Bodybuilders See Kidney Damage With Steroids
By KATIE THOMAS
A case study is among the first to assert a direct link between long-term steroid use and kidney disease.
No shit! Who knew?
The above story appeared in the New York Times, 12/9-2009. Substitute the word "steroids" with ANY drug, —alcohol, cigarettes, Tylenol— and you have another example of the media's ridiculous fascination with and the dissemination of misinformation about steroids. This is front page news?
Long term abuse —in this case 25 years— of ANY drug on the planet will have serious effects on some vital organ in your body. And after 25 years of "steroid abuse", all this guy had were kidney problems?
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Monday, November 9, 2009
Harder Muscle After Age 40
Question
The main reason I thought I couldn't continue to improve my physique over 45 is the physiques you normally see of bodybuilders in the masters/old timers classes at bodybuilding shows never seem as defined or tight as younger guys. That's why when I see a physique like yours and guys like Eric Orrao (who is amazing at 48 - check out his web site) I am really inspired.
I've also always read about muscle wastage over 45 and the difficulty in avoiding the muscle flabbiness that comes with old age. Like you I think boosting testosterone is the key and since I turned 40 I have been regularly taking Tribulus while raising my work-out intensities and increasing my protein intake (desperation can be a wonderful thing can't it ? ha ha).
Answer
Testo boosters are okay, I am not personally clear on if they work, as only before-and-after measurements of testosterone levels in the blood would prove that.
But testo boosters are not at all like taking the real thing, such as Androgel, which is a topical treatment, or better for bodybuilders, Testosterone Ciprionate injections.
Both men and women lose vital hormones as they age, and the resistance in society at replacing them is very, very odd, since people do all kinds of damaging things to themselves continually, like smoking and drinking, yet are told that hormone replacement is somehow "unsavory", when in fact the benefits are nothing short of wondrous. The reason we feel young again is because we have the hormones back that we once had.
Over-training is a reality, since your muscle needs a full week or more to recoup and rebuild. Without the rest, you are tearing it down again before it had a chance to reach it's full growth from the last workout, and thus it never gets the chance to fully blossom.
LOTS of guys are resistant to this idea, and over-train regardless, just as they fail to correct poor workout technique, or fail to rehab injuries and try to "work through" the pain. All the above are counter productive.
One of the many absurdities in popular belief is the vilification of steroids. None of the so-called adverse side effects can happen to someone taking recommended dosages...all the horror stories are fabricated —when is the last time you heard about anyone dying from steroids, or ending up in the ER? We are inundated by unsafe drugs at every turn, but instead of focusing on deaths and injury from all of those, the media loves to focus on steroids.
It's a safe hot-button issue, as no one defends steroids. But if your doc is willing, a therapeutic dose (as opposed to the illegal mega-doses that some bodybuilders abuse) would definitely harden you up, and have many other benefits, including well-being overall.
I cannot take steroids for the same reason I can't take testo, but steroids are a miracle pharmaceutical that have saved millions of lives, including hundreds of thousands of AIDS patients who would have never lived long enough to see the dawn of the drugs that have made AIDS a manageable disease.
My partner Alex in the video with me is a physician and an AIDS specialist, and also has a thriving bodybuilder clientele, because he is one himself. So my info and experience comes from 7 years with him.
Work out intensely, then REST. I hope you are working just one body part per session...that way it has a week to recoup before you work it again.
The main reason I thought I couldn't continue to improve my physique over 45 is the physiques you normally see of bodybuilders in the masters/old timers classes at bodybuilding shows never seem as defined or tight as younger guys. That's why when I see a physique like yours and guys like Eric Orrao (who is amazing at 48 - check out his web site) I am really inspired.
I've also always read about muscle wastage over 45 and the difficulty in avoiding the muscle flabbiness that comes with old age. Like you I think boosting testosterone is the key and since I turned 40 I have been regularly taking Tribulus while raising my work-out intensities and increasing my protein intake (desperation can be a wonderful thing can't it ? ha ha).
Answer
Testo boosters are okay, I am not personally clear on if they work, as only before-and-after measurements of testosterone levels in the blood would prove that.
But testo boosters are not at all like taking the real thing, such as Androgel, which is a topical treatment, or better for bodybuilders, Testosterone Ciprionate injections.
Both men and women lose vital hormones as they age, and the resistance in society at replacing them is very, very odd, since people do all kinds of damaging things to themselves continually, like smoking and drinking, yet are told that hormone replacement is somehow "unsavory", when in fact the benefits are nothing short of wondrous. The reason we feel young again is because we have the hormones back that we once had.
Over-training is a reality, since your muscle needs a full week or more to recoup and rebuild. Without the rest, you are tearing it down again before it had a chance to reach it's full growth from the last workout, and thus it never gets the chance to fully blossom.
LOTS of guys are resistant to this idea, and over-train regardless, just as they fail to correct poor workout technique, or fail to rehab injuries and try to "work through" the pain. All the above are counter productive.
One of the many absurdities in popular belief is the vilification of steroids. None of the so-called adverse side effects can happen to someone taking recommended dosages...all the horror stories are fabricated —when is the last time you heard about anyone dying from steroids, or ending up in the ER? We are inundated by unsafe drugs at every turn, but instead of focusing on deaths and injury from all of those, the media loves to focus on steroids.
It's a safe hot-button issue, as no one defends steroids. But if your doc is willing, a therapeutic dose (as opposed to the illegal mega-doses that some bodybuilders abuse) would definitely harden you up, and have many other benefits, including well-being overall.
I cannot take steroids for the same reason I can't take testo, but steroids are a miracle pharmaceutical that have saved millions of lives, including hundreds of thousands of AIDS patients who would have never lived long enough to see the dawn of the drugs that have made AIDS a manageable disease.
My partner Alex in the video with me is a physician and an AIDS specialist, and also has a thriving bodybuilder clientele, because he is one himself. So my info and experience comes from 7 years with him.
Work out intensely, then REST. I hope you are working just one body part per session...that way it has a week to recoup before you work it again.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Tendonitis?
Question:
Your video clip on how to handle a shoulder injury was spot on and I'm hoping you have some advice on tendentious elbow. I'm pushing my way through some discomfort but definitely I'm avoiding pull ups some curls are an issue but I've been able to handle it.
Answer
"Pushing through" any injury is counter productive.
I have been injured MANY times, and if I did not take the time off to heal (you can always work legs when the tendonitis is flaring up), and rethought my technique, I would not still be in top shape.
The basis of my video is NOT over extending on any exercise, as that's what causes most joint problems. The stress and focus in every exercise has to be on the target muscle itself, and never the joints, or surrounding muscles. They call it the "mind-muscle connection".
I realize from experience that it is hard to step back, rethink and relearn how to do exercises, but pain and injury such as tendonitis is our body's way of saying we are not focused on doing the exercise correctly.
There are a lot of exercises in the DVD but keep in mind that the MECHANICS of all exercise is the same: you have to focus completely on what the target muscle is doing, and not overextend.
Whenever I do any single arm exercise, I always pick up the weight/handle/with BOTH hands, even when I don't have any tenderness or injury, in order to AVOID injury. I want all my effort to go into the exercise, not picking up a dumbbell or barbell plate. All your energy should go into the muscle that is being targeted by any given exercise.
Give the injury a week's rest, ice it, and take ibuprofen 4X a day to keep the inflammation down.
Your video clip on how to handle a shoulder injury was spot on and I'm hoping you have some advice on tendentious elbow. I'm pushing my way through some discomfort but definitely I'm avoiding pull ups some curls are an issue but I've been able to handle it.
Answer
"Pushing through" any injury is counter productive.
I have been injured MANY times, and if I did not take the time off to heal (you can always work legs when the tendonitis is flaring up), and rethought my technique, I would not still be in top shape.
The basis of my video is NOT over extending on any exercise, as that's what causes most joint problems. The stress and focus in every exercise has to be on the target muscle itself, and never the joints, or surrounding muscles. They call it the "mind-muscle connection".
I realize from experience that it is hard to step back, rethink and relearn how to do exercises, but pain and injury such as tendonitis is our body's way of saying we are not focused on doing the exercise correctly.
There are a lot of exercises in the DVD but keep in mind that the MECHANICS of all exercise is the same: you have to focus completely on what the target muscle is doing, and not overextend.
Whenever I do any single arm exercise, I always pick up the weight/handle/with BOTH hands, even when I don't have any tenderness or injury, in order to AVOID injury. I want all my effort to go into the exercise, not picking up a dumbbell or barbell plate. All your energy should go into the muscle that is being targeted by any given exercise.
Give the injury a week's rest, ice it, and take ibuprofen 4X a day to keep the inflammation down.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
The Magic Pill Syndrome
I got a call from someone searching for guests for a radio show on chronic back pain. Since I had chronic back pain in my early 30s and cured it, and have helped many others do the same, she was all gung-ho ...until I told her that the cure was losing weight, strength training to build all the supporting muscles in the back, and a gravity apparatus that many gyms have that allow people to safely stretch their spines and supporting muscles.
She was at least honest when she said "Our listeners frankly do not want to hear the same old-same-old. They do not want to lose weight and they certainly do not want to start lifting weights!!"
I said, "Exactly. They have a problem caused by their lifestyle which will be relieved or even cured when they change their lifestyle, and you're going to help enable them not to change their lifestyle and cure their pain by offering snake oil cures and wacko advice from new age shamans ".
She hung up on me. Imagine that.
She was at least honest when she said "Our listeners frankly do not want to hear the same old-same-old. They do not want to lose weight and they certainly do not want to start lifting weights!!"
I said, "Exactly. They have a problem caused by their lifestyle which will be relieved or even cured when they change their lifestyle, and you're going to help enable them not to change their lifestyle and cure their pain by offering snake oil cures and wacko advice from new age shamans ".
She hung up on me. Imagine that.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
What's Up With GNC and Vitamin World?
The world evolves as certain companies staunchly keep their feet planted in the stone age. These two has-beens have always required you to pay a fee to join their "club" in order to get a different pricing tier, which is insulting to other potential customers who refuse to pony up the extra dough. It's a matter of self esteem, I feel, not to participate in stores that require you to pay a fee to shop there or get better pricing.
Buy your supplements ONLINE, they are much cheaper, arrive fast and come in a far wider variety.
GNC's own store brand of whey protein has scary sky-high cholesterol, 70 grams per serving, while IsoPure only has 10 grams of cholesterol per serving. Read labels online and compare. Do not compare number of servings in a package; instead, note the number of grams of protein contained in each serving, multiply by the number of servings in the package to get the total of protein grams contained in that package, then divide that number into the price to see the cost per gram of protein.
I have no affiliation to any online retailer, but I find that A1supplements.com have the best prices and an enormous selection. http://www.a1supplements.com/
Buy your supplements ONLINE, they are much cheaper, arrive fast and come in a far wider variety.
GNC's own store brand of whey protein has scary sky-high cholesterol, 70 grams per serving, while IsoPure only has 10 grams of cholesterol per serving. Read labels online and compare. Do not compare number of servings in a package; instead, note the number of grams of protein contained in each serving, multiply by the number of servings in the package to get the total of protein grams contained in that package, then divide that number into the price to see the cost per gram of protein.
I have no affiliation to any online retailer, but I find that A1supplements.com have the best prices and an enormous selection. http://www.a1supplements.com/
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Using Diet To Enhance The Look Of Your Muscles
Diet is a balancing act: calories in vs. calories out is the simplest way to explain diet.
If you want to lose fat that may be covering your abs, or keeping your arms from looking razor-sharp, try cutting back on fats and carbs. You can still eat enough food so as not to feel deprived by choosing those foods wisely.
Low-fat and non-fat is an obvious choice in dairy and other foods. Frozen dinners, restaurant food and any food prepared by others will contain much more fat than you want, so making your own food is the answer. Trouble is, most people don't want to spend the time shopping, prepping and cooking, so serious members of the fitness community resort to the simplest foods, such as chicken breasts, broccoli, oatmeal and other classic bodybuilder foods. Their goal to look a certain way supercedes their desire to indulge their cravings and tastebuds. But if you cook, the choices available in the low-fat, low-carb category expand exponentially in relation to your eagerness to create tasty meals.
For starters, buy non-fat products and cut back on carbs, such as bread, pasta and rice. We need carbs to fuel our workouts and provide energy, so experiment to find a balance between fat loss and a good level of energy retention.
The best way to lose fat is slowly, so you don't lose hard-won muscle along with it. Crash diets will decimate your physique.
No food satisfies as much or for as long as having a great physique does.
If you want to lose fat that may be covering your abs, or keeping your arms from looking razor-sharp, try cutting back on fats and carbs. You can still eat enough food so as not to feel deprived by choosing those foods wisely.
Low-fat and non-fat is an obvious choice in dairy and other foods. Frozen dinners, restaurant food and any food prepared by others will contain much more fat than you want, so making your own food is the answer. Trouble is, most people don't want to spend the time shopping, prepping and cooking, so serious members of the fitness community resort to the simplest foods, such as chicken breasts, broccoli, oatmeal and other classic bodybuilder foods. Their goal to look a certain way supercedes their desire to indulge their cravings and tastebuds. But if you cook, the choices available in the low-fat, low-carb category expand exponentially in relation to your eagerness to create tasty meals.
For starters, buy non-fat products and cut back on carbs, such as bread, pasta and rice. We need carbs to fuel our workouts and provide energy, so experiment to find a balance between fat loss and a good level of energy retention.
The best way to lose fat is slowly, so you don't lose hard-won muscle along with it. Crash diets will decimate your physique.
No food satisfies as much or for as long as having a great physique does.
Flexsolate Straps Help You Keep Your Mind Focused
I do not work for Flexsolate or have any promotional ties with the company. This is a fine product that allows you to do what is so difficult to do otherwise: isolate your target muscle.
By removing your hand from the exercise, and thus your wrist and forearm, all your focus can be placed on the target muscle as you exercise, allowing for faster improvements with no extra work or time involved. These straps are especially excellent for back exercises, an area many people have problems developing.
Watch the video to see how they work:
By removing your hand from the exercise, and thus your wrist and forearm, all your focus can be placed on the target muscle as you exercise, allowing for faster improvements with no extra work or time involved. These straps are especially excellent for back exercises, an area many people have problems developing.
Watch the video to see how they work:
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Nancy Snyderman Quacks
Steroids may not exactly be harmless when abused or taken in extreme doses, but they are far less a threat to the user than large doses of Tylenol and other over-the-counter uncontrolled pharmaceuticals. Like any pharmaceutical, when taken as prescribed, steroids and Tylenol are mostly benign, or else neither would have won FDA approval. The media loves to get all inflamed about steroids because they are a safe distraction, a hot-button issue employed to rile up those ignorant of the easily-learned facts. I do not take steroids, or even testosterone, although I legally qualify for both under a doctor's supervision.
MSNBC's "Dr." Nancy Snyderman is one of a virtual army of amped-up talking heads spouting nonsense in all directions, and I'm pretty weary of these goons who never stop vomiting untruths, half-truths and outright lies all over us.
It's bad enough that the general public is completely ignorant when it comes to the subject of steroids, but a so-called doctor spouting lies right there on my TV is outrageous. Anything for a chance to bump up your ratings a bit, eh, Nance?
Preposterously and recklessly inferring that most commercial popular protein powders contain steroids, even though her two talking-head guests told her she was mistaken, Nancy rolled right over their insolence at not blindly supporting her bogus claims and dusted off the time-worn TV graphic outlining all the nasty "side effects" of steroid use, which are absolutely bogus. These side effects could possibly --but not necessarily-- occur as a result of long-term steroid abuse, but not by taking prescribed dosages.
Such extreme side effects from steroids would require extreme dosages taken over long time periods to do such harm, just as aspirin, cough syrup or any other pharmaceutical would.
Steroids are a safe hot-button issue that boneheads like Nancy Syderman, et al, roll out on a slow news day or during ratings sweeps so they can act all enraged without anyone calling them on the carpet for it.
So, I'm calling you out, Nancy. You're an irresponsible fraud.
By the way, one of the side effects of Tylenol is death, yet any five year old can purchase it at the corner convenience store. 53,000 Americans ended up in the nation's emergency rooms last year due to Tylenol reactions. 100 of these died. Oh, but Tylenol is one of your sponsors, aren't they Nancy? Yeah. Well, you sure don't want to piss them off by passing these statistics on to your viewers, now, do you?
MSNBC's "Dr." Nancy Snyderman is one of a virtual army of amped-up talking heads spouting nonsense in all directions, and I'm pretty weary of these goons who never stop vomiting untruths, half-truths and outright lies all over us.
It's bad enough that the general public is completely ignorant when it comes to the subject of steroids, but a so-called doctor spouting lies right there on my TV is outrageous. Anything for a chance to bump up your ratings a bit, eh, Nance?
Preposterously and recklessly inferring that most commercial popular protein powders contain steroids, even though her two talking-head guests told her she was mistaken, Nancy rolled right over their insolence at not blindly supporting her bogus claims and dusted off the time-worn TV graphic outlining all the nasty "side effects" of steroid use, which are absolutely bogus. These side effects could possibly --but not necessarily-- occur as a result of long-term steroid abuse, but not by taking prescribed dosages.
Such extreme side effects from steroids would require extreme dosages taken over long time periods to do such harm, just as aspirin, cough syrup or any other pharmaceutical would.
Steroids are a safe hot-button issue that boneheads like Nancy Syderman, et al, roll out on a slow news day or during ratings sweeps so they can act all enraged without anyone calling them on the carpet for it.
So, I'm calling you out, Nancy. You're an irresponsible fraud.
By the way, one of the side effects of Tylenol is death, yet any five year old can purchase it at the corner convenience store. 53,000 Americans ended up in the nation's emergency rooms last year due to Tylenol reactions. 100 of these died. Oh, but Tylenol is one of your sponsors, aren't they Nancy? Yeah. Well, you sure don't want to piss them off by passing these statistics on to your viewers, now, do you?
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Eat Whatever You Want, Whenever You Want It
In my 20s and 30s I was quite the industrious baker. I made killer oatmeal cookies, amazing carrot cake that people who hated carrot cake loved, and lots and lots of home-baked bread. And more often than not it all disappeared within a few hours. If I baked cookies, that was my meal, or meals, that day.
I knew this was not healthy eating, and even though I only did it periodically, I began to think about what, other than taste, was my reward for this. And the answer for me was, there wasn't any.
Although this was not my intention, in realizing my life was not better or happier because I ate whatever, whenever —and indeed I felt and looked unhealthier— led quietly to the quieting of my cravings. When I turn down a dessert, friends look at me like I'm crazy, or as if I am making some huge sacrifice. They're even threatened, because I can say no effortlessly —and genuinely mean it.
Overeating is an emotional problem, not a physical one. Nobody is 50 pounds overweight because they are physically hungry: it's because they are emotionally hungry.
Wanting food —the amount, the type— is an emotional decision for most people. People put the weight back on when they end their diet because they ended their diet. Who is too stupid to make this connection? Apparently, millions, as witnessed by their astonishment that returning to the eating habits that made them fat in the first place causes them to return to their previous condition of excess weight, and the self-righteous claim that "diets don't work".
Until we understand why we want certain foods in excess amounts, nothing will really change. The trouble is, most people don't want to find out, as most emotional eating stems from an unpleasant experience they have yet to deal with.
I knew this was not healthy eating, and even though I only did it periodically, I began to think about what, other than taste, was my reward for this. And the answer for me was, there wasn't any.
Although this was not my intention, in realizing my life was not better or happier because I ate whatever, whenever —and indeed I felt and looked unhealthier— led quietly to the quieting of my cravings. When I turn down a dessert, friends look at me like I'm crazy, or as if I am making some huge sacrifice. They're even threatened, because I can say no effortlessly —and genuinely mean it.
Overeating is an emotional problem, not a physical one. Nobody is 50 pounds overweight because they are physically hungry: it's because they are emotionally hungry.
Wanting food —the amount, the type— is an emotional decision for most people. People put the weight back on when they end their diet because they ended their diet. Who is too stupid to make this connection? Apparently, millions, as witnessed by their astonishment that returning to the eating habits that made them fat in the first place causes them to return to their previous condition of excess weight, and the self-righteous claim that "diets don't work".
Until we understand why we want certain foods in excess amounts, nothing will really change. The trouble is, most people don't want to find out, as most emotional eating stems from an unpleasant experience they have yet to deal with.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
My New DVD Is Finally Here!
It's one thing to explain in a book how to work out —because I can go into great detail when using the written word— and quite another to be able to actually show you exactly what things should look like. That's the beauty of having a DVD in which I can guide you through a workout.
I have always said that it isn't the exercises you choose that will take you to your goal, it's how you do the exercise. The principal is always the same. The mechanics of performing all bodybuilding/fitness exercises are identical.
People always want to know "What exercises do you do?" thinking the answer for them lies in specific exercises, when in fact your results will be measured in how you perform any given exercise. How you perform an exercise will make all the difference between little progress, and enormous progress.
Let me take you to the gym with me and I'll show you exactly how to work out to obtain greatly accelerated results.
My DVD WORKOUT PhD is available from my website at:
http://www.discoveringhawaii.com/Reclaim_Your_Youth__Growing_Younger_After_40_Book.html
I have always said that it isn't the exercises you choose that will take you to your goal, it's how you do the exercise. The principal is always the same. The mechanics of performing all bodybuilding/fitness exercises are identical.
People always want to know "What exercises do you do?" thinking the answer for them lies in specific exercises, when in fact your results will be measured in how you perform any given exercise. How you perform an exercise will make all the difference between little progress, and enormous progress.
Let me take you to the gym with me and I'll show you exactly how to work out to obtain greatly accelerated results.
My DVD WORKOUT PhD is available from my website at:
http://www.discoveringhawaii.com/Reclaim_Your_Youth__Growing_Younger_After_40_Book.html
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