March 1, 2005

Finding the Right "Natural" Competition for You

Largely because of the recent BALCO Labs scandal, performance-enhancing drugs have become a hot topic in sports again and have reminded many people of something that those of us involved in these sports have always known: drug use is as prevalent today as it was when Ben Johnson got caught for steroids back in 1988. And, as it was back in ’88 and earlier, it’s not just men using them. Despite the enormous risks that women face, particularly with steroids, many will take that chance and risk permanent physical damage all to win a trophy or a medal. Unfortunately, the problem with drugs isn’t going away anytime soon.

But whatever your position is on how drugs in sports should be dealt with, most people in the fitness, figure and bodybuilding world agree on one thing: those people who wish to compete in so-called "natural competitions" – competitions where competitors don’t use performance-enhancing drugs – should be able to do so and not have drug-users come in to scoop away their glory. Why is that? Because unlike other sports where there is just one stream of competition that either is or isn’t tested for drugs, bodybuilding, fitness, and figure are ripe with competitions that ban performance-enhancing drugs, and there are other contests where the organizations basically turn a blind eye to drug use and don’t do anything about it at all. In short, as a competitor you have a choice as to what kind of event you can enter.

The purpose of this article isn’t to assess the rules and regulations of the organizations that put on these events, or to recommend one to you. Rather, it’s to let you know about the options that exist, and should you wish to compete in a "natural" event, it’s to arm you with knowledge so you can ask questions in order to gauge which competition is truly natural and which one is right for you. Not all natural contests are created equal.

Natural, or not?

What exactly is a natural competition, anyway? And how can you tell if the competition you may want to enter has truly natural athletes? Surprisingly, the answers are not as easy as the questions seem.

There are some people who feel that a natural sporting competition is one that is devoid not only of drugs, but of most food supplements that people take, too, such as protein, creatine, and all the other stuff that you can find in shiny plastic containers at the health-food and supplement stores. Their thinking is that the only thing that should be in your body is good, wholesome food. That position, though, is extreme, and most people don’t agree with it.

While some of the new supplements on the market can resemble drugs – and some, like the prohormones, etc., have now been banned and classified more or less as drugs – protein, creatine, glutamine, etc., are, for all intents and purposes, food products. They’re naturally occurring, so nobody should be penalized for using them just because they’ve been made simpler to consume through supplementation. It’s generally accepted that natural athletes will take food-based nutritional supplements such as the ones I mentioned.

To most people, being natural means being drug-free. And we’re not talking about aspirins. Rather, it’s the performance-enhancing drugs such as steroids and growth hormones, as well as the countless other pharmaceuticals such as the infamous EPO (a blood-doping agent), insulin (believe it or not, it’s not just for diabetics), and even recreational drugs, that can be used in one way or another to gain an advantage over drug-free athletes.

The list of prohibited substances is extensive, and figuring out what’s allowed and what’s not can be a daunting task. However, there’s help, mainly because any athlete in the world competing today faces the same kind of problem as you. A good place to start for information is the website for the World Anti-Doping Agency, the ruling body that oversees doping in sports worldwide and basically sets the standard for everyone to follow, such as the International Olympic Committee, which we’ll talk about more below. On WADA’s website, they have a Prohibited List document that you can download that will tell you what you’re not allowed to use. Many organizations use this as their list and test for all the substances, or a portion of them. It’s your right to ask an organization exactly what they’re testing for.

So, if a natural contest is one that’s devoid of performance-enhancing drugs and there’s an extensive list of what’s not allowed, the solution should be simple: conduct a drug test on the athletes. Oh, if it were only that easy.

Testing, and its troubles

Yes, if it were only that easy then the Olympics would have been cleaned up long ago and they wouldn’t have the mess and the scandals that they still have today. The Olympics, after all, has a drug-testing program. All medalists, as well as individuals selected at random, undergo urine tests (and now even blood tests) to detect the performance-enhancing drugs we were just talking about. The testing procedure is ultra-strict, the labs they use are some of the best in the world, and they’ve got rules in place so that if you’re called to do a test, you had better do it, or else!

The problem is, despite how strict the tests are, and how well the labs perform, it still isn’t good enough because it doesn’t seem to be working all that well as evidenced by things such as the BALCO Labs situation. Some of the athletes tainted by that scandal were medal-winning Olympians who seemingly laughed their way through the IOC’s tests. Plus, the BALCO Labs scandal is really only the tip of the iceberg. Countless other drugged-up athletes routinely skate through drug tests at the Olympics and elsewhere as if they were using no drugs at all. The drug-testing people don’t like you to know that it happens all the time – they want you to think that they’re on top of it because they catch a few naïve, ill-informed athletes here and there, as well as a few high-profile ones that really seem to make their day – but it’s true. I’ve seen it first-hand, and it continues to happen time and time again.

The truth of the matter is this: a test on urine or blood can only find what’s in it at that time. If a drug and its residue have been successfully eliminated from the body – perhaps by using another substance, or some other method – then it can’t be picked up in a test. Likewise, if it’s simply been long enough that traces of the drug cannot be detected anymore (all drugs will disappear from the body over time following use), then the athlete will test "clean" even though they might have been using drugs up until a surprisingly short time before their competition.

So what can you make of it all then? Are these competitors who use drugs and then, through one method or another, test "clean" at a competition, natural? For those who believe that passing a test is all that matters, then yes. But if you believe a natural athlete is one who doesn’t use drugs, then, obviously, the answer is no, even though he or she passed a test.

There are other ways to be on drugs and pass a drug test, too, besides the ones I just mentioned. What was so intriguing about the BALCO Labs situation is that they created a steroid that the laboratories, for lack of better words, "could not see." In other words, the labs had no idea what to look for in the urine. So, athletes could use the BALCO-supplied drugs right up to and including the competition and have no fear of getting caught. It was only after one of the drug-testing labs was tipped off by a sample that was sent in anonymously and long after the fact that they were to add yet another drug to the long list of ones to detect. The question is: how many more undetectable drugs are out there? The answer: probably quite a few.

It’s important to know that simply passing a drug-test does not necessarily make someone natural, and it’s clear that urine and even blood testing at competitions is not enough to deter or even detect drug use. It’s a simple fact that when an athlete knows the date and time of the test, preparations can be made to "beat the test" – and many still do, despite the fact that the drug testers want you to believe they’re winning this war on drugs. The test simply becomes another hurdle for some competitors, and that obviously means that a "drug-tested event" is not necessarily a "natural" competition. Does anyone today believe that the Olympics are natural? Case closed.

Drug testing at competitions is not the only way to test, though. One way to try to make sure athletes are natural through drug testing is by implementing what’s called out-of-competition drug testing. It means that an athlete is not only subject to drug testing at the event, but any time leading up to the event and after. Obviously, this won’t be able to catch athletes who use undetectable substances, but it does offer an improved deterrent for those who risk using drugs during the year and then attempt to come off them prior to a competition. In fact, it might be more effective to test this way than at competitions, since the testing date is unknown. Unfortunately, out-of-competition testing is expensive, so not too many organizations can do it. I know of no physique organizations that currently do it, despite some having policies that say they do.

While out-of-competition drug testing can be costly, another way some physique organizations, particularly in the US, are trying to ensure that athletes stay clean all year round is to conduct lie-detector tests at the competition to inquire about drug use at and prior to the competition. While the use of lie detectors is questionable (their effectiveness depends on the content and length of the interview as well as the skill of the interviewer, among many other things), there’s no doubt that’s it’s a step in the right direction, at least if your goal is to try to determine drug use leading up to the event, and not just at the event. As well, a lie detector offers an advantage over urine and blood testing since there are many drugs that cannot be picked up in these tests but that you may learn about through a lie detector. As well, I understand that many of these organizations still claim to urine-test the winners for final proof. Therefore, they’re drug-testing with a multi-step program which is somewhat more comprehensive, and arguably, more reliable. (One wonders, however, what the organization will do to a competitor who fails a lie-detector test but passes a urine or blood test. A urine or blood test uses "hard" evidence, whereas the results of a lie detector are far more questionable. Hmmm, good question for your next competition!)

Natural, and for how long?

In terms of curtailing drug use, introducing lie detectors seems like a good thing for organizations who can’t afford out-of-competition drug testing, providing the lie-detector testing is accurate. The next question, though, is, how long should a person be drug-free in order to be eligible to compete?

The hard-liners will obviously say, for life! A lifetime, though, is a pretty stiff penalty if someone tried drugs and then gave them up and wanted to go clean. Besides, being banned for life from a natural organization is almost a guarantee that the person will resort to using drugs again since they’ll be back against the drug users in non-tested shows if they want to keep competing. Personally, I would hope that the so-called natural organizations would want to encourage a drug-free life, and not discourage it. And most, it seems, do discourage drug use, by allowing former users to return to competition after a prolonged period of being "clean."

While some may argue that using drugs at one point in your life may give you an advantage later one – even years later on – most drug users I’ve seen go back to their natural state in weeks or months. Perhaps some reap some long-term advantage, but many others don’t. In fact, I know for some, going from being a drug-user to a clean athlete is difficult because they don’t have a "crutch" to rely on. Getting prepared for a contest with drugs is a whole lot easier than without drugs.

So, most organizations have a softer policy, usually stipulating a certain number of years of being drug-free. I think that’s a good thing, since it ensures that former drug users have been clean for a sufficient time, and lifetime drug-free athletes can be assured that they’re competing on a relatively level playing field, and that any former drug user won’t be at any significant advantage over them.

In terms of how many years organizations will want a person to be "clean," the number varies. I’ve seen anywhere from four to seven years. Whether you’ve used drugs or never used drugs, the length of time to be drug free is a good question to ask an organization since it will give you an idea of the rules and what each competitor is up against.

Conclusion

While the definition of a "natural competition" is reasonably clear, you can see what kinds of rules and regulations, not to mention testing procedures, make for a truly natural competition is not that clear at all. As you’ve learned, a drug-tested event is not necessarily a natural event, and even at shows where the organizers use drug- and lie-detectors tests, there may be some competitors who at one or more times in their lives were drug users. Quite simply, there’s no easy answer to how to regulate these competitions and how to police them, and, therefore, every association’s rules and regulations will be different.

What’s important, though, is that you now have the knowledge to ask intelligent questions, such as: What, if any, testing is done? Exactly what kind of testing is done? What is being tested for? And so on and so on. I should also mention that it’s your right as a competitor to ask these questions. As a competitor you deserve the chance to get onstage and compete and know what the rules are and what you’re up against. Like I said before, if you’re natural and you choose to compete in a natural contest, you should expect everyone else onstage to be natural, just like you.

...Doug Schneider
das@seriousaboutfitness.com

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