The Real Dope

There's an excellent piece at SI.com by Jack McCallum about steroids and ped's in the United States:

Steroids in America: The Real Dope.

I've been waiting for someone to write this sort of article for a while now.

We are a juiced nation.

We are a nation on dope.

We are a nation looking for enhancement, a way to age gracefully, perform better and longer, and, at the outer edge, vanquish what was once considered that alltime undefeated opponent known as aging. We do that by Botoxing our wrinkles, lifting our faces, reconstructing our noses, despidering our veins, tucking our tummies, augmenting our breasts and taking a little pill to make sure we're ready when, you know, the right time presents itself. We also do it by injecting human growth hormone (HGH) and testosterone, America's new golden pharmaceutical couple.

Indeed we are and have been for some time now. It's nice to see it openly acknowledged.

McCallum points out that steroids are the norm not just in sports but in many other walks of life: Hollywood, rap music, the rest of the entertainment industry, the police and military, and in our neighborhoods via gyms and anti-aging clinics.

But we are hypocrites. We denounce this or that athlete and act as though there's something thoroughly un-American about this sort of thing.

But it's not un-American. It's entirely American, that search for an edge, that effort to be all you can be, that willingness to push the envelope. That's what Andy Pettitte was doing when he took HGH. That's what Debbie Clemens was doing when she took HGH. That's what male collegiate cheerleaders are doing when they bulk up on anabolic steroids so they can lift more weight, or more female cheerleaders, according to author Kate Torgovnick in her new book, Cheer! That's what a rapper is doing when he receives a package of PEDs at his hotel. That's what Schwarzenegger was doing when he loaded himself with steroids years ago. That's what Kevin and Peggy Hart are doing in the privacy of their bedroom with their HGH and their "test," now as familiar a morning ritual as tea and toast.

Pointing out our cultural hypocrisy about steroids and other performance enhancers is not the same as condoning their use. It's simply acknowledging the reality: we are already using them. And the reality is only going to more complex as the science progresses. We can enhance our athletic performances, we can enhance our physiques, and now we can enhance our cognitive processes with drugs like Adderall and the like. These things are not going to go away. We need to be able to talk reasonably about these issues without surrendering to hysteria and nonsense.

Articles like McCallum's are a necessary first step toward that conversation.

In the news: a better way to repair a rotator cuff?

An orthopedic surgeon at Emory University has pioneered what he believes to be a more effective technique for the surgical repair of the rotator cuff:

Dr. Spero Karas, assistant professor in the Department of Orthopaedics, Emory University School of Medicine, is using a new technique for rotator cuff repair called the "double-row" arthroscopic repair. This procedure secures the tendon to the bone at two sites rather than one.

"It is much stronger than a typical 'single-row' arthroscopic repair and does a better job restoring normal rotator cuff anatomy," says Dr. Karas, who is part of the Emory Sports Medicine Center. "Recent studies also reveal that the 'double-row' repair heals in a more stable fashion, which results in better long-term outcomes.

It'll be interesting to see if this bears fruit.

In the News: Exercise slows aging

The boys in the lab are at it again. You couldn't ask for better marketing:

Physically active people have cells that look younger on a molecular level than those of couch potatoes, according to new research that offers a fundamental new clue into how exercise may help stave off aging.

The study, involving more than 2,400 British twins, found for the first time that exercise appears to slow the shriveling of the protective tips on bundles of genes inside cells, perhaps keeping frailty at bay.

So they're looking at twins and these cellular thingamajigs called telomeres. Beats me, but the bottom line is very promising:

"We're using telomere length as a marker of our rate of biological aging," Spector said.

The length of the twins' telomeres was directly related to their activity levels, the researchers found. People who did a moderate amount of exercise -- about 100 minutes a week of activity such as tennis, swimming or running -- had telomeres that on average looked like those of someone about five or six years younger than those who did the least -- about 16 minutes a week. Those who did the most -- doing about three hours a week of moderate to vigorous activity-- had telomeres that appeared to be about nine years younger than those who did the least.

So keep up the good work folks. And if you aren't training, why aren't you training? Get going, it's important.

First look: Starting Strength 2nd edition

I got home from work and the package was waiting for me. I opened it and the first thing I noticed about the 2nd edition of Starting Strength by Mark Rippetoe and Lon Kilgore was that it is a heftier book than the first edition. Obviously there was going to be a good bit of new content in this edition. Given the quantity and quality of the content of the first edition, this is something to be excited about. The second thing I noticed is that the new edition is designed not just for coaches and trainers (as was the emphasis of the first edition), but rather is intended for anyone who wants to train with barbells. This is emphasized by the new subtitle: "Basic Barbell Training." Thus an already great book extends its reach and usefulness.

I was anxious to get reading but I had to put the book down as I was due at the gym. I figured I'd get around to it in a day or two. Later that night, at about two a.m., I stopped on my way to bed and picked it up to have a quick look at the table of contents. The next thing I knew, my knees were getting stiff from standing in the same place for thirty-five minutes utterly absorbed in the book. In that time I learned a new assistance exercise, a helpful tip for a staple of my deadlift program, a variation on an important exercise, had a mental argument with Rippetoe, decided he was probably right, and found a good way to start improving my wrist flexibility for Olympic lifts and front squats. And man did I want to go back to the gym and train right that minute. Few training manuals can give you that kind of return on investment. And I'd barely scratched the surface. I can't wait to dig deeply into this book.

You should pick it up. It's available here or here.

In the News: the riddle of muscle fatigue solved?

Why do muscles get fatigued? For a long time we thought it was due to the buildup of lactic acid. The best evidence now says that's not correct. So we still don't really know why muscles get tired. But new research suggests that it may be caused by calcium leaks:

In a report published Monday in an early online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Dr. Marks says the problem is calcium flow inside muscle cells. Ordinarily, ebbs and flows of calcium in cells control muscle contractions. But when muscles grow tired, the investigators report, tiny channels in them start leaking calcium, and that weakens contractions. At the same time, the leaked calcium stimulates an enzyme that eats into muscle fibers, contributing to the muscle exhaustion.

Drugs are in the works for heart patients, but athletes shouldn't start licking their chops over this just yet:

So the day may come when there is an antifatigue drug.

That idea, “is sort of amazing,” said Dr. Steven Liggett, a heart-failure researcher at the University of Maryland. Yet, Dr. Liggett said, for athletes “we have to ask whether it would be prudent to be circumventing this mechanism.”

“Maybe this is a protective mechanism,” he said. “Maybe fatigue is saying that you are getting ready to go into a danger zone. So it is cutting you off. If you could will yourself to run as fast and as long as you could, some people would run until they keeled over and died.”

And whose problem is that exactly? If such drugs exist, athletes will find a way to use them. It's inevitable. And those athletes should be responsible for the consequences of doing so.

In the News: grueling achievement

Research suggests that proper nutrition in the first two years of life is of the utmost importance, influencing not just health but educational achievement and economic status. Eat gruel, go far in life:

In two of the Guatemalan villages, children under the age of 7 were given a gruel made of skim milk powder, sugar and vegetable protein. Children in the other two villages were given a drink that was low in energy and had no protein.

The experiment ran from 1969 to 1977. Then, in 2002-2004, researchers returned to see what had become of their young subjects. The results were unambiguous: The boys, now young men, who were given the gruel for the first two years of their life benefited substantially from improved nutrition. They earned on average wages that were nearly 50 per cent higher than boys who had not been given the supplement.
...

It was the first two years that proved critical, according to the study, which was published last month in the British medical journal, the Lancet. The adult earnings of children first given the supplement after age 3 did not show as large an increase.

"The study confirms that the first two years of life are the window of opportunity, when nutrition programs have an enormous impact on a child's development, with life-long benefits," said Reynaldo Martorell, one of the original researchers and professor of international nutrition at Emory University...

Start sharing those protein laden post-workout shakes with the little guys and watch them grow up to be not just big and strong, but smart and successful!

Review: Elite Pull Through Handle

If you don't already do pull-throughs, you should start doing them. If you already do them using a rope or some other handle, you should pick up the Elite Fitness Systems pull-through handle. If you go to a commercial gym, like my horrible horrible gym, then chances are you don't know what a pull-through is. The pull-through is a great exercise for your posterior chain. Don't know what the posterior chain is? You've got a lot of work to do pal. Jim Wendler explains its importance in this interview.

The average trainee sorely neglects the posterior chain, probably because he/she can't see it in the mirror, but it is unquestionably one of the primary keys to being truly strong and it is also of vital importance to anyone who wants to be faster. In fact, I'm sorry to have to break it to you, but we can safely say that if your posterior chain is weak, then you are not strong. Nice peak on those biceps though!

The heavy work for the posterior chain is done with variations of deadlifts, squats and good mornings but there are a number of other exercises that are excellent, like glute-ham raises and reverse hypers or sled work, but these require equipment that the average gym is not likely to have. That's why pull-throughs are so invaluable. All you need is a cable machine, or a place to affix a band. Using a cable pulley and a rope handle will get you started nicely. But the specially designed pull-through handle is an inexpensive and helpful way to improve your pull-throughs.

You notice right away that it is durable and well-constructed. It has a little weight to it and it's clearly built to withstand the abuse of a serious gym. It's also designed to allow a comfortable pronated grip which is nice. You can use it in the gym on a cable, or you can use it with a sled outdoors. Not only is it functional, cheap and well built, but it provides considerable amusement as well: the bicep curlers in my horrible horrible gym stare in utter bewilderment when I whip this baby out of the gym bag and start doing pull-throughs. I guess they're trying to figure out how it works the biceps.

You can only get one here.

Review: Original Rehband Knee Sleeves

In training terms I'm an old dude. I've been doing this for most of two decades and I've accrued a long laundry list of chronic ailments (right elbow), nagging injuries (hello shoulders!) and various aches and pains (too many to note). A year or two ago I had a painful clicking in my left knee that I ignored mostly...until it began interfering with my training. It was then that I read Mike Robertson's article "18 Tips for Bulletproof Knees" on T-nation. He suggested wearing knee sleeves. I'd wrapped my knees when squatting heavy but I'd never used knee sleeves. I already knew enough by then to take Robertson's advice seriously (dude knows his stuff) so I got a pair of Inzer knee sleeves, the ones with all the velcro straps on them. They were sort of awkward (more on that in a separate review) so I tracked down the Rehband knee sleeves. For those not familiar with them, they are the kind all the strongmen on ESPN use. These were a distinct improvement. I've used them regularly ever since, whether I'm squatting, deadlifting or doing single-leg work. They keep the knees plenty warm--in fact they are usually soaked with sweat after a workout--and they provide a little extra stability to the joint, or at least the feeling of extra stability, which in turn provides a little psychological comfort and a small mental edge when approaching a difficult lift. For those of you who are accustomed to wrapping but have never tried the sleeves, don't expect them to work the way wraps do. The sleeves provide absolutely no rebound in the hole--which is mostly what wraps are good for. Nor will you bodybuilders get to look cool while enjoying the ritual of wrapping. The sleeves are strictly functional and they aren't much to look at. But I am sold on them. They've held up really well with time, and considering that I've never quite gotten around to washing them, they don't even smell too bad despite all that sweat they've absorbed.

Highly recommended and not just for old dudes!

Rehband has since come out with a new style of sleeves and I've only tried the elbow variety but I believe you can still get the original style sleeves at Jackal's Gym.

Ed Coan 2007 Nationals

Was just poking around on YouTube and watched Ed Coan from the 2007 USPF nationals. It's pretty impressive watching him walk out 929 lbs before he squats. I know he's squatted over a grand, and he must've walked that out too. I don't have any axe to grind in debates over gear and monolifts, but it is something watching him walk that weight out and stand there for a few seconds before squatting plenty deep. And to think he's in his mid-forties. One damn strong man. You can read a recent interview here.

Our Steroid Schizophrenia

There's an interesting article by Radley Balko, one of the libertarians at Reason magazine, that asks whether performance enhancing drugs should be allowed in sports. Given that Balko is a libertarian you might be able to guess what his attitude is:

Let me start by saying that I believe private sports organizations should be able to set their own rules, and that they should be free to discipline in any manner they see fit the players who break those rules. I don’t think Congress should forcibly allow performance enhancing substances in sports any more than I think Congress should prohibit them.

He offers a few relatively convincing arguments in support of his position, which is more than many of his opponents on this issue can claim:

So what is this debate really all about?

I’d submit it’s about paternalism and control. A few luddites and prudes have successfully induced a full-blown moral panic over a set of substances that for whatever reason have attracted the ire of the people who have made it their job to tell us what is and isn’t good for us.

Our society has an oddly schizophrenic relationship with pharmaceuticals and medical technology. If something can be said to be “natural”, we tend to be okay with it. If it seems lab-made or synthetic we tend to be leery. But even synthetic drugs and manmade technology seem to be okay if the aim is to make sick or broken people whole again.It’s when we talk about expanding or transcending what we’ve come to consider “normal,” be it through psychoactive drugs, performance-enhancing drugs, or genetic or biomedical technology, that a certain uneasiness sets in.

But the cat is already out of the bag. Has been for a long time. Which is not to say that there should never be any limits, nor any conversation about these things, but "natural" and "normal" are an awfully slippery slope. Balko is absolutely right to suggest that our hypocrisy concerning steroids and hgh is troubling. You can read the whole thing here.

What the hell is Iron Dog?

Q: What the hell is Iron Dog?

A: It is a site where I shall discuss, comment on, make fun of, recommend and otherwise review various products in the fields of Strength & Conditioning, powerlifting, personal training, weightlifting, bodybuilding, etc...I will also reserve the right to talk about anything that strikes my fancy. Luckily, my fancy is not very fancy and probably won't stray far from those topics.

Q: What kind of products are we talking about?

A: Anything and everything really. Training manuals, Dvds, weight-training equipment, powerlifting gear, supplements, rehab stuff, articles on the internet, websites, anything related to training that I use, read, eat, drink or otherwise consume.

Q: What qualifies you to provide these reviews?

A: Well, mostly the fact that I'm poor from buying all sorts of training shit and spend copious hours of my time reading about training. I've been training for going on two decades, I've used many of the products and systems that have come and gone over the years, and I've learned some hard lessons along the way. I'm a certified personal trainer (NSCA) but frankly I don't think that matters. There are plenty of folks with no letters after their names who are absolute experts at what they do. I'm not an expert, but I am a thoughtful, open-minded sort of guy with some opinions to share. Usually I offer legitimate reasons for my opinions. I also don't make the mistake of thinking that just because I don't like something personally that it must suck. Or vice versa. I'm pretty fair in my judgments and will freely admit it when my opinion is purely subjective. Feel free to disagree with me.

Q: Why "Iron Dog"?

A: Well, originally I'd thought about something like "gymrat," in the sense that I'm just an ordinary schmoe who loves to go to the gym and train. But I realized that's not really true. All I had to do was look around at all the schmucks at my horrible, horrible gym. They are the gymrats of the world: bicep day is three days a week and the days in between are bench day. Little or no work involving their posterior chain, little leg work unless you count leg extensions and the Smith machine and I don't. No rhyme or reason to their training, in fact, they don't train, they "work out" and they haven't made any progress at all in the two years or so that I've been watching them flounder around in the gym. Iron Dog is committed to sniffing out superior training information and products. You can lead a gymrat to knowledge but you can't make him think. But if I can lead a few to some good stuff then I've done my part.

Also, and this is where the name literally came from, I am told that Iron Dog is my chinese astrological sign or some nonsense like that. I have little patience for astrology and other hippy-dippy bullshit, but I am more inclined to tolerate it when it gives me a really cool name like Iron Dog.