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- Feb 7, 2004
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Seems there have been quite a few people on here who have been having heart problems and it also seems that it is getting more common. I've been wondering for a while as to why this is happening and to be honest I couldn't tell you exactly why. I do have an opinion on it and I think that it is at least plausable and something that should be taken into consideration.
Guys are definitely taking more drugs today than ever. Even guys who will never compete who may want to look good all year round, which to be honest makes it worse because years ago guys usually came off after a show. Now with guys who never compete, they stay on most of the year so they can perpetually look good. Not a good idea in my opinion.
Steroids aside we also are seeing guys taking a different array of drugs such as cancer drugs, insulin, peptides etc. Not saying that these things can't be used BUT I think they are overused and some of this stuff should never be used. Just because you don't feel a side effect doesn't mean a drug is not doing damage to your body.
Think for a minute of all the stress that is put on the body, especially the heart. The average guy who competes is taking a ton of test, (not good IMO) more on this later, insulin, (an aging hormone that is also stressing the heart. Has anyone ever taken their HR about a half hour after shooting slin? Eating massive amounts of food, which also is not just straining your heart but other organs, and training too is another one. Every single day you go to the gym and your heart is being pushed to max levels every set with each rep, trying to pump massive amounts of blood to keep up with the demand over and over again, and then when you are done what do you do? You get on the treadmill for more heart stimulation.
Nothing wrong with training hard, but training to extreme failure especially while doing squats is going to wear out your heart muscle over time. This also goes for these stupid freakin aerobic classes and the instructors who tell you that you need to have your heart rate sky high for X amount of time so you can be strong and healthy just like them. The human body is not meant to handle this kind of stress every day over and over again. Do some research and you will see quite a few athletes who are now having heart problems and some who have dropped dead. Long distance runners, rugby players, tri athletes, the list goes on.
I hear a lot of guys say test is best. Well, I never liked test. In fact, anything over 250 mgs made me feel terrible. Water retention, increased heart rate and more. I also noticed that it had nothing to do with how I ate or what I weighed. Eating clean and being fairly lean made no difference. I know a lot of guys who take high dose test and for many years and feel fine, but for me and others that I have talked to they feel the same as I do. Like I said, just because you feel fine doesn't mean that there isn't damage being done. Remember, steroids were invented in an attempt to take away the nasty androgen side effects. IMO there is never a good reason to constantly pump a ton of androgens in your body for years on end. It is eventually going to destroy your heart.
Getting back to the training to extreme failure subject. If I remember correctly there was a post awhile back about how guys who took steroids had a higher instance of an enlarged heart and or thickening of the heart wall. Then someone posted a study that showed even when not using steroids the same thing happened to athletes. NO SHIT! Can't believe there needed to be studies done to prove this. It's common sense that after years of heavy strain on the heart this will happen.
Another drug that I think should not be used unless you are a competitor and in small amount is trenbolone. Just a nasty very harsh drug that is hard on the body especially the kidneys. Even Dan Duchaine thought that tren was too strong of a steroid and should be used only for serious competitive bodybuilders. Some steroids just don't seem to agree with the human body and I think tren is one of them.
Bodybuilding and lifting weights in general has become nothing more than a huge chemical cluster fuck over the years. People need to take a step back and actually look at how they are treating their body. Lifting weights used to be the cornerstone of muscle growth with maybe a few shorts cycles a year, to taking a list of drugs so long it's embarassing to even write down. Add to this being able to use extremely massive amounts of weights because of the huge amounts of drugs that they use and this in turn puts even more stress on the body because now you can use 2000 pounds on the leg press, and 600 pounds for reps on squats and people still make comments like, why don't we see physiques like arnold anymore or even the guys back in the late 80's early 90's. Yeah I wonder why. I also wonder why these guys are constantly tearing muscle off the bone and losing the function of their kidneys and other organs.
I almost forgot another very healthy trend that is going on that you never saw as much years ago. Gaining 50 to 80 pounds after a show in an attempt to be the "heaviest" guy in the gym, not necessarily the biggest. Lord knows it's very healthy to gain back 30 pounds of water weight in the first 2 to 3 days after your show. This I'm sure has nothing to do with failing hearts. I see this being done over and over again and this is one of the MAIN things that I stressed to guys when I trained them. Be very careful reintroducing fluids and food back to the body. Even if you are not using diuretics bad things can happen and will, but obviously even more so while using drugs to get dry. Just a few of the many thoughts that go thru my head about the current situation.
Guys are definitely taking more drugs today than ever. Even guys who will never compete who may want to look good all year round, which to be honest makes it worse because years ago guys usually came off after a show. Now with guys who never compete, they stay on most of the year so they can perpetually look good. Not a good idea in my opinion.
Steroids aside we also are seeing guys taking a different array of drugs such as cancer drugs, insulin, peptides etc. Not saying that these things can't be used BUT I think they are overused and some of this stuff should never be used. Just because you don't feel a side effect doesn't mean a drug is not doing damage to your body.
Think for a minute of all the stress that is put on the body, especially the heart. The average guy who competes is taking a ton of test, (not good IMO) more on this later, insulin, (an aging hormone that is also stressing the heart. Has anyone ever taken their HR about a half hour after shooting slin? Eating massive amounts of food, which also is not just straining your heart but other organs, and training too is another one. Every single day you go to the gym and your heart is being pushed to max levels every set with each rep, trying to pump massive amounts of blood to keep up with the demand over and over again, and then when you are done what do you do? You get on the treadmill for more heart stimulation.
Nothing wrong with training hard, but training to extreme failure especially while doing squats is going to wear out your heart muscle over time. This also goes for these stupid freakin aerobic classes and the instructors who tell you that you need to have your heart rate sky high for X amount of time so you can be strong and healthy just like them. The human body is not meant to handle this kind of stress every day over and over again. Do some research and you will see quite a few athletes who are now having heart problems and some who have dropped dead. Long distance runners, rugby players, tri athletes, the list goes on.
I hear a lot of guys say test is best. Well, I never liked test. In fact, anything over 250 mgs made me feel terrible. Water retention, increased heart rate and more. I also noticed that it had nothing to do with how I ate or what I weighed. Eating clean and being fairly lean made no difference. I know a lot of guys who take high dose test and for many years and feel fine, but for me and others that I have talked to they feel the same as I do. Like I said, just because you feel fine doesn't mean that there isn't damage being done. Remember, steroids were invented in an attempt to take away the nasty androgen side effects. IMO there is never a good reason to constantly pump a ton of androgens in your body for years on end. It is eventually going to destroy your heart.
Getting back to the training to extreme failure subject. If I remember correctly there was a post awhile back about how guys who took steroids had a higher instance of an enlarged heart and or thickening of the heart wall. Then someone posted a study that showed even when not using steroids the same thing happened to athletes. NO SHIT! Can't believe there needed to be studies done to prove this. It's common sense that after years of heavy strain on the heart this will happen.
Another drug that I think should not be used unless you are a competitor and in small amount is trenbolone. Just a nasty very harsh drug that is hard on the body especially the kidneys. Even Dan Duchaine thought that tren was too strong of a steroid and should be used only for serious competitive bodybuilders. Some steroids just don't seem to agree with the human body and I think tren is one of them.
Bodybuilding and lifting weights in general has become nothing more than a huge chemical cluster fuck over the years. People need to take a step back and actually look at how they are treating their body. Lifting weights used to be the cornerstone of muscle growth with maybe a few shorts cycles a year, to taking a list of drugs so long it's embarassing to even write down. Add to this being able to use extremely massive amounts of weights because of the huge amounts of drugs that they use and this in turn puts even more stress on the body because now you can use 2000 pounds on the leg press, and 600 pounds for reps on squats and people still make comments like, why don't we see physiques like arnold anymore or even the guys back in the late 80's early 90's. Yeah I wonder why. I also wonder why these guys are constantly tearing muscle off the bone and losing the function of their kidneys and other organs.
I almost forgot another very healthy trend that is going on that you never saw as much years ago. Gaining 50 to 80 pounds after a show in an attempt to be the "heaviest" guy in the gym, not necessarily the biggest. Lord knows it's very healthy to gain back 30 pounds of water weight in the first 2 to 3 days after your show. This I'm sure has nothing to do with failing hearts. I see this being done over and over again and this is one of the MAIN things that I stressed to guys when I trained them. Be very careful reintroducing fluids and food back to the body. Even if you are not using diuretics bad things can happen and will, but obviously even more so while using drugs to get dry. Just a few of the many thoughts that go thru my head about the current situation.
