Should you run gear?

This was originally posted by Iron Addict over at http://www.anabolic-support.com

Iron Addict knows his sh!t! He posts on many boards, and many of his articles have become "must reads" in our community.

If you are trying to decide whether or not gear or PH are for you, read the article. Then go from there.

Bodybuilding Drugs (do you need them?)
I will start this out by saying that I am sickened by the posts I see on many boards by 16-18 year old kids that have been training for sometimes only MONTHS that are asking about how to best go about using pro-hormones or steroids. Let’s get something strait first. Unless you are at LEAST 21 you have no right even considering doing them. WHY? Well, if you need to ask that, you haven’t done your homework and you should be disqualified already.

Now that we are talking about 21+ year olds, lets make a few more distinctions.

1. How long have you been training?
1.1 How long have you been training CORRECTLY (for YOUR body) and dieting correctly.

Even if you have been training for 10 years and have been doing a bunch of stupid “pro” style training and eating like a little old lady, you haven’t really been training yet. I know, because I did the same thing for over 10 years and made about zero progress. I knew a bunch about bodybuilding, except how to train myself at a volume and frequency level I could recover from, and how to feed myself properly. But I could tell you EVERYTHING about all the “pro’s” and how they did it—USELESS!!!!

Now what about if you have been training for 3-5 years and have actually made great progress? What constitutes great progress? I’ll go out on a limb here and give you some generic lift numbers that translate pretty good in the real world for average (if there is such a thing) trainees.

A bench of at LEAST 250-300 lbs for at least a few reps
Dipping with at LEAST 75+ strapped to your waist for 6-8 reps
Rows and/or pull-downs with at LEAST 200 for 6-8 reps
Military or dumbbell shoulder press with at LEAST 150-175 for 6-8 reps
Squatting/deadlifting at LEAST 350 for 6-8 reps

And yes, some people may be dismally low at 1 or 2 of the lifts due to bad leverages, abnormally low slow twitch fiber composition, etc. but if you can’t hit at least 3 out of 5 of those numbers, or you are a very short/small statured trainee, you need to get your training and diet in order and pay some more dues. If these numbers seem light years away, or totally out of your reach you probably don’t have the big factors of training and diet even remotely dialed. Simple as that! MOST trainees can and will hit, or come very close to these numbers while training clean. But…..most are miles away…

So……..they decide to get involved with gear way before it’s time. Then before they are willing to even pay their dues about learning about proper gear/ph use, post cycle therapy, and all the ins and outs, they ask a few questions on the forums that are often responded to by another young inexperienced trainee and have their way with it.

AFTER I could squat and deadlift 400 for 10 reps and bench 300 for reps I decided I wanted to try gear. I then spent a year and a half studying EVERYTHING I could get my hands on before I tried a moderate short cycle of 8 weeks of test and deca. Granted I’m pretty dense and most people would be able to come up with a well thought-out plan in less than the year and a half it took me. But the point is unless you are willing to learn everything you can from reliable sources you just should be dabbling.

Now, back to the original question of the topic. Do you REALLY need to use bodybuilding drugs? This answer will greatly vary depending on what you want your physique to look like. The chances are slim for the average guy, with average genetics to build even a mid-level competitive physique without them, but MOST guys are not really looking to be that big anyway. Most guys want a lean strong looking physique that will turn heads wherever they go, and want to be able to take their shirt off and be proud. And you don’t need 19-inch arms to do that.

Now the sad part. I come across people all the time doing gram plus a week gear and PH cycles that don’t even look like they train and can’t bench 200 for 10 or squat 275 for 10. This is primarily because they are clueless about how to eat and train, and believe the gear will iron-out all these mistakes—THEY ARE WRONG! Unless you know how to grow clean, you are unlikely to be successful in the long term by simply throwing a bunch of gear at the problem.

This is bodybuilding turned upside down and inside out. If you can’t make pretty fair gains training clean and invest some time to build your poundage’s up before jumping on the gear wagon, you need to reevaluate your training/diet, and you commitment to this sport, no matter what you reasons are for being involved with it.

Everyone who has read my posts knows I am not anti-PH/Steroid, but the horse must come before the cart.

Iron Addict