Anabolic steroids and Football

[Luke]

Hey guys.

I have a final assignment to write and one of the things I have to do is analyse an american football players work requirements with focus on the players muscel strength requirements and if anabolic steroid would give the player an advantage.

The position I would analyse will probably be the Line Backer, since they have to be fast, block and have an large amount of muscel. Is there anything else a line backer need?

Im writing because I am from a country where football is not that populair.

If any could direct me to an another site I would be very happy because I have a hard time finding anything.

 

[AlexDP]

You could also write on the possible downsides. For example: does the use of steroids carry a bigger risk for an ACL rupture? I could imagine a player doing steroids and then doing only half squats instead of full squats, because that way he can add more pounds to his squat. He'd very quickly end up with an underdeveloped posterior chain. Add to that that there might be a direct effect of the steroids on the ligaments of the knee and perhaps he's more likely to blow his knee out.

I don't know. Seems silly to just talk about the possible advantages. Especially because it's basically just one: more muscle (and perhaps more speed with that as well).

 

[Bible_Belt]

Linebackers don't block. They play on defense. Typically, they are trying to avoid a block, so that they can make a tackle. Football defenses are designed for the linebackers to make the tackles, at least in theory; the other defensive players either occupy a space or cover a receiver.

In addition to making a linebacker stronger and faster, when of course combined with heavy training, another benefit would be injury recovery. Injuries are common in football, and steroids would speed recovery time from injury.

 

[Quiksilver]

Steroids is the wrong term to use.

Performance enhancing drugs, is a better term. You can narrow that down to the use of illegal performance enhancing drugs.

Some drugs aid muscle mass, some are just hormone boosters, and some aid recovery to allow more training, not necessarily related to muscle mass.

Some track athletes don't necessarily want to gain muscle mass, so they use drugs (illegal or not) that aid in post-training recovery, so they can train hard for 8 hours a day instead of the 6 hours a day of their non-doped counterparts.

Over the course of 3.5 year Olympic training cycles, that extra 2 hours a day ends up being quite a substantial amount of training and practice time they have accrued that other athletes who cannot afford designer drugs are incapable of emulating.

 

[Kerpal]

You could also write on the possible downsides. For example: does the use of steroids carry a bigger risk for an ACL rupture? I could imagine a player doing steroids and then doing only half squats instead of full squats, because that way he can add more pounds to his squat. He'd very quickly end up with an underdeveloped posterior chain. Add to that that there might be a direct effect of the steroids on the ligaments of the knee and perhaps he's more likely to blow his knee out.

That would be a criticism of half squats though, not of steroids. If you took 2 athletes and had them both do real squats and gave one steroids, everything else being equal, the one with steroids would make more progress.