Are Steroids Agaisnt Sikhi?

[KhalistaniGunMan]

Your friends have been brainwashed by others to believe that they have to take steroids if they want to be fit, big and strong. Most muscle heads that you see in inner city gyms take steroids. It is true that steroids can be taken safely without causing long term side effects if you know what you are doing, however, this is not a justification to take them.

Firstly, steroids are performance enhancing drugs and are illegal anyway. Secondly, many people have got fit, strong, healthy, aggressive and become great athletes and great fighters without using steroids. Using steroids is a losers way out.

Another thing is looking at peoples motivations to train. Bodybuilding is a modern phenomenon and is purely related to making your body look big and strong. It is purely superficial and looks related. To me, that is fine, if that is your kind of thing. However, we shouldnt be under the illusion that this has anything to do with strength, fighting ability, fitness or has any correlation with any Sikhi values. Most 'singhs' who do bodybuilding probably think that they are 'representing' in some way like they are some big strong warriors. In reality they probably enjoy the 'rep' of being massive and the respect that monay and other singhs give them when they come up and say, 'yo respect to you singh. You are what a proper Singh should look like!' plus all the female attention they get from having big muscles.

Yet despite that, they will still get banged up by a skinny musalmaan that does boxing three times a week!

The above is the real reason Singhs do bodybuilding. It has got nothing to do with being a saint soldier, strength or fighting ability. Remember, puratan Singhs were never bodybuilders. They were soldiers! And soldiers have to train like soldiers, not like body builders!

Steroids are for misguided self obsessed posers who like to look the part only and crave attention from the opposite sex!

i agree steroids are not necessary...and to your point on boxing..its absolutely true..i boxed for quite a while..3 sessions a week...most the lads i trained with could take three of these arnold shwarznegger wannabes on alone lol...i encourage singhs to get into martial arts and take it serious...bodybuilding is ok to keep in shape and fit..but thats about it

[Wolverine5]

Total No No to Steroids! You are changing your body and it also plays with your mind. There is a youtube video on a Singh who took steriods, he tells you how it destroted him! Putting on all that weight may look good, however if you don't know how to put that to use, then you are in trouble. Bulking up slows you down.....mix it with cardio and the results are tremendous.

Pull Chuk Maaf....... :waheguru:

[SarabhaPanjab]

on a side note, the general health of our people is alarming.

Obesity, heart failure, diabetes, liver kidney failures are substantially higher in our community, ask any doctor. Saying that, the general white community is also terrible, us being worse than them is definitely saying something.

Our diet of refined sugars and fats.. i.e. jalebi- deep fried sugar!.. excessive drinking and animal fats.. causing massive stresses on families. How can you be successful either spiritually or economically in bad health?

So many single parent families because the father drank himself to death.

I would go as far as saying the languar we make is unhealthy. The languar should be the benchmark of a healthy diet.

[singh135]

Following the arguements people are making in saying steroids are bad..then following the same arguements (bodybuilding is ego, not useful in combat,etc) leads one to conclude other dietary elements used by body builders are bad..eg nitric oxide, creatine, L arginine, glutamate, etc, etc, etc......some of these are in food, others are not. is the conclusion body building as a sport is not sikhi related?

[SarabhaPanjab]

any form of fitness is more useful in combat than being a fatty.. even dancing like a panzie ballerina has 100 times more chance of serving you in combat than 5 rotis, chicken tubs and a can of beer in front of the tv...

you rather have 10 bodybuilders with little combat skills than 20 tellytubbies.. right?

anyone choosing a form of fitness should be congratulated and encouraged, because they all take huge amount of discipline.

also, being big helps in diffusing many small situations as it actually prevents trouble from coming your way. if your a skinny doorman everyone wants a piece.. if your big, you maybe a worse fighter but often people won't try it.

[pedrorizzo]

Following the arguements people are making in saying steroids are bad..then following the same arguements (bodybuilding is ego, not useful in combat,etc) leads one to conclude other dietary elements used by body builders are bad..eg nitric oxide, creatine, L arginine, glutamate, etc, etc, etc......some of these are in food, others are not. is the conclusion body building as a sport is not sikhi related?

Well it is definitely not Sikhi related as there is no requirement in Sikhi for Sikhs to do bodybuilding. As to whether it helps or interferes with a persons Sikhi is a personal thing I guess. If it increases their sense of ego, and their desire to get a 'rep' and if they are doing it for female attention then it could be considered bad. However, if its done in moderation and simply because the person wants to exercise and that is their chosen method alongside an otherwise balanced spiritual and physical lifestyle then it could be considered ok.

In my opinion, if someone is that desperate to get big, to the extent of taking steroids to build up their body then then their whole perception on bodybuilding and/or their chosen activity is pretty skewed and messed up.

However, I think that some of this is down to some of the imagery that we portray about Sikhs as well, and some people may get into bodybuilding because they think that they are somehow fulfilling the warrior aspect of Sikhi. And this is the root issue that needs to be addressed and youth need to be given guidance as to what kind of activities they should pursue.

We have to be careful what kind of imagery we use to show Singhs in. For example, many of the Sikhi art pictures of warriors and nihangs from the olden days are portrayed as huge bodybuilders with great hulking muscles. Even the war memorial for Sikh soldiers in France and Italy is shown as a statue of a Sikh soldier with huge oversized biceps. Also when we tell stories of Sikhs we always over exaggerate and say that Singhs in the olden days were all like 7 ft tall and had huge muscles and could crush you with a single hand etc etc. People forget that you dont have to be big to be strong and fit and to be a good soldier/fighter. Just look at pictures of the kharkoos in the 80's. How many of them were massive bodybuilders?

In reality, most Singhs were slim and of an athletic build, like soldiers normally are.

You cant underestimate how such imagery has an impact on peoples minds and they feel they should try and look like that in order to be 'a true Singh.' For most people, bodybuilding is an easy way out as all they have to do is lift weights and make themselves 'feel hard' in their own brain. We as a community probably give too much pump to guys who get massive so it makes them and other Singhs want to do it more.

I think we should encourage our youth to do other activities instead and try and forget about all this silly bulking up business.

[KhalistaniGunMan]

Well it is definitely not Sikhi related as there is no requirement in Sikhi for Sikhs to do bodybuilding.

Actually didn't sri guru hargobind sahib introduce weight lifting to the sikhs...to say building of the body is no requirement is wrong..i dont promote bodybuilding..as i see martial arts more effective but if a singh wants to do bodybuilding..then i see no problem..like i said before its better then being a tub of lard...which alot of singhs are today...how can you fight like a sher when you cant even run half a mile without stopping in exhaustion?

[Sherdil]

Open the topic of bhang, I heard it was used by Sikhs when they were living in the jungles because it helps to digest rough foods. Also, it was given to Sikhs as prashaad before battle, so it would make them frenzied and they wouldn't feel pain. That's why the nihangs of hazoor sahib still make bhang prashaad. They say it is because they are always reay for battle.

[singh135]

Open the topic of bhang, I heard it was used by Sikhs when they were living in the jungles because it helps to digest rough foods. Also, it was given to Sikhs as prashaad before battle, so it would make them frenzied and they wouldn't feel pain. That's why the nihangs of hazoor sahib still make bhang prashaad. They say it is because they are always reay for battle.

using it all the time reduces its impact and means higher and higher doses are required to obtain the same effect. Being ready for battle all the time is one thing, however there is a scale like in everything. Detonating a nuclear bomb due to a little school fight isn't necessary when a punch might do. Likewise, fighting a couple of burglers bare fisted is different from 1 Singh against 250,000 trained soldiers in the Guru's times. The former probs doesn't require Bhang, the later perhaps doesnt either, but is more likely to than the former!

Need to keep things in perspective.

[BILLUSINGH]

Steroids is a drug and against the law never mind against religion. I train very hard and do not have a need to take steroids to get big. please it is a misconception you need drugs to look good. It takes hard work and determination, and focus. I'm sure our gurus are not against that. Please tell me if I am wrong.