat the rebound effect that athletes who cycle off steroids normally experience – which is a huge loss of the hard won strength and mass they had gained.

In fact many athletes will often not only lose all that they have gained, they will often sink to level lower than where they started. As you can imagine this cause many lifter great frustration and anxiety, which is a reason why many lifters become dependent on a life long use of drugs.

Now the 26 year old was hoping that his doctors were right and that he would be able to keep 50% percent of what he had gained on his cycle if he continued to train well and eat properly.

Holy shit! Are they kidding! Fucking 50%!

As you can see that puts a whole different slant on things now his 100 lb increase is only 50 lbs. that he will manage to hold on to and his 85 lbs 1 rep increase is not dropped to 40 lbs.

And this is what happened only much worse.

As they both continued to train hard. In the next 16 weeks the 26 year old recovered a little from his drop in strength and even gained some back.

My 35 year old friend continued to grow in strength and strength endurance and he finally weighted in at 230 lbs and his body fat level was 10 to 11% then he decided to drop down to 210 and he held on to his strength. Eight months of training and the 35 year old was doing 350 for 10 reps 400 for 3 to 4 and he managed a 1rep maximum with 430 pounds – raw – meaning without a shirt and drug free to boot.

The 26 year old managed to bench  300 for ten reps and 395 for one rep maximum – raw and finally after not using drugs for the last 16 weeks aside from 6 weeks of taking something exotic to get his own testicles to kick in.

After 8 months:

26 year old was only doing 50 lbs. more from where he started on his primary.

35 year old was doing 100 lbs more on his primary and a 4 rep or a 66% increase in rep performance often know as strength endurance.

26 year old was doing 45 lbs more for a 1 rep maximum than he had originally started.

35 year old was doing 115 lbs more of a I rep maximum.

26 year old reached a bodyweight of 200 at 8% body fat. (2% more than when he started)

35 year old stayed at 210 with 7% body fat (only 1% more than started)

In addition at the end of 8 months, the 35 year old could do a shit load of more volume work. For instance he could now do 250 pounds for 22 reps, but he could do 10 sets of 10 reppers to show off his newly acquired massive capacity for strength endurance. He could do 225 lbs for 35 reps.

The 26 year old still was only doing 225 for 25 reps but he lacked the ability to do the high volume.

In addition to all of this size and strength the 35 year old developed greater speed and enhanced reflexes.

            Now let us get back to the crucial reason why the 35 year old made the progress he enjoyed. Aside from his training drug free while the 26 year old took lots of concoctions of drugs, he followed my advice and followed a certain training protocol. The younger lifter for reasons of pride did the same program, except because of pride and impatience he screwed with the order of the lifting parameters that I had designed for both of them.

Ironically, it was in the last 3 months of training that I slowly changed the lifting parameters for the 35 year old, so that in the end, he was doing what the 26 year determined he would start with.

Also Ironically, the 26 year old in his second 16 weeks capitulated and followed what I had intended for him to do in the first 16 weeks.

The lesson is that it takes longer to become the best and that their may be more time and effort effective ways to train, but there are no short cuts in life.

Another encouraging insight was that if the 35 year old had not injured himself on a job site, he was improving at a pace where with in another year he would have no doubt benched 500 lbs – raw and drug free. (Notice that as you get stronger that it takes longer to make the same gains)

However, the gains will be more forth-coming than most people think possible – especially without steroids.

He injured his shoulder rather badly and he had to avoid many exercises that used the shoulders and the few he could do, he had to do with sub maximal pounds.

After 7 months of almost no lifting, he only experienced a 15% loss as compared to the 50% that the 26 year old experienced in 6 to 8 weeks.

He lost only 50 lbs of strength off the bench, which means he was still over 50 lbs ahead or when he first trained with me. Also, because he had attained his strength without drugs, he had muscle memory of being at a certain level without drugs.

The end result was that despite having niggling shoulder problems to this day, he is back up to doing 400 to 410 on occasion in the bench.

Now I ask anyone…. Which game plan would you rather follow?

Though I don’t really care if other people take steroids, provided that they are mature adults and going into it with open eyes, I see too many downsides to taking them as opposed to upsides from not taking them and training properly.

The ones that are evident I just described.

Other reasons are:

Though I don’t think they should be illegal – the fact is, they are.

Also from what I heard through the grapevine is you are never really sure if the drugs are what the label says. Meaning it may not be pure, or it may not be at the strength described on the label, or it may be tainted with contaminants that may be life threatening.

Also, you become a virtual slave to the damn drugs.

Steroid users have to follow a very strict schedule of when they must inject and apply and swallow many pills. I have been told that new injections sites have to be found or scarring or vein collapse could occur.

I have had athletes who have claimed to be taking steroids for years tell me that they can not just quit cold turkey, because it could kill them or cause a lot of medical problems that may not ever become entirely resolved. I know of men who have weaned off slowly because of medical problems or just because the got tired of that kind of life and the end result was looking old and looking as though they had never touched a weight.

One unexpected side affect that I had not thought of, years ago, I was talking to a huge guy who told me that he was addicted to steroid usage. After an hour of conversing we moved on to other subjects. I had told him of my dream of traveling the world and training at all of the gyms with many famous people in each country.

He sighed and looked wistful and said, I wish I could travel around the world, but I can’t.

Perplexed I said, “Your as big a fucking house, you can go where you please!”

He said mournfully, “No, I am addicted to steroids and though steroids are legal in other countries, even available across the counters in some, they are illegal in many others. If I got caught going through customs in some countries I would end up in their prison.

Another Turkish Midnight express, I thought.

So there you have it!

Now what do you want to do?

Sincerely - VIncent D. Fain

Bodybuilder's Hompage

faini

most people talk bullshit

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
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