Steroids in bodybuilding

Is it legal? Should it be?

By Davie Wong, Sports Editor

We’ve all seen and heard about steroid use in the world of bodybuilding. In fact, it’s so rampant that the first thing that often comes to mind when observing bodybuilders is, “what kind of steroids are they on?” But other than knowing that steroids are “bad for you” due to media advertising, there is actually very little that the general population knows about steroids and steroid use, especially in the sport of bodybuilding.

First of all, steroid use in the world of competitive bodybuilding is illegal. At the highest levels of the sport, and sometimes even at the lowest, a standard has been implemented banning the use of steroids. This is all moderated by the International Federation of Bodybuilding and Fitness (IFBB). Although they manage to moderate the higher echelons of the sport, it is still a common occurrence to see steroids being used outside of testing periods, and nearly everywhere at the lower levels.

But why?

To answer that, we need to understand what steroids are. Steroids are essentially extra chemicals that your body already produces. Bodybuilders will try to increase the amount of positive chemicals that are in the body and available to the bodybuilder during a workout.

The most commonly used steroids are anabolic ones that increase the muscle’s ability to absorb protein. Then there are the androgen steroids, which aid the time it takes for proteins to synthesize with muscles. Lastly, there’s insulin, which allows the body to use more of the carbs that are being taken in. Those are the big three when it comes to steroids use.

While it all sounds fine and dandy, there are many cons, dangers, and reasons why people shouldn’t be using steroids. This is just a shortened list.

First off, you could overdose on any steroid you put into your body. If you take too much of one steroid, and do not take in enough nutrients to balance it, it really takes a toll on your body, to the point that it could be lethal. But if that doesn’t scare you, other side effects include a decreased libido, and a harder time controlling bodily functions.

Obviously steroids are used at the risk of the user, but the question isn’t why bodybuilders are using steroids, it’s whether or not it should be legal. One of the main reasons that the IFBB bans the use of steroids at the highest levels of bodybuilding is because they hope to push the sport into the Olympics. They claim it is due to steroids being against “ethics, fair play, and honesty.” This means that athletes who use steroids are given an unfair advantage due to their use.

Using chemical enhancements that give a competitor an advantage is against the concept of fair play. But one could also compare it to the former NFL controversy on glove usage. Gloves gave competitors an advantage over players who didn’t use them. Now everyone uses gloves. What if a player decides to not use gloves, and complained about the advantage other glove users have. Do the glove users have to lose their gloves to accommodate the non-glove users?

I’ll leave that up to you.