No Sugar Coating In This Book

Natural Bodybuilder Also Fighting Drugs

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With Steroid Temptations Everywhere –
He’s Back To Being Clean!
By Jackgetbig@aol.com

I really enjoyed your book... it is one of the only sources of information on steroids that I have ever read that is 100% true. I have thoroughly studied anabolic steroids since my freshman year of high school, and I was misled. First came nothing but scare tactics and propaganda that made me want nothing to do with steroids. However, I then began to read about and study athletes who benefited from them and thus became infuriated with the fact that I had been lied to.

I had been made fun of a lot in school for being small so I took my dad's weight training classes in high school. Dad was a PE and Health teacher who had two weight training classes for his athletes. He weighed 220 and I wanted to be just like him… since I thought he was the biggest and strongest man in the world. He was also the football coach and was pro powerlifting, pro football, and anti bodybuilding and anti steroids.

Dad was natural and always was honest with me about steroids and that they worked, but that they were dangerous. At that time I worked extremely hard, and I felt as if steroids were taken by cheaters, and that steroids were only for people who did not work hard and were looking for an easy way out. This is what much of the literature that I read about had to say about steroids: "If you take steroids, then you are a cheater, and cheaters never win. If you take steroids, then you will have some short term side affects (acne, sterility, balding, and ‘roid rage), then you will die!" There were also huge lists of side affects that were included that was usually at least a page long.

Dad felt that bodybuilding was for pretty boys and steroid users and that naturally you could not have a huge physique without first gaining size through powerlifting. "Bodybuilding is not a real sport, son. It's for sissies and non-athletes. The only ones who are any good at it are on steroids, and they aren't real athletes anyway."

I respected my dad and thus had no intentions of ever becoming a bodybuilder, but rather decided to follow in my dad's footsteps. My stereotype had been that bodybuilders were serious or stupid, but after watching Arnold in Twins, I decided that it I wanted a physique similar to that of Arnold's. However, I knew that Arnold had taken 'roids because dad told me that he admitted to it on the Barbara Walters show. So I thought to myself, "OK, maybe I won't get quite as freaky as that without drugs, but maybe I can get close!" I decided right then and there that I would one day be between 220 or 230 but ripped... no fat and no drugs with a minimum of 20" arms.

I took up bodybuilding my senior year of high school. I had been reading about Arnold in Musclemag and read how his superior work ethic led to his becoming a champion. I also had a superior work ethic; I was the first one to practice, and would often work on certain football technique or wrestling moves, then would sometimes even train after practice. In this magazine I read one of his workouts and thought, "Hey! This workout looks as if it could actually work for athletes who are natural as well!"

My bodyweight shot up to 168 pounds almost instantly, then I began to plateau. I was overtrained and exhausted, then realized that I had been reading Arnold's workout all wrong!

I trained hard six days a week, and I did Arnold's routine. This time, however, I did it right. I trained 2-4 hours a day vs. 6-8, and I took Hot Stuff and Mega Mass 4000. I went from 160 to 177.5 pounds in three months, and I was fired up. Many people accused me of taking steroids, including my mom, but I just laughed and thanked them for the compliment. I bought the movie "Twins" and began to watch it sometimes once a week, sometimes once a day. Then a friend of mine told me to watch the movie "Pumping Iron." I loved it. I watched either Twins or Pumping Iron almost every day, and my parents and little brother were getting sick of it.

I began to get frustrated after placing 6th in my first teenage bodybuilding competition in the Northwest Natural. I had reached a plateau at 177.5 and my arms were stuck at 16 and 1/2 inches. However, they were only 12 inches or so when I first started in July 1992. I felt small because I was trying to look like Arnold and seeing him every day in the videos and then looking at myself in the mirror made me feel like I was still only 78 pounds like when I was in 7th grade.

Then a big teenager at the gym offered me steroids... he said it was Dianabol. I told him I'd think about it. However, my friend Ben who I met for the first time in July 1992 had 17" arms at age 17 and was bench pressing 340 pounds and was ripped to shreds. He also liked Arnold and was still dedicated to training naturally. So was my dad. Both Ben and my dad were harder looking, stronger, and more impressive to me. The D-Bol guy had 18" arms, but he was puffy and with water retention and he didn't seem to train as intense. I told the steroid guy that although I appreciated the offer, I wanted to stay natural for a while longer.

I went into the Navy in December 1992 and was the Assistant Athletic Petty Officer. My job was to help fellow shipmates ("Recruits" as we were all called during boot camp) pass their pt (physical training) tests. I had the recruits who flunked on the push ups and sit ups, and I eventually was able to get every last one of them to pass their tests by not letting them go to bed after taps until they got 100 push ups and 100 sit ups completed. They had to do push ups, then sit ups, then repeat for as long as it took. I also got a letter of Accommodation from the CO (Commanding Officer), for doing the most push ups and sit ups in the pt test out of 70 Recruits in Company 030.

In the fleet I was one of the only Navy guys to lift weights on the ship because we only got 2-6 hours of sleep max while out at sea. I would use a good chunk of my sleep time to train, then be dog tired at various times throughout the day. Therefore, I would usually train with Marines. It was from these Marines that I would learn even more about steroids... where to get them, which Marines were taking them, the whole business. Since I was a lifetime natural athlete, I would tell them that steroids were dangerous and that it would be a good idea not to take them, but that I would not think any less of them for taking steroids because it was their bodies and thus their choice to do so. Then I told them that I was proud of being a natural athlete and that I did not want to take steroids because at least what I had was mine to keep and none of it was from drugs. The Marines laughed at me and told me that I was not a natural athlete. I laughed back and said, "Of course I am!"

"Then how did you get all those muscles that are almost as big as ours and bigger than most of your shipmates, and bigger than even some of the Marines who do take steroids?"

"I eat as much as I can, I train as heavy and as hard as I can, and I take weight gain supplements."

"Ohhh! You eat as much as you can? That's not natural. Some say that this is even unhealthy. You weight train with weights as hard and as heavy as you can. That's not natural either. And some say that training heavy can be dangerous because you can get injured, especially on a moving ship. And you take stuff to get big? What stuff is that Sandberg?"

Just weight gain drinks and stuff like that. I took boron pills once too. But those were garbage. I took two a day for a week and nothing happened, so I took the rest of the bottle in one day and I still didn't get any results.

"Yeah, you're natural alright. You took weight gainers to get big, even took pills to get big. You're not natural Sandberg. A real natural athlete is one that goes off of his God given talent. He doesn't have to force it. All he does is go about his daily activities, eats normal, and then steps on the playing field and outdoes everybody else. There's no such thing as a natural bodybuilder because all bodybuilders have to lift weights to look like that. There's nothing natural at all about you guys, and there's no difference between a guy like you and a guy like me. Everybody takes steroids.”

I even caught some Navy Seal guys injecting steroids when they were on our ship for a few days, and they yelled at me for interrupting them and for intruding on their secured location. How do you think the Navy Seals get so buffed?

The first time that I heard this guy talk he made no sense, but after hearing this mumbo jumbo for six months straight I began to believe him. Was I really a natural bodybuilder? I thought so. I'd placed 6th in the Northwest Natural in 1992 and 4th in the teenage Mr. California in 1993 and had my name printed in a natural magazine. I placed third on the ship in the powerlifting competition out of all the Marines and Navy guys who wanted to compete (there were 10 or 15 total... most of them Marines).

I was depressed, "I'm not natural," I thought to myself. When short tour was over I bought a book called "False Glory" by Steve Courson and another book called "The Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding" by Arnold Schwarzenegger. False Glory was very honest, but it pissed me off at the same time. I had no idea how many athletes were using steroids, and after reading that book I felt I had one of two choices... continue on with natural bodybuilding and give up my dreams of playing college football or play college ball at the University of Montana and take 'roids.

I then saw Brian Bozworth's book entitled "The Boz" on sale at the bookstore and read that as well, and he talked about how various members on his team at Oklahoma were juicing. I read Arnold's book and he talked briefly about the risk to benefit ratio of taking steroids. At this point I was seriously considering taking steroids and thought: "Through football as a walk on at age 21 and a freshman I can get drafted into the pros like the Boz did and then make movies like Arnold did. That would make the benefits stronger than the risks."

Right before going into the Navy I had also watched a bodybuilding competition put on by McMahon that had many of the top IFBB pros on it such as Mike and Jim Quinn, Aaron Baker, and other freaks of nature that I thought took steroids. Then I read an interview with Mike Quinn that this entire organization was a farce. He said that he and all of the other competitors were on Steroids, but that he was the only one to get caught with a test in his motel room. That pissed me off! They had a doctor on that contest and everything who came out in a white coat and talked about how strict the drug testing was and how all of the competitors in that show were natural. Then I told one of my friends about it, and he laughed at me. "How in the hell could you possibly think that Gary Strydom was natural? You're naive son," he told me.

Then I read in the magazines, "Bodybuilding is war!" by some of the pros. I thought this made sense then, that if bodybuilding were war that some athletes may feel they need biological or chemical warfare (a.k.a. steroids). I even read in Musclemag in 1993 or 1994 that Jeanne-Claude was lying about being natural and that he really was using steroids to enhance his appearance for the movies. This really depressed me. I thought, "So much for getting a physique like Van Damme's naturally." Had I been thinking just a little more logically, I'd have realized that I was getting very close to Van Damme's physique. I was up to 195 pounds and pretty cut.

I did my last bodybuilding competition as a lifetime natural athlete in the spring of 1994. I took 4th place in the teenage division and 3rd place out of five competitors in the men's heavyweight division even though I was only 20 years old. I was natural, and so were all of the other competitors in my weight class. I had dieted down and was just over the weight for middleweight division. Shortly before the competition they secured the weight room on my ship. I freaked out. How could I train for my last natural bodybuilding competition if the weight room was going to be closed. I felt my only option was to go AWOL just like Arnold did in Austria to compete in the Mr. Europe and Frank Dux did for the Kumate. When I got back I had to go to Captain's Mass. I told the Captain that I felt that it would be good publicity for the ship if I won the bodybuilding competition. I only apologized for losing the contest; however, I did not apologize for going AWOL. The Captain told me that although he admired my dedication to the sport of bodybuilding that it was still no excuse for going AWOL. I had to go on Restriction for 45 days and had to do two hours of extra duty every day, as well as check into muster five times a day.

I eventually went onto take steroids and they got me into a lot of trouble, but that is another story. Eventually I got off of them and went back to natural bodybuilding and powerlifting, became a certified personal trainer, and have been active in speaking out against steroids. I have even set two Bench Press records without the use of anabolic steroids, and I have been given the opportunity to put on a power meet through the World Federation of Natural Athletes (WFNA) led by Bill Anderson and Ondre Galloway.

At the Rocky Mountain Bodybuilding Championships I did a powerlifting demonstration at Intermission where I did several weighted dips between two benches with eight 45 pound plates in my lap plus the resistance of my friend pressing down on top of the weights. However, I have still not competed in a bodybuilding competition since I was juiced up on 'roids in 2000. My steroid abuse resulted in short term physical side affects, legal problems, and psychological problems that will probably last for the rest of my life. There isn't a day goes by that I'm not tempted to go back on the juice, but if I read the Bible and pray I can hold on for one more day. I've been doing that since 2001, and now it's 2005.

I must be doing something right. I will give you more details on my Steroid problems at a later time, but it is now 2:30 am and I have to train my first client tomorrow at 7am. I am recommending to my clients that they order your book and take Hot Stuff, because that helped me out when I made big gains in 1992 naturally. I have been writing a book on all of the negative things that happened to me as a result of my steroid use/abuse. I started it way back in 2001, but have been so busy working 60-80 hour weeks that it gets tough to find the time.

Anyhow, I just want to let you know that I support your cause. I know several athletes who start out just as I did... they think they'll take just one cycle and get off. That goal is extremely unrealistic for most people. I read two lies over and over again... 1) If you take steroids you'll die and 2) If you take steroids you can make millions of dollars in movies and the pros, but it is cheating to do so. Do you really think that this is going to stop people from taking Steroids? Of course not. That's why I like your book, Mr. Ciola. You are honest, and you tell it like it is. You admit that steroids work, you admit that not everyone who takes steroids will die from them although it is a possibility, and you admit that very few people make it into the pros or into the movies regardless of whether they take steroids or not. I wish this book were around in 1993 or 1994!

As for the guy that I turned down in 1992 who offered me D-Bol, his kidneys failed on him at the age of 19 or 20. Lifetime natural Ben Matheson, on the other hand, is second in the world in the WABDL division with a Deadlift of 750 pounds! He is also very successful in bodybuilding, as he won the Mr. Tri Cities in 1993, the Eastern Washington in 1996, and took second in a non-drug tested show in the year 2000 just to show people that you can be competitive without drugs. Ondre Galloway has done the same and was runner up in the Mr. Natural Universe, and has even placed in the top five in the Emerald Cup drug free just to show people that it is possible.

My dad feels that he is able to still compete today in his 50's due to the fact that he chose to compete without the use of anabolic steroids. Most of the powerhouses that were competing in his day now have jaundice, kidney problems, or are in the ground. Not one juice monster that forced him out of competition in the 1970's is around to compete against my dad anymore, and he is now a five time World Champion in his age and weight division in the World Association World Association of Bench and Deadlift (WABDL) and his max deadlift is 661 pounds. He turned 55 last month.

Take care and God bless Mr. Ciola.

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Thinks Steroids Book Is ‘A Bunch of S_ _t’

What a bunch of SHIT – Steroids Kill! Will You Be The Next Victim? Try writing a book with fact, not scare tactic fiction!

Jack Catrell jcat@yahoo.com

OUR RESPONSE:

Ask the families who have lost a loved one to steroid abuse whether it’s fact or fiction. There are plenty of them out there.