>>I look at that and think, "Ick!"
I absolutely understand that too. It is not a body that I would ever aspire to since not only do I not care for the aesthetic, it is totally maladapted to the activities that I aspire to do well.
I was thinking of his competition record. No matter how you feel about the look and the steroid use, you're looking at one of the top performers ever. It's like if we were talking about musicians and I was saying I had known some pro musicians and littleman said he had only ever known one, and it turned out that my pros were all wedding bands and the one he had met was, say, Gerry Garcia (if he had met Arnold, I would have picked John Lennon).
I admire anyone who has the ability and drive to be among the absolute best in the world, even if they are best at a thing that I don't aspire to in the least.
>> I bet it swings in the other direction
Agreed. The studies that showed it to be dangerous were almost all poorly done based on my much more limited reading. And more and more the health benefits are coming to light. I am among the youngest Boomers and I know that if Boomers dislike anything, it's getting old before, at or after their time.
Also, I think the risks of taking anabolic steroids for someone in their teens or twenties are just crazy unless they have a true medical problem, but as people move into middle age they both have lower T naturally and a shorter time horizon for long-term problems so it makes more and more sense.
Personally, my issues with it are simply practical
- I never go to the doctor and am generally lazy and a procrastinator on all things medical. I should go more than I do. It's partly laziness, partly living so far away from services and, to be honest, probably partly deep-seated issues that a therapist would help me with (to be clear, I don't think I have said deep-seated issues, but I bet everyone with deep-seated issues that keeps them from going to the doctor says the same thing).
- I feel like it's a bit of a one-way street. This is not based on research and I might be totally wrong, but it seems like once you start it is hard to stop. Again, to be clear, that's not a totally rational reason as one can say the same thing about air, water and food. Once you start with those, it's hard to stop.
So I'm not saying those are good reasons, logical reasons, or rational reasons. I'm just saying they are my reasons, subject to change later today if the whim moves me.
