MuscleMemory

This summer, the US House of Representatives passed HR 3866, the Anabolic Steroid Control Act of 2004, which would ban all steroid precursors and pro-hormones, and increased penalties for anabolic steroid offenses near sports facilities. It was then sent to the Senate.

Now, the Senate Judiciary Committee has approved and sent to the full Senate a similar bill, S 2195. While this bill is not as extreme as the house bill, HR 3866′s language could be added later.

This bill could come up for a vote in a matter of days, or it could sit there until the end of the session, and then they’d have to start all over.

If you don’t want to see the War On Drugs to be extended to pro-hormones, now is the time to write your senator.

For everyone in Australia, be sure to read the September issue of Ironman Magazine on newstands now, specifically pages 106-109. There’s a nice article about me and the Muscle Memory website. Thanks to Daniel Nash for thinking this story was worth telling, and for sending me a few copies of the magazine.

There are a few lines in the article that I would have stated slightly differently. For example, “Almost all of the 65,000 entries on MuscleMemory have come from magazines.” While in the 1950′s and into the 1970′s, even local contests got mentioned in the back of magazines like Strength and Health, we’re lucky if national level contests receive any coverage today. While most of the vintage results in my database came from magazines, almost all of recent contest results have come from other websites. Also, about 10,000 entries came from Harry de Jonge, who had created his own personal database in the mid 1990′s. His contributions almost doubled the size of my database at the time.

Also, I believe in the quote I gave regarding drugs in the 1990s destroying the aesthetics of bodybuilding, I said “growth hormone, insulin and diuretics”. But that’s a minor point.

And everyone whom I’ve shown the article to has commented on the same thing. In the article they use my last name 15 times, but only mentions my first name once, such as “Fogarty said” and “Fogarty believes”. In the US it would be more common to use one’s first name. The last time anyone called me by just my last name was high school gym class.

FOLLOW-UP: It was pointed out that I’m mentioned in the Editorial as well. Very cool.

Hyperbole has always been part of bodybuilding, especially when it comes to the IFBB. But what happens when you tell a story so many times that it becomes accepted as fact?
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Finally I was able to obtain the results of the NPC Jr USA. Complete results here. Thanks to Dan at Repetrope for sending them to me. Let’s see how many weeks before the results are posted to npcnewsonline.

I’m still trying to find the results for this year’s Wheelchair Nationals. Heck, I’m still trying to find last year’s complete results. If you have better luck than I in getting phone calls returned or emails answered, please give it a shot.

The IFBB Hungarian Pro Invitational is now listed on ifbb.com for June 5.

Read Senator Joe Biden’s editorial in USA Today: Baseball drug testing needs to get beyond first base. In it he states:

…one immediate way to restore integrity to the game is to ban over-the-counter steroid precursors such as androstenedione and tetrahydrogestrinone, better known as ”andro” and ”THG.” These drugs are just as bad as anabolic steroids.

First, THG is not sold over-the-counter. THG is the designer steroid in the Balco controversy. It is already considered a controlled substance. Andros and other pro-hormones are sold over-the-counter at most every health food store in the country. But how is banning adros going to clean up baseball? Up till now, there has been no testing for steroids in Major League Baseball. Real anabolic steroids are readily available everywhere. No athlete would choose to take a pro-hormone when everyone else is taking the real thing. The only reason to claim to have used one of the andros is as a cover for the use of real anabolic steroids. That’s why other sports organizations that ban the use of steroids also ban the use of pro-hormones.

If baseball needs to clean up its act, then let baseball do it. It is not a role for the federal government.

Biden again calls for the passage of S 1780. This bill will make all pro-hormones and hormone precursors schedule C-III controlled substances. This bill will outlaw all andro products, as well as supplements such as DHEA and 7-KETO DHEA. Read why this is a bad thing here. (note the bill has a new number)

If you live in the USA, please write your US Senators NOW. Tell them to vote NO on S 1780. Its especially important to write your senator if he/she is a member of the Judiciary Committee. Tell them to instead support S 1538.

Please do not delay!

I decided it was too difficult editing my own RSS XML file, so I’ve installed new blog software on the Musclememory site. The syndication address remains the same. You may see old items reappear.

I am interested in getting others to contribute blog entries. It would not be the free-for-all that many mailing lists, newsgroups and other forums quickly become, but postings of things in the news, or perhaps essays about bodybuilding’s past, or even reminders of upcoming contests. If you would like to contribute, please contact me.