Mens Fitness, Steroids vs Natural

Achieving an extreme level of fitness takes more than an imagination; it requires time consuming workouts and rigorous diets as well. Male fitness models or body builders take their knowledge about nutrition and fitness and reflect it with their body’s overall appearance, making extreme fitness their career. Seeing these body builders on television and in magazines and other media, the average person could have some misconceptions. Such misconceptions could include that fitness models and body builders are utilizing steroids or living an unhealthy lifestyle.

How ever, if it wasn’t for these fitness gods, the public wouldn’t be witnesses to what a workout and a diet can do to the human body and most of these men should be looked up to because they are a walking, picture perfect example of health. Despite these misconceptions, male fitness models and bodybuilders practice a healthy lifestyle by dieting, using supplements, and by consistently working out. We all know how impatient people can get when they are trying to maintain a steady diet, excuses and excessive cheat days causing the diet to turn into another bad habit.

Dieting takes practice, its not something one can learn and be successful at over night. Eating habits are something that people learn as they are growing, and what a person eats in their formative years can easily determine the kind of lifestyle they will be living later down the road says Dr. Oz in his Men’s Health article Essential foods for Dieting. There are an incredible amount of diets available for the public, making it difficult to choose which one actually works, or which one narrows everything down in terms of making it successful.

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according to Chris Aceto from bodybuilding diet mistakes, “ many of the bodybuilders and fitness models jump from one diet to the next with out giving the initial program enough time to work”. Although this may be true, if one were to look at pictures of male fitness models, they would get a pretty good example of what a diet can do for them (as seen in the picture on the right), bouncing around or not, its still dieting. Most fitness models go through phases in their diet. For example, they have a relaxed phase, a lean phase, and a ripped phase all adding up to a total of eight weeks.

The relaxed phase lets the person pick and choose what they want to eat for a total time of a week, the lean phase is a diet that allows the person to have one cheat night, the rest being nutrition foods, lasting five weeks. Finally the ripped phase lasting two weeks, this phase is a strict low carbohydrate food program. So in reality, these bodybuilders in fitness are not just jumping around, they are going through pre-planned diets and experimenting with the do’s and the do not’s that the public needs to know about.

When it comes to fitness, bodybuilders and fitness models know what they are talking about, and if it wasn’t for them to test run the diets, then the public could still be oblivious to what works and what doesn’t. in todays society there are a lot of bad habits when it comes to food, in the mens health article, Eat This Not That, it clearly states that if a person on a diet finds it hard to maintain, then its constantly going to be an uphill battle resulting in no signs of gaining or losing anything.

This is another reason why we should leave it up to the pros of fitness to create the most successful but laid back dieting plan. According to Gregg Avedon, the author of Muscle Chow, a trip to the gym is a concentrated event with a beginning, middle, and end, helping to stay focused during a workout. On the other hand, eating foods that are more nutritionally sound is an all-day every-day event that’s constantly In your face, making it harder to stay committed to a solid diet(3).

What is seen in magazines isnt what you see or get when your actually involved with fitness modeling states Gregg, most of the shoots could be done in someones kitchen with a pull down screen and good lighting techniques, along with photoshop of course. Even though dieting can help reach the goals being set, sadly being said, to look like a fitness model or bodybuilder its almost as if utilizing steroids is the only option. The word fitness, and the sport of fitness would not succeed without the use of supplements correct? The answer is yes.

Although some of these fitness freaks depend on supplements, the world of bodybuilding and fitness modeling just wouldn’t last. Chris Aceto author of Bodybuilding Mistakes, says that when dieting and using supplements is done correctly, the outcome is remarkable, giving the person a nice natural look, but natural is the keyword bodybuilders do not have in their vocabulary, they rely on supplements to boost up their lack of dieting. According to a bodybuilding article Best Supplements, taking supplements increases the chances of getting bigger, stronger and looking your best.

The most successful supplements in the industry are multivitamins, protein powder, creatine, and fish oil. Multivitamins are good for anyone who doesn’t get enough fruit and vegetables through out their day, as well as people who are lacking other important nutrients in their diet ( bodybuilding,1). Protein powder has lower calories than some high protein diets, drinking a protein shake after every work out speeds up the recovery process. Creatine increases the body’s ability to produce energy rapidly. With more energy, you can work harder and more often, producing faster results.

In the last five years, creatine has been the most used sports supplement, and a good thing about creatine use is that there are not really any side effects. People always have negative reviews on supplements because they never know the side effects, but the purpose of the supplements is to maximize your level of fitness; of course there will usually be some side effects. Some supplements are not going to help if you are not working out, or maintaining a steady diet, so if a person taking supplements maintains a lazy lifestyle, supplements will most likely not work for them.

A journal in a Men’s Fitness magazine, Do it yourself explains how another alternative is to take meal replacements, so one doesn’t have to worry about having a desire for junk food through out the day. Meal replacement products also known as MRPs, are either pre-packaged powdered drink mixes or edible bars. Both are consumed in the place of a whole-food meal. Generally MRPs are high in protein, low in fat, have a low to moderate amount of carbohydrates (4).

When it comes to steriods, they are very harmful to a persons body if abused, and steroids are an addicting drug. There is a place for the responsible use of steroids, but unfortunately in the world of bodybuilding the responsible part has been left out (Fletcher). There has been no problem using steroids in the male fitness modeling industry, but in bodybuilder steroids have been abused. The big bulging rippled stomachs that you see on some bodybuilders are their intestines pushing on the wall of their stomach, this is from abuse of the steroids.

Using steroids will always have a negative review, but its something that is very common when you want to reach your highest level of fitness, and professionally its okay to use them if its being watched closely by doctors says top fitness model Christian Boeving. Taking steroids could have a massive effect on a person’s physique, and living in a society obsessed by looks, the pressure is on men fitness and bodybuilders as a shortcut to having the perfect body. Steroids are used to increase the testosterone levels in a person’s body, but it all comes down to certain things but most importantly age.

There is no doubt that steroids are abused and used for one thing, gaining extreme amounts of muscle, but as for the older men steroids might be an option if competitive fitness is on the to do list. During the interview I Use Steroids on the Chris mantell show with Christian Boeving, a top male fitness model, he argues that humans do not die of old age, they die of the things that they cant combat from getting old, so things we are deficient in such as growth hormones and testosterone are simply being replaced by low doses of steroid use.

These levels start to drop at the age of 25 years old, and what most people should do is put those levels back to where they should be to prevent from aging, and getting sick. Most people take steroids for vanity reasons, and until a person reaches the level of professional fitness then they have to make a choice, steroids or no steroids. Steroids in professional sports are becoming very popular because everyone wants to maximize their level of performance and to outshine the best of the best.

The public should not have to hear about the use of supplements going on in the professional world because it spreads the use of steroids by them thinking “ well if they are on steroids in a professional sport, why don’t I use steroids and be like them” says Chris Mantell during the same episode with Christian Boeving. Steroids are legal in every state but America as of 2007, also legal in the world of bodybuilding, this is why they tend to look gross and sometimes over the top, but as for male fitness models steroids are illegal, they tend to look natural and extremely healthy, that’s because they are healthy, just some not so “ natural”.

Being not so natural doesn’t mean that they are using steroids; it just means that they are using supplements to help them reach their goals. There is a pretty big dividing line between steroids and supplements, male fitness models tend to workout until their body’s performance starts to plateau, then they start using supplements to increase their level of performance again. Now steroids are a lot stronger than any of the shelf supplement from Gnc, a picture of a bodybuilder will show you what steroids can do to the body as seen in the picture to the left of Bodybuilding champion Ronnie Coleman, also a frequent user of steroids.

Supplements on the other hand are called “ supplements” for a reason, they are just supplementing what a person is already doing, but steroids is taking professional fitness to the bodybuilding level. whose to blame for the abuse of steroids? The audience and crowd who what bigger, stronger, and more fitness freaks? Or the men who simply want to improve their bodies appearance? “ Bodybuilders use steroids to increase performance, and to help the recovery time when they overtrain” (Vigneri).

Utilizing steroids and taking supplements is just a little part of how these fitness freaks live their life, yes steroids help, and yes supplements help, but if they didn’t work out constantly and maintain a diet then they would never look as good as they do. For that reason, these fitness models and bodybuilders should still be admired because of their responsible use, commitment and dedication. Working out is arguably the most important step to the diet plan and supplement use.

A Mens Health article refers to drinking green tea or coffee to boost energy levels, higher energy levels increases the heart rate causing a person to burn more fat (break through nutritonal plan,8). If a person doesn’t work out, they are never going to be able to replace unwanted fat with muscle gain, and if they don’t diet, they are never going to keep off the unwanted fat and feed the muscles they are gaining. Maintaining a healthy lifestyle can be rather difficult but working out is a very easy way to change the way you live, a couple times a week for an hour could easily make you a different person(Avedon,12).

Fitness models rely on their diets to feed the muscle after ripping them after an intense training day, but there are many successful workouts that exist; it just depends on how a person decides to train and go about their exercise. Switching up workouts will allows for getting more out of an exercise, making it more successful because the muscle are actually tricked into working harder and ripping muscles that are harder to reach.

It is important to make sure that some sort of plan is laid out in terms of what parts of the body are being worked out, because if the same muscle is trained two days in a row, it is possible to end up losing muscle instead of gaining it. Bodybuilders lift heavy to get big but according to Dane Fletcher, author of Bad Habits By Bodybuilders, bodybuilders tend to lift too much weight, and this could lead to injury potential(Fletcher). A possible exercise regimen would be to start with a chest and triceps work out on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and to work out the muscles of the shoulders, back, and biceps on Tuesday and Thursday.

“Getting in condition means improving your whole body fitness. Some exercises strengthen your muscles (e. g. , weight lifting, sports) while others improve your flexibility (e. g. , yoga)” (Peeke). Some people want instant gratification when it comes to being fit, like having a six pack , or being ripped. Things like that don’t just come with a couple curls and bench presses; a diet has to be in play in order to maximize the level of fitness.

A person could do sit ups until their back broke, but they would never have defined abdominal muscles with out the correct diet. Sure, some people have good genetics and were born with a six-pack, but do you think that is going to last forever? No way. In conclusion, there are three key aspects of men’s fitness and overall good health. The first is dieting, which should be gone about in the correct fashion if it is going to be successful. The second is taking supplements, both to make up for a lack of nutrients in the diet, or to aid in the fitness process.

The third and final aspect is working out, which is arguably the most important aspect, because it leads to weight loss, or in the event that no weight loss is needed, muscle toning or ripping, depending on preference. While body builders’ bodies may sometimes be a little extreme, their regimen may be a good one to set as a fitness model. The regimens that professional body builders and male models go through can be good examples for other men who are looking to be in good shape as well as health.

Works Cited

• Oz, Mehmet.”Dr. Oz’s Essential Health Tips: Men’s
• Health. com. ” Men’s Health Magazine : Men’s Guide to Fitness, Health, Weight Loss, Nutrition, Sex, Style and Guy Wisdom. Oct. 09. Web. 01 Mar. 2011. .
• Aceto, Chris. “Article: Bodybuilding Diet Mistakes by Chris Aceto. ” Getbig. com: American Bodybuilding, Fitness and Figure. Feb. 07. Web. 01 Mar. 2011. .
• “Bodybuilding. com – What Supplements Are Best For Sports Athletes? ” Bodybuilding. com – Huge Online Supplement Store ; Fitness Community! Web. 01 Mar. 2011. . Fletcher, Dane.
• “Do It Yourself. ” Mens Fitness 2. 36 (2009): 4-13. Print. “I Use Steroids. ” Interview by Chris Mantell. Chris Mantell Show. June 08. Television. “Break Through Nutrition Plan.
• ” Docstoc – Documents, Templates, Forms, Ebooks, Papers ; Presentations. Dec. 09. Web. 01 Mar. 2011. http://www. docstoc. com/docs/5967/Break-Through-Nutrition-Plan Avedon, Gregg.
• Men’s Health Total Fitness Guide 2008 Muscle Chow: More than 150 Easy-to-follow Recipes to Burn Fat and Feed Your Muscles. Emmaus, PA: Rodale, 2007. Print.