Steroids
Every now and then, we should take a moment to explore the logic of evil. I’m not talking about anything too murderous or inhumane in this case, as much as history demands that we keep an eye on that sort of thing. For now, I’m talking about a lesser version, merely the willingness to take the easy way out of a challenge and ignore the consequences.
I can see how easy it would be for people to take steroids. Athletes up against their limits get frustrated, especially when record weights or longtime goals are just out of reach. Trust me: I know the feeling. Steroids solve the greatest problem in training, the human body’s lack of complete dependability. We can program; we can hope and plan, but whether building strength is an art or science, your gains never quite equal what you’ve put into it.
A friend I’ve written about a number of times, who played Division One college football before short forays with two NFL teams, had an eye opening experience on this topic. He was newly arrived as a freshman, on campus a day or two before practice started, and walking through the dorm to see if anyone wanted to go lift. After all, this was what got him there, the 480 pound squat and the 350 pound incline bench, along with being a champion discus thrower.
Nobody was interested. In fact, the upperclassmen in particular looked at him like he was crazy.
I guess I’m naive, he thought. Practice will be brutal, so nobody wants to work any harder than they have to. These guys are partying, too. If they’re not just hung over, they’re probably drinking beers during the day.
He wasn’t even close to the reality of it. Talking with a teammate soon after, he was surprised to be chided with, ‘Dude, nobody lifts.’
‘Then how are they all so big?’
The guy was surprised by the question. ‘Hello? Dianabol. They’re juicing.’
Sheltered by our prep school, we virgins were released into the wild like white doves - which would explain the 40 years it took for me to realize that there are no accidents in training. Successes and failures have specific causes, which come down to set and rep schemes, progressions, and numerous other variables. Science has slowly been peeling away the mystery surrounding it all.
This throws the logic of steroid use into sharper relief. Physically, it covers a multitude of training sins. Mentally, it saves people the trouble of arriving at the engineering solutions necessary to meet their goals.
A year ago, in the thick of the pandemic, Oxford University set up the Recovery program, a system by which they could organize very rapid evaluations for drugs that might face down the lethality of COVID-19. A lot of new antivirals and immuno-modulatories were put forward - but somewhere an old, steady hand suggested plain old dexamethasone, a steroid that’s been around since the 60’s.
It worked better than anything else.
When patients were critically ill with COVID, that often meant that the molecular tricks of the virus had suppressed their immediate immune reaction. Viral infection would would progress to disease within their bodies, and soon that person’s immune system would launch a massive, desperate ‘cytokine storm’ of inflammatory chemicals. The sheer potency of this assault would cause tremendous collateral damage to the organs; their own bodies were killing these patients; it wasn’t the disease.
Dexamethasone saved the day because steroids reduce inflammation.
When it comes to weight lifting, two facts emerge:
1. Steroids reduce the amount of muscle damage in a workout, allowing athletes to recover more quickly and train more frequently.
2. They also enable the body to produce more protein, which translates into greater strength and size, and produce more ATP, which is muscles’ cellular fuel.
Steroids have done a lot of good for a great many critically ill people, limiting destruction and fostering construction, restoring them to strength and health.
However, you have to know what you’re doing. Doctors’ prescriptions take into consideration that steroids have a number of effects on the body’s many complicated systems, the cardiovascular, hormonal, and musculoskeletal systems among them, as well as the liver and skin. Weight lifters and athletes who consider training to be an open ended enterprise - and just want more, more, more - create havoc with this powerful intervention.
A proper training program should also be a powerful intervention. You have to understand the mathematics of progressions and the rest intervals that distinguish novices from intermediates, and so on. You have to stay on top of the full breadth of research and be willing to go deep where needed, especially if you’re trying to wring out every last bit of potential. Solving great mysteries is not for the lazy.
In fact, I just learned an important lesson the hard way: folks my age probably can’t afford time off. Every three months, I’ve been taking a week off to allow some healing from all the wear and tear. The problem is that the first few days back at it are always brutal - speaking of inflammatory cytokines - with lots of Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness. When I resumed training right after the Fourth of July, I added negative and isometric reps to the mix, per my recent research, and the enhanced load really did a number on me, giving me a sinus infection and sore throat.
The rest from the time off is probably creating more harm than good. In late September, I’ll have to find the best of both worlds: 50 percent weights and just some fooling around, enough to keep the right juices flowing while body parts recuperate.
I see the logic of the negatives and the isometrics. The force-velocity curve, if not all the changing leverages as limbs and body segments unfold, doesn’t allow for maximal contractions at every point in the ranges of motion. The negatives and isometrics allow for targeting these spots. I’m only a few weeks in, and I’ve started pretty modestly, so I haven’t really gained much aside of this hacking cough.
I’m optimistic, however, looking forward to two things: reaching new heights as well as knowing that I alone deserve the credit.
