Wow!!! I spelled his name correctly. Kudos to me–smiley face here.
We all know that he is huge, that he works hard pumping iron–that was the name of one of his early movies, wasn’t it, and that he has won a bunch of body-building tournaments, but can you honestly tell me that you have never questioned whether, at a particular juncture in his life, he employed muscle enhancing drugs to improve on his already impressive muscular frame?
So, does any of you know the real story behind his muscles?
Actually, he’s toned down a bit, most notably in Eraser. Sure, he was still chiseled for that film, but compare him with some of his '80s Mindless-Action films, he practically looked like Pee-Wee Herman.
Anyway, he probably did take some “supplements”, although I think it’s fairly obvious that he’s managed to stay clean for the past couple of decades, lest the news media would have had a field day with it. I think the real question should be “How many, how much?”
And he did undergo heart surgery in the last couple years, and certain types of heart problems can be caused by excessive steroid use. I never saw any exact description of the problem or its possible cause.
Drug use among the champs is said to be rampant; many do not compete every year. They tend to say it’s to “pace” their training but it’s really just so they can go on a longer drug cycle. - MC
I remember about ten years ago Arnold told Letterman that he had switched to a maintenance-type schedule of lifting which would keep him less bulky than he had been. He claimed that by maintaining this schedule, he only had to spend about half the time he would need to be his usual Commando-sized self, but could work back up to monster-size in six weeks if he needed to–without steroids.
That sounded plausible to me, except the no-steroid part.
It has long been assumed (actually, taken for granted) in the body-building world that Arnold used steroids in the past to achieve that size. However, he always denied it.
When he had that heart surgery a few years back (I believe one of his heart valves burned out and he needed a heart valve replacement), anti-steroid people leaned on him hard to go public and admit that he took steroids. The idea was that the anti-steroid movement needs a public figure to serve as an example of the harm of steroids, and Schwarzy could do a world of good to keep people off steroids. But Schwarzy’s spokespeople still wouldn’t admit that he ever took steroids. Furthermore, they pointed out that steroid damage doesn’t usually manifest itself as damage to the heart valves. They blamed a congenital problem of some sort.
I read all this in an article in a body-building magazine at the time of his heart problem.
A year or two later, it was discovered that the dieting drug phen-fen (spelling? fen-phen?) was causing damage to heart valves. Since dieting is a big part of the regime of body-builders (getting fat content down in order to show off muscle), there’s a good case for concluding that phen-fen was the source of Arnold’s problem. But I’ve never read anything that actually confirmed this hypothesis of mine.
Let’s face it if you abuse anything it will harm you. What if you just did a couple of cycles of decca or test200 just to get big would that really hurt you?
And yes I think Arnold did steroids. I bet all “winners” of body building competition use steroids.
I don’t know much about steroids, and I don’t have any need for them. Judging by all the bad press about them, I wouldn’t touch them outside of a purely medical setting. (I hear they’re good medicine when applied locally by a doctor for some tendon and joint injuries.)
My personal reason that steroids have so much bad press is because of sports or such a big deal in this country. And they feel steroids are cheating. And they probably are as far as sports. But what about the guy that just wants to gain some muscle mass. Why should the gov’t stop his or her use. What business is it of theirs?
Like I said, I just don’t know much about steroids, so I can’t provide any useful input other than the general negative impression I’ve gained from some light reading in muscle magazines in the past. Maybe some other posters can help you out.
But at the very least I would advise you to do some reading on the subject before you get involved with steroids. Muscle magazines have occasional articles on the subject, and you can walk into most bookstores or fitness/health stores and ask for literature on the subject. If you’re honestly thinking about using steriods, then at the very least be an educated consumer.
And I seriously doubt that the bad press about steroids is the result of a conspiracy. Steroids are a medical drug, and they are a pretty strong drug at that. I really doubt that amateurs (in other words, people outside the medical field) should be abusing them.
How is it so strong? And as far as hurting you the gov’t lets you smoke and chew tobacco both proven to hurt you but they are legal. Why?
Steroids are a class 2 felony(if I remember right) that is at the same level as cocaine, acid, and crystal meth. I don’t think they should be considered that illegal after all doctors use them. I mean at the least the should be a misdeaminor like pot.
I just did a search on steroids to see if there have been any other threads on the subject recently. It turns out there was a discussion on the subject today in the General Questions forum, complete with lots of medical information and links on the subject. It looks like you can get some useful answers over there. I honestly don’t know enough about the subject to help you much one way or the other. If the following link doesn’t work, then go to the General Questions forum and look for “Steroids.”