Answer:
If you can’t achieve good results naturally, you can’t achieve good results with steroids. Whether training naturally or using steroids, you still need to know what you are doing. It just so happens when you train naturally, you have to be even more on top of your game to build substantial muscle mass.
I’ll now give you several pointers for building the most muscle mass you can naturally, and at the end of the article, I’ll also explain the several instances in which you may wish to contemplate steroid usage.
Building muscle naturally:
I’ll kick this off by first of all saying if you are new to training, this is precisely what you should be doing – training naturally. You have, for the first year or so, the opportunity to build a good amount of muscle mass drug-free. Such an amount, in fact, that taking steroids wouldn’t even out-do it by such a big margin. Seriously.
Also, anyone who is new to training and immediately starts on a steroid cycle the minute they pick up a weight is asking for poor results. You need to familiarise yourself with weight training, and this only comes with time and practice. But, without this familiarity, your training sessions will be poor, and so will your results.
I’ll also add that, the eating aspect of training is also a shock to the system when you first begin. You will be required to eat such an amount that you quite possibly haven’t ever been used to, and you’ll likely find it tough going. I know I felt bloated and sick, and suffered from stomach upsets due to excessive amounts of milk, which didn’t help my results nor my health. For a beginner, eating is enough of a side effect!
Other than increased gains, successful bodybuilding naturally or with steroids isn’t all that different. Steroids allow for increased recovery, and increased workload, whereas the natural trainee will need to take things easier and rest more.
Nutrition is especially important for the natural trainee…
You need to eat the best, highest quality (nutritionally speaking) foods you can to maximise growth. Anything less, and you are leaving muscle on the table, so to speak.
Think whole foods, and minimize junk foods. High quality protein such as eggs, milk, fish, beef, chicken, cheese. Good complex carbohydrates like potatoes, pasta, rice. Good fats like fish oil, flax seed oil, and dietary saturated fats.
Because you don’t have the advantage of an increased artificial testosterone (steroids) count in your system for promoting muscle growth, you need to optimize the natural ways for boosting testosterone.
The two best methods I have found for increasing testosterone naturally are:
- Heavy leg work: Particularly squats. The legs contain the largest muscle groups in the body, so working them – particularly the quads – helps you to produce more testosterone and growth hormone.
- Saturated fats: Yes, that’s right. Dietary fats, and particularly saturated fats are just what you need to increase testosterone levels. More testosterone means more muscle. So, get plenty of saturated fats in your diet.
In summing up the ‘natural’ methods for bodybuilding, I will simply say this: Take the quick beginner gains steroid free, you may as well. Plus you’ll you’re your feet in bodybuilding. Go natural.
Building muscle with steroids:
Although I have never used steroids – and probably never will – what I will say is, health issues and controversies aside, strictly in terms of muscle size, those who take steroids (and know how to train) will build more muscle mass, and more quickly, than those who don’t. Both in the short term, and the long term. If that wasn’t the case, steroids wouldn’t exist.
Most people who take steroids responsibly do so after several years of training, when their gains have slowed to such an extent that they can’t take it much further without maybe training for another 5+ years for a mere 20lb of muscle, so they decide to juice, and maybe get that within the first 6 months to a year.
I can fully understand this. Each to their own. It’s just I never can, and never will advocate beginner trainees take steroids. It’s unnecessary in terms of muscle gains, and not only that, but until they’ve trained for a few years anyway, they don’t even know:
A: How far they can take it naturally, and how satisfied they will be with their natural results. (It may be they think they are big enough so never feel the need to juice.)
B: If they’ve got the mental grit and love of the sport and their bodies to make weight training a regular part of their lives. (You need to know if weight training long-term (for life) is for you first, particularly before you risk anything potentially dangerous such as steroids.)
I hope this article has given you some food for thought, and if you are a beginner trainee, I sincerely hope you go natural for a few years first. Good luck.