We've all seen the size, and presumably strength, of professional athletes increase over the years and with that increase comes the question about performance enhancing drug use. There are a lot of theories on both sides of the issue and that is part of the problem. No one knows how prevalent the use of performing enhancing substances is.
Aside from a lack of knowledge surrounding prevalence is the definition of performance enhancing drugs. There are a lot legal and illegal substances that can increase performance and the challenge is testing for the illegal ones. Finding that information is proving to be difficult.
Over the years the understanding of athletic development grows dramatically. The community understands a lot more about muscle and exercise physiology, nutrition, injury prevention and recovery, strength, speed and power development. How much of the player's gains in size, speed and strength is due to working with professionals who understand how to develop these attributes vs. taking a substance that can improve your ability to add volume, weight and improve recovery from workouts? I do not think that any of us know the answer.
What we know is that athletes ARE bigger, faster and stronger and the potential for devastating collisions is increasing, but we do not definitively know the reason why. Asking players to answer a survey is surely not without bias and testing for substances is not an exact science, as we have learned from Lance Armstrong.
I personally believe that another key question to ask is why do athletes feel the need to take PEDs? Once again, we can surmise their reasons for doing so, but without working to identify the real reasons behind the use, can we really solve the problem?
http://www.athleticbusiness.com/more-news/as-players-gain-size-debate-rages-over-hgh-test.html?topic=5,200&eid=277204494&bid=1006288
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