Editorial by Juan Carlos Lopez

Another issue of Hardfitness has come out. Lots of hard work was put into it by my group of writers which I thank the most. Without these women it would have not been possible. All the hours put into this online publication hopefully will help other competitors who are just starting or veterans who want to know about other tricks of the trade.

A special thanks goes to Andrea Dumon and Megan (aka Dancin' girl) from Arizona, as they went out of their way to help me. It's always great to meet people who excel in all their qualities. This is what drives me to get the content for this magazine. For those of you who know me you know I am passionate about my work and do as much as possible to help those who demonstrate they are people of great value.

I did talk to some of my models and people who read the magazine and they actually do read the Editorial, which makes me think there is more to it than just the articles. There few things I want to touch on and several things that need to be explained.

First and foremost Andrea Dumon was able to obtain sponsorship from HardFitness and out affiliated sponsors. After our shoot at the Ironman and some emails later I came to the conclusion that she was a perfect candidate. She will be competing at the Emerald Cup as our sponsored athlete and hopefully she will do well. So for those athletes that always complain about money issues then think about what you can do for yourself. You can ask Andrea herself as a matter of fact there is an article about that to your left. In the past months two athletes in particular would have been sponsored but one her negative attitude at a shoot just made her loose any chance, no matter how great her physique was. The other one failed to setup a shoot and still after 2 emails hasn't given me an answer. Even worse I saw her at the Arnold and still haven't heard anything from her. She sounded interested but if you are going to make your mark in this industry you have to take all possible chances. And this is what drives me crazy, someone is willing to help you but you say no? Do you even know what you are thinking or are you spaced out? Next time you have a chance to so a shoot or talk to a supplement company be careful what you say and what you do. There will be some weirdos out there and also supplement companies who will toy around with the idea of helping you. Working a booth gets you out there in events such as the Arnold but if you don't take advantage of it you won't go anywhere. Supplement companies won't pay you much and won't do a great deal for your image, but you yourself have to open your own doors with an open mind and open attitude.

The other subject is about steroids, finally I am able to present two articles on it. One is more of a personal story and the other one an article with dosages for a pre-contest stack. The later info is from a qualified female IFBB Pro. She has trained clients that come in excellent shape at important shows. So rest assured this woman know what she is doing. Like I had mentioned in my last Editorial I had caused alarm in a forum Fitchics.com (an all female forum), for no reason I was banned from it. I am no DEA agent disguised as a photographer or someone from the government.I was never given a reason or warning for it but I believe a female admin thought my presence (being the owner of an online magazine) and me looking for information on steroids as I had told her caused a paranoia attack on her. I was not going to use posts by members for information because most of the users weren't Pros and some of the stacks were excessive for figure. Many people in that board had no idea on what to take. So my job is still to educate those people too. I am still trying to look for official reasons for being banned but people just don't answer my emails, avoiding confrontation. So this tells you the subject even nowadays is a risky topic to talk about. But my magazine is her to expose every aspect about competing without pointing any fingers to people in particular, that's why steroid articles are anonymous.

On a similar tone on musclemayhem.com a husband posted a stack for his wife. Even when the stack was heavy all people instead of helping the person build a stack and find the right dosages they just crucified him. He defended himself but still people weren't helping at all. At some point one admin had to delete some posts because they were totally off-topic. I talked to one of my writers and asked for a stack for her wife. She gave me one and I posted it. Some people had questions about the diuretic part but obviously they didn't know much because my writer explained why the dosage and this from experience. Then after posting the stack people attacked me. First another person said my info was unreliable because it came from one Pro and Anabolics 2005. Then when I challenged them with a better stack they changed their argument saying the stack was not right or wrong but that it should have included side effects and precautions. I simply said that anyone taking any steroid, diuretic, etc.. should look up info on it not just get info from a message board and then buy the drugs. It seemed common sense to me, the hard thing to obtain is the stack with dosages so let people do their own homework. And the again another attack on me someone else who had no business whatsoever on the board decided to back up the previous person with the same argument. Didn't work because the husband agreed with me that people should look for info before taking a steroid. I was the only person to post a stack, it is really shameful how people avoid all these things and don't try to help. Of course you can say train hard and diet correctly and you don't need steroids. But if you have taken something such as any prescription supplement at least help the people saying what you did. Maybe a simple I took only clenbuterol, here are the dosages will help... or if you took anavar and winstrol post the stack. Why do we have these forums if people aren't wiling to help. Again it makes me think I am doing the right thing by addressing all these subjects. The issues above tell us how unprepared people are regarding the subject of anabolic steroids.

On other news there will be a newsletter for this magazine. Hopefully I will be able to develop a simple script that will store emails in a database and will be able to send out an email to whoever subscribes to the magazine when the monthly issue is out.

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