Let me begin this post by saying that I have never taken any type of steroids and I do not plan on taking any in the future. As far as people who do take steroids, it is their personal life and their own bodies and I don’t see any reason why I should interfere in that. I believe that there should be legalised form of steroids available only for adults, with mandatory health check ups. The only time that it bothers me is when people who do use it lie about using it, while advising youngsters and beginners about bodybuilding. This puts unrealistic expectations in the minds of beginners, where they aspire to gain as much muscles as they possibly can, in the shortest time possible.
This post is for those people who don’t have much of an idea about steroid use in bodybuilding and would like to know more about it. Anabolic steroids are synthetically manufactured hormones which mimic the effects of the naturally occurring hormone testosterone. The term anabolic refers to the steroids ability to build muscle. They are used in order to increase the skeletal muscle mass.
There was a study conducted, to find out the difference between people who were given no steroids vs people who were given low doses of steroids. The results were fascinating.
Summary
The study took 10 weeks. The researchers divided 43 men into four groups.
Group 1: no exercise, no steroids.
Group 2: no exercise, steroids.
Group 3: exercise, no steroids.
Group 4: exercise, steroids.
The steroid group injected 600 mg of testosterone a week.
The participants who exercised did the same workouts.
The nutrition of all 43 men was the same.
Results:
Group 1 (no exercise, no steroids) gained almost no muscle.
Group 2 (no exercise, just steroids) gained 3.2 kg of muscle.
Group 3 (exercise, no steroids) gained 1.9 kg of muscle.
Group 4 (exercise + steroids) reported 6.1 kg of muscle.
Conclusion: Steroids make a huge difference as far as building muscle is concerned.
Steroid use is very common among professional bodybuilders and certain celebrities. Usually the amount of testosterone that your body produces starts decreasing a lot by the time a male reaches 40 years of age. In spite of that you will find certain celebrities who are above 40 years of age, having ripped muscles and that too in a very short time. It is doubtful whether they could do this naturally.
We are aware about the issue of unhealthy body image among young girls and women, but this problem is also common among young boys and men. Many young boys often go through these magazines, where they find celebrities, who claim to have developed ripped bodies in a matter of few months give advice about their workout routines. If someone tries to follow the workout routines while expecting the same results in such a short time, then they would be in for a big disappointment. This makes them stop working out, because it isn’t giving them the desired results.
In conclusion, it is really important to have realistic expectation of how you want your body to be if you are not planning to use any steroids and keep working hard consistently.