Long term muscle memory response to steroids

[Freddythefrog]

Interesting article today

Three months after withdrawal of the drug (approximately 15 per cent of a mouse's life span) their muscles grew by 30 per cent over six days following load exercise. The untreated mice grew insignificantly.

This follows on from a piece last week in the BMJ where the response life of muscles post washout of anabolic steroids, in humans, was given as 8.3 +/-3.2 years . That generated a piece I picked up here about the author Savulescu who is a long term advocate of legalising the use of PEDs in sport, because the fight is lost.

All in all, both scientific studies of both mice(15% of lifespan) and men (12% of lifespan) make the 2 year bans look like a little bit pathetic. The BMJ references on study of humans look quite detailed.

 

[IrishBias]

Interesting article today

Three months after withdrawal of the drug (approximately 15 per cent of a mouse's life span) their muscles grew by 30 per cent over six days following load exercise. The untreated mice grew insignificantly.

This follows on from a piece last week in the BMJ where the response life of muscles post washout of anabolic steroids, in humans, was given as 8.3 +/-3.2 years . That generated a piece I picked up here about the author Savulescu who is a long term advocate of legalising the use of PEDs in sport, because the fight is lost.

All in all, both scientific studies of both mice(15% of lifespan) and men (12% of lifespan) make the 2 year bans look like a little bit pathetic. The BMJ references on study of humans look quite detailed.

How many years does the athlete need to take them to get the benefit long after being off them?

 

[Freddythefrog]

One report - long term users in were 5 to 12 years. These had significant very long term permanent muscle cell changes over the ones who had not taken supplements. As little time as a 20 week program was creating changes which had long term effects. All quite difficult to quantify as the sample group were not homogenous.

All samples trained for 4 to 6 times per week for 2 to 3 hours per session and were high level competition weight lifters.

Get on the gear, serve a ban if you are dull enough to be caught, but you have the gains long after you run clear in the tests. Easy init! No wonder Lance posted his picture of him reclining under his 7 framed yellow jerseys. "Suckers! It was great whilst it lasted and its great now ! I've got a ranch and you haven't."

 

[The Hitch]

Clearly it has a massive effect on memory considering how forgetfull dopers become - eg look at how Ogrady totally forgot he had been an epo user when he started to "commit to anti doping", or how poor Zabel could only ever remember doping the once and was shocked to find out actually he had been doping his entire career etc.

 

[Briant_Gumble]

Clearly it has a massive effect on memory considering how forgetfull dopers become - eg look at how Ogrady totally forgot he had been an epo user when he started to "commit to anti doping", or how poor Zabel could only ever remember doping the once and was shocked to find out actually he had been doping his entire career etc.

Lol, that was quite good.

 

[The GCW]

BBC News

Steroids can benefit athletes for a decade after use

"New research suggests that athletes who use steroids for a short period can benefit for their entire careers."

Cont.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24730151

 

[ro1324]

always better

Not a big surprise IMHO.
I always thought that whoever gets the body shaped by steroids and other PED will always have the better on the clean athlete and increase the span of the athletic career. If you are smart and don't blow yourself up you can definitely shortcut a few seasons of drug free training and mature more quickly.
You can't have a fanclub, a special paint bike or whatever unless you are going to be around a few seasons winning a few majors in a row. With Dr. Ferrari-type strict management PED can definitely increase the body stability and predictability of day-in day-out training.
Its just the way of the world.

 

[blackcat]

just see how Cipollini came back at Tour of California. And how Armstrong thought he could basically come back on the back of blood vestors and steroids.

 

[sublimit]

Clearly it has a massive effect on memory considering how forgetfull dopers become - eg look at how Ogrady totally forgot he had been an epo user when he started to "commit to anti doping", or how poor Zabel could only ever remember doping the once and was shocked to find out actually he had been doping his entire career etc.

I hoping against the use of drugged lab mice in clinical trials in a bid to improve pro cyclists memories. That would be unethical.

We need human volunteers for this IMO.

 

[Taxus4a]

Watching Contador, al least a year there are some advantage.

 

[Master50]

It looks like we should all let our licences laps for a year and come back clean yet improved. Maybe riders considering a career should make sure to dope before they take a racing licence to get the lifetime benefit. Had I took steroids for a couple of years before I started racing I probably would have made it to cat 3.

 

[StyrbjornSterki]

Sorry for picking nits but this is misapplication of the term. "Muscle memory" is the term used for "motor training," which is the objective of endlessly practicing piano or shooting a million basketball freethrows. Thereafter, the muscles seems to act without conscious thought, as if they "remember."

Michael van Gerwen tosses 19 PERFECT consecutive darts.
Michael Jordan shoots a freethrow WITH HIS EYES CLOSED (nuthin' but net).

THAT is muscle memory.


The change 'roids produce in muscles occurs at the cellular level anyway so "cellular memory" or "mitochondrial memory" probably is a more apt description.

But being as it's the Beeb, props for not misspelling it.

 

[Radders]

Interesting reading. I had a friend who was a semi-professional rugby player who said that it was common practice to bulk up with steroids as an amateur, then go clean as a pro as you would retain a good deal of the strength benefits.

 

[proffate]

some cryptic non-information in this article too: http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/cancer-specialist-outlines-new-method-to-detect-doping

detecting doping 5 years later.

 

[alanshearer]

It looks like we should all let our licences laps for a year and come back clean yet improved. Maybe riders considering a career should make sure to dope before they take a racing licence to get the lifetime benefit. Had I took steroids for a couple of years before I started racing I probably would have made it to cat 3.

Funny. I always thought that was the loophole, at least for amateurs. Seems like there's nothing to prohibit an amateur from letting the license lapse to dope, so long he or she stops before taking out the license again. Am I missing something?

 

[Dear Wiggo]

Would it allow you to come top 10 in your first ever triathlon, after a life time of pro cycling using hard training and harder PEDs?