dhsilv2 wrote:But to your point, the advances in medical science DWARF our advances in drugs. Almost any real advancements today on drugs are to hide them from testers. The world of performance enhancing drugs just isn't being advanced that fast. There isn't money in it with it being illegal in most contexts. Training, diet, and medical assistance is where we're advancing. Drugs are still around and I think most athletes use, will use, or have used them. But while they work...they aren't making you unbreakable. They might make you more breakable.
Just want to touch on this point here, and no point of contention. I've always been interested in the PED talks.
PED advancement will always move forward and look no further than the IFBB for clues on the 'What & How'. It's never going to be a level playing field since OTC purchases can be legal in one country and a banned substrance in the other. So, obvious red flags come up as to why there would be reason for these decisions. But PED's have grown so much from the typical term 'steroids', I think 'Pumping Iron' when I hear that term
, and you can easily see pro-builders, with the best genetics on planet earth, being able to maintain ridiculous muscle mass way into their 50's, 60's even back then. And like everything else, you could see the 'size' comparisons on just how much more mass these athletes could put on versus back in the 50-70's etc. Now, this is probably the most simplistic versions of the drugs without the mixture of Sports Science and the technology available to take it to a few next levels.
Like you mentioned, today's PED supplements are all about masking, meaning that if you can create a version of that 'steroid' (I will just stick with this term) that isn't or hasn't been measured for then you'll never fail a drug test. Also, they can now very accurately describe the length of time the substance remains in your body and precise increases in bodily readings. With the money in today's pro sports, athletes could easily have their own lab teams along with the further advanced training etc. And while no one will come out and admit to this, you can be assured that private money is what is funding these escapades. And the money paid for is far greater because of this.
Re: Unbreakable vs Breakable: As you age, recovery is all that matters. Obviously through body building you see athletes push their bodies to the extreme, so we can easily see how the relationship between steriods & Max load works. But this doesn't do all that much in the recovery period and it's why when you listen to former pro's who admit what they've taken, you're like
. Obviously, it's needed to get to that level, and to be a consideration, where even then there are no guarantees.
Could you still get injured, yes. But are you less injury-prone under normal load with PED's, accidents or mishaps aside, 10000000%.
And if injured, do PED's help you recover faster? 10000000%. That is, of course, the job of the steroid afterall. So you could say that you become much more Captain America than Wolverive/Deadpool. I don't think you become more 'breakable' unless you're adding to yourself something that goes directly against your sport. Example: Djoker adding 15lbs of muscle coming back from injury.
But, regardless of how great you are on the outside, you can't stop the insides of your body from aging or dropping substance levels. And this is why there is even a market to begin with. Gretzky said it best as his career dwindled down. 'My mind was 100% still sharp enough to play, but my hands/feet became just to slow to react after I though it, especially as the new age players got even better at skating'.
