My stance on PEDs
By Jay Johnson
Before I going to heavy detail on this blog I just want to state one disclaimer; performance enhancement drugs or not, bodybuilding and conditioning for a show is HARD! Taking any form of drugs, or supplements is simply not going to do the job alone and ALL athletes are to put simply, working their BUTTS off to be successful. In my personal opinion, taking performance-enhancing drugs is the equivalent of putting rocket fuel in a car. Yes, it’s not really supposed to go in there, but if it does it allows the capabilities of the car to be enhanced and perform at a higher level. However, it can also harm the car. In a nutshell, this is my personal feeling about performance enhancement drugs. Now on with a little more elaborate detail:
No matter which way you put it, all successes in life come with some type of a sacrifice. A lot of cases it’s time, sometimes money. If you are training to be a gymnast, then you were going to sacrifice a lot of time away from other things just so that you can get good at your craft. You also are going to change your diet and eat differently so that you can be successful and control your weight. Some of this may be things that you may not want to do, but because you know that it will make you successful in being a gymnast that is your end game goal, so you will do what it takes to sacrifice to achieve that. The same applies for bodybuilding as it relates to performance enhancement drugs in my opinion. Stated earlier, to be just perfectly honest and straight forward, there is no doubt that it works, and it can be seen all over. They make you stronger, burn fat quicker, and leaner which will enhance visual appearance on stage. The other side of the coin is that there is risk to take into consideration, which 99% of the time has to do with Health. It is no secret that using PED‘s in excess can cause long-term damage to your health. Where this may be a reason enough for some to discard the thought of using PED‘s, for others it may not be and will continue to use it as carefully as they can. For me personally, the health risk is only a secondary factor why I choose to lead a natural lifestyle in regards to bodybuilding and my personal life.
I have a passion for bodybuilding to the core, however there are things in my life that are simply rock bottom more critical to me. These include my family, livelihood, and duration/quality of life. These also happened to be the things that motivate me to continue bodybuilding and to compete and lead as I do in the natural bodybuilding world. If I was to personally use PED’s, those things that motivate me to compete in the first place would be compromised. I am simply not willing to sacrifice them to have an enhanced build through using PED‘s considering that they are why I body build in the first place what gives me continued motivation to keep doing it.
To each his own as the phrase says, I still fully respect those that choose competing, PED use or not, considering the sacrifices that they still have to make and how difficult that is to undertake but the reward is so much more gratifying. If you are considering or thinking about going in that direction simply think to yourself “What am I willing to sacrifice to live this lifestyle and why? Is it worth it to me?“
