I have been a lifelong natural athlete.
The governing body for the competitions I enter require all entrants to have
been drug free for a minimum of seven years to create an even playing field for all
involved.
The thought to be anything other than a natural drug free athlete has never crossed
my mind, sure I have had plenty of opportunity to take performance enhancing drugs, but
it’s just not me. I want to find out how good I can be without distorting the result. As I
have before there must be plenty of people who think eating four or five chicken
breasts a day and leaving the house at 4am as unnatural, so I guess it could all come down
to perspective.
The word steroid has become a broad term for all performance enhancing drugs
(PEDs) but they are not all the same, some are hormones some are diuretics, some are
stimulants and so on. I am not going to go in depth as to what each does and will use the
term PED to cover them all for convenience sake.
Steroids represent an incredibly broad and important class of hormone, and there are
hundreds of variations in plants, fungi, and animals. If you eliminated steroids from your
body, you would die.
I am neither pro or anti PEDs, I choose to be PED free and that’s my choice, I do not
judge anyone who takes them, that’s their choice. As long as they are not used to cheat or
gain advantage in a drug free environment or sports event then I have no issue with them.
If you enter a “natural” or “drug free” competition that’s exactly what you should be and
should have only used anything you can buy off the shelf in your local pharmacy or health
food shop. Even this has some grey areas though such as caffeine which is banned by
some sports authorities at certain levels and not others.
There are some who would argue that protein shakes are a PED but I disagree with
this as I could achieve the same amount of protein with a normal diet. The same
argument could be used against multi vitamins too but you would never find anyone to
agree.
I have friends who take PEDs and if you go into any gym in the world you are almost
certain to know someone who does too. They will be using them for competitive reasons
and or aesthetic purposes to achieve a large muscular look, some are regular users and
some periodic,depending on their goals. I have no problem with that at all, it’s their
bodies and can do what they want with them.
PEDs have been demonised and still in some circles have a stigma attached, who
hasn’t seen a tabloid headline screaming “ATTACK FUELLED BY ROID RAGE!” In my
experience users never get anything remotely resembling roid rage and it was always in
the perpetrators DNA to be aggressive regardless of their chemical intake.
I do not condone or excuse their use but there are far greater problems seen on the
streets of any city or town nightly from alcohol abuse and yet we never see headlines like
“BOOZE RAGE KILLER”. But that’s another social discussion for another day.
Some drugs are safer than others, but almost anything will kill you at a high enough
dose.
It’s the dose that makes the poison. Never forget this, and don’t confuse the effects of moderate use with those of outright abuse.
The only thing that bothers me is the increasing amount of users in their late teens
and early twenties who have barely lifted a weight taking them. I wish there was a way of
controlling their use and that it was compulsory to have trained 4-5 days a week for three
years naturally. If then and only then after you have shown commitment and were still
interested in them should you be allowed take them. Unfortunately that would take
control and regulation and I don’t see that happening any time soon.
What PEDs aren’t, in a even playing field, is a short cut, whether you take them or not
the work ethic and lifestyle required to compete as a natural or not is the same...HARD!
Those interested in looking into this subject further could do worse than watch the
award winning documentary Bigger Faster Stronger. It is an honest, entertaining and
informative film by Director Christopher Bell that explores America's win-at-all-cost
culture by examining how his two brothers became members of the steroid-subculture in
an effort to realise their American dream.
