Why High Dosing For Bodybuilding?

I’ve never done steroids and I’m not asking for information on how to. I simply have a question. (duh)

I recently read a very old article of a cyclist who did steroids to finnish the tour de france. He was a good cyclist before he did this.

He went to a life extensionist doctor and got testosterone injections along with HGH and a few other drugs. The entire cycle wasnt covered in much detail. However discussion of the results and how he discussed his cycle with bodybuilders was. Mainly how he was “picked on” for being such a wuss as he dosed very low. However he claimed everything from increases in mass, fat loss, improved eye sight, better skin and hair, sex drive, etc.

So iam curious, if these claims are accurate why do bodybuilders dose high? When there seem to be decent life enhancing effects at low levels? Is this simply a difference because a bodybuilder is trying to support a larger mass while an athlete is using it to enhance recovery between things like conditioning workouts? I cant find anything on the net about steroids affecting other aspects of performance then raw muscle mass.

It allmost looks like bodybuilders use of steroids has corrupted athletes use of drugs in mentality. Much like how they used to structure training programs for athletes by body part.

Please enlighten me.

People are using steroids to replace hard training and a good nutrition plan. Period.

I believe this is what is giving steroids a bad wrap these days. It should be used as a training aid, not the whole training. I am not one to argue about the dosages or training. I just think if you look at a lot of bodybuilders from the 70s and see them now, most of them are still in pretty good shape. Despite being 50+ years old. Now if you look at today?s bodybuilders, you will see as soon as they retire, they seem to shrivel like grapes in the sun, after one year or so. Example: Craig (I burn bitches) Titus

paytonsp

[quote]paytonsp wrote:
People are using steroids to replace hard training and a good nutrition plan. Period.[/quote]

There are bad apples in every bunch. I would say the majority of people use steroids as a supplement to hard training and proper diet. I for one love how much better I feel while “on”, and the gains that I have made would have taken many more years to achieve. There is nothing wrong with doing this natty, but I for one am impatient, and had been curious to try them since I had begun lifting.

But, there are plenty of morons out there sticking a needle in there ass that have no business doing so (MTV true life springs to mind)

Monopoly

here is the article… makes a good read

http://outside.away.com/outside/bodywork/200311/200311_drug_test_1.html

Steroids follow a dose respondant curve, with regards to strength and weight gain. That means the more you take, the more you gain.

Professional Bodybuilders want to gain as much as possible, so they typically take as much as possible.

You answered your own question through intuition. Most atheletes, especially endurance atheletes (like the biker you read about) will take low doses of steroids based on their goals. They want to benefit from the increase in RBC count, increased recovery, and overall “good” feeling (this could be in the form of strength and/or endurance increases).
They don’t want to put slabs of meat on themselves, or gain any water weight … mainly because this is unproductive dead weight for them. So they don’t jack up the dose.
And like some other points made already. Today’s bb’s are carrying a ton of muscle that they need to maintain so the dose will be high. Just like a medication given to a horse will be a much larger dose than that given to a dog. And (as AR stated) there is a dose response curve. In some cases you can get into the saturation points if you dose too high, and some do. But most will be in the effective range for muscle growth…which will still be much higher than what an athelete not concerned with muscle growth would be taking.

Would you guys say that the normal people who are taking these drugs without the best training or nutrition are using doses too high?

Like the article posted above, which is the one i was refering to, the athlete seemed to benefit having increases most people would be happy with. All whilst at low dosages. Maybe im just being too anal about this. People are stupid. I thought, maybe incorrectly, that steroids could be used to effect things such as gpp and metabolic work so that higher levels of work performed more often would allow more muscle growth seperate from the levels of steroids used.

I actually was envisioning a T-Nation article about steroids similar to Berardi’s tailor made nutrition. Hey, am i the only one that daydreams about good T-Nation articles? Particulary about monitoring of the variables related to side effects whilst incredmentally raising doses.

One day i would like to give them a try. Not right now, but i would like to understand right now if that makes sense. Maybe i should buy a book.

Great article but it took a turn for the worst near the end. It sounds like the author was more cheap and lazy than anything. Drugs were too expensive and daily injections were too inconvient.

[quote]E-man wrote:
Great article but it took a turn for the worst near the end. It sounds like the author was more cheap and lazy than anything. Drugs were too expensive and daily injections were too inconvient.
[/quote]

I was thinking the same thing.

I know that for me, I need to take under a gram per week, or I get too big for my sport.

In bodybuilding there’s no such limitation- hence the large doses.