We live in a world of GI Joes, Channing Tatums, and Dwayne Johnsons. But what about the guy who doesn’t cause an eclipse every time he stands up? The guy who is not as formidable at first glance--the Eric Formans of the world. Adolescent boys have the opposite problem in terms of size. Where girls want to get smaller, it is encouraged for males to grown and essentially take up a lot of space. This can also be articulated in their body language. Speaking from personal experience, sitting next to an adolescent, or even adult males on public transportation, consistently spreading their limbs; whereas women were conditioned to sit in a so-called lady like fashion, meaning legs crossed, hands folded, back straight. This is not a case of “men have it easy” or “I wish someone accepted the rolls on my stomach.” This is simply acknowledging, in keeping up with the theme of the month of Men’s Health.
A lot of the time the concept of body positivity mostly applies to women, which makes sense since many times it is the women who undergo scrutiny, but girls it’s not about us today. The big problem is the steroid use in college athletes, guys are under constant pressure to achieve this aesthetic of the big, giant, Vin Diesel in his prime type of physique. I am not comparing I am simply stating a few numbers, how about that most adolescent boys try some kind of enhancer in one way or another before they are thirty. In a recent study, at least 1.4% of high school males have had some kind of Human Growth Hormone in their system.
Guys, what is up? This garbage is ridiculous. Fine, you are huge, however, your anger will be at hair trigger, the acne will be nightmare inducing. And I know right now I sound like your mom or your naggy girlfriend, but just like your mom and/or your naggy girlfriend--I do not care if I am annoying you. Acne aside, the other side effects include: mood swings, suicidal tendencies, liver disease, kidney disease, and infertility. I could tell you this is a problem until I’m blue in the face (and trust me I am about to), but you only listen when you want to, that’s just how humans work.
Human Growth Hormone, has not necessarily been proven to help, your body makes it naturally, and many think that if they amp up the growth hormone they are going to get more out of their performance. They do not promote any growth in muscle mass and if they do anything they will change your performance by a measly four percent. Man, it is not even worth it. Then there’s the best, the synthetic mixture of testosterone – boom. Anabolic steroids. This is the most famous one because it amps up testosterone, which goes into your muscle fiber and that’s what make you get bigger. Steroids are a fat molecule, and there are two different types. One is called corticosteroids. You might have been prescribed in medications such as an autoimmune disease like shingles, or a very severe case of poison ivy.
These go to your kidneys and your adrenal glands which is why some people react to them differently and it gets them all hyped. Then there’s androgenic-anabolic steroids, this is probably going to be the one that you thought I was thinking of at the time. These things do to your body what coffee does to your brain, it tricks you into thinking you are in a different state than you are. So, these trick your body into thinking you have a lot more testosterone than you do which contributes to skeletal muscle causing growth and behold! You are now Triple H in the nineties, you are now a giant lethal man whose nickname is The Bus.
HGH is legal, FDA approved, but it’s a prescription. It’s prescribed to children with growth issues, it is only given to adults on needed basis, such as pituitary tumors and bone loss. Your body does, in fact, produce this, but it is often prescribed for the cases above in order to give your body the boost it needs. Athletes go for it because it is a lot harder to detect than the really synthetic stuff. How do I know this? Dude. I basically live in a gym and I hear stuff. I do not know if you noticed this about me but body positivity is kind of my thing; I am all about the self-love. So I advise all of you to work the best to your ability, be kind to yourself and your body, and treat it like a temple. Since as of right now, you are treating it like a lab experiment.
