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.
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