Since the pandemic, fitness as a hobby has skyrocketed among high schoolers all around the U.S., especially seen with young men–paving the way for a new trend that’s emerged. You’ll typically hear about anabolic steroids and PED usage when you’re in a predominantly male class hitting a new PR, or when others are out trying a new split that they’ve seen on TikTok. So what’s the cause? According to ESPN, they collected data of PED usage among highschoolers from 1991 to 2000. The average jumped from about 2% to 3%. In a recent study by getsmartaboutdrugs.gov (GSAD) in 2014, it said that 7% of highschoolers admit to using PEDs, while 21% know of someone who uses them. Sometimes, the danger factor doesn’t play a huge role with these types of performance enhancers. Whether it be Testosterone, Dianobol, or a glp-1 or peptide, it all depends on where it’s source. In the same article by GSAD, it talks about how most people aren’t aware of how these products are sourced. Oftentimes, there can be “fakes” which are meant to draw people in due to its affordable price. The fakes commonly contain baby oil, wesson oil, motor oil, and even horse urine.
Typically, A high schoolers won’t know where to source it, how it’s half life works, and the dangers of what they’ve associated themselves with. Now that you know the backstory, it poses an even greater question: How does it impact our community? According to coach Blair, he says that it’s a melting pot of causes, “A lot of the pressure comes from competitiveness, and to achieve playing at the next level whatever division that may be. Some of it is for aesthetics as well, it could even be coming from the home.” Previously, body standards were exponentially higher and more recognized for women in the early 2000’s–but now, it’s a main factor for a lot of young men who want to get into fitness. As you start to dive deeper into fitness, you’ll start to consume more and more fitness content.
In many cases, it allows individuals to set a high precedent for their audience all over social media. Even your favorite young influencers can be easily driven to them. For example, a 15 year old bodybuilder by the name of Eric English has recently been receiving backlash for lying about being a natural athlete. In a pinned post on instagram in August of 2024 he looked to have a lighter build but in more recent posts, he looks to have gained more pounds almost immediately. At about 5’8, his bench press pr increased by 100 pounds in the matter of a few weeks. This alone goes to show how social media can be really impactful towards your perspective of others, and even yourself.
In an interview with coach Blair, he says that “[Social media] plays a massive role because of the algorithms. They are engineered in such a way that you even have a slight interest in it; not even wanting to do them but to learn about them. I mean you click on one thing and you get more and more and more of it.”
What Are the Effects of PEDs?
PEDs can vary. Some can be less severe while others can be extremely detrimental to your health. Endurance athletes often use things that increase oxygen uptake which aids in thickening their blood. Peptides can cause organ hypertrophy in extreme cases but steroids are the biggest culprit. Steroids can cause many issues like: crashing natural hormone production, hairloss, moodswings, gynecomastia, infertility etc… But for women, facial hair growth and menstrual cycle loss are the main causes.
How Do They Work?
Well, it depends on the PED that you’re referencing. Peptides are a short chain amino acid–or simply put, protein chains in our body. Unlike most things we consider “steroids”, peptides are already naturally made by our body. They do jobs such as releasing growth hormone, repairing tissues, burning fat, and building muscle. Peptides are pretty common; In fact, 12% of the American adult population takes GLP-1’s, which can immensely boost your body’s ability to mobilize fatty acids and lose body fat by stimulating the pituitary gland. (Most peptides manipulate this in some shape or form). Steroids on the other hand, are meant to be agonists to testosterone (to mimic the effects of). The main way they do this is by binding to androgen receptors, which is something that’s found inside the cells of our muscles. They are both fat and soluble, which allows it to pass through the cell’s semi-permeable membrane without cellular active transport. The steroid will bind to the androgen receptor in the cytoplasm. Once inside the nucleus, the AR binds to DNA called androgen response elements. When they bind together into this new form, it acts as a gene off and on to express different parts of genetic codes. Thus the androgen receptor can shut down completely some gene sequences and upregulate others. It will often inhibit myostatin and increase IGF-1.
Even if you aren’t directly using PEDs, you can often be accused of using steroids. A lot of mainstream influencers online who constantly document their fitness journey, are almost always the main target. You’ll see it all the time with natural competing body builders too. Individuals like: TNF, Ryan Jewers, Jeff Nippard, and Elijah Mundy have all been lifting for about a decade if not more. Some of them have even posted blood works to prove they’re natural. This mixture of people who are using PEDs/who are suspected of using PEDs continues to make others skeptical of real life PED usage. If you look at most of their accusers, they’re usually young men or middle school boys. Young people, regardless of other aspects of their life, are deeply ingrained in social media. So as teenagers, we can start to rise up against PED usage in our communities.
