Understandable and I appreciate your post and I must admit my knowledge on steroids, PEDS is nill, nada and zilch. And indeed, pump is really akin to cosmetic surgery.
Truly large biceps are an issue for oly lifters. I remember a story Bill Starr told about a bodybuilder who was struggling with a 185 lbs clean because his guns were too loaded.
If there’s one thing building muscle did for me in my early years of strength training, no doubt with wool covered eyes and the Muscle and Fitness magazines propaganda rife with “Build biceps like Ronnie” and similarly absurd histrionics, was I actually felt more confident under heavier weights. I was built like a starved giraffe in high school and the daunting act of just unracking a plate on the bench press made my bean pile body resemble a house on stilts in an earthquake. As I gained weight, this situation improved and perhaps for me subconsciously, a little more muscle mass makes me feel more stable under loads which my 6 ft 3 wingspan and Manute Bol femurs are forced to lift.
That being said, it wasn’t endless flies or concentration curls and push downs as infinium that brought me the greatest hypertrophy to strength benefits but the inclusion of a few similar accessories to the big lifts exercises like dumbbell benches or spilt squats or pushing the squat reps into the 20 rep ranges.
I’ve also had tremendous strength results just doing the big lifts with no accessory lifts for periods of time. Alas, I get bored easily, programs stop working and changes are welcomed at times and during these periods I think doing other lifts, changing training parameters or working on neglected skills come in handy and rejuvenate the desire to return to heavy iron. This is where “Bodybuilding training” falls for me, though it’s always secondary to strength training in the paradigm of my training life and it falls into the training style of doing dips, different presses, single leg work, oftentimes with higher reps. Anyways, I’ve hijacked
@Starlord s straining log long enough with my life story.
Cheers