Pete Rubish is currently releasing a bunch of videos about his experience with using performance enhancing drugs (PEDs).
It started with his video about “Taking breaks from gear” and was followed by a video about Superdrol, Trenbolone (Part 2) and Clenbuterol.
I wouldn’t recommend anybody touching this stuff.
Here he talks about common side effects.
Poll
PEDs: Prohormones, Testosterone, Growth Hormone, Anabolic Steroids in general etc.
We’re not talking about stimulants (such as the old jack3d).
Vote below and share the reasons for your choice in the comments.
PS: I voted #3. Not that I plan to do it in the near future, but once I hit 35-40 I won’t rule out stuff like hormone replacement therapy for example.
I was torn between the two NOs, but although there is a bigger chance I wont ever do it, I cannot say it didnt occur to me. I have never used, but I have no huge competition goals, so thats a rather easy choice for me. I cant understand people who use but dont have any real athletic ambtitions (and there are probably tons of them in each gym). But then again, I never understood drug users either, and those people dont have any real goals that heroin could help to fulfill them.
I am surprised (pleasantly?) that the majority is no, not interested so far in the poll. I do not condemn PED users and unlike Ivan do have (what seem like huge) competition goals. However I want to see how far I can go by myself to my own physical limits with no “help”. That being said I do use recreational drugs and actually believe them to help my in some ways for recovery, so they are enough “PED’s” for me.
Ive been taking PED’s on and off for several years now. I take the negetive sides as a calculated risk and have experienced the ups and downs of steroids. I justified my use early on as a means to the top in my choice of athletics, but as those dreams fade out of reach my desire to continue using drugs is dwindling. I plan on ending all PED use this summer to focus on other goals. I got huge, ripped, strong (6’4 255) without serious health implications, no regrets.
I’m a PLer, and I’m a huge fan of both teste and untested lifters. For me, I want to do my absolute best in whatever arena I compete in. I’m not comfortable doing that in an untested comp. I’d need to be taking the strongest stuff possible to compete with the guys at the top, and I don’t want the health risks that come with that. I know there are different views, but to me competing tested if I’m not natural would be like competing raw and sneaking a squat suit under my singlet: since I have the option of competing untested or equipped, I don’t feel I should compete raw and sneak a suit, or compete tested and take roids. Again, I don’t disrespect PED users, but I feel I would only ever take them if I was willing to take it to the most extreme limits. I can already be stronger than 99% of the average population without PEDs, so it doesn’t really make sense to take them if my goal is only to perform marginally better than I am right now.
To put it in concrete terms: my best squat to date is 288 kgs. If I were using PEDs, I’d need to be hitting 330+ kg for me to consider it worthwhile.
I used until 1985 when most of the steroids became scheduled substances with the FDA and illegal to obtain. The street value of the remaining drugs on the market went up ten fold in value overnight. Also, I felt I did not have the right to break the law possessing and obtaining these drugs anymore. Remember, in 1985, drug tested meets were few. I used for about two years on and off. Biggest lifts were 300KG squat, 185KG bench and 345KG deadlift in the 82.5 KG weight class. Best Olympic lifts were 120KG snatch and 137.5KG in the 82.5KG weight class. I currently lift in a few masters Olympic meets and train five days a week. I am a supporter of raw and tested lifting. Since PED possession in the USA is a felony, I have no use for the current crop of untested powerlifters. The current state of powerlifting in the USA is a mess with all the different federations claiming different sets of records and THEIR OWN national champs, ect. One thing I learned about PED use, as long as you workout, you WILL get stronger. Almost any routine yeilded results. One thing the drug users knows for certain, the drugs DO work. If the drugs were still legal, I would not care one bit if a lifter took enough to kill themself, their choice. One of the things I dispise is a drug user selling books and courses. The only thing the drug users knows for absolute certain is that the drugs work. For them to profit from their now illegal activity is unethical and immoral. The biggest joke in the book is that supposed pro meets refuse to drug test claiming they can’t catch all the users or all of the sustances can not be detected. Baloney. If the drugs were never made illegal, I may have never quit using them. In a way, I was lucky never to have any side effects besides achne on my back. The debate over usage will always have those willing to give the user a pass. If no one stands up and cries foul to illegal activity, what kind of a society will we leave? What will we be rembered for?
Forgot to include that I use supplements from Beverly International to combat the effects of aging. I looked into hormone replacement and my free testosterone levels were much higher than what was required to start the therapy. I have missed few workouts in nearly 40 years of training, my diet has always been fairly clean. The key to a life long in lifting is to be consistant.
Two very good points here: as a U.S. lifter I also don’t use because of the legality of it. Secondly, I can concur that training methodology seems to matter very little as long as the PEDs are strong enough. Two different lifters will use radically different training methodologies and have almost the exact same results if they are on the same substance and are willing to train really hard. That’s why I rarely pay close attention to the top untested lifters’ methodologies, because they really have little to no relevance to my training. Perhaps in WLing it’s a bit different because of technique, but matters of training volume and frequency really can’t be transferred successfully from PED users to natural lifters with any success.
I’d say clean lifters have to undulate their training intensities and volume more than frequency. Clean lifters can still train 9+/week.
Good point, I definitely agree.
right on the money.
I agree that steroids make even the worst training protocols “work”. But, all things being equal, the smartest training methodology will always win.
I’ve never used PED’s. I used to take the old school jack3d before high school football games, but that was it. Now I’m an olympic lifter. I have never had an injury other than a pulled muscle since I started competing athletically in sports around the age of 8. I chose number 3. The reason for this is because when I reach 35-40 plus range I would not be opposed to a couple cyles of HGH or hormone replacement therapy of some kind. That is more for just the sake of being healthy and repairing any damage old age does to you. Not to gain some kind of competitive advantage in a master class, but that is a long way off for me. I just turned 24
That’s the answer I went with as well, but only because HRT could be a possibility down the line. I know of a few people who are doing it so it’s something I can’t completely rule out should my levels be low. I do think if I was on HRT I wouldn’t compete in the master (which is right around the corner), that’s just me though. Not that my lifts are anywhere remotely competitive.
IIRC there was an 80 year-old (?) in the USA that got caught doing that exact thing. I believe the “steroids” Ramos was caught using was actually HRT.
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1757054-80-year-old-weightlifter-banned-for-steroids-by-usada
without or with PEDs, i dont have the genetics to be an olympic champion in weightlifting or world record holder in powerlifting. i can only try to reach my own goals, defined with respect to my giftedness.
so taking roids isnt worth it for me. its no major difference, if i’m 31.935% or 24.3462% away from the world record or place 2nd or 7th on regional championships – the medical risks of abusing drugs in contrast are. so i only try to match with my own prospects.
if i would have this talent, to reach a world record for example, i would have to reconsider my attitude concerning PEDs…
but there is one point not up for discussion: if i would compete in a sport where the majority of my contestants are clean (this obviously doesnt apply to olympic weightlifting 😉 ), i would never take anything.
When the acne comes, it never goes away truely. I have keloids on my chest, this a dead lumps of acne, that never go away. They are bright red, and like a pearl under the skin, I ran a course of accutane quickly and it cleared most of it within 6 months but was still left with keloids on chest and shoulders. Its been ten years and they are still there.
This isnt the worst ive seen, a mate if covered in them, from his lower back to his neck, shoulders and chest. Why the fuck he continues to put himself threw this I dont know. Once the keloids appeared, I cleaned myself up and released, I am sensitive to hormones and using AAS will leaving me need plastic surgery.