Ultimately playing college football for a Big Ten school where I was also first team All-American for defense. In football and basketball, I had my opportunities to go pro. For track, I had qualified for the Olympics in three events. I had a different calling/purpose but also I started having serious health issues at this time in my early 20's.
I was raised in the sport of bodybuilding and powerlifting. My father was a world champion power lifter and was Bill Kazmaier's training partner. In the sport of bodybuilding, my aunt was Lou Ferrigno's training partner. I had started lifting at a very young age. My senior year, as I was a year younger than everyone else, I graduated around 175lbs at 5'8", my waist was 27". By the age of 21 and a half, I had sprouted up to over 6'3" weighing around 270lbs and depending on how hard I trained, my waist was around 31-33.5". I was completely drug free. Genetics. Nutrition. Simply eating a lot. And working out.
I ate very healthy. When I first started working out heavy, within the first month I tried eating a Snickers bar. After the first bite I got very sick to my stomach. My desert would be baby food. I have, still to this day, an incredibly high metabolism. Even with all my health issues, five years ago when I was in remission, I weighed 285lbs and my waist was 34". I have lost a lot of size, but still have dropped down to only 250lbs. The dimensions of my body were that of a pro bodybuilder. Of course, at 22, weighing 270lbs, the density of muscle I had was quite great, because I had grown up doing laborous work. The density that I had a few years ago was so much more because of my age and the years that I had put in lifting. And I will remind you that I was also a doctor.
Being a doctor was not a good fit for me. I had did some time working in a clinic and then spent a couple years working for a professional basketball team. I am giving you this background of myself because it is pertinent to what I am about to say. I am going to talk about steroids and bodybuilding.
Steroids are used in every sport. College and pro. They are used knowingly, of course by the athletes, but by the doctors, the coaches, obviously team mates, the team's management and advisers, faculty, going up into upper management and ownership. Many people like to think that this is not the case, however, it is. I did not even have to prescribe steroids. They were available. I simply gave the injections. And I am not talking about corticosteroids such as prednisone or cortisone, which were used, as well as every type of pain killer, but I'm specifically talking about anabolic steroids. We all know that bodybuilders use steroids.
There are many people who spout out their opinion about anabolic steroids, that not only have never taken them, but have no idea what they are talking about. A few years ago, because of my autoimmune disease, I was prescribed anabolic steroids along with testosterone. My recent experience with doctors, many of them did not even know when I had told them the drugs that were prescribed to me, what they were, what they did, absolutely no clue. I have read on forums people giving advice to teenagers on what kind of steroids to take. Several forums where advice was given for kids to start out with 500mg per week of a testosterone called Sustanon along with 500mg of a steroid called Decaonate a week. Others suggesting 1000mg of Cypionate weekly with 500mg of Decaonate and 3 10mg tablets of Dianabol. This is ridiculous!
Steroids are part of bodybuilding. A friend of mine had recently spoke about some of this that, because of multimedia, bodybuilding has been thrown back into the dark ages. This is true. Also, bodybuilders that have much more mass than the bodybuilders of the past, also have horribly distended bellies. Medically I could tell you exactly why this is, but that is not what I am writing about.
Some bodybuilders, during competing, but mostly after retirement will speak about their steroids, along with supplementation, work out routines and dietary habits. The steroids they use, sometimes are excessive. But they did not start out at these doses. It was years of training and nutrition, eventually getting into steroids which is referred to as gear, and then gradually changing medications and upping the dosage.
Bodybuilding was always considered the epitome of health. I had seen a profile of Arnold Schwarzeneger on a tv program. A 30 year old childish know-it-all who simply is a reporter who has no idea about medication or steroids specifically, talked about how Arnold and the bodybuilders of his time had used quote "lots and lots and lots of steroids." First, let's be clear. Steroids were legal at this time. They are legal in many other countries and most people don't understand that they are legal in our country. This is managed state by state, as federal law does not apply here. There's no disallusion that bodybuilders don't use steroids.
Getting to my point: as I said in all professional sports, steroids are used in abundance, but they are overseen. There is a group of people including doctors, but going beyond, that manage and regulate the usage, according to each individual, what they are trying to achieve as far as results by using such medications. I'm not sure why we get up in arms when we find out that athletes in football, baseball, even bike riding, causes such a remarkable outcry as people will complain. And where the federal government hand picks individuals as they try to make an example for using specific people while indicting, putting them on trial and trying to throw them in jail, yet this never happens.
The ones who always get shot down for this are the ones that become the most successful. The point is, with almost everyone, let's say specifically on a baseball team, using steroids, there may be a handful of players that you can directly see the result. And in their sport, let's them exceed others. But talent and hardwork comes into play or else every person that took them would be achieving the same success. And if you notice the federal government has become lax on this as our country loves to grab ahold of anything we can (remember the war on drugs?) but essentially it backfires creating martyrs, and the federal government does not want to create a martyr.
Advocation of steroids has nothing to do with what I am saying here. I am merely trying to suggest something. I would like to see the sport of bodybuilding flourish again. First, I believe that bodybuilders need to be more open about their usage. They must be responsible, as this has a direct impact on how society looks at the sport, but also for future bodybuilders. So as I stated earlier, as being a doctor for a professional sports team and the avid use of steroids, to put it in laymens terms, they have had and have a group of individuals taking care of each individual athlete. How bodybuilding works is you compete in the NPC. You have a chance to win your pro card. Once you win your pro card, the obvious goal is to compete and win in the IFBB.
We need the IFBB to invest in a team of doctors, as I was, to oversee and help athletes. Without the athlete having to pay out of their own pocket. Allowing the medications to come from legitimate sources. Where levels can be monitored and regulated. Obviously safety being the first concern. Bodybuilding is the most expensive sport for each person that exists on this planet. And I'm not even talking about drugs or supplements. The average pro can spend upwards of $1500 a week on food. Without endorsements/sponsorships it is difficult to afford just the nutritional aspect of the sport. Some athletes can have the best genetics, use a lesser amount of steroids/testosterone, use less supplements,work out harder, but can simply not afford the food they need to allow them to reach a certain level of success. Why there isn't a committee of doctors/performance enhancing specialists, nutritionists, as we call them gurus, to help over see the athletes is ridiculous. Why the IFBB doesn't invest in these type of employees.
If the sport is represented by individuals, it can never succeed. There is a loss of team and camaraderie. To explain a little bit about testosterone, which is highly prescribed and recommended now a days, testosterone is a steroid. They simply rework the esters which eventually synthetically creates different forms of testosterone that allow them to become more anabolic, which then is considered a steroid. Anabolic steroids have been used since before WWII. Medically they have been used for such diseases as AIDS, HIV, cancer, specifically leukemia, Wasting disease, MS, Parkinson's, chronic pain, Addison's disease, and I could go on.
What these medications do, especially when dealing with these type of diseases is help allow a body to stay in an anabolic state. Where people are not able to consume enough food, have enough nutrition to keep them in this state as their body would continue to deplete by being in a catabolic state simply meaning the body starts eating itself, specifically muscle tissue. In diseases such as Addison's, it is helped to regulate the adrenal output as a person's natural steroid production that comes from your adrenal glands, which are about the size of a bar of soap and there are two of them directly in the middle of your back. It also helps with the lubrication of your joints and the healing process. Though not literally considered an anabolic steroid, Human Growth Hormone is used because of problems with the pituitary and the adrenal glands.
When I look at the sport today, when I have attended bodybuilding shows, sometimes it is horrifying to see the water retention mixed with dehydration, ultimately distending the gut creating a lot of hernias, muscle tears, etc. As I have gotten off track getting more into the medical aspect of these drugs, I believe there needs to be an advocate for the sport.
Very seldom does the government come after professional bodybuilders and steroid use. In fact the DEA has spent more time going after supplement companies than anything else.
So back to the basketball team I worked for. Many of the athletes took many different types of steroids. Testosterone, HGH, anti-estrogens were used, diuretics, but they were all overseen by doctors and specialists. In a sport that there is no disallusion that they do not use steroids, to bring the sport back to the epitome of health, we need better education to the public on what steroids do. A better inside look on what the athletes do. And a committee of doctors/gurus who are allowed or rather mandated to serve professional bodybuilders as the level of success of the bodybuilder should not come from the amount of money they have. Legitimizing the sport as a sport. I feel as if it's underground now. The people's ignorance of bodybuilding, but also the ignorance of many of the bodybuilders.
There are great examples for the bodybuilding community within their own athletes. But all aspects of the sport need to be spoken of more openly by people within the bodybuilding community. As of now, the ignorance in multimedia, with the person/s who knows nothing of the sport, of the world, of the dedication and commitment it takes, who have no medical degree, who have probably never touched a weight in their life, who have never eaten right, who have no idea what they are talking about are the ones who are being heard.
Ignoring the truth is ignorance. When something happens, you can't pretend it's not and expect it to go away. Personally I would like to see more retired bodybuilders join together for the sport and educate the masses on it. When I was a kid, bodybuilding was all over tv. Though steroid usage was the same, the admiration of the athlete and their physiques and what they had did to get these physiques is what was seen. It's almost as if the notice of steroids in other sports has created an ignorance within people, mass media/multimedia, and bodybuilding as a result is fading away. I do not want to see the sport go. If you like bodybuilding, but don't like the use of steroids, well that's why they have natural bodybuilding competitions as well.
And just like any medication, and let's make this clear, that's what steroids are: they are not for everyone. We need people within this sport who help create it such as Arnold Schwarzeneger, Louie Ferrigno, Lee Haney, Dorian Yates, and many others to speak up and let people see the inside world of bodybuilding. We need to get over the steroid usage. The IFBB and the NPC need to take a hard look at where bodybuilding is going and see that many of the athletes are out of control; but their builds, the distension of their waist is not all to do with drugs. We have lost a lot of good competitions such as the Iron Man Pro.
When you see an actor get in great shape in a months time, if you are foolish enough to believe they are not using steroids, as somehow this would degrade them getting in any type of physical condition that was worthy of being seen on a movie screen, what you are doing is picking and choosing why and who can use these drugs. When actors get in shape for a movie they have nutritionists, trainers, performance enhancing specialists and they don't pay a cent. In fact it raises the amount of money that the movie will make so the movie studios invest into these actors simply for a movie and they make hundreds of millions of dollars off from these films. And everybody knows it. This is what we need to be seen. What needs to be done in the sport of bodybuilding.
It needs to be a sport, invested in by the federations that oversee it. Steroids are a reality. Just like any civil right, if a person wants to use them and it harms no one else, then why should we care and why should there be a negative connotation to it. People like Arnold took muscles from the bodybuilding world and created a desired look to spread throughout the entire world. I hear retired athletes saying that after 25 years of using steroids, I don't advocate them. This is contradicting within itself. So what I am hearing is that after you were successful in your chosen sport, and reaped the benefits, now you say I don't agree with them. But then these retired athletes still participate in bodybuilding events; whether judging or expos, or simply meet and greets.
I want to see professional bodybuilders take more responsibility, but it is very difficult when they have to do this on their own. When they don't have their own federation backing them up. What we are seeing now is that the science of the sport is being lost, but is very difficult for the athlete to do what they have to do when they have to juggle it all themselves; where in no other sport is this the case. In other sports they are having a multitude of people help them. And ultimately steroids is a supplement that enhances performance. If we can get back to the core of bodybuilding with the support of people and bring back aesthetics, and that thrill to see a muscular build, that would be a start of bodybuilding flourishing again. There are many people who have mastered the art of bodybuilding and everything that is entailed with the sport There are many great athletes that have incredible builds that may never see the level of success because everything they do comes out of their own pocket. It is the only sport where the athlete spends more on themselves for performance and health than they get in return.
If I were actively part of the world of bodybuilding and maybe this will happen someday, as of now I play music and write movies and act, my health issues have affected me in my chosen fields. Though I have competed naturally in a couple bodybuilding events and placed first in both of them, and had qualified to compete in the World's Strongest Man, I was not able to do this because of my health,but again, when I get better,this is something I would really like to do for the sport of bodybuilding. And I will say, exclusively, that by no means should you believe that strong men don't use steroids either. Before going on, creatine, which has revolutionized supplementation, and is the most recommended supplement for all autoimmune diseases, was in jeopardy of being classified as a steroid. So without knowing anything medically about these drugs, but specifically having an experience through taking them, please do not listen to the opinion of people who have no idea what they're talking about because they have learned through the propaganda of multimedia. Frankly, they are sheep.
I would want to be one of the people who invest, not in the sport, but in the individuals who are the sport. And for the up and coming bodybuilders we need mentors, coaches, doctors, trainers, nutritionists; as in the sport of football you're drafted and they basically state what you are worth and they invest in the future of the person, of the team and of the organization, in this case that would be the NFL. I don't see bodybuilding doing that for the athletes.
And personally there is nothing worse than individuals hiding the use of steroids. This comes more in the world of acting and other sports than in the sport of bodybuilding. It is proven that if the people want something, it will happen. And just like in every aspect of life it comes down to money. There are a lot of great bodybuilders out there and few get the recognition that is deserved. And it has almost become a niche where there is almost a cult following that comes from magazines, going to the shows personally, or through multimedia. And this has been a disaster for sports like bodybuilding.
The people who have gotten incredible success from the sport need to give back to it. As I said, by taking time to teach, to coach, to mentor, to educate. For instance the Weiders. Reg Park. And several others. This was something that happened years ago. It is not happening as often now. As bodybuilders are getting older and older before they reach any level of success. Yes there are a lot more bodybuilders today. But there is a lot more advancement in science and nutrition than there ever was before; so it comes down to the IFBB and the NPC taking the power and the voice out of multimedia and putting it back into the organization that they represent and run. And into the individual athlete.
You could have the greatest build in the world and never be noticed, because you are not recognized by your own organization. When I was younger, I knew about every bodybuilder that there was. And now there is a small group. Every once in a while, I will see someone on Twitter, Facebook, and I have no idea who they are, but when I Google search them Google has no idea who they are, and I think, this could be the next Mr. Olympia the world should not have to know who you are before the organization that you represent and support, represents and supports you. I also see 50 year old men with incredible builds that have dedicated their life to health, not just for themselves but for others. It shows that multimedia can be a great source to bring bodybuilding back to the forefront. But it is being overran by the people who know nothing about it.
The athletes, individually, do not have the power to bring the sport back. We have to make bodybuilding a team sport and this starts from the federations and the people who have gained so much from the sport, giving back so that it does not die out. This must be a team effort, and it must start with someone standing up in advocation for the sport.
In ending I will also speak about the fact that there are only two recognizable competitions anymore, the Arnold Classic and the Olympia. This does not give exposure to the sport or opportunity to the athlete. Personally I don't like the fact that if you are the Olympia champion, you don't have to compete in any other contest. This is not a good example, as most pictures of the athlete are used from the few months that they are training to compete for the Olympia, or the Arnold Classic. Where many bodybuilders keep in shape year round and this is how the sport was done years ago. It was a lifestyle. They would cycle off their steroids, keep on lifting, and then go back on them for a short period of time. Though this is not what I am talking about as far as usage, it would give us a better understanding about the health benefits of bodybuilding if we were to see these competitors year round. And to give you one example of this, it would be as if the Boston Red Sox won the world series and never had to play another game and automatically went to the world series the next year. It doesn't make any sense.
So I think that there needs to be a revamping of the sport. And I believe the individuals that are now in their 50's or older, that may still compete, but definitely still lift, along with the IFBB and the NPC, should get together and take the time to invest in their own sport.
~Joshua Jet Vaughan~
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