Do drugs improve sporting performance?

martinb said:
surely this proves drugs DON'T work
if he was taking all that, and is now clean and running the same(ish) times, then drugs CAN'T work!

slimsim said:
That's presuming he is now off........

martinb said:
surely this proves drugs DON'T work
if he was taking all that, and is now clean and running the same(ish) times, then drugs CAN'T work!

Steve said:
This is sort of what I was getting at.
Fedosienko for example was banned for to years and returned to win overall best lifter with a new world record at his first worlds back. Can this be possible if drugs work and he is not still taking?

Steve said:
This is sort of what I was getting at.
Fedosienko for example was banned for to years and returned to win overall best lifter with a new world record at his first worlds back. Can this be possible if drugs work and he is not still taking?

martinb said:
Ok, lets not beat around the bush, every world clash weightlifter is on, and everybody that gets a gold at a proper event at the Olypics will be on (actually, probably just gets to a final)
Thats my opinion

Tom_Martin said:
I think you're giving drugs in a tested sport more credit than they are due.
For an untested lifter, drugs are no doubt a wonderful thing. He will definitely lift better WHILE ON THEM. Noticeably better.
For a tested lifter, they may be more of a curse than a blessing. While taking exogenous testosterone, endogenous levels of testosterone are repressed......like, 100% repressed. Homeostasis at it's absolute worst!
Inevitably the drug tester lifter will have to stop taking the drugs and give himself enough time to let them clear his system before he can compete depending on how willing he is to take a chance on not getting tested. When he comes off, there will be a period of time before his endogenous testosterone levels return to normal, during this time he will lose a lot of the strength gained while taking the drugs. The only hope they have is that just maybe once everything settles down again, due to the increased loads during training while on drugs, they might be better off at the end of it than they would have been if they hadn't used drugs. It's in my opinion, a minor competetive edge for an athlete who has to get clean before he competes. It is a massive competetive necessity to a lifter who doesn't have to take a test.

Tom_Martin said:
I think you're giving drugs in a tested sport more credit than they are due.
For an untested lifter, drugs are no doubt a wonderful thing. He will definitely lift better WHILE ON THEM. Noticeably better.
For a tested lifter, they may be more of a curse than a blessing. While taking exogenous testosterone, endogenous levels of testosterone are repressed......like, 100% repressed. Homeostasis at it's absolute worst!
Inevitably the drug tester lifter will have to stop taking the drugs and give himself enough time to let them clear his system before he can compete depending on how willing he is to take a chance on not getting tested. When he comes off, there will be a period of time before his endogenous testosterone levels return to normal, during this time he will lose a lot of the strength gained while taking the drugs. The only hope they have is that just maybe once everything settles down again, due to the increased loads during training while on drugs, they might be better off at the end of it than they would have been if they hadn't used drugs. It's in my opinion, a minor competetive edge for an athlete who has to get clean before he competes. It is a massive competetive necessity to a lifter who doesn't have to take a test.

martinb said:
that is a huge difference actually, but was he consistently faster? wasn't the 9.87 a bit of an anomaly, as in, he was running 9.90 every other week?

martinb said:
If it wasn't worth it, they wouldn't do it
so you saw that list of stuff Chambers had to do, why did he do it for such a minor advantage?
a minor advantage at the TOP level is surely a MAJOR advantage (if you catch my drift)
they wouldn't do it if it wasn't worth it

Tom_Martin said:
Oh absolutely!!!! Definitely agree however....
My point was in reply to Steves comments about them appearing to not work due to banned lifters coming back and doing even better. It's because the performances you see are most likely after the athlete has stopped taking the drugs in order to pass a test, so when you compare the lifter when he is clean in later years, to these only just clean performances in the past, it's not a million miles away, especially given the extra years he has had to train since then.
Comparing to his training lifts while he was on however, might tell a different story....

Cuddles said:
The 9.87 was an anomoly yes, but so was the 9.99. Most of the times that Chambers have set since coming back have been between 10-10.2 including in fairly big Championships.
To put that into perspective, an ex student of mine ran 10.22 last year, aged 18 and I would be gobsmacked if he is on the sauce.

martinb said:
Ok, lets not beat around the bush, every world clash weightlifter is on, and everybody that gets a gold at a proper event at the Olypics will be on (actually, probably just gets to a final)
Thats my opinion