Looking back. Was it really worth it? The health, money, time you spent in this game.

[Dugbet]

Why the regret?

Each person makes the best decisions according to their interests, risk assessment, ambition, knowledge ... at a given time.

Nietzsche has an excellent metaphor about how to live life, every day.


The heaviest weight

The Gay Science is one of Nietzsche's most personal works, collecting not only his philosophical reflections but also a number of poems, aphorisms, and songs. The idea of eternal recurrence—which Nietzsche presents as a sort of thought experiment—appears in Aphorism 341, "The Greatest Weight":

"What, if some day or night a demon were to steal after you into your loneliest loneliness and say to you: 'This life as you now live it and have lived it, you will have to live once more and innumerable times more; and there will be nothing new in it, but every pain and every joy and every thought and sigh and everything unutterably small or great in your life will have to return to you, all in the same succession and sequence—even this spider and this moonlight between the trees, and even this moment and I myself. The eternal hourglass of existence is turned upside down again and again, and you with it, speck of dust!'

"Would you not throw yourself down and gnash your teeth and curse the demon who spoke thus? Or have you once experienced a tremendous moment when you would have answered him: 'You are a god and never have I heard anything more divine.' If this thought gained possession of you, it would change you as you are or perhaps crush you. The question in each and every thing, 'Do you desire this once more and innumerable times more?' would lie upon your actions as the greatest weight. Or how well disposed would you have to become to yourself and to life?"

 

[Fit2Serve]

Why the regret?

Each person makes the best decisions according to their interests, risk assessment, ambition, knowledge ... at a given time.

Nietzsche has an excellent metaphor about how to live life, every day.


The heaviest weight

The Gay Science is one of Nietzsche's most personal works, collecting not only his philosophical reflections but also a number of poems, aphorisms, and songs. The idea of eternal recurrence—which Nietzsche presents as a sort of thought experiment—appears in Aphorism 341, "The Greatest Weight":

"What, if some day or night a demon were to steal after you into your loneliest loneliness and say to you: 'This life as you now live it and have lived it, you will have to live once more and innumerable times more; and there will be nothing new in it, but every pain and every joy and every thought and sigh and everything unutterably small or great in your life will have to return to you, all in the same succession and sequence—even this spider and this moonlight between the trees, and even this moment and I myself. The eternal hourglass of existence is turned upside down again and again, and you with it, speck of dust!'

"Would you not throw yourself down and gnash your teeth and curse the demon who spoke thus? Or have you once experienced a tremendous moment when you would have answered him: 'You are a god and never have I heard anything more divine.' If this thought gained possession of you, it would change you as you are or perhaps crush you. The question in each and every thing, 'Do you desire this once more and innumerable times more?' would lie upon your actions as the greatest weight. Or how well disposed would you have to become to yourself and to life?"

FACK!
i read Nietzche soooo long ago. i am gonna have to revisit.
thats a powerful lil story there

 

[Gorilla_Waters]

I am 38 and started lifting in 1998 around when Ronnie won his first Mr O. All my childhood I wanted to look like my WWF (now WWE) wrestling superstars with their cartoonish muscles and envied them because the girls chased them.

I was more of a flex magazine kind of guy until I picked up my first Muscular Development and couldn’t wait to get started on gear. Back then in the early 2000s we had a mindset that these are extremely safe compounds have been demonized by politicians and older guys like Arnold are still kicking ass so keep using as much as you like.

Now at 38 I am very lucky I did not get any severe health issues but I will be on cholesterol and blood pressure meds for the rest of my life along with small doses of testosterone since I won’t ever make a legitimate amount of testosterone naturally ever again.

I look back and I made great memories. I also spent an insane amount of money on drugs, food, supplements and luckily did not run into legal issues.

Now I look very much like a balding, fat, 38 year old man but I am much better off financially, drive a much nicer car, have a much nicer paid off house, have much better credit and I think in general even females want me for more than just a piece of meat to fuck like back in the days.

So looking back I ask myself was it really worth it and I’m not sure if the answer is such a huge YES like I would want it to be?

Do any of you gentlemen feel the same way?

FUCK NO!!!!!!!! being a fat 38 year old is not an AAS problem.

 

[Dugbet]

FACK!
i read Nietzche soooo long ago. i am gonna have to revisit.
thats a powerful lil story there

He is the king of quotes and aphorisms, and you must return to his reading every so often because you will always learn something new , it never goes out of style. Much better than all modern self help gurus, they are all fake as shit. Nietzsche will not teach you to be rich or get stupid / disposable women, he teaches you to live an authentic and full life, not false or superficial.

 

[TheAnabolicFreak]

I think Dorian and Lee Haney were so smart with their exits compared to Ronnie. Both are in great health but look at Ronnie

 

[F350]

you don't really jump out of planes. You fall off them. I have a little over 500 skydives, nobody jumps off lol

lmfao. I think I could fall out of one but no way could I jump. Id have to pass out and roll out like a fat um pa-lumpa. I like my feet planted firm on the ground.

 

[carbs]

I think Dorian and Lee Haney were so smart with their exits compared to Ronnie. Both are in great health but look at Ronnie

This.

 

[Campeon]

No I don't regret doing bodybuilding. I'm in my 50's and been lifting since 1985. I never had the genetics to compete in BB but I weight trained for sports and looking good. Perhaps if I had the tools that are available today available to me back in 1998 I might have placed in a local BB show.

It has been a great journey and fitness/BB has increased the quality of my life. I always enjoyed going to the gym which to me was like therapy.

I also dabbled as a personal trainer for one year. I have great memories from that..

I also enjoyed going to all the Mr. Olympias in Las Vegas and the conventions to see all the new products.

The only regret is maybe not being able to make fitness a full time job with good pay...

 

[krman]

I love reading all these responses. I am 41 years old and I have lifted weights since I was 16. I was always into the crossfit type of workouts and a lot of sports growing up. I just started getting into Bodybuilding when I was 39. I am actually super happy about it. I think we all go through certain chapters of life when we have to weigh the risk to reward. We also have to think of what makes us happy and possibly better. I am a firm believer in, the more experiences through the life the more knowledge we acquire. I really want to prove that age is just a number, not a stopping point.

 

[OuchThatHurts]

Why the regret?

Each person makes the best decisions according to their interests, risk assessment, ambition, knowledge ... at a given time.

Nietzsche has an excellent metaphor about how to live life, every day.


The heaviest weight

The Gay Science is one of Nietzsche's most personal works, collecting not only his philosophical reflections but also a number of poems, aphorisms, and songs. The idea of eternal recurrence—which Nietzsche presents as a sort of thought experiment—appears in Aphorism 341, "The Greatest Weight":

"What, if some day or night a demon were to steal after you into your loneliest loneliness and say to you: 'This life as you now live it and have lived it, you will have to live once more and innumerable times more; and there will be nothing new in it, but every pain and every joy and every thought and sigh and everything unutterably small or great in your life will have to return to you, all in the same succession and sequence—even this spider and this moonlight between the trees, and even this moment and I myself. The eternal hourglass of existence is turned upside down again and again, and you with it, speck of dust!'

"Would you not throw yourself down and gnash your teeth and curse the demon who spoke thus? Or have you once experienced a tremendous moment when you would have answered him: 'You are a god and never have I heard anything more divine.' If this thought gained possession of you, it would change you as you are or perhaps crush you. The question in each and every thing, 'Do you desire this once more and innumerable times more?' would lie upon your actions as the greatest weight. Or how well disposed would you have to become to yourself and to life?"

I liked Nietzsche but after some time it just seemed so nihilistic. So fatalist. I've read his major works.

 

[Dugbet]

I liked Nietzsche but after some time it just seemed so nihilistic. So fatalist. I've read his major works.

This is a very common confusion, but in my opinion it does not make sense.

For Nietzsche, everything is a nihilistic trajectory from Plato and the imposition of the Apollonian over the Dionysian, passing through Christianity (the same will say about Buddhism, although it is the only religion that can come to value positively) and arriving at modern science and transhumanism because they despise the body or biology and promise a pain-free paradise. Religions promise it in another life, modern science on this earth.

According to many scholars, he was right in his predictions, seeing what the 20th century was with the 2 world wars. And I also announce nihilism, which is the time in which we find ourselves, when values, institutions, beliefs, cease to hold and main sense. But he is anything but a nihilist author, he is vitalist, but he promotes active nihilism, destroying in order to rebuild.

Nihilists (some more fatalistic than others, and even suicidal) are Shopenhauer, Albert Caraco, Philipp Mainländer, Emil Cioran or Carlo Michelstaedter. Max Stirner could also be considered nihilistic.

 

[heavyhitter]

Exactly right. Even to this day I'm grateful for what I've been able to do. I've stood on the highest place on Earth. I dove the Bloody Bay Wall (SCUBA) in the Cayman Islands. I've crawled through caves 100's of feet underground. Crossed glaciers. Carried an M4 in the desert when I was with DynCorp. Jumped out of planes. Climbed 1,000ft rock faces. Stood on the rim of an active volcano (Mt. Baker) I've done these things all over the world. Hundreds of thousands of dollars. I regret nothing.

Could I have done those things without PEDs? I truly don't know. I'm not sure I would have had the ambition req'd. I've never competed on stage. I'm actually kind of envious of this guy winning a show. What an amazing feeling that must have been! I still may try some senior level show just so I can say I did that.

I'm becoming an old man now. But I look back on my years and they were amazing times. I'm talking life-altering experience sorts of times. Almost spiritual. And it's still going. If I decide to do it, I can join a team to do a winter summit of Mt. Ranier in February. That's a $10k ascent. I believe I shall miss this planet when that day comes for me.

Doing these things, playing hard, not only did I spend a ton of $ but think of what else it cost me. Two skull fractures, compound fracture of the right humorous, shattered ribs, a punctured lung, three days in a coma on a respirator, nitrogen narcolepsy, I've broken nine of my ten fingers, three broken noses, frostbite, dysentery, torn patellar tendons, detached and dislocated shoulders, the list goes on.

I have little doubt I would have even survived this life without PEDs. It's taken a lot of PEDs, metal pins, stitches, and staples just to hold me together.

la commedia no fini

Samsies. I competed in powerlifting and dabbled in bodybuilding competitions. But those were just side hobbies to the training itself. I’ve always done this just to be big and strong, and it’s been worth it. A trophy doesn’t add much value to my life, but the way I feel about myself, and the things I’ve accomplished because of it have all been worth it

 

[Rumpwrangler]

Lifting/exercise likely saved my life. I learned early on that I needed the brain chemistry switch first thing AM from exercise or else I was going to have problems later in the day. So in that way I’m glad I found this lifestyle.

However, I wish I wouldn’t have gone all in. But like some of y’all, I only have one speed. I’m either on fire or ice cold with everything unfortunately. I feel I have wasted 2 decades spending so much time, money and energy into improvement of what is basically a shell. That’s all these bodies are. The older I get the more I see that for what it is. I want to take pride in my physique and test it often. But all the extra stuff is starting to become trivial to me and I see myself transitioning more into a pursuit of wellness and health for mind, body and soul in the coming years. Less focus on muscle.

 

[Rainmanisback]

Not at all... I'm 45 but look like 35... I'm stronger and the best shape of my life... I have money, my own company, and a beautiful family so I don't have to be concerned about what other females think, even though I do get a lot of attention still at this age... I travel the world... I'm working on new challenges like doing an IronMan 70.3... I'm not bald and def. not fat... and I owe it all to the discipline this sport added to my life. I love working out and I love gear and how it makes me feel and look. I'm worried about my health of course we all should, but I do my homework to stay as healthy as possible.

 

[NeveReveN]

I would look at it as the glass is half full. How is your health now compared to the guys you knew that took a lot of PEDs? Two of the guys I knew that took a lot are dead now, died before the age of 45.

I get that. A friend who was my partner going down to TJ and loading up, he was only about 5 years older than me. He took everything. All at the same time. Huge. He had a heart attack in his 30’s. He can’t lift at all anymore he says, too risky. Me, I’ve trained right through everything to today and I’m 56.

But still, when it’s all over, all said and done and we’re taking out last breaths , does the person who lived 75 years on this earth feel like he lived a lot more life than the person who only made it to 50? I think they both feel like it went by on a flash.

 

[maldorf]

I get that. A friend who was my partner going down to TJ and loading up, he was only about 5 years older than me. He took everything. All at the same time. Huge. He had a heart attack in his 30’s. He can’t lift at all anymore he says, too risky. Me, I’ve trained right through everything to today and I’m 56.

But still, when it’s all over, all said and done and we’re taking out last breaths , does the person who lived 75 years on this earth feel like he lived a lot more life than the person who only made it to 50? I think they both feel like it went by on a flash.

The big things you miss out when you're a parent really make the point clear to me. If I'd died at age 38 when I had my heart attack I would have missed so much. Kids graduate high school and then college. Wouldn't have seen that. Never see what career they take on and never be a grandparent. What a waste. To me it would have been a half empty life.

I'm thankful I lived on and can experience all of these events. If I were a single man with no family and lived all alone, then yeah maybe what you say would be true.

 

[graybass]

Short answer, long story.
I'm over 60 now but started out being interested in powerlifting in my early 20's. I did a small amount of drugs by the second year and made incredible progress. I competed in the lighter weight classes so I never was a big fat monster. Lighter PF guys look like BB's mostly. I went from painfully shy to way more outgoing. In my late 20's, I decided I knew more than any local personal trainer I ever met. So, I actually went back to school to learn the real science behind what I loved for so many years. I obtained many cert's including Sports Nutrition. Over the years I became one of the most popular PT/Nutritionists on the east coast. I worked for many of the big chains (Gold's for 10 years)
35 years have gone by! My moto has always been "What goes thru life better, a week body or a strong body?" In my 60's and I look 20 years younger, still have decent muscles, train a 5 day split, and I eat PERFECT.
If you're fat and bald you didn't do what I did. Nothing wrong with bald either, I'm not though, lol.
I have a checkered health history but, my cardiologist says if I didn't do what I did I'd be dead 20 years already!
BTW dating a gorgeous figure competitor 20 years younger than me.
No Regrets!!!

 

[OuchThatHurts]

The big things you miss out when you're a parent really make the point clear to me. If I'd died at age 38 when I had my heart attack I would have missed so much. Kids graduate high school and then college. Wouldn't have seen that. Never see what career they take on and never be a grandparent. What a waste. To me it would have been a half empty life.

I'm thankful I lived on and can experience all of these events. If I were a single man with no family and lived all alone, then yeah maybe what you say would be true.

Agree. I've loved training and my career all my life but my 3 children have been the light of my life. That's why I was depressed after getting diagnosed with polyscythemia. But since then, I've kept it under control. Not everybody loves the parenting experience but I definitely do.

 

[Alzadosghost]

The Only regret I have is not having any idea how to use aas properly the first 3/4 years of use. I got strong as hell but looked like a bloated mess. And I thought I looked good. Hindsight awe fuck it.

 

[cage99]

Agree. I've loved training and my career all my life but my 3 children have been the light of my life. That's why I was depressed after getting diagnosed with polyscythemia. But since then, I've kept it under control. Not everybody loves the parenting experience but I definitely do.

It has its moments, but god dammit my son can make me slam my head against the wall multiple times a day! He’s totally different than me as a kid… It’s a daily struggle to not say anything to him about certain things he does. My wife is CONSTANTLY reminding me he’s NOT YOU! Then there are the times when they make you smile for doing the most damndest things. It’s a ride for sure….

Cage