How can you describe the results before and after steroids? my own original content transplanted from Quora.

I started this as a bullet point list.
Then I had to write the whole story.
I have many pro bodybuilder friends and I respect them all and will love bodybuilding until I die
R. I. P. - Dallas McCarver, Rich Piana 2017

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I will gladly tell that story; but you have to read the lead up and how it all started.

I started at 10 yrs old with a 20lb plastic weider barbell set that my dad gave me straight outta Canadian Tire!

Then I saw those boxes of brand new, never been read muscle and fitness, muscular development and muscle builder mags in my friends garage.

Keith (my friend) went inside and summoned his step dad.

“can eric read these?” he said.

“Eric, Take both boxes” I bought the subscription and never read any of them.” Keiths step dad said.

BOOM!

It was all over: Guitar lessons and every other activity basically went out the window.

I was an adamant “anti-drug” person.

I did not smoke, drink, or do any drugs at all.

I did no 'recreational drugs' until I was about 21: I was that guy that frowned at all steroid users.

You would be too if you grew up with no TV and going to "meeting" (our version of church) 2 times a week with bible readings every night until you decided it was not you at 16 years old and started staying home on sundays.

Yeah, I was pretty much as "pure" as you could physically make a person.

I read anything and everything I could find around my small home town.

At the Pefferlaw, Ontario Library, I signed these two books out of the library so many times they had to eventually put a second card holder in each of them.

If you can get a copy, check out the progress of the kid (Dick Tyler) that is the subject.

Bill Phillips was not the first guy doing “B&A’s” for publication.

You can see the point in the pics where he starts taking "gear" (Anabolic Steroids)

The woman on the cover above doing nautilus shoulder press is, if I remember correctly, a Doctor.

Absolutely the best book ever on bodybuilding training and golden era bodybuilders.

In the back, each freaky member of Gold's Gym, California that competed or was a bodybuilding celebrity visiting California that trained at Gold's, had a Bio in the back.
It was like a little baseball card sized synopsis (arm size, interesting facts etc.)

This book even has the original insulin pioneer, Tim Belknap on the front (rowing dumbbell).

I used to remember thinking about how his physique did not look the same as the others and then putting 2 and 2 together later in the mid 90’s after reading about insulin in Peak and MM2000.

Once I got to high school and outgrew the weights in the surprisingly well equipped gym we had (sutton district high school- ~800 students) I ordered a 310lb olympic set from the united states and my gym teacher let me deliver it to the high school as it had a loading dock.

I then ordered a set of plans for what I thought was a metal power rack; It ended up being made from wood.

I trained in my parents basement from that point on and did not use the high school gym much anymore…too many fools and nobody being serious

Bodybuilders were/are always broke: It costs a lot to eat 5 times what a normal person eats for one!

The other pic is a view of my “home gym” which I manufactured from plans I ordered from the back of one of those magasines I told you about.

Getting Serious

At 18, on the way to my first long term job out of high school (new generation muscle and fitness - commercial gym/juice pit/#theydontmakemthatwaynomore) I took my first ephedrine…and that opened the gate.

I had already experimented with Creatine, weight gainers, vanadyl sulphate, etc.

Remember: There was no internet.

You could not just look stuff up online, you could not buy steroids online.

Nobody knew much about any of that at all.

But….if you are the gregarious, loquacious, energetic and friendly guy like me; you eventually end up getting mentored by a national level competitor who sees how serious you are.

He eventually got his pro-card..yes, a real IFBB pro-card, not one from the many “wannabe” federations.
He then Promptly retired: He knew bodybuilding as we knew it was dead.

Our first conversation went like this:

ME: I want to do a show
Him: ok, you need to take juice. bodybuilding is juice.
ME: "ok, I already figured that part out, what should I do?

By this point I had already been researching (buying underground manuals on steroids, reading Peak Magazine and the ORIGINAL 25 issues of Muscle Media 2000 before it became junk and just an ad rag for EAS) and I had made up my mind through simple observation and logic that if I wanted to go anywhere as a bodybuilder, I had to get with the program.

Supplements just became BIG money.

Bill Phillips made a lot of money from guys talking about steroids and it did not take Sherlock Holmes to figure out that NONE of the really HUGE guys coming in to "New Gen" and throwing around massive weights ever even stopped at the proshop!

The "jacked ones" they didn’t take supplements at all!

They saved their money and bought FOOD that went along with whatever gear they were taking.

Supplements: where it all starts

What do I know about supplements?

Lots.

I think I started with Wheat Germ on my Oatmeal in the morning; My mom was a nurse with a natural mindset and going to see 'Bob" the cigarette smoking health food store owner in Sutton, Ontario, was like a trip to disneyland for me!

Bottles and potions all over!

Here is the line that I participated as CMO with along with some friends who got together and did the startup.

Unfortunately one of those friends passed and we could not continue as he was the main investor.

He was also my best friend in Adult life.

He was 305lb @ 5'9 1/2" tall at his peak.

I gave him his first shot.

He bought them somewhere and, as usual, everyone used to come to me because...I was always an early adopter, user, tryer out of stuff!

I still am.

The line was sold on illpumpyouup, sndcanada, hercs and vitamin shoppe as well as a number of smaller outlets around Toronto.

THE EARLY YEARS AT THE GYM

Working at a mid sized commercial gym full of bikers, steroid dealers, gassed up gym rats, serious bodybuilders and full on competitive powerlifters in the early 90’s: What a godsend and also an eye opener!

Its where I started to see how the whole thing worked.

Once I had that conversation about the "Juice" I targeted a show with my mentor.

First cycle I did 8 ampules of sustanon 250.

They were original, real, pharmaceutical grade, not the junk that passes as “gear” these days.

The only steroids I ever did, with the exception of specific products that you could not get from a real pharmacy source where 100% pharmacy grade, straight from said pharmacies.

BTW - did you notice I targeted a show and then did a “bulking cycle?”

I was already being mentored: this does not happen anymore unfortunately.

Now its just crap on youtube and a bunch of guys that have never competed etc. telling everyone just what "bodybuilding" is all about.

Bodybuilding is dead by the way.

1997 - The year Dorian Retired - RIP MODERN BODYBUILDING

First Cycles

The next year or so was just training and eating: I didn’t dick around with trying to do anything but get jacked.

Dieting will make you skinny: And so I learned the principle of lean gains and "growing into a show" …right from the start.

It makes it so much easier to build quality muscle if you feed yourself proper amounts of foods that produce MORE ELECTRONS.

Did you know that anabolic steroids increase your total negative charge to a massive degree and the your mitochondria have to work overtime to sustain this?

It's all about that electron flow baby.

Ten Years of PRIMING THE PUMP

I really was like a primed up pump just waiting to get turned on and pump a thousand gallons a minute.

Training for TEN YEARS natural was about to pay off!

Once I had done 3 cycles I entered the show I had set as the one I was going to do.

I won my weight class but no overall.

One question I have answered on Quora.com a few times in different ways is: How do Bodybuilders make money?

Making Dough to support the cause

If I had not been so nice and trusting, I would have been able to keep a lot more of the dinero as well; some friends are not always what they seem, and, in the fitness and bodybuilding world, everyone is out for one person: THEMSELVES!

Well, I guess I am an exception to that rule; but thats for another story!

Security/Door work was my main occupation that put me through University, travelling all over, and enjoying being a bodybuilder.

I even paid my taxes as an EU citizen as I became an original pioneer of the whole online steroid supply chain and did a lot more stuff than that.

I have a book in mind.

After all, it's been over 17 years since I Ieft Portugal.

911 happened see?

I wrapped it all up and came home after partying for a few months.

Sleepy Times

Well, it was more than partying: In fact, I didn’t party much at all.

I was too busy sleeping.

By this point my addiction to GHB and An amphetamine like drug I mentioned earlier called Ephedrine had reached its first "peak".

This Cocktail is what fueled my days and nights throughout university and, with frenetic fury, the next 12 years which included the majority of my 15 year competition career.

Lots of people in the fitness world are addicts.

Like them, I had something to prove: Even when I was 10 I had something to prove.

I’m not sure now what that was, really, but, at the beginning I knew it was going to be hard and it was also something that nobody else was doing: It had to hurt.

I totally enjoyed the feeling of a “blowtorch burn” and would regularly push myself past pain barriers that most people would not even SMELL, let alone try.

I wanted to be seen.

AFTER PORTUGAL

So, I ended up leaving Portugal and going home around xmas of 2002.

I stopped in London, UK to party for a few days and dropped 1200 Euro on one of the very first VISA DEBIT cards..were I could just tap my Bank account back in portugal where I had left money for a rainy day.

Leaving was Kinda a good thing.

I always seemed to leave whatever I was doing and move on before anyone else ever caught on and it became a popular thing ..and I was never greedy and tried to scam people or rip them off.

If I had continued I would have been wealthy..but growing up religious I think made me full of guilt and I eventually could not sell “gear” anymore.

Plus, you can't be flying around in planes with suitcases full of steroids after 911!

BACK TO THE GYM AND THE EARLY DAYS

I gained 45lb in 8 weeks on my first cycle of the “sick-ta-hoes”

There was no noticeable gain in fat and I kept that weight and then added another 40lb over the 15 years I used and competed.

5′9 usually walked around at 235–250lb with abs and quad definition:Tank top ready 365.

No “dirty bulking” - that's just being dumb.

NO MORE ZEAL

It was EASY compared to the first 10 years!

So easy in fact, that I lost most of that fire I had for training

The zeal was gone.

I did some crazy workouts once in awhile (like squatting 315 X 35 to the basement IN a basement) but in general, I just methodically went to the gym and each year, I would jump on stage and always do well.

Top three every time but 3 I think.

It's all hard to remember really. Drug fog memory.

I LOVED COMPETING

I loved BODYBUILDING.

The bodybuilding that I read about when I was a kid.

The year I won my overall at a local level I show, I was running around backstage helping people with their protan, encouraging others and making people happy in general.

I mean, I always wondered why these people were competing: They were all miserable and bitter.

All twisted up about a trophy.

First show: cycle used-> 300mg test propionate/week for 12 weeks.
Then 1 bottle of upjohn Halotestin for the final week. *as a side note: Dorian just told Joe Rogan his typical cycles. 5x what I averaged over what I would take.

Good Juice Genetics
I could take a sufficient amount of gear to get huge but not get sick while also always gaining size in every area equally and remaining proportionate.
Zero acne.
Zilch.
If it had given me crazy zits the first cycle I would have stopped immediately.
It's supposed to make you look good, not a walking puss eruption!
Some people have a super strong physiology that way.
Some don’t.
Some have superior “juice genetics” and can blow up on basically nothing: those are also the guys that usually have no physiologic resilience and they disappear after their first year of competition due to health issues-> liver, kidneys etc.

If you want to read more about juice genetics, I used to moderate the anabolics section of Anabolic Steroids - Bodybuilding - SuperiorMuscle.com in 2003 while I was managing my friends gym in the UK.My pics and stuff are all up there in the archives along with a post I made about that whole thing.

WHATS IT LIKE ON THE JUICE? - This is the answer most have been scrolling for:)

Like, how did it feel?

It felt freakin Amazing!

At first.

But later, thats another story and for another time.

When you take steroids:

Recovery is super fast
You can run back at night and do another workout on the same bodypart (just kidding, but, thats about the gyst of it. It makes it way easier.

You get stretch marks.
I grew super fast but my skin must have been amazing because I only got stretch marks where my pecs join into the shoulder. Big ones. They are scars. I had blood and puss come out of them for a few days at one point because my skin actually tore.
Others get tiny micro tears the same a an obese person. Cosmetically, its not very appealing.

You have lots of energy - If you know your nutrition. If you don’t, you can also be super lethargic.

You deal with stress like its nothing
If you are already a balanced person..in some it works the opposite way
Testosterone is the male stress buffer hormone after all.

You can pretty much eat anything you want within reason and stay lean.
Its one of the reasons that so many still subscribe to higher carb diets. Once they get with the program and hit some keto..thats when they get shredded.
Tom Platz knew this stuff…you can hear him talk about it and going from low carb to high (carb cycling) while getting ready for shows.

Training Science: Please, get real

On steroids, you just need to be consistent in the gym: Nothing fancy, It's not rocket science.

I used to write down every set, rep, tempo and how long my shits where (ok, kidding on that one) and once I threw that out the window along with pulling out the stops on my eating, I started getting huge.

OH YEAH, YOU GET HUNGRY!

Before Steroids, I always had trouble eating enough.

When your on steroids, it comes down to the S.A.I.D. principle: 100%.

Feed yourself piles of calories, train each muscle as soon as it's not sore and keep pushing until you break barriers…it's not like natural training at all.

Dose dictates size

If all the other parameters are in place and consistent.

Unfortunately for many (MOST?) genetics dictate your actual size potential and so, many take a ton of stuff and you can’t even tell.

Dan Duchaine was one of the more famous figures that took gear and never really looked like much ore than a local guy that placed 3rd out of 3 on stage. I totally subscribed to much of the stuff he said though because his genetics dictated that even the minor development he did get was because he knew what he was doing…his genetic gifts were that bad (may he rest in peace.)

This is me after I did my "take whatever is lying around the office" experiment in 2003 while I was running a friends gym in the UK.

I was somewhere between 250-260 lb at this point.

Usually, I was 225-235ish and lean.

I would walk into my "supplement" room and load up whatever I had lying around loose.

Steroids are like socks...there are always stray ones lying around.

So, minimum was to fill the whole 3cc syringe and do this at least 5 times a week.

Yep, I blew up.

I guess if I had figured this out instead of trying to be like my original icons (Arnold and the gang!) I just may have gotten to the pros.

Whew, dodged that one by being TOO SMART for my own good.

I dropped bodyfat and gained at the same time.

DNP + Juice + Insulin = gain a lot and no fat with it.

You get out of breath easily
This happens during your first few cycles until your heart function catches up to the rapid weight gain.

You gain a massive amount of strength relative to what you could lift before.
I don’t care how “elite” a guy says he is in the strength department, once you hit the gas, it is a whole other ballgame: Period.

I was benching 1.5x bodyweight for 5X5 before the gas.

By the time I was all said and done I had done double bodyweight at just over 200 lb in competition and
I could go into any gym on any day of the week and bang out three plates for 10… 315lb squats 35 reps etc.

It hurts to work out
Especially if you are taking certain steroids that drastically increase red blood cell count.

It is not possible to describe other than if you have had a blow torch inside your muscle melting a huge piece of plastic while also releasing pressurized gas that almost rips your skin open.

AND

It is also one of the reasons some people take tons of stuff and never make any gains> they look like they are in pain when they train but their idea of extreme pain is not the same as others.

I’m not talking about not being able to walk the next day. Anybody can do that…just keep on lifting a light weight long enough..you will eventually be sore.

Learning to go to max pain threshold due to lactic acid buildup etc. while on gear is like a personal journey that many never finish.

If it was a 10 on your pain scale when you were natural, you will have to get used to at least a 15 once you start the gas and you gain any significant size.

Body mechanics change.
Once you hit a certain size, you start to lift differently. Not possible to explain unless you have been there.

You take on a new persona.
People treat you differently and therefore you really do develop a different personality than you would have.

Unfortunately for many, they are scared, dark and fearful people who turn into complete assholes once they realize that the majority of people will not challenge them just because they are huge.

Note: I have seen lots of guys who take steroids and are huge get taken out by 140lb “weaklings” so their logic is faulty.

While I was a doorman, and because I got bigger and was always friendly and able to talk people out of violence I always had a job.

Brains+non-reactivity + brawn when needed make for a great door person in general: Too bad many magnify their “assholeness” by adding in androgens to the mix.

I know guys (and girls) that are just complete jerks and should not ever take anything other than BCAA’s they have such delicate psyches.

Some steroids have other uses that are not cosmetic but rather psychological;

As I could get it from one supplier and I knew it was real, I used to chew up a few tabs of methyltestosterone (this is actually the first real oral steroid, not dianabol) and put the powder under my tongue on leg and back days.

Using the extra aggression from the crazy androgens made for an awesome workout every time.

Androgens also improve nerve impulses and so you have immediately more strength
If you are not all that strong, it's not going to be as noticeable, but if you are already lifting big weights, you KNOW when you put on a significant amount more and it is easy.

WHAT HAPPENED AFTER YOU STOPPED TAKING STEROIDS?
I stopped taking anabolics in 2008 after ~15 years.

I had a life changing year that year:)

It took me over 2 years to starve the muscle off me.

I did that on purpose.

I also was suffering from depression in a clinical way.

Just like Dorian Yates will tell you happened to him after he was forced to retire.

But, I would not have known: How could I?

The DARKNESS nobody talks about (except dorian when he is on London Reel Documentary - The Shadow, Dorian Yates

Dealing with Crashed Hormones and Diving Dopamine levels

I had begun to drink heavily to keep myself from going back on to the GHB and Ephedrine that had been my faithful friends for over 15 years.

That, combined with the fact that I was coming off of steroids cold turkey for the first time in almost the same amount of time (come on, honestly, don’t even go there if you are still "on"; even trt is taking steroids. …you are on all the time.)

Taking HCG and PILES OF POWERFUL HORMONE MANIPULATING PILLS Like they are PEZ while not realising what type of hormonal dysregulation you are causing is just “arrested development” at work.

WHAT HAPPENED TO BODYBUILDING?

Anyone wanting to look like one of todays ‘pros’ has got to be suffering from delusion.

Especially if you think that it's possible without copious amounts of drugs.

Check out this Answer I did just recently that fits in here as a cautionary note.

Eric Morrison's answer to Can taking steroids kill you?It got some positive reviews from some dude on my LinkedIn that I respect greatly so I thought I would add it in.

Don’t mind the Electrons and Electron transport chain stuff: It's easy to read.

What does one do After Steroids and Bodybuilding are over?

Well, there are few that can tell you this.

There are few that ever stop completely.

Its a mental and physical addiction: dopamine is supercharged while on Anabolics and testosterone and you also get dopamine release every time someone comments on your physique.

It ain't bodybuilding anymore ToTo…I have not really been to the gym much on a regular basis since then except to train the odd person that insists I do that part with them along with the diet.

I do stretching occasionally and am 150% all over my diet AND, more importantly, my environment which is what dictates what you look like after you stop.

Those that want to keep on “being huge” and can’t take the psychological pain that comes from shrinking down to their original size are destined to be that guy with 3 sweaters on and still wearing baggies at age 50 so people won’t realise that they are actually fat and out of shape because they never got their diet right at any point and that for them, it really was all juice.

The Aftermath

I am, and always will be, stronger than your average dude at the gym if we all took the same amount of time off and then went back in and did strength tests, lb for lb.

I trained natural for 10 years like a madman, then did 15 years with the “gas”.

If you were already strong before and have now used steroids or other PED’s for any good length of time (more than 5 years straight as an example) you will forever be stronger than you would have been before.

You can’t ever say you are natural anymore.

I can go to the gym, look at a weight, and put on 15lb.

I won’t get into Morphogenic fields but let's just say that once you stretch something out..it can be stretched right back to that extent again with not much effort.

I am not pro or anti steroid. - Thats a lie.

I have even changed my views on this as I am learning more and more about mitochondrial health, water, magnetism and how we really function at the molecular and even better…quantum physics level.

It's so much more than ATP folks.
I am a realist.
I say I would do it all again because whichever way I look at it, I had a lot of fun in this life/journey.

I learned a lot about human behaviour and life, and I made a lot of lifetime friends.

I did a lot of stuff nobody will ever be able to say they have done.

I had become a real life addict and gone all the way to street level for 3 days at one point in my drinking after it took over my life once I had replaced the GHB with it completely.

It took me ~ 10 years to get to where I am now, one slow step at a time.

It was like playing a country and western song.

Literally.

I lost my dog, wife, the whole she-bang as it were.

My ego deflated.

I did not even know who I was.

Now, I am writing this stuff online in hopes that some young up and coming person will give their head a good, firm shake and keep on training naturally.

You are NOT going to be Mr. Olympia.

He does not exist anymore.

Now, its way more than steroids.

So long steroids, and thanks for all the fish!

CF - 2017