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To the Natural Athlete: If You Train & Eat Like an Anabolic Steroid User… Expect to FAIL

By Sal Di Stefano on Jun 5, 2016 5:59:00 AM
7 Minutes Reading Time

 

Everywhere we look we see examples of what the male body can achieve with proper diet, training and ANABOLIC STEROIDS.

Consider this… A majority of the fitness models and 99.9% of the pro bodybuilders you see in the magazines and online are using high levels of external hormones. Yup, its true…

The same is true for a very high percentage of the built celebrity bodies you see in movies.  If you have ever wondered why so many actors go from looking like regular dudes to becoming huge AND ripped for a movie role in such a short time it is because their bodies were built with the aid of anabolic hormones. This also accounts for why most of them quickly return to their pre-movie shape after their movie premiers.  Now don’t take this as a criticism… These are people who are being paid millions to star in a film that costs tens of millions (or more) with the expectation of returning a profit. Of course they will use every tool at their disposal to achieve the perfect look for their role. Health is not the priority.

The most important thing for you to understand is that the exercise routines and diets that are followed by chemically enhanced fitness models, bodybuilders and actors work best for an UNNATURAL body (anabolic steroid user) but not for a NATURAL body (drug free).

You see, when you have a constant stream of VERY anabolic hormones running through your veins, your body responds very differently to exercise and diet.  As a natural muscle builder you simply cannot expect to follow the same routines and diets and get similar results.  For most of you, it simply won’t happen.

Before I begin, I would like to express that while I am in no way condoning the use of anabolic hormones, I do believe it’s a personal choice.  I support people’s voluntary actions so long as they don’t hurt anyone else. It’s your body, do with it as you please.

Now that I have cleared the air, let’s dive in.

So what are the main differences between the “unnatural body” and the “natural body”? Let me highlight a few of the differences that have the biggest impact on how your body builds muscle…

First off, let’s discuss the role that recovery makes in achieving your fitness goals. You have certainly heard the word “overtraining” and the need for recovery between workouts. For the most part this is true. If you continuously damage your muscles without letting them recover you will simply prevent any muscle adaptation (muscle growth) or, at worst, create more damage and actually go backwards.

Testosterone, its derivatives, growth hormone and even insulin (all anabolic hormones) play major roles in how fast the recovery process takes place. It becomes obvious then that someone with ten times the levels of circulating anabolic hormones will have a much faster recovery rate. This is why “unnatural” athletes can train for extended periods of time at high intensity. They recover faster than you do (assuming you are natural!) and can take advantage of this accelerated recovery by creating tremendous amounts of muscle damage to stimulate muscle adaptation.

On the other hand, when a natural athlete trains with a lot of intensity, they run the risk of quickly hitting a wall and getting stuck in what I call “the muscle breakdown/recovery trap,” which better describes the problem of overtraining. This is when you work out so hard that your body must devote all its resources to recovery, not building. In other words, you work out hard, break down muscle, get sore and then recover (hopefully) in time for your next intense workout.  When this happens you experience zero progress or worse, YOU LOSE MUSCLE.

An unnatural body will even utilize food differently! The rate of protein synthesis, or how the body uses protein to recover and build muscle, is much higher in the unnatural body. Anabolic steroid users can eat way more protein and their body can use it for muscle building.

When a natural athlete eats one gram of protein or more per pound of bodyweight it does little good. A natural body uses protein at a slower rate, so for the natural athlete HOW to use protein becomes more important than HOW MUCH protein to use. For the natural lifter “eat one or more grams of protein per pound of bodyweight” is a myth that has been perpetrated by unnatural athletes, bodybuilders and the supplement companies that profit off of selling thousands of pounds of protein powders and bars. You can read more about it here.

Lastly and most importantly, the unnatural lifter’s body has a loud and constant “ANABOLIC” signal all of the time. Hormones are the most basic of the chemical signals in the body.  They tell the body to grow, to shrink, how to feel, how much fat to store and even when to sleep. Anabolic hormones tell the body to build active tissue… MUSCLE. The term anabolic literally means constructive metabolism… in other words TO BUILD. When an athlete or celebrity takes even a modest dose of anabolic hormones (when compared to the astronomical doses pro bodybuilders use), they are increasing their anabolic hormone levels multiple times over… often an increase of over 1000%. Not only that, because these hormones are coming from an external source (outside the body), the levels of anabolic hormones are high 24 hours a day as opposed to the natural fluctuations in hormone levels that the natural athlete will experience. In fact, depending on the time of day, activity, diet and even mental attitude, the natural athlete’s anabolic hormone levels can vary quite dramatically.

So what does this mean? Well in layman’s terms it means the unnatural athlete’s body is being signaled to BUILD MUSCLE all the damn time, whereas the natural athlete’s body has certain times of the day when this happens…or sometimes not at all. The natural athlete must be aware of how to stimulate natural “bumps” in their anabolic hormones and how to take advantage of them. My 12 week program, MAPS Anabolic, shows natural athletes how to create and capitalize on these bumps so that they can naturally create an anabolic effect in their body that is equal to low dose anabolic steroid use.

At the end of the day, if a natural athlete eats and trains like an unnatural athlete, not only should they expect to experience a fraction of the results…most naturals will get almost ZERO results. The natural athlete must train in a way that utilizes the body’s natural systems of adaptation and they must eat in a way that feeds muscle but starves body fat.

How is this done? For one, training the whole body 2-3 days a week vs. following a body part split is usually vastly superior for the natural athlete. Eating a relatively high protein diet is also good but not one gram of protein per pound of bodyweight or more… that’s a waste of protein at best, and at worst will just make you fatter.

As a natural athlete your workouts hold the greatest potential to make you anabolic, so learn how to take advantage of this fact. You can help facilitate this by regarding your workouts as signals to your body and not as a way to beat the crap out of yourself.  Too many people think that it is the workout that is responsible for growth so they determine that working out harder will produce greater returns.  In truth, what matters most is what your workouts are telling your body to do AFTER the workout is through.  Your workouts are either signaling your body to be anabolic and to adapt and grow or they are signaling your body to simply recover and even, in some cases, to become CATABOLIC and reduce muscle mass.

If you aren’t progressing, it is time to determine what signals you are sending your body and to make a change.  The glaring need for such an objective and science based approach for the natural athlete is what led me to develop MAPS Anabolic.  You can learn more about it here.

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Sal Di Stefano

Sal is one of the hosts of the Mind Pump Podcast. At the age of 18 his passion for the art and science of resistance training was so consuming that he decided to make it a profession and become a personal trainer. By 19 he was managing health clubs and by 22 he owned his own gym. After 17 years as a personal trainer he has dedicated himself to bringing science and TRUTH to the fitness industry.

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