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Hayden Leonard Dr. Griffin ENGL 1102-102 4/7/14 Anabolic Abuse in Lifting Communities Small clanks echo across a large gym full of intimidating machines and monstrous contraption, inaudible grunts and heavy breathing fill the void between the sporadic boom of weights being dropped, and lifting. The occasional yell is heard throughout the gym as the steel bar bends from to sheer amount of weight that one man is lifting. The man is the biggest in gym, veins fully exposed, and his muscles clearly triple the size of the closest competitor and clearly more defined. As onlookers watch one thought enters their minds, steroids. As a community body building is as diverse as any. With natural lifters taking no supplements arguing that supplements are poison for the body, to the power-lifters who can lift a small car. Other arguments revolve constantly around the community. You should do this, you shouldnt lift that way is a constant discourse within itself. However, there is a common goal we all share, Improve yourself, and your ability to perform. Sadly, there are some that take it too far and take to using illegal substances to get an advantage. As a devoted weight lifter and exercise junkie Ive have always wondered what the deal was with steroids. Are steroids really as bad as the media makes them out to be, or is it the reverse? Perhaps, the many diverse groups of weight lifting made a false persona for

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steroids and in the process demonized them. Potentially the media may actually support them. Companies want to sell their product why not slap a huge and ripped bodybuilder who is clearly too big for natural ability? Lastly, what if the community, the lifters themselves promote steroid usage get swole, get ripped are just a two of the many phrases heard on a normal day in the gym; the community may promote them by wanting the get beyond natural limits in size, leading the media to follow in the wake. In this paper will be looking, and discussing the discourse conversations between the ideas of steroids abuse. Does the media make the drive; or does the community make the drive for steroids abuse? Before I discuss these ideas, I would like to explain the history of steroids and their impact in weight lifting. Steroids find their origin in the early 1930s with a team of scientists developing an artificial formula of testosterone to aid men who could not produce the hormone efficiently. Decades later, Dr. Zeigler became the father of modern day anabolic steroids in the early 1970s. After this creation, steroids became increasingly popular, especially with athletes and even more so with weight lifters. The concept of being able to lift more, gain muscle, and be bigger than you ever could naturally is extremely enticing to all body builders. Years after their creation, Congress passed the Anabolic Steroid Enforcement Act of 1990 (CESAR) which placed anabolic steroids onto the tier of class III controlled substances. However, the continuous use of steroids rose, and is still rising to this day. What is the drive, the motivation? Who creates these images and need for steroids?

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It feels like weight lifting has always been the target of controversy, whenever someone mentions or tells people that they lift weights the first question is how much the next question that nearly always follows is do you take anything? This correlation of how much and following do you take anything seems to be a spark of interest for young and veteran bodybuilders. After research and reading of steroids and many other abused drugs in the field a startling result kept reappearing. If I take something, I can lift more. This concept always arises in gyms and among other weight lifters. The question is what miracle drug or item will give me the results I want. This correlation seems to support that the community creates the demand for steroids, not the media; however things are never that simple. Mr. Olympia is the competition for the greatest body builders in the world. Names like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Ronnie Coleman, and Jay Cutler echo throughout the community. In 1963, Joe Weider looked upon the available bodybuilding competitions, and felt that none of them represented the vision he wished for. The Master Blaster instinctively realized that the current generation of bodybuilders was taking the sport to uncharted heights, and that they required a contest worthy of their talents. With the creation of Mr. Olympia in 1965, the body building world would be changed forever. Nearly all competitors in the contests history have something in common though, through race, and background all these men took steroids; why? Would a competition so full of prestige and reputation not test for a class III substance banned by the federal government? With hundreds of thousands of dollars on the line and millions in sponsorships, many honestly cannot blame the competitors. In Mr. Olympia steroid use is frowned upon, but not tested.

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This rings to me that the media wants the biggest, most swole man to represent their products. If you take this supplement youll be as big as Arnold! this claim is just one of many that supplement brands use. This fully supports the idea that the media supports the cause of steroid use, you do what you do to win (Jay Cutler 2006). Lets bring the usage of steroids down to the colloquial level. What would cause a teenager, or young person to use steroids? The National Institute on Drug Abuse compiled a report on what could drive a person to use steroids. In their research muscle dysmorphia seemed to be the scientific culprit for steroid use. The concept is that a male or female looks at their self and thinks that they are small and weak. In reality they are actual quite large and muscular. The same concept is in many other psychological disorders. Anorexia, and bulimia relate in very similar ways. The person looks in the mirror and thinks they are fat but are actually very healthy and lean. So with muscle dysmorphia it looks as though this is just a personal choice, void of other reasons for a person to use steroids. Then where did the concept of what defines big or small arise? The media: With the media wanting the biggest person to represent their product, be in the movies, magazines and shows its very easy to see how a person could develop these attributes and lead to muscle dysmorphia. Muscle dysmorphia can be cause by the community as well. A beginner body builder walks into the gym seeing men and women two, three times their size can be very intimidating. Now when he or she goes home and looks at their self muscle dysmorphia sets in. I want to be as big as that guy, now the idea of doing research for how to gain muscle crosses their mind, and eventually they will find steroids.

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So, lets say that this person does find steroids, and decides to use them, what then? Steroids can be used in many different ways. They can be injected, used as a cream, or taken by pill orally. There are many steps to actually using steroids such as cycling, or pyramiding. Cycling and pyramiding involve the user gradually increasing the applied amount, or constantly going in steroids, then off, and then back on continuously. By applying these techniques the person using steroids can increase the dosage by ten even 100 times the normal prescribed dosage. The chemical change that steroids perform is very complicated and is subject to several variations (NIDA). Anabolic steroids work by acting as a synthetic model for the male hormone testosterone. They have been chemically formulated to be more potent and react more efficiently to anabolic receptors in the users body. The term anabolic mean tissue building properties. This is why user who use steroids are often more than not, several times larger than the average person of the same height. So what are the benefits of steroids? Many athletes have said that anabolic steroids help them train harder and recover faster (Fahey). Steroids act in many different ways, while physical attributes are not limited to increased muscle mass, strength, and more calcium in the skeletal structure. Steroids also can react in a psychological way. Users and researchers have reported that steroids may react in a euphoric way, by instilling a sense of well-being and creating a higher tolerance to stress; this may lead to why athletes can train harder and recover faster. There is a dark side to steroids though.

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Side effects in steroids are limitless and pronounced, males and females alike can experience large outbursts of anger, leading to the phrase roid rage in the community, the dramatic increase in testosterone in the body can lead to excess facial hair in women, breast reduction, Deeping of the voice, and lose of head hair. The side effect for males are not much better, reduction in size of reproduction organs, development of breasts, balding, and lose in natural testosterone production. For both sexes long term use can create slew of extremely dangerous effects. The Creation of clotted arteries from the increase of low density cholesterol, which can lead to blockages which result in heart attacks, also if blood is seized from entering the brain a stroke can occur as well. This is just an example of the numerous effects of steroids. Infections riddle users who inject steroids. From sharing needles with other users, to taking steroids not created in safe sterile environments can lead to contracting of life threating viral and bacterial infections, such as HIV, AIDS, hepatitis B and C. With so many possible dangers of steroid use, I cannot fathom as to why someone would wish to use these drugs, I also cannot come to realize how the community can allow fellow lifters to partake in them. With my experience in weight lifting Ive always received support and encouragement from my fellow lifters. This makes me argue that the community couldnt possibly attribute to the usage of steroids. No matter how much bigger or smaller the other lifter was compared to me I never felt drawn to think outside the law in weight lifting. If anything the community somehow deterred me away from using steroids. The general consciences was that steroids were a form of cheating and completely against the code. The code referring to the communities rules, while these rules arent often spoken they are

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all nearly known by lifters. That is why I simply couldnt see the community, myself, other lifters promoting the use a steroids, with that being said, my research and personal experiences have lead me to create the clause that the media is the cause of steroid usage, and abuse. With body image being portrayed by the media and not the community this can lead to muscle dysmorphia. With sales of supplements and other utilities for weight lifting being commercialized and advertised by the media this can only lead to the inference that the community is simply being pulled by the media to use steroids, as a wonder drug to achieve unreachable goals otherwise. A Community so closely tied together would not promote the use of a substance proved beyond a doubt to cause diverse and serious mental and physical illnesses. While steroids may be prominent in competitors throughout body building the media and business is to blame for the lingering life that steroids have crafted in the community.

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Citations 1. "Anabolic Steroid Abuse." Why Do People Abuse Anabolic Steroids? National Institute of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Aug. 2010. Web. 2 Mar. 2014. 2. Schlundt, David, Dr. "Health Psychology Home Page." Body Image and Steroid Abuse: Erin Dugan. Vanderbilt University, 30 Apr. 2009. Web. 5 Mar. 2014. 3. "Anabolic Steroid Abuse Among Males with Eating Disorders." Anabolic Steroid Abuse Among Males with Eating Disorders. N.A.M.E.D., 2011. Web. 8 Mar. 2014. 4. Bennington, Vanessa. "Male Body Image and the Pressure to Use Steroids." Breaking Muscle. Breakingmuscle.com, n.d. Web. 10 Mar. 2014. 5. Arehart-Treichel, Joan. "PsychiatryOnline | Psychiatric News | News Article."PsychiatryOnline | Psychiatric News | News Article. The American Psychiatric Association, 18 Nov. 2011. Web. 10 Mar. 2014. 6. "Anabolic Steroids | CESAR." Anabolic Steroids | CESAR. CESAR, 29 Oct. 2013. Web. 15 Mar. 2014. 7. Fahey, Thomas D. "Anabolic Steroids: Mechanisms and Effects." Anabolic Steroids: Mechanisms and Effects. California State University, 18 Apr. 1998. Web. 17 Mar. 2014.