Nowadays there are a lot of people taking alternative legal steroids for muscle building. Some of the legal steroids available today are androstenedione or andro, 1-test,1-AD, and 4-andro. The benefits of these steroids is increased strength, energy and a great way in helping muscle recovery. Discretion should be used when taking these steroids.

Do you know that androstenedione, was the first legal steroid to be promoted and used by body builders? It could be also called prohorormone, which was first used by the East German athletes to improve their performance. Even today the people belonging to the muscle building fraternity rely on these steroids.

Legal steriods are classified as artifical steroids that are also known as anabolic steroids. Anabolic steroids increase the protein synthesis process in the human body. Taking steroids for building cellular tissues helps support the strength of the muscles. Steroids do this by exerting their anabolic effect after enzyme conversion takes place.

A legal steroid is determined by the way it will be used. Often they are prescribed for medicinal purposes and you will find whre physicians have prescribed them for their patients. Steroid use by athletes is usually illegal as it caused the body to gain mass very quickly giving them an unfair advantage over other athletes.

There is always the need to use caution about overdosing, even when taking legal steroids. Careful is the word here. The over use of steroids can lead to severe harm. You will be opening yourself up to numerous health problems whenever using more than the prescribed dosage. High level of steroids can elevate the bad cholesterol in the body. Also, there is the risk of elevating the blood pressure. Heart and liver damage are also a very real risk in the misuse of steroids.

This is the reason that steroids are prescribed in specific dosages. Different states have different laws regarding the legality of steroids. In some states there is strict control on the possession or sale of steroids. There are nations, too, where steriods are in the controlled substances category. In these nations possessing steroids without a prescription is punishable by law. The international sports association has banned the use of steroids by their athletes. However, there are those that use these steroids illegally.

Mesobolin, tridenosen, and dianabol are some legal steroids that do not affect hormones directly. Tridenosen is used in helping the growth of testosterone, growth hormone, etc. It has great qualities and is a good steroid as it is thermogenic, anabolic, and increases the blood movement to the skelton system.

The status of legal steroids and illegal steroids is determined by the purpose they are being used for. The side effects of both legal and illegal steroids are inevitable. Don't fall prey to manufacturer's publicity that tries to lure you in as a consumer. Research for yourself and consult your physician before taking any of them.

It was just about fifty years ago that drugs began to appear on the bodybuilding scene and it was in the early sixties that we hear about bodybuilders taking Dianobol. At this stage the major drug companies began to develop their own steroid drugs, many of which are still in use today. The downside came when reports began to appear regarding drug use in sport and many drug companies abandoned their products resulting in many good patented drugs never being developed.

Throughout the sixties and seventies orals were in great use resulting in some of those bodybuilders developing liver and kidney problems, probably due to excessive use over long time periods. During the seventies, as a young bodybuilder, I never took more than 10 x 5mg Dianabol tablets daily and over short time periods. More normal was 4 to 6 Dianabol daily with 200 mg per week of an injectable [Deca or Testoviron] the total intake was around 300 to 400mg per week maximum. Quite basic stuff if you compare it with today.

But that was a fairly normal stack at the time. Some guys used more, usually via extra orals - the fact was that those drugs did produce gains. Now, even novice level competitors use 1000mg per week [and some use much more] including some quite toxic substances like Oxymetholone, Halotestin, Parabolan, etc. I know that some of these are only obtainable with other names from various suppliers outside of Europe but the toxic effects of the basic drugs remain.

Nowadays novice bodybuilders are using some really impressive stacks and as they move up the competitive ladder the steroid intake increases and other products are also taken on aboard. Some examples being DNP [di-nitro-phenol], various diuretic products, anti-catabolic drugs [Aminoglutethimide (Orimeten)], Nubain even, prostaglandins, IGF-1 [perhaps], as well as insulin and growth hormone. We are now entering a critical phase regards both cost and health risk as I know of many health problems related to these types of drugs.

The youth of today has a very relaxed attitude to drugs and who can blame them. The Establishment makes lots of noises about cigarettes but does little - after all the UK government still collects 8,000,000,000 per year in taxes from smokers; and that's about 5 times what it costs to treat smoking related diseases. The young do not believe anything they are told about the dangers of recreational drugs.

These dangers are very often exaggerated and they will only find out by their own experiences. Many who start bodybuilding used or still do use a combination of recreational substances and deciding to take a few bodybuilding drugs as well does not faze them. For the more serious bodybuilders, it should be mandatory that all the recreational stuff is abandoned. But many won't and the load on their body systems will be increased as their kidneys and livers [particularly] try to deal with the heavy loads of toxins.

In bodybuilding at all levels, doses of steroids and other performance enhancing drugs have increased and are still increasing and we have to start to believe that this is having an effect on the health of competitors. All bodybuilders at the top levels are using very high doses of steroids and other drugs. Take no notice of those who say that they only use low doses and that it's the other bodybuilders who use far more than they do. Don't believe it; they are lying.

Certain individuals may have incredible genetics and can grow and condition themselves with a lot less gear than other bodybuilders. But should this be true, and if he had used more, he could, perhaps, be the best in the world. Will he continue saying that he will not use more? If you think the answer is no, that he will not use more, then you have a different understanding of bodybuilders than the one that I have. What would I do in that position? I would use more and more until problems began to develop! Anyway, we think that problems only happen to other people. Or am I wrong? (Coming soon Part 3)

In order to get the best results from your workouts, it is a fact that you must make available to your body all the necessary vitamins and minerals in addition to enough of the major components of the diet i.e. protein, carbohydrate and fats and oils (lipids). The proteins, carbohydrates and lipids are the 'macro-nutrients' of the diet since they are consumed in much larger amounts compared to the 'micro-nutrients' which are the vitamins, minerals and other biological substances consumed in much smaller amounts in the diet than are the 'macro-nutrients', but are found in varying amounts accompanying the macro-nutrients in food.

We know that most of the micro-nutrients are already present in the foods that make up the macro-nutrients, but it has been proven that hard-training bodybuilders need a lot more than food can provide in terms of the micro-nutrients. Taking this into account and the stress factor that the body undergoes during training, a large amount of the micro-nutrients are needed in growth and body tissue repair. Therefore extra levels are required by the body which can not be acquired by food alone, which is where vitamin and mineral supplements come in and should be taken on a daily basis.

The main question is what to take and when during the day. A good time in the day to take a multi-vitamin and mineral supplement is along with the first meal of the day and this meal SHOULD be breakfast. If you are inclined to skip breakfast then you really are working against yourself in terms of any lean muscle mass gains that you would otherwise make if you had a good breakfast every day. After you have been asleep for a number of hours, then when you awake your blood sugar level is low, and the body is at the point where it has to start accessing materials to raise blood sugar and this ALSO means that your muscles can be accessed to raise blood sugar i.e. the muscles are being broken down (catabolised) in such a situation which is the exact opposite to what we want which is building muscles (anabolism) i.e. BODYBUILDING!

Therefore, it is quite clear that a good breakfast is a very important meal, and along with milk to drink, an egg-white omelette with a couple of yolks only (using about eight or ten egg-whites is a good basis for a great breakfast; for example, you can add complex carbohydrates by having some boiled rice with your omelette, and dont forget that complex carbs are another very important part of breakfast and boost blood sugar levels steadily as they are digested). Don't make the excuse that a good breakfast takes too long to prepare, because it doesn't!

Some people may be lacking a good appetite at first, but as long as you eat omething healthy for breakfast, its not a problem, as your appetite can be your guide, and will probably grow alongside gains from your training. Why does the appetite increase? Well basically cause your body has more muscle tissue to feed as your training continues. Many people should benefit a great deal from extra vitamin B-complex supplements as well as extra vitamin C as they are water soluble vitamins and therefore are not retained to any great extent within the body and are used up quickly in general tissue metabolism and EVEN MORE so when your muscles are growing !!!

So bring on board extra B-complex and C vitamins in the morning and before going to bed, and even before your workout that day. Complement the taking of these vitamins with increased fluid intake especially bottled water along with carbohydrate sports drinks. Optimum hydration is required to flush out waste products from the body tissues.

It is a common fact that Bodybuilders are not immortal and have to die at some stage, but this Bodybuilder was barely 30 years old. Although he was relatively unknown on the world scene as a bodybuilder, he was a U.S state heavyweight champion and one of the best at national level.

He was a big man, 6ft tall, with a contest weight of about 265 lbs. He always looked like a bodybuilder with great potential and, perhaps, one day, he could have achieved that potential. He earned his living from modeling and "escort" work, a life style which would not have had everyone's approval. But those who knew him said that he was a friendly and helpful guy. Now, it's all over. Life snuffed out in youth. Why did an apparently fit and healthy man die so young?

It is many years now since I went to my first bodybuilding contest and in the intervening years, the standards of physiques on display have got higher and higher. We all know that a Mr. Universe from 1970 would struggle to win a good novice contest nowadays. There is always great anticipation going to contests from year to year expecting to see ever freakier bodybuilders. Even though the standard of development achieved by top level competitors is already extremely high, we can expect ever more awesome displays of muscle in the future. Or can we?

No one [unless that person is a pessimistic fool] will predict limits to human endeavor, because he [or she] will almost certainly be proved wrong sooner or later. Recently, in 1953 Mt. Everest was climbed for the first time. Prior to that year there had been many attempts to get to the top and many men had died trying. Some suggested that the altitude of 29,000 ft [8,838 m] was just too much and that the peak would remain impossible for ever. Now many go to the top of the mountain every year. It is still not an easy thing to do - people still die on the mountain - but climbers know that it can be done and the mental block has gone.

It's exactly the same with bodybuilding. In not the too distant past you would have been considered as being a super human if you were 6ft tall with a 50 inch chest, but nowadays you wouldn't even consider competing unless you had these measurements. The current pro standard stands at around 60 inches plus and those who are training at the moment to reach a competitive level will be looking at surpassing today's Pros. It's tough and the majority will fail as they consider the time, the costs and the health risks involved.

Today more than ever we can see the vast difference between a top Pro bodybuilder and the average man in the street. Bodybuilding standards are at an all time high due to improved training, better nutrition, an improved understanding of physiology, pre-contest diet improvements, an improved life-style and finally drugs. These are all extremely important factors although I would like to focus more on the drugs aspect.

What we are going to consider is: How can we achieve muscle gains quickly? There are in fact various answers but we are going to focus on the most effective way although not the easiest in the following text.

Training techniques: The importance of training the largest muscle groups In order to create a highly anabolic environment within the body. It is important that the largest muscles of the body (primarily those that are involved in the squat, dead lift, and even leg-pressing to a large extent, i.e. the muscles of the thigh, hip and lower back) are trained and stimulated to grow.

Why? As all of these muscles amount to such a large amount of the total muscle mass on the human body, any training stress of sufficient intensity allowing these muscles to grow will also put a lot of stress on the body overall.

Training indeed has far-reaching effects on our body. As we know our muscles play an integral part of the physiology and mechanisms of our whole body. They do not work alone and the whole body is liable to stress creating a need for recuperation and growth. As an example the stomach is required to digest food in order to nourish our muscles, but as the demand for nutrients increases the stomach must adapt to become more effective in digesting food. So we can now see bigger muscles have an immediate effect on the rest of our body.

So the larger the muscles being trained are, the more stress is placed on the rest of the body. It leads to the body having a highly anabolic environment, as the body creates the need for extensive growth and muscle tissue repair. This will lead to all the smaller muscle groups making gains too as the whole body works in harmony and not in separate individual parts.

The Importance of Protein and Water is significant in order for your body to adapt to training stress and it is vital that you are ingesting enough protein and carbohydrate, and as I mentioned previously most people find that a high protein diet, with lower relative carbohydrate levels, is better for them: this is something that you have to experiment with for yourself.

Water and proteins really do play an important role in our diet if we want to train hard, so much so you can never really take in enough. Our muscle make up is 70% water and the rest is almost all protein so i need say no more. Our kidneys are also relieved from high stress levels by drinking lots of water which also helps to expel all waste products from our body.

Also, water can be used to help flush nutrients (e.g. amino acids, vitamins etc.) through your body, which enables these nutrients to bathe all your tissues optimally and ensure their optimum health, which is vital for good gains: this could not be achieved in a low water intake environment. It's also important to note that the amino acid L-glutamine is the most abundant amino acid in muscle tissue, and so it's well worthwhile to supplement your diet with extra L-glutamine.

A good multi-vitamin and mineral supplement and it's importance must not be overlooked either, muscle growth will be optimal unless all necessary growth factors are present in the body, including vitamins and minerals, as well as the necessary amino acids present in dietary protein, and other dietary constituents.

With and Without Steroids? First of all and I have always been quite clear on this point that maximum gains should first be made by natural training, probably over a period of 8 to 10 years at which point steroids could become an option for further muscle gains.

The fitter and stronger your body is to start with, then the better it will be able to use the steroids and other anabolic drugs in use. But I reiterate that they will only have an optimum effect on a body fit from years of natural training in the gym. An unfit body will not be able to obtain the optimum growth benefits if taking steroids.

Everyone knows that weight gain is difficult. Gaining weight means doing things in a big way. You have to eat big, to lift big, to get big. Repeat as needed to completely comprehend it.

Weightlifting is a key action in your goal to gain weight. Another one of the most important factors in gaining weight, is your diet.

Count how many calories you eat in a normal day. Don't change anything, just eat like you normally would and count how many calories you consumed. This is an extremely important step, so try to be as exact as possible.

The day after you tallied up all your calories, eat 500 calories more than you usually do. So, lets pretend that the day you counted calories you counted 2000. For the rest of the week, you would now eat 2500 calories a day. The best way to meet your caloric requirements without exceeding them is to carefully split your caloric intake into 5 or 6 small meals a day. Forget the 3 square meals myth, and of course, don't just "graze" all day. A mindful 5 or 6 mini-meals will meet your needs and keep you satisfied. Eat one meal every 2 and a half to 3 hours. Make sure that the added calories in your diet are from healthy foods.

Protein is the key for the muscle mass. Without adequate protein, muscle gain is not possible because weight training demand for amino acids, which comes from protein. You should daily eat about 2.2g of protein per kilogram of your weight. Include high protein foods in your diet. Your protein intake should be from foods rather than from supplements.

Some people think that drinking beer helps gain weight. But it is not true, it accumulates in your abdomen, making it fatty.

And, yes, get into the gym so that you can lift. This step is important in helping you gain weight, always make sure you are following it correctly. Some thin people think that exercise is not good for them. The metabolism stays high, so that isn't true. Remember that diet will not do all the job. Exercise is critical if your goal is to gain lean muscle mass, and not just fat.

Resistance training exercises will help to increase your muscle mass, which in turn will increase your metabolism. Learn to distinguish between weight gaining exercises and weight loss exercises.

Wanting to change your body, you'll have to understand all the factors working together that will propel your goals and then you'll see a dramatic change.