Some say use of bodybuilding steroids is on the rise
Local health club staffers say they’re worried about an apparent surge in abuse of anabolic steroids by amateur weightlift-ers.
“No matter what gym you walk into, you can find the stuff,” says Dave Constanti-neau, regional manager of Vic Tanny Health and Raquetball Clubs. A recent story in The Capital Times outlined the suicide of a 19-year-old power-lifter from Middleton who killed himself after quitting steroids.
While the case of “Michael” may have represented an extreme example of steroid induced emotional problems, it also parallels in many ways patterns of steroid abuse among teen-agers, according to Constantineau.
“They come in at 115 pounds and want to build up real fast,” he says. “A lot of times they get too wrapped up in it.”
Constantineau, who knew Michael when the teen-ager joined Vic Tanny at 16, says that some youngsters follow bad advice from other members as they strive to build their strength and bulk.
Their quest for popularity and acceptance among other lifters, coupled with the easy availability of steroids, makes drugs a convenient shortcut to results, he says. “Mike’s problem was he took everyone’s advice,” Constantineau says.
He says that as he watched Michael’s 5-foot-10 frame grow substantially from the 140 pounds he weighed when he began working out, he warned him several times that he was trying for too much too soon.
By that time, however, Michael had begun a steroid regimen, which was against the club’s rules, and did not follow Constantineau’s advice to build up gradually and to avoid steroids.
A friend of Michael Robert Mitchell says he bought Michael his first bottle of the anabolic steroid Dianabol shortly after the teen began working out. Mitchell says he took only one six-week cycle of the drug and refused to get more for Michael, but Michael continued to take steroids, eventually building his weight to 225 pounds.
Mitchell was working out with Michael at Vic Tanny and later worked for a cleaning crew under contract to the club, but was not an employee of the club.
Jeff Littman, who oversees all operations for Vic Tanny in Wisconsin, says the prevalence of steroids has forced club employees to keep a watchful eye out for any possible illegal activity.
The club’s rules prohibit possession and use of any illegal substances by employees or members.
Three weeks ago, two members at the club’s West Allis facility lost their memberships when a locker room attendant saw a hypodermic needle fall from the gym bag of one of the two, he says.
The two were “being obnoxious” about using steroids which are often injected when the needle was recovered, Littman said.
Although Vic Tanny has more than 100,000 members statewide, Littman says he could “count the number of them using steroids on my fingers and toes.”
Littman is a former competitive bodybuilder who says he quit because of growing steroid use among his competitors. Steroids “pretty much ruined that sport,” he says.
Stieg Theander, fitness director at Market Square Swim and Fitness Center, agrees with Constantineau that the search for respect and acceptance in the gym can be an incentive to take steroids, especially among young people.
