I was sixteen year old, a strong youth, but kind of on the chunky side.
One day, the older brother of a friend of mine, told me that I should come down to the Gym with him.
This sounded exciting; I was never in a gym before ( the year was 1966, availability of gyms were small).
The next evening, we wentdownstairs in the Boy's Club of Pittsburgh.
Chuck introduced me to the guys in the basement.
They seemed friendly enough.
The atmosphere was exciting, despite the lack luster of the weight room.
The room reeked of sweat and metal.
There was only one small vent window with and exhaust fan in it for circulating the air.
But the guys down there were lifting much weight, and many were more muscular than anyone I had seen in real life.
That evening, Chuck put me through a 3 hour workout, the same one he was doing, and I actually did it.
The next day, I could hardly walk, and It felt like there was a bowling ball in my stomach.
But, I was hooked.
Over the next year or so, I lost about 20 pounds of fat.
I became rather muscular with a V-shaped bodybuilder torso and legs.
From my first workout there, I also became an observer.
First I observed myself.
Adding muscle took a lot of work and time, along with a healthy diet loaded with protein.
Over time, I watched guys add pounds of muscle on their bodies, in what seemed a matter of weeks.
Powerlifters and olympic style lifters were gaining 30 to 50 pounds in their lifts in a short time period.
This was amazing to me.
One night, in the locker room, a bodybuilder told me I had on stage potential.
I, replied that I never really gave it any thought.
He said I should,and let me in on a secret.
The I was offered some little blue pills.
It turns out these little blue were Diannabol.
Diannabol is an anabolic steroid.
Yeas I believe, these were the beginnings of steroid abuse.
I declined the little blue pills.
Once I found out what they were, I started reading everything I could find on the subject.
I mean, it obviously worked, but it did not seem natural or right.
At that time, around 1968, there was nota whole lot of literature on the subject.
What was there, was pretty scary though.
These guys were popping 5 to 10 of these at a time.
And who knows how many times a day? When they could get their hands on injectable testosterone, they would add this to their regimen.
One day, I brought in an article on the side effects of anabolic steroid abuse.
I pinned it on the bulletin board.
Many guys read it.
After working out and showering, I went back to say god-bye to the guys remaining there.
The article was ripped up in little bits on th floor below the bulletin board.
Perhaps, it was steroid rage.
Anyway, anabolic steroid have therapeutic use in health care.
And it does add lean muscle mass.
They can be a good thing if used under medical supervision.
Long term abuse is not good.
It has many side effects.
What makes matters worse, there side effects are irreversible.
These include , but are not limited to baldness, reduced sperm count, infertility, actual shrinking of the testicles ( Jose Canseco" ex-wife said his testicles were the size of peanuts ), development of breasts, increased chance of prostate cancer, skeletal damage ( especially in youth ), liver damage ( including hepatitis ), paranoia, aggressive behavior, and impaired judgment due to a sense of invincibility.
And being a hormone, it has a straining effect on the other hormonal systems in the body.
It is not worth the fifteen minutes of fames you may get from using steroids.