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Sassy69
New member
I concur w/ NYM -- I have put in the years of training mostly because I love it -- it provided me with something I found out I was good at, fit my sort of "loner" (or introverted or shy or whatever you want to call it) lifestyle. The gym has also been a place where I can go no matter where I move to and find at the minimum a familiar place to continue my exercising and also often meet a new set of friends with a common interest. This is extra nice for me because I've lived on the other side of the country from my nearest family members for over 16 years. Lifting has also provided me with an excellent stress outlet during the many years of college and silly job stress and living away from anyone I knew. I would also add that during those years, women did NOT generally "lift" and I had no idea how to go about competing, even if it would've been "acceptable". So I was one of the many masses who saw "steroids" as the tools of the devil which would kill you and make you look like the Missing Link.
So ... would I have pursued AS at any point in those past years if I had access to more information and sources (as w/ the internet)? Hard to say. I was very proud of the fact that I have competed twice in natural shows and gotten basically pretty fuckin good results. Do I think its necessary to do AS to achieve those goals? Hell no. Do I think its easier? Hell yes. The funny thing tho is that I'm now at an age where achieving those goals, even w/ a base of several years of training, is a little harder every year. The little aches & pains pop up more often. For those reasons, its an even more compelling argument. For someone in their late teens, early 20's -- I dont' know. Its certainly not my call for them, but given the experience I have -- I thought I trained hard all those years, until I got a dose of competition training - OMG. Anything I ever thought was hard, I found out was even harder when you are paying someone to yell at you and push you through leg day, all the while keeping in the back of your mind that the one extra rep you dont' push out before puking on that training day or that extra 10 minutes of cardio, or that one extra ounce of sweet potatoe is somethign that you are probably gonna pay for on competition day in front of the audience, when just one other competitor DID do the extra rep or 10 min of cardio or stuck to the diet just one meal stricter than you did. Now THAT"S when you really appreciate the effort. But as a result, I do have some killer development that wouldn't have come about with just 16 weeks of prep. Its partly genetics and mostly close to 20 years of lifting.
But I also have hang ups about being a perfectionist and purist --- I've always preferred to do stuff the hard way, like putting in "your time" to achieve something -- sometimes I'm proud of that tendency - I call it my Swedish / German work ethic - and other times I think I must be fucked in the head for working so hard when I could be working smart -- I call it that Swedish / German stubborn streak. So based on that, I will attempt going forward to neither promote nor deter the use of AS, except to constantly reiterate the idea that knowledge & execution of basic training & diet is a must, and the responsibility of educating one's self enough to both make intelligent decisions and take responsibility for diving in or chosing to stay natural.
Note to self: SHUT THE FUCK UP AND GET BACK TO WORK.
Thank you for your time.
So ... would I have pursued AS at any point in those past years if I had access to more information and sources (as w/ the internet)? Hard to say. I was very proud of the fact that I have competed twice in natural shows and gotten basically pretty fuckin good results. Do I think its necessary to do AS to achieve those goals? Hell no. Do I think its easier? Hell yes. The funny thing tho is that I'm now at an age where achieving those goals, even w/ a base of several years of training, is a little harder every year. The little aches & pains pop up more often. For those reasons, its an even more compelling argument. For someone in their late teens, early 20's -- I dont' know. Its certainly not my call for them, but given the experience I have -- I thought I trained hard all those years, until I got a dose of competition training - OMG. Anything I ever thought was hard, I found out was even harder when you are paying someone to yell at you and push you through leg day, all the while keeping in the back of your mind that the one extra rep you dont' push out before puking on that training day or that extra 10 minutes of cardio, or that one extra ounce of sweet potatoe is somethign that you are probably gonna pay for on competition day in front of the audience, when just one other competitor DID do the extra rep or 10 min of cardio or stuck to the diet just one meal stricter than you did. Now THAT"S when you really appreciate the effort. But as a result, I do have some killer development that wouldn't have come about with just 16 weeks of prep. Its partly genetics and mostly close to 20 years of lifting.
But I also have hang ups about being a perfectionist and purist --- I've always preferred to do stuff the hard way, like putting in "your time" to achieve something -- sometimes I'm proud of that tendency - I call it my Swedish / German work ethic - and other times I think I must be fucked in the head for working so hard when I could be working smart -- I call it that Swedish / German stubborn streak. So based on that, I will attempt going forward to neither promote nor deter the use of AS, except to constantly reiterate the idea that knowledge & execution of basic training & diet is a must, and the responsibility of educating one's self enough to both make intelligent decisions and take responsibility for diving in or chosing to stay natural.
Note to self: SHUT THE FUCK UP AND GET BACK TO WORK.
Thank you for your time.
)
