Friday, August 21, 2009

The History of Steroids in Bodybuilding

Periodically on the various internet bodybuilding forums someone makes a completely baseless statement about steroid use, when it started, and who was using them back in the 'old days'. When I see ignorance being masqueraded as fact I almost always feel compelled to join the discussion and refute some of the often outrageous statements being hurled about. I'm going to recap what's known about the history of anabolic steroid use in sports so I can refer people to this entry rather than go through it time and time again.

All reliable sources - publications by Terry Todd, John Fair, Randy Roach, Bill Starr, etc, as well as interviews and letters from John Ziegler, John Grimek, Bill March, etc - indicate that experimentation with testosterone for athletic purposes began in the U.S. sometime in either late 1954 or 1955. These 'trials' were short-lived, however, as the results were disappointing and testosterone use was deemed ineffective and carried the risk of harmful side-effects. A statistical analysis of Olympic-style Weightlifting performances published in the International Journal of the History of Sport concluded that Soviet athletes likely first used testosterone sometime between 1952 and 1956.

Dr. John Ziegler, physician for the U.S. Olympic Weightlifting team (i.e. the York team), described in interviews of learning about the Soviet use of testosterone injections at the 1954 World Weightlifting Championships in Vienna, Austria in October of that year. Some time after returning home, Ziegler convinced York affiliated lifters John Grimek, Jim Park and Yaz Kuzahara to be test subjects and receive testosterone injections (oral testosterone was known to be clinically ineffective by that time). By Grimek's account, the results were disappointing. In a private letter, dated at the time, Grimek spoke of seeing nothing in the way of gains and quiting the injections because he felt he was actually regressing. Jim Park received only one injection which he claimed did nothing for him physically, but made him incredibly horny. It is unclear as to Kuzahara's experience but, in any case, it was not positive enough to warrant continued use and further experimentation was ceased. In light of the terrible side effects that Ziegler had heard of and witnessed Soviet users suffering, and lack of significant results in his own test subjects, no further experimentation with testosterone was tried by the York (U.S.) Weightlifting team for the duration of the 1950s.

This was not the end of Ziegler's involvement with steroids, however. Ziegler began work with CIBA Pharmaceuticals in 1955 to develop a testosterone derivative that would carry the anabolic properties of testosterone without the undesirable side effects. Preliminary results began coming in by 1956, and Dianabol was released to the U.S. prescription drug market in 1958 for use in wasting conditions. CIBA's competitor, Searle, beat them to the market, however, and introduced Nilevar, the first synthetic anabolic/androgenic steroid, to the prescription drug market in 1956 (used as a polio treatment).

In late 1959 (some claim as early as 1958, some as late as 1960) Ziegler decided to try the new Dianabol on some of the non-medal contending York lifters and enlisted Grimek to convince a few lifters to begin taking it under his (Ziegler's) supervision. Lower level or non-competitive lifters were chosen for the initial trials so as not to risk marring the performance of medal contenders at the upcoming 1960 Olympics (Dianabol was, at that time, a relatively untested drug and York chief Bob Hoffman was said to have feared trying it on his top lifters). Bill March, Tony Garcy, John Grimek, Ziegler himself and later Lou Riecke were the first Guinea Pigs, and the results were much more promising this time around.

From there, Dianabol use quickly spread to the entire York Weightlifting team. Now, up-and-coming York lifters and Strength and Health magazine writers such as Bill Starr and Tommy Suggs started letting the secret out to the bodybuilding community, and by the early-to-mid 1960s almost all high-level competitive bodybuilders were taking steroids in the weeks leading up to contests. This pre-contest cycling scheme by bodybuilders was based on the Weightlifters' practice of escalating steroid use in the weeks leading up to lifting meets - the logic being that just as the lifters wanted to be at their best (strongest) come meet day, bodybuilders wanted to peak at their biggest on the day of the contest. It didn't take long for steroid use to spill into the 'off-season' as well, as this allowed bodybuilders to build more ultimate muscle mass.

The man who would go on to become the first Mr. Olympia, Larry Scott, gained 8 pounds of muscle in two months between the 1960 Mr. Los Angeles (in which he placed third), and the 1960 Mr. California (which he won, defeating the two men who had placed above him in the Mr. Los Angeles two months earlier). A year earlier he had won the Mr. Idaho weighing just 152 pounds. Larry credits Rheo Blair, and his protein powder, as being instrumental in his sudden improvement. However, considering Larry's dramatic gains from that point onward, and Blair's reported possession of Nilevar a few years earlier before he even moved to California, it is quite likely that this time in 1960 also marks Larry's first usage of steroids (something to which he admits but, to my knowledge, hasn't specified the date).

But the early 1960s did't mark the true origins of bodybuilder's regular use of steroids, however. In an early edition of his book Getting Stronger, Bill Pearl told of meeting Arthur Jones (founder of the Nautilus line of training equipment and father of the "HIT" style of training) in 1958 and learning of Nilevar from him. After a little further investigation, Pearl began a twelve-week cycle of the steroid and gained 25 pounds. At around that same time, Irvin Johnson (aka Rheo H. Blair - 'father' of the first protein powders) is said to have had Searle's Nilevar in his possession, though he isn't believed to have been widely distributing it to bodybuilders at that time.

So what can we gather from all of this? First of all, no bodybuilder or lifter was using synthetic steroids before 1956 - they didn't exist. Most likely, only the very highest level West Coast bodybuilders knew of them by 1958. From there it seems that knowledge of Nilevar and Dianabol to build muscle and strength was kept relatively in the closet until the early 1960s. After all, Hoffman did not want outside athletes to know his lifters' secrets and he was using their sudden gains via Dianabol to promote his supplement line and isometric training courses and racks. Bill Starr wrote that until he was a national calibre lifter with York in the early 1960s he had never heard of steroids. Reg Park (Mr. Universe 1951, 1958, 1965) said that the first he heard of them were in connection with rumours about East German and Soviet athletes during the 1960 Olympics, though he later heard of "steroids" being used on British POWs from Singapore in WWII as they were being nursed back to health in Australian hospitals. Chet Yorton (Mr. America 1966, Mr. Universe 1966, 1975) has said that he first heard of steroids (Nilevar) in 1964, and decided not to risk using them - Yorton went on to become one of the sports most outspoken campaigners against steroid use and founder of the first drug-tested, natural bodybuilding federation. The condition of national and world level bodybuilders appears to have taken a visible leap between 1960 to 1964.

As for testosterone itself, Paul de Kruif's 1945 book "The Male Hormone" is often cited as "proof" that bodybuilders knew of and were using testosterone in the 1940s. But even though testosterone had been identified by researchers and isolated in laboratory settings as early as the 1930s, it didn't receive FDA approval as a prescription drug until 1950 and, therefore, injectable testosterone was produced only sporadically and in small batches for research purposes, before that time. De Kruif himself made no clear connection between testosterone use and possible athletic applications, though he did briefly raise the question if it could surpass the effects of large vitamin doses in baseball players - aside from this single sentence, his arguments were purely from the perspective of using testosterone to restore the vitality and health of hypogonadal and aging men.

It has been said that John Grimek, upon reading publications such as de Kruif's, was inquiring about testosterone in the 1940s. But he would have had nothing other than a possible hunch that it could be used for athletic purposes, and no source or opportunity to experiment with it. There were, in fact, two companies in California advertising "genuine testosterone" tablets through mail order in the late 1940s, but were ordered to stop by the FDA in early-to-mid 1951 when regulations to control the distribution of controlled substances were tightened. It was well known by researchers at that time, however, that the liver effectively clears almost all orally ingested testosterone within seconds, even very large doses (clearance rate of 24.5mg/min/kg), so these tablets would have produced no effects even if they did contain crystalline testosterone. The low bioavailability of oral testosterone is precisely why injections were used in early research and why synthetic steroids were eventually developed.

It wasn't until 1954/1955 with Ziegler, that Grimek wrote of getting his first testosterone injections. It stands to reason that if even Grimek had no access to bioavailable testosterone before 1954-55 and no knowledge of other top level bodybuilders or lifters using it before then - and as editor of Strength and Health magazine and second in command at York he certainly was in a position to know - then it is very unlikely that anyone in the west was effectively using testosterone for athletic/physique purposes before late 1954/1955. Given that these early experiments were unsuccessful and brief (likely because they knew little about dosing for increased strength and muscle mass), it is most likely that the first western bodybuilders began steroid use not with testosterone itself, but with Nilevar, sometime after 1956 to 1958. From there, Dianabol enters the picture at the elite level and by 1964 even the muscle magazines, such as Iron Man, were writing about what they called the "tissue building drugs".

For a western bodybuilder or lifter to be using testosterone before late 1954/1955 he would had to have known more about the biochemistry of testosterone and it's potential athletic effects than any western sports physician - and have had access to what was then a relatively rarely used prescription drug. He would also had to have known more about how to effectively dose it than John Ziegler, who would go on to co-develop Dianabol just a few years later. Nobody in the west can say for sure exactly when the Soviets began using testosterone, but the likely date is sometime before October 1954 and possibly as early as 1952.

As mentioned, injectable testosterone was first approved for prescription as a cancer, wasting and burn treatment in the U.S. in 1950. Before that it was available for research purposes only, with the FDA tightening regulations and enforcement in the early 1950s. Ads for "genuine testosterone tablets" were placed in national newspapers by two California companies from 1946 to 1951, but the actual ingredients of these tablets were uncontrolled, cannot be verified, and due to the body's clearance rate oral testosterone would be inconsequential anyway. For a bodybuilder to be effectively using testosterone before 1950 he would not only had to have known more about the biochemistry, dosing and potential athletic applications of it than anybody else in the world (including the research scientists working with it), but also have had access to what was then an experimental drug, isolated in limited amounts for controlled research purposes, and not produced in quantity for a public or prescription market. "Snake oil" ads for testosterone tablets, even if they contained what was advertised (which in itself was vague), would not have significantly impacted blood testosterone levels due to the liver's massive testosterone clearance rate and cannot be considered a reliable source.

For these reasons it can be stated with near certainty that Steve Reeves, Clancy Ross, John Grimek, Jack Delinger, Reg Park, John Farbotnik, George Eiferman, etc - who all won major physique titles before the Soviets began using testosterone and before synthetic steroids were introduced in 1956 - were not using bioavailable testosterone or synthetic steroids at the time of their Mr. America, Mr. USA and Mr. Universe wins. Furthermore, it is unlikely that any major title winner was a steroid user before 1957-58 (Pearl won the Mr. USA and Mr. Universe titles in 1956 before his knowledge of Nilevar). Some athletes' careers from the era, such as Reg Park's, do span the introduction of steroids into bodybuilding. In Park's case, he weighed 226 lbs when he won the Mr. Britain title in 1949, 214 lbs when he won the Mr. Universe title in 1951, 215 lbs when he won it the second time in 1958, and 216 lbs when he placed 3rd in 1971 (at age 43 - he returned again in 1973 to place 2nd). If Park did jump on the steroid bandwagon when he learned of them in 1960, then they produced one pound of muscle in 11 years for him.

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

The Seven Deadly Sets

Years ago I regularly trained legs with a friend of mine who prided himself as much as I did on how hardcore his Squat sessions were. A couple of times a week we'd meet up and push each other to the limit in the Squat rack. He was a big dude, much stronger than I was, so I'd make up for the discrepancy in weights by sheer intensity of effort. If I couldn't lift more than him then I'd make him look like a pussy some other way.

A child of this who-is-the-most-hardcore rivalry was something I dubed "The Seven Deadly Sets". Around that time the 10x10 scheme that Steve Reeves used to quickly gain weight back in the late 1940s was experiencing a sort of revival. One of the popular muscle magazines had published an interview with Reeves in which he described selecting just one basic exercise per body part and performing 10 sets of 10 reps of each. Awhile after that George Turner published an article in the same magazine presenting his version of 10x10 which he used in his gyms during the 1950s on up. Then Charles Poliquin re-worded it and presented it as "German Volume Training" - another 'secret' training program of great Eastern Bloc athletes being presented to the western world for the first time (at least if you were 17 years old and didn't know the difference).

10x10 has it's advantages. The volume of work is high, and the fatigue induced and high total workload is ideal for hypertrophy - particularly targeted at the sarcoplasmic as well as the sarcomeric varieties. In addition, a high-volume workload on a basic, compound exercise such as the Squat has been shown to result in maximum training induced growth hormone release. It's short-coming, however, is that the weights simply aren't heavy enough to cause significant strength improvement and is not ideal for sarcomeric hypertrophy training. If you try to do all 10 sets with your 10-rep maximum then you'll be too exhausted to get to the end, or if you do make it you'll need too long between training sessions in order to recover fully (and therefore muscle growth will take a step backwards). 10x10 usually involves starting out with just 60% or so of your 1-rep max and increasing from there when possible.

On the other side of the spectrum was Reg Park's 5x5 approach (which has been claimed as Bill Starr's in America despite Starr first publishing his 5x5 over 20 years after Park made it famous ...and Park probably wasn't first). Park advised performing three heavy work sets of five reps with a weight you could handle for all three sets of five (the first two of the five total sets serve as warmups). This type of heavy work is ideal for promoting strength gains and sarcomeric hypertophy; it has also been shown to result in maximum exercise-induced testosterone release. It isn't likely, however, to be very efficient at promoting sarcoplasmic hypertophy or increasing growth hormone levels. For that, a higher volume is needed.

We chose 7x5-7 - seven sets of five to seven reps, from that point on referred to by us as "The Seven Deadly Sets" ...and after you do them you'll understand why.

Seven sets of five to seven reps represents something of a middle of the road approach between Reeves'/Turner's 10x10 and Park's 5x5. Seven total sets - five work sets and two warmup sets - presents enough volume to result in a strong hypertrophy stimulus, yet the weights involved are heavy enough to promote strength gains. Five- to seven-rep sets should result in substantial testosterone elevation and, particularly if the trainee choses to limit the rests between sets, a substantial growth hormone spike should be acheivable as well. It worked for us, and if set up in a properly cycled routine (you can't just train all-out on a routine like this forever) it will work for you too. ...But it isn't easy.

Here's how to do it...

The Nuts and Bolts

For the first session, take a weight that's 90% of your 5-rep maximum (5RM), or you can use your current 8-rep maximum (it should be about the same), and perform five sets of five reps with about two-minute rests between sets. Before this, perform one warmup set of five reps with 60% of your 5RM and then a set of five with 75% of your 5RM. The first session looks like this:

Set 1 (warmup) - 5 reps with 60% of 5RM
Set 2 (warmup) - 5 reps with 75% of 5RM
Set 3 (work) - 5 reps with 90% of 5RM
Set 4 (work) - 5 reps with 90% of 5RM
Set 5 (work) - 5 reps with 90% of 5RM
Set 6 (work) - 5 reps with 90% of 5RM
Set 7 (work) - 5 reps with 90% of 5RM

Two-minute rests between sets.Most people will be able to get all five heavy sets of five reps, though if you're not accustomed at all to work volumes this high you might only get 3-4 reps on the last set or two. If you don't get all five heavy sets of five reps then use the same weights next session and try until you do. Keep doing that until you do make the last 5x5 with 90% of your 5RM. Once you achieve that (which shouldn't take long) you up the ante by going for seven sets of six reps at the next session. Like this:

Set 1 (warmup) - 6 reps with 60% of 5RM
Set 2 (warmup) - 6 reps with 75% of 5RM
Set 3 (work) - 6 reps with 90% of 5RM
Set 4 (work) - 6 reps with 90% of 5RM
Set 5 (work) - 6 reps with 90% of 5RM
Set 6 (work) - 6 reps with 90% of 5RM
Set 7 (work) - 6 reps with 90% of 5RM

It's fairly likely that if you were pushed to get all 5x5 heavy sets during the last session you won't be able to suddenly jump to 5x6 this time. That's fine, you're not really expected to - just do what you can do. Perhaps you only get something like 6,6,5,5,4 on your heavy sets. It doesn't really matter - all that matters is that next time you improve your performance by getting at least one more rep on one of the sets that you didn't get 6 reps on last time. For example, at the next session you might get 6,6,6,5,4. That's an improvement. Keep working towards all 5x6 with 90% of your 5RM, and at that point start trying for 5x7. Eventually, you'll get to...

Set 1 (warmup) - 7 reps with 60% of 5RM
Set 2 (warmup) - 7 reps with 75% of 5RM
Set 3 (work) - 7 reps with 90% of 5RM
Set 4 (work) - 7 reps with 90% of 5RM
Set 5 (work) - 7 reps with 90% of 5RM
Set 6 (work) - 7 reps with 90% of 5RM
Set 7 (work) - 7 reps with 90% of 5RM

At that point you'll be at least several weeks, perhaps months into the program and your strength will have increased by approximately 3%-7% (everyone's different). At your next heavy session test for a new 5RM or 8RM and then start the cycle over again the following session, warming up to 5x5 with 90% of your new 5RM (or use your new 8RM for the initial session of 5's).

What it Takes to Get The Seven Deadly Sets to Work

Obviously, this is a stressful workload - it shouldn't be attempted by beginners or anybody without at least several months experience on any lift they're considering using The Seven Deadly Sets for. This is a high-intermediate to advanced level program only.

Additionally, a workload like this requires plenty of food and rest to support it. At it's peak, 7x7 gives a total of 35 heavy reps each session. That gives quite a growth stimulus to the system. Immediately after the workout you should get in at least 30 grams of protein and 60 grams of carbs if you want to make the most of it. Then for the next 36-48 hours don't hold back your calories below maintenance levels. If you want to grow, consume at least 300 calories a day more than maintenance on the day you do 7x5-7 and on the next day as well. Get plenty of good protein and fats.

It's common sense that hard work requires sleep and rest, so I won't beat it to death here. If you want to succeed let your body recover from what you've done to it.

In any case, no matter what you do, you'll eventually need a break from this routine. Any good routine will go stale eventually and when that happens you need a change of pace. When 7x7 goes 'cold' switch to a low-volume, high-intensity style routine (but don't train past failure) for a few weeks as this type of training allows somewhat of a de-loading phase compared to a higher volume 7x7. After you go stale on 7x7 you should see a few weeks of rapid strength gains by switching to a HIT-style program as the gains stimulated by 7x7 are allowed to manifest. (I say "HIT-style" but training past failure is not recommended - do 1-2 'hard' sets per exercise, not necessarily even to failure, but certainly 'tough'.)

Training Frequency

Most high intermediate-to-advanced trainees should be able to handle 7x7 once every 5-7 days. To play it safe I tend to recommend performing it once a week for each major lift (or whatever major lift you want to use it on) with a second day of lower volume but perhaps heavier work later in the week (ideally four days after the 7x7). For instance, if you did 7x7 on Squats on Monday you might come back on Friday and work up to just one heavy set of 3-8 reps. Don't do the same rep count on this day for extended periods. Switch things around every few weeks. Perhaps for three weeks try a heavy set of five reps on the second day, trying to increase the weight each week; then switch to a set of eight or even three reps for a few weeks - always trying to improve your performance on this day but not pushing so intensely that you're worried you might miss your reps or have to seriously psyche up for the set.

One heavy set is a different type of stimulus than 7x7 - it isn't as metabolically stressful but the high-intensity/low-volume load can promote gains of it's own. Don't use intensity techniques such as forced reps, negatives, any type of beyond failure training, etc, on the second day, however - you need your nervous system to recover in time for 7x7 again a few days later. Do a "hard" set, but shy of failure, and call it done. The two approaches - 7x7 and 1x3-8 - complement each other nicely and should spur strength and size gains.

Wrap Up

The Seven Deadly Sets work well for any major barbell or dumbell exercise (though may be more suitable for barbell work). The 90% of your 5RM that you start the cycle with represents only about 80% of your 1RM, or roughly what you could handle for one all-out set of 8 reps. This is a load traditionally thought of as ideal for hypertrophy and bodybuilding type training. Yet, it is also heavy enough to promote regular strength gains. In addition, it isn't so heavy that it should torment your joints and fry your nervous system.

But it isn't at all easy. The first few sets probably won't seem so tough, but by the end, as fatigue accumulates, you'll know you're into something serious. It's as hardcore and productive as it's name implies... which is just what most trainees need.