Why I never tried anabolic steroids
It wasn't for ethical or moral reasons
This isn’t an article to lecture people to not take steroids. Steroids are very prevalent part of American culture and sports. You may be completely against them, and unknowingly love the physique of a movie star on them. We tend to be hypocritical around this discussion.
I get the moral and ethical arguments against taking steroids, but those were not the reasons I chose not to take them. There are several reasons over the years where I just passed on it.
Firstly, I just wasn’t exposed to them playing high school soccer. It wasn’t prevalent in soccer, and I didn’t really know what steroids were at the time.
I had always loved weight lifting, yet not so much bodybuilding. I always felt that if I wanted to get bigger, I could always lift more often and harder. I didn’t want to lift weights all day. But I knew of protocols that involved 2 - 2 hour sessions a day. And I could have always increased my protein consumption. I would have tried that first.
Later I was competing in wrestling, and trying to make a certain weight class. So I didn’t want to be bumped up. I also thought my biggest weakness was endurance, and the less weights I lifted, the better my endurance.
The cost of steroids were a factor, though to be honest, I don’t know the cost since I never tried them. I just assumed I couldn’t afford them, or was gonna be cheap, i.e. “go do more push ups.”
I suppose the law, or my parents, or getting caught might have been a factor, but they were near the bottom.
A big factor was my question, “what happens when I stop?” Would I be willing to stop if I started? I’m a big believer in our bodies’ regulatory, homeostasis. The body will manage the stress and stimulus and react accordingly. If the body does not sense a need for testosterone production, it won’t waste the energy on maintaining testicular size.
Sports have had a steroid “problem”, or major success story, depending on how you look at it. I think management knew what was going on, and had to act indignant for political correctness. Steroids helped increase certain league excitement and revenue. I do get the argument about ruining some of the previous records, but would Babe have taken them, given the chance?
On the other hand, not every muscular person or athlete should be suspected of steroids just because they are muscular. Genetics plays a major role in natural muscle girth. Some people are just naturally jacked. There are many hours of work that go into building muscle. You don't just take anabolic steroids and suddenly have muscle.
Kids don’t need steroids. They are naturally on high levels of testosterone and human growth hormone. One prominent athletic trainer used to say to those kids and parents, “if you want to get bigger, just wait a year.” Which is true. Two to four inches in height, and another 15-20 pounds of body weight are not uncommon in one year of growth for some teenage athletes. There are so many hours of agility, balance, strengthening, explosiveness, power, etc. that should be completed instead.
If someone is cheating in a league that has accepted a level playing field, then that is wrong. But there are many grey areas to testosterone in popular culture. Why is there a marketing campaign called “Low T?” Why is it ok to sell “testosterone replacement therapy”, but not anabolic steroids? They are the same thing.
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