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THE REAL CHALLENGE FOR DRUG-FREE BODYBUILDERS:
TO BE NATURAL AND OUTSTANDING!

By Skip La Cour

Your destiny in life is often shaped by the beliefs you have acquired and the decisions you have made. By reading this website, you will have the opportunity to re-evaluate your current beliefs and make decisions that could change your bodybuilding destiny forever! I know that is a very big statement. But it is a promise I can make with absolute certainty because I know from personal experience, as well as from the experiences of other top bodybuilders, what human beings are capable of when we have the right mental attitude.

I have always had the belief that you can never "know it all." Several years ago, I made the decision to try the new supplement creatine monohydrate that was "supposed to be" pretty effective. Although I was very skeptical, I decided to try it ten weeks before an upcoming contest, the 1994 Musclemania Natural Bodybuilding Championships. It was having my mind open to the latest-breaking developments in sports supplementation and the decision to use this product despite my skepticism which enabled me to win the heavyweight and overall titles -- six pounds heavier and significantly harder than my third-place finish at the inaugural Team Universe contest just 13 weeks earlier.

Winning that show gave me the confidence that I could truly "hang with the big boys." What put me over the top was a single belief and a single decision.

Now, a few years later, creatine is the most heralded natural bodybuilding supplement available -- so effective, its use has spread to the mainstream, major-league sports world. Creatine’s approval by those who have used it is unanimous.

Yet there are top natural bodybuilders in the country today who have never used creatine. As one said, "I tend not to believe the hype. Different products come and go. There’s always someone trying to sell you something." That belief and that decision, in my opinion, is costing this athlete at least five pounds of quality size on stage and probably a title or two.

I applaud you for being keen enough to realize that using drugs to build your physique would no longer be acceptable. Every time you start getting discouraged that your gains are not coming as quickly as you want them to, just think about the unfortunate barrage of criticism people using drugs get along with their praise. They exert so much effort but they get that kind of treatment. If you have any kind of muscular development and are drug-free, I am sure you get your fair share of abuse. At least you know in your heart it is unwarranted. I encourage you to have a little compassion because I know that the drug-using bodybuilder’s plight must be ten times worse than the one you face.

But there are hard-working, good athletes and officials (who are also good people) who are stuck in the middle of this dilemma. What they had failed to realize is that, once steroids and other drugs became illegal, the bodybuilding community’s tolerance would wane, and they would be in a very difficult position. As time goes on, the situation only gets tougher for them. Bodybuilding requires too much work to be appreciated so little. We will see how this complex issue resolves itself in time. One thing is certain, however; "sticking to your guns," hoping the problem just goes away, or pretending there is no problem is not the solution.

Being a natural bodybuilder is only a portion of what it will take to be truly successful. Almost everybody trains without drugs, searches for a healthy lifestyle, and won’t necessarily try to be a competitive bodybuilder. The new challenge is to be natural and outstanding.

Training without drugs is good. In fact, training without drugs is very good. But training without drugs is only a start. Anybody can train naturally – that doesn’t take a whole lot of effort. You must strive to become outstanding. That is the real challenge!

What will it take to be natural and outstanding? Probably the establishing of a whole new set of beliefs. That’s why I wrote my book Thinking Big: to provide you with a whole new way at looking at your current beliefs, so that you will adopt ones empowering you to take your physique to a higher level of development. Thinking Big is designed to help you take your physique to much higher than you currently believe is possible.

Although many natural bodybuilders do a lot of talking, too many have not mustered up enough mental strength and courage to be really dedicated and develop their physique to their full genetic potential. I have had quite a number of inspired readers of my articles in the bodybuilding magazines who have surprised themselves with what they have accomplished naturally -- and wish they hadn’t wasted time.

I have a question for you: Which side of this new and emerging paradigm shift in natural bodybuilding will you be on? Whether you will be included or not, there are definitely some ambitious and mentally flexible people training who are taking this information to heart and are beginning to see "unbelievable" results.

With all of the advances in training, nutritional information, and sports supplementation, plus international magazine exposure and top-of-the-line, drug-tested contests such as the NPC Team Universe and Musclemania, people training naturally have the knowledge and incentive to get better and better.

The old stigma that says, "If a bodybuilder is good, he must be on drugs," should not last forever. Soon there will be too many outstanding natural bodybuilders around to keep on insisting that they all are on drugs.

Sure, some die-hard skeptics will continue to say looking good can’t be done without drugs. I understand this. But they are going to be on the wrong side of the paradigm shift in bodybuilding. Those skeptics will be just like the guys taking steroids whom they view as being on the wrong side of the current trend.

If being "number one" is so important to your ego that you must tear down those who are better than you, this new set of beliefs may be very hard to adopt. There will always be someone bigger and stronger. There will always be someone with a better developed physique and who builds their body in less time and/or with less effort than you. If being a bodybuilder is just an avenue for you to be biggest and the best, you may wish to start hanging out with smaller people. You will save yourself a tremendous amount of effort.

I assume a person who would invest their valuable time reading this web site is a much more mature and evolved person. I respect you for that.

Bodybuilding is about reaching your full genetic potential – not comparing yourself to someone else. Successfully building your body and living a healthy lifestyle are certainly not going to be achieved by using the quick-fix solutions of judging and/or tearing down others in an effort to make yourself feel better.

If you are currently stuck in this disempowering mode of thinking, I have empathy for you. If someone would have told me the things that I am telling you as little as eight years ago, I would have thought they were crazy. I totally understand your current viewpoint.

I hear many people in the gym today speaking of Arnold Schwarzenegger saying, "He was nothing!" And you know what? They are right in a sense. If you are measuring him by today’s competitive bodybuilding standards, Arnold would more than likely not make the top 15 at the Mr. Olympia contest.

But it was Arnold who influenced thousands and thousands of people across the world to train. They took the mental approach he developed and were able to begin at a much higher level than having to figure efficient strategies out for themselves. What people thought could be accomplished was taken to a higher and higher level.

The same will hold true in natural bodybuilding. More and more people will be influenced to train without drugs. Those with superior genetics will no longer just jump right into the use of drugs, and others will discontinue their use. The physiques will get better and better.

I have written in past articles in the bodybuilding magazines of how, early in my training, I set my sights on being better than Francois Guy. He was one of the few natural bodybuilders featured in the magazines at that time. I knew I could be better than him. The defining moment for me was when I made the decision to be the very best I could be and spent all my energy trying to achieve that goal. I recently received a call from a former training partner of Guy. He expressed how proud Guy was to have such an influence on me. It is my sincere wish to influence you in the same way.

Mark my words: Ten years from now, the natural physiques you see on stage will "blow away" anyone you see in the bodybuilding magazines today. That is because of evolution -- and it is inevitable.

I am certain Chris Faildo, Yohnnie Shambourger, Ron Coleman, Bill Davey, Mike O’Hearn, myself, and the rest of the top drug-free competitors would be proud if, years from now, we influenced you to "unbelievable" drug-free development that would make us look like "nothing."

If you saw one of us in a gym 10 years from now and said, "You guys were nothing compared to the natural guys around today," we would turn around, look you straight in the face, and say …… "Thank you!"

It is critical that you become a visionary or look to stay ahead of the trends of our sport. Master or become an expert on your passion for bodybuilding. Adopt new, more empowering beliefs. In other words, make assumptions that demand you take 100 percent responsibility for your results. Go "all out" in your efforts to build an outstanding natural physique!

So let me ask you again: Which side of this shift in natural bodybuilding will you be on? Now is the time to make that decision!