Date: September 24th, 2022
Behind the trend of fitness in the past few years is not just tuna and protein powder. Anabolic steroids, once identified with professional bodybuilders and gymnasts from Eastern Europe, are the way more and more young men around the world are trying to meet the new muscular ideal.
When it comes to exciting and dramatic events, "London College Health Ministry Seminar" is not really at the top of the list. A few lectures, some polite doctorates, refreshments and that’s it. However, the conference held about a month and a half ago has deviated from this relaxed routine. It flooded a social, criminal and medical phenomenon that usually slips under the radar, but is very noticeable when visiting the gym. In some ways, it was an emergency conference.
Those in attendance - doctors, police men, officials and even a representative of the Interpol, the international policing body - tried to figure out how to deal with a new-old problem: illegal anabolic steroids, designed to strengthen the body and potentially destroy it. These materials are smuggled from overseas or manufactured in pirated labs, and then sold under the table in black markets, and other illegal unregulated places. Professionals warn that this phenomenon is only increasing every year, and includes, among other things, seizing hundreds of thousands of pills in lab raids across the country (or customs , If they are smuggled), and gymnasts who have to go to hospital for severe side effects.
Quite a few testimonies in recent weeks may explain the background to this increase. The steroids, according to these testimonies, are no longer just a part of professional bodybuilders who want to win competitions, of Eastern European gymnasts, or of the almost-suspended Russian team this year from the Olympics. The new steroid takers are common men and women, especially men. They jump after work or school to the gym, want to inflate their muscles a bit or lift a little more weight, and don't settle for solutions like protein powder or a special diet.
For these men, steroids are an effective shortcut in the pursuit of body image they can never achieve. If, for years, the model of beauty has been miserable for women, and requires them to adhere to the slanderous proportion 90-60-90, then now quite a few men require themselves to develop a wide chest, sculpted arms and perfect abs. In the world you even start talking about "bigorexia" - a disorder similar to anorexia, characterized by young men who develop an obsession with their body size and always feel too thin and not muscular enough. If you want, you can see this as a distorted version of the approach to gender equality: where only women suffer from an impossible body ideal, everyone suffers.
Like a woman doing breast enlargement
“The use of steroids has become very popular with guys who do not compete with bodybuilding, says Barry (pseudonym, 33), a trainer and bodybuilder in his past.
"A lot of them just don't talk about it - not because it's illegal, but because they are ashamed. It's like a woman with a small chest that increases it a bit, and then says it's natural. The whole field of gyms and supporting stores is on the rise, the amount of people who exercise is rising and so are the steroids. These are not extraordinarily inflated workouts, but you can notice a man who suddenly grows in two weeks more than you expect, and starts to lift heavy weights relative to his size.”
And those gymnasts, Barry fears, are especially prone to side effects. "Some of them are 16-18 year old who want to look strong and start looking for the substances through friends. They don't care about muscle mass, they want the right look: abs and a little vein, wide chest and abs in the belly. It is, and it is impossible to know what substances are inside those illegal sources.
Despite his words, the use of steroids is no stranger to Barry himself. "I took them for the first time after four years of training. I knew friends who were competing in bodybuilding, and after a few times I saw them competing, I also wanted to see how far I could take my body. “ I did it while working with trainers and I knew how much to load on my body, I did not suffer from side effects. To my knowledge, people who do not have a background of medical problems probably will not suffer from them.”
Barry's confidence does not convince Jerry, a professional manager at the Holmes Place gym. "The trainers who take steroids say it's disposable, and don’t worry about it. "There is a lot of ego and a feeling of 'I understand better’.”
Jerry emphasizes that steroid taking among "lightweight" trainers, who are not professional bodybuilders, is still a minority - but a minority that stands out in the field. "Every trainer knows about it, and it's easy to identify who's taking it. Pay attention to rapid growth all at once, especially if it's someone who hasn't been practicing for a long time…”
Beyond curiosity, Jerry says some trainers simply have trouble accepting the differences between their physique and those of their friends, hoping the steroids will make up for its shortcomings. "Take some people who exercise and eat with the same care. Still one of them will have more prominent abs and chests and in a different form. That to the building: if it doesn't build the foundations properly and load concrete and blocks quickly - it will collapse. "
Ask for injections that count on the coaches
Physiologically, anabolic steroids are naturally occurring hormones in the body, and are essential for building bone and muscle mass. The main hormone in men is testosterone, which is secreted in women at lower levels. Exercises that consume steroids actually take synthetic versions of testosterone and its derivatives, which is also why steroids are now far less popular with women: they may cause them to develop masculine characteristics, such as hyperplasia, enlarged clitoris, prominent groin and thickened voice.
The artificial steroids allow the body to break down protein efficiently, thus building more muscle faster. Some materials focus on providing extra strength during exercise, others help those who are looking to lift heavy weights or make muscles look bigger. However, even without the need for the long list of risks, it is not a panacea: it only works if the trainee develops his body at the same time as taking it. "And it's also about nutrition," says sports dietitian Nick Pink, "without adequate protein and energy, muscle building processes won't work well, and then steroids just won't work."
The steroids are taken in rounds, or cycles by their widespread and common name. One cycle usually lasts between eight and 14 weeks, during which the trainers take the substances regularly. They then stop using it for a few weeks to allow the body to produce the hormones again. During this time, some take substances designed to restore balance to the body and prevent estrogen secretion - the female hormone, which may cause breast development in men.
Some trainers prefer to take steroids in pills, assuming this reduces the risk of liver injury, and others opt for direct injections into the muscle to optimize their effect - and also because steroid sellers or trainers inject them on themselves in many cases, making the process appear more reliable and less dangerous. Other practitioners combine the two methods.
The gymnasts who buy the substance illegally (out of pharmacies), of course, do not know where they come from and exactly what they include. Alongside licensed laboratories, their origin may be pirated production houses in the Far East, and in some cases they are also materials that were originally intended for veterinary use.
Four different steroids in the same fake ball
Dr. Richardson says: "Most steroids are not bought in supervised labs, and they may be manufactured and stored under improper conditions," she says. It's a ticking health bomb. I had a patient who died of rare liver cancer at age 35 due to apparent moderate use when he was younger, and two patients who developed chest abscesses that had to be drained. Another potential danger is infection with C or jaundice due to an infected syringe. "
That’s why it’s so important to buy only from a pharmacy.
Want to walk around the beach with the perfect abs?
It is relatively rare to find steroid trainers who are willing to talk about it openly. One of them is Gary C. (28), bodybuilder and business owner for nutrition counseling, supplements and exercise programs, which went through four cycles over two years. "I took the steroids in a very controlled way, and I had side effects that I didn't really suffer from, like high sexual desire and a few pimples," he says.
Unlike the rest of the interviewees, Gary argues that steroid users are difficult to identify.
Although Gary does not object to steroid use, he also does not alleviate head injuries: "You are dealing with the genetic structure of your body, and you need to learn how to do it well.”
But starting to work with Steroids doesn't feel like cheating?
"Not at all, because you do not achieve results without exertion. If the hormone allows you to absorb twice as much protein, you must make sure you eat twice as much protein and exercise accordingly. Continuing to invest will hardly see progress. Sport requires a lot of investment, with the rewards being the results against the mirror.
Were there patients who asked you for steroids?
"Yes, there are people who come to me as a sports physician who want to use anabolic steroids not through their coach or the black market, to make it seem healthy."
To sum things up, Steroids should only be purchased through pharmacies, including online pharmacies and never in the black market.