“Steriod use” in athletics will continue until a solution is provided that provides better results in power and speed. Athletes will always look for the edge to stay competitive and on top of their game. A solution that will provide natural gains in power and speed, that is global in application, and that is affordable, will eliminate the use of steroids in the marketplace of athletics.
A solution exist in the form of , “The 2x5 Program”. This program is in practice within the circles of the Performance Protocol Community of Southside Virginia and the Triad Region of North Carolina. The outline for implementation is as follows. A. Limited weight lifts and pulls, B. Limited sprints, C. A series of core activities, and D. Balanced rest. The general details of this “power/speed recipe” is presented within the body of this paper.
The Answer to Steroid Use in the Athletic World
By Frank Fulton, Jr.
10/27/2009
The use of steroids has been a natural progression of survival within the world of sports. As with any other fad, it has come and it is now time for it to go. However, there needs to be a replacement for the process of steroid enhancement that produces better results. These results must be greater than any level of physical power realized via the needle in order for the subscribing individuals to turn away from the practice of developing through artificial enhancement.
Many would agree that the use of steroids is associated with cheating, poor health habits, and negative mental/physical side affects. Legal issues, social concerns, and personal accountability provide a whole host of sidebars for discussion. There have been attempts to combat steroid use with natural supplements, long bouts of physical training, legal reprimands on users, and negative media campaigns. However, steroid use is still going on and players will continue to do so via every trick of the book to beat the system. The principle of survival of the fittest still takes precedence over public and private principles and opinions.
Today the answer that combats the use of steroids is ready for war. This answer produces stronger athletes, better-rested athletes, naturally enhanced athletes, and wiser athletes than ever developed within the current trends of athletic performance. The program is backed by many years of research within the biomechanical disciplines of education. Humanity has used the principles of this process for years. On the farms, in the factories, on the playing fields, and within the homes the basics for developing natural power has always been present but never fully utilized or appreciated.
Before this protocol of training is revealed, it is important to have a quick history on steroid use in baseball from the personal perspective of a player, coach, fan, father, and teacher. The steroid era grew right before my eyes and the opportunity to utilize the process has always been around every corner. During the 70s, baseball had become boring. Little fan support, little media coverage, little everything was the standard mode of operation. Kids played because it was tradition and few wanted to make it a profession. The administration of baseball was always looking for ways to grow the fan base and the economic interest. There was no fan fest, father/son events, baseball camps for the youth, baseball card mania, etc. Just uneventful “media” baseball.
Then one day, a power-hitting athlete began to hit homeruns again. This individual looked like a Titan, a hero, a warrior that everyone could possibly become. In addition, the hit of a homerun ignited the citizens to come and behold the beauty of the long ball.
As fans came, so did the opportunity to make more money. Players started to question, research, and copy what the strong man did. Players started to lift weights, take supplements, and use enhancements to get the edge. The administration of baseball kept up with the interest in power by organizing programs within the clubs to provide legal developmental resources so their teams could become stronger, faster, and produce heroic results. Organizations hired weightlifting coaches from the ranks of college football. Diets, workout program, team psychologists, and conditioning experts were the new coaches within the traditional system of baseball. Everybody had to have ICE, a guru, and some kind of pill.
With all these additions to professional baseball came all the copycats within the ranks of every amateur program across the land. Colleges, high school, youth programs, and fans bought every book, program, routine, and made sure they kept up with every activity of their new heroes of strength. If “Bobby the Home Run King” could take pills, lift weights, and look like an Olympian then the average worker could do so too. And why couldn’t little Johnny, who will be the next great home run king of the future, take the same chemicals, prescribed to the same killer workouts, and mimic the heroes of his fathers?
Millions did. As these millions upon millions copied everything that developed within the game of baseball so did the rise in steroid use grow within the amateur athletic world. Kids were hip to large doses of everything so they could play better. Scholarships, pro contracts, starting positions were at stake and again the principle of survival of the fittest came into the family circle of America. Children were taking drugs so they could go play the game of baseball.
At some point within the turn of the century, the mindset of the baseball community took a second look at the problem. Was it economically based, socially based, or morally based is still a great debatable question. Nevertheless, taking steroids became equated with cheating, cheating became synonymous with lack of revenue, and lack of revenue became the driving point for cleaning up the use of drugs and enhancements within the professional world of baseball. (One alarming point: college and amateur baseball usage of drugs and enhancements is still available. There is not enough money to police every high school athlete or college athlete.
The kids can still get it if they have the money to do so and they will do so if the means justifies the ends within the family circle. Has teenage drinking and smoking ever really stopped because you do not see the baseball players doing it out in public anymore?)
Today, we have professional athletes ostracized from the game because they did what it took to survive this fad of performance. Drug rehab programs have been established, media blitzes have collected much air time fighting the steroid monster, and the need for new healthier programs of development are popping up everyday. Tons of money is spent on new diets, programs, or fancy bracelets to wear. Athletes are coming and going at a quicker pace than ever before. Burn out, burned up, and done at 25 is the new age of peak performance and pity is placed on the athlete who turns 30. What is a group of athletic citizens to do?
The History of the 2x5 Program
In this climate of flux, a gentleman appeared with a plan that was crazy in comparison to the modern day methods of training and development. This gentleman present his plan to a number of amateur athletes and to a group of professional players. One of these professional players took a special interest to the program and both the teacher and the student monitored their work. After a 72-day period, this 6’4” 240-pound athlete had produced some very interesting results. He went from 275 to 400 pounds in the bench press, from 400 to 610 in the dead lift, from 4.9 to a 4.49 in the forty-yard dash, from 26 to 33-inch vertical in his jump, and from 20% body fat to 12% body fat. No drugs, a modified diet, and no ill effects left on base!!
The father of this athlete, a former high school and college football/baseball coach, was on hand to see his exhibition of power at the end of a training period. His father did not believe what he was seeing. He thought, “ No drugs, no long hours in the gym, no weight belt…..no CHEATING!!!! Pure power and speed gains were unleashed with no adverse side affects or purchase of special power garments, pills, or videos. I have to find out what is going on!”
These three gentlemen; the teacher, the father, and the son, diligently went to work discussing and organizing the process. They produced a basic program that is very adaptable to most individuals. Simplicity underlines the program and mastery of its process is determined by each person’s intensity of achievement. The process takes between 25-45 minutes and individuals actually gain power (Strength) while they reduce their mass (weight). The teacher, Jonathan Sherbourne of Platinum Sports Academy continues to train athletes in Greensboro, North Carolina with his personal regiment of the program. The athlete is still managing his form of the program as he plays professional baseball. The father, Frank Fulton, has personally incorporated the program into his workouts and has develop a system for individuals to utilized globally. The program is referred to as: “The 2x5”Program.
The “2x5” Program
The program consists of three fundamental bio-mechanical principles: A.) Time Under Tension, B) Muscle Recruitment, C) ATP Replenishment)} Once these principles are understood the program outlines a protocol of activity which is divided into four functional training components: 1.) Weight Pulls and Pushes, 2) Core Progressions, 3) Sprints, 4) Rest.)
The Three Fundamental Biomechanical Principles
Time Under Tension. The body is stimulated when explosive activity takes place. The muscles expand or contract and will do so with force up to a certain point of time under tension. If an activity is within a ten-second period of time the body will remain firm and stimulated. If the body experiences explosive activity for longer than ten seconds the muscles utilized will begin to experience micro-trauma. This micro-trauma is small tears within the muscle fibers of the body. When the muscle tear, the body bleeds. When the bleeding occurs, the body has to move into protection mode. The body will swell, the muscle will collect lactic acid and the individual will need time to recover from the tears within the muscle. If the individual can keep the activity under ten seconds the body will never be worn down and recovery time is very limited.
Muscle Recruitment. Each individual on average only uses about 20% of their muscles to do physical activity. When a 50-pound bag of potatoes is moved from point A to point B, the body will use the average 20% of muscles required to move the bag. If the bag becomes heavier, the brain of the body will recruit additional muscle fibers to join the 20% of activated muscles to complete the mission. Therefore, as the load of an object increases the percentage of muscle needed to move the object will increase.
ATP. This is the “High Octane Fuel” within the body that is needed to propel the muscles to act. Every time an explosive activity is performed, the body uses the Adrino Tri-Phosphates stores of energy. If the activity is conducted over a long period of time the levels will reduce to empty and the body will cannibalize or produce lactic acid to meet the pressing needs of a stressed body. If the activity is spaced out over time the process of replenishing the level of ATP will take place instantaneously and the body will have the natural fuel needed to perform explosive activities.
The Four Functional Training Components
Weight Pulls and Pushes. The key is to do lifts that include the majority of the muscles during the exercise. After the lifting/pulling session is complete, each muscle should be stimulated. The basic series of lifts are the bench press, the dead lift, the row, the lat pull, and pull-ups. The routine is two sets of five reps. NO set should be longer than five seconds in tension. A set could be just one rep or could be five reps. A lift could be one set of ten reps. The key, do not surpass the ten-second time limit of muscular tension. Once a lift becomes easy, (10 reps within 10 seconds) the athlete now starts the muscle recruiting process by adding weight to the lift.
Core Progression. The stimulation of the muscles that connect the upper body with the lower body is critical to complete muscular coordination. A dynamic program that ignites the expansion and contraction process strengthens the body and utilizes all the muscles to stabilize the body during many activities.
Sprints. The full sprint engages the entire body in a total stimulate output of power. The distant can very as the level of athletic performance varies. The goal is to run four sixty-yard sprints with a window of 4-5 minutes of rest between each sprint. The individual must run at full speed with the goal of improving their sprint time each session. They can have someone time their performance or count the number of steps they take in comparison to the number of sprints taken previously.
Rest. The athlete can do a series of jogs or walks for no longer than eight minutes to cool the body down or to relax the body from the intensity of the program. The athlete must refrain from doing extra reps to get a perceived advantage. If an athlete feels very stimulate and wants to do more the athlete must have enough wisdom and discipline to understand he has stimulated the body for another day. The athlete can also go into practice and skill development. All practice and skill development operates at a much lower level of physical activity. Therefore, the muscles are not under constant tension and the risk of micro-trauma is very limited. Within 45-minutes from the final exercises of the workout, the athlete will feel a sense of relaxation. The muscles will be stimulated and will need some form of nourishment to fuel the cooling down process. The euphoric state of mind and body is equated to the relaxed period that follows good positive healthy sexual activity.
Conclusion
Steroids has been a means to an end. The use of steroids in athletics has been solely for developing an edge on the competition and for maintaining strength during a season of competition. The perception is that power and speed creates an advantage for the athlete who has it. This advantage leads to maintaining a job, receiving financial rewards, and collecting sport accolades for great accomplishments.
The abuse of steroids will continue until a new program is provided that will take athletes past these levels of steroid enhanced performance. A program that is effective, efficient, natural, and available for everyone will be the key to eradicating steroid use. A program that produces faster runners, stronger athletes, and healthier resilient bodies will eventually close the book on steroid and substance abuse.
The “2x5” program and all variations of the biomechanical principles that underlie the program has developed into the solution that will provide effective, efficient, natural productive athletes who are faster, stronger, and physically resilient.
References:
Biomechanics of Sport and Exercise, McGinnis, P., Human Kinetics, Champaign, IL, Copyright, 1999.
“Conversations with Dr. Blauvelt“, Blauvelt, C., Fulton, F. (Conversations on the history of bio-mechanical research as it applies to athletics and movement), Longwood University, Farmville,VA, 2009.
“Energiegewinnung in der Muskelzelle“ , Egetmeyer, Lucas, (A Research Paper translated in English; “Energy Production in the Muscle Cell“), 2004.
Juiced , Canseco, J., Harper Collins Publishers Inc., New York, NY. Copyright 2005.
Power to the People, Tsatsouline, P. Dragon Door Publications, Inc. St. Paul, MN, Copyright, 1999.
“Size vs Power”, Sherbourne, J., (Notes from Personal study by Jonathan Sherbourne, Platinum Sports Academy), Greensboro, NC. 2008.
Strength Training Anatomy, Second Edition, Delavier, F., Editions Vigot, Paris, France, Copyright 2006.
