Liars and hypocrites over-react to Gregan telling the truth

Well, of all the dangers facing our young ones, I think a bit of iron is not all that high on the list *grunt* but I see where you are coming from. Moreover, I don’t want my nitpicking to detract from the fact that I am glad someone pointed out how much of a joke the whole controversy is.

In fact, allow myself to partially contradict…er… myself… by sharing a story. All this has reminded me of a friend in High School who hit the weight training quite young and thought it might be fun the see how much he could squat – with his mates watching of course. The problem with weights, especially for newbies, is that, at the time of training, the body will let you go for it… and bill you for it later (I’m sure we’ve all experienced this delayed onset muscle soreness, if not with weights, with other sports). So this bloke woke up the next morning literally paralysed. He had to drag himself out of bed to get his mum. He ended up taking two days off school. No permantent damage that I know of or can disern though.

Jamius,

My understanding is that well planned and supervising strength training is not harmfull to kiddies.

But there are major dangers to their long term physiololgy if that planning and supervision is not there.

If we’re worried about the pills a kid pops beyond the supervision of experts the weights they might try to lift seem far beyond care or supervision.

I was part of the AIS pilot program that did the research into the use of caffeine pre the 2000 Olympics. If their stats are saying a 7% increase then I’d believe it. More for endurance sports such as marathon running, triathlons or cycling, but it does work. I would say that the popping of a couple of No Doze wasnt part of the regime, bit more powerful than that

Good post Johnboy. As I understand it, one no-doz is equal to about one cup of coffee. I wonder if this would have even made the news if George said he hit the espresso machine and downed a triple strength long black before each game?

This line I found a little ambiguous though…

“Nevermind that working out with heavy weights (as inspired by their heroes) will do more lasting damage to children than any caffeine tablet.”

Lifting weights is harmful?? When done correctly (with ego left at the door), weight training is an important part of any fitness program. It protects our joints, bones and, believe it or not, immune system. I am no Arnold to look at, but I do it about 2-3 times a week in addition to walking and the like; just for general fitness. I think perhaps you are referring to steroid use in competitive bodybuilding…?

I know both runners and “serious” weight trainers… and from my admittedly very unscientific experience-based study, running is a much more dangerous sport (at least orthopedically speaking ).

I’m finding it difficult to understand how this is news and not shockjock reporting better suited to current affair or suchlike trash…

I think that the real question should be about the statistics from the AIS – SEVEN percent performance boost ?

Now that’s dubious…

This is a difficult one. I don’t see anything wrong with professional elite athletes using a legal drug to get a small performance improvement, and honesty is always a good thing. But impressionable kids will try to copy everything their heroes do. Including jumping off the roof with a towel round their neck cos Superman does it.

If we stop athletes talking about the extremes they go to just to be at the top of their sport, we should also stop supermodels being seen in public smoking and drinking coffee (and therefore encouraging young girls to do the same). How else do you think they keep their mind off food so they can stay so thin?

I say let the athletes use caffeine – it’s the responsibility of media to report on it responsibly and parents to explain it to kids.