Scooby's Home Bodybuilding Workouts Supplements and Steriods

Let's have some straight talk here, the basic problem is that what may be safe and effective is not legal and what is legal may not be safe or very effective.  Steroids, like all other drugs, are tightly controlled by the FDA and must undergo exhaustive tests to prove that they work and do not cause harm - sounds pretty good, huh?  Once upon a time, steroids were legal but in 1970 the government came out with the Control Substance Act which classified steroids into schedule III making it illegal to possess without a valid prescription.   Doctors can legally prescribe it only under very limited situations and doctors who write too many prescriptions come under very close scrutiny by the DEA so don't bother asking your doctor for a recreational prescription.  Assuming you were willing to take the legal risk, you could use a black market product or buy something over the internet but you will most likely end up buying something that not only doesn't work but can be very dangerous.   Of course, everybody overhears at the gym about how THEIR stuff is real - ya right.

Supplements have the opposite problem, they are completely legal but unregulated so no safety or effectiveness testing is done.  Want to be a human guinea pig? Not only are you trusting that the product that you think you are buying is safe and effective but you are gambling that the company is putting into the bottle what they say they are.  After years of not using any supplement other than protein powder, I decided to see what the buzz about the new creatine product was about as I had heard from numerous friends about strength and size gains from it.  I decided to give in and try it for a month, how harmful could a creatine product be?  Well, it cost me $650 in medical bills to find out.   After three weeks of using it I had a routine physical and full blood test which discovered that my liver function was 10X normal meaning that my liver was working overtime cleaning some toxic crap out of my body.  After a liver ultrasound and several other expensive tests later, the only possible cause remaining was the creatine product.  Although I didn't go to the expense of having the product itself tested for toxic impurities, I'm convinced they are there.  Anyway, shame on my for not listening to my own advice!  BTW, because of liability concerns I am not going to name the product so don't ask - suffice it to say that it is one of the very popular products.

What to do?  Well, my advice would be to train hard, eat well and when you reach your full genetic potential just be happy you are healthy and in great shape.  If you are really bent on being 250lbs of solid muscle, I would advise moving to a country where steroids are legal and do it under the very close supervision of a doctor. 

My stance on supplements isn't going to make me popular as everyone wants that magic pill that lets you get huge and ripped in time for summer but I haven't come across it yet.  The risk/benefit tradeoff is yours to make but gather as much information as you can before making it, become an expert and know what you are taking and why.  Two 'supplements' that I would certainly recommend: a strong cup of coffee before working out for added drive and protein powder as I mentioned in the nutrition section.

 

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