I know of a guy who took so many steroids as a competitive bodybuilder, he’s now having multiple health problems in his later middle-aged years. At fifty-something, his physique is a shell of its former drug-built glory. Interestingly, he moonlights as a ‘personal fitness trainer.’ My question: Would you hire him as a personal trainer? If you’re training your body naturally, would he effectively show you what to do to build a better body?
We’ve all heard the media hoopla over ‘steroids and athletes.’ We saw the latest episode just recently as Mark McGwire “came clean” about his drug use over a decade after the fact. This aroused all the interest of a collective shrug from the public who probably suspected intuitively if not from the ‘steroids in baseball’ scandal that occurred between McGwire’s ’98 record-breaking season and his present-day emotional confession.
Steroids and other 'bodybuilding drugs': Not just a question in baseball
But I’ve got a question for which the answer has more personal implications than whether one’s favorite pro athlete is taking or has taken anabolic steroids, especially if you hire a personal fitness trainer: Has your trainer used steroids?
Why is this important?Because personal fitness trainers are sought after for alleged expertise within the very context that gets distorted with the use of bodybuilding drugs – namely: ‘how to build a nice physique.’ If a person builds all or most of his or her own musculature with the use of powerful drugs, where will that person have gained the necessary knowledge to help you add muscle and strength to your body using purely natural means?
This ‘steroids and personal fitness trainers’ question might seem an opaque diversion on my part, but it has its warrant in practicality. I’ve seen dozens of clients of personal trainers who unknowingly didn’t stand a chance of gaining muscle because the trainers had them on routines that could only produce gains with the help of anabolic steroids. Overtraining is an understatement in describing the condition these trainers produce for their client’s bodies. Adding a financial issue to the bodily one, clients are often paying substantial hourly rates to be guided through activity that, at best, teaches them proper exercise form and, at worst, conditions them with habits that leave them perpetually in the “no-gain zone.” This is not something I’d think would be considered worth the money.
I owe it to my Clients and Readers: Proof that I’ve not used Bodybuilding Drugs
Now… if an athlete or personal fitness trainer passes a drug urinalysis test, it only proves one thing: they had no drugs in their system at the time the test was administered. However, since the effects of steroids on accelerated strength gains, muscle gains, and improved athletic performance have lasting benefit, it’s not too difficult for steroid users to cycle on and off the drugs in order to reap the advantages of using them while appearing “clean” on these tests. The same goes for competitive bodybuilders and personal fitness trainers.
What’s my point?
Simply this: A polygraph test is the only type that can currently provide an indication of one’s life-time status of drug use. And when administered by an experienced and skilled technician, this testing is extremely accurate.
That’s why I decided to take one for the benefit of my clients and readers. In a world where many former steroid users call themselves “natural bodybuilders” when it’s time to charge money for personal training services, it’s important to separate the ‘current naturals’ from the ‘life-time naturals.’ It’s important for fitness clients to at least be aware of the ‘steroids and personal fitness trainers’ possibility.
Click here for my Steroid Polygraph Test
Am I claiming that all muscular personal trainers have used steroids or that every former steroid user is “lost” when it comes to the context of natural bodybuilding? Of course not; I can’t possibly know that and I can only share what I’ve personally observed. And what I’ve observed for certain is a huge discord between what’s practiced in gyms by thousands and what really works for the genetically average trainee who doesn’t use bodybuilding drugs. It’s when this discord is intuitively being experienced that a client/trainee should ask themselves whether the routine they’re on is realistic or only beneficial to the ‘pharmaceutically enhanced.’
After all, if your body’s being trained naturally – you wouldn’t want to be led astray by someone who’s never really walked a mile in your shoes.
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