[RedlineTriad]

You may already know this but Dwayne Johnson is pretty obviously on steroids or some other kind of anabolic agent.

In Hollywood anabolics are quite common, since preparing for a role can be a very short term thing, testosterone decreases with age, and very low body fat but large physiques are seen as normal.

Also, shorter people generally have it easier to have a muscular looking physique because of how the muscle mass limit scales with size.

[0xcde4c3db]

> You may already know this but Dwayne Johnson is pretty obviously on steroids or some other kind of anabolic agent.

People typically know this, but the social script is to ignore and deflect because we're culturally invested in the story of transformation through personal virtue. It's like pointing out that Santa Claus isn't real.

[FredPret]

You can still have transformation through personal virtue, just read the comments above. You just can't have the same magnitude of results without the steroids.

[poulsbohemian]

>It's like pointing out that Santa Claus isn't real.

Say what now?

[oceanplexian]

It’s a shame that there is such a stigma around anabolics for training, or even as a medical intervention. If you want to transition to another gender doctors will hand steroids out no problem; I believe you can even get then from Planned Parenthood these days. But if you simply want to take steroids to address low testosterone (Which is a societal crisis), most physicians will treat you like a drug addict. They will say it’s normal if a healthy 30 year old male has the T levels of an 80 year old.

[mewpmewp2]

But aren't those anabolics with a very significant trade off and health implications?

I'm not sure if stigma should exist, but if something gives someone a huge advantage over a natural, but at the same time at the cost of life or health and other things, without telling they are doing it, it gives a false impression to everyone who may be comparing themselves to these people.

Not to mention the issues some young people get into when they work out a lot and compare themselves to those people and think they are never big enough, and then they get into this state of big, that is only appealing to the very same community, but not average person being misled by groups of celebrities, influencers and other people.

And also if you do go on TRT I think there's no good coming back, so usually it would be much better to try to achieve normal test with natural means first, because otherwise you are going a path with side effects and dependence for life.

Also young people wanting higher test don't understand life very well yet, they will tunnel vision on their single insecurity and think this is the golden path to solve it, while with a little perspective this understanding can change a whole lot.

[SketchySeaBeast]

Though I've never heard of there being a stigma for treating low T, I agree that there shouldn't be. But that's not the point. Dwayne Johnson isn't taking anabolics to treat low T levels. You've built a straw-man by conflating the uses. Steroid abuse can cause long term damage.

[foobarian]

This is the first I hear of this stigma. If people want to take steroids to bulk up they are free to do it, it's just not fair to do it in the context of competitive sports.

[hondo77]

Societal crisis? Say what?