Often when the term "natural bodybuilding" is thought of, those who participate in such a hobby contemplate intense weight training workout sessions and disciplined bodybuilding diet plans, but one additional element, supplementation, is deemed a requirement for any individual to excel in gaining muscle to his or her natural bodybuilding potential. Since using steroids is avoided due to their dangers, bodybuilding supplements become the legal and "safe" steroid substitution that bodybuilders are urged to consider.
Because so few who experiment with bodybuilding supplements have performed their weight lifting routines without using such products, they are unable to analyze the true effectiveness of the bodybuilding supplements they regularly consume, and therefore, mistakenly attribute any muscle building or fat loss to these products, even when making modifications to a weight lifting or diet routine that, in fact, is the foundation for any fruitful fat loss or muscle building pursuit. Instead of constructing legitimate testing to note muscle gain or fat loss with specific bodybuilding supplements using the exact same weight lifting and diet plan, many feel frustrated with their muscle building or fat burning progress, and once they return from a break with renewed weight training enthusiasm, they not only search for a new weight lifting workout routine and diet, but also invest in numerous bodybuilding supplements to use simultaneously, and if they begin to gain muscle or lose fat, they rarely credit the weight training workout routine or diet, nor do they consider the ease of muscle building following a sabbatical with nearly any marginally potent routine, but rather believe that the bodybuilding supplements are responsible for any positive improvement, even when this progress is only temporary.
This skewed analysis leads weight lifters across the world to believe that bodybuilding supplements are a prerequisite for results, and popular bodybuilding magazines, most of whom generate the vast majority of their advertising profits from bodybuilding supplement companies, also convince the bodybuilding public that they should, without question, adopt bodybuilding supplements as the secret weapon to enhancing muscle gains, especially when champion professional bodybuilders are shown holding the most recent supplement gimmick (of course, he fails to mention that his results are due to steroid abuse as opposed to supplement use!). Nevertheless, the overwhelming message sent by the bodybuilding industry that such products are the natural key to success fuels many to accept this idea as truth, and the bodybuilding supplement industry profits as a result.
But what's the truth behind the bodybuilding supplement craze? I have been involved in weight training for many years, and through my own experience, along with emails sent to me by those who are frustrated with their own muscle building, despite the use of bodybuilding supplements, and have therefore designed a standard of thinking that I hope all who read this article will decide is logical enough to consider accepting for their own muscle building or fat loss career. Most bodybuilding supplements do not lead to advertised muscle building or fat loss results, and you will waste thousands (or may already have) proving this to be true, but even if you were to stumble upon a bodybuilding supplement that enabled you to burn fat or gain muscle mass faster than is possible through a correctly designed weight lifting workout routine and bodybuilding diet, you will then potentially risk long term health. The only possible way of knowing for certain whether an artificially induced product will harm long term health is with an extended (several decade) controlled study as to its impact, and because no such legitimate research will ever exist on any bodybuilding supplement, you should be skeptical of their safety since, as we know with smoking, legality does not ensure safety, and, in the long term, there are serious concerns that bodybuilding supplements can lead to cancer, organ failure (due to unnatural stress on the kidneys, liver, etc), endocrine damage, and premature death.
For numerous bodybuilders who wish to maximize muscle gains and fat loss, yet value the term "natural" due to its connection with preservation of health and clear rejection of any potentially risky external aids towards such progress, bodybuilding supplements that claim to build muscle or burn fat faster than is possible through weight lifting and diet alone are a contradiction to such a philosophy. You can either learn from my warning, or waste massive amounts of your hard earned money as do so many each year searching for the ultimate steroid substitute that offers no side effects, when this, in fact, is an oxymoronic statement that has no realistic way of being fulfilled.
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