Before I get started I want to make one thing absolutely clear. Everything that you are about to read in this article is the opinion of the writer and the writer alone. I’m going to present some facts, some anecdotes, and some benefits and drawbacks. But you shouldn’t take anything away from this in terms of advice. I won’t tell you to do steroids, and I won’t tell you not to. With that out of the way, we can get this started.
Steroids: Enhanced results, not a magic potion
In this section of the article I’m going to focus more on steroids and growth hormone’s effects on strength. Specifically, I’m talking about elite strength athletes. World’s strongest men, powerlifting champions, and other athletes like that are the focus here. For example, if you look at a guy like Brian Shaw and think “well, he takes steroids. So his feats don’t count,” you’re kind of a fool. If you don’t know who Brian Shaw is, I’m a little disappointed. But, I’ll explain. Brian Shaw is a four time champion of the World’s Strongest Man competition, the premier strongman competition in the world. Combine that with the countless other titles he’s won, some of his feats, and his physical stats, and you’ve got one of the strongest human beings to ever walk this planet. And if you don’t know him as a strongman, maybe you know him as “The Mountain” on Game of Thrones.
Is Brian Shaw on Steroids?
If someone walked up to me and said, “Hey, Brian Shaw is on steroids,” I wouldn’t even argue with them. His strength is simply beyond natural bounds. But this does nothing to discredit his accomplishment. If you follow his YouTube, or other social media, you’ll see just how hard he works and how dedicated he is. Not only that, but steroids aren’t what make him six foot eight inches tall, four hundred pounds and only 20% body fat. Taking steroids does not automatically equate you to becoming a record breaking athlete. Does it help you break barriers?
Yes. But if you put Joe down the street on a cycle of steroids, you can’t expect him to perform even half as well as the top twenty strongmen in the world. It’s just not how that works. He did admit to taking steroids sort of, but that does not take away all the hard work he put in.
Steroids: Aesthetics Gone Wild
But here I’m going to talk about the other side of steroids that I don’t agree with. Just like with strength sports, bodybuilding takes a massive amount of dedication. But for your average gym rat, it may just be a step too far. The trend of people on Instagram amassing massive followers for their looks, while at the same time denying steroid usage is becoming a bit of a plague. These people are clearly beyond natural in terms of aesthetics, and are clearly on steroids. This article isn’t the place to name and shame, but it’s just a trend that’s very bad for the collective fitness industry.
These enhanced “athletes” claim themselves as natural bodybuilders for personal and monetary gain. They do so to sell programs and supplements that they claim are the sole reasons for their gains. And what this leads to is people who really don’t need steroids to achieve a good, strong physique to look good and feel good hopping on a cycle. Because in all honesty, do any of us actually believe that every gym bro needs to be on anabolics? The guy in basketball shorts with a backwards hat on at the gym with a garbage lifting program that floats from machine to machine without every touching a free-weight? Yeah, he probably doesn’t need to go to the needle. His free gains will eventually be less than loyal the second he stops juicing, which is why I’m a firm believer of naturally reaching your peak before even considering taking that next step.
Pro Bodybuilding
And this doesn’t even begin to touch on what’s happened to pro bodybuilding. Steroids were always present, sure. And what an adult wants to do to his or her own body is their own business. But a sport that was about achieving peak human aesthetics is now polluted with giant guts, hypodermic abscesses, mass monsters, and synthol abuse. And not to mention the growing body count of top pro and amateur bodybuilders. And with the cycles becoming more intense and the mass piling on top pros, it seems like there’s no end in sight.
But what about contact sports?
Honestly, I’m going to keep this one short and simple. I’ve been around or participating in contact sports for the better part of my life. I know just how well drugs permeate the athletic scene, and what a joke regulatory bodies actually are. The bigger your name value, the more likely they’ll look the other way when you pop for steroids. Hell, I even had a UFC fighter who shall remain nameless pass through the gym I trained at openly admit railing coke before his fights because it helped him absorb more punishment.
But, to keep things short and sweet, I think they should stay banned in contact sports. To remove that rule is to throw technique to the wayside and clear the way for brutal, roided out monsters with shortened life spans to slam into each other with either fists or their own heads until they have such advanced CTE that they can barely speak. In individual sports such as powerlifting, strongman, and bodybuilding, that choice is yours and yours alone. But when you step onto a field or into a ring with someone else, and they chose to be natural, that natural athlete is now at genuine risk with someone who is more than natural standing across from them.
Your Choice
At the end of the day, this article became a little bit of a rambling opinion piece. But I warned you at the start that that was exactly what you were going to get. Do I think steroids are good for sports as a rule? Well, no. Not until the science is more advanced and the risk is practically eliminated. But do I think they diminish the accomplishments of athletes? No as well. This goes double for the strength athlete that can pull over a thousand pounds off of the floor.
