Anabolic Steroids: Their Use and Abuse in Bodybuilding

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Nearly every major sport has been tainted by the use of anabolic steroids in the last 30 years. Major controversy has surrounded the Olympics for certain athletes testing positive for different steroidal compounds. Many pro players in the last decade have been criticized for their use of steroids during league play. The most heavily broadcasted results were made public when Bonds and McGuire came forward. All these athletes have been under major scrutiny, lost medals, lost sponsorships, and even had their households broken up due to the issues. This has spawned a huge crackdown on black-market steroid sales in Mexico and the Europe, being the main exporters of these illegal substances.

Even with all this publicity regarding the widespread use of SARMs and steroids in the United States and the large number of short and long-term side effects of steroids, it is still a topic that is taboo to speak of in the bodybuilding realm. It is very contradictory in nature. The media and general public speak openly about steroids and mainstream sports, yet in a sport where steroids, unfortunately seem to be a part of the game, steroids are rarely spoken of. There are no statistics on the topic, but it would be very safe to assume that over 80% of all pro bodybuilders take, or have taken illegal steroids in their lifetime. How did it get this way?

The bodybuilding athletes are judged only on appearance, not how they got to that condition. The judging criteria offers more points to the larger, more muscular, and more conditioned athletes. Steroids obviously assist in the bodybuilder’s goals of attaining this look. Over time, bodybuilding degenerated from the more attainable, reasonable look of the 70’s bodybuilders, to the freakish, 300-pound monsters you see on stage today. Perhaps there should be controls on the substances used in these events.   If you have two similarly framed athletes: one natural and the other pumping over 1000 mgs of steroids into their system weekly, the natural athlete will obviously have the disadvantage. What would bodybuilding be without steroids? Is this a sport when there is such a clear disparity in the playing field?

The answer is no. The bodybuilder with the best chemist in his corner will have the edge. Unless bodybuilding events become drug tested, these events will never gain mainstream appeal. It will continue to be a freakshow to the rest of the public. In addition to this, the industry will be plagued with another aspect of bodybuilding that goes unspoken:  premature death and coronary illness due to long-term use of drugs.

Variations of testosterone can be made in synthetic forms. The most common synthetic form of testosterone is anabolic-androgenic steroids (AAS) or anabolic steroids. The term anabolic refers to the process of building muscle. The term androgenic refers to the buildup of the sexual characteristics of a male.

Anabolic steroids are used by physicians to treat delays in puberty and diseases that cause loss of muscle mass. This drug is commonly abused for the purposes of building muscle for aesthetics or for the enhancement of athletic performance, however.

Abusers of anabolic steroids often inject the substance into the muscles; however, there are many different ways to administer this drug. Anabolic steroid abusers almost always use much larger doses than prescribed users take.

Due to the risk of adverse side effects, steroids are not prescribed on a continuous basis. Steroids are also taxing on the body’s endocrine system. When abusers take steroids on a continuous basis, the body stops reacting to the drug and fails to generate its own testosterone levels. Some abusers mix other types of steroids, drugs, and supplements with anabolic steroids to try to reverse the body’s tolerance to anabolic steroid use. This highly abusive anabolic steroid administration method is known as stacking.

While the anabolic steroids are too harmful, there are natural and best legal steroids pill and supplement alternatives available for bulking and weight training. You can check them out and make an informed decision.

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