Hacker Cinema
Bigger Stronger Faster*
2008 · Film · documentary · 105 min
Directed by Chris Bell
In America, we define ourselves in the superlative: we are the biggest, strongest, fastest country in the world. Is it any wonder that so many of our heroes are on performance enhancing drugs? Director Christopher Bell explores America's win-at-all-cost culture by examining how his two brothers became members of the steroid-subculture in an effort to realize their American dream.
7 positive3 neutralfrom 10 commenters
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10 comments on Hacker News
> At that point you still have a natural production, it's just less than at your lifetime peak. You can still destabilize your hormone signaling further and get symptoms like hypogonadism and gynomastia-- to say there's nothing to lose isn't quite right.
Sure, there isn't "nothing to lose", but let's not kid ourselves- if you're past retirement age and in a position to essentially be on TRT for the rest of your life, hypogonadism isn't a big deal unless for some crazy reason TRT becomes unavailable. As for gynecomastia, it's very easily managed with an aromatase inhibitor like exemestane or anastrozole.
I'm not saying there aren't risks or possible side effects, but exogenous testosterone shouldn't be dismissed out of hand because of the FUD surrounding steroids. If you haven't seen the documentary "Bigger, Stronger, Faster", I highly recommend it.
Bigger Stronger Faster*
"... is a 2008 documentary film directed by Christopher Bell, about the use of anabolic steroids as performance-enhancing drugs in the United States and how this practice relates to the American Dream." -- Wikipedia
There is a lot of interesting info and history in the movie "Bigger Stronger Faster":
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1151309/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
It's one of those things where the "highly risky" is more or less true, but mainly because it is illegal, and not the opposite. Make any medication illegal long enough and people will do stupid shit with it because they can't go to the doctor and ask them how to use it safely. Then they'll injure themselves, reinforcing the illegality of the medication, and keep the circle going.
The documentary "Bigger, Stronger, Faster" by Chris Bell is an excellent starting point to learn about the supplement/anabolics industry.
If anyone's ever watched the documentary "Bigger, Stronger, Faster*" they raise some interesting points questioning why steroids are demonized. Professional musicians take beta-blockers, athletes get laser eye surgery and take cortisone and opiate shots before/during competition, programmers take Adderall and Modafinil, male porn stars shot their penises full of drugs to stay erect for hours on end, etc. etc. Plenty of examples of professionals "cheating" without widespread media outcry and pearl-clutching about the sanctity of the profession.
Furthermore, taking steroids won't improve your muscle-memory, proprioception, agility, sports IQ, etc... In my opinion they should be allowed in sports in some limited cases, such as recovering from an injury, where it would be administered in a controlled environment by a licensed doctor to accelerate recovery. They're a very useful drug if used properly.
As a person who has been lifting weights for more than 10 years I completely agree. Bigger, Stronger, Faster lifts the veil of lies just a little:
http://m.imdb.com/title/tt1151309/
In the movie "Bigger Stronger Faster" they have a section on supplements, and this comes as no surprise
"Supplements" are a very broad term, and a lot of things are sold under this banner:
- "True" Nutritional supplements, offering a dietary value, like carbohydrates, proteins
- Supplements of a specific nature like mineral supplements, creatine, other amminoacids or peptides.
- Stimulants, some mild, some very heavy and with controversial substances
- "Pre-hormones" which are usually actually more damaging than most of the common steroids
- Other things, usually useless
I guess 80%/90% of all the products are BS, real products usually go straight to the point in their advertisement, and don't try to pass for a miracle or for something they are not.
Bigger Stronger Faster* - Awesome documentary on steroid use in weightlifting, really thought provoking.
Alone in the Wilderness - A guy that is built like Popeye goes into the Yukon and builds a log cabin by hand. I think its really inspirational.
Riding Giants: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0389326/ Pretty light fare, but the film footage is beautiful.
Driver 23: http://fenrisfilms.com/films.html Awkward, almost painful to watch, but hard to look away.
Bigger, Stronger, Faster: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1151309/ Unfortunately, this is the only one of these three available on Netflix Instant.
I agree that it isn't that typos and misspellings aren't that big of a deal, but I think they correlate significantly with clarity of thought. Making judgments based on superficial characteristics isn't necessarily a bad thing; the key is to make sure that one is choosing the right surfaces to look at.
For me, the disclaimer is a red flag, but the quality of the text countered it quite well. Should I presume his logic is positively correlated with his strength of sentence structure? Usually I do.
But for me, this was overridden by the attempt to cite fiction as an authority. Good fiction is good because it appeals to our sense of authenticity, not because it actually is authentic. Thus using fiction as an example is usually just arguing that something 'sounds right'.
I just watched a very good documentary on steriod use (Bigger Stronger Faster) that pointed out that the real Stallone's physique as depicted in the movie relied fairly heavily on steroids. Sure, there were lots of crunches, but heavy drugs as well. Is the real message of this article that deception (self or otherwise) is essential to entrepreneurial success?