When does maintenance become performance enhancement? Why do we allow sports that damage the body and restrict the things that can help rebuild the desecrated temple? At what point does the boundary between internal health and external impact give way to the magic shake, the vitapack, the legal prohormone, the undetectable designer steroid, the off-shore internet pharmacy? Meticulous preparation, quantifiable and incremental progress, chuckling at the sick/healthy binary, the cyborg patient meanders across the double lines of the corporeal highway...your liver just flashed you the high beams...say your prayers, and eat your vitamins. We've all got the golden ticket, folks...shipped discreetly in plain wrapping."Mr O" means Olympia, NOT Organic
"We" don't necessarily all have the golden ticket. Just those of "us" who aspire to a certain competitive level. Want to be a pro bodybuilder? A pro wrestler on TV? An NFL lineman? A world-class cyclist? Then you need more than a balanced diet and lots of rest.
ReplyDelete"We" allow it because competitive sport naturalizes, justifies, and valorizes capitalist social relations. Wake up. You've been hoodwinked. Led amok. Bamboozled.
In professional sport, there is no difference between "maintenance" and "performance enhancement." Everything is performance enhancement in pro sport. Lifting weights is performance enhancement. Pro athletes look for an edge; no matter what the consequence, and that will be evident for a long time to come. Contrastly, pro athletes, and those who aspire to be pro athletes work harder than any other athletes and break down their bodies on a daily basis. To completely refuel their bodies to a manageable state, they need supplementation. Whether or not that supplementation is "natural" is subjective, but in reality, "performance enhancement" will be evident for a long time to come.
ReplyDeleteAs previously stated, we as bystanders "allow" this enhancement because of how we have been socialized. We want competition. We want superhuman athletes. And the "spectacle effect" that we idolize justifies the use of enhancing supplements.
--Stephen Ross (164)
There are those that take illegal forms of "performance enhancement" and there are those that take the over the counter "performance enhancement" such as the shakes and tablets. Because of all the advertisements and testimonies that these supplements really do make you jacked up, our culture and future cultures have been sucked into this nonsense like a vacuum. I mean doesnt everyone want to be jacked up and get cut up in 30 days like all the ads say they will? They make it seem like its so easy and it is guaranteed you will see results, but it is so much harder then that. And they sell these enhancements in all shapes and forms now. I was looking over mens fitness magazine and they now have a "muscle milk cereal", they have all sorts of candy bars, and dozens and dozens of different drinks and shakes. Any individual even slightly dreaming about having a professional athletes body just has to read one of those ads or walk by a GNC and they will be the next victims of "enhancement".
ReplyDeleteAs stated before, all athletes professional or not always try and find a way to enhance their performance; whether it be through lifting weights, taking drugs, having a bigger motor, having a lighter shoe or uniform, athletes of all shapes and sizes are always looking for the upper hand with some sort of enhancement. The fact is that this only becomes a problem when the media or a sports organization views it as unethical. What I feel remains true is if there were no restrictions to performance enhancement the skies would be the limit, all it would really come down to is who can dish out the most money for the best drugs or enhancements. And that is where the problem lies athletes have forgotten the true meaning of the game the play or take part in, and no longer only rely on self will and determination, rather on the easy way to becoming better than the competition.
ReplyDeleteMiguel Velazquez
It seems like performance enhancement is becoming more and more popular in society so that athletes can get a quick fix and they are not looking at the long term effects that they might have on the body. It's more of a fad than anything. I am honestly getting tired of hearing about steroid use in professional sports ( baseball) because everybody does it, their job is to entertian people by being good at their sport and if they want to destroy their body doing it than it's their own business.
ReplyDeleteAlyssa Sulay
Maintence becomes perfomance enhancement when the supplement taken alters the chemical makeup in the body to purposefully enhance performance output - instead of maintaining bodily functions such as taking a multivitamin when nutrition is lacking in certain vitamins/mineral.
ReplyDeleteCecille Tabernero
It seems as thought every few months there is a new athlete that is caught taking steroids. If they think that what they are doing isn’t wrong then why do they consistently lie about having taken them? It’s getting a little nauseating hearing everyone go back and forth about steroids and how they are bad and are ruining sports. I would like to see them watch their favorite baseball team without their power pills and see if they’re entertained. Well I can tell you, they wouldn’t be. They would be expecting their favorite players to be hitting home run after home run, but they’re going to be sadly disappointed.
ReplyDeleteLindsey Roper
I realized some athletes misunderstand about maintenance. They do not consider about the future. Although they could get immediate performance enhancement drugs, but it could destroy their body in the future. Also, they could get injury easier than athletes who focus on maintenance. I was disapponted by these athletes.
ReplyDeleteTakafumi Kaneda
Maintenance becomes performance inhancement when it is taken to extreme levels, like the guy in this video. Clearly he is over doing it. I don't know anyone that needs that many pills just to stay healthy. Some sports are damaging to the body but obviously people value play, money, and anything that is involved with sports higher than their body and its health.
ReplyDeleteKelsey Rudolph
Many Professional athletes are just looking for a way to become a step ahead of everyone else. not thinking about their health down the road. this is why athletes look towards using performance inhancing drugs, because it is a quick way to get a step ahead of everyone else. Professional athletes only get the big bucks if they our one of the top athletes in their sport. so i totally see how athletes look towards supplements to bust their level of play.
ReplyDeleteAnna Guzman
I think that most of these althetes start super young....they are the ones in the elite programs trying to prove themselves to everyone. Its drilled into them at a young age that they need to "maintain" and "enhance" and a lot of them get influenced into the supplements that will "make them a better athlete." But in reality, majority of the time the supplements/drugs are hurting them in the long run, unless they are supervised and strictly follow a healthy plan. This video is disdusting, he doesn't even know the function of half the things he is taking. But I guess the video serves its purpose....and that picture of all the pills and powders shows us that its not just about helping our bodies...somebody out there is just trying to make a profit.
ReplyDelete--Amanda Horne
I do not see why athletes have to take performance enhancing drugs to make their body they way they want it. The best and healthiest way, instead of taking the drugs, is to just go to the gym and eat healthy. The drugs will only have a negative effect on their bodies in the future and they just do not realize the consequences of taking these drugs. It is true that they are satisfied with their external body image, but they are unaware of the internal image and consequences their body is going through.
ReplyDeleteThey will have to pay the price for taking these drugs in the future and it will not be pretty.
The supplements that "enhance performance" actually does an opposite effect. Yes, it helps you "reach your goal" of strength/ability, but it also sets the standard higher for the next person to surpass their "goal". The more supplements and unauthentic means of training taken, the the farther we bridge the distinction between what is real and what is actually considered pure. Now there is a standard of muscle and strength that might not be achievable without such supplements, resulting in dehumanization. The sport played by these pill poppers becomes less real, defeating the purpose of competition and sport in the first place.
ReplyDelete-Shane Fandinola
"I don't take steroids, you cannot make it to this level of competition unless you have the genetics. Those who say I am on steriods are just jealous fools that could never achieve what I achieve." More or less that is what IFBB pro King Kamali responded with when I asked if he took steroids back in 2002. I believed him, you know, I had that pub knowledge as a beginning college student... In reality, these guys are pill poppin animals. It is ridiculous to think that elite athletes, not just bodybuilders, could achieve the levels of human performance expected of them without poppin glutamine, arginine, creatine, pumping some HGH in the rear, or plugging some erythropoietin into the blood stream. And to think... Ronnie Coleman is a police officer!!! This man is sworn to serve and protect the rights of all citizens "while pumped full of steroids." Does this bother anybody? At what point do we just say... screw it! Let these athletes do what they must. The desire to be great at something is not only a common goal nowadays, but driven by a variety of sociological aspects. Steroids, performance enhancers and vitamins are a microscopic part of what it takes to be elite at something. It still takes hard work, determination, perseverence and congenital talent. I would like to see the common american get up and start their day without coffee. Or see the common american fight through a headache without advil. Or see the common american beat off an infection without antibiotics. If that cup of coffee, or that advil, or those antibiotics help you make it through a day of work and put food on your famiy's table, are you going to complain? But Peter, steroids are illegal... Ask our police officer above about that...
ReplyDeleteI think performance enhancing drugs that help athletes recover should be legalized. Here's an exmaple...If I want to see Lebron James play in the finals but an injury is keeping him from playing, I wouldn't mind him taking some kind of drug to get him healthy again. In the end it helps the sport, the player and the fans. People might argue that injuries are a part of the game, but why do they have to be if we can eliminate them?
ReplyDeletePeter C. Kin 164