What's on today's Menu? Human Growth Hormone !!!

src

I've been wanting to talk about drugs in sports for a long time, and there's so much to talk about, that I will do it by bit. Today on our menu: Human Growth Hormone

A while back, after an open mat sessions with our coach in Johannesburg, the students gathered around him, coach was engaged in a conversation with one of his student; I think if I remember correctly, the discussion was about Junior Dos Santos and HGH abuse in Brazil, our beloved coach continued with a bold claim, that stuck with me for the rest of my life:

Everyone, who is performing at the highest level, is on performance enhancing drugs, it's a fact. You cannot compete with the pros without it.

This couldn't be possible. Did he mean "everyone"? Surely, there are a few exceptions?

Of course, it's pretty obvious that during the early years of MMA, everyone was jacked to the gills. You just have to look at Tito Ortiz bald ever-growing forehead, Kevin Randleman's muscle mass or Brock Lesnar's freak physique in more recent years, to understand that there is probably a bio engineer involved somewhere in a not-so-secret lab.

I can already hear you say: "But Ed, what about USADA"?

E-ZLypbVIAA3LjB.jpg
src

Well, USADA sole purpose, is to create a narrative around athletes that have been abusing the system, abusing drugs, and to protect their image at all cost. We are going to delve into the world of PEDs, and will go through a Menu of what you can currently find on the Market, and at what price. Today's drug, is everyone's favorite miracle sauce.

Human Growth Hormone


royalty free vector

Did you know that Lionel's Messi's career was literally kickstarted on HGH?
I think it's important to remember that in a proper context, Human Growth Hormone can change lives for the better, however this drug has been really abused in all sports, and nobody is talking about it.

For the sake of the narrative, I will focus on few culprits of the moment in MMA, known HGH abusers by the community, but what is HGH?

Human growth hormone (hGH) is a naturally occurring hormone produced by the pituitary gland. It’s important for growth, cell regeneration, and cell reproduction.
HGH helps to maintain, build, and repair healthy tissue in the brain and other organs. This hormone can help to speed up healing after an injury and repair muscle tissue after exercise. This helps to build muscle mass, boost metabolism, and burn fat.

source

There are fighters, like Kamaru Usman and the entire team of the Blackzilians that are known PEDs users, The Nigerian Nightmare has shown all the signs of HGH abuse, and lately many videos has been surfacing on the subject, but more on this in a later episode.

It's easy to see why Overeem, Vitor Belfort, Anthony Rumble Johnson, or Big Foot Silva could all be involved with HGH, they all look like they're coming from a lab after all. But what about guys that don't seem too different physically between camps? Are they also guilty of charge?

Rest assured, that even fighters that have been vocals about drug abuse in the sport, have also themselves been suspected of abuse, it's the case for George St Pierre that showed clear signs of "bubble gut" during his training for his fights at middleweight against Michael Bisping, the champion at the time.

GSP had to gain more than 30 lbs in a very short amount of time, and growth hormone are just very useful if you are trying to bulk up quick. It's a sensitive subject, because George is so loved in the MMA community, but truth is, the suspicions of abuse have been swept under the rug for many years, and the UFC did not hesitate to do some damage controls countless times, not hesitating to use publicity stunts to shift public opinion.

Your favourite commentator Joe Rogan has been promoting the use of growth hormone for many years now, the UFC president Dana White is also bulking on it, the previous owners of Zuffas "The Fertidas Brothers" were also using the miracle drug, it's almost as if it has become an accepted fact, it's almost like users were protected...

What are the side effects? Let's ask your favorite current champion Israel Adesanya:

One of the side effect of HGH use, is gynecomastia, which is a "condition of over-development or enlargement of the breast tissue in men or boys". (You get boobs!)
Other drugs can cause "gyno", certain hormone blockers that athletes are using to hide elevated level of testosterone in their bodies for example, every team is hiring an expert in the sweet science.

Another known side effect of HGH, is acromegaly, meaning that your facial features, hands, and feet keeps on growing forever... I am not kidding!

This is how Tito Ortiz looks like in 2021:

src

How much does HGH cost?

If you get your injections from a tattooed broker in a darkest corner of Manchester (I just needed a good rhyme), it will be around $1000.

If you want the good stuff though, the untraceable, pure, clean product, get ready to spend between $5000 and $10000 😎 in the good standing institute or your choice.

How do athletes manage to never get caught using Human Growth Hormone?

That's a very good question, for this we have to understand the importance of cycles.

The importance of cycles

Here we go


src

Rest assured that your favourite athletes, have a team of people micro dosing their hormones intake, and also making sure through rigorous testing that it stays untraceable to testing.

That's when cycles play an important role, as you need to let the body time to eliminate any trace amount that could potentially be found in your blood.

There is an interesting article about the detection process, though I suspect it to already be outdated, but one sentence particularly sums up the situation regarding the isoform method of testing HGH traces in the blood:

The Achilles’ heel of the isoform method is its short window of detection.[42] Recombinant GH, even when injected subcutaneously, is cleared rapidly and GH is frequently undetectable in a blood sample taken the morning after an injection,

Am I hearing right?

You can get away, with taking HGH, just one day after injection? No wonder everyone is using it!
The is another method of detection called The GH-2000 marker method, which "still exhibit a wide interindividual variability that could mean that those with lower baseline marker concentrations are potentially harder to catch".

In other words, you can rest assured that everyone will keep on taking HGH in every disciplines because it works, and get away with it, by going through cycles...
Anyway, you will hear from the medias that they got the testing right, you'll see USADA giving jackets to fighters, and everybody will live happily ever after.

This is it for today's discovery, here is the others episodes that I want to write about:

  • Trenbolone

  • Steroids

  • Testosterone Replacement Therapy

  • Human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG)

  • Erythropoietin (EPO)

I hope that you enjoyed this journey through PEDs in MMA!

Ed



0
0
0.000
20 comments
avatar

That's interesting. I read a while back that a lot of ufc fighters were taking PED but I didn't realize how much so. I read that it essentially cost Bisping his eye sight in one eye, when he fought... Belfort... I think. I also thought the ufc was cracking down on PED, but it sounds like there is very little to do about HGH if it's so hard to detect.

0
0
0.000
avatar

Dude, I can probably write 10 000 words, on all the different PED they are using!
Nice you mention Bisping, and again, you're right about the eye.

I also think, but it's just my humble opinion, that EPO testing hasn't been put in place in the UFC in the years Bisping was fighting, because it was apparently too pricey, and he could have benefited like many others, of the loophole.

He is known to have great cardio, which got better with time.

Again, it doesn't mean he took steroids, or HGH.

0
0
0.000
avatar

Yeah I wouldn't be surprised if he was taking it as well. Too bad about the eye though. That really sucks.

0
0
0.000
avatar

did you see him taking it out? 😄

0
0
0.000
avatar

Lmao, No
Would I want to?
🤣

0
0
0.000
avatar
(Edited)

you asked!

0
0
0.000
avatar
(Edited)

Halloween episode hahaha
It is pretty badass to be able to pull out your eye for folks as a party trick

0
0
0.000
avatar

They are all doing it and only the dumb ones are being caught. Canello the boxer has been bust twice and guaranteed still using it. When I was playing Rugby back in the 90's I felt like a second class citizen as I knew I was one of the odd ones out. I just couldn't take it and stupidly thought if I ate more like double or triple and trained harder I could compete. This wasn't the case though as obviously your recovery time is far less when you have the juice. I look at players today ripping their bicep muscles or tearing their calves and know they are guaranteed on it as that is so hard to do if that muscle was normal.

0
0
0.000
avatar

They are all doing it and only the dumb ones are being caught

100% accurate statement!

I am glad you mention recuperation, because the average joe doesn't realize the edge you get on the "juice', steroid or HGH.
The 90s was the golden age of performance enhancing drugs and the testing was even more limited.
One thing that it also helps with, is confidence. A lot of players or fighters have the edge, thanks to what they're taking. It's almost a placebo effect, though the physical & performance increase is really noticeable, at least 15 to 30%.

It must have been so frustrating to compete against juiced up freaks of nature!

0
0
0.000
avatar

You have no idea how bad it really was. I am not small by any means as back then I was 120kg with no fat and still looked like a shrimp. The guys I played with in the army were all on it and went on to play for International teams. I didn't notice it so much then as that was under 20's and could hold my own comfortably. In the open division the following year I had a team mate jet off to Italy for 6 months and he came back twice the size. He made the Natal and Springbok team the following year. I wasn't tempted though as I know it has side affects and what was telling then was the pimples on the guys backs. It was hard not to notice in the showers how many guys had the tell tale signs. This was just as rugby was turning professional in 1991 so 4 years before it was officially a professional sport. Back then we were being paid drinking money but some of the guys were on heavy pay packets already. No wonder I struggled playing 2 matches per week plus 3 practice sessions leaving me with little to no recovery time.

0
0
0.000
avatar

what was telling then was the pimples on the guys backs

That's the steroids, the pimples, it's now totally accepted by athletes.

No wonder I struggled playing 2 matches per week plus 3 practice sessions leaving me with little to no recovery time.

For another episode, I will describe "EPO sessions" that teams are having, going to elevated area to naturally increase the red cells in their body as EPO does, even replacing their blood plasma through IVs with fresh blood, this is an entire business in 2021, 30 years later (in case you wondered how long it was haha 😌).

I don't think competing with beasts jacked on everything known to man should be allowed if not everyone is doing it. Again, all about the money you are ready to spend.

0
0
0.000
avatar

Wow. I took my time to read all this and I must say that I am glad that I read all the 1200 words. first, let me say thank you for the educative post and thanks for opening my eyes to something new. I heard no idea that Something called H2G exits but I have always been skeptical at how well some athletes are built and it is very hard to believe that it's a result of their hard work in the gym.

Also regarding the side effects, I am not sure the people using it are aware of all this as this could be life threatening at some point in their life. i also feel more testing should be done as this seems to be giving some athletes an edge over their counterparts.

I can't wait to read more about the other drugs which are regularly abused such as steroids. i have an high interest on that as I heard that Dwayne Johnson (The Rock) has started using such drugs to aid his physique

0
0
0.000
avatar

Yeah I agree with you about more rigorous testing, though the big organizations in every sports kind of turn a blind eye to it.

You are also right about The Rock, big time user! I'll try to incorporate him when we talk about TRT, he also takes Growth Hormone too, check his skull now compared to the his early wrestling years, although he isn't "competing" so it doesn't really matter!

Thanks for your comment !

0
0
0.000
avatar

This was an interesting read. I've never thought that it is happening on multiple personalities.

0
0
0.000
avatar

Hey Afterglow, thanks so much for your contribution! I hope you're doing well!

0
0
0.000
avatar

I fully agree i could imagine nate diaz not being On something or if it is than its to increase endurance.

He is considerably weaker than most of his opponents, doesnt look to have pęd signs if someone in this sport is pęd free than maybe nate

0
0
0.000
avatar

You would be surprised that it's not alawys the most muscular physique taking HGH or steroid, but I agree with you that there's more chance for him to be natty, maybe he would take EPO, and of course weed but it's not a drug 😁

0
0
0.000
avatar

Micro dosing huh? This is an interesting concept that I haven't given much thought to...The evidence appears overwhelming though

0
0
0.000
avatar

The photo of Tito!!! 🤣🤣🤣

Everyone, who is performing at the highest level, is on performance enhancing drugs, it's a fact. You cannot compete with the pros without it.

I don't know now, yes lots are at it, but I'd like to think it's maybe 10 to 20% across sports in general. Of course some sports will be 50% and higher.

0
0
0.000