3 ms·

I love the supplement industry! This sort of stuff happens all the time, especially around weightlifting supplements. If you're not into picking things up and p

I love the supplement industry! This sort of stuff happens all the time, especially around weightlifting supplements. If you're not into picking things up and putting them down, there's 3 ways you can ingest things that aren't food to help you out: - Nutritional supplements. This means things like protein powder, vitamins, fish oil, or creatine powder. All legal and mostly derived from food (or at least present in stuff you'd normally eat). - Anabolic steroids. Highly effective, highly risky, highly illegal. - Pre-worked supplements. This is where everybody walks the line. For some reason, these don't get much attention from the FDA or anybody else, so there's a lot of incentive to get creative with your ingredients. The idea here is that you take these to give you a bunch of energy before you lift, which can be especially important if you're trying to lose weight while lifting. The basic formula for pre-workouts is sugar and caffeine, which is pretty effective. Unfortunately, that's also easy to replicate with a cup of a coffee and a banana. If you throw amphetamines (or similar) in there, they become much more effective. If you read places like bodybuilding.com or the body-building-oriented subreddits, you'll see people talk about the "old" versions of a bunch of supplements. The reason the "old" versions were banned is universally because they contained some sort of illegal substance that your mom would probably refer to incorrectly as "meth".

gadders 12y ago
>> - Anabolic steroids. Highly effective, highly risky, highly illegal. Highly risky? Highly illegal? Not sure if the first is backed up by the science. And enough people take them that I'm not sure highly illegal is true either.
- raverbashing 12y ago
  Yeah, wrong on both counts (and the highly effective is true - big if - if used correctly) Of course, if you're going to get them from a shady place and have no idea on how to use them, it might be dangerous and/or have bad side effects)
- johnward 12y ago
  Not highly risky but they do provide some potential risks to natural hormone production, blood pressure, etc. Orals have liver risks. Most of these risks can be mitigated by proper post cycle therapy. The big side effects you hear about are usually at super high dosages that people like professional bodybuilders take. To put that in perspective I've seen pros quoted at taking 1g a week. A normal TRT dosage might be 100mg to 200mg per week. A normal beginner cycle dosage might be 200mg twice a week (400mg). On top of that pros are using a cocktail of insulin, growth hormone, multiple types of anabolic steroids, amphetamines, thing like clenbuterol and DNP. Steroids them self are not nearly as dangerous as the media makes you believe. This is coming from someone who has clinically diagnosed hypogonadism (Low T) and has used Test. It's made a significant difference in my life.
  - gadders 12y ago
    Disclaimer: I've never taken them, so what I'm saying is based on what I've read, but it seems to me that it's about as risky as cannabis or alcohol. If you're going to do what pro-bodybuilders do and inject enormous quantites (as well as insulin, HGH etc) then you probably deserve what you get.
- jclos 12y ago
  It's one of those things where the "highly risky" is more or less true, but mainly because it is illegal, and not the opposite. Make any medication illegal long enough and people will do stupid shit with it because they can't go to the doctor and ask them how to use it safely. Then they'll injure themselves, reinforcing the illegality of the medication, and keep the circle going. The documentary "Bigger, Stronger, Faster" by Chris Bell is an excellent starting point to learn about the supplement/anabolics industry.
rscott 12y ago
Yep, Jack3d was pretty famous for that. The banned ingredient was DMAA, by the way. http://www.fda.gov/Food/DietarySupplements/QADietarySupplements/ucm346576.htm http://www.fda.gov/Food/DietarySupplements/QADietarySuppleme...
- andygates 12y ago
  wistful sigh DMAA was great. The reason it was popular was that it stimulated without the jitters.
  - gadders 12y ago
    There seems to be a pattern that if a supplement becomes too effective, drug companies lobby politicians to get it classified as a pharmaceutical so they can make money selling it.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
sanoli 12y ago
You mean pre-workout supplements, right? there was also the pro-h ormone supplements, which used some form of testosterone precursor that wasn't illegal yet, or something like that.

gadders 12y ago

>> - Anabolic steroids. Highly effective, highly risky, highly illegal. Highly risky? Highly illegal? Not sure if the first is backed up by the science. And enough people take them that I'm not sure highly illegal is true either.

raverbashing 12y ago
Yeah, wrong on both counts (and the highly effective is true - big if - if used correctly) Of course, if you're going to get them from a shady place and have no idea on how to use them, it might be dangerous and/or have bad side effects)
johnward 12y ago
Not highly risky but they do provide some potential risks to natural hormone production, blood pressure, etc. Orals have liver risks. Most of these risks can be mitigated by proper post cycle therapy. The big side effects you hear about are usually at super high dosages that people like professional bodybuilders take. To put that in perspective I've seen pros quoted at taking 1g a week. A normal TRT dosage might be 100mg to 200mg per week. A normal beginner cycle dosage might be 200mg twice a week (400mg). On top of that pros are using a cocktail of insulin, growth hormone, multiple types of anabolic steroids, amphetamines, thing like clenbuterol and DNP. Steroids them self are not nearly as dangerous as the media makes you believe. This is coming from someone who has clinically diagnosed hypogonadism (Low T) and has used Test. It's made a significant difference in my life.
- gadders 12y ago
  Disclaimer: I've never taken them, so what I'm saying is based on what I've read, but it seems to me that it's about as risky as cannabis or alcohol. If you're going to do what pro-bodybuilders do and inject enormous quantites (as well as insulin, HGH etc) then you probably deserve what you get.
jclos 12y ago
It's one of those things where the "highly risky" is more or less true, but mainly because it is illegal, and not the opposite. Make any medication illegal long enough and people will do stupid shit with it because they can't go to the doctor and ask them how to use it safely. Then they'll injure themselves, reinforcing the illegality of the medication, and keep the circle going. The documentary "Bigger, Stronger, Faster" by Chris Bell is an excellent starting point to learn about the supplement/anabolics industry.

rscott 12y ago

Yep, Jack3d was pretty famous for that. The banned ingredient was DMAA, by the way. http://www.fda.gov/Food/DietarySupplements/QADietarySupplements/ucm346576.htm http://www.fda.gov/Food/DietarySupplements/QADietarySuppleme...

andygates 12y ago
wistful sigh DMAA was great. The reason it was popular was that it stimulated without the jitters.
- gadders 12y ago
  There seems to be a pattern that if a supplement becomes too effective, drug companies lobby politicians to get it classified as a pharmaceutical so they can make money selling it.

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

sanoli 12y ago

You mean pre-workout supplements, right? there was also the pro-h ormone supplements, which used some form of testosterone precursor that wasn't illegal yet, or something like that.