I know that recently Tyson Gay had tested positive for AAS, which is obviously a banned substance in sprinting. However, I’ve wondered why anabolic steroids have to be prohibited from being used for a sport that is based only on the speed of the athlete. I mean, I know that the speed of a given movement depends on just the efficiency of one’s nervous system (with regard to skeletal muscles of course).
So, if pro sprinters are using AAS then does that mean that anabolic steroids do increase the speed of the nervous system or is it that steroids metabolically enhance the size of the muscles (provided that the athlete consistently weight trains) thereby improving the athlete’s overall force production which would subsequently lead to substantially greater explosiveness during each moment the sprinter pushes off the ground?