Video: Tested Squat vs Untested Squat WRs

Drug Tested and Untested are not so different and in several cases untested are higher.

One awesome thing was Marianna’s squat being higher than the males in the untested…both were lower than tested.

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Them little fellas are freaking strong

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I always thought Little People would make great powerlifters. They have great leverages.

Mariannas a god but also maybe the equivalent men’s class isn’t very well populated. Hard enough to find a small enough bloke to fit in the weight class never mind dumping some drugs into him. It’s have to be a rather rare body type.

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I was kind of thinking the along the same lines. And by the time men who weigh that much take drugs they just went up 2 weight classes. Those Lightweight mens divisions are kind both weight and time in a way.

I was talking about this in another thread. In the 74kg class there were 3 guys who all squatted over the ATWR. There are two possibilities - either steroids don’t work, or more than a few of these guys are on steroids.

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tee heheeee My take is if these lifters are natty then drugs arent cheating.

And if they arent natty then drugs still arent cheating as they arent being caught for them.

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This (among other things) is why I think the whole drug testing idea is a joke. Just let people compete. The ones who win will be the ones who are prepared to do the most to win regardless of consequence. Testing won’t change that.

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Well this is a twist. I am advocating for testing and the natty is advocating for untested :smiley:

I feel this way for Pro Sports NBA, NFL and NRL (I googled that one just for Markko) and probably the Olympics but I really think amateurs need (or deserve) a place to compete where they dont have to sacrifice long term health to have a bit of fun.

Obviously a drug free anything is a pipe dream but we can all dream.

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It’s because I compete untested, so I know I’m up against dudes using PEDs and I’m confident that over time, I will beat some of them before I need to use PEDs to improve.

Plus I’ve seen enough people use PEDs and perform poorly. So I know they aren’t a magic bullet or a ticket to victory.

I think the whole idea of testing is silly, because history has shown us repeatedly that the tests as they are administered now can be beaten relatively easily. It’s just a weak pretence because if the testers were genuinely concerned about getting anyone using PEDs they would do it differently: EVERYONE would be tested, very, very frequently. On meet day, a couple of weeks before, during training at regular intervals, etc. None of this random bullshit. Except they won’t ever do that because they know very well what they would find and all the armchair moralists (is that a word?) who applaud testing and eagerly decry every new catch would suddenly have to admit that so many people use PEDs that you may as well not even bother testing.

To me it always comes down to the people who lose being unwilling to go that extra step. They aren’t morally superior, they are just unwilling to do everything to win. They want to win on their terms, not in absolute terms. That’s not winning to me.

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I agree with all of this. The only thing I would add is that I think people should have the opportunity to compete drug free (not you because you love that challenge,but obv you too if you wanted).

But again, utopian pipe dream.

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Pretty much

I agree. The problem really is the IPF promoting itself as the “gold standard” of PL, as much as it’s bullshit there are still people who buy into it and some will take drugs to get ahead. Plus big money meets like this SBD thing in England, that’s guaranteed to increase the number of drug users in the IPF.

Like the bench-only guy in Canada who tested positive for 10 different PEDs and had a 350lb bench at 105kg.

Sounds like you want steroids

Even if powerlifting didn’t exist I would still lift weights, and being bigger and stronger than 99% of people has other benefits.

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Want? Your bet your backside I do.

Need? Not yet.

I’m not very well-read up on PEDs but is there an argument for you delaying their use, as in will they have a greater efficacy if you do? Because, if not, and you’ll use them eventually anyway (when you you need them as you say), then wouldn’t you be better served by using them now to expose your body to the higher weights that’ll follow? Kinds like how a belt let’s you expose the not-weakest parts of your body to higher weights rather than continously being limited by your torso?

Good question. There are a few reasons.

My understanding is that the initial boost of performance you get from PEDs is a one off, or an ace card as Dave Tate puts it. You dont want to play it until you absolutely have to. So there’s that. I understand that Dan John has said something similar.

Another part is that PEDs increase the risk of mechanical injury (I think that’s the term) quite significantly, mostly because they let your muscles grow way faster than the connective tissue. So you’re able to move much more weight than your tendons and ligaments can deal with, and that’s where things have a much higher chance of going badly wrong. I figure the longer I train without PEDs the longer my connective tissue has to get strong, which will do something to mitigate the injury risk.

The final part is that the more practical training experience you have, the more you are likely to get out of PEDs. If you have your training basically figured out, PEDs end up being the cherry on top.

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I’m not one to dispute their wisdom but I wonder how that initial performance boost compares to being able to handle significantly heavier weights for a year extra.

In the climbing community we try to keep beginners away from hangboarding which is finger strength training (tendon/ligament strength) for one-two years to let the connective tissues catch up to the rapid progression of strength the pulling musculature initially sees and even after the inclusion of that we tend to do a lot of submax grip training (indirect). In lifting I’d imagine everyday band work (leg curls, tricep extensions etcetera) might help me mitigate the risk.

Don’t you have it pretty figured out though?

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Steroids actually inhibit connective tissue growth

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I honestly think the more time you spend under heavy weights, the higher the risk is of something going wrong. So I dont see why you’d want to increase that risk sooner than necessary. I imagine that heavy feels heavy no matter what the number is, and the body certainly doesn’t know the actual load rather how much work it’s doing.

Yes, daily band work or even general bodybuilding work will help the connective tissue. Even time to just let the connective tissue catch up.

I have it more figured out that I did, but there’s still a lot I don’t know.

I am not one to discount science but in my experience I got healthier when going on and even now when I switch from TRT to a heavy cycle I get healthier again.

I think of them like a cheat code. If you dont know how to play the game then they wont help. But the better you are at the game the more you get out of them.

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I don’t think that connective tissue strength would really affect how healthy you feel. You would just be more prone to tendinitis and tendon tears.