Personal Trainer Long Island Relies On For Results
Health and Fitness Articles by Reese Kemp,
Personal Trainer - Long Island, NY
Article may be republished subject to the terms on the bottom of this page.
Reflections on Steroids Part I
by Reese KempI am 6' 2", 235 pounds, and have 18 1/2 inch arms. Ninety-five percent of amateur weightlifters would probably trade for those numbers, and I get my share of compliments. Unlike many of my peers, I am also a lifetime natural. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, it means that I have never taken any illegal bodybuilding drug-no steroids, no growth hormone, etc. I don't say all of that to brag. I think (know, actually) that I'm fat at this weight, and I'm not so mass-obsessed to diet down and sacrifice some muscle to get lean. There is still a lot of hard work left to be done in order for me to achieve my ideal look, but a lot of hard work is an integral part of shaping your physique. At least it should be. Shortcuts are all the rage in gyms across America. I'll confirm what a lot of you probably already know. Steroid use is rampant in the twenty-first century.
About three years ago I watched a kid, probably straight out of high school, begin working out in my gym. He was unassuming, shuffling around the gym looking lost sometimes. I only really noticed him because I couldn't help noticing his pretty girlfriend who came to the gym with him. I'll call him Johnny Juice, or just John for short. John's girlfriend didn't stick around long. Whether they broke up or she decided to stop coming, I don't know. John lifted weights the way most people begin weightlifting, mimicking other people in the gym. I would catch him looking at me and my routines. It's not the worst strategy, but it's anything but foolproof. Ready for a shock? Many, if not most of the behemoths at the gym don't really know what they're doing.
After a few months of minimal changes to his physique I noticed a few things about John that led me to keep my eye on him. For starters, he began wearing heavy sweatshirts to the gym. It didn't seem to matter what the weather was like outside, or that the temperature inside never required a sweatshirt. What was he trying to hide? It also seemed that his face was becoming bloated. Another change that followed both of those things was that John would come into the gym and perform 135 pound biceps curls for reps with a barbell. One hundred and thirty-five pounds on that particular exercise seems to be the magic number for a lot of weightlifters because they get to put a big forty-five pound plate on each side and it looks cool. He had been nowhere near that weight just a few weeks prior. Obviously, John was juicing.
For weeks, this exercise was the only one that I saw him do in the gym. John was growing, but he had no idea what he was doing. The funny thing was, although he was gaining overall mass and obviously wanted big arms, his arms weren't growing nearly as quickly as I'm sure he hoped. He was over-training them so much that even steroids couldn't compensate. I overheard him say how he was trying to get them to grow, and, as the owner of one of the bigger sets of guns in the gym, I still caught John looking my way for whatever secrets he could glean.
The changes in John weren't just physical. As he grew, he began to walk tall, and not with his head down like he used to. He socialized with his high school peers more, or perhaps it's more accurate to say that they socialized with him more. I saw him at some nightclubs I used to go to, and would see him in the pictures they put online with his best tough guy look. He seemed to always be at the gym, immersing himself in the bodybuilding lifestyle. He was, for better or worse, a changed man.
I present John's story, because it is in every way typical of both the young neophyte weightlifter, and the young neophyte weightlifter who ends up taking it to extreme. Almost ten years ago I was very similar. I was fresh out of college with high aspirations and all the drive in the world. I had worked out a little in college, but it's only fair to say I dabbled in it in college. One night, sitting in my dorm room with shorts on I noticed my thighs spread oddly across the chair and came to the shocking realization that I was getting fat. Gee-whiz. I wonder it was the rib sandwiches in the fridge, or the bottle of vodka in the closet? In addition, I had always looked toward a future with diabetes and heart disease, since both of these things run in my family. Suddenly, it dawned on me: I could.take care of myself.
In the beginning I made as many mistakes as any young weightlifter would. I over-trained like crazy, sometimes putting in two, two-hour session days, and worked out at least five days a week. Sometimes I would come home from the gym and collapse on the couch. I thought all my hard work would pay off. It didn't, really. I grew some, but not nearly as much as I wanted. I kept looking in the bodybuilding magazine and wondering when am I going to be like them. I knew about steroids back then, but I had no idea the extent of what those professional bodybuilders did to look the way they did.
Here's where my story veers away from John's. I'm an idealist, and I like being able to do things the right way. Nobody ever offered me steroids (surprisingly), and I never sought them out. Instead, I began researching fitness, reading article after article on the subject. I did the same thing with nutrition and discovered that my diet was atrocious. I began seeing real gains, and grew excited. Although it would take me decades to be an IFBB pro, that was okay. Along the way, I discovered that these bodybuilding professionals were neither natural or healthy, and the idea of me becoming one, or looking like one faded quickly. I was natural. I was healthy. I looked good. I was happy.
The sad thing is that John and those like him don't even give themselves a chance. Trial and error is a part of bodybuilding, just as it is a part of many things in life. This trial and error is there to be learned from and to make you a better individual. It has been about a year now, and, although John has expanded his repertoire beyond just biceps curls, he still can't put a decent routine together. It's not a surprise; the steroids always compensate for what he doesn't know. Imagine if someone could give you an injection of a serum that allowed you to play Chopin on the piano, although you can't read music and you've barely touched the instrument before. Sure, the serum would allow you to play, but you wouldn't really know Chopin, and you would lack the nuance of a pianist who struggled for years to excel at his playing. This is the fate of most steroid users, who look the part, but have no idea what it really takes to get there.
Sadder still, these young men are essentially drug addicts. Not only does their size lie in a bottle of Deca Durabolin, or Winstrol, but, for the vast majority of them, so does their self-esteem. Getting young men to go off steroids is more than asking them to relinquish their cherished muscle mass, but their self-worth too. Further trapping them is that they don't know how to make significant gains naturally, or the gains that they think they need simply cannot be attained naturally. Parents who want to confront their children about steroid use should remember this. It is always about more than just size. Two years ago I had a bout of sleep apnea brought on by a wayward desire to gain as much weight as possible, by taking in as many calories as possible. My doctor recommended I lose weight, and I complied. In fact, I more than complied, dropping my weight down to 214, which I hadn't seen in years. "You got small," I heard over and over again. It was a little annoying, but nothing more than that. Besides, my sleep apnea was gone, so I was relieved. If my self-esteem was tied to being a big guy I would've felt two feet tall. As it was, I knew I could get big again with a couple of months of hard work and I did, although I was better, leaner.
There are times when I wonder, as I'm sure a lot of natural bodybuilders do, what would I look like if I did do steroids? I look up at the poster of Arnold Schwarzenegger in the gym and think that I could be that big. Then I think back to the time I was sitting on that chair in my dorm room, staring at my fat thighs and wondering how many years I could get in before the diabetes hit. What I always remind myself is that health was, is, and should always be the first priority for me, regardless of how I look. I also think how lucky I am that my self-esteem doesn't rest in vial after vial of synthetic hormones. Regardless of how big my arms are, I can still be happy.
© Reese Kemp 2006
Reese Kemp is a certified personal trainer and writer from Long Island, New York. More health and fitness articles can be found on his Long Island Personal Trainer Web site.
You have permission to publish this article under the following conditions:
•The author's reference box must be included.
•The content should not be changed.
•All logos, attributions, copyright notices, and links must remain.
•If the article is published electronically, all links must remain standard HTML anchor tags (<a>) and cannot be converted to any other form of link.
Obesity / Weight Loss / Fitness News From Medical News Today
Latest Obesity / Weight Loss / Fitness News From Medical News Today.
Early Weight Loss Could Help Control Type 2 Diabetes
People who lose weight soon after being diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes have better control of their blood pressure and blood glucose levels and are more likely to maintain that control even if they regain their weight, say researchers in America. The study, published online in the journal 'Diabetes Care', followed 2,500 adults with Type 2 diabetes for four years.
Obesity Risk Linked To History Of Chronic Ear Infections
More than 5 million children cope with the agonizing ache of ear infection annually, but a new discovery suggests damage to taste nerves caused by the common childhood ailment might increase the risk of obesity later in life, say University of Florida College of Dentistry researchers. Chronic ear infections appear to trigger a preference for high-calorie food, leading to increased consumption and excessive weight gain in adulthood, said Linda Bartoshuk, Ph.D.
Surgical Weight Loss Does Not Eliminate Obstructive Sleep Apnea
A study in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine shows that surgical weight loss results in an improvement of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), but most patients continue to have moderate to severe OSA one year after undergoing bariatric surgery. .Results of this study suggest that it is the severity of the condition, rather than a patient's presurgical weight, that determines if OSA will be resolved.
Study Shows The Power Of Energy Density In Mushrooms
Preliminary research, led by Dr. Lawrence Cheskin, MD, Director of John Hopkins Weight Management Center, suggests increasing intake of low-energy density foods, specifically mushrooms, in place of high-energy-density foods, like lean ground beef, is a strategy for preventing or treating obesity. This is good news for the more than one-third of U.S. adults age 20 and older who are obese, according to the Center for Disease Control.
Analysis Suggests Menu Labeling Could Help Average California Adult Avoid Ove...
Look up at a fast-food menu board and shed a pound? It may sound too good to be true, but according to a paper released today by the University of California's Center for Weight and Health, new research shows that California adults could avoid gaining 2.7 pounds a year if calories were posted on fast-food menu boards statewide. The analysis combines findings from two key sources to understand how calories posted on fast-food menu boards could shape the health of California.
Chronic Ear Infections Linked To Taste Damage, Increased Obesity Risk In Chil...
Ear infections are a painful rite of passage for many children. New research suggests the damage caused by chronic ear infections could be linked to people's preference for fatty foods, which increases their risk of being overweight as they age. Scientists from around the country presented their findings on this unexpected connection at the American Psychological Association's 116th Annual Convention here Thursday.
Oxford "Obesity-Gene" Group Launches Target For Obesity Researchers
Oxford University's technology transfer company, Isis Innovation, has launched range of new assays for obesity research - tools that can be used to identify potential drug candidates. A team led by Oxford's Prof Chris Schofield has developed the assays. They are based on the group's pioneering work which identified a gene and an enzyme strongly implicated in obesity.
Belly Size May Be Better Stroke Predictor Than BMI
A new study from Germany suggests that belly size and other markers of abdominal fat may be a better predictor of stroke than body mass index (BMI). The study was the work of lead author Dr Yaroslav Winter from the University of Heidelberg and other colleagues based there and at other research and clinical centers in Germany, and is published online before print on August 14th in the journal Stroke.
Role Of Obesity In Preeclampsia Studied At University Of Pittsburgh
A plague of obesity in the United States already is known to increase the risk of illnesses such as diabetes, heart disease and joint problems. Now, an infusion of $6.4 million in grant support from the National Institutes of Health will enable researchers at the University of Pittsburgh-affiliated Magee-Womens Research Institute to investigate what role obesity may play in preeclampsia, a common complication of pregnancy that can be life-threatening for mother and baby.
MSG Use Linked To Obesity
People who use monosodium glutamate, or MSG, as a flavor enhancer in their food are more likely than people who don't use it to be overweight or obese even though they have the same amount of physical activity and total calorie intake, according to a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Public Health study published this month in the journal Obesity.
Poor Physical Control Linked To Obesity
A study published on bmj.com reports that an increased risk of obesity later in life is associated with poor physical control and coordination during childhood. These findings, suggested by Walter Osika and Scott Montgomery (Orebro University Hospital, Orebro, Sweden), are yet another piece of evidence that correlates type 2 diabetes in adults, obesity, and poor cognitive function in childhood.
Overweight Hispanic Children At Significant Risk For Pre-Diabetes
A study by researchers at the University of Southern California (USC) found that overweight Hispanic children are at significant risk for pre-diabetes, a condition marked by higher than normal blood glucose levels that are not yet high enough for a diagnosis of diabetes.
Running Improves Disability And Life Span In Older People
In middle and older ages, running may be associated with reduced disability and increased survival, according to a report released on August 11, 2008 in the Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. The United States, largely thanks to innovations in medical technologies, has made a major shift to a generally older population.
Obesity Not Always Linked To Higher Cardiovascular Risk
Two studies, one from Germany and another from the US published this week, suggest that obese people do not always carry an increased risk of heart disease, while some individuals of normal weight do. The clue appeared to lie in how body fat was distributed, for example fat in the abdomen, as indicated by a larger waist circumference, was a consistent risk factor in both studies.
Scientists Measure Connection Between The Built Environment And Obesity In Ba...
Does your neighborhood have a lot of fast food outlets, few sidewalks, and no parks? If yes, your physical neighborhood may be hampering your ability to be physically active and placing you at increased risk for obesity. According to a research study conducted in Portland, Oregon by scientists at Oregon Research Institute (ORI), neighborhoods with lower mixed-land use and higher densities of fast-food outlets were more likely to have residents who were overweight/obese.
Newsfeed display by CaRP