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1965: Steroids for Football an Established Practice (Second in a Series)
Doug Stalker was a suburban youth in New York, summer 1963, planning to play varsity football for his Rochester prep. The 16-year-old was athletic and scholarly, ambitious to learn weightlifting from the best, and he knew the place to go was York, Pa., famed workout gym of the York Barbell Company. Stalker consumed Strength &…
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Spotlight
If I Hadn’t Self-Medicated I Would Be Dead: Self-medicated testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) and why it is practised
Anabolic androgenic steroids (testosterone and synthetic androgens similar to testosterone) are categorised as ‘enhancement drugs’. But they aren’t always used for enhancement – sometimes they are used for…
The Beginning: Anabolic Steroids Invade American Football (First in a Series)
In the 1960 college football season, Missouri coach Dan Devine fretted for one of his most important players, Norman Beal, likewise the team lightweight. The fast junior back…
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Explore
Project Monster
Bodybuilders commonly talk about themselves, and each other, as ‘monsters’. At first, I didn’t think much about this, as I thought that…
Fitness Culture and IPEDs: Crisis, revolution, and the digital push, 1990-2020
The history of doping is also a history of modernity and the plastic and changeable body. Through ideas about performing bodies, various…
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Gym Culture and IPEDs: The pre-history of IPEDs and the golden era of bodybuilding, 1900-1980s
Transforming from a subcultural enterprise that began in greasy, masculine, exclusive basement environments, gym and fitness culture has broadened and developed into…
Anabolicus Maximus? Bodybuilder Disagreements About Insulin
One of the most misunderstood and debated drugs in bodybuilding is insulin. This is because we have no science to act as…
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Excessive Hair Growth in Female Anabolic Steroid Users
The human body is covered in an awful lot of hairs. Many of them, however, are very short, light-colored, and thin, making…
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He-man: ‘I have the power!’ World: ‘We’re not sure you should anymore’
I have heard quite a few bodybuilders say they were inspired by the original He-man of the 1980s. The recent Netflix Masters…
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Measuring Testosterone in Blood Immunoassays
An often requested blood parameter by anabolic steroid users is, not surprisingly, testosterone. However, there appear to be quite some misconceptions about…
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“Oh my, the bigger and more fuller clit is amazing”: Reclaiming the female body through a women-only forum
Introduction Historically, muscles and muscular bodies have been connected to men and masculinity. As a consequence, women´s engagement in muscle building has…