Gym Owners Have Seen the Horrors of Steroid Use

There are many horror stories regarding the usage of steroids. The conviction of former Olympic medalist sprinter Marion Jones and the admission of former All Star baseball player Jose Canseco are proof that illegal usage of steroids is in both amateur and professional sports. Known in street terms as "Juice," "Pumpers" and "Weight Trainers," casual gymgoers to professional athletes have been using them for decades to sculpture their physiques and build up their strength.

Jack Banks and Paul Carson have been in the gym business for nearly three decades. They own the Powerhouse Gym on Webster Square in Berlin and Malibu Fitness at Executive Drive in Farmington. The two have made a career of being athletically fit, maintaining a healthy lifestyle and helping others achieve those goals. Both of them take a very hard line against the use of steroids.

Banks is a former amateur boxer and at one time was a strength and conditioning coach for Central Connecticut State University. Carson was a professional body builder that competed for nearly two decades in drug-free competitions. In 1993, Carson won the Mr. Drug Free USA Bodybuilding Championship.

The two have a policy of deterring steroid users of attending their gyms. While both admit that steroid usage has declined from the 1980s, both believe it is still prevalent today.

According to the Office of National Drug Policy, steroid usage carries a wide array of health risks. Its Web site lists liver cancer, heart attacks and elevated cholesterol levels as some of the more well-known side effects. The Web site also cites that withdrawal of steroids can also cause behavioral problems such as mood swings, fatigue, restlessness and even depression that can lead to suicide.

"I know many horror stories of people that used [steroids]," Carson said. "The one that stands out most is that of a bodybuilder I knew who had open heart surgery before he even turned the age of 40. Unfortunately he has had several surgeries since."

Banks relayed his own story of a steroid using weightlifter that needed to have surgery to remove excess tissue from around his pectoral muscles. The man developed a condition called Gynecomastia. Gynecomastia as defined by the Merriam Webster Dictionary as a condition of excessive development of the breast in males. Steroid usage is documented as one of the primary causes.

Banks then referenced the death of former football great Lyle Alzado. The SuperBowl Winner succumbed to a rare form of Brain Cancer at the age of forty-three. In a famous 1991 Sports Illustrated Interview, Alzado publicly admitted that he had been taking massive amounts of steroids and Human Growth Hormone during his National Football League career. He believed his brain cancer was the result of his use of these drugs and warned others not to follow this dangerous path.

While the dangers of steroids are documented, much less is known about Human Growth Hormone, which is commonly known as by it's initials, HGH.

"It's definitely more difficult to test because for you need to set parameters for what is natural in a person. I do know that it has been around for a while but I don't have an idea as to how many people could be using it," Banks said. "Sylvester Stallone has admitted to using it and he doesn't look natural for his age. I don't know as much about it negative effects but like steroids it is a shortcut and is not a good idea to use."

From the 1970s until the late 1990s, most of the steroid trafficking was done at local gyms. Now the Internet is the preferred medium in which most people get access to the illegal drugs. Steroid users often have the drugs mailed to them. One of the dangers with this is that they sometimes receive counterfeit items that are more dangerous than the steroids themselves.

Banks and Carson have a strict "No Steroid" usage policy at their gyms. They have asked members that were on the illegal drugs to cease their usage or find another gym. They have even turned away prospective members that were known users.

"We have many young people that work out our gyms and we don't need them to have negative influences." Banks stated.

Both take their roles seriously as gym owners and role models. Carson competed and even won several drug free bodybuilding championships including the Pro USA National Competition.

"In thirteen years of bodybuilding competition, I only earned two thousand dollars. If I took steroids and competed in the major bodybuilding competitions I would have put on more muscle mass but who knows what the long term effects would be," Carson said. "But after all these years I can still work out and jog daily. Many of the bodybuilders that were on steroids when I was competing can't do that anymore. Their ligaments, their tendons and bodies are shot."

"We tell people that steroids are a short term and short sighted answer. As soon as you cease using them you go back to your original condition," Banks said. " Steroid usage is like putting rocket fuel in a Volkswagon Beetle, there has to be an equal reaction and there will eventually be a breakdown."

Despite this advice there are still people that will not heed to the dangers of steroids.

"A few years ago I was at Block Island and a teenager came up to me and complimented me on physique. He bragged to me that in a few months he would have a bigger build than me," Banks lamented. "He said he was going to use steroids that he would get from the Internet. I asked him why he would risk his health for something that was fleeting. I told him that he wouldn't keep all that body mass and strength. He wouldn't listen."

Still Banks and Carson encourage others to achieve a healthy body naturally through exercise and proper dieting. Banks had this to say about his steroids philosophy.

In the twenty-five years that Paul and I have been in the gym business, our position towards steroids still has not changed. Don't use them."