LeBron and HGH

[Greenbean]

Just my personal opinion but I dont think Lebron looks swelled to me. He is extremely cut AND big. Is it possible to achieve that look with PEDs? I have no idea and can offer no valuable insight into this. My gut just tells me hes not on it.

What I find more interesting is how Lebron has not figured out how to use his weight yet. Instead of running the whole offense with Lebby on the perimeter, he should be looking for touches with his back to the basket. Paul Pierce in contrast has done so much with this part of the game. He optimizes every pound of strength he has to gain an advantage against most defenders.

Could you imagine Lebron with a post game? Half the PFs in this league would kill to have his frame and ability. Think of a more athletic and agile Leon. Until LBJ gets a coach who will push him to challenge himself on different aspects of his game, I don't think we will ever see how good he can be. I mean, has Mike Brown EVER ONCE criticized the guy? If Phil Jackson or Larry Brown coached him, he would have a championship by now.

[Danimals]

Massive cardio at high levels of intensity will release plenty of endorphins, making creatine supplementation unnecessary. And the effects of this "runner's high" can last up to 23 hours thereafter, allowing for the most intense workouts with the heaviest weights with "minimal" pain during that window

Lifting the heaviest weights w/o pain isn't the issue; it's recovery time. I know tri-athletes, strength/cardio maniacs, and they are sinewy and strong, not bulky (plus ripped). This is the profile of a typical, high end martial artist and yes, they look great but it's a dense type of ripped look. Part of it is due to a type of overtraining where the upper body muscles don't get enough downtime for the bulk to build.

Not true. Cardio is NOT mutually exclusive with muscle building. Cardio can accelerate muscle building. It depends on what you tell your body to do, unwittingly or not:

1) Cardio actually speeds up recovery. With the elevated blood and oxygen circulation during cardio, all of the lactic acid from strength training will be drained out of the system so you won't feel sore. Energy reserves are quickly replenished so that muscle repair and building can quickly begin (if you eat). Cardio is the best "warm down" from strength training you can do. No hot tub necessary.

2) But recovery time will also have a lot to do with your diet. Don't eat for 8 hours after strength training, and you will atrophy. Running will only make it worse.

3) On the other hand, if your triathlete maniac friends are tired of looking like Jet Li, then they need lots of protein and carbohydrates immetiadely following working out. They not only need LOTS of calories to make the protein intake work (protein doesn't work well unless you add at least 4x the carb), but also enough to truly spike your insulin level. I'm talking LOTS of calories, all within 30-45 minutes of post-exercise window. Repeat for a total of 7-8 meals every day.

Unless if they have tape worm, IBS, or Crohn's, every single one of your Jet Li pals WILL get big. Epecially if they train hard and then go sprinting, not just jogging. (The only type of exercise that releases HGH is intense exercise.)

If Jet Li starts getting bigger but losing muscle definition, then he isn't burning enough calories running. Must ncrease intensity, distance, and repetion. If not, then he will end up looking like your meaty couch potato gym rats pals who do no cardio.

[MBz]

LeBron definitely makes you wonder about PED's but the thing I never trusted is his age.  When he came into the league, he looked like about 25 (not 18).  Now he is supposed to be 24 and looks more like 30.  Maybe the drugs are his fountain of youth (like Clemens).  I don't know how they could have hidden him from the world for years when he was young but hey, since we are doing totally unfounded speculation, what the heck.

Yeah he always looked older to me, but with him being born in the USA, I think it's probably unlikely that he is older then what he claims.  Anyone else think LeBron relies on his athleticism more then any player in the league and that by the time he's probably 30 and losing the athleticism, he's really going to go into a rapid decline?

[Andy Jick]

greg oden must be on Geritol.

[moiso]

I think Lebron is just naturally gifted.  I don't think he puts as much effort into his body as many think.  I'm sure he doesn't need "massive amounts of cardio" to stay lean.  He plays basketball, remember?  He says he doesn't even lift to get bigger.  I think he just blessed with a perfect frame and genetics. 

[davemonsterband]

Absolutely not. I know people that have done HGH and it raised water retention, as well as enlarging major organs over extended periods of time, there are hundreds of supplements out there that can be taken without the need for a steroid. I could see maybe a testosterone stack with something like winstrol, but not HGH. Kind of a silly notion considering he came into the league at 240 lbs, of course he'd put on 20-30 lbs, it's his body type. Don't take this as an insult using the "you people tagline", but you people around here have to educate yourselves a lot more on PED's. PED's also include FDA approval, which is enough for anyone of good health to get crazy results. They don't need to be illegal. I did test and andro and ephedrine (still do) 10 years ago and it was legal, now everyone's up in arms about it because boneheads didn't follow safety precautions and lied about it, but there are plenty of things out there that are equally viable. Do a little research, you'll be surprised.

[Danimals]

I'm sure he doesn't need "massive amounts of cardio" to stay lean.  He plays basketball, remember? 

This is like saying, "I don't need a gun to blow someone's head off. I've got a Glock 19, remember?"

But then again, didn't Oliver Miller play basketball also?

I think Lebron is just naturally gifted. I think he just blessed with a perfect frame and genetics. 

From Serena Williams to Evander Hollyfield, you don't get big and cut without a lot of hard work, one way or another. You can't just lie in bed all summer and gain 20-30 lbs of pure muscle mass. To think otherwise is an insult to dedicated athletes everywhere.

... The good thing about Perkins now is that he is done building and sculpting his shoulders. Heavy shoulder exercises during the NBA season can really screw your shot up, which explains why his favorite baby hook shot from HS kept rocketing off of the backboard whenever he shot it during his first 2 seasons. That suggests to me he actually put in the hard work. No PEDs necessary.

[LarBrd33]

Bron's body is freakishly huge.  the guy was 6'8 240 in high school.  Obviously with the kind of workout schedule and constant intense cardio (not to mention aging from 17-23) his body was going to get larger.   He had a huge frame to begin with...   

He was already pretty big when he was a teenager: 

  and then now

I mean you can say the same thing about how much bigger Kobe has gotten since high school..

Then:    Now:

Shaq was never dedicated enough to get "ripped"...



I mean.... you can go back and look at how huge a guy like Karl Malone got: 



or way back and look how ripped Oscar Robertson was...



I'm not totally dismissing the idea that Bron used something in highschool or now... but it's certainly silly to rule out the fact that this guy is just otherworldly large naturally.

[BballTim]

Bron's body is freakishly huge.  the guy was 6'8 240 in high school.  Obviously with the kind of workout schedule and constant intense cardio (not to mention aging from 17-23) his body was going to get larger.   He had a huge frame to begin with...   

He was already pretty big when he was a teenager: 

  and then now

I mean you can say the same thing about how much bigger Kobe has gotten since high school..

Then:    Now:

Shaq was never dedicated enough to get "ripped"...



I mean.... you can go back and look at how huge a guy like Karl Malone got: 



or way back and look how ripped Oscar Robertson was...



I'm not totally dismissing the idea that Bron used something in highschool or now... but it's certainly silly to rule out the fact that this guy is just otherworldly large naturally.

  Those pictures of LeBron are obviously doctored. He's about 24 years old in the HS picture and in his early 30s in the current one.

[LarBrd33]

BTW... I'm not going to post pictures of myself, but I just want to mention that when I was a senior in high school (18 years old) I was 5-7 and 120 pounds (very skinny... my dad didn't feed me enough,  I guess).   I naturally gained weight, by eating a lot more and eventually around age 22 I started lifting weights heavily, drinking protein shakes, taking in a lot of calories...  and peaked around 185 pounds... very ripped... very little fat... I was almost too big.  I'm 26 now and fit and go from 165-175.  I know that you can definitely gain a lot of weight with dedication and without HGH/Steroids.  I'm a short guy, but 120 pounds to 185 pounds is pretty drastic.

[Danimals]

I'm not totally dismissing the idea that Bron used something in highschool or now... but it's certainly silly to rule out the fact that this guy is just otherworldly large naturally.

Karl Malone on why he was such an intense workour fanatic:
"Because every minute I'm not in the gym, someone else is."

I always found it funny, even in hs with a lot of the guys i knew who worked out like crazy in their garages, but would lie about it to others. "It's no big thang. It's genetics, babe." (Not much different than the many women who get boob jobs only to insist that they are real.)

[Bankshot]

The very first time I saw Lebron in high school, I immediately thought he was on steroids.  The reason is that I had just heard a show with Eddie Andelman where the subject was teenagers using steroids being more rampant than people thought.  I thought no way Lebron could be that cut at such a young age without steroids.

[Scribbles]

The very first time I saw Lebron in high school, I immediately thought he was on steroids.  The reason is that I had just heard a show with Eddie Andelman where the subject was teenagers using steroids being more rampant than people thought.  I thought no way Lebron could be that cut at such a young age without steroids.

Yup I agree, I've always thought Lebron had started doing roids or some other growth substance since he was in high school. 

I'm a junior in high school and we have 13 kids on our varsity basketball team.  Of those 13 kids I know of 3 teammates that do some type of performance enhancers. 2 of them play football. We won't ever know if Lebron is or isn't on roids, but I wouldn't doubt it nowadays. 

[nickagneta]

Does anyone else find it strange that two of the bigger physical freaks to enter the league in quite some time(LeBron and Oden) both have extremely similar facial features and look alike?

They both came into the league with mature beyond their years bodies and faces that were wide across the cheeks, had large overhanging brows, had large jaws and had the look of a 50 year old man.

If they were baseball or football players there would have been a league official waiting for them with a urine receptacle or blood test to see if they had been juicing in high school.

[housecall]

Just my personal opinion but I dont think Lebron looks swelled to me. He is extremely cut AND big. Is it possible to achieve that look with PEDs? I have no idea and can offer no valuable insight into this. My gut just tells me hes not on it.

What I find more interesting is how Lebron has not figured out how to use his weight yet. Instead of running the whole offense with Lebby on the perimeter, he should be looking for touches with his back to the basket. Paul Pierce in contrast has done so much with this part of the game. He optimizes every pound of strength he has to gain an advantage against most defenders.

Could you imagine Lebron with a post game? Half the PFs in this league would kill to have his frame and ability. Think of a more athletic and agile Leon. Until LBJ gets a coach who will push him to challenge himself on different aspects of his game, I don't think we will ever see how good he can be. I mean, has Mike Brown EVER ONCE criticized the guy? If Phil Jackson or Larry Brown coached him, he would have a championship by now.

I agree with you.He has the body to be a pf but the mentality of a 2g and 3.He might decide to work on his post game as he grows older and tired of shooting from the perimeter.tp