11 REASONS WHY STEROIDS DON'T WORK

The world’s best athletes have proven time and time again that they don't have to take steroids to achieve the highest level of performance. Eleven truth-revealing facts shed light on the reality of this position.

1. Bodybuilders, Powerlifters and Athletes from Mainstream Sports Are Not All the Same

Bodybuilders don’t run, jump or score goals. Powerlifters are interested in only three things: the squat, bench, and deadlift. Training programs for athletes, bodybuilders and powerlifters are as different as night and day. Steroids are often purchased illegally through bodybuilders at gyms. Do steroids work on bodybuilders? Sure they do. And that’s the problem. An unsuspecting athlete in a mainstream sport such as baseball goes to a gym and takes advice---maybe to take steroids---from a guy who just stands and flexes. Why would you do that? It doesn’t make sense.
Powerlifters don’t stretch for speed and jumping power. They don’t work on agility. Do steroids work for them? Again, yes---same problem. An unsuspecting athlete in a mainstream sport such as baseball might look at a guy with a 600-pound bench press and figure that this guy can really help him. The chances are not very great that will happen. Why? Simple
---training a baseball player encompasses a variety of areas a powerlifter or a bodybuilder are just not familiar with. It’s as if you are at a piano. You have to play this complex piece and your advisor has you strike one note with one finger over and over again. It isn’t pretty, and it doesn’t get
the job done.

2. Steroids = Roller Coaster Ride

Most people, at first, get a great high and a great rush of quick strength when they take steroids. This happens because of the increased testosterone intake. Let’s say a teen athlete is 6-1, 190 pounds, with a bench press max of 250 pounds. And this teen decides to take some steroid pills, just one three-week dosage. In four weeks, he has gained 25 pounds of weight and benches 290 pounds. Wow! He is on fire. You can’t tell him steroids don’t work.
This teen had heard about steroids and their dangers but he thought he would just take one cycle and stop. Certainly that couldn’t hurt and he would get some fast gains. However, by the sixth week, this same teen has lost 10 of those 25 pounds and his bench is now 275 pounds. His workouts are all screwed up because he cannot lift the amount of weight called for by his workout plan. His breasts start hurting a little. His bodybuilding friend just laughs and says, “Don’t worry, man. Happens all the time.” You see, when you inject a bunch of testosterone in your body, it stops producing its own testosterone. Estrogen, the female hormone, is naturally produced in small quantities in males but that starts to take over and your breasts start enlarging like a woman’s. Hormones are very powerful and can have dramatic effects. Some men who take large amounts of estrogen do so to become more like a woman. Women who take testosterone (steroids) will become more like a man.
Our teen is depressed, so he decides to take another dose. He gets another jolt of strength and weight but this time it is not as dramatic. His bodybuilding friend advises him to get more sophisticated by changing to a variety of steroids and increasing dosages. He even shows the teen how to inject himself with a needle. But just to show that he is responsible, he tells the teen that he should never share a needle because of the risk of AIDS and all.
The teen is really into the strength and size thing after three months. He neglects his stretching and sprint drills. He spends 12 hours a week in the gym. This teen is really dedicated. Overall his strength and weight gains have been good but he is never really consistent. One day his bench is up and the other day it is down. His other lower-body lifts have not gone up as dramatically.
Later in the year, our teen enrolls in college as a walk-on. He is scared he might get tested so he quits the juice for a while. He tells the strength coach he can bench 350 but when he maxes out for him, he can do only 315. His excuse to his coach is that he has a sore shoulder. Our sophisticated teen goes back to the gym to fix his problem. His bodybuilding friend tells him not to worry and confides that he had started out with only 20 milligrams a day but now he can handle 500 milligrams with no problem. Steroids are not unlike any other drug. The user can become a loser. In this case, are steroids working for this teen as a baseball player or football player? How about as a person? As a student?

3. Super Great
Gains Can Be Made with Intelligence, Intensity and Persistence

The BFS Program has been well thought out and extensively tested. Any teen and any athlete in their twenties can break eight or more personal records every week: week after week, month after month. There are no ups and downs. Consistent improvement in speed, agility and jumping records can be made. There is absolutely no reason to take steroids. Giant gains can be made without them. Unfortunately, many people do not believe this. Recently a semi-documentary TV show called “Flipped” aired, trying to send a message to athletes to not take steroids. But at the end, the featured athlete said, “I won’t do steroids even though it will be ten times harder. The show’s message then became the opposite of the show’s intent. The steroid myth was perpetuated.
A great strength coach can create a positive intensity. When you are surrounded by teammates in the school weight room who have a common goal, you can make greater gains than by working by yourself in a gym, even if you have a personal trainer. Same thing on the practice field or during the game: your teammates and you can create an incredibly intense atmosphere.
Those athletes who are persistent and consistent without steroids and do the secret will soon surpass the steroid user as measured by athletic performance. One final thought on consistency: many people don’t even train when they are on the juice.

4. Uncontrolled Aggressiveness is BAD!

Many people on steroids enjoy physical confrontations. I would suppose gang members might take steroids for that reason. But, you say, isn’t that good for football or for being aggressive at the plate to hit a home run? This holds true only up to a point. An athlete must have a controlled psyche. When you are out of control, you make mistakes or you can get thrown out of a game. This obviously contributes to losing, not winning. A football player has a lot to think about to be successful during any play. On offense it starts with correct alignment and the snap count. On defense it starts with recognizing the formation and certain tendencies. A baseball player with uncontrolled aggressiveness will strike out. Crazy doesn’t cut it.
Hey, if I’ve spent hundreds of hours training with natural intensity, and then someone tries to take my position from me or to take away my win from me, they’re going to be in for one heck of a fight. I don’t need steroids for aggressiveness. I’ve paid my dues.
Did a baseball player like Jose Canseco experience these side effects?
First, let’s look at his propensity to strike out. Although in 1988 he seemed to be learning to select his pitches more carefully, by the 1990s his strikeouts were more frequent than ever. Consider this: Was he overly aggressive? Was he often mad at the plate instead of relaxed and confident? From his behavior I believe there is a strong possibility that steroids contributed to Jose’s dismal strikeout record.
Second, Jose has always been outspoken. He clashed with the Oakland management and was frequently kept on the bench. Finally, Jose was traded to the Texas Rangers during the 1992 season. From then on, he was traded every two years. Stability is a component of long-term success both in a career and in family life. Jose was married and has a daughter. I believe the constant moving from one part of the nation to the other played a role in Jose’s decline, from both an athletic and a family point of view.
Third, and most telling, are three documented incidents of violence. In 1992, Jose was charged with domestic violence for ramming his car into a new car driven by his first wife. He agreed to community service and counseling. At age 33, Jose was arrested for hitting his second wife. Jose grabbed his wife by the hair and slapped her in the face and the back of the head. They filed for divorce after only a little more than a year of marriage. Finally, Jose was again arrested on battery charges as he grabbed a guy at a bar, punched him and broke his nose. A second victim required 20 stitches to his lip. Jose is considered a plea deal that offered five years’ probation without a chance of early termination. He would also have to perform community service, pay the victims’ medical bills, take anger control classes and undergo an alcohol abuse evaluation.
Could this sad state of behavior been caused in part to Jose’s steroid use?

5. Fast Workout Recovery Can Be Made by
Intelligent Variation and Selection of
Exercises

One big selling point of steroids is their supposed ability to allow a longer, harder workout and a faster recovery time for the next day’s workout. The BFS Program easily shoots down that advantage. First of all, bodybuilders work out much longer in the weight room than do athletes. It is also common for bodybuilders to go six days per week; upper body one day, lower body the next. Athletes need only three days per week in the weight room in the off-season and only twice per week during the season. Weight workouts are much shorter: three to four hours per week in the off-season.
As for variation and selection of exercises, the BFS Set-Rep System is so complete with variations that a single routine is performed only once a month. Further, exercises such as the BFS box squat create a tremendous advantage for athletes at all levels. The box squat allows an athlete to recover almost instantly. Any athlete can easily play a game at full throttle or have a quality speed/jump workout the next day after a box squat routine.
Athletes hate plateaus. Steroids are appealing because they can jolt an athlete out of a plateau, at least the first time. Athletes on the BFS System never experience a plateau because of the Set-Rep System and the selection of the core lift exercises.

6. The Stress of Getting Caught

Most users hide their steroid abuse. They will go miles from their home to get their steroids and needles. If they get caught, they could get into some heavy-duty trouble. Sneaking around and hiding is a bad precedent to set for yourself. It is an obstacle to winning. It is a detriment to attaining your full potential as an athlete and as a person.

7. Steroids Don’t Help Agility, Flexibility
or Technique

Training to reach your potential as an athlete is very complex. Steroid users often place too much importance on size and strength and forget about many other areas that are necessary in winning. During the off-season, an athlete should spend 20 minutes on speed and agility at least twice per week and also do a 20-minute plyometric or jump workout at least twice per week. Daily flexibility workouts are absolutely essential and should be done for at least 10 minutes per session. Athletes who take steroids and think that greater speed and jumping ability will just automatically happen are sadly mistaken.
Working on the techniques and skills of your sport is vital. Improvements take time and energy. Athletes who take steroids often minimize the importance of honing their talents.

8. “Steroids Are a Crutch” Theory

If an athlete looks to steroids to help him get through a crucial situation, he has lost the battle. When it’s the bottom of the ninth with two outs and you are at the plate, if you have the feeling in your head of “Where’s my pill?,” then the user becomes a loser. During critical times, a winner creates his own intensity and confidence. A winner does not look for external help but looks inside for that something extra.

9. Strength and the Diminishing
Return Theory

The stronger an athlete gets, the less important extra strength becomes. For example, it is not as important to add 100 pounds on a bench press that is already at 400 pounds as it would be to add 100 pounds on a 300-pound bench. The same concept goes for adding 100 pounds to a 200-pound bench. This same reasoning would go for any other core lift such as a parallel squat and a power clean. Is a Division I college offensive lineman who benches 550 going to be better than another lineman who can bench only 450 pounds? The answer is “No!” The same thing is true of a thrower or a power hitter in baseball. It is ridiculous to think that Jose Canseco could hit more home runs by having a 500-pound bench press as compared to a 400-pound bench.
After certain high levels of strength have been attained, it can be counterproductive to place additional stress on the body in attempting further increases. Injuries often occur when trying to get to super strength levels. In throwers, these kinds of gains have proven to be ineffective in throwing farther. There is definitely a point of diminishing returns and even a point of no return in mainstream sports. The levels of strength needed for the highest level of performance are attained naturally by thousands of athletes. Steroids are unnecessary if you know the secret of training.
The strength levels for college and pro linemen/linebackers and throwers have been established for years. The minimum-maximum levels are as follows: bench press: 400 to 500; parallel squat: 500 to 600; power clean: 300 to 350 pounds. For power hitters in baseball, these levels would be absolute maximums and ideally should even be lower.
The point of no return does not apply in bodybuilding, powerlifting or Olympic weightlifting. For example, if you have a 19-inch arm and you are a serious bodybuilder, you want a 21-inch arm. Get that, and you want a 23-inch arm. You want to keep getting bigger and bigger as long as you have high definition. Look closely at the photo of Gregg Valentino. His arms are 27 inches. The point of no return does not exist for this bodybuilder.
A powerlifter who works up to a 600-pound bench would be elated to get there but never satisfied. If he achieved a 700-pound bench, his next goal would be 800 pounds. The same would be true on his squat and deadlift. The point of no return does not exist for powerlifters.
When the point of no return does not exist, steroids do.

10. Steroids can cause Tendon and Ligament injuries.

This information has been around for years. If a known steroid user does experience a tendon or ligament injury, steroids are considered a likely cause. Evidence suggests that well-trained non-steroid users have fewer injuries than steroid users.
Baseball offers some interesting statistics: trips to the disabled list increased 32 percent between 1992 and the present. In 2001, players’ shoulder injuries almost doubled. Dr. Charles Yesalis says that it would be wrong to say that this increase is due to anabolic steroids because we don’t know what percentage of people have used them. Some players, coaches and other experts are not as conservative as Dr. Yesalis and are sure steroids caused all these injuries.
The truth, I believe, can be found by looking at a variety of factors. First, some of the increase could indeed be attributed to steroid use. A second reason is probably overtraining the shoulder joint areas. Many more baseball players are lifting weights now as compared to 1992. A natural but misguided approach is doing an excessive number of shoulder exercises from a variety of angles in an effort to prevent these injuries. I know of one Division I strength coach who probably did more shoulder exercises than anyone and yet was recently fired because of an unusual number of football shoulder injuries.
A third possible reason is lack of flexibility. Most athletes will not stretch on their own. The number one reason to stretch for most athletes and coaches is to prevent injuries. The trouble is that no one believes they’re going to be the one to get hurt. Even when stretching is done, it is frequently done with imperfect technique. Baseball players need to stretch for two very important reasons that also should be motivating. First, stretching correctly can increase the range of motion in the shoulder area. When you increase your range of motion, it is a simple law of physics that you will be able to throw harder, faster and farther. Second, all athletes should stretch for speed and jumping power. If athletes stretch correctly, they should be able to significantly improve their speed, which is obviously important for both baseball offense and defense. Improving jumping power also means improving explosive power, which should translate into hitting the ball with more power and the ability to make more defensive plays.
Baseball players are getting stronger simply by virtue of the lifting routines that were added to their training programs in the late 1990’s. It is extremely important for athletes to stretch hard as they get stronger. Lifting weights does not need to create tightness. Flexibility is quite easy to improve if stretching is done correctly and consistently. Steroids do not in any way improve a player’s flexibility and could cause more injuries.
Jose Canseco missed over 600 games from 1989 to the end of his career. That staggering number averages out to missing one ball game for every two appearances. Did steroids cause some of those missed games and injuries?
Some of his injuries had no apparent relation to steroid use: In 1989 Jose missed 88 games from a fractured left hand; in 1990 he missed 31 games from a protruding disc in his back. One injury in particular does suggest a possible link to steroid use: In 1993, while with the Rangers, Jose came in to pitch in the ninth inning. Jose’s team was losing badly and the Rangers’ bullpen was depleted. Jose tore a ligament in his right elbow. Surgery was required and he was out for the season. The exact reason for each injury may remain unknown, but I am convinced there is sufficient cause to indict steroids as part of Jose’s constant problem with missed games and injuries.
Another possible contributing factor was over-training. Jose did 58 sets of 8-10 reps on his upper body exercises and another 22 sets of 10-plus reps on his lower body exercises during each workout. He did this 3 to 4 times per week. This may be fine for bodybuilders but then they don’t have to go through all the additional rigors of playing major league baseball. Jose’s workouts were said to have been designed to prevent injuries but may have, in fact, contributed to them. Yes, Jose worked long and hard. He just did not work out smart.
To me, the story of Jose Canseco is a tragic one. So much potential, so many mistakes. He wanted to be counted among the great ones in baseball, but that is unlikely now. In the final analysis steroids will have played a key role in the downturn of Jose’s career. Clearly, for Jose Canseco as for so many other athletes, steroids failed to enhance performance and led instead to the demise of a once promising career.

11. The Best Don’t Do Steroids!

The vast majority of athletes in mainstream sports don’t use steroids. The very best players have proven consistently that they don’t need illegal drugs to achieve the highest levels of performance.
Now is the time for every pro, college and high school athlete to stand with the legendary players of the past and take pride in their own hard-won strength and conditioning. Today’s athletes will learn that steroids don’t work---that they are the exact opposite of performance enhancing. The legendary players of the future will reach their prestigious levels without steroids.