Just fifty years back, drugs had yet to appear on the bodybuilding scene. It wasn't until the late 50s that we begin to hear about drug use in sport and by the early 60s Dianabol was being taken by bodybuilders. This coincided with the big drug companies seeing their opportunity of making big money through the development of their own steroid drugs most of which are still in use today. Things didn't quite turn out as expected though as the initial drug use reports appeared and many companies abandoned their products. Although many good drugs were actually patented, they were never fully developed.

Throughout the sixties and seventies orals were in great use resulting in some of those bodybuilders developing liver and kidney problems, probably due to excessive use over long time periods. During the seventies, as a young bodybuilder, I never took more than 10 x 5mg Dianabol tablets daily and over short time periods. More normal was 4 to 6 Dianabol daily with 200 mg per week of an injectable [Deca or Testoviron] the total intake was around 300 to 400mg per week maximum. Quite basic stuff if you compare it with today.

But that was a fairly normal stack at the time. Some guys used more, usually via extra orals - the fact was that those drugs did produce gains. Now, even novice level competitors use 1000mg per week [and some use much more] including some quite toxic substances like Oxymetholone, Halotestin, Parabolan, etc. I know that some of these are only obtainable with other names from various suppliers outside of Europe but the toxic effects of the basic drugs remain.

Nowadays novice bodybuilders are using some really impressive stacks and as they move up the competitive ladder the steroid intake increases and other products are also taken on aboard. Some examples being DNP [di-nitro-phenol], various diuretic products, anti-catabolic drugs [Aminoglutethimide (Orimeten)], Nubain even, prostaglandins, IGF-1 [perhaps], as well as insulin and growth hormone. We are now entering a critical phase regards both cost and health risk as I know of many health problems related to these types of drugs.

Who can blame today's youth in not taking the drug issue seriously if you take the tobacco industry as an example. Health warnings seem to be to the point, but why does the UK government need $16,000,000,000 in tobacco related annual revenue, when it costs 5 times less to treat all smoking related diseases. It's understandable that the youth are not convinced about the dangers of recreational drugs.

These dangers are often much exaggerated and they will learn only by their own experiences. Many who come into bodybuilding used or still do use various recreational substances and deciding to take a few bodybuilding drugs as well does not faze them. For those who are serious about their bodybuilding, it should be mandatory that all the recreational stuff is abandoned. But many will not and the load on their body systems will be increased as their kidneys and livers [particularly] try to cope with the heavy loads of toxins.

Doses of steroids and other performance enhancing drugs have multiplied in bodybuilding throughout all competitive levels, and are still increasing and we have to begin to believe that competitors' health is being affected. Extremely high doses of steroids and other drugs are being used by most bodybuilders at higher levels. Don't take any notice of those who say that they only use low doses and that it's the other bodybuilders who use a lot more than they do. Don't believe it; they are lying.

There are guys out there who may have the most incredible genetics and can grow and condition themselves with a lot less gear than many other bodybuilders. But should this be true, and if he had used more, he could, maybe, be the best in the world. Will he continue to say that he won't use any more? If you believe the answer to be no, that he won't use more, then I think you have a different understanding of bodybuilders than the one that I have. What would I do in that position? I would use more and more until problems began to develop! Anyway, we think that problems only happen to other people. Or am I wrong? (Coming soon Part 3)