Steroid Abuse in Sports

The use of performance enhancing drugs dates as far back to the original Olympic Games, and attempts to increase testosterone were documented as early as 776 BC.  These ancient athletes ingested sheep’s testicles, which they knew to be a source of testosterone. Although it might seem extreme to us now, this was a small price to pay for the prizes of the time.  These athletes did not compete for medals, or for the love of the game. They didn’t practice long hours for national pride, or to feel the championship wreath atop their heads.  Much like those of today, they competed for the two things that matter most…money and prestige (the chance to make more money). Present day athletes still turn to performance enhancing drugs (often called “PEDs”) and anabolic androgenic steroids (AAS).

The first incidence of confirmed Steroid abuse in sports was at the World Weightlifting Championships of 1954 where the Soviets easily dominated most of their weight classes.  Dr. John Ziegler, the United States team physician, questioned the Soviet team’s doctor about AAS.  The Soviet doctor openly admitted that his athletes were given testosterone injections while training for the championships.   This confession, along with rumors of discarded syringes in the Soviet dressing rooms, marked the first public admission to using AAS for performance enhancement in athletic events.  The Soviet team was not penalized for these actions, because there were no regulations in place to address this new problem.

Seeking an alternative to the Soviet injectable version, Dr. Ziegler committed himself to developing a superior oral testosterone derivative.  His diligence resulted in the development of Dianabol, the most widely abused anabolic steroid of all time.

In the late 1960´s the East Germans began a statewide doping program in an attempt to win more gold medals.  In 1968 East Germany’s chief medical officer submitted a report to the government recommending the total and collective administration of steroids to all East German athletes.   For the next 20 years they dominated virtually every major worldwide sporting event.  Soon after this the World Health Organization filed an official complaint against AAS which lead to the International Olympic Council’s complete ban of such drugs during international competition.

Meanwhile, anabolic steroids had caught on in the United States where professional sports were gaining recognition, and athletic compensation began to soar.  Those using AAS became more successful, and generated far greater income than their non-using counterparts.  Athletes all over the world wanted to know where to get these drugs, and how to use them.  Steroids soon became a staple of virtually every gym in the country, and they were here to stay.

 The many pro athlete stories and huge lists of medical side effects clearly illustrate why the ban on steroids was put into effect back in the late 1960’s.  Unfortunately this action did not deter athletes then, and appears to have little impact today. In 1972, the first athlete caught officially breaking the ban on performance enhancing substances was an American swimmer named Rick De Mont who was using a substance called “Ephedrine”.  Steroid use in the Olympics continued in secret, with athletes enlisting various professionals to help circumvent drug testing.  By the 1990´s, knowledge of AAS had become part of the public psyche, and their abuse had penetrated nearly every possible professional and amateur sport.   In 1987 the National Football League introduced its first anti-steroid policy.

While in the late 1990’s a bottle of Androstendione, a prohormone that converts within the body to testosterone, was spotted by a reporter in the locker of then homerun record chasing Mark McGwire.  Though McGwire soon retired the story of steroids in the Major League Baseball (MLB) was exposed.  Further news of AAS exploded onto the scene when Ken Caminiti admitted using them in Sports Illustrated.  Caminiti went on to estimate player usage in the MLB at fifty percent. In a book published during this same time homerun giant Jose Canseco also admitted to abusing AAS, and raised Caminiti’s estimate to 85% of MLB players.  The league’s secret was out, and the scandals were about to begin.  Jason Giambi and Barry Bonds were both implicated and investigated, later testifying before major courts regarding their AAS histories.

The most common reason for steroid abuse in sports is desire to excel.

These drugs are a particular enticement when faced with the pressures felt at the high school and amateur levels.

They are often seen as a necessary step towards college scholarships and progression towards the professional ranks. Steroid abuse has been speculated to be even worse at these levels than in professional sports.

BACK 15-MINUTE

CABLES GIVE THE BENEFIT OF speed — handles and weight selection are very easy to change — and provide continuous tension on your muscles.
>> The pulldown-to-front and standing pulldown compound set is configured to take advantage of the slightly easier second exercise. Once you tire on the seated pulldown, you put your body in a better leverage situation by standing, giving you the ability to power out some reps before your lats give out.
>> For the standing pulldown, if you have trouble getting to failure, try this trick — when you get to 12 reps, increase the weight and continue repping.


INCLINE CABLE ROW
START: Place an incline bench so that the higher end is near the low pulley. Set the angle at about 30–45 degrees. Grasp the rope attachment with both hands facing in and sit facing the weight stack, leaning forward against the angled bench. Keep your chest up with a slight arch in your back, and let the rope pull your shoulder blades forward into stretch.
Move: Pull on the rope, moving your elbows straight back. Pinch your shoulder blades together as your hands move out to your sides, contract your lats briefly at the end of the move, and return to the start.

STANDING PULLDOWN
START: Standing puts you in a stronger position, so you can continue lifting despite being fatigued from the seated pulldowns. Grasp a long pulldown handle about 4 inches wider than shoulder-width with an overhand grip. Bend your knees slightly, keep your back arched and chest up, and press your lower thighs, just above the knees, into the padded seat for stability.
MOVE: Lean back about 10 degrees and slowly pull the bar toward your mid-chest. As you reverse the movement, concentrate on making your back do the work. Stretch your lats at the top and pull again.

ONE-ARM CABLE ROW
START: Grasp a D-handle on a low pulley with your palm facing your body. Grasp the support bar with your free hand to stabilise yourself and lean forward about 45 degrees.
Use a split stance: the foot of the side you’re working should be back while the other is forward. Keep your chest up, shoulders squared and a slight arch in your back.
Move: Pull the handle into the side of your waist until your elbow is past your body. When you return to the starting position, go for a deep stretch.

General Guidelines to HIT BRIEF, HARD work done INFREQUENTLY.

When you're in the gym you want to focus your energies on only performing work that is productive, i.e., growth producing. In good form, you push yourself as far as you can go on every set. Now, by training this way you simply CANNOT do the marathon 2-3 hour workouts the "champs" say they do in the muscle mags.
HIT can be summed up in the following GENERAL guidelines. These guidelines - or ones very similar - have formed the basis of strength training programs for years:

1. TRAIN WITH A HIGH LEVEL OF INTENSITY.
Intensity is defined as "a percentage of momentary ability". In other words, intensity relates to the degree of "inroad" or muscular fatigue, made into muscle at any given instant. Research, going back almost 100 years now to studies done by German scientists, has conclusively shown that intensity is the SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT FACTOR in obtaining results from strength training.
It has been shown that the HARDER that you train (intensity), the GREATER the adaptive response. A high level of intensity is characterized by performing an exercise to the point of concentric (positive) MUSCULAR FAILURE, i.e., you've exhausted your muscles to the extent that the weight cannot be moved for any more repetitions. Failure to reach a desirable level of intensity - or muscular fatigue - will result in little or no gains in functional strength or muscular size as low intensity workouts do very little or nothing in the way of stimulating muscle size/strength.
Evidence for this "threshold" is suggested in the literature by the OVERLOAD PRINCIPLE (Enoka, 1988; Fox and Mathews, 1981; Hochschuler, Cotler and Guyer, 1993; Jones, 1988; Wilmore 1982).
Essentially this principle states that in order to increase muscular size and strength, a muscle must be stressed - or "overloaded" with a workload that is beyond its present capacity. Your intensity of effort must be great enough to exceed this threshold level so that a sufficient amount of muscular fatigue is produced.

2. FOLLOW THE "DOUBLE PROGRESSION" TECHNIQUE IN REGARDS TO REPETITIONS AND WEIGHT.
For a muscle to increase in size and strength it must be forced to do PROGRESSIVELY HARDER WORK. Your muscles must be overloaded with a workload that is increased steadily and systematically throughout the course of your program. This is often referred to as PROGRESSIVE OVERLOAD. Therefore every time you work out you should attempt to increase either the weight you use or the repetitions you perform relative to your previous workout. This can be viewed as a "double progressive" technique (resistance and repetitions). Challenging your muscles in this manner will force them to adapt to the imposed demands (or stress).

3. PERFORM 1 TO 3 SETS OF EACH EXERCISE.
In order for a muscle to increase in size/strength it must be fatigued or OVERLOADED in order for an adaptive response to occur. It really doesn't matter whether you fatigue your muscles in one set or several sets - as long as your muscles experience a certain level of exhaustion. When performing multiple sets, the cumulative effect of each successive set makes deeper inroads into your muscle thereby creating muscular fatigue; when performing a single set to failure, the cumulative effect of each successive repetition makes deeper inroads into your muscle thereby creating muscular fatigue. Numerous research studies have shown that there are NO significant differences when performing either one, two or three sets of an exercise, provided, of course, that one is done with an appropriate level of intensity (i.e. to the point of concentric muscular
failure).

4. REACH CONCENTRIC MUSCULAR FAILURE WITHIN A PRESCRIBED NUMBER OF REPETITIONS.
As stated above, research shows that our level of intensity is the most important factor in determining your results from strength training - the HARDER you train, the BETTER your response.
As muscle hypertrophy is an adaptive response by the body to stress, you should always strive to go as far as you can go on that "impossible" rep. Every centimeter matters. Your "impossible" rep should last between 10-15 seconds. One could even call this an "isometric rep". If concentric muscular failure occurs before you reach the lower level of the repetition range, the weight is too heavy and should be reduced for your next workout. If the upper level of the repetition range is exceeded before you experience muscular exhaustion, the weight is too light and should be increased for your next workout by five percent or less.
The GENERAL recommendation is 8-12 repetitions But this can vary from individual to individual, and from body part to body part. In many cases people have been known to benefit from higher reps for their lower body (12-15), while lower reps for the upper body (6-8). The most important thing to remember here is that it the *number* of repetitions isn't the key factor - TIME is. One can perform a set of 10 reps in as low as 10-15 seconds, or a set of only 1 rep in 60 seconds. So how many seconds per repetition? The general guideline is a 6 second repetition consisting of a 2 second lifting (concentric) phase, followed by a 4 second lowering (eccentric) phase. The emphasis
is placed on the lowering, or NEGATIVE, as research has shown this to be the most productive part of the rep.

The lowering of the weight should also be emphasized because it makes the exercise more efficient: the same muscles that are used to raise the weight concentrically are also used to lower it eccentrically. The only difference is that when you raise a weight, your muscles are shortening against tension and when you lower a weight, your muscles are lengthening against tension. So, by emphasizing the lowering of the weight, each repetition becomes more efficient and each set becomes more productive. Because a muscle under tension lengthens as you lower it, lowering the weight in a controlled manner also ensures that the exercised muscle is being stretched properly and safely. Thus in a 8-12 rep scheme with the above guidelines, each set should take you between 48-72 seconds until you reach concentric muscular failure.

General Guidelines to HIT BRIEF, HARD work done INFREQUENTLY. (part 2)

5. TRAIN FOR NO MORE THAN ONE HOUR PER WORKOUT.
If you are training with a high level of intensity, more than one hour is counterproductive as it increases the probability of overtraining due to a catabolic hormone called cortisol. Overtraining, next to injury, is your worst enemy. Avoid it like the plague. In addition, the faster you can complete your workout, given the same amount of sets performed, the BETTER CONDITIONING obtained.

6. MOVE QUICKLY BETWEEN SETS
The transition time between each set varies with your level of conditioning. You should proceed from one exercise to the next as soon as you catch your breath or feel that you can produce a maximal level of effort. After an initial period of adjustment, you should be able to recover adequately within 1 to 3 minutes. Training with a minimal amount of recovery time between exercises will elicit a metabolic conditioning effect that cannot be approached by traditional multiple set programs.

7. EXERCISE THE MAJOR MUSCLE GROUPS FIRST.
The emphasis of your exercises should be your major muscle groups (i.e. your hips, legs and upper torso). You should select any exercises that you prefer in order to train those body parts. It is recommended that lower body work be done first, as it is more taxing. This is not always the case, as a technique for bringing up a lagging body part is to work it first in your routine, but it is a general outline.

8. DO NOT SPLIT YOUR ROUTINE - DO NOT WORK YOUR BODY ON SUCCESSIVE DAYS
Many bodybuilders practice a split routine. The reasoning is that training their upper body on one day and lower body on the next day allows them additional time to work each muscle group "harder". HIT advocates fervently believe that this is NOT the case. First, split routines lead you to believe that *more* exercise is better exercise. Remember HARDER exercise is better. And if you train harder you MUST train briefer, not longer. You cannot train hard for a long period of time. Thus, out of physiologic necessity, people who use a split routine have to reduce the intensity of their exercise which leads to less growth stimulation.

9. GET AMPLE REST AFTER EACH TRAINING SESSION
Believe it or not, your muscles DON'T get stronger while you work out. Your muscles get stronger while you RECOVER from your workout. After high intensity training your muscle tissue is broken down (although that's a very basic way of describing it) and the recovery process allows your muscle time to rebuild itself.

10. AS YOU GET STRONGER DECREASE THE FREQUENCY OF WORKOUTS AND/OR AMOUNT OF SETS
Exercise physiologists have found that your strength increases disproportionately to your recovery ability. Thus the stronger you get the LESS high intensity exercise you can tolerate. Some authorities, such as Dr. Ellington Darden, mention a "300/50%" ratio of strength to recovery ability potential. Thus in theory, the average trainee has the potential to increase his untrained strength by a factor of 4, but his recovery ability will only increase by a factor of 1.5.

Are Steroid Supplements Safe For Muscle Building?

As it not sad, but today people want everything at once, fast and easy. Seeing athletes and models with ideal bodies probably make them want to have ideal body to. But it may take some time and going to the gym is not so easy. You want something that will guarantee you fast, favorable results without exerting too much effort. A lot of shops can have what you are looking for. It is steroids. The advertisement promises great results in a short period of time. Are steroids safe for muscle building?

Steroids are human made imitations of testosterone, sex hormone that is responsible for the development of sexual characteristics in males. Testosterones are also present in females but in minimal amounts. They help in the development of muscles and tissues in the body. And if steroids are imitations of these hormones then they produce the same effect. With anabolic steroids body’s ability to generate tissues and build muscles increases. Steroids are very popular among bodybuilders because of its capability to enhance body mass and reduce fat in a faster way.

Steroids are available online, in local pharmacies but only with prescription. As it known, researchers have identified harmful effects of steroids to the body when abused. It can affect the cardiovascular system in terms of increasing the blood pressure. It can also be the cause of infertility or the inability to have children. It can decrease level of good cholesterol in body, because steroids are also medically used as cholesterol-lowering drugs. Some reports have shown that the abuse of steroids can also affect the emotional well-being of a person.

The danger appears when anabolic steroids are purchased from dealers or from unreliable pharmacies, which can sold fakes. To avoid this, you should buy anabolic steroids from proven and reliable online pharmacies.