#9 - Barry Bonds

Wow. This is my first ever blog ... wow ...
So I'm going to write about Barry Bonds and steroids because this needs to be said. I was talking with the physical therapist/track team trainer about these subjects, and I learned some very interesting things that everyone should know.

Steroids 1) improve muscle recovery time and as a consequence stamina - allowing you to hit the ball hard April through August, 2) improve strength, potentially to the point of having excessive bulk (see Caminetti ~1995) depending on the drug and use, but not if taken properly (see Sosa, Bonds, Big Mac, etc...), 3) encourage muscular growth, putting excess pressure on joints, ligaments/tendons, muscles themselves, bone structure (see 50 Cent’s body and head) and decreasing flexibility.

It's easy to confuse muscular strength, stamina and recovery with injury prevention, but DON'T. Steroids can't prevent injuries, rather, they only help with fatigue - by recruiting muscular fibers faster. Therefore, steroids are WAY more likely to cause injuries. Bonds was more likely to be injured while on steroids. Also, people have said that as soon as he stopped taking steroids he started having injuries. But this is basically nonsense, especially when you consider his injuries have been to his knees - probably due muscular imbalance/weight from steroid use and regular wear combined with his body. Remember, he has a family history of bad knees (Willie Mays and his father too), and what's more, wear and tear is from chronic stress (which is the second definition of the word "baseball" in the dictionary).

Many people think steroids lengthened Bonds' career, but this is not so. The problems and injuries he has been having probably resulted from long-term playing, and were only catalyzed by steroids. It seems to me Barry Bonds has only shortened his career by using steroids, despite rejuvenating it significantly over the last few years.