Bodybuilders take anabolic steroids and other muscle enhancing drugs (e.g., growth hormone, IGF-1, insulin) to acquire a muscular development beyond the natural potential of the human body while also being as lean as humanly possible. The mass and conditioning presented by professional bodybuilders are unachievable naturally.

The male hormone testosterone has a huge impact on muscle mass and strength.  This becomes obvious when you compare men and women.

Females are by the definition called the weaker gender due to their low physical strength and muscle mass compared to males. According to official statistics, the female body produces twenty times less testosterone per day compared to the ”stronger gender”.

Regardless of gender, individuals who inject male hormones in their bodies have a large advantage in muscle mass construction over those who rely solely on what mother nature has given them. Moreover, the natural levels of testosterone drop with age. Older men and women have lower amounts of testosterone in their bodies. This has a negative impact on hypertrophy and strength.

Steroids and other muscle enhancing drugs turn people into superhumans as far as muscle size and density are concerned. The IFBB professionals in fitness magazines look as if they’ve been composed in a digital editor such as PhotoShop.

This is not a surprise since some professional bodybuilders take over a gram of testosterone every week when the average amount produced in the male body for that period of time is between 30mg and 70mg. In other words, IFFB professionals have testosterone levels 100+ times higher than the average man. Do you still wonder why they are so big?

Size is fundamental, but there is more to a professional bodybuilding physique. Bodybuilders have to be very lean too. In bodybuilding, size is almost irrelevant when your muscles are covered by thick layers of fat. That’s why bodybuilders and fitness competitors diet before contests. There is one big problem, however – dieting down to a single digit body fat can result in loss of muscle mass.

When you lose body fat it becomes harder to maintain muscle size because the body is programmed to survive – not to satisfy the dreams of muscle worshipers. Since anabolic drugs diminish muscle catabolism (breaking down of the muscle tissue) to a minimum, they are also used by professionals to preserve size during the leaning out phase before a contest.

Besides muscle building drugs, bodybuilders also take dangerous substances designed to reduce body fat and help with the acquisition of aestheticism. Those drugs are highly effective, and sometimes the athletes lose an unreal amount of fat in very short periods of time. It’s not uncommon for a bodybuilder to lose 20 pounds in a few weeks while also keeping his muscle size. Those drugs, however, are highly dangerous and could do significant damage to the heart and the thyroid gland. While this is already plenty, the drug usage in the fitness world does not end here.

Before a contest, bodybuilders are also trying to lose water weight to enhance their muscular definition even further. To lose water, bodybuilders rely on diuretics which promote excretion of liquids from the organism. However, dehydration is not a healthy process and usage of diuretics can cause severe medical conditions – including death.

Bottom line: Professional bodybuilders use anabolic steroids and fat cutting agents to acquire muscle size out of the scope of the natural human potential and an almost unreal level of leanness.