The past few years have been unkind to many of the world’s top athletes. Olympic hopefuls to MLB sluggers to Tour De France cyclists, have all fallen prey to intense scrutiny as we seek to maintain the image of a pure natural athlete. I am not going to talk in specific about any one athlete in particular, but rather the culture of altering our bodies by way of non natural processes.

Everyone wants to be the best, be at the pinnacle of whatever sport or activity they may be participating in. We get it in our heads that to beat everyone else, we have to give ourselves a one up and this is where steroids and other performance enhancing drugs (PEDS) enter into the equation. Sure there are side effects to their use, but they can be mitigated by incredibly careful, doctor assisted monitoring. What I mean is frequent blood work and hormone panels. 98% of PEDS users do not fit into this category of careful use. So why even decide to go that route? You are short changing yourself, determining that you will fail at achieving your goal without even trying.

Some will say, oh but I have peaked after one year of training. To that I say, it has been a damn year you idiot. Even two or three still leaves you in the relative area of newness to training. You might know how to train better but as far as packing mass, you have not been doing it for all that long. If you are 6 foot 200 pounds, you have not peaked. Genetics will limit us to some degree but different training method, can and have been proven to overcome a weak genetic predisposition to being a hard-gainer.

Be brave for once in your life, please. Accomplishing anything is not easy, and getting bigger or changing your body is no small feat. It takes time and dedication, a steadfast mindset. Create who you want to be, do not accept an image. You are who you want to be, and that is the final word on that. A majority of you all out there WILL have to work harder. A lot harder. This challenge is what we call living your life. You see something you want and so you do everything in your power to achieve it; you sweat you bleed, wake up at 6 o’clock in the morning just to get a meal in or to run 3 miles before work because you know you will not have time later.

Do not settle to simply exist, squander the life you have been given. You do not know your limits as we mentioned before… No one does for that matter and with this in mind go out and DO because you can. Because you want to, because somewhere down the line someone said you couldn’t. Make this testimony to yourself now, today, not tomorrow or the day after. This is the trap of simply existing on this Earth. Recognize that now if you are the kind of person who tries to take shortcuts every step of their lives.

There is a distinct reward to accomplishing your goals naturally. You know that every pound, every striation, every line of muscle that clings to your body was created by you and the struggle you have endured. And guess what you have ENDURED and you are that much stronger now. Both mentally and physically. Never think that just because something might be hard that you should take the cheap way out, this attitude will get you nowhere.

You are your own weapon. What will you do with yourself tomorrow?

For all those out there busting ass the natural way
The AITank Crew recognizes you