Bigger, Stronger, Faster

It's time to admit that steroids are here to stay.

Whether we want them in the fitness industry or not, closing our eyes to steroid use is no longer an option. When fitness facility owners are arrested for selling steroids, guilty baseball players are popping up like Whack-a-Moles and documentaries are exposing the growing acceptance of steroids, it's time to re-assess our position.

Is it time to legalize steroids and put an age cap on them, like cigarettes and alcohol? Is it time to launch a full-scale initiative to wipe steroids out of the fitness industry completely?

I suspect the line between "supplements" and "steroids" is too blurred, at this point, to erase steroids completely. But I can't come up with any viable solutions for the problem, either.

Can you?

Are You Selling Steroids?

If a member asked you that question, you’d probably laugh. “Of course not!” you’d say. “Our pro shop sells supplements, not steroids.”

But what if they had the Dec. 5, 2007, edition of USA Today in their hands, which reports about a study showing that “13 of the 52 supplements (25 percent) purchased at various U.S. retailers contained small amounts of steroids, and six (11.5 percent) had banned stimulants”? Well, then you might do something else.

Supplements are a tricky business. In my opinion, getting into the supplement game just isn’t worth it for a fitness facility. Why compete with the corner drug store, where it can sell supplements for much less to a lot more people? Why preach the long, hard road of exercise while simultaneously hawking quick-fix aids like protein powders and “energy” drinks? Sticking to one message is the safer bet.

But there are many fitness centers out there that sell supplements. And, if you’re one of them, you probably want to look a little more closely at your products. Are they FDA approved? Most supplements aren’t.

The researchers didn’t release the names of the supplements tested, and only allowed that they are “best-selling brands.” That doesn’t do much for concerned retailers/fitness center managers who want to clear their shelves of tainted supplements. How exactly can you stand behind your supplements when confronted by that member angrily waiving a newspaper? And how can you continue to dabble in supplement sales when they are, thanks to being largely unregulated, essentially indefensible?

Will ‘Roid Rage’ Happen at Your Facility?

With two recent deaths in the pro wrestling world related to steroid use, and the scandals in baseball and the Tour de France, the fitness industry should get a wake-up call. Although most fitness center members don’t use steroids, human growth hormone or testosterone, some do — especially athletes and serious weightlifters. Even child athletes have been known to use steroids to increase athletic performance. Some estimates suggest as many as 7 percent of high school students have used steroids.

This number should shock you, especially if you work with child athletes. And, a quick search on the Internet reveals that it is surprisingly easy to buy steroids without a prescription.

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the major side effects from abusing anabolic steroids can include liver tumors and cancer, jaundice, fluid retention, high blood pressure, increases in LDL (bad cholesterol) and decreases in HDL (good cholesterol). Other side-effects include kidney tumors, severe acne and trembling. In addition, there are some gender-specific side effects. For men, shrinking of the testicles, reduced sperm count, infertility, baldness, development of breasts and increased risk for prostate cancer. For women, growth of facial hair, male-pattern baldness, changes in or cessation of the menstrual cycle, and a deepened voice. For adolescents, growth can be halted prematurely. This means that adolescents risk remaining short for the remainder of their lives if they take anabolic steroids before the typical adolescent growth spurt. Scientific research also shows that aggression and other psychiatric side effects may result, including extreme mood swings and manic-like symptoms leading to violence.

While these symptoms and statistics may seem out there for the mainstream fitness industry, I assure you they are not. I know at least one woman at my fitness center has taken some sort of male hormone in her life. (Either that, or she is a post-op sex-change patient.)

So what are fitness professionals to do? To start, your facility should have clear and posted rules about selling steroids while on your property. You can also post warning signs in your locker room about the dangers of taking anything for enhanced athletic performance. Your trainers should also know the signs of steroid abuse, and warn clients about taking them. The last thing your facility needs is a member harming themselves or others because of “roid rage.”