I was thinking about this earlier today, and about when it's appropriate for lifters to begin using in terms of their weight/progress.
I thought about it for a while and came up with what I think is a fair conclusion.
If you have or have previously reached (and are still relatively close to) 2.5 pounds LBM per inch of height, then in my mind you are ready to roll if you think you need the help.
We will use 2 examples
1) 70 inches, 200 pounds at 12%
- 176 LBM/ 70 =~ 2.5 pounds per inch
- READY
2) 73 inches, 200 pounds at 15%
- 170 LBM/ 73 =~ 2.33 pounds per inch
- NOT READY
What do you guys think?
Establishing a height:weight relationship for when someone is ready is a good idea because i'm tired of seeing people who look like they don't lift throwing high dosed orals down their gullet.
But here's one problem with your calculations there: it doesn't take into account that it's easy to get a high LBM if the bodyfat is very high, for instance:
70 inches, 220 pounds, 20% bodyfat
= 2.5 lbs/inch which satisfies your equation
However while this person is "big" they are also a fatass and shouldn't juice until they lose some weight (for several reasons).
Now on the other hand
70 inches, 185 pounds, 8% bodyfat
= 2.43 lbs/inch which doesn't satisfy your equation, even though they are at a good level of development and probably an ectomorph
So my bottom line is this equation needs to take BF% into account beyond using it to calculate LBM.
LBM is nice but LBM with respect to bodyfat is everything. When i started using the designer orals i had almost the same LBM as I do now. The difference is I was fat (6'1 240 18%).
And i'm at a hell of a more developed level now than i was then.
Anyone can eat their way up to a good LBM, just you become a fatass in the process.
I agree, STRONGLY AGREE, that people should have reached a certain level of development before starting usage. But it is really hard to quantitatively classify that point, believe me i've thought about it before and i'm always irritated to see people starting way too early... you need to have patience, i sat on my bottle of Superdrol for 2 fcking years before opening it, for instance. Before I ever ran my first cycle i had researched for the better part of a year and was designing cycles off the top of my head all the time.
Besides the level of training the other variable is physical maturity.
How can you determine the two variables?
If i see a full body flexed picture, I can determine if the physical maturity and muscular development is enough for steroid use.