20 years of steroids

Today marks the twentieth anniversary of Ben Johnson's 1988 Olympic steroid scandal.

Steroids have changed a lot of things in our lives.

The existence of steroids makes us question our sports heroes.

The prevalence of steroids makes us question just about everyone we know who carries an unusual amount of muscle.

Steroids also had a profound effect on how we think of 'nutrition'.

Because steroids are considered cheating in almost every sport, athletes who were abusing steroids had to come up with excuses to why they were able to put on 30 pounds of muscle over an off-season.

The answer was easy "nutrition" or more appropriately "better nutrition" - the idea that eating 'better' could create massive changes in how the body looks.

From Bodybuilding to Baseball, Wrestling to Football, it seemed like a lot of professional athletes were suddenly eating more protein, cutting back on the sweets and instantly gaining unprecedented amounts of muscle.

It is my personal opinion that the "miracle effect" that people beleive foods have on our body was born out of a cover up of steroid abuse. And it is because of this that we greatly overestimate the effect that food can have on a human bodies ability to build muscle.

It is also why so many of us are disappointed when after months of eating 400 grams of protein a day combined with every supplement imaginable, we don't get the same results.

So from our sports heroes to the billion dollar sports supplement business, to the equally large industry of nutrition consulting, the events of 1988 changed the world of sports nutrition dramatically.

BP

Steroids in your Supplements?

According to a report on nutraingredients.com Greece's Olympic weightlifting team is blaming contaminated Chinese-made food supplements for some of its members being charged with doping violations.

Random testing resulted in 11 members showing positive results for steroids and other banned substances, according to media reports.

The Chinese manufacturer of the supplement has accepted fault for the contamination believed to consist of an anabolic steroid, an opiate designed to alleviate athletes' dependence on the steroid, and an estrogen suppressor.

I have spent a fair number of years not only designing sports supplements but also auditing manufacturing sites and I can tell you that from my experience, getting an anabolic steroid, an opiate and an estrogen suppressor into a batch of products without anyone knowing would have been down right impossible.

Maybe I just worked with really good companies, but that kind of think would have been spotted quicker than you can say "quality control".

Nevertheless, this type of report is scary. Whether you are looking for weight loss, fat burning or new ways to build muscle, be very suspicious of anything that promises you a quick fix.

BP

How much protein do you need to build muscle?

The idea that you need massive amounts of protein in your diet in order to build muscle is one that will probably never go away. While I agree that many of us need to eat a little more protein than we typically do, I don't think we need super-mega amounts in order to pack on muscle.

In a really interesting study published back in 1996, 43 men who were experienced weight lifters took part in a study that involved exercise and weekly injections of testosterone enanthate for 10 weeks.

Yep, these boys were on steroids for the benefit of science!

They were divided into 4 groups.

• The first group performed no exercise and didn't get any steroids.
• The second group performed exercise but didn't get steroids,
• The third group didn't exercise but received the weekly injections and
• The fourth group exercised and received the injections.

As you can imagine after 10 weeks of lifting weights 3 times per week, the group that was receiving the steroid injections gained over 13 pounds of muscle.

The group who were just working out didn't do too bad either, packing on almost 4.5 pounds of muscle in only ten weeks.

The guys who sat around doing nothing for 10 weeks but received the steroid injections still had an increase in lean mass (almost 6 pounds), while the group who received no steroids and didn't workout did not see any change in their lean mass.

So what does a study on steroids have to do with nutrition? well, all four groups were on the same diet. They were all consuming about 0.7 grams of protein per pound of body weight and about 16 Calories per pound of body weight.

What this shows is that for a group taking steroids while exercising, 120 grams of protein per day was enough to supply the amount of protein needed to allow for a 13.5 pound gain in lean mass!

It was also the same amount of protein the the exercise only group ate to gain 4.5 pounds, and the other groups ate to see their gains, (or lack thereof).

What this shows is that for the groups who saw less gains in lean mass then the steroid group, the amount of protein that they ate was not what determined how much muscle they gained. The workouts and the steroids did that.

In the end, protein is important, but as this study shows, 0.7 grams of protein per pound of body weight is enough daily protein to allow for a 13.5 pound increase in lean mass in 10 weeks. It's also enough to allow for a 4.5 pound increase in people not taking steroids, which is still very impressive muscle growth for a ten week period!

BP

For those of us who are not 'pharmaceutically enhanced' this study helps support the idea that your workout is the most important part of your muscle building journey.

Get a great workout, put in a great effort, see great results, it might just be that simple.

PS - If you are looking for my recommendation on a great quality workout, then Turbulence Training is where it is at. You can check out Craig Ballantyne's Turbulence Training programs by clicking HERE.

(Bhasin S, et al. The New England Journal of Medicine. 335(1), 1-7)

Interested in learning more about fasting for weight loss? Then click HERE