I wondered if any of the BBM staff were willing to share their opinion on steroid use in strength sports?
Specifically (admittedly this is becoming a leading question haha), do you ever find it frustrating that there is blatant widespread use of steroids in sports like professional strongman, and yet there is a culture of silence and secrecy around what drugs athletes are taking? It’s almost like the athletes are saying “Look at me, look how good my lifts are! Don’t go near my medicine cupboard though!”.
Take Eddie Hall for example, his 500kg deadlift is undoubtedly a phenomenal achievement. However, I feel there should be an asterisk next to his record - *did not disclose any PED use.
The simple question is - what would Eddie Hall’s deadlift be if he had never taken such drugs? Is there a natural athlete somewhere who has shown just as much hard work and dedication - and would be the world record holder if PEDs did not exist - yet has none of the fame, fortune or admiration of athletes like Eddie Hall because he/she didn’t want to take any PEDs. PEDs that, it’s worth noting, the strongmen themselves seem to hold some level of shame for, in the fact that not one of them will reveal the details of what they have taken through the course of their career - even when pressed about it (I have a particular ESPN interview with Harthor Bjornsson in mind).
Apologies for my post becoming something of a rant, but I’m interested to here your opinions on the subject.
I personally don’t care, but the three big reasons (probably) that athletes don’t want to talk about it are 1) negative stigma, 2) they’re illegal, and 3) they’re against the rules in most sports.
PED rules and testing should be evidence-based. As of now, we don’t know how many people we’re catching, some things that are banned cannot be tested for, and we don’t appear to have a substantial deterrent effect on use, as rates of PED are going up.
Some are likely being harmed by not having access to medical professionals while using controlled substances in order to be competitive in their sport, which demands use. This is problematic.
There are many inequalities in sport. PED use is a rather small one all things considered IMO.
Yeah I think ironically all of the negative stigmatization and legal ramifications of using steroids actually endanger athletes far more, as it limits the amount of information and medical advice available to them - younger, up and coming athletes in particular probably end up taking things into their own hands without having a clear idea of the dangers and risks they face.
I also agree that there are often much more significant inequalities that athletes face - life isn’t fair. But I think PED use is one of the few that there is the potential to alleviate to an extent by at least encouraging openness with regards to what substances athletes take. If two athletes knowingly take the same substances to boost their performance, then it comes back to being more of a battle of discipline, training efficiency etc. rather than a behind the scenes chemistry battle (though admittedly there is always going to be variation between athletes as to how sensitive they are to the same course of PEDs).
Thanks for your input Jordan! And thanks for all the great content you guys put out, it’s helped me hugely with my own training.
I’d point out that there are substantial genetic components to these factors as well, not to mention variations in individuals’ training responsiveness, that are outside of anyone’s control.
As you said - life is unfair. Organized sport is simply a contrived microcosm of pseudo-natural selection.