I was born in 1978, which means that my entire life, steroids have been banned in most major competitions (by the term “steroids,” I mean anabolic steroids, not other forms such as legal anti-inflammatory corticosteroids). And yet every year, another scandal envelops another sport as some major figure is caught doping.

The list of athlete names might as well be a list of major record holders: Lance Armstrong, Barry Bonds, and A-Rod, to name a few. That’s not even counting non-tested athletes in sports such as professional bodybuilding, CrossFit, and strongman, where many observers simply assume that many if not all competitors are “roided to the gills.” What’s more, consistently in sports like the UFC, you hear of the increasing use of testosterone replacement therapy, or TRT, which is the use of anabolics under a doctor’s supervision.¹ The market for other legal anabolics is huge, amounting to over $11 billion a year.²

Is it any question why there are studies showing that somewhere between three and six percent of teens have used anabolic steroids – or, for that matter, that this percentage is increasing by the year?³ With the societal pressures to look good, combined with the increased desire to perform as they see their sports heroes do on TV or YouTube, teens face a gigantic temptation to use anabolics. The potential monetary payoff could be huge, in the millions of dollars. And not all anabolic users are athletes, either, with many using merely to look good.

For the sake of this article, let’s use the term “artificial anabolics” to mean any chemical substance introduced to the body so as to mimic or artificially increase the levels of blood serum testosterone. This does not include so-called “natural” anabolics, such as sleep, resistance training, and spending time with attractive members of your desired gender. Neither does it include non-anabolic strength assistance substances, such as creatine, multi-vitamins, and protein. While there are some in the media who state that even using protein powder or creatine is wrong for teens, I would like to focus on artificial anabolics.

As a parent or coach, you need to take proactive steps to educate youth athletes about the problems of using anabolics. The reasons are numerous, but here are three of the most important ones:

1. It’s Illegal

Morality aside, most artificial anabolics are illegal drugs if taken without a doctor’s prescription (and few medical doctors will write a script for anabolics for a minor, except perhaps to treat delayed puberty). There should be no reason for a young athlete to risk a criminal record just so they can perform better in their sport or look good for their peers.

2. It’s Bad Sportsmanship

The debate of whether steroids should be banned or not aside, every major sport available to high schoolers and younger athletes does not allow the use of artificial anabolics. Even many legal supplements are banned under NCAA or WADA rules.⁴ And few universities will take the risk of sullying their reputations by offering a scholarship to a player who has been shown to be dirty. It doesn’t matter if the testing is insufficient, They are still playing Russian Roulette with their future athletic chances.

3. It’s Unhealthy

Perhaps most important are the health consequences.⁵ While artificial anabolics have benefits and drawbacks for all populations at any age, for teens and younger children the potential drawbacks are more severe and more numerous. In addition to the common side effects – deepening of the voice, acne flare ups, gynecomastia, and movement of hair (baldness on top, hair growing everywhere else) – teens risk permanent effects due to the fact that their bodies are not yet physically mature. The permanent form of the body is not set, and this extra pliability means the effects are greater. For all users, this includes cholesterol problems and potential damage to the heart and liver. There is also a higher risk of depression once someone does try to stop using steroids.

For female athletes, the masculinizing effects of anabolics can be irreversible. Her voice is never going to be anything but a baritone, her bone structure will grow and fix itself into a more masculine shape, but worst of all, the hell played upon her reproductive system by all that testosterone means that the female athlete may permanently render herself less fertile or even infertile.

For the male teen, the long-term effects are just as numerous, and once again, they primarily center around the hell played with the reproductive system. Teens who use artificial anabolics have a major risk of becoming dependent upon them in order to maintain normal testosterone levels. Going off the anabolics causes blood serum levels to plunge because the natural testosterone producers (the testicles) have more or less atrophied and are unable to produce what is needed. With that, of course, comes infertility, hormonal imbalances and all the emotional problems related to them, and possibly even impotence.⁶

The morality of using anabolics is a Pandora’s box that will probably never be fully settled. As for adult athletes, it is hard to point a finger or give morality advice. If someone is fifty years old and figures that life with TRT is better than life without it, I’m not going to stand in his way. If an adult athlete knows of and is willing to take the professional risks of using a banned artificial anabolic, I’m not going to go beyond saying, “Don’t come crying to me if you get caught.” But for teen and youth athletes, the risks are higher and longer lasting. I encourage every parent, coach, and official in teen or youth sports to do their best to make sure that the athletes under their watch do not engage in the use of artificial anabolics. Check for warning signs, ask questions, and test if needed. You may get some nasty words or looks, but sometimes it’s necessary.

References:

Photos courtesy of Shutterstock.

The post The Genie in a Bottle: Anabolic Steroids and Youth Athletes appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

I have been hearing a lot about how there is steroid use in CrossFit. I will not say I can tell if someone is using steroids, nor will I talk ill about the blogs I have read, but all I can truthfully say is that I do not know if someone is using steroids unless I have tested their urine sample.

I do not believe that every person in CrossFit or the CrossFit Games is using steroids. The reason for this I hope can be explained in this article about natural hormone increases brought on by heavy resistance training.

A Bit About Performance Enhancing Drugs

First, an exploration of performance enhancing drugs (PEDs). There are usually two classifications of PEDs, hormones and dietary supplements.

We will specifically go into the hormonal part because this is what people mostly think of in regards to PED use and CrossFit.

In most cases, people writing about CrossFitters using “steroids” are speaking about anabolic steroids. Anabolic steroids are synthetic derivatives of the male sex hormone testosterone.

Physiologically elevated levels of testosterone stimulate protein synthesis resulting in improvements in muscle size, body mass, and strength. These potential changes in mass and strength have made anabolic steroids the drug of choice for strength and power athletes or those interested in gaining muscle size.

Testosterone itself is a poor ergogenic aid. Rapid degradation occurs when testosterone is given, therefore chemical modification of testosterone was necessary to retard the degradation process in order to achieve androgenic and anabolic effects at lower concentrations and to provide effective blood concentrations for longer periods of time.

Just to be clear there are other forms of PEDs in the hormone class including insulin, human growth hormone (HGH), pro-hormones, erythropoietin (EPO), β-adrenergic agonists, and β-blockers.

Chances are when someone talks about an athlete being “on steroids” it actually could be any one of a number of PEDs that are (or are not) being used.

Steroids or Strength Training?

Long-term weight training brings significant adaptations that can result in enhanced size, strength, and power of trained musculature.

When there is an increase in anabolic hormones brought about by heavy weight lifting, it can increase hormonal interactions with various cellular mechanisms and enhance the development of muscle protein contractile units. When there is stimulation from a motor neuron to initiate muscle contraction, various signals are sent from the brain and muscles to endocrine glands.

Hormones are secreted during and after weight lifting due to the physiological stress of the exercise itself.

Hormone secretion provides information to the body regarding the amount and type of physiological stress (e.g. epinephrine), the metabolic demands (e.g. insulin), and the need for changes in resting metabolism.

Thus, specific patterns of nervous system stimulation from weight training results in certain hormonal changes that are simultaneously activated for specific purposes related to recovery and adaptation to the acute exercise stress.

The patterns of stress and hormonal responses combine to shape the tissues’ adaptive response to a specific training program (like Olympic and powerlifting).

So without going into anything too confusing, the specific force produced by the activated muscle fibers determines the alteration in hormone receptor sensitivity to anabolic hormones as well as changes in receptor synthesis.

As few as one or two weight lifting days can increase the number of androgen receptors (the receptors for testosterone) in the muscle tissue.

Combined, these alterations lead to muscle growth and strength increase in the intact muscle.

Following strength training sessions, remodeling of the muscle tissue takes place in the environment of hormonal secretions that provide for anabolic actions. There is an increase in the synthesis of actin and myosin and a reduction in protein degradation.

Now, here is the catch to all of this great stuff due to strength training. If the stress is too great for the athlete, catabolic actions in the muscle may exceed anabolic as a result of the inability of anabolic hormones to bind to their receptors or the down regulation of receptors in the muscle tissue. So hormonal actions are important both during and after an exercise session to respond to the demands of the exercise stress.

The magnitude of hormonal response depends on the amount of tissue stimulated, the amount of tissue remodeling, and the amount of tissue repaired after strength training sessions.

Only muscles fibers activated by the strength training are able to be adapted. Here is where genetics and muscle fiber types come into play (I know some of you were waiting for it).

Some fibers may be close to the athlete’s genetic ceiling for cell size, while others may have a great potential for growth. This is where many people draw their conclusion as to the fact that CrossFitters are on performance-enhancing drugs, because many believe that people only have a certain ceiling for cell growth, but ultimately, unless we can see your genetic code, no one can know for certain what your genetic ceiling is for skeletal muscle cell size.

Just because someone doesn’t look like you, doesn’t mean it’s impossible to look like that.

Now going back to hormones, the extent of hormonal interactions in the growth of muscle fibers is directly related to the adapted size of the fibers. Thus, if an exercise program uses the same exercises over and over again, only a specific set of muscle fibers associated with those movements will be activated and stimulated to grow.

Since CrossFit is the epitome of variety, in most cases people are working various muscle groups at any given time, which will aid in the growth of all muscle groups, not just one individual group.

Studies show that the volume of work, rest periods between sets, and the type of exercise are vital to the response pattern and magnitude of hormonal changes in men and women.

PEDS, Steroids, and Stereotypes

Now many of you may be wondering what all of this has to do with steroids and other PEDs. This has everything to do with why people may fit a stereotype, but not actually be on PEDs – and all because of how they exercise.

Every athlete is on a different schedule and type of programming. How an athlete chooses to exercise has an impact how the body responds to hormone interaction. Our bodies all produce their own hormones, and some people have tapped into something within their own bodies that makes them productive in regards to their own hormone secretion.

So just because some people look as though they have only 3% body fat does not automatically mean they are loaded on PEDs.

It could mean they have found something that works for them and makes them extremely efficient at using the hormones produced in their own bodies.

And there is even more going on to getting strong than what I mentioned here in this article. We didn’t take into account diet, supplementation, or health history. There is a lot going on biologically when it comes to cell growth than what we can see from the outside.

PEDs and CrossFit Competition

As CrossFit becomes more popular in the sports arena, it will be important to ensure that athletes are competing without the help of PEDs.

CrossFit does require urine tests for Games-level competitors, but it does so without the help of a third party that has no involvement with the CrossFit organization itself. As the popularity of the sports and the purse sizes grow, this may become a problematic scenario in regards to the drug status of the competitors.

As for right now, there is no need for CrossFitters to get so bent out of shape that people critiquing potential drug use have to pull down their blogs. Everyone has an opinion, even if it may not be valid to you or anyone else you may know.

The best thing for us as CrossFitters to do is to be honest, continue to do what we are doing, and not sweat the small stuff. It all comes out in the wash in the end.

References:

1. Tate, Phillip. Seeley’s Principles of Anatomy and Physiology. (New York: McGraw Hill Companies), 220.

2. Baechle, Thomas R and Roger, Earle W. Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning. (Illinois: Human Kinetics), 49-50.

Photos provided by Jorge Huerta Photography.

The post The Truth About Steroid Use in CrossFit: Don’t Ever Assume appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

With such a provocative title, this article is not going to be preaching the virtues of drug-free sport. Rather, it will be discussing the long-term advantageous effects (potentially lifelong effects) that anabolic steroids confer on the muscles of former users. Therefore the question, is it ever possible to complete “clean” again?

How fast or strong an athlete can get in any sport is limited by their genetic potential. What I mean by this is the maximum level of performance that can be achieved by optimum training, recovery, nutrition, skill development, and all other factors that contribute to performance, without performance enhancing substances like steroids. Now at the risk of stating the bleeding obvious, not everyone’s natural sporting potential is the same. If you’re an Average Joe, it won’t matter how much training and performance enhancing substances you take, thousands of adolescents around the world will still crush you (no matter what your sport), simply because your genetics are not good enough.

But this isn’t the argument I’m making here. The point of this article is to examine and explain the evidence indicating that anabolic steroids permanently increase a user’s sporting potential such that they can never compete evenly against drug-free athletes again.

The usual reasoning for the beneficial effects of anabolic steroids on athletic performance goes something like this:

1. Your natural hormone production is able to support a given muscle mass and speed of recovery from training.
2. Injecting synthetic hormones (i.e. steroids, testosterone, etc.) will let you support more mass and recover faster.
3. Ceasing steroid use means you go back to your natural hormone levels and therefore your natural muscle mass.

Based on this reasoning, the standard bans from governing bodies of six to 24 months from competitive sport seem reasonable. And it is assumed that after being drug-free for several months to years, any hormonal advantages would be washed out, and the playing field would once again be “even.” These athletes would now be considered to be clean again.

Why Is This Wrong?

Evidence is now showing that in addition to increasing the anabolic (pro-growth) hormone levels in the body, anabolic steroids fundamentally change muscle fibers such that their potential for size and strength is permanently increased.

A study from Sweden has examined the muscles of three groups of powerlifters:

• Powerlifters who are currently using steroids and training.
• Powerlifters who have a history steroid use, but have not used steroids in several years and no longer performed strength training (i.e. are sedentary, de-trained).
• Powerlifters who have never used steroids and are currently training.

The former steroid users had used testosterone in combination with various anabolic steroids (nandrolone, stanozolol, Primobolan, oxymetholone, Masteron, Proviron, and durobolan). The researchers looked at two muscles: the vastus lateralis, (in the quadriceps), and the trapezius (in the shoulder-neck). Both muscles critical to the sport of powerlifting.

The findings have been summarized in the figure, outlining what seems to be happening within muscle fibers of steroid users during and after ceasing steroid use. In short, the researchers found that even with several years of anabolic steroid withdrawal and a lack of strength training, important characteristics of muscle were permanently altered. These changes provide an advantage for strength performance and muscle growth many years after drug use has stopped.

Now let’s get down to the nitty-gritty of what is going on within the muscle fibers using the concept of the myonuclear domain. In each muscle fiber, there are multiple nuclei (shown as pink dots in the figure), which are required to send out messages for muscle fiber repair and growth in response to training and overload. This results in the deposition of new muscle tissue, causing growth known as hypertrophy. The resulting muscle is now bigger and stronger. Evidence shows that the number of nuclei generally remains proportional to the size of the muscle fiber, meaning that when a muscle fiber grows, the number of nuclei also increases. Each muscle (myo) nuclei is thought to control a domain within a muscle fiber (myonuclear domain). These are represented by the dotted sections in the Figure.

Examining the muscles of former powerlifters who have used steroids in the past, but not for several years, their muscle fiber size remains elevated. And importantly the number of nuclei per muscle fiber remains comparable to the lifters currently training and using steroids, and significantly higher than lifters who are currently training and had never used steroids.

While this higher number of nuclei per fiber is only one aspect controlling muscle adaptability to training, it is likely to be highly beneficial to an athlete who resumes training. Previous steroid use, even years earlier, will allow for more protein synthesis, faster protein deposition, and more rapid increases in muscle mass and strength.

While it is unknown exactly how long these beneficial changes remain, it is likely that this increase in sporting potential means that the playing field is not even for many years after banned athletes are back competing and considered to be “clean.”

References:

1. Eriksson A, Kadi F, Malm C, Thornell LE. Skeletal muscle morphology in power-lifters with and without anabolic steroids. Histochem Cell Biol, 124 (2005): 167-75.

2. Kadi F, Schjerling P, Andersen LL, Charifi N, Madsen JL, Christensen LR, Andersen JL. The effects of heavy resistance training and detraining on satellite cells in human skeletal muscles. J Physiol, 558 (2004): 1005-12.

3. Kadi F, Eriksson A, Holmner S, Thornell LE. Effects of anabolic steroids on the muscle cells of strength-trained athletes. Med Sci Sports Exerc, 31 (1999): 1528-34.

Photo 1 courtesy of Shutterstock.

The post Once You’ve Used Steroids, Is It Possible to Ever Compete Clean Again? appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Cowan, the man leading the anti-doping program for the Olympics, noted the London games will be the “riskiest” ever for drug cheats. Here is what they’ll face:

• New tests for growth hormone, gene doping, and possibly autologous blood doping. In autologous blood doping an athlete’s own blood is extracted, stored, then reintroduced at a later date.
• 150 anti-doping scientists will carry out the tests, with the help of approximately eighty temporary assistant analysts.
• More use of “targeted testing” based on intelligence gathered before the games.
• Around 6000 blood and urine tests will be executed.

Cowan stated, “Huge advances have been made in what we can detect to control drugs in sport. So much so that I think we can say before 2012 that it is better not to take the drugs.”¹

A test for gene doping has been developed and is currently awaiting approval. Researchers are also “well on the way” to having a new test for growth hormone ready for the 2012 games. Unlike previous tests this would not detect growth hormone directly but would measure levels of two key biomarkers – IGF-1 and PIIINP – thereby allowing illegal drug use to be detected for much longer after administration.

“By having knowledge of how those two markers change under normal conditions we can show the difference between what would be allowable and what would say that you are a cheat,” said Cowan.²

A test for autologous blood doping is also in development. This will detect unusual RNA patterns seen in stored blood. Cowan stated, “As the blood cell ages out of the body, the pattern of the RNA varies, and one can actually see a different pattern. It’s part of the natural ageing process, but the cell is not in its natural environment anymore.”³

Professor Cowan was hopeful the new test will be ready for the Olympics, but could not guarantee it. Nevertheless, he emphasized that blood taken during the Olympics would be stored and could be tested retrospectively. This is another reason not to gamble with performance enhancing drugs.

The actual Olympic drug testing will take place at GlaxoSmithKline’s research and development facility in Harlow, Essex. GlaxoSmithKline signed an agreement with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) to share confidential information on drugs in development that could potentially be misused by athletes in the future.

WADA sure could help spread substance misuse information so that all athletes are well-informed. If there is a risk a drug could end up on the prohibited list once it is marketed, then WADA will be advised so they can work towards the most sensitive detection tests.

I hope this sends a message to all other sports and competitions because I am not an advocate of improved performance through better synthetic chemistry. Give it everything you have, naturally. It’s old school, but you won’t be banned from the Olympics.

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