Natty or Not, Are Steroids Bad for Jiu Jitsu?
The use of PEDs in professional sports isn’t a secret and grappling is far from an exception. What’s the difference between using steroids in combat sports vs. other sports? BJJ, now in it’s adolescence, may have a lot of growing up to do in this regard.
This is a bit of a hot-button issue, and recently Jon Thomas posted a video about “Steroids Ruining Jiu Jitsu.” Obviously, many others have made content on this topic as well, but Jon is someone who’s opinion I respect and value.
However, I don’t totally agree with him here, and in fact, disagree on quite a few points. Most importantly, I don’t see that as a moral indictment, or change the value I think he contributes to the BJJ community whatsoever.
Here, I want to take both a broad and narrow approach to looking at how we define “steroids” or “PEDs” both in the context of grappling and professional sports as a whole. Additionally, I want to look at how different sporting cultures have handled this topic.
A General Overview:
Let me first establish my stance on PEDs overall. I have always been a natural athlete and don’t have any plans to change that. A few months ago I suffered the most significant injury of my athletic career and considered utilizing BPC157 and TB500 peptides, but ultimately my recovery proceeded quickly enough that I didn’t think they were warranted.
I have never taken any synthetic hormones (prescription or otherwise obtained), or anything you can’t purchase over-the-counter at Vitamin Shoppe (or similar).
I don’t have any inherent moral qualms about “gear” or people who use it. I have a bone to pick with liars and people who sell said lies or otherwise exploit people with such deception.
My overarching concern is, at what point do we consider something cheating? Is access to better training partners, better equipment and facilities, better coaches, higher quality food “an unfair advantage” as well? What about supplements? What about HGH / TRT that are legally prescribed? Margins of application are arbitrary as there are plenty of “doctors” willing to do nefarious things for the right price.
Rules and regulations themselves are somewhat arbitrary and every penny that goes into WADA / USADA testing will be trumped may times over by systems designed to defeat / cheat said testing. Likewise, “legality” is largely irrelevant for reasons I’ll explain below.
Steroid Culture at Large:
Obviously, I’m not a doctor. The discussion herein is outside the realm of health. That’s your responsibility to discuss with your doctor. With that said, I’ve been an athlete for 25 or so of my 36 years of life, and the last 10 or so have been at a reasonably high level (NCAA or better).
The most notable outlier in terms of culture is power lifting — which is even different from (Olympic) weightlifting. The power lifting culture is much more open about heir steroid use. Why? Because you still have to put in the work.
In fact, that’s the point of PEDs'; so that you can do more work! I’ll go out on a limb and guess that most people using PEDs aren’t doing so under the impression that they’ll magically perform better while sitting on the couch longer. No, they want to recover faster so that can get back in the gym and back to training sooner.
Turning to cycling, I remarked in a recent newsletter that “all the EPO in the world won’t bestow upon you that 7 watts / Kg Lance Armstrong pulled for 30 minutes in 1998.”
The Olympics recently took place. How many athletes at The Games do you think were “natural?” They all got tested… right? If they all passed, they must be clean… right?
In 2001 Charlie Francis estimated that 80% of Olympic track and field athletes use PEDs, while IOC (then) officially admitted to 30-40% of track and field athletes using drugs (1).
Approximately 57% of “world class amateur athletes” use PEDs (2) while IOC officially only reports 1-2% of total athletes doping (3).
Then we have this douche-bag (^) — the savior to the vacuum of neo-masculinity. I won’t belabor this, but nobody (honest) was surprised when Brain Johnson was outed by More Plates More Dates (4). Remember when I mentioned exploitative liars and hucksters? Here’s your prime candidate.
AFTER being caught, Brain issued an apology, which somehow made the whole situation worse. Essentially he said he “lied to help depressed children.” In that “apology” he also neglected to mention the 10-figure profit he often brags about that also came at the expense of those “depressed children.”
At any rate, let’s get on to something worth chatting about… grappling!
Steroids in Grappling:
ADCC doesn’t test at all, for anything. IBJJF has only, in the last few years, started testing — medalists at national and world events, after they’ve competed.
Let me start this segment with the things I agree with Jon about in the video above. First, as I said previously, health is a completely separate topic that’s between you and your doctor — and the local district attorney.
I also agree about the “expectation of honesty.” What if I had taken steroids or peptides prescribed by my doctor after a catastrophic injury? Does that negate my previous or any future accomplishments? Of course not.
I also agree that it’s unreasonable to expect natural athletes to keep up with PED users, but this dynamic changes radically if the above honesty is upheld. We all know that there are very few “shortcuts” in real life. Even when you do find them, there tend to be drastic consequences in the long run (5).
I also agree that this (dishonesty) doesn’t have to be the prevailing culture. I’d also posit that it “shouldn’t” be — in the sense that I don’t want it, but alas I can see beyond what I want and how things are or ought to be.
Now, for the parts I disagree with:
We all know that the narrative of BJJ has been that “technique conquers all” and I’ve done my best to disavow that narrative. In no small part, because if that is the case, then why can it not also conquer PED users? It’s almost like strength and physicality do matter, a lot.
I also disagree with formal “zero tolerance” policies. We see how that’s worked out for the Olympics above, or hell, look at school bullying. This also rules out medical conditions — no Mica Galvao, you don’t get a pass for being a grown adult and professional athlete and not knowing what your doctor was putting in you (6).
Steroids definitely don’t “do all the work for you.” Jon cites a study (7), emphasizing that even without exercise, people on steroids gained muscle mass. What he doesn’t mention is that those results were not statistically significant. Which results were statistically significant in gaining muscle mass and better improvements in strength? Exercise only, and exercise with steroids. Exercise without steroids was still better than steroids without exercise.
Lastly, I totally disagree that this will effect children negatively — see my repeated comments on lying. It’s also a far cry that “steroids will lead to other dubious behavior” — that is if your steroid use itself is dishonest and dubious. Personal ethics do vary. I understand the sensitivity and emotional response to people cheating at a job you try to do honestly, and for that I’ll save some concluding remarks for the end.
A few others who I respect, like Brandon Mccaghren and Firas Zahabi, have chimed in on this issue as well. While Firas has made the claim in the past the PED users in MMA should be charged with assault, here he states that “if you want to use, it’s on you.. it’s none of my business… I can believe your jiu jitsu, but I can’t trust your jiu jitsu.”
Brandon states that, if your organization doesn’t test, then it’s on you — just don’t lie. Legality is also a complicated thing. Marijuana is illegal in many places (also banned by USADA / WADA), should it be?
The arbitrary and profiteering nature of “the war on drugs” is far beyond the scope of this article anyway, but suffice to say that alcohol and Tylenol, independently, cause more health issues that peptides or psychedelics combined.
Brandon, again brings up the question “do we want PEDs to be the face of our sport?” Finally, I’d agree with the consolidating point that “we owe it to ourselves to be honest about the choices we make and the reasons behind them.”
Summary and Conclusion:
“Culture” and character come from the top down. Martial arts, and BJJ specifically, don’t have the best reputation for that — e.g. numerous sexual assault scandals. So, if we’re arguing form a moral perspective, and the image we set for future generations, let’s start there.
There's a huge difference between a Liver King type-shtick to sell something or otherwise exploit someone, and saying "yup, this is what I'm on, under medical supervision, and I (do / don't) compete at organization X, Y, Z because of that."
Lastly, some may find it strange that I’m a natural athlete and indifferent to drug use. Here’s a brief summary of why:
I’m not responsible for yours or anyone else’s choices but my own (my job is to win or otherwise coach and teach others to win, regardless).
My value is not incumbent on your opinion of me (whether I use PEDs or not).
I will let my body of work (on this site and elsewhere) stand on it’s own (as much as I like writing, I’m much more about action than talk).
All my protocols, sources, disclosures, and even daily training logs are available on this site. Give them a try for 6 month, or 10 years, then come back to me — you better bring blood work, heart rate graphs, and training logs too.