Crime & Federalism

I don't care about Tiger Woods, but I do care about steroids and performance enhancing drugs.  It seems that Tiger Woods is at least peripherally linked to performance enhancing drugs.  Many thus wonder: Is Tiger on "juice"?  Well, of course he is. 

The dominate theme about steroids (one class of performance-enhancing drugs) is that people use PEDs to get more muscular.  Thus, people will debate Tiger Woods' alleged steroid use by citing his body mass, athleticism, and alleged weightlifting feats.  Those are all red herrings.

Professional athletes often do not take performance enhancing drugs to get gain muscle mass.  Rather, PEDs are used to increase recovery.  Think about it.

To be the best, you must practice.  At the pro level, the guys have similar "genetic" skill levels.  The person who puts the most time in is the one who is going to lose.  It's a lot like law.  Put the hours in.

As an athlete ages, his recovery time decrease.  Most of you won't recover as quickly after a workout than you would have in your 20s. That's because you have lower levels of testosterone and human growth hormone.

If you can recover faster, then you can have more practices. More practices equals more opportunity to improve skill.

With HGH, you regrow ligaments. Joint swelling is reduced. If you or I are a little sore after golfing, big deal. It's not how we earn our living. If it's Tiger Woods, sore joints impeded practice. You can't afford to not practice.  

Thus, a person who is "juicing" Thus, a person might gain almost no muscle mass, but still be on PEDs. Indeed, in boxing and mixed martial arts, nearly every guy is on something. Keep in mind that in MMA and boxing, you do not want to gain weight. You usually want to stay in the lowest weight class possible.

Thus, you take a low dose of testosterone and a low dose of HGH. Test and HGH speed recovery, and thus ensure that you're able to have more sessions in the gym.

The irony is that people say using PEDs is "taking the easy way out." That just shows sloppy thinking. Professional athletes use PEDs so that they may work harder. They want more sessions in the gym or field. They want their sessions to be more intense. PED users want to work harder, and thus are certainly not seeking the easy way out.

I would wager anyone here that Tiger Woods is on a low dose of HGH. He's probably taking 1 iu or so daily.  That Woods isn't "jacked" or "diesel" tells us nothing about his drug use.  That he recovered so quickly from knee surgery - and was able to train through such knee pain - tells us much more.