My mate runs a mma club and next to the centre is a gym.when he opened it up he had about 40 meat heads wanting to be cage fighters.it was comical whatching these meat heads doing cardio training.by the end of the week all but one stayed.sorry about using the term meat head as i once fell into that category lol.at the end of my training work out I grab the skipping rope and try and do 15 min of it or a few laps in the pool.no use being big and unfit.you want some element of fitness.
Its funny that you refer to people as meat heads when you are undermining your own training. Cardio and weightlifting do not mix, and should be performed at different times during the day. The AMPK activation by cardio attenuates the anabolic response of your resistance training.
I read something that correlated this with the Myostatin blockers...... I probably saved the article, I will look for it when I get home later. Great thread though...
Athletic performance is often accredited to Steroids, but in my opinion this is simply a side effect of that fact that our youth have been all taught that everyone is equal, they ALL get trophies, they ALL are winner etc etc etc... it is hard for this generation to conceptualize the fact that is is possible for an ACE Athlete to simply be good, without some magic pill...............
I think you are oversimplifying, it depends on the sport. Sports that depend largely on individual talent and not sustained performance like Soccer, tennis, basketball have considerably less doping users. Its not uncommon to find them, but its usually people looking for a small boost and not trying to get to the next level. In stuff like athletics and especially cycling its actually quite common. People expect records to be broken at a fast pace, and you just can't push the limits of human ability at that pace without external help.
What adamant opposers and plain idiots fail to consider is that neither system affects the competitive nature of the sport, the best athlete will still win, either because in case A the role of the ergogenic is less than the individual talent required, or in case B because everyone else is using as well. The problem lies with the sports in category B, where doping hunters will randomly bust one athlete or another and everyone acts all hypocritical about it. Simply because they are all more or less forced to use to keep up (its their livelihood and a good one at that) but they simply need to hide it better.