FLEX Magazine - Hate Mail On Steroid Users and Abuse

[RoNNy THe BuLL]

Pretty interesting stuff. It's from April 2004, but I don't remember reading it?

How could FLEX try to make a positive example out of Tom Prince's story? He truly learned a lesson by cutting back his steroid use to one-third of what it used to be? FLEX is irresponsible to promote such drugs. Even if the views expressed were Tom Prince's, FLEX printed the article so that millions of people could read that doing a few steroids is not bad. The magazine is also liable because it makes these bodybuilders bigger-than-life heroes.

I know too many people that take steroids because they are conned into believing only good things about the drugs. I love the assertion Prince made that steroids are just a little piece of his training--I guess that is why no one in the sport trains without them. Ask a doctor about what these drugs can do and you will be told they destroy lives. I think I will believe a respectable physician with decades of experience rather than a bodybuilding guru. Bodybuilding could be a wonderful sport, but it will never excel until the steroid mentality is gone and we see true natural competition. It will never be a respected sport or in the Olympics until it sheds this image. I guess as long as people want to see drug freaks, it will not change, but I believe FLEX could help change the sport. Every day, teenagers pick up this magazine to learn how to become like these monsters, and they get the impression that the only way is not through training or diet, but hard drugs.

Via e-mail

Joseph Mahaffey

Chattanooga, TN

I have been a bodybuilding fan and hobby participant for over 40 years. I date back to the old Strength & Health days, and I am knowledgeable about the current scene and stars. I am disturbed that the sport has turned away from the goal of health. Here are some examples.

* Ronnie Coleman weighing 280-something and gaining 40 pounds of muscle in one year.

* Tom Prince needing an organ transplant.

* The assorted muscle tears suffered by Dorian Yates, Kevin Levrone and others.

* The masculinization of female bodybuilders.

You know where all this is coming from: the rampant use of a wide assortment of steroids and other drugs. It is even en vogue to admit to such use now. It is time to stop promoting this madness. It is time to demand that all bodybuilding participants submit to a comprehensive blood test. Only those who have all items within range are to be allowed to compete. This is a true health measurement--vital organ and circulatory system health.

Via e-mail

Terry Strean

Plymouth, MI

Once again, your magazine amazes me by the way you promote drug abuse in the so-called "sport" of professional bodybuilding. The article about Tom Prince was mindblowing. Here's a guy who almost dies from drug abuse, and his solution is to cut his steroid use to one-third what it was and get blood tests. Hello! I do not feel sorry for the so-called athletes who get sick and die from steroids. They have nobody to blame but themselves.

Chris Sheerin

West Islip, NY

Peter McGough hit the nail on the head with his editorial in the January 2004 issue, "Redemption ... But at What Cost?" We all heard the [Mr. Olympia] precontest hype, and for those of us in attendance, Ronnie Coleman's size and conditioning were nothing less than remarkable. But I couldn't help wondering--at what cost? In a sport that has all but abandoned the quest for an aesthetic physique in favor of huge hard slabs of mass, the outcome of the 2003 Olympia perpetuates the trend. And as exceptional as Coleman's appearance was, one can hardly imagine that the path to get there was a healthy one--echoed further in the article about Tom Prince and his tragic struggle with kidney failure, a condition that has plagued several other pros in recent years.

Striving to be the greatest is not without its sacrifices, nor without risk. It is likely the willingness to accept these risks and sacrifices that help to drive one to the top. At the same time, however, a message is sent out that this behavior is acceptable for everyone, including young aspiring athletes, who may not have the maturity of judgment to make wise choices. I hope that these young readers are catching the editorials and the tough articles about illness and injury, and not just looking at the pictures and reading the ads!

Via e-mail

Richard Silverman, MD

Brighton, MA

FLEX welcomes letters from readers: Praise us, trash us, whatever, but please write. Send correspondence to Talkback, FLEX, 21100 Erwin Street, Woodland Hills CA 91367. FLEX reserves the right to edit and condense letters for publication. Please include your name, address and phone number for verification purposes.

ATTENTION READERS You can e-mail your letters directly to FLEX at [email protected].

COPYRIGHT 2004 Weider Publications
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group

[decadbal]

i remember when that came out... screw flex for betraying our side..

[DADDYDBOL]

Ask a doctor about what these drugs can do and you will be told they destroy lives. I think I will believe a respectable physician with decades of experience rather than a bodybuilding guru.

i would rather listen to a guru with 10+ years under his belt than some doctor that has only read what the possible side effects could be if not used safely...

I do not feel sorry for the so-called athletes who get sick and die from steroids. They have nobody to blame but themselves.

fine....we do it knowing full well lthe potential side effects and to be honest probably know more than a doctor about what these drugs do to you....really how many bodybuilders die from steroid use ? compared to rec drugs and alchol i think i'll stick with gear....dumbass

sorry those two lines p_issed me off....

[BUYLONGTERM]

Well, I did talk with my dr. about steroids . HE HAD NO CLUE. He had to look up Testosterone in his Palm pilot and then begin to tell me the side effects....

[cpt steele]

I hate all media on this subject.....

[w_rballs]

Well, I did talk with my dr. about steroids. HE HAD NO CLUE. He had to look up Testosterone in his Palm pilot and then begin to tell me the side effects....

my endo had to do the same thing when i memtioned the different ester of test to him, cause he asked what i knew about steroids . and to comment on what the one desuch said about rather how he would rather listen to his doc then some bodybuilder guru..... shut up u mororn!! i will take real world first hand experience, over book theory and stuff like that anyday... jsut like cpt steele said... **** THE MEDIA!!!!!!!!

[RussianVodka]

I don't care how Ronnie got his muscles. I want to see huge freaks!!! Go Ronnie, go!!!

[ripsid]

Flex has "tried to talk about the positives" of bodybuilding and the "non-medicimal side" of bodybuilding. I wrote than fat shlub McGough and he never even replied back or acknowleged my letter. If you remember after David Pecker bought Flex, MF etc, McGough wrote a letter from the editor about how flex won't talk about the drugs. I wrote him saying you show pics of these monster guys (and they are ALL monsters not just ronnie, but all of them are just freaks) and advertise how using this supplement or that supplement got him from 280 to 215 shredded in 6 months. You don't write that along with this supplement he was using GH, Slin, winny, primo fina etc...granted, drugs are not the whole reason so or so got this way...but you cannot CAN'T deny the effect they play in pre-contest prep!
Also, you see these before and afters...I know a guy that was chosen for one of those...you think he only used MuscleTech products to get there???? F*K NO!!! The guy was using winny, test prop, clen , T3, and fina! He won $5k and is a photo shoot for an advertisement.
Anyways, Flex is trying to take BBing main stream...in all honesty, what should be mainstream is the true effects that AAS have on someone using them. That there has been little to NO testing done that has proven that AAS will kill you...everything is assumptive and unsubstantiated.
Lyle Alzado came out saying he got brain cancer from AAS...it has never been proven that AAS can cause cancer!! All the negatives of AAS can be managed and basically negated with the use of Anti'e's etc.
Tom Prince, flex wheeler and the other BB's who have had issues need to comeout and say, HAD I USED THEM PROPERLY I WOULD NOT HAVE HAD THESE PROBLEMS! That if he didn't eat Abombs, Dbols etc like they were GD juju bee's for extensive time periods this would not have happened.
Flex already writes for MD talking about the ABUSE! that he did with these items. It's there responsibility to tell the truth, that Drugs weren't the problem there miss use was! When pro's are using 4g+ a week of test etc for 8months of the year and are just blatently OVERUSE of AAS that's a problem... when someone uses responsible doses and takes all the precautions needed, and doesn't abuse these items...you should have the right!
If anyone had read my Diary you will remember the BS I went through hell...my wife found out blah blah blah...once she found out FACTS! about them and understood proper use and we got the GRAY BS out of the picture she understood. She fwd to me an article that said a doctor "believed" and "assummptive" "hypothetically speaking" were all key words. I told her to do research on the Dr. he was a pediatrition with NO background in sports, sports medicine, steroid research and/or testing. Propaganda at it's finest.
I was in a group convo here at work where the question was steroids ..I said, if I could I would (i already had) my buddy says but do you know that they do this and that...I went forth explained THE TRUTH to him, that speculation and rampant mispress has corrupted the common persons mind. That if he can provide to me a documented studied and well proven research that shows the direct use of AAS that it would be the 1st! He had no idea, I explained to them on a vague "outsiders" perspective...they were all blown away by FACT!

Back to FLEX, they have proven that lieing is the way to selling there product. To not inform the readers of the Truth's is irresponsible and they need to be reprimanded.
What does it say when the only emails, letters, mimiographs what ever , that they post are ones that support THERE stance...or vision of Bodybuilding.
As freaky as Ronnie is, his strength is the most impressive...he's a cock strong MFer and I don't think it's all gear...he's known to use minimal amounts of AAS, more like more managable and responsible amounts. (That was in an article from md that said the owner of metroplex was talking about his use of AAS).
Anyways, FLEX is BS... and will never make it to my Bathroom Library...where all the good BBing reading takes placE!

SID

[khurrams]

Mankind is never happy.....They are always bitching and whining about something or the other.......yes juice can be dangerous if precautions are not taken but I think there are more people dying of rec drug abuse, smoking and drinking than people doing a few cycles safely a year.....Whatever is in your destiny is deemed to happen but if u'r living a healthy lifestyle and just giving yourself a lil boost by using juice every now and then smartly....I think its much healthier than blowing a line or popping a pill or doing a cap of G and totally fvcking your insides with a possible chance of ODing....my .02 cents.