Brian Cushing, the NFL’s Defensive Rookie of the Year, has been suspended for failing a drug test, allegedly testing positive for hCG. hCG is human Chorionic Gonadotrophin and is commonly used by drug cheats when they are coming off a steroid cycle because it helps to stimulate the body’s natural testosterone production.  A drug cheat needs to stimulate their testosterone production because using exogenous testosterone (external to the organism) shuts down the natural production of this hormone.

But all of this is a distraction from the real issue.  The real issue is that people have to stop being surprised, become more skeptical and stop being gullible.  Stop being surprised when athletes fail steroid tests.  Be skeptical when a 165-pound high school kid turns into a 220-pound high school senior, 250-pound college senior and a pro athlete who adds muscle well past the time when physical maturity ends.  Don’t be gullible to think that there are some secrets to training and nutrition that continue to be “discovered” and that are responsible for creating the physical specimens that grace the fields of competitive sports.

There are no real training, nutritional and supplement secrets.  Performance enhancing drug use is the secret. The training hasn’t changed appreciably over the past 50 years, and while diet and supplementation has improved from what it was a half century ago, nothing has really changed in the past 20­­­­-years to explain the massive growth of our athletes.  So don’t believe the nonsense that elite athletes and trainers know things nobody else knows.

Nothing, that is, except steroid and human growth hormone use.  The other drugs these athletes get popped for are part of the overall drug regimen they use.  There aren’t just two, or three or ten drugs used by the drug cheats.  Human growth hormone was being used over 20-years ago, well before 99.99% of the population had even heard of it.  So it stands to reason that in the year 2010 athletes have moved on and are using the next generation of substances, substances that 99.99% of the population hasn’t heard of yet.

So Brian Cushing failed a drug test and got caught cheating.  Big deal, get used to it.

Here is a list of reasons as to why HGH – right now – is the ideal drug for athletes.  With the latest edition of the steroids in sport scandal that involves professional athletes from Major League Baseball, as well as other sports, people need to understand why these supplements are desirable to pro athletes.

And you won’t get this kind of info if you depend on the mainstream media and sports news outlets…

Body builders have enjoyed the benefits of human growth hormone, used in conjunction with a variety of other anabolic agents, for over 20 years but only in recent years have legit athletes started to catch on to this “better” kind of performance enhancing drugs.

1)       Human growth hormone provides a potent anabolic effect; it builds muscle.  Without turning this into a biochem lesson – especially since that’s way over my head – suffice to say that HGH increases the body’s ability to synthesize protein, and that this allows for muscle tissue to be built.  Human growth hormone use produces the holy grail of all anabolic benefits, hyperplasia.  Hyperplasia is the permanent increase in the amount of muscle cells.  Over the years there have been many steroids that were alleged to result in creating new muscle cells, but HGH is the substance that actually delivers this incredible benefit. HGH also increases the size of existing muscle cells.

So with HGH you have a situation where the size of existing muscle cells are increased AND a permanent creation of new muscle cells.  So a person could go on a cycle of human growth hormone therapy, which would create new muscle cells that remain after HGH therapy stops.  The longer the person remains on this regimen the more new muscle cells will be produced.  This person would then have more muscle than he did before the therapy and reap all of the performance benefits that come with increased muscle even after the end of therapy.

Additionally, human growth hormone has a positive strengthening affect on connective tissues such as ligaments, tendons and cartilage and at an accelerated rate. Old injuries will heal and these tissues will be strengthened which can potentially minimize future injuries as well.  There is no doubt that human growth hormone therapy is being used in conjunction with the surgery and rehab of professional athletes, which has had the effect of getting athletes back on the field quicker than ever. These connective tissue benefits make HGH much more attractive than the use of old school steroids, as steroids only positively affect muscle tissue, while having a negative effect on connective tissue.

2)      HGH provides metabolic benefits such as helping the body burn more fat than usual, and serves as a protein-sparing agent as well.   HGH administration triggers the release of fatty acids from fat stores and the body winds up burning more fat than carbohydrates to meet energy requirements.  This is why athletes on human growth hormone can have extremely low levels of body fat while maintaining extremely high levels of muscle mass.

Without drugs, there is a kind of equilibrium between body fat and muscle mass.  If body fat is too low a person’s muscle mass will decrease as well.  HGH also has an anti-catabolic effect (protein sparing), which means that muscle protein isn’t broken down during periods of intense exercise or in the case of calorie restriction.  This anti-catabolic effect means that athletes can recovery quicker from competition and training.

3)      HGH is legal and can be acquired and administered by a physician, and as a result, the intelligent athlete can use medical privacy regulations to avoid the spotlight. The dose at which HGH is effective is small, which minimizes risk and – in most cases – allows the physician to avoid breaking any laws or breaching any ethical standards.

Additionally, due to the stresses of professional sports there is a very good chance that most – if not all athletes – would test for low hormonal levels during their season.  This means HGH can be administered in order to normalize an athlete’s levels.  This kind of therapeutic dose can provide enormous benefits to an athlete during their season. This is an important distinction to make.  If an athlete does test for low HGH levels – which most would or could – this is a case of using HGH as it is intended and not abusing it.

There are doctors all across the country that are openly practicing this kind of medicine.  One could argue that these doctors are incorrect in their uses of HGH, but this argument doesn’t seem to hold any more weight than the counter argument that there are no appropriate “off-label” uses of HGH. These are the major reasons as to why HGH is so popular among athletes.

There are other reasons as well, but this is enough for now.  And it is worth noting that testosterone when used in similarly appropriate doses, in conjunction with HGH is an extremely potent supplement cocktail from which all athletes would benefit greatly.

Remember, this isn’t an effort to rationalize or justify the use of HGH and testosterone.  I am simply recognizing and pointing out reasons why athletes – or anybody who works out for that matter – would find these substances so desirable.   What I will say is that when you understand what these drugs can do for athletes, and understand the nature of risks involved with playing professional sports – especially football – the case can be made that some supplementation may be appropriate and even necessary.

Comments made by Mark McGwire’s bodybuilding idiot of a brother illustrate A) what a joke bodybuilding is and B) why bodybuilders should NEVER be allowed anywhere near real athletes.

So Mark McGwire’s loose-cannon brother has come out with a book, and in it he details his big brother’s steroid and Human Growth Hormone (HGH) taking regimen.  Does anyone really care what this little man has to say about his disgraced brother? As a matter of fact, who really could be interested in what he might have to say about anything, what it’s like to be the talentless brother?  Is there that much interest in bottom feeders these days?

Note: Someone should ask Jay if he helped his NFL quarterback of a brother Dan McGwire get an edge, as well.

Jay McGwire’s comments really speak volumes about how little bodybuilders know and why they should be ignored when they talk about athletic performance.  Here’s a sample of idiocy from Little Jay, “Oh, his strength. His leg strength was awesome. I talked about what he is doing on the leg press — over 600 pounds for 20 reps. That is pretty good for a baseball player. And that is the key in baseball, I think. … Mark didn’t really have big legs until after that. He couldn’t do some other serious leg workouts because of his lower back issues, so we had to be careful with that.”

Hey Jay, did you stop and think the leg press machine might be responsible for your brother’s back problems?  What did you do to try to strengthen the lower back, huh? Also, as a guy who supposedly spent a lot of time in the gym, you should know that 600-pounds on the leg press is common-place, unless you’ve spent your time in Curves’ gyms.  And come on, what functional purpose does the leg press serve for a baseball player, not to mention for a guy who is approaching the end of his career? A lot of people can leg press 600-pounds for 20 repetitions, I have seen it countless times and it is completely unimpressive.  It also proves nothing and is indicative/predictive of nothing.

More nonsense. “And obviously his arm strength, getting those hands through the [hitting] zone. Think about it, it is pretty remarkable. He is gaining 30 pounds over three years, and that is the right way to do it because you go slow and the body reacts slow in the ways of getting it more flexible. So Mark was more flexible 30 pounds heavier. Now think about that torque that he could have. That is why the ball was going out of stadiums.”

WTF? This is gibberish. It would take thousands and thousands of words to try to decipher this garbage. It’s classic bodybuilding, throw some jargon around, figure you’ll impress/intimidate people who supposedly don’t know as much, and Voila, you sound like an expert.  He actually sounds like a moron.

At 170-180 pounds Roger Maris, Mickey Mantle and Hank Aaron were hitting home runs, why couldn’t Mark McGwire hit them at 225-pounds?  Oh, and the Cardinals’ new hitting instructor had more strike outs than hits during his years as an active player in St. Louis.

Then Jay McGwire spoke about his brother’s drug cycles.  More Neanderthal musings.  Just like Greg Anderson, the alleged personal trainer who ruined Barry Bonds’ body with steroids and unsound training, Jay McGwire dosed his brother up with massive amounts of drugs.  Again, bodybuilders who don’t do anything that can be considered even remotely athletic just need to add muscle, and ingest tons of drugs.  Baseball players and real athletes don’t need to pack on muscle at any cost, especially at the cost Jay McGwire exacted on his brother’s body.

No less of an expert than BALCO Labs’ Victor Conte says, “The first thing you are going to see is size. You are using Dbol (Dianabol) and this stuff at this dosage, you’re going to look like Hercules, if he is doing the weight training. At 12 weeks and those dosages, this is not baby food.”  By the way, you can train like Olive Oil and you’ll look like Popeye if you dose up like Mark McGwire did.

The final insult comes in the form of this statement by Jay McGwire, “Jay McGwire repeatedly stressed that any changes weren’t just from the drugs, but that his brother trained ridiculously hard, often six days a week. And the combination paid off.” This is just bullshit.  The drugs are responsible for allowing someone to train “ridiculously hard, six days a week.” Don’t buy this nonsense. And don’t but the malarkey that teammates and team personnel didn’t know what was going on.

Mark McGwire cheated by taking performance-enhancing drugs because he wanted to break home run hitting records and his brother was right there with him every step of the way.

As the New York Times reports that Dr. Anthony Galea, a physician who has treated Tiger Woods, is being investigated for providing Performance Enhancing Drugs to athletes, debate is being waged on sports talk shows across the radio dial; did the revealed-to-be-a-horn dog golfing great use steroids or human growth hormone and if he did, how much, if any, did these drugs help?

As usual, when discussing athletes and PED use, logic and facts take a back seat to emotions, incorrect and inconsistent assertions, and misinformation about what these drugs can and cannot do.

Arguments are being forwarded in this debate that were used when baseball players got caught using steroids and HGH.  Steroids don’t make the athlete, technique does; bulk doesn’t help these athletes; young athletes don’t really get any benefits from the recovery benefits offered by PEDs; the athletes were great when they were teenagers and young men, so why would they need to take PEDs to get any better, and the list goes on.

Different sports and different athletes, but the same bad info and faulty logic.

For the sake of discussion, let’s accept the” big picture” assertion made by some folks that athletic performance in golf is (somehow) different than all other athletic endeavors, and therefore, steroid use cannot improve the swing and play of a golfer.

So what?

Tiger has displayed such incredibly bad judgment in the way he has handled his personal life it’s entirely reasonable that he would use the same faulty decision making process regarding the use of PEDs.  Knowing what we know about this mess, Tiger’s reasoning skills are obviously suspect.

What we know about athletes who use PEDs, their motivation is that they believe taking the drugs will help.  It is also clear that many athletes are willing to go to extreme measures to be successful and to gain an edge over the competition.  In this regard, could Tiger be that different from Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Rodney Harrison or any other uber-competitive, successful athlete?

The nonsense about increased muscle mass – aka “bulk”- and steroid/HGH use comes from what people think they know what these drugs can do as a result of stories about body builders and other meat heads.  Unless the definition and physics of “athleticism” and “ability to perform more work” has changed, increased muscle mass is never a bad thing; a relatively small increase in muscle mass can reap large performance benefits.

A golfer, baseball player, tennis player, swimmer or any other athlete will benefit from increased muscle mass and athletes who use PEDs don’t have to look like this, they look like this.

By the way, Tiger is known to have hit the weighs hard and has added muscle to his body over the past several years, so it’s clear that Tiger thinks adding muscle to his frame will help his game.

Again, for the sake of argument if we accept the line of reasoning that adding muscle is detrimental to a golfer’s performance to explain why Tiger Woods would not use PEDs, how can this “no improvement” be measured?  Whether from weight lifting and PED use, or weight lifting alone, if he wasn’t as muscular would he have won more tournaments?  First, there’s no way to know this and second it is not logical to say that Woods wouldn’t use PEDs simply because he didn’t want to add muscle mass.

In the real world we can’t ignore the facts for the sake of argument and the unshakeable reality is that additional muscle is beneficial to any athlete, athletes are aware of this, and as a result follow many strategies – ethical and unethical, legal and illegal – to improve their performance.  However, while increased muscle mass can’t be considered to be a detriment, there is no doubt that a golfer – or any athlete – can decrease performance and increase their risk of injury by following an improper weight lifting regimen.

There is no evidence that Tiger Woods has taken steroids, human growth hormones or any other banned PEDs.  However, absent any proof, hackneyed and ignorant arguments cannot be used to explain why he wouldn’t.

Bodybuilding has been responsible for creating an almost endless list of ridiculous fitness and nutritional myths, and an exercise called Zottman curls serves as a great example of this. Some may consider Zottman curls to be a “bodybuilding secret,” when in reality it’s just bodybuilding nonsense.

Thanks to guys who used prodigious amounts of anabolic steroids, human growth hormone, insulin and a variety of other pharmaceuticals, the bodybuilding philosophy became synonymous with health and fitness. The bodybuilding secret is that drugs are responsible for the impressive physiques that dominate bodybuilding.  For decades this ineffective and inefficient method of training has served as the basis for the diet and exercise programs for gym rats and competitive athletes alike.

The flawed premise was (and for some still “is”) that a 225-pound guy with 3-percent body fat knew what he was doing and everyone should follow his program simply because he looked good.  Bodybuilding, or “reductionist” training, breaks the body down into parts and is all about appearance over performance.

Zottman curls are a great example of how obsession with appearance combined with a faulty philosophy spawns an exercise that becomes known as a “bodybuilding secret.”

Zottman curls are performed with dumbbells.

• The dumbbells are curled to the shoulders
• At the top position dumbbells are rotated outward so palms are facing forward
• Dumbbells are lowered to starting position and returned to original position

Google “Zottman curls” and you’ll find the usual nonsense that this exercise will give your arms “new age gains,” will “build bigger biceps,” and the classic “works the biceps and the forearms.”  There’s even a demonstration of seated Zottman curls that are a lazy man’s bodybuilding secret.

The “benefit” that Zottman curls work forearms is laughable because any exercise done holding any kind of weight works forearms. Also, bodybuilders use wrist straps for pulling exercises, and these straps actually remove the forearms from the equation. But that’s the nonsense behind all of the bodybuilding secrets.

Arm strength, and the concomitant size of biceps and triceps, is developed by performing heavy pulling and pushing exercises and not by doing Zottman curls.  Muscular development occurs as a result of lifting (and holding) heavy weights without the aid of wrist wraps or straps.  The bodybuilding secrets that deal with exercises for biceps and triceps are a waste of time and effort.

As news about Manny Ramirez’s steroid use dribbles out more questions need to be asked.

As of Friday night, May 15, 2009 here’s where we stand with Manny Ramirez’s steroid suspension story.

• Manny’s HCG use was a distraction from the real issue that Manny had synthetic testosterone in his system
• HCG use does not produce synthetic testosterone
• HCG was not present in Ramirez’s failed drug test
• Manny’s testosterone/epitestosterone ratio was between 4:1 and 10:1 (99.999% of humans have a 1:1 ratio)
• Manny’s first attempted defense of DHEA use was laughable, farcical, ham-handed, etc.
• There are now questions about the mysterious Florida doctor who Manny alleged prescribed HCG, the female fertility drug

The media has done a pretty good job covering the story thus far, and many analysts have come down hard on the steroid using Los Angeles Dodger slugger.  However, there are plenty of issues that need to be brought up and considered, and questions that need to be asked.

The most obvious issue is that given what Manny has pretty much ‘fessed up to or been caught “doing” – HCG use, synthetic testosterone use, DHEA use, T/E ratio between 4:1 and 10:1 – we can posit that Manny is either a heavy user of steroids, a long time user of steroids or both.  This stack is so old school that you can wonder if it has been the preferred cocktail of choice of Manny for quite a long time.

In this day and age every meathead bodybuilder wanna-be with access to a computer and an Internet connection knows that there are better, undetectable ways to build a better body so it strains credulity to make the case that Manny got caught the first time he used a drug(s) that could be detected by the most primitive testing protocols.  Guys who experience success with a cycle over time tend to stay with what they know best and what works for them.

HCG is used by steroid users to jumpstart their testosterone production because their natural production shuts down.  Long-term, heavy use of steroids can result in endocrine system problems and sexual dysfunction.

Just as in the ARod case, you have to wonder if Manny Ramirez also used human growth hormone (HGH).  Since drug screening cannot detect HGH use there’s no way to know if Ramirez used but, given what we know about baseball players, the question still needs to be asked.  It hasn’t been.

As the story develops more details will emerge and the big break could be the identity of Manny Ramirez’s Florida doctor.  The bottom line is that the Manny Ramirez story is yet another indication that elite athletes use drugs to produce remarkable results.

So, Manny Ramirez allegedly tests positive for Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (HCG). What a meathead. I’d love to know who his personal trainer is.

This represents sports doping at its worst. I’ve never used, never seen these drugs, but for God’s sake if someone asked me what to do I’d know better. For all of the money, and the privilege opportunity to work with the best and brightest, Manny has obviously worked with the worst and dumbest.

Just a little lowdown on the female hormone that Manny said a doctor gave him for his personal health issue. One word, “crap.” But since one word answers like “crap” make for short careers as successful bloggers, I’ll give you a little more grist.

While HCG influences ovulation in women, it also produces androgens such as testosterone, that nice hormone that makes big strong muscles and helps with recovery.  It also will give a guy erections that are known as “Purple Steel.” Sorry about that, but it’s the truth.

HCG injections – not pills, injections – can increase testosterone levels by as much as 300% over normal. So while HCG is used to help guys on heavy steroids cycles kick start their natural testosterone production, used alone it can raise ”test” levels enough to make a huge difference for an otherwise healthy competitive athlete.

By the way, “natural” bodybuilders use this scam to claim that they are natural.  Since they aren’t injecting testosterone to increase their levels, they can say they are natural because the increase in testosterone levels is not from a direct, external injection of testosterone, but from a naturally occurring substance that stimulates testosterone production.  You can never believe bodybuilders.

I’ll be on XM channel142, Fox Sports Radio, Friday morning May 8 at around 8:30AM on the Steve Czaban Show, Fox’s national morning sports talk show. The show repeats and the segment will be replayed at around 2:30PM. Check in with the show if you can.

The case for “all athletes are using steroids” – the NBA, NHL,NFL, MLB and NCAA – can be made by using some basic physiological facts.  The most obvious being that once guys hit their last growth spurt – late teens to early 20s – they aren’t able to naturally put on the kind of muscle we’re seeing them add.  The 6’ 5”, 235-pound, 5^th year college senior who morphs into a 6’ 5” 265-pounder with the superhero physique, is the prime culprit.

Dr. Charles Yesalis, the leading authority on the subject athletes using steroids, has hammered this point repeatedly for years.  The fact is 24-year old guys can’t add 20-pounds of muscle and get leaner – and compete at this high level – naturally.  There have been no revolutionary developments in the fields of conditioning and nutrition to explain these physical transformations.

Advanced nutritional, strength and conditioning concepts are available to all NCAA-scholarship level talent – and for all levels – to take advantage of, so it cannot be said that the strength regimens at the professional level are responsible for the incredible growing athlete.

Furthermore, when you realize that even if there were more stringent testing procedures in place there’s two reasons testing will never eliminate doping.

First, the allowable testosterone/epitestosterone ratio of 4:1 is ludicrous.  Nobody natural is anywhere near this ratio.  Don’t believe the nonsense coming from apologists that athletes are different. We are all walking around with a ratio of 1:1, so athletes are allowed to dope up to almost 4 times the natural testosterone levels before they’ll fail a drug test.

Since there’s no test for HGH, we can safely assume these physical transformations are due to a drug regimen that uses HGH and testosterone at a dosage that keeps athletes beneath the 4:1 level.

Alex Rodriguez is not the first Scott Boras client to be tainted by the investigation dealing with the use of illegal performance-enhancing drugs.  Seven players have been mentioned in conjunction with the various PED investigations over the past several years.

Here’s a quick list of Scott Boras players and their brushes with the PED investigations.

Kevin Brown – The pitcher was mentioned in the Mitchell Report. He used the address for Boras’ headquarters as the return address when he sent cash to steroid/HGH supplier, and former New York Met clubhouse boy Kirk Radomski.

Eric Gagne – Gagne went from marginal starter to dominant closer thanks to HGH.  He blew out his arm, went off the drugs and is a marginal reliever.  Boras got the Brewers to sign Gagne to a $10 million contract three days before the Mitchell Report was released and revealed that Gagne bought HGH in 2004.

Scott Schoeneweis – This pitcher purchase steroids from Signature Pharmacy – the Internet/Albany-based scandal.  Schoeneweis got his prescriptions from Ramon Scrugs, the California doctor who has been knee-deep in steroid-related indictments.  According to the indictment, sports agents send clients to Scruggs “for the purpose of obtaining anabolic steroids.”

Rick Ankiel – The former pitching prodigy who forgot where home plate was making a storybook comeback when it was revealed he got a year supply of HGH from Signature Pharmacy.

Ron Villone – This journeyman pitcher was mentioned in the Mitchell Report for buying HGH from Radomski.

Gary Sheffield – Sheffield was a training buddy of Barry Bonds and was caught up in the BALCO Labs scandal, but told the grand jury he didn’t know the substances he took were steroids.

Alex Rodriguez is certainly the biggest name on Boras’ list of clients be involved with the PED investigations, as the revelation that he failed a drug test for Primobolan in 2003 has shaken the sports world for the past two days.

Does anyone think it’s suspicious that Scott Boras has a Doctor of Pharmacy degree?

This story has a long way to go. ARod’s interview with ESPN’s Peter Gammons is just a puff piece that raises more questions than it answers.

Questions for ARod:

1. Who helped you?
2. Who else knew you were using these banned PEDs?
3. Did you use the PEDs during the season?
4. Did you buy the drugs or did someone procure them for you?
5. If someone else bought them for you was it your trainer or team personnel?
6. Did you also use HGH, have you used it since the years in question and are you using it   now?  (This question should be asked with the reminder that ARod has been less than honest in the past.)

PED use doesn’t occur in a vacuum and there’s no way that ARod made the decision to use the drugs, and actually use them, all by his lonesome.  Also, being that Primobolan is sometimes used in a stack with testosterone and HGH, it’s totally reasonable to ask Rodriguez if he used human growth hormone, as well.  Since there’s no test for HGH, there’s no way a drug test could detect if ARod was using it.

He could be using HGH now and we’d never know.

Given what we know about baseball players in general – and Alex Rodriguez in particular – there’s no reason to believe that ARod is telling the truth.