But he still had to work out... So I don't really see it. Granted, he was more pudgy than anything in the movie (he's was best in TDKR imo).
I think that with access to personal trainers, lots of free time and millions of dollars riding on their appearence that would make them driven enough to put in the effort to transform. Most of them aren't long term lifters so they are getting newb gains. I'm sure some would uses PED's but I doubt all of them do. You also need to look Hollywood hype, how often do you hear about an actor training martial arts for a movie and the trainer raving over how talented they were. It's the same here except they give a rather round number for weight gain, then add that to tan, lighting and shooting tricks and you get "action man body". As for the Rock, you have all of the above plus the fact that he was an athlete being picked for a billion dollar sport which is going to find the best in the country, so his genetics are top tier for a power/strength aspect. I doubt if anyone on here has his type of athletic genes or trains with the intensity he does, so using the idea that people here train and thus we can see the gains people can make doesn't really work IMHO. "They don't understand I train every day of my life, as they have never trained a day in theirs" is supposedly what Alexsander Karelin said when asked why people called him The Experiment. He was 6"4' and 290lbs. I'd say that quote is true of all pro athletes. Does Johnson take steroids, I don't know but he clearly has the genetics to be a huge man and trains like a beast so I give him the benefit of the doubt.
the issue is the false expectation it creates in young men on how quickly and easily they can build muscle. 6 months before he was in The Mechanist where he was so severely underweight that his doctor said he's killing himself. then he was 200 pounds in Batman and not mega-fat with a diet of "chocolate cake and ice-cream" (he said bulking was easy). any normal guy trying to gain weight like that would find it ridiculously difficult. granted he had the best advice money could buy but its an unrealistic for an average male and really just as bad as advertising in women's mags.
I don't get that. But then again, I was always taught that if you want something, it's hard work. He's an actor. Not a role model (obviously). If young men need a role model so badly that they look to a rageaholic actor, then something is wrong.
remember that there are crap loads of guys that buy men's health and follow the routines. women and other men compare men to hollywood actors so people try to emulate their training. if they admitted to PEDs then it would be better for everyone. like if models or jennifer lawrence admitted to starving themselves and having great genetics. i have no problem with PEDs. it does involves hard work in every aspect (disciplined eating, training and sleeping) but its unrealistic for everyone else
I love Alexander Karelin as much as the next guy but there's no way he wasn't juicing in some way. Sadly I'd say any eastern block sports person from the 70's/80's/90's has to fall under suspicion.
With regards to the rock he went on record in an edition of muscle and fitness last year openly stating he was on ephedrine during his wrestling career (if anyone wants I can root around and see if I still have that copy to provide a reference). It's likely through that he was not just using ephedrine but an ECA stack (ephedrine, caffeine and aspirin). I find it hard to believe he would openly advocate use of ephedrine and not at least consider the use of other substances. The number of other wrestlers who have been found or openly admitted steroid use is pretty vast (eg Chris Benoit) and there is also a huge number of Hollywood celebrities who have also been caught/admitted to steroid use (eg sly). I think it hard to beleive the rock (both a wrestler and Hollywood celebrity and a frankly insane physical specimen) isn't using hints to help him. That takes nothing away from him and his awesomeness, I think the guy is a legend but it would be nieve to think he did it all naturaly. EDIT - Unfortunately I don't have that issue anymore
I knew I'd heard something similar but couldn't remember where for the life of me. If you can find a copy of it, that would still be great. Showing my ignorance here, but I don't understand. What part do caffeine and aspirin play there?
An ECA stack is those 3 things taken together, don't know the science but a lot of bodybuilders do that with substances finding that they can take less and get better results. ECA is the classic old school "cutting" stack but I'd assume there are modern equivelants.
And yet despite being tested constantly, through 4 Olympics including 1 in the USA (hardly Russia's best friend), and there being constant disbelief that someone could be that good so he volunteered to be tested even when not picked, he never failed a test. People everywhere were expecting him to be on drugs, so don't you think he would have been looked at extra hard? On the other hand we have genetic cases where women like Caster Semenya both testes and ovaries and produces far more testosterone than normal thus making her a better runner, or Eero Antero Mäntyranta who had a condition that increased his red blood cell mass and hemoglobin allowing him to carry upto 50% more oxygen in his blood than normal making him a superior skier, or the German kid who has a double dose of the MSTN and thus has extreme muscle hypertrophy. You say, he must have been doping, I say in the absence of any testing failures he was more likely a genetic powerhouse who's body adapted fantastically to his training.
The problem is (as I understand it) that most people in competitive circles either know themselves or have people in their crew who know exactly what sorts of chemicals they test for and how to use the appropriate masking agents to cover the traces are them. I do believe that during his long career that Mike Tyson didn't test positive for a lot of drugs and yet later on admitted to going to quite extraordinary lengths to cover his tracks. Lance Armstrong never tested positive for PEDs of any kind and yet he openly admitted that he had been using them in the end. Very recently both Jon "Bones" Jones and Daniel Cormier both came back with test levels that were horrifically low to the point they seem frankly unnatural. I'm sure if we put our heads together, we'd probably think of more. Drug testing in sports is notoriously unreliable to the point that it sadly becomes the norm to assume that an athlete who hasn't tested positive is just as likely to have figured out how to fool the tests as much as being likely to be a genetic freak of nature. There will always be exceptions to the norm though and he may have just been a genetic powerhouse afterall.
I guess I just don't like the assumption that someone is extraordinary and therefore must be on drugs. Innocent till proven guilty and all that. As for Jones and Cormier, further tests state that they are not symptoms of PED's. http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2015/1/9...aniel-cormier-te-ratio-low-drug-test-mma-news
Yes, yes and yes...but the thing is, once you start down that road - guilty until proven innocent - its a road with no return. There are all manner of stories from all over of people who "looked" guilty - from the professional investigator's viewpoint, fitting some sort of profile, recent cases that had superficial similarities, etc., etc., and its turned out that they were indeed innocent. Usually people are guilty of something (as in Jonesy's case - cocaine) and from that snowball ( no pun... ) comes the avalanche of insinuations and accusations. Everything that can be thrown at them, is thrown at them and once something sticks, no one bothers to check their facts anymore. When in doubt accuse. Yes, it certainly possible Jones and Cormier and all the rest have found a way to cheat the tests ... but I think he's due his day in court ( in a manner of speaking ) and has the right to be assumed innocent in the face of what the commission has said ( or not said ). I'll admit...I've been sus about it. His T levels are far, far lower than mine - which are considered pathologically low for a 50yr old ( as I've mentioned before ) but I'm willing to concede, especially in the face of finding out Cormiers are also low, that indeed innocent until proven guilty. Nothing worse than being accused when one is innocent of that and the accusation being permanently assigned, in the eyes of our children and our children's children, as sure guilt. Lance Armstrong...man...can any athlete ever truly be assumed to be clean, beyond reasonable doubt, after was found the lengths that he went to to cheat? Sometimes I think it absurdly comical that, not a 50 million-a-fight boxer, not a renowned footballer, not an Olympic Wrestler, but a freaking bicycle peddler that managed to ruin, single-handed, the entire image of sport and every athlete who might reach the upper end of their chosen craft forever. And now for the Farm Bureau Report...
I don't like it either. For me though, there's been so many athletes who are already a million miles better than the rest of us naturally who have then been busted trying to get an edge that it does make me incredibly suspicious of the rest. You can still remain suspicious of people while giving them the benefit of the doubt and assuming they're innocent unless proven otherwise. All said, it is easy to forget that whether or not these people are on drugs, it still takes an enormous amount of dedication, training and effort to perform at a pro level or have a certain physique and these peeps should be commended for that. Re; Jones - he was cleared of excessive levels of synthetic testosterone in his system but it does absolutely nothing to explain his absurdly low test levels in his urine on all three occasions he tested for them (IIRC, first sample was "watery"). He's still innocent unless some evidence comes forth that shows otherwise, but it's still odd no matter how you look at it. All too true. Understandable though. Once you've proven that someone is willing to bend the rules/break the law (especially with substance abuse/PED use/similar) for any reason including to get an edge, you've basically besmirched their character and demonstrated they seem to have a blatant disregard for the rules. Not that it's particularly good though. Lol, it is crazy, isn't it? I guess with athletes from some other sports you almost expect dubious drugs and PEDs to be part and parcel of the sport and lifestyle. But Lance was a poster boy for an incredible athlete in a sport that simply doesn't have that reputation who passed an enormous amount of drugs tests. ----- T-Nation article on "natural bodybuilding" and PED/'roid use: http://www.t-nation.com/training/how-natural-is-natural-bodybuilding
Ja, I catch meself looking at my 10 year old's basketball team, trying to figure who's roidin' and whose not, lol.
Sure there are plenty of athletes busted, but there are far more who have not, and some of those have been way above the rest; Roger Federer, Wayne Gretzky, Miguel Indurain, Michael Jordan, Sachin Tendulka, Haile Gebrselassie, Sergie Bubka, Bryan Clay etc. But I guess if others having been caught makes one suspicious of everyone then they are tainted too.
Id say Ben Johnson was the guy who ruined peoples believe in sports being clean, and 6 of the 8 finalists from Seoul all had some dark cloud over them in terms of drugs and testing, including Lewis lol Lance Armstrong has a net worth of $130million or so, and was earning £10million a year in endorsements etc in 2010, 5 years AFTER he retired, id say that was a hell of a reason to be the biggest cheat of all time , in a sport where cheating was a way of life lol Not sure many boxers or football players except the TOP 1% would have earned that much or had that potential earning power after retiring I think someone said racing didn’t have a rep for drug use, its had entire teams thrown off the tour due to drugs use, doping started as far back as 1903, with alchol used to dull the pain, Doping was only made illegal in the 60s, and after that the testing was half hearted As for people believing innocent until proving guilty and that if guy like Karelin tests clean we should give them the benefit of the doubt, well I would say lets remember the case of BALCO That company managed to supply athletes from 88 to 2002 with undetectable drugs and only got found out when one of the coaches involved fell out with the others and tipped off the Feds, and this company was run by a former heavy metal band member, hardly a scientific genius, the Russians would have had their top men working on their athletic programme, with the backing of the sports governing bodies in the country
Re Christian Bale and bulking from Machinist to Batman. To go from 50kg to 90kg in month, I'm not surprised with it as he pretty much ate junk. Nolan has said in one of the "Making of" documentaries that "Chris (Bale) misunderstood when I told him to get as big as possible, and he turned up fat and out of shape. The crew said, we're making Batman not Fatman" There is a pic out there where Bale is on set with a belly. Think its been taken down since so I might have to go through and screenshoot or something.
John Cena on CNN discussing steroids in sports in general. John Cena's Interview With CNN the unedited versi…: http://youtu.be/dkj-vd-q5A8
