Written by Ron Harris
17 July 2018

17liesaboutsteroids

10 Big Fat Lies About Steroids

The Load of Bullsh*t "They" Want You to Believe

 

 

Few subjects are discussed regularly with such consistent lies and misinformation as anabolic/androgenic steroids (AAS). Those we trust to deliver honest information about important topics, such as television news shows, newspapers, magazines, and even our family doctors continue to perpetuate facts about steroids that are often completely inaccurate and sensationalized for dramatic effect. Whether they are intentionally trying to make a story sound more lurid as in the case of the mainstream media, or are attempting to scare us away from performance-enhancing drugs ‘for our own good,’ there is no excuse for lying. If something is really so bad as steroids are painted to be, then the true facts and evidence should be enough to deter us from using them. But as most MD readers already know, nearly everything you hear about steroids outside of bodybuilding magazines is a bunch of bullshit propaganda. Here are the ten big fat lies you hear most often about AAS, clearly exposed as the fictitious drivel they really are.  

 

Big fat lie # 1:

Steroids will kill you!

I hear this one all the time, usually from some fat sack of shit two jelly donuts away from a heart attack, puffing away on a Marlboro. If steroids are so very deadly, shouldn’t we have bodies piling up outside the hardcore gyms like stacks of firewood? In fact, can anyone name even one person who has died directly as a result of using steroids? The medical journals have discussed several such cases, but they were all very sick patients given large doses of oral steroids over extended periods of time who predictably enough, eventually developed major liver problems. Another study in Finland tried to say steroids led to early death by following a small group of powerlifters over roughly twenty years. Several of the premature deaths were actually suicides, and the others were related to other factors that may or may not have had any direct links to their past drug use. When you fire back with a retort like this, the fat sack of shit usually adopts a smug expression and utters the magic name that proves without a doubt steroids will kill you as surely as a 9 mm slug to the head – Lyle Alzado. The once-fearsome lineman went on a crusade in his dying days on television shows, convinced that his brain tumor was the result of his former steroid use. Aside from his own belief, there was never a shred of evidence to support his assertion. If we are to be objective for just a second, we all agree that occasionally people get brain tumors. It’s tragic, but it happens. Given the sheer amount of people who use or have used steroids, it’s completely feasible that one of these unfortunate cancer victims will have juiced at one time or another. This does not mean there is any more connection between the steroids and the tumor than there might be between his daily can of diet soda and the tumor. Bottom line, there is a dearth of evidence to back up this frequently repeated statement. I would never want to imply that steroids are harmless and do not have the potential for serious health problems when abused, but to portray them as being on the same level as cancer and heart disease as an epidemic is ludicrous.

 

Big fat lie # 2:

Steroid users are cheating

Okay, whom are we supposedly cheating? Let’s try to figure this out, shall we? In professional sports and even high-level amateur sports such as the Olympic games, there is drug testing. This does not stop nearly all of these athletes from using steroids by a long shot   They all just beat the test one way or another because they know everyone else does too. So if everyone is ‘cheating’ in high-level sports, then in reality no one is cheating. The only legitimate example I can think of where a steroid user is cheating is when he or she enters a drug-tested bodybuilding or powerlifting competition and passes him or herself off as being drug-free in order to gain an unfair advantage. These pathetic jerk-offs are truly morally bankrupt, so I have no problem in labeling them as cheaters. In non-tested events, drug use is tacitly permitted, so choosing to compete in them naturally is something done at the athlete’s own discretion, knowing that they are at a distinct disadvantage. Yet the vast majority of steroid users are recreational or cosmetic bodybuilders who will never enter a contest of any sort. He or she uses drugs as an adjunct to a disciplined training and eating regimen purely to improve the appearance. Who are these guys and gals cheating by doing so? The skinny guy with the love handles at Bally’s who complains that he can’t get any results from the gym when he trains like a pussy (missing workouts all the time, to boot) and eats a bunch of garbage? Get real. Steroid users aren’t cheating anyone, so shut up with that nonsense. If we are cheating anyone, it’s Mother Nature, and she can be a bitch anyway.

 

Big fat lie # 3:

Steroid users are lazy

Are there some steroid users who use the drugs as a crutch and don’t work all that hard in the gym or eat the best diet? Sure there are, but they are definitely in the minority. Most steroid users, and I have personally known hundreds over the years, are far more devoted to their training and nutrition than the average gym denizen. They tend to read constantly in search of the latest information on exercise, nutrition, supplements, and yes, drugs as well. You will see them training with 100% intensity, never missing workouts or meals, totally dedicated and disciplined. Most of them have been living this demanding lifestyle for many years, yet as soon as someone finds out they also happen to use steroids, all that hard work is instantly dismissed or ignored. The average knucklehead who does nothing but screw around with bench presses in horrible form and eats fast food all day can now feel superior to the ‘juicer,’ who didn’t really work for that incredible body. Little do they know that many of these anabolic gods and goddesses looked great long before they even took their first pill or injection, because they had already been training and eating right for a few years. I find it hilarious that the ones who like to label steroid users as lazy are the same ones who are too lazy to learn how to train right and won’t make any effort to prepare and eat five to eight nutritious meals every day.  

 

Big fat lie # 4:

Juice will have you looking like Jay Cutler in a week

There is the belief among many that all one needs to do is start to use steroids, and in a short time, they will resemble freaks like Jay Cutler, Lee Priest, and Chris Cormier. I can almost excuse the general public for buying into this horseshit, because they are usually ignorant about such matters. Worse is when natural bodybuilders say it – and I hate to admit I used to do this a few years ago too. I have actually overheard natural guys who weigh no more than 160 pounds at 5-9 say something like, “yeah, if I used steroids I would be just as big as that Ronnie Coleman.” The fuck you would, idiot. Ronnie Coleman turned professional back in 1990 when he was still natural, and he was already competing at 215 with arms over twenty inches. Jay Cutler weighed a husky 180 pounds at 5-9 when he started training, and just a year later he was tipping the scales at over 240 pounds. Don’t these guys get it? Some people are meant to be huge and others just aren’t. It takes three things to look like an IFBB pro: years of hard training and good nutrition, extremely rare genetics, and finally drugs. The drugs are obviously a big part of the look, but the least significant of the three factors. You can train hard and eat right for twenty years and take all the drugs in existence, but without the right genetics you will never, ever look like Jay or Ronnie. Seriously, do you think you could take lanky Leonardo DiCaprio, ship him out to Gold’s Venice to train with Charles Glass, put him on a pro-level stack of ‘roids and GH, and he would ever be able to stand next to the likes of Levrone and Gunter? Sorry to ruin your delusion, but no frigging way. If you honestly believe the only difference between the pro’s and the garden-variety wannabe bodybuilders at your gym is steroids, you are sadly mistaken.

 

Big fat lie # 5:

All gains from ‘roids disappear when you go off

Another whopper, this one. I have watched many a bodybuilder go off steroids, and the only ones who lost everything they gained from their cycles were those who quit training entirely. I have seen some maintain as much as 80% of the gains they made from steroids, while the average seems to be closer to 40-50%. You also need to realize that there is a cumulative effect for most bodybuilders who will do anywhere from ten to fifty 6-15 week cycles before quitting for good. Hypothetically, let’s say a man starts juicing at the age of twenty-two, weighing 170 pounds. Twelve years and thirty cycles later, his weight is up to 270 pounds. This is by no means a farfetched transformation, as many thousands have made similar progress. At age thirty-four, he decides he has had a good run with anabolics, but no longer wishes to use them. He continues to train hard and heavy (though probably not as heavy), and eats plenty of good food and supplements. Is our imaginary man going to shrivel down to 170 now? Not a chance. He may drop from 270 down to 240 or 230, and fifteen pounds of such a loss could easily be water retention from the more androgenic compounds like test or d-bol. He is still going to be a very big, strong man, and certainly much more so than if he had never used steroids. It is no secret that many of the most thickly-developed natural bodybuilders are the guys who used to use steroids in the past. There is no way all the additional muscle mass is going to magically evaporate once you stop using gear unless you magically quit workout out.

 

Big fat lie # 6:

Steroid users are lowlifes and criminals

There is a stereotype of the average steroid user as being some thug named Vinny who sells recreational drugs, beats his girlfriend, and works as a mob enforcer. I think we get this from the movies and TV, since most juiced-up guys working in Hollywood are only able to land bit parts as thugs and gangsters. I am sure there are a few guys who fit this seedy mold, but at least 90% of all steroid users are otherwise respectable, law-abiding citizens. If you have not yet read Rick Collins’ book Legal Muscle (available online at www.SteroidLaw.com) you owe it to yourself to get a copy and read it as soon as you can. Rick is a criminal defense attorney who has represented more men and women charged with steroid possession than any other lawyer in history. And he will tell you that nearly all of his clients have good jobs and families, are productive members of society, and a threat to no one. Unfortunately, the laws are such that if such a ‘good guy’ is caught with steroids in his possession, he is lumped into the same category as heroin addicts and crack dealers. In fact, due to the ignorance of law enforcement agencies regarding the quantities of drugs we bodybuilders use, many unlucky souls are charged with distribution and face far stiffer penalties under the legal system. Rick goes into all this with a great deal more detail, insight, and eloquence than I possibly could, but suffice to say that his book thoroughly trashes the stereotype of who steroid users really are.

 

Big fat lie # 7:

Steroids kill your sex drive and make you impotent

Anyone who would fall for this lie has obviously never used steroids or they would laugh as loud as I do when I hear it. The effect steroids have on your sex drive and performance ability is nothing short of amazing. On a good cycle including a gram or two of testosterone a week, a man in his thirties or forties has the sexual capabilities he had at eighteen – only hopefully now he doesn’t come after ten seconds of thrusting! When you’re juiced, you think about sex every waking moment, and often even all your dreams involve sexual encounters. You have steel-like erections many times a day with even the slightest bit of visual or tactile stimulation. And can you hit that coochie? Good God, if you had a houseful of ten hot women you could probably do them all once a day, and do them very well I might add (Steve Blechman, I would be willing to test out this theory if you could set it up – all in the name of science!). You may find yourself being a little rougher with your woman during the act because you are so damned horny. Add the powerful hips you developed from heavy squatting and deadlifting into the equation, and you could penetrate a brick wall if you had to. In many ways steroids can turn a man with a normal sexual appetite and performance abilities into a virtual porn star. You can get it up and keep it up like few mortal men can. The only problem, as John Romano pointed out in a recent article, is that it is not always possible for a man in this situation to have a woman with an equal appetite for lovin’. Of course, once you go off the steroids, there will be a temporary period of a month to three months where your libido will crash and erections may be a problem. This almost always amends itself once your body begins producing adequate testosterone on its own once again. And none of ever has to worry about erections ever again anyway, the greedy pharmaceutical industry had made sure of that.

 

Big fat lie # 8:

Steroids will turn you into a violent asshole

Steroids can increase feelings of aggression and make it harder to control your temper. So if a man already has a problem with being hostile and violent, it’s likely that steroids can exacerbate this. But again, going back to my own anecdotal evidence culled from years of observation, the only guys I ever knew who were assholes on juice were assholes long before they started using. I have never seen an even-tempered person suddenly transform into a raging maniac from steroids. Very young guys seem to be the most prone to violent or aggressive behavior while on steroids, but then again the same can be said about many young, immature guys who have never been near a steroid. Come on now, do you think all the gangbangers running around shooting up the ‘hood and beating down rivals are on Sustanon and Deca? The reality is that most steroid users I know tend to actually be less hostile and unpleasant than the average person. Most of us know how to apply all that aggression toward our training, where it has a beneficial result.

 

Big fat lie # 9:

Steroids are destroying American’s youth!

I do not condone steroid use by teenagers. At the same time, I think it has been wildly exaggerated as to how many high-school students are into steroids. I have seen statistics as low as 3% and as high as 20%. That’s a pretty big range, which makes it tough to believe we even have anything like an accurate idea of what the percentage really is. But that’s not really important. If I was a parent, and I do happen to have a son and a daughter myself, I would be far more concerned with Junior drinking alcohol, smoking marijuana, taking Ecstasy, or snorting cocaine. I watch the news and read the papers, and I never seem to read about fatal car accidents or drug overdoses involving teenagers and steroids. Nobody is slipping a couple tablets of Winstrol into a 16-year-old girl’s drink and committing a date rape. Teens have no business using steroids, but as far as being a threat, there are about a hundred other drugs far worse to worry about. Any time you hear differently you can be sure it’s a slow news day down at Channel Five.

 

Big fat lie # 10:

You can get just as big with supplements

Some supplements will give you noticeable results, but to insinuate for even a second that you can build the same exact physique using only legal supplements is silly. I know it’s tempting to look at the ads with the before and after pictures and start thinking the product being sold is actually 100% responsible for all the rapid muscle gain and fat loss you see, but it’s just not possible to duplicate the effects of powerful drugs without using them. Maybe in the distant future supplements will reach that point of effectiveness, but we are nowhere near that point at present.

Those are the top ten big fat lies being floated around concerning steroids. You have probably heard most of them and perhaps even bought into one or more of them, but by now you should be able to see the massive campaign of ignorance and misinformation that the media and medical industry has been feeding us. To them I say, the truth will set you free, and if the truth about steroids were as awful as they make it out to be, I would not hesitate to stand out against them. But because most of what we hear about steroids is untrue or wildly exaggerated, I can’t take that stand. Think for yourself and form your own opinions based only on the facts, and you can’t go wrong.

 

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