[rozwado1]

I was recently approached by the owner of my gym, Tom Ostrander (if you want to Google him). He was talking to me about getting into competitive bodybuilding because I've recently put on 20lbs. of muscle.

I have never considered competition because I thought it was far-fetched and too much of a strain on my body. I look at bodybuilding as a way of life, but when people ask me why I do it, I usually stall for answers. I do it to stay healthy, fit, and sane - but that doesn't explain why I'm busting my *ss everyday, trying to get myself bigger. So is competing the next logical step?

I always thought competing was kind of gay - how you had to shave your whole body, get a fake tan, oil up, and wear a speedo in front of 100s of people. But I used to think those things when I was alot smaller - now I have a body that is worthy of competing. I guess I'm just looking for some input from the loungers. Don't be afraid to trash the sport - I'd like to hear some criticism.

BTW - I'm no where near a competitive physique yet. Since I'm still in college (and drinking occasionally), I'll have to at least wait til I graduate in May. I would be looking into competing this fall/winter. No pics (no camera), but I'm 6'3" 230 with about 10% body fat.

[rozwado1]

bump.

Come on! I need some replies - when I post at the bodybuilding forums, all the comments I get are "pro-competition." I figured I'd come here to get some neutral opinions from non-bodybuilders. I'm not afraid to re-bump this later today...

[Kilbey]

My only question is, what do these guys/girls look like at 50 years old? Are they all saggy and overly wrinkled?

[RooneyX]

Not worth it. Especially at your height. The amount of work you'd need to do, and that means working out, eating, recuperating and taking steroids, would stress you out and leave your bank account looking empty.

Most pros still deal in drugs to make it in the sport. Do something else that won't cost a bomb and make you look like a posing piece of meat. Bobdybuilding as a sport reached its peak in 93 and since then has been a steroid cow fest. Some even say the peak was reached in the early 80s when form had more importance than size and when it didn't matter whether you were 5'2 and weighed 160 or 6'0 and wieghed 230. They all had an equal chance and some of them, like Frank Zane and Tom Platz, were brainy guys. Now it's a sport for douchbags who had problems with their fathers and need to be big to get over those childhood complexes.

[rozwado1]

Originally posted by Kilbey:
My only question is, what do these guys/girls look like at 50 years old? Are they all saggy and overly wrinkled?

Good question - my parents ask the same. It kind of depends on the person of course, but there is a trend that weightlifters get fat and saggy - like ex-high school football players often do in college. But there's a difference between weightlifting and bodybuilding - I understand everything that goes into my body and when/why I should eat it.

I hope to keep this in my life for a long time (until injury stops me), and I should be able to manage my weight and appearance. I just plan on staying huge into my 40s, then dropping muscle and working on heart-health for when I'm older.

Steroid users tend to get fat, but I'm very anti-steroids - I think educated people should be. I'd compete in a Natural contest (no juicers).

[RooneyX]

Originally posted by rozwado1:

Steroid users tend to get fat, but I'm very anti-steroids - I think educated people should be. I'd compete in a Natural contest (no juicers).

I'm not anti-steroid. I think athletes should be able to use them in a controlled environment so we can test how far the body can go. It benefits scientists to see what happens and to administer them in a healthy way. That's not possible with black market dealing and a lot of athletes have paid the price for success.

But I don't think bodybuilding can be called a sport when it's just a bunch of oversized meatheads in pants. The world's strongest man competition is far more interesting.

[rozwado1]

Originally posted by RooneyX:
Bodybuilding as a sport reached its peak in 93 and since then has been a steroid cow fest.

Agreed.

Now it's a sport for *********s who had problems with their fathers and need to be big to get over those childhood complexes.

I understand your point, but I think that applies to the steroid-users. I'm going for a more aesthetic approach - 6'3" at 240-250 would be ideal. In the natural comps, more guys tend to look like Arnold. In the pro comps you see on ESPN2, they all look like gorillas. So I'm not shooting for the guys in FLEX or MUSCLEMAG.

I'm also not looking to make this a career. I would just like to win one comp in order to have an accomplishment for all this hard work I've done.

[rozwado1]

Originally posted by RooneyX:
The world's strongest man competition is far more interesting.

If only my parents named me Magnus...

[cszar2001]

I wouldn`t do it. Say you do well in that one competition-you get high on your success and want to repeat it.
If you don`t make it you might use a little "help"-and soon you end up like Flex Wheeler who nearly died from total renal failure last year.
It`s just not worth it.

If you need some form of external reward for all your work I would start to rethink my approach to life.
If someone has to tell you that you did something worthwhile all that time your motivation is misplaced in the first place.

I treat injured athletes everyday; they ruin their bodies without any real reward.

Just my 2 cents.

[rozwado1]

Originally posted by cszar2001:
[BIf you need some form of external reward for all your work I would start to rethink my approach to life.
If someone has to tell you that you did something worthwhile all that time your motivation is misplaced in the first place.
Just my 2 cents. [/B]

Thanks - good reply.

[voyageur]

You might be interested in this book by a noted doctor who has treated many bodybuilders over the years:

The Adonis Complex: The Secret Crisis of Male Body Obsession by Harrison Pope, et al.

[el chupacabra]

there is some evidence suggesting that bodybuilding is bad for you...leads to arthritus (spell?). also stresses the body enough that it can cause you to age faster. People weren't meant to be too big. This doesnt mean to stop working out completely but remember moderation. Its like the people that get obsessed with running all the time to stay in shape. If you run too much you get an oversized heart which increases your probability of heart attack.

[fireside]

bodybuilding is stupid. if you really want to show off your strength, get into weightlifting comps, not a show of how much steriods you can take without dying. i saw a cover of "Flex" or whatever with this guy on it who is the "world's biggest man" and he looked so ugly and scary, i just want to know why anyone would want to do that to themself.

[Logic]

Originally posted by rozwado1:
If only my parents named me Magnus...

Or originated from Iceland

Magnus Ver and Jon Pall both hold the record(AFAIK) for most titles in that competition.

[Sherwin]

You'll look real pretty if you get into hardcore bodybuilding:

Click

[MindFad]

Originally posted by Sherwin:
You'll look real pretty if you get into hardcore bodybuilding:

Click

lol

[rozwado1]

Originally posted by fireside:
bodybuilding is stupid. if you really want to show off your strength, get into weightlifting comps, not a show of how much steriods you can take without dying.

Come on - you don't have to flat-out insult my lifestyle. Once again, no steroids involved - just protein and "GNC-esque" supplements.

i saw a cover of "Flex" or whatever with this guy on it who is the "world's biggest man" and he looked so ugly and scary, i just want to know why anyone would want to do that to themself.

Ronnie Coleman (biggest man) shoots up to get that huge - there's no way in hell he's natural. I'm not an idiot - I'd never want to be like that. A whole lot of bodybuilders know that being that big is ugly, as well as an inconvenience to everyday life. 6'3" 240lb. is nothing compared to Coleman's 5'11" 320lb. frame. I only plan on putting on 10 more pounds of muscle in my life. If I were to compete, I would just cut down on the fat that I have now and weigh in around 215. So to confirm, I'm not aiming (or will ever want to be) disgustingly huge.

Gross

About my size (but I have 10% fat)

[bradoesch]

I say go for it, but you'd likely expect that answer from me.

[ShortcutToMoncton]

Some even say the peak was reached in the early 80s when form had more importance than size and when it didn't matter whether you were 5'2 and weighed 160 or 6'0 and wieghed 230.

Untrue, of course. Size has always been important. Check out some of Arnold's tactics used against his competitors during the 70s...his poses against guys like Franco Columbu were designed to emphasize Franco's shorter stature.

Of course, I'm sure it became quite a bit more common as the sport "progressed."

greg

[Bluebomber21XX]

Originally posted by RooneyX:
I'm not anti-steroid. I think athletes should be able to use them in a controlled environment so we can test how far the body can go. It benefits scientists to see what happens and to administer them in a healthy way. That's not possible with black market dealing and a lot of athletes have paid the price for success.

How is possible to use steroids in a healthy way? It's not.

Steroids trap blood in your muscles. When you stop juicing, you lose all that muscle. Not to mention the impotence, balding, fat gain, and roid rage that is associated with steroids.

Please enlighten me as to how anyone can take these drugs and be healthy. You can't.

[cszar2001]

Steroids are used for a lot of purposes-growth hormones for kids who because of a birth defect lack sufficient quantities of it, they use them in chronic patients that suffer from pathological muscle loss, ....

But: all these people are closely monitored; and the doses they receive are within normal limits.
For someone who wants to build muscle mass much much higher doses are needed-with the side-effect of damaging the body.

The body simply stops producing the steroids/hormones itself. After years of abuse even the steroid generating tissue is gone; that`s why people like Flex Wheeler now have to take steroids to survive!!
Andreas Muenzer wasn`t so lucky-he bled to death.

[RooneyX]

Originally posted by ShortcutToMoncton:
Untrue, of course. Size has always been important. Check out some of Arnold's tactics used against his competitors during the 70s...his poses against guys like Franco Columbu were designed to emphasize Franco's shorter stature.

Of course, I'm sure it became quite a bit more common as the sport "progressed."

greg

That's an isolated example. Columbo went on to win the Olympia twice against taller people. Frank Zane was 180lbs at 5'10 and won three times. Chris Dickenson won in 1982 and was quite small. Samir Bannout at 5'8 and 180-190 pounds beat a massive Lee Haney and Bertil Fox in 83 on shape alone. In 1989 and 1990 Lee Haney lost the muscularity and comparison rounds to Lee Labrada who was only 5'4 and weighed around 180.

Then Dorian Yates came along. Dorian was massive and a very intelligent guy (I've met him several times). Others followed in Dorian's footsteps by getting bigger and bigger not quite realizing that Dorian wasn't playing the size game. He just happened to need to be around 260 in order to get his proportions right. His successor, Ronnie Coleman, weighs about 280 onstage and has silicon implants in his calves and claims he never takes steroids. Stupid. Any honest athlete would come clean. Dorian always admitted his use publicly (but that's ok to do in the UK).

The Weiders tried to make it a sport but it's not. It's a spectacle. And as a spectacle it has lost all its art form in favor of being a freak show.

[RooneyX]

Originally posted by Bluebomber21XX:
How is possible to use steroids in a healthy way? It's not.

Steroids trap blood in your muscles. When you stop juicing, you lose all that muscle. Not to mention the impotence, balding, fat gain, and roid rage that is associated with steroids.

Please enlighten me as to how anyone can take these drugs and be healthy. You can't.

True. But the side effects differ from one person to another and most can be prevented by using other drugs.

To prevent baldness while using steroids - propecia.

To prevent acne while using steroids - rogaine.

To prevent impotence and shrinking testicles - HCG/Leutenizing hormones.

To prevent roid rage - read philosophy and practise meditation.

Steroids also do not trap blood in muscle. They do not even improve performance. What they do is improve recovery time between work outs so that a muscle can recuperate faster, absorb nutrients and then grow before it is exercised again. Even on steroids recovery times are only improved by a little. Read up on Dorian Yates and Mike Mentzer, both of whom said recovery times are far longer than what most people think. Most steroid users manage very little or no gains at all if they work a muscle group out to often without enough recovery time.

Also, if you've worked out hard and long enough in your life and stop training, you don't lose everything you gained whether you gained it naturally or using steroids. Muscle also doesn't turn to fat. Athletes get fat when they forget to adjust their caloric intake when they quit working out.

I don't advocate bodybuilding or steroid use anyway unless for scientific exploration and under observation. As a sport the rewards are worth nothing. As an art form it's a bit narcisstic.

[theolein]

Pity there's no steroids for the muscle that matters most. No, not that one, the one between one's ears.

That said, if you feel you can stay clean and enjoy the sport, then go for it. Why not? I did bodybuilding in school but stopped when I was in university, and promptly gained around 30 pounds of fat. I did it in school because I was such a complex ridden kid. Not surprisingly, being a muscled up hulk didn't help my complexes at all or make me feel one iota better. But you sound like a fairly level headed person, so, again, I say go for it if that's what you feel like.

[nredman]

Originally posted by rozwado1:
bump.

Come on! I need some replies - when I post at the bodybuilding forums, all the comments I get are "pro-competition." I figured I'd come here to get some neutral opinions from non-bodybuilders. I'm not afraid to re-bump this later today...

i used to work out with the goal to get bigger...but i stop doing it because i wasn't motivated after about a year. i also wasted alot of money and food and supplements doing it. if you love working out and think you would like the competition then why not try it. if not you could just get super ripped and use it to get chicks.

[RooneyX]

Originally posted by theolein:
Pity there's no steroids for the muscle that matters most. No, not that one, the one between one's ears.

Growth hormone (GH) increases the size of the brain and sexual organs. But it also increases the size of the lips, tongue, heart, eyes and other soft organ tissue and the result is you go around looking like The Hulk impersonating the Elephant Man.

[benign]

Average human Brain Weights only 3lbs.



Green guy with 20lbs of brain... now not
many guys (or woman) go for this look.

[Gee4orce]

I've never been into 'bodybuilding' per se, but I've come close. I've worked out off and on for probably 17 or 18 years, and during one two year stretch I really came close to getting obsessive. The trouble with bodybuilding is that if at a later date you change your mind - it's really hard to disguise the fact your stacked ! Yeah, it's hard to put on muscle, but it's also hard to ever really loose that 'built' look.

My advice :

* Do it so long as you enjoy it. As soon as you stop enjoying it, do something else.
* Don't supplement. At all. What's the point - are you doing this to get fit and healthy, or to pump yourself full of sh!t like some lab rat ? I took creatine a few times - it was so effective that it was scary, and I wondered what the hell it was doing to other parts of my body...
* Don't train more than 3 times a week. Every day is far too often. On your off days, if you can't bear to relax, then do another sport like swimming or running.
* Strength is only 1 of the 3 parts to fitness - work on your stamina and flexibility too.
* Dont' get too big. It's inconvenient, obvious, vain, and the ladies don't like it
* Watch your joints - they take the biggest punishment. I have a permanent damage to my shoulders, which will probably only get worse. Light training actually feels better for them than no training at all.
* Bench press, squats and deadlift are the only 3 routines you'll ever really need. Everything else if for vanity.

[Jim Paradise]

Originally posted by Sherwin:
You'll look real pretty if you get into hardcore bodybuilding:

Click

That... that can't be real?

[nredman]

Originally posted by Jim Paradise:
That... that can't be real?

nope but this is...Ronnie Coleman...now that guy is huge.

[ghost_flash]

In order to be a competative bodybuilder you will have to do three things.

1. Take Steroids
2. Work out for a living
3. Eat incredibly good (Expensive) and a lot of food, and I do mean A LOT of food.
4. No smoking, no alcohol, no drugs, nothing! or you will compound your life's problems and complications by combining them with steroids.

You will then have the following results:

1. You will be freaking huge in a very very short amount of time, given your age, and genetics.
2. You will be stressing your organs like a 20 year smoker or drug abuser and alcoholic, after 5 to 10 years, depending on if you abuse them or not, and you probably will. Also, you will be in a great deal of pain at night when your body will be changing and growing. That sh*t hurts. Tendons? What tendons? and how about those stretch marks there Mary. Been pregnent long?
3. Roid Rage. It does happen.
4. You will become greedy, and a sexaholic. I've seen this.
5. Lyle Alzedo, you will die younger more than likely.

Suggestions:

Be a triathlete, the good one's make good money and they generally have better life spans than most bodybuilders.

[rozwado1]

Originally posted by ghost_flash:
...you will have to do three things.
1.
2.
3.
4.

lol.

Be a triathlete

I get asthma attacks if I run over 4 miles. Most I've ever ran (nonstop) was 6 miles for Lacrosse and that was the most stress I've ever put on my lungs. I also have a large frame (not usual triathelete build).

Once again, I don't plan on "going pro" - I plan on using my degree to get a job. I am just thinking about competing in an all-natural amateur comp.

[ghost_flash]

Originally posted by rozwado1:
lol.

I get asthma attacks if I run over 4 miles. Most I've ever ran (nonstop) was 6 miles for Lacrosse and that was the most stress I've ever put on my lungs. I also have a large frame (not usual triathelete build).

Once again, I don't plan on "going pro" - I plan on using my degree to get a job. I am just thinking about competing in an all-natural amateur comp.

3 things...

Sh*t, I just ran with it and didn't proof myself.
That is funny.

Asthma? I ran cross country with an asthmatic and he had no problems. I guess it matters the extent of your asthma.

If you don't want to go pro, then seek out a good trainer, not someone that tells you to go pro. Don't take any steroids, as you already do with your asthma.

Prendesone? Nasty, nasty.

I wish you well, and luck! But, all-natural and amateur comp's are filled with steroid and enhancer users of all sorts.

Just, be careful, and I wish you well.

[rozwado1]

Originally posted by ghost_flash:
I wish you well, and luck! But, all-natural and amateur comp's are filled with steroid and enhancer users of all sorts.

Just, be careful, and I wish you well.

Thanks ghost_flash. I'm not the overly competitive @sshole that would take steroids to gain an edge on the next guy. If (when) I compete, it'll just be for the experience of doing it. If I ever enter a comp, I'll post my results here for sure.

Now I need about 10 more pounds...

[Dale Sorel]

Originally posted by Kilbey:
My only question is, what do these guys/girls look like at 50 years old? Are they all saggy and overly wrinkled?

Don't look now, but I think we have one of these governing the state of California