Yeah, Jeff nailed it. Of course tennis players use steroids.

Rafa sure fits the profile

This is extremely, extremely simple logic, I know, coming from someone who really doesn’t know anything about this at all.  But…doesn’t the sentence, “Tennis players do not naturally build up large muscles” seem to imply that building up these muscles wouldn’t have a significant effect on one’s performance?

I think there is a misperceptions that all PEDs cause muscle growth because steroids have typically been used for that reason.  However cycling has been plaqued by PEDs, blood doping or some other form of scientific cheating but most cyclist do not have massive muscles, even leg muscles. 

From my simple understanding of PEDs, there are a myriad of PEDs for a myriad of physical needs.  For example, cyclists tend to need PEDs that aid in fast recovery so blood doping was/is a common type of cheating whereas offensive lineman in football need power and went for the muscle/strength building steroids.  Customized PEDs lab like Balco tailored their products to the specific need of the athlete.

So I can easily speculate that tennis players would seek a endurance based PED to allow them to 1) be fresher in the fourth and fifth set and 2) be able to recover faster for next match.  I suspect that many relief pitchers could benefit from a similar PED as they seek the ability to pitch multiple days in a row and to increase innings pitched per year. 

Developing, producing and distributing PEDs is an industry that exists because there is a market for their services/products as evidenced by the historic testing efforts in track & field and cycling to the newer testing focus of the NFL and MLB and I suspect that all sports, if tested, would reveal a level of PEDs that would shock the purist but seem in line with the times for the realist.

I admit I just scanned through the linked site, but it seems this blogger thinks no tennis player can have a cut physique without steroids.  Sure, tennis is just as likely as any sport to have PED users, as Jeff Berardi sais so well above, but to assume anyone with muscles is a user goes a bit too far.

The simple equation endures:

Young, often still-growing body + advanced nutrition + ubiquitous weight rooms + expert personal trainers + money = muscles.

Although some athletes do add steroids into that equation, it doesn’t change the rest of the equation.

This equation was not used before sometime around the late 80s. The vast majority of athletes stuck to sport-specific training and that was it.

I mean, this is so elementary that it almost makes me crazy wondering how the sports media misses it. Maybe it makes them feel less like a bunch of lazy asses to think you can eat crap and do nothing all day, then poke yourself with a needle before bed and grow muscles in your sleep.