LegendaryLife Blog

I am crossing my fingers that Peter begins to acquire some common sense from people outside of his “Three Stooges” team. Once again, I am not a doctor and have no formal education other than my university biology degree and decades of studying health, fitness and nutrition.

Episode 7 – Peter Balboa

• day 47, dosage of steroids has been increased (from what to what I would like to know, even a % would be nice)
• Mr. Fantastic’s advice of not stacking on your first cycle is dead-on! He does know a thing or two about steroids… finally a real FACT in this entire series! The reason stacks (taking more than one steroid) during a cycle is a waste of time and money is because your receptors are clean so you are fine gaining on just testosterone, only people who have a few cycles under their belt stack
• more steroids = more food = more workouts = more stupidity = more chances of ending-up in the hospital with something being seriously torn = going back to the weight he started off with
• yet again, Peter is showing off his little bag of pills… let the liver and endocrine damage continue!
• Mr. Fantastic says people stacking on their first cycle are “fucking morons”, good advice! Now we know that Peter is NOT taking advice from Mr. Fantastic and in this instance, he really should have. Not only did Peter not know this vital piece of information but now he is switching around his cycle mid-stream… this train wrek is only getting worse!
• day 50, Peter says he is starting to have anger issues (???), this is nonesense
• his friend Davin slapped him in the face to which Peter said he was going to kill him, this isn’t ‘roid rage
• Peter is feeling bigger and stronger and is flowing with energy now, I am sure he could have achieved this without steroids at all, what happened is his body went from a state of stagnation into one of rejuvenation, this has more to do with exercise and eating well than steroids.
• Mr. Fantastic is really starting to sound like he knows his stuff! He states Sylvester Stalone was (is) on juice (HGH is what he has admitted so far) probably once he hit Rocky 2.
• Drinking raw eggs is a wonderful way to get sick, I did this a lot too but have since stopped, I cook my eggs now (maybe the stomach flew he had a few weeks ago was from the raw eggs)
• Peter needs to spend less money on supplements and more on buying a shirt
• Davin says steroids may cause pimples, which is true but from the people I have talked to, they seem to get it more on their back than on their face when on a cycle
• the more I hear Davin talk, the more I agree with Peter!
• Mr. Fantastic says there isn’t anything really wrong with taking orals other than it having to pass through your liver while injectables go directly into the bloodsteam… not entirely true, your liver processes the drug afterwards so orals get processed twice while injectables once
• video of Mr. Fantastic taking a shot of juice (DECA 300) in the shoulder, he used alcohol which is very smart on the injection site
• week 7, about two months, he is up 20 pounds now
• Peter and Mr. Fantastic are positive Micheal Phelps is on the juice, I can’t agree on this, IOC standards are incredibly strict with a huge anti-doping and random testing mechanism since the whole Ben Johnson affair
• a woman states that people take protein, vitamins and other supplements so steroids can’t be anymore dangerous. This is WRONG because steroids is a hormone, protein is not nor do other supplements, just look at female bodybuilders to see the effect of hormone injections
• Mr. Fantastic thinks that Peter will lose only 10% of his gains at the end of the cycle, I got to agree only if he keeps eating like he is and slacks off on the exercise routine along with proper post cycle clomid therapy only due to the fact that his gains were due to a former life of malnutrition and lack of physical activity, his age also helps big time too
• Mr. Fantastic is giving some very good advice now, if Peter continues to improve his training, diet and motivation he will keep most of what he got
• “Yah for steroids… they’re so great!”, I wonder if Peter will think the same when he gets off
• more pictures of him without a shirt… arg!

Episode 8 – Mission Roid

• Peter Brown is Canadian, filming out of Vancouver
• day 54, more “Peter talk” about why he is so cool and smart to do what he is doing
• Peter says one of the major side-effects of steroids is that you get a tan (???), and I thought it was due to him running around in the sun without sunscreen or t-shirt
• Peter going to a tanning salon, yet another extremely stupid move, he must figure that screwing-up your endocrine system isn’t enough, time for some skin cancer too by using a tanning bed and running around town without a t-shirt!
• Tanning girl says people should be tanning 3-4x a week, this is the stupidest and most dangerous thing I have heard in this show so far!
• interview with Peter’s dealer, if I remember correctly, a few episodes ago, he was talking about how smart he was by getting steroids from a doctor because then you know where the stuff is coming from, yet he doesn’t follow his own advice and goes with a steroid dealer (???). My only guess is that his doctor refused to give him steroids because that would only have made his problems worse, not better.
• day 58, he is at 158 pounds and is hoping to gain another 10 pounds by the time the cycle is over… far below his original goal of gaining a total of 42 pounds.
• Peter says he took steroids to “overcome lifelong challenges” that have affected him, I thought he took them to gain 42 pounds and become a ladies man?
• Peter can’t figure-out why people are yelling at him while he does bicep curls… maybe it’s his lack of proper form along with far too little weight?
• a shot of him lifting weight at the gym around the end with a barbell shows his form has not improved even with the use of a personal trainer, those weekend online personal training certificates are really paying-off!

Episode 9 – Roid Karate

• arg… more topless shirt video of him, now in a Karate outfit (with a white belt no less… impressive!) I have a black belt in Karate and took it for 10 years when I was younger
• day 61, his friends notice he went from extremely introverted to extremely extroverted, not sure if this is an improvement
• Davin admits he can’t stand Peter anymore and I can’t stand neither of them
• day 59, Peter says now that he has taken steroids and is a big man, he wants to be respected… he should have read this blog, respect is something you EARN, which, so far, I don’t see much of, hence none was given
• Big Bear is looking worse as Peter is getting better… what’s up with that?
• day 61, he hit the 160 pound plateau so he has lost some motivation at the gym, diet etc… now he has a girlfriend too!
• Peter has replaced his red shorts for a topless Karate uniform! Arg!!!
• week 1: 95 pound squats, week 9: 195 pounds, his thighs are now 24 inches
• Big Bear says all the changes that Peter has gone through have more to do with his new lifestyle than steroids, I completely agree!
• Peter now observes that he no longer has any problems, it’s everybody else who has problems now
• his goal now is getting a girl, gaining 20 pounds and becoming an internet icon

Some thoughts so far

Just about everything Peter has done to change his life could have been done without the use of any steroids what-so-ever. During his transformation, he has acquired some very bad habits including not being able to wear a shirt and putting all his self-esteem into his little pink pills. I really hopes he comes to realize that he only used steroids as an excuse to do what he should have done long ago. He didn’t need them at 138 pounds and he surely doesn’t need them at 160 pounds either.

Real information about steroids, fitness and diet

• Muscle memory is great… too bad it doesn’t last
• Why I decided not to take Anabolic Steroids
• Gaining Weight 101: Tips from a fellow Hard gainer
• LL Question: Even with bad genetics, can I become the world’s strongest man?
• Better Living Through Chemistry
• Taking Time Off and Muscle Memory

Buzvia: Steroids Saved My Life (Television Series)

This is a nice break from writing my next book… the series “Steroids Saved My Life” is interesting to me as it shows people totally what NOT to do when taking them.

Episode 4 – Roidboy

• day 1: 138 pounds (6.8% fat), day 19: 152 pounds, day 26 he is 9% fat
• 1350 calories per day before taking steroids, calories on cycle, 3500+, so now we know for a fact that he wasn’t eating enough to begin with and his phenomenal gains are probably more diet related than taking the 10mg pill with orange juice every morning… so the reason for him taking steroids is what?
• it took 4 episodes before he admits to being monitored by a doctor, this info isn’t on his site when I checked it, so I am assuming he is getting regular blood work done as well, but is this “mild” dosage based on a doctor’s recommendation or a bodybuilder’s cycle? These are completely different things.
• The first smart thing Peter has said so far is that he has stayed away from alcohol during his cycle.
• 4% of women like skinny men (source?)
• more testimonials at how great steroids are and how much he has changed as a result, new habits don’t form nor change in 19 days time
• a woman at the birthday party says he looks great and it’s the confidence that he is lacking
• “Steroids are a quick fix, an easy way out” says Big Red
• Runaway Taylor now says after seeing all the amazing changes that have happened in Peter’s life, he is “considering taking steroids” himself, at least he says he would use needles
• Peter’s goal is to get to 175 to 180 pounds (in 30 days). This shows his complete lack of knowledge yet again, 30 pounds in 30 days is borderline impossible, his goal is to go up 42 pounds! The faster you gain the weight, the faster you lose it as well. He will be lucky to keep 15 pounds a few months after getting off the steroids and looking at his diet and experience, my guess is he will end-up back to 140 pounds in less than a year.
• Peter’s workout routine is 5 days on and two days off… this is INSANE! It’s nice to see how little research he has done in the foundations of a good exercise routine.
• day 22: he was SICK! I wonder if it’s got something to do with over-training, under-eating and completely shocking the hell out of his system over the past 22 days.
• day 26: 147.6 pounds, he has lost a lot of weight (read above)
• Peter tried to go to the gym and was just throwing-up
• Peter is now having doubts about continuing the steroids, what I find ironic is that I am willing to wager that steroids have nothing to do with him being sick, it’s just his body going into shock from all the stress he has put on it over the source of the last month. He could have had these gains WITHOUT steroids too.

Episode 5: The Roid Team

• Peter is now, if his video is to be believed, the be all and end all expert about steroids, nutrition and exercise along with Mr. Fantastic and Suga(r). I think “The Three Stooges” would be more apt.
• Peter says now that he had the stomach flu, steroids (correctly) and the shock he did to his body over the past month had nothing to do with it (incorrect).
• Day 29, all his tests (would be nice to know what they were) show that he is perfectly healthy and fine
• day 33: 150.4 pounds, my guess is the few days off due to being sick gave his body some time to recover (hence the weight gain)
• woman is saying she doesn’t see a difference so he needs to up the dosage (would be nice to know what he IS taking and dosage)
• picture showing Anavar, HCG (and a few others I can’t read) so it looks like he is taking both injectables and oral steroids, not sure why it took 5 episodes to finally show this, the entire format of his cycle should have been made in the first episode of this show
• measurement time, day (?) and his chest is 33.5 inches, thigh 19.5 inches, biceps 11.5 inches, calves 14.5 inches, shoulders 42.5 inches… here is another question to ponder, is the woman in the show been taking the measurements during the entire month so far? If different people are doing measurements, unless they measure the SAME SPOT, these changes are utterly useless.
• “implants are awesome” says the measuring woman, so far, only Bear seems to be the only one with any type of common sense and knowledge about what is going on.
• day 1 and day 33 pictures are shown side by side… how the heck am I suppose to see a difference if the day 33 pictures is scalled-up? Where is a measuring stick or something to show an accurate scale?
• “Is viagra cheating?” question shown. If you have male impotence (which is a possible side-effect of steroids by the way), then who cares but if you are perfectly healthy, why would you need it?
• the measuring woman says that if she was a guy, she would take steroids because they make you look better and stronger. My question is what the heck do steroids have to do with looking better and stronger?
• More Steroids = More Fantastic, using this logic of more is better, why doesn’t Mr. Fantastic or Suga(r) look like bodybuilders? They are big but if you told me they were on steroids, I wouldn’t believe it because they don’t have anything that couldn’t be achieved naturally
• great wisdom from the measurement woman who says “who doesn’t love steroids… they’re just haters if they don’t love steroids”, I am guessing she must be Peter’s personal trainer as a 5 day on, 2 day off routine would make total sense if it came from her

Episode 6 – Midway Point

• showing before / after pictures, I find it hard to see a difference to be honest
• Peter says his reason for taking steroids is because of “a lifetime of being unsatisfied physically” (from episode 1) with video showing him taking 10gm pill with orange juice
• admits his form is horrible and doesn’t have much to build from (two great reasons right there why he shouldn’t be taking steroids)
• day 40 Peter says “I am doing basic exercises being monitored by my trainer… to make sure I am using the right weight… using the right form and not over-exerting himself”. If you are on steroids you NEED to over-exert yourself to the extreme, hence the reason why you need a strong physical, mental and dietary foundation established FIRST.
• routine is 10 minutes of cardio to warm-up followed by 10 minutes of stretching, one hour hitting the weights then a light circuit rotation or light stretching
• Monday: Chest, Tuesday: Back/Abs, Wednesday: Legs, Thursday: Shoulders, Friday: Arms
• this personal trainer got their degree from a 2 day weekend course, this routine is HORRIBLE to say the least. When you are on steroids, you should be exercising the same body part 2x a week as heavy as you can (recovery is very fast on steroids) and do as little cardio as possible because your goal is to gain MASS, it looks to me like his personal trainer is trying to have him gain muscles and stay lean at the same time, which is the wrong approach in my opinion… stretching should be minimal (studies have shown they can cause more damage then they are worth) and done during your weight training routine. Start with light weight (warm-up) and build yourself up from there. If he is doing a circuit rotation after a one hour workout, he is not working out with enough weight.
• bench press was 65 pounds at the beginning, after 6 weeks, 105 pounds
• squats was 95 pounds, 180 pounds after 6 weeks… complains about the bar hitting his spine (???)
• I noticed when ever he goes to the gym, he forgets to wear his t-shirt
• shoulder press weight was 20 pounds (each dumbell), now 35 pounds
• deadlifts were 85 pounds, now 160 pounds
• measurement woman says “I like big thick boys on steroids”
• Suga(r) says steroids help him to “breaking down doors, kicking-in big screen TVs, punching through car windows”
• Peter saying again he eats fast food 2-3x a day and lists all his other phobias related to food (no wonder he is skinny)
• day 32: he is complaining about being hungry all the time. If you are serious about gaining weight, especially on steroids, you should be eating 6-8 times a day, hunger never has a chance of showing-up! This shows he still isn’t eating ENOUGH.
• Over the past 6 weeks, his chest grew by 5.5 inches, thigh by 5 inches, bicep by 1.75 inches, calves 2 inches, shoulder 1.75 inches
• day 40 he says all tests show that steroids are not affecting him in a negative way, which is great! The problem with steroids isn’t when you are on them as much as when you get OFF of them
• he now says his original goals are no longer important for him, he just wants to be healthy now
• after 6 weeks, he is now 152.2 pounds, gaining a total of 13.4 pounds in a month and a half, which is perfectly do-able… he must realize now that there is no way he will gain 42 pounds during his cycle as gains will taper off around the last third. He could have achieved this in probably a two month time period without steroids by the way following a good diet and exercise routine.
• Peter says “the most dangerous part of steroids is not knowing where they are coming from” which is true but what is even more dangerous is people who have no idea what they are doing while taking steroids in the first place! I hope he doesn’t get an abscess on his butt from the injections that so far, he has made no mention of but showed bottles for. A few seconds later, he says he is getting his steroids from a good source (ei: not all from a doctor but from where he doesn’t really know where it’s coming from)
• day 36, he is talking about upping the dosage (???) He should have had his entire cycle planned far in advance with all the drugs bought, sounds to me like he is doing this week by week.
• Peter says “this entire experience has been an eye opening experience for himself and for those viewing the show”, sadly, he is educating people who are watching the show in how NOT to do things, which sadly, most people will not realize
• “I’m feeling tired and sore… I think the problem is that I am not taking enough steroids” is what Peter is thinking now. He is exercising a body that, a little more than a month ago was use to tennis and a Wii (???). Of course his body is sore, he is over-training, under-eating and has no foundations (mental or physical) to handle what is going on. The last thing he needs is more steroids!

Thoughts so far

I thought the first three episodes were bad but the way things are going now, this is just a rush to the bottom. The amount of pure BS being told as “fact” is horrible and even worse, people who are skinny like him (I was like that too), will follow his extremely uneducated and flawed advice and get themselves in big trouble physically and mentally. For instance, he managed to almost double his squat in a 6 month period, the problem is his muscles can handle this strain but not his ligaments so he is being very careless with his joints and only has his age protecting him for serious tears. His logic that because his body is screaming at him to take a break, he needs more steroids to overcome his physical (mental) limitations is incredibly flawed thinking. I am beginning to think the personal trainer he is using may know enough about physiology to give him an exercise routine that will exhaust him so that he doesn’t go with heavier weight and snap something. I am eager to see how this proceeds!

Real information about steroids, fitness and diet

• Muscle memory is great… too bad it doesn’t last
• Why I decided not to take Anabolic Steroids
• Gaining Weight 101: Tips from a fellow Hard gainer
• LL Question: Even with bad genetics, can I become the world’s strongest man?
• Better Living Through Chemistry
• Taking Time Off and Muscle Memory

Buzvia: Steroids Saved My Life (Television Series)

I realize this pure link bait but I can’t help myself when I see something so WRONG!

Background: Steroids Saved My Life

First, this guy was skinny, not dying from malnutrition, HIV or any other wasting diseases which is what steroids are medically used for. His life was NEVER in danger either before or after the steroids from what I can tell.

About “Peter” on Steroids Saved My Life

He is 22 years old, 138 pounds. His site there is not one bit of information regarding essentials like:

• weight lifting history
• diet history
• family history
• steroid dosage and course
• post cycle clomid therapy

His site lacks any measurements over his “experiment of stupidity” nor anything else that could possibly provide any type of educational information about steroids. Bodyweight isn’t a true measure of muscle mass, body fat %, actual measurements of his body parts etc are. His site also has misinformation regarding steroids as well, which I will address below. I don’t understand his reasoning behind not saying the steroid type and dosage, he is already admitting to taking an illegal substance (which I don’t think should be anymore illegal than alcohol or tobacco) so what’s the harm in being a little more specific?

Now, time for the real fun, an episode by episode review!

Episode 1: The First Pill

• Peter’s first major screw-up, taking pills over injectables. Pills are a wonderful way to fry your liver twice as fast as they are processed through your system twice vs once with injectables. He is either scared of needles or has no clue what he is doing… my guess is both. He should have called this episode “The First Plunge”.
• 22 years old, 6ft 1, 138 pounds
• Peter says “If I am smart about it, steroids is a good way to jump-start so I can grow and not be skinny anymore”. Jon says “if you are smart, you will learn how to exercise and eat right and NOT take the easy steroid way out (which it isn’t).
• Peter talks at length at how much he hates his body, this is a psychological problem, not a physical one, which steroids cannot change
• footage showing him take one small 10mg pill with orange juice which is about what your body produces anyways on a daily basis so if this is true, he is screwing up his endocrine system to replace orally on a daily basis what his body was producing anyways (????)
• day 1: 138 pounds
• day 2: 138.8 pounds (this is water weight gain, not muscle) at 6.6% bodyfat
• day 3: 140.2 pounds (again, more water) with a few more comments about how much he hates himself
• Peter says “(being skinny) is a lifetime of being unsatisfied physically”, again, more signs of depression and blaming his lack of muscle for all the problems he has had in life
• Peter says that people who have side-effects steroids are abusers who took it for a very long amount of time and aren’t doing the proper things to begin with such as eating properly and going to the gym everyday. As such, he is inferring that he has far more knowledge about steroids (hence taking pills over injectables), nutrition (hence his low weight) and exercise (playing tennis and with a Wii) so he won’t have side effects.
• Sadly, I see Peter investing far too much of his self-esteem in a pill instead of himself
• day 4: 142.2 pounds, without knowing what he is taking, the muscle gaining effects may be starting to kick in now but for sure, he did not gain 4.2 pounds of muscle in 4 days. He gained a combination of muscle, fat, water etc…
• Peter says “steroids isn’t cheating”, I completely agree generally but at 138 pounds, he readily admits to “cheating himself”. His testosterone receptors are already going on all cylinders at his age and the gains he does make don’t need steroids involved at all to achieved
• day 5: 143 pounds, he is taking far more than a 10mg little pill with orange juice in the morning
• Peter’s friend says “what’s the worst case of taking steroids? Looking fantastic! That’s it!”, now I know why Peter is taking pills, he is hanging around clueless people who shouldn’t be advising anybody

Episode 2: Side Effects

• day 8: 142.2 pounds. Mmmm… he is losing weight on steroids, this is a huge hint that his skinny problem is based on nutrition (or unknown medical condition). My guess is that he is probably reverting back to his calorie deficient diet which kept him skinny to begin with.
• admits to using very bad exercise form, “thinks” steroids are kicking in so he is basically saying he rarely went to the gym before starting steroids, if you talk to veteran steroids users, they will almost all tell you not to even touch steroids until you have spent at least a few years in the gym WORKING OUT HARD.
• Sugar Babies (who are very nice eye candy) say “if you are an informed user, taking steroids is ok” but so far in this show, all I see is misinformation and a complete lack of knowledge regarding steroids, nutrition and exercise
• day 9: 142.4, he really needs to EAT MORE!
• I like Peter, his logic makes no sense at all. He says now that his reason for being skinny is because he has concentrated so much on his mind that he let his body go, so taking steroids will bring his body to the level of his mind… a perfect zen-like balance will be achieved. Knowing this, I think his body is a perfect reflection of his mind already, he just hasn’t realized it yet.
• “…it can only do good things, he will only benefit from this”, this is from the same friend to said steroids had no side effects other than a fantastic body.
• Davin, another friends says that steroids “will teach him everything he needs to get the women”. Wow… I didn’t know that steroids could act like a virtual teacher on the opposite sex and tell you all their secrets!
• 142.2 pounds, Peter continues his enlightened rant at how detrimental being skinny has been to his life and once steroids kick-in, his entire life will change! (Jon inserts viagra music)
• Another incredibly enlightened friend (J-Rock) says that steroids side effects over the long term aren’t known but are probably ok because the FDA releases a bunch of other pills without knowing what happens to them long term either. I fail to see the relationship regarding long term use of steroids with other drugs, the effects of steroids are well known (though exaggerated)
• Peter says “you don’t see my abs yet but they will come (with steroids)”. Seeing your abs isn’t a muscle “problem” but a fat one. Bigger abdominals are nice but if you have a layer of fat over them, regardless of how muscular you are, they will still be hidden. Unless he is taking 2 grams a week, steroids doesn’t have much of a thermogenic effect on the body.
• Sugar Shane, an experience steroid user says basically anything not used properly (abused) will have side effects, which is like saying “if I don’t abuse steroids, I won’t have side effects”. Steroids at any dose will stop your testicles from producing testosterone, which is why they shrink, when you stop taking juice, guess what, the testicles don’t just pick-up where they left off, they take a long time to get going again, hence post cycle clomid therapy and GH being used to give them a boost.
• day 11: 144.4 pounds… he finally learned how to EAT!
• Peter gets a sunburn (which is preventable), I hope he prepared better that this for after his steroid cycle is over, otherwise, his gains will be very short lived
• Peter says that taking the proper precautions and supplements, he thinks, steroids will not damage his body (I think he forgot to ask his endocrine system and liver for a second opinion on this)
• Big Bear says putting chemicals in your body isn’t the right course of action, I completely agree if you don’t know what you are doing
• Peter says his testicles haven’t shrunk yet (I will take his word for it but I doubt he would notice a 1mm difference in circumference)
• Mr. Fantastic says “Steroids are fantastic… it’s only a matter of time before they become legal”
• day 12: 147 pounds, see Peter, eating right does make a difference
• Sugar Shane is doing a wonderful job of continuing the myth that steroids cause ‘roid rage relating to many incidences he boasts proudly about. ‘Roid rage is a myth created by people to excuse their bad behavior.

Episode 3: Revenge of the skinny

• Peter, in his infinite wisdom says “there is no scientific fact that steroids are really that damaging to your body… most of the evidence suggests that steroids are generally positive”. I agree, if you are being closely monitored by a doctor, get regular blood work, eat a proper diet, have a good exercise routine etc. Let’s see, it’s a scientific fact that steroids does damage your endocrine system, leads to premature baldness (if you are genetically prone to it), increases your blood pressure and affect sleeping patterns. The fact that he is taking pills instead of injectables and started at the gym after starting steroids shows he is clueless, so I wouldn’t take his word for it.
• Big Bear is the smartest guy in this show, he says Peter’s problem is in his eating habits
• Peter admits to “eating fast food 2-3x a day”… add an inability to cook to his lists of problems
• He prefers McDonalds (???) to vegetables and healthy foods because he doesn’t like the smell, taste and feeling it gives inside of his mouth… he is started to sound like an anorexic person!
• Davin says “his childish eating habits play on his childish personality”, I agree!
• Whitney says “when he is done his treatments, he will have a false sense of popularity and self-confidence”, I agree!
• day 17, Peter says “I am more hungry but can’t eat a lot of food”, this explains his lack of weight gain (before taking steroids and now that he is taking them)
• day 18, 149.6 pounds, bodyfat is 9.5% to which Peter says “I’m almost normal” (funniest things I have heard so far)
• J-Rock says “I don’t think steroids are any worse than nicotine and alcohol”, again, he has no clue what he is talking about
• Mr. Fantastic says that because other athletes and actors are taking them, that it’s ok because he doesn’t see any negative side effects on them… it’s good to know that Mr. Fantastic has access to the stars medical records!
• Picture of Carrot Top working out without a shirt, now that we know Mr. Fantastic’s role model, he is starting to make some sense now (no insult meant to Carrot Top)
• Davin says “he’s not going to rely on steroids, he’s smarter than that”, obviously Davin hasn’t been watching the show as all I see is a cycle of dependence lead-on by mis-information
• Sugar continues on this bad-ass rant at how steroids turned him from a normal person into an out-of-control monster
• Peter has no problem taking protein for the rest of his life but food is an issue for him… talk to any bodybuilder and they will tell you point-blank that protein is a supplement, not a staple
• day 19, 152. Now Peter is ranting at how his new body will create the life of his dreams, full of benefits that, because he was skinny, were not being offered to him. Look at Carrot Top for a moment, this guy was skinny as hell and he became incredibly successful THEN started working-out and becoming big. Peter again continues on the train of excuses as to why his life is shit all because of his skinny body.
• “What are the effects of steroids” to which Mr. Fantastic says “looking fantastic… I told you already!”, Mr. Fantastic has a learning problem
• day 19, calves 14 inches, waist 32.5 inches, chest 33.5 inches, biceps 11.5 inches

Series ideas

This entire show is a huge wasted opportunity full of mis-information and uses a very flawed person as its test subject. Peter needs to get over his food phobias, get a personal trainer to show him how to exercise and drop the steroids ASAP because the only thing I see from this show so far is how unprepared he really is both physically and mentally for the brick wall that is coming right at him when he gets off of them.

Real information about steroids

• Muscle memory is great… too bad it doesn’t last
• Why I decided not to take Anabolic Steroids
• Gaining Weight 101: Tips from a fellow Hard gainer
• LL Question: Even with bad genetics, can I become the world’s strongest man?
• Better Living Through Chemistry
• Taking Time Off and Muscle Memory

Buzvia: Steroids Saved My Life (Television Series)

This is the review of the second episode of the BBC’s Science and Islam: The Language of Science.

BBC’s Science and Islam 2: The Empire of Reason Part 1

• Islamic scholars realized that everything was based off rules, hence the idea of the Scientific Method was born
• powerful, advanced and wealthy civilizations lead to huge leaps in knowledge
• over a thousand years ago, the Islamic Empire was the largest in the world, governing about 60 million people or 30% of the world’s population at the time
• to give an idea of the size of the Islamic Empire, the Roman Empire would have occupied but a third of the territory
• “The Translation Movement” was funded by the enormous tax revenues collected by the Islamic Empire which sent scholars around the world to gather-up the sum of the world’s knowledge and get it all translated into one language, God’s language, Arabic
• the legacy of the powerful Islamic Empire is spread throughout the Middle East and southern Spain
• in the 8th century, Cairo was under Islamic rule and the first thing they did was try to measure, in the hopes of taming, the mighty river Nile
• they build the Nilometer which allowed scientists to measure, accurately, the level of the river and record it to help discover patterns and seasonal flows

BBC’s Science and Islam 2: The Empire of Reason Part 2

• by having a precise measure of the river Nile, the rulers now had a precise method of instituting taxes on farmers and warn the citizenry of problems early in the flooding season
• Nilometer is one of the many instruments created to help make sense of the randomness of natural processes
• the idea that you can create stability among chaos is a revelation for the times of Islamic Empire
• one of the Caliphs in the 8th century, was obsessed with maps of all kinds, making precise measurements of the world around him was a passion, which lead to the production of the first world map
• the first world map lead to a fundamental question… how big is the Earth?
• the passion for scientific endeavor continued due to a religious passion to discover everything that the creator had created, the practice is Islam also demanded that its followers have a clear understanding of the world they live in
• as they always need to pray towards Mecca no matter where they are, understanding the curvature and size of Earth was required knowledge
• Islamic scholars figured out that the circumference of the Earth was 24 thousand miles, which is within 4% of the correct value… all by measuring the angle of the Sun in two different places and measuring the distance between those places (by walking and counting your paces).
• the Caliph was pleased but wanted something more accurate so, two centuries later, the size of the Earth was discovered in far more precision

BBC’s Science and Islam 2: The Empire of Reason Part 3

• the precise circumference of the Earth was discovered, within 200 miles, by using three angles and the height of one mountain along with a simple mathematical formula
• math allows the embracing of the universe
• theory is meaningless without experimentation
• trade was the glue that, along with religion, help keep the Islamic Empire from falling onto itself due to the shier complexity of keeping everything running smoothly across such a vast area
• by the 8th century, the Islamic Empire dominated the world’s trad in both volume and importance
• anything that could be traded, was by the Islamic Empire
• carrier pigeons were used to help spread knowledge around the Empire, between governments, people and even scholars
• by the 7th century, the Islamic Empire was developing the principles of mass production

BBC’s Science and Islam 2: The Empire of Reason Part 4

• material knowledge was increasingly becoming important to both merchants and armies alike as new ways or making things had to be developed to support an expanded area of use
• the dream to turn base metals into Gold was a project the Islamic scholars poured an incredible amount of time and energy in, the practice of Alchemy had eluded them so far
• the study of Alchemy lead towards developments in the field of Chemistry, which was required in order to develop a common currency across the entire Empire
• coin making turned alchemy into chemistry
• engineers, soap makers and architects all demanded new material innovations in order to turn their concepts into reality
• Europe imported tonnes of soap from Islamic Spain during the 13th century as they didn’t have the knowledge to produce their own
• glass making expanded greatly with the discovery of new materials, they could change the color of glass by using chemicals and were able to build industrial furnaces to manufacture in large quantities, which were used also in tin, tiles and many other building materials
• chemistry was driven by the perfume marketplace as well, distillation was developed as a result to extract ever more complicated base components
• chemistry played a key role in weaponry were the Muslims would attack Catholics using bombs and grenades which struck fear in invading armies

BBC’s Science and Islam 2: The Empire of Reason Part 5

• the periodic table is the fundamental philosophy of chemistry, it lists all the known elements, grouped in order of similarities
• where the Greeks talked about the classification of elements (Earth, Air, Water, Fire), the Islamic chemists devised a classification that used the scientific observations, this was the foundations of the modern periodic table
• Physics is a Greek word meaning the science of change, the Greeks thought that math could only explain “perfect world and structures” (quantity) while the Islamic scientists realized quite the opposite, math can be used to make sense of the chaos of the world
• Al-Hassan Ibn al-Haytham thus created a new scientific system that combined the science of change (physics) with quantity (math)
• Al-Hassan Ibn al-Haytham was considered a genius and was known across the empire
• Al-Hassan Ibn al-Haytham used his time during house arrest to create the modern science of optics

BBC’s Science and Islam 2: The Empire of Reason Part 6

• Aristotle argued that the essence of an object flows into our eyes while Al-Hassan Ibn al-Haytham argued that actually, light hits an object and enters our eyes
• in 1020, Al-Hassan Ibn al-Haytham published his “Book of Optics” to explain the properties of light, this book is full of experiemental observation and describes them in great detail so others can see for themselves
• Al-Hassan Ibn al-Haytham discoverd the thickness of the atmosphere by looking at how light reflected after the Sun went under the horizon, he got a value of half of the real thickness… which is pretty good considering the technology at the time!

The Bottom Line

The Scientific Method is the single, most important idea behind our modern world

• LegendaryLife Profile: Al-Hassan Ibn al-Haytham
• BBC’s Science and Islam: The Language of Science (Episode 1)
• BBC’s Science and Islam: The Empire of Reason (Episode 2)
• BBC’s Science and Islam: The Power of Doubt (Episode 3)
• The roots of Modern Science come from Islam!

This article came about while I was writing the LegendaryLife profile of Al-Hassan Ibn al-Haytham, I was so impressed that I decided that I had to dedicate a blog article solely on this great piece of journalism.

Introduction

The BBC produced an amazing series outlining the contributions (yes, contributions) that the Middle East had given to science, I encourage you to watch this… it’s well worth it! I wrote a summary of each video under them to outline key points of interest. It also gives you a great overview of the history that Al-Hassan Ibn al-Haytham lived through, which helps greatly in understanding what made him tick.

BBC’s Science and Islam: The Language of Science Part 1

• Professor Jim Al-Khalili (University of Surrey) introduces himself, he grew-up in Baghdad where he discovered his passion for science and fled with his family once Saddam Hussein came into power
• between the 9th and 12th centuries, the Middle East lived through a period of great scientific fever which lead to a quantum leap in knowledge across many fields
• purpose of this BBC series is to discover the relationship between science and Islam
• Professor Jim Al-Khalili is a damn good artist!
• scientific words such as Algebra, Algorithm, Alkali are all Arabic and ironically, are the foundations of science from mathematics to chemistry!
• few scientists in the West are even aware of this Medieval Islamic legacy today but between the 12th and 17th century, scientists regularly sourced material from and gave credit to their Middle Eastern brothers
• Arabic names show-up all over the place in Medieval texts from maps to medicines
• Roman numerals were hopelessly inefficient compared to Islamic methods which is why we use numbers now instead
• the idea that you can represent any number you like using only 10 symbols was first developed by Indians around the 6th century, they also created the decimal point to represent fractions
• like all great science, things are blindingly obvious only after they have been discovered (reference to the decimal point and numbers)
• looking at a map, Baghdad (Capital of the Islamic Empire, modern day Iraq) is right in the cross-hairs of the East and West, where scientific knowledge met head-on originating from Europe to China
• Baghdad was founded in 762 with the aim of it becoming the glorious capital of a vast empire, united by Islam

BBC’s Science and Islam: The Language of Science Part 2

• the armies of Islam, starting in Medina, conquered a vast territory that spread from Spain to India over several decades
• by the 8th century, Islamic caliphs ruled a vast territory and the emperors at the time realized the scientific and political power go hand in hand
• medical knowledge could save lives, military technology can win wars, mathematics could help make sense of increasingly complex state finances, Mohammad (the Prophet) himself told believers to seek knowledge where ever they could find it (an idea that seems lost in modern times)
• studying God’s creations was a religious duty for most people at the time
• the rulers used knowledge as a way to subjicate the rest of the world, making them feel even more superior
• in the 8th century, the caliph, looking over his vast, diverse empire, decided to end the Chaos that multiple cultures, languages and ways of thinking caused and told everybody to learn Arabic as the “national language” which also happens to be the language of the Koran, hence, Arabic is considered the language of God
• the text of the Koran is so sacred, its text hasn’t changed in over 1 400 years
• the effect of a unified language was huge, scholars could now talk and share knowledge with one another
• Arabic is a very precise and unambiguous language which isn’t open to interpretation which is ideal for scientific and technical terminology
• between 750-950, the rulers were plowing money into a project of unifying all the world’s knowledge in central libraries and translating all the texts into Arabic (The Translation Movement)
• scolars spread all around the world, reviewing and translating texts into Arabic and if the ruler didn’t have the book they found, they would be paid in gold by their weight! (ei: instant millionaires many times over)
• the rulers were scared that what happened in Alexandria (total loss of thousands of years of knowledge) would happen again, so they took steps to make sure this never happened again

BBC’s Science and Islam: The Language of Science Part 3

• medical knowledge was at the top of the “must save, capture, translate and store” list of the Islamic ruler’s lists
• minor infections during this time today would be a death sentence back then, as a result, few people lived to old age
• religious teachings were a constant reminder of our mortality
• the Prophet Mohammad said “God did not send down a disease without also sending down its cure”, it’s up to us to find it!
• modern medicine still relies heavily on the findings of ancient Islamic doctors and researchers
• medieval Islamic doctors acquired knowledge from India to China, Europe to Africa and used all these different methods to find the most apt cure for any given condition
• “The Prophet’s Medicine” is still a very popular Arabic book that first came out in the 14th century, for instance, it warns against going onto land that had a plague and not bothering to try to escape it if it comes to your door and the cure for epilepsy is exorcism due to a bad spirit, it has nothing to do with the brain
• the central idea behind Islam is compassion for our fellow humans, it also preaches a high level of religious tolerance

BBC’s Science and Islam: The Language of Science Part 4

• as “The Translation Movement” was underway, new medical advances were being acquired from all four corners of the world and lead to the development of a “Pharmacy”, a completely new concept at the time
• Islamic medicine also practiced extensive surgery in less than clean (by today’s standards) rooms
• eye surgery was one of Islamic medicine’s great successes, even with the use of incredibly crude instruments
• completed in 1025 by Islamic doctor Avicenna along with a group of researchers, the “Cannon of Medicine” was a a 14 volume medical encyclopedia that ruled the world up until the 18th century when modern medicine discovered bacteria and viruses. It was the first time that all the sums of the world’s medical knowledge was able to be found, clearly organized, one one group of texts

BBC’s Science and Islam: The Language of Science Part 5

• Islamic medical researchers went at great lengths to discover the hidden secrets of the ancients, whom they believed, possessed incredible knowledge that had been lost to time
• the dark art of Alchemy was something that scientists at the time spent vast amounts of time and resources on rediscovering
• the Rosetta Stone had the same inscriptions written in both Greek and Egyptian Hieroglyphs, which proved invaluable for European researchers to decipher the Hieroglyphs but this work was done in the 9th and 10th century before by Islamic explorers who related Hieroglyphs to Arabic texts (they are related) by discovering that the Coptic (basis for Arabic) was nothing but the evolution of the Egyptian language
• this discovery was directly related to “The Translation Movement” as they had gone through a number of Coptic texts as part of their research
• Egyptology didn’t begin in the 19th century by Europeans, it began in the 9th or 10th century by Islamic scholars
• “The Translation Movement”, unlike other intellectual movements, was curious and inclusive regardless of religion, background or origin which meant a vast amount of information could be gathered, digested and put together
• Baghdad, during “The Translation Movement” was a place in which innovation and knowledge was richly valued and rewarded
• the Caliphs at the time created Magelis, places where the rich would meet with the smart to pursuit ideas and new innovations, think of it as the first Venture Capitalist System If you had a great idea, willing to debate and knew Arabic, no matter your background, you were invited to share!
• Al-Hassan Ibn al-Haytham is mentioned again (briefly mentioned at the beginning of the series) and was a favorite of the caliphs, highly regarded and well versed in many disciplines, he was fearless in his thinking
• Greek mathemiatics dealt mainly with geometry while India invented the 10 number and decimal system, what Al-Hassan Ibn al-Haytham did was put the two together

BBC’s Science and Islam: The Language of Science Part 6

• Al-Hassan Ibn al-Haytham managed to put together Greek Pictures with Indian Precision (Symbols) which created what we call today, Algebra
• Al-Hassan Ibn al-Haytham discovered that people require three sets of numbers; roots, squares and numbers
• Algebra helped to win wars by creating simple formulas that helped figure-out cannon ball trajectories or even the energy required to split attoms which ended-up creating the nuclear bomb, without Algebra, none of this would be possible
• Science isn’t Islamic, it cannot be claimed by any one group, but the Islamic scholars were the first to piece together information from across the globe into one solid piece of work that lead to the modern era we all enjoy today
• Science is therefore, a universal truth

The Bottom Line

The truth IS out there!

• LegendaryLife Profile: Al-Hassan Ibn al-Haytham
• BBC’s Science and Islam: The Language of Science (Episode 1)
• BBC’s Science and Islam: The Empire of Reason (Episode 2)
• BBC’s Science and Islam: The Power of Doubt (Episode 3)
• The roots of Modern Science come from Islam!