The Modern Steroid Dealer is on Speed-dial

Before I present my stance on the prevalence of modern day’s steroids amongst athletes, and how common it is amongst the major sports, I wanted to preface this by saying I did no extra research on the matter. I thought it would be a much more unique article writing from the perspective of a sports fan, using only prior knowledge to state my claims.  This enables me to can come from a fans point of view versus a scientific one. With that said, I am much more educated than the average sports fan when it comes to steroid use and abuse.

Steroids have an inaccurate perception by those who have not read much into it. Thirty or forty years ago, “anabolic steroids” were extremely common. They were illegal, they were harmful to your body, but they were something you could pick up at almost any body-building gym. The intention of these steroids were to increase muscle mass by astronomical amounts – and they did.

After body-building and anabolic steroids started dying, athlete starting taking other PEDs, or Performance Enhancing Drugs. It was as simple as showing up to GNC and swiping your credit card. Nutrition companies were constantly making different forms of steroid by manipulating molecular structures in their products, keeping them outside the lines of what was deemed “illegal”. As different athletic commissions realize the unfair advantage from taking these supplements, they are taken off the shelves and put on the “ban list” for all the major sports. While this is still common, it doesn’t even compare to the ease of today’s most popular steroid.

TRT – Testosterone Replacement Therapy. A drug formula intended to assist those with low testosterone who are experiencing weakness, exhaustion, and a plethora of other symptoms. This is something, that if feeling sluggish, you could call up your doctor and potentially have a script after just one visit (or in other words, tomorrow). So how does this relate to professional athletics? Well, due to their constant exercising with very little rest, over years and years and years, athletes fall under the category of “low testosterone”. Because they work SO hard SO often, they constantly use up their testosterone and have levels lower than the average fitness enthusiast.

When a professional athlete is prescribed TRT, they are completely medically exempt. Having it is not illegal. But misusing it is. Today’s professional athlete is using significant amounts of TRT during training, spiking their levels up by 200% at times. They then taper their TRT use back down to regular levels in time for any routine testing. Tapering is the process of pulling back your usage to test clean and perform at the highest level. The biggest misconception of anabolic steroids that was athletes were ON the steroid. That is false. Athletes use the steroids during training to push their body to the highest level and achieve the best strength and conditioning. But when it is time to perform, they take 10-14 days to taper off. A professional athlete cannot perform well if his or her muscles are very tense. Therefore, tapering allows you to perform at the highest level AND test clean in one fell swoop.

Now, the famous question... What percentage of professional athletes are elevating their testosterone while training? Note that many athletes intention of using testosterone today is not to have bulging muscles, but to recover from workouts faster. If you could push your body to levels it couldn’t reach otherwise, and then recover twice as fast as the average athlete, you are then in position to keep pushing your body with little worry of burning yourself out, bringing it to (what was once) inhuman levels.  

The numbers regarding how many athletes are using in their respective sports is highly disputed. From what I understand, and in no way do I mean to deflate your perception of integrity within professional athletics, but about 80% of pro athletes in the major sports are using. Whether it is TRT or some other supplement that elevates their testosterone, about four out of every five athletes is doing something to get a competitive edge. We can relate this back to our experience in middle school, the “everyone is doing it” effect. The way I interpret why the number is so high is simple: for the average athlete or average hard worker to compete at a professional level where you are in pool of super-athletes, to even come close to competing with them, you have to do something to bring your body to a level that can compete. Great examples of this are Calvin Johnson, Anderson Silva, Michael Phelps, and Usain Bolt. They are so above and beyond the rest of their field that no one would have a chance of competing with them without taking something to unethically improve their performance.

Some professional athletes are just more gifted than others. It is unfortunate, but to close the gap between “average” and “super” or “elite”, you have to ingest something that will take your body to that next level. If the guy next to you has the same talent, same strength, and same ability, but is using (or misusing) testosterone, how do you not do the same? He is putting in the same work, but yielding much greater results. Professional sports is their…profession. Their livelihood. The only way they know how to provide for their family. For one athlete to try to ‘suck it up’ and not put unethical drugs in his body, or misuse drugs like TRT, is almost foolish. Because that same athlete is going to end up with a phone call later that year that the team no longer needs their services – he or she simply couldn’t perform at the “highest” level.

Body Building – A Thing of the Past

‘Personal Training’ is a field that has only existed for 20 years. Before personal trainers, there was only one mainstream form of working out – body building. At the time, the average body builder was the trainer. One builder would teach another an exercise, or even begin to teach an amateur some introductory, yet fundamental exercises. 

Body building is a form of exercise with extremely high weights, low repetitions, and a goal of large muscle mass and strength. Back then, everyone wanted the biggest chest, the thickest legs, and the most bulging biceps. We can even look back to the 80’s and picture a much larger population of people with massive muscles. It’s a lot rarer in present time that we come across a man with 200 pounds of muscle – it’s much more common that, when we do see them in public, they are perceived as “freakishly big”. 

If there was one contributing factor to the decrease in population of body builders, it would have to be ‘science’. Science in sports is something that has changed dramatically over the last twenty years and has assisted in allowing athletes to perform at their highest potential. But science didn’t only play a role in professional sports, it also allowed for the ‘Average Joe’ to have options when it came to exercising. No longer would people squat 300 pounds. Or dead-lift 250. An endless amount of fitness theories were developed – but almost none of them supported body building.

With all of these new developments in the mid 90’s and 2000’s, ‘Average Joe’ was able to make his exercising specific to his or her lifestyle. In personal training terms, we consider this type of training “functional fitness”, meaning it is fine tuned to assist in your functionality on a daily basis. If you golf on the weekends and jog during the week, why would you want to bench press over two hundred pounds? As new fitness theories materialized, people started realizing that the old (and only) form of working out was irrelevant in today’s society. The demand for enhancing your ability to perform better at your specific sport or operate more functionally during your weekly tasks became apparent.

Body building has turned into a niche form of training. Of the hundreds, maybe thousands, I’ve met in the personal training world, I know just two body builders. Its role in bringing the science in sports to such a high level today can never be ignored. Without body building, we would have never had a need for a newer form of exercise. It laid the groundwork for many more concepts of athletic training to take shape. But when it comes to an individual evaluating which type of training would yield the best results, it is an option that will be chosen on rare occasion. We live in a day where we need to focus on our personal goals. And unless your personal goal is to have neck muscles rippling out of the top of your t-shirt, you should probably choose another method of training.

Cramps While Running? Here's Your Quick Fix

The other day I was jogging with a client and we both experienced what runners call a “side stitch”. Also known as abdominal cramps, they are annoying, demotivating, and sometimes even painful. Side stitches and/or cramps occur not only for the occasional runner, but for veteran runners, as well. So, what are causing these cramps that hinder our ability to run efficiently?

Side stitches are caused by several different imbalances in our diet or breathing habits. Whereas cramps in our legs our mostly caused by dehydration, side stitches are very different. As runners, we need to have a healthy and balanced diet, but at some point, we could eat TOO much or consume TOO much water – putting us in ‘painful’ position. Considering the fact that 27% of runners are experiencing this debilitating locking-up of their muscles, we turn to veteran runners for hints on how to get rid of, or avoid, this situation.

The first cause of a side stitch is very hard to control. Research says that imbalances of sodium, potassium, and calcium can cause cramps. But the research does a poor job of defining the proper levels of these minerals. Not to mention, even if we had guidelines, they would be very strict and hard to follow. Now we evaluate the method we can control; lower lung breathing.

When running long distances, runners get in the habit of taking short breaths. Olympic-level runners have indicated that it is very common for amateur runners to take small breaths that do not use their lower lungs or stomach. Getting into a habit of taking deeper breaths is easier said than done. For starters, if we cannot get into the habit of lower-lung breathing (which is indicated by your stomach inflating and deflating – versus just your chest), then we need to make sure when we get a cramp, we take the time to STOP running and take these deep breaths. Lack of oxygen is causing these cramps and if we can get in some deep abdominal breaths, we can do a better job of getting oxygen to our abdominal area. 

Now we can revisit the nutrition aspect. Although a clean diet of healthy food and water can put our body in position to work optimally, too much food or too much water can fill our stomach so much that it will impede our lower lungs from getting those deep breaths we need. Having carbohydrates, protein, and water in our system is very important for having the energy to run. But if you are constantly experiencing cramps, you should limit the amount you are eating and drinking. Simply save the rest of the food you would normally consume for after your run. If our stomach is too full that we cannot take a deep breath, it is our fault – not the sidewalks.

Side stitches are aggravating and painful. Although we can do very few things to avoid them, science has shown that deep lower-lung breathing is the best remedy. Again, we have to limit how much food we consume beforehand, because it will just make it tougher for us to get those big breathes in. Cramps of this nature may not be completely avoidable, but there are measures that we need to be taking to limit the amount of cramps we are getting. Jog on my friends.

@fitnessphanatic

G.O.A.T. and Mayweather's Pursuit for Perfection

The term G.O.A.T., or Greatest of All Time, commonly seems to be defined differently by each and every sports fan. It is an honor limited to one athlete per sport - and a title that is hard to obtain without controversy. But this past weekend, an undefeated, flamboyant, and technical Floyd Mayweather extended his win streak to 44-0, keeping an unblemished record...unblemished.

In every sport, there is an argument for who is the best to ever do it. In golf, its Jack vs Tiger; in soccer, people are starting to make an argument for Lionel Messi; and for the first time ever, basketball die-hards are starting to pin Lebron James against Michael Jordan - especially after this 4th MVP award in five years. People are interpreting the "G.O.A.T." differently, and for that, we get no real answer as to who is the best to ever play their respective game.

While this argument remains unresolved in many of the mainstream sports, the argument in boxing is a little different. One fighter, and only one, is undefeated in 44 fights. One fighter, and only one, has been undefeated professionally for 17 years. Boxing viewers have NEVER seen someone take such little punishment, and we have NEVER seen someone land significant strikes so accurately. Floyd has a long list of great and high-level fighters he has taken out on the way to his 44 and 0 record. Though some were closer than others (de la Hoya, Castillo), Floyd has continued to outbox his competition over twelve rounds. If they make it that far.

My first Floyd fight was Corrales vs Mayweather and I have been a diehard Mayweather fan. Since beating Oscar de la Hoya, I have considered him the best in the world. But now it is time to take that to the next level - simple and plain - Floyd Mayweather is the greatest boxer OF ALL TIME. Saturday night, Robert Guerrero failed to land even 20% of his punches, while Floyd landed at will... with ease. Leading up to the fight, many thought this powerful and nearly undefeated challenger could pose an actual threat to a Mayweather who spend a quarter of the last year in prison and hadn't fought in twelve months. Wrong.

Floyd responded to this off-year as the best-ever should. He picked Guerrero apart. He showed age (36) would have no influence on his performance. He displayed an offense that landed whenever and wherever he desired, arguably unlike anything we have ever seen in boxing. He even worked with his father to improve his defense - a defense that has already been considered the best defense in all of boxing. Not only did he evade 82% of Guerrero's punches, Guerrero didn't land a single hard shot to Mayweather in 36 minutes. On the contrary, 'Pretty Boy' landed powerful right straights whenever he felt like it and did so with a damaged right hand.

Robert Guerrero was a legitimate threat, someone who people thought could end his streak going into fight week, but now someone people will say he "had no chance" in there with Floyd. It seems boxing fans will do anything to write off Money Mayweather's opponents or accomplishments, yet they were the same people the week before saying Guerrero was 'the guy' to end the perfect record.

In combat sports, when recognizing someone as the best ever, there is trouble in stacking them up against the other greats due to weight classes and strength of opponent. But as a fight fan, you MUST realize these things are uncontrollable. Floyd was never going to be a heavyweight , but would defeat your beloved Muhammed Ali if he was. You all argued Manny would take out Floyd and that he ran from the fight. Where is Manny now? Weight classes and opponents are uncontrollable - statistics are not. All we can do is evaluate a fighter based on his record, skill, and performance. Let me do the math for you:

44-0 + 17 years Undefeated + Best Defensive Boxer All-Time + Prolific Offense = G.O.A.T.

This is not to bash other greats and the accolades they acquired in their day. Sports fans, more specifically boxing fans, will still disagree with Floyd being the best ever. I am unsure if this is influenced by his personality, their love for another boxer, or some other reason.  Surely, if they disagree with the notion of Floyd being the greatest ever, they are not looking at statistics. If its walks like a duck and it talks like a duck... it's a duck.

@fitnessphanatic

Nutrition for the Common Athlete

Almost every athlete wonders what exactly they should be eating before, during, and/or after an intense workout. While there have been theories such as carb-loading for runners and high-protein diets for body builders, it is unclear what the average athlete should be doing to maximize their results in the exercise room.

Coming from a functional fitness background, but having trained in boxing and spent endless hours weightlifting over the years, I set out to find what the best combination of nutrition would be. Keeping in mind maximizing my results, yet not consuming a handful of supplements every day, it was important to understand what should go through my body before, during and after my workout to maximize muscle growth and promote a speedy recovery.

Back in grade school, we learned the word “homeostasis”.  By definition, it is a process in which the body's internal environment is kept stable. When it comes to fitness training, the faster we assist our body getting back to homeostasis, the more energy it can spend on muscle recovery and growth. So the next question is, how exactly do we help our body reach homeostasis?

Exercising burns three major nutritional components of our diet: water, carbohydrates, and protein. The less water we have, the more dehydrated we feel; the less carbs we have, the less energy we experience; and the less protein we have, the less amount is available to be utilized for muscle growth. Back to what I was saying – about how we help our body. Since we burn water, carbs, and protein, it is very important that we replace these before, during, and after working out. This means a healthy meal with carbs and proteins before you workout (to provide your body with protein and carbs to use for energy and muscle recovery). That also means you need a supplement while working out that includes water, carbs and protein to replace what you are burning and stay to stay at maximum efficiency. It took Gatorade over 40 years to create their “G” product which contains a sufficient amount of all three of these components, but is your best option in the gym.

Keep in mind, guidelines say to drink 1.2x the amount of water you lose while working out, so you need to be sipping water constantly. Finally, we have the post-workout meal; which is the same as the pre-workout meal, some basic and healthy carbs with proteins to give your body back what it lost.

What happens when you constantly replenish your body with water, protein, and carbohydrates is you allow for your body to put all of its energy into muscle growth and recovery instead of searching for carbs to burn as energy or using the little protein it has for recovery. The importance of aiding your body in its need to become stable is immeasurable. By offering the smallest bit of assistance and drinking lots of water, you can really enable your body to take full advantage of your every workout.

@fitnessphanatic

Three Signs of a Bad Squat

As personal trainers, we all find ourselves dealing with clients that have greater, equal, or lesser physical capabilities than ourselves. Clients with all different levels of physical capabilities have one issue – they cannot perform a proper squat.

After spending countless hours in the gym, one of the biggest problems I have noticed amongst the general population is a lack of flexibility and the know-how to perform a quality squat. There are three signs to spotting this: Knees bowing in or out, heels lifting off the floor, and knees that bend far over their feet.

We build relationships with these clients, and over time, training them is just clock-work to us. However, it is VERY important to recognize, even if it’s your client of two years, it’s time to study a proper squat and make sure that every client can execute it. Feet are hip-width and pointed forward, knees bend over your feet, and the first motion is sitting back, making sure the glutes are activated. Clients unable to execute the perfect squat generally have inflexibility in their legs (specifically their calves) and are forcing their knees too far over their feet – causing a tremendous amount of pressure on their knees and a squat that only works the quadriceps. 

It is time for us to stop getting so comfortable with our clients and start making sure that we are ALWAYS working toward making them a more physically-able and athletic specimen. Correct their squats and help them improve their walks, runs, everyday lifestyle, and more.