drugs, m'kay

Many people get upset when you point out that their favourite bodybuilder or athlete is probably taking drugs to help their performance or appearance. This is not cutting them down, it's letting people know what is naturally attainable.

It's not cutting a fitness model down to point out that at 12% bodyfat she's not likely to have big breasts, so if she does they're probably silicone implants; large breasts are not realistically attainable with a low body fat. Nor is it cutting a crossfit athlete, bodybuilder, etc down to point out that if she's gained a lot of muscle very quickly and has a high lean mass then there's a fair chance she's taking Vitamin T supplements. To those with experience of drug use and drug users, the signs of it are as obvious as breast implants. 

It's not evil to take performance- or appearance-enhancing drugs. As Stevie P points out, we have a double standard about medical assistance with appearance. Want "thigh gap"? Localised lyposuction is yours. Want a bigger penis or breasts? Surgery, no problem. Want a smaller belly? Hell, they'll cut your stomach in half for you! Want bigger arms? FUCK YOU, GET OUT OF MY OFFICE, says the doc. 

It's important to have a realistic of idea of the rate of change and end result attainable with hard work and good food. That way, people can make an informed choice about whether to have surgery, use drugs and so on. 

A large number of professional athletes are using performance-enhancing drugs. If a top performance were attainable without drugs, then drugs would be useless and nobody would take them. "Oh but genetics -" What, all of them are simply genetically talented? None of them take drugs? Who's taking the drugs, then, just the people losing the competitions? Someone needs to have a word with their dealer, then. "No, all of them take drugs except my favourite athlete who is just special." Uh-huh. 

It's not pooing on someone's hard work to suggest they're taking drugs. It didn't matter how much EPO Lance Armstrong stuck in himself, he still had to go out and bust his arse on the bike every day for years. Between gym and the track, he trained around six hours a day six hours a week. Give me 36 hours a week of your time and you'd certainly get remarkable results. Add drugs and you'll be famous. 

Some magnificent physiques and performances exist among professional bodybuilders and athletes. Few are attainable naturally. It's important to understand that there do exist physical limits, to surpass these you need Better Living Through Chemistry. However, this is irrelevant to most of us, since very very few of us come anywhere near our physical limits, basically only professional athletes do, the rest of us have day jobs, families, and so on, we just don't have time to discover our natural limits. 

Awesome physiques and great athletes, not many natural, though. Again, for most of us is not our genetics but our time. Most of us are not professional athletes, so drug use cannot be recommended, for this and many other reasons. The curlbro popping Clenbuterol for his gunz and abz is like someone faking their resume to get a dishwashing job, they're missing the point. 

Edit 2012.07.15 - Jason Blaha lays it down. Let's not bullshit ourselves: the top athletes all take drugs. If you want to be a top athlete, at some point you'll have to make that decision. Me? I wouldn't do it, and I hope my son and anyone I train wouldn't, either. But that's what it is.