I agree that choosing BB as a career is not a wise move for most people, but come on.
No one is forcing anyone to do it. It's up to themselves to inject the drugs and do what it takes to aim for success. It will always be a shady industry.
Just accept it and move on. I don't know what's more pathetic: a bodybuilder involved in shady business, or a "gordiano" being obsessed about it. Same goes for Stark.
Exactly. Stark posts interesting stuff a lot of times, but sometimes he goes into this funky 'Howie' mode where he suddenly starts preaching about the evils of pro bodybuilding. If someone is so concerned about the health and dignity of the participants, they should start their own federation and award all these guys the kind of money that will let them bodybuild with integrity, rather than have them resort to things like G4P.
Stark, bodybuilders who do G4P and other sordid stuff aren't all there is to bodybuilding. There are guys like Jay Cutler, Ronnie Coleman and Dorian Yates who have never done things like G4P. You always seem to focus on the fact that the glass is half empty. These individuals are grown ups who are consciously making the choice of taking what they have to take to be competitive at the pro level. They know way more than you do about the harmful effects of taking them as well as the stance the law takes towards the usage of anabolics.
The question as to whether the government even has any right to ban steroids or be in a position to dictate what a person can or cannot take is a whole different topic altogether. Ignoring that for a second, just know that if someone like you starts a federation where only natural bodybuilders can compete and even then, only if they don't resort to things like G4P and what not, it will be even less successful (way less successful, in fact) than pro bodybuilding. Bodybuilding is a sub cult and will always be so - it will never go mainstream because of it's nature.
As to your original post, get real - the mags NEVER say that the average gym rat or a beginner can one day achieve the level of physiques of pros naturally. The different mags cater to different markets. For example, FLEX is a hardcore bodybuilding mag and it features pros while Men's fitness is aimed more towards the mainstream market, which is why they feature models who are cut up but hardly as big as pros. And how can FLEX or any other mag advice it's readers to juice or say what the pros they feature are taking? That would be like an open confession and call for attention for the law to step in.
There are plenty of articles in FLEX that tell you about steroids. As to some of the pros doing G4P - it's their choice and no different than chicks resorting to stripping or prostitution to pay their way through college or to foot a bill or make a living or whatever. Sure it's a shame that some of the pros have to do stuff like that to make ends meets, pardon the pun, but like it has been pointed out, they do it out of their own volition. Maybe in an ideal world pro bodybuilders can make enough from their sponsorships and contest winnings to not have to resort to those things, but it's far from an ideal world.
