STEROIDS
By: Brandon Carta
Intro To Sociology
Steroids in Society
In sports today, kids have the desire to be stronger, better, and
faster. Many kids have a lot of pressure from coaches and their
parents to play college sports, and be the best they can be.
Parents who are paying thousands of dollars for their son to play a
sport want their money to pay off by their son going to play a college
sport on a scholarship. Kids today are also affected by society
since they are seeing professional athletes who they look up to take
steroids.
Steroids are hormones than can boost the body’s
ability to prevent muscle breakdown, and produce muscle. I
believe when kids hear that steroids produce body muscle, which catches
them. Kids get brought into steroids when they hear that all they
need to do is take a pill and workout, and they will gain great
strength. Kids never seem to think of the side effects such as
extreme anger problems, kidney failure, sperm loss, and severe back
acne.
According to my source ebsco host, steroids are a
huge factor in the Texas High School program. Players are
encouraged by their coach to take steroids, and steroids are available
to get from coaches in Texas. A coach is supposed to be a
role model for his athletes, not a drug dealer. Giving athletes
steroids only hurts them in the long run, when their bodies can shut
down, and function improperly. In another source it
explains how students should be motivated to succeed in a sport, not by
taking a pill, which enhances your performance. Players such as
Babe Ruth and Ted Williams were the greatest hitters of all time and
they never took any steroids or performance enhancement drugs.
Many kids today are very lazy and they do not want to work for their
achievements. Kids do not want to get up and workout for one to
two hours a day and build their body naturally; they want the easy way
out by taking steroids. Our society also has a huge impact on
kids and steroid usage. Today, kids look up to athletes such as
Alex Rodriguez, and Jason Giambi who were large steroid users. By
huge worldwide icons such as Rodriguez and Giambi taking steroids gives
their role models the wrong view on how to improve your game.
A key concept in both sports and society today is
parents encouraging their children to take steroids. I asked my parents “How do you feel about parents
encouraging their children to take steroids?” and they responded very
strongly and negatively. I can agree with my parents because
if I were a father I would be so upset and feel so offended if my son
or daughter ever took steroids. I would never want my children to
be considered cheaters, and I would never want my children to harm
there bodily negatively. If anyone from any age wants to improve
their strength or athletic performance, they should seek help from a
personal trainer or a coach. A personal trainer or coach is only
going to help your performance both positively and naturally. A
personal trainer or coach will stay away from steroids.
According to my research steroids were huge in baseball in the early
90’s. People often referred to steroids as gym candy. They
referred to steroids as gym candy because they technically were not a
banned substance in Major League Baseball at the time, and many
clubhouses had them around, and they were shared throughout clubhouses,
which is why reporters gave steroids the nickname “gym-candy”.
According to my research Major League Baseball did a random survey
throughout the entire league. All you had to do was write your
name and what type of steroids or performance enhancement drugs that
you have used. Major League Baseball then told the players that
the survey was going to be confidential and never released to the
public. In 2003 the list was released and led to a huge
investigation of the players who answered yes that they have used
steroids or performance enhancement drugs. (
http://www.steroidsinbaseball.net/) This brought on
a huge phenomenon to the players. They felt much anger since they
thought that their names would never be released. The players
felt as though they would be looked at differently and that they
betrayed their fans and families. Steroids bring on a large
phenomenon of how you want to portray yourself. Are you a cheater
or a hard worker? On a
personal basis of this essay, I would want to be known as a hard
worker. Being a pro athlete is a gift from God. Athletes
should accept their natural ability and play using their natural
ability, not from the help of steroids or performance enhancement
drugs. Although steroids are usually criticized in sports, they
appear largely in weightlifting and bodybuilding. (http://newsblaze.com/story/20100112193232j112.nb/topstory.html) Today, there
are two different types of body building competitions: Natural body
building and Steroid body building. Natural body building is all
natural weightlifting without the usage of steroids or performance
enhancement drugs, and Steroid body building consists of free usage of
any steroids. You normally can tell by looking at the body who is
on steroids and who is not on steroids, such as the image above in my
website is Ronnie Coleman. Ronnie Coleman is a body builder who
uses steroids. You can tell he uses steroids by his body looking
as if it is pure steel, and his muscles shredding through his
body. I believe that steroid body building competitions should
not be a competition. It should not be a competition because you
are not showing your "actual/natural" strength. Down deep the
body builder may not be that naturally strong, but due to the steroids
that he may be taking, it makes his muscle production increase while he
is working out which makes him have a "hulk" like body.(
http://www.steroid.com/)
I believe steroid usage can be prevented today by
preaching to young adults about the effects of steroids when they are
in high school. I believe it should me preached in high school
because it is the time of most young adults life when they are
pressured and have to start making serious life decisions. Some
kids may go on an athletic scholarship once they leave high school and
enter college. Before they get to college, it would be perfect to
give them so valid knowledge on the effects of steroids, so they do not
attempt to experiment or try steroids in their college training
atmosphere. Steroids are also used by women. Steroids are more
heavily used by men. Women have been caught in the olympic's
generally taking performance enhancement drugs rather than actual
anabolic steroids. Women can experience severe health issues from
steroids such as fatal death. Steroids tend to not be as fatal
with men as they are with women. The reason is that women do not
have the muscle structure that a man has, and a man can break down the
anabolic steroid and handle the muscle production a lot better than a
female can.
My advice to all young men today is to be the best
you can be. When you need help during a sport or in training pull
out that inner strength and gain motivation. Having great inner
strength and motivation is better than any steroid or performance
enhancement drug. Having good motivation makes you appreciate your
achievements a lot more since you worked hard to reach your goal and
earn it. An athlete Ray Lewis who is in the National Football
League and plays for the Baltimore Ravens plays with the most
motivation and passion in the world. He trains with a purpose
with great motivation which makes him that much more intense on the
football field.
(http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/magazine/03/11/steroids1/index.html) Ray Lewis has always tested negative on his
yearly anabolic steroid tests and performance enhancement tests.
His blood, sweat, and tears is the result of the National Football icon
that he is today.
Bibliography
http://www.steroid.com/
http://www.steroidsinbaseball.net/
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/magazine/03/11/steroids1/index.html
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3153509
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/28/steroids-baseball-america-drugs-kill-sports_n_841475.html
http://newsblaze.com/story/20100112193232j112.nb/topstory.html
Jason Giambi