The IOC has banned literally thousands of substances for their supposed performance enhancing impact. While a few are painkillers, several are antihistamines, and some are anabolic steroids, most of these banned substances fall into the category referred to as stimulants. How do stimulants work? Do they increase or drain your energy? Why do we feel more energy after using stimulants? What impact do they have on performance? Do stimulants affect your health? Are all stimulants the same? Do stimulants foster peak performances? Is meat an essential food item for athletes or just another stimulant?

How do stimulants work?

First is it important to express a basic concept; stimulants do not stimulate. That would be an action, and stimulants are not capable of action. Only living beings are capable of undertaking actions. Stimulants do not do work and they do not act; the body does all the work and takes all the action. The only possible action on the part of a stimulant is chemical action. For instance, if there is an acid in the stimulant, it could burn you.

When a stimulant is introduced into the body, the body acts upon the stimulant. The action taken by the body is relatively predictable in the case of substances classed as stimulants. Raises in blood pressure, pulse, temperature, and respiratory rate are expected. The adrenal glands respond with a surge of adrenaline that results in increased uptake of sugar from the bloodstream to the muscles. The smaller, peripheral blood vessels constrict, while the deep large ones dilate. Various aspects of our special senses are prepared for flight or fight, affecting our sense of sight, smell, touch, hearing and taste. The function of large muscle groups is enhanced at the expense of fine motor control.

Do stimulants increase or drain your energy?

Essentially, under the influence of stimulants, finesse is traded off for power, neurological control is traded off for endurance, but overall there is a net loss in efficiency. We measure human energy use in calories. Stimulants, as a rule, come in forms that supply no calories, therefore they can supply no energy. There are calorific foods that also have a stimulating effect. The stimulation comes not from the calories themselves but from other specific substances in the food. If the calories supplied stimulation, all calorie sources would stimulate to some degree, yet this is definitely not the case. Stimulants, it must be concluded, act as a drain upon the body’s reserves of energy.

Why do we feel more energetic after using stimulants?

The release of vital reserve energy brought about by the consumption of stimulating substances adversely affects bodily homeostasis. The human body is constantly attempting to maintain homeostasis (a condition where things remain relatively the same) or to reinstate it if conditions, substances, influences or forces result in change. When we consume or are exposed to a stimulant, the body must deal with that impact. It does so in the physiological ways mentioned earlier in this article. Effectively, the body recognizes a situation that must be dealt with, and makes the clearing out of the stimulant a priority, an emergency, if you will. Therefore, bodily vitality is directed towards the task of neutralizing the stimulant, or in some fashion ridding the body of it. This focused attempt by the body to free itself of the damaging stimulant influence is perceived as energy. It is not energy supplied by the stimulant, however, but simply body reserve energy that is stored exactly for such emergencies. In the same way that we feel more energy if we touch a hot coal, get a cut, or have a car accident, the energy that is released from the use of stimulants is false.

What impact do stimulants have on performance?

There are at least four major considerations in regard to stimulant use and sports performance, all of them negative. First, we must pay attention to the loss of motor control. Second, there is the Law of Dual Effect. Third is the increased propensity for injury. And finally, the aging factor must be mentioned.

Loss of Motor Control

Small losses of neural function are not as noticeable when affecting large muscle groups as they are when impacting upon the smaller muscles, as the latter are used for finely controlled movements. Neural function pertaining to all muscles is compromised because of stimulant consumption.  The all-too-rapid nerve function generates incomplete firing of the muscles. This results in shaking, tremors, unsteadiness, loss of balance and coordination and a general fumbling. For an athlete requiring ball control, pinpoint accuracy, reliable reflex actions, or any of the refined neural abilities of his/her sport, stimulants are definitely a negative influence.

Law of Dual Effect

What goes up must come down, goes the time honored phrase. The same truth holds for our physiology. Simply stated, the Law of Dual Effect states: for every bodily response to a substance, influence, force, or condition there will be an equal but opposite secondary response. The primary response will be the more acute, and shorter lasting while the secondary response will be less acute but longer lasting. For the athlete, this means that the use of stimulants may provide the desired lift during performance but will also yield a predictable crash at some point after the primary effect has worn off.

The intensity and length of the crash period, essentially recovery from the stimulant use, represents a delay in recovery from the performance itself. Delays in recovery are associated with, but not limited to: impeding effective and efficient training, increased risk of injury, increased likelihood of athlete burnout, disinterest in sport, dread of training, lassitude, staleness, and inconsistencies in both training and performance.

Increased Likelihood of Injury

Injury is considered by many coaches to be the athlete’s worst enemy. Personally, financially, and professionally they bring nothing but setbacks to the athlete. A well-rested athlete has no cause to reach for or even consider the use of stimulating substances. Fatigued, an athlete may be willing to use stimulants in the vain attempt to overcome the fatigue. (S)he may push beyond healthy bodily limits. The number and the intensity of injuries are known to increase when we perform athletically in the presence of fatigue, however. Stimulant use also increases the likelihood of injury. A doubly dangerous situation results when fatigue is combined with stimulant use.

The Aging Factor

The drain of vital reserves utilized to process stimulants is a predictable factor but the damage is not always perceptible to the young athlete. Lack of experience combined with high levels of vitality gives the young athlete a generally bulletproof self-perception. The damage from stimulants takes its toll, however, as a drain on vital reserves, which has impact on the metabolic ratio of anabolism to catabolism. Stimulation results in an increase in the rate of catabolic processes. Anabolic processes proceed best when the body is at rest. When the ratio of anabolism to catabolism favors anabolism, growth is experienced. When the ratio favors catabolism, decrepitude results. Acceleration of the catabolic processes through the use of stimulants is tantamount to speeding the aging process. The athlete’s career is thus shortened via the use of stimulants.

Do stimulants affect your health?

The body runs itself perfectly, and has done so from before the egg and sperm united to form the beginnings of what eventually became you. It runs itself in your best interests, too. The body directs all functions of the body: maintenance, repair, digestion, absorption, assimilation, elimination, etc. It determines priorities, and allots energy to various bodily processes according to those priorities. When stimulants are consumed, the body must make adaptations in its plan in order to deal with the emergency created by the stimulant. Effectively, the body’s agenda must be reorganized to allow for the introduction of stimulants, creating a new agenda that puts the original priorities further down the body’s list. This may have been something important, such as cleansing the liver or lungs of toxins that would have resulted in cancer. The new priority of dealing with the stimulant may have delayed time sensitive functions such as the elimination of an infectious agent before it spread, or the dissolution of calculus materials before they hardened into kidney or gall stones. Every toxic exposure, and stimulants count as toxic exposure, can only be considered a setback in terms of overall health.

Are all stimulants the same?

There are two types of stimulation: compensated and uncompensated. An example of a compensated stimulation is playing a game of tag. There is lots of excitement, lots of running, lots of fun. All the physiological signs and symptoms of stimulation are noted. Afterward, the glow of stimulation lasts for a while, recedes, and is followed by the secondary effect of tiredness. During the resting phase, the body initiates an anabolic response to the physical activity known as the training effect. The stimulation was earned. Uncompensated stimulation, on the other hand, is not earned. Eat food containing the adrenaline of another animal and you feel stimulated. The physiological responses of stimulation occur, but there is no training effect as there was no training. The predictable crash follows, nonetheless, and the stimulant is “slept off” like any drug would be. Uncompensated stimulation is an aging factor of the highest degree.

Do stimulants foster peak performances?

Many athletes rely upon stimulants, others swear by them. If an athlete is improperly prepared, not fully rested, or lacking the skills necessary to bring about maximum mental and hormonal focus, stimulants will not make up for the lack. They will, however, elicit a heightened response from the athlete in certain specific aspects of sports performance while crippling other aspects of performance, on any given day. The extreme nature of devitalization that accompanies stimulant use will inevitably compromise the performance of any athlete. If athletes only had to think about their immediate performance and not their career or their entire life, a reasonably good argument could be made in favor of the stimulant delusion. Since athletes are people and must live a life outside of sports, stimulant use must be looked upon with the same view that we would any other recreational drug.

Is meat an essential food item for athletes or just another stimulant?

In the 60’s, carbohydrate consumption became all the rage for endurance athletes. Eventually, over a period of several decades, meat consumption has been all but phased out by this group of athletes. Through most of the 20th century, meat made up the major portion of calories for all athletes. As endurance athletes switched their preference to carbohydrates, meat eating did not phase out for power athletes, or in society in general. Meat eating athletes continue to defend their turf with a vengeance, claiming that meat is essential for their performance.

The Solution

Sleep is the solution to the stimulant problem. Many of the world’s top athletes attribute getting sufficient sleep as one of the major factors in their success. It is common for athletes to sleep as much as twelve hours per day and more during phases of intense training. Anything less than enough sleep must be considered, not enough.

How do you know if you got enough sleep?

A simple test is this: if you would rather roll over than roll out, you haven’t gotten enough sleep.

Here is another test that is even easier; if you can sleep, you need the sleep. Insufficient sleep cannot be made up for by the use of stimulants any more than food or drugs can make up for insufficient training. If you would like to see more gaining in your fitness and less overtraining, replace meat with fruit.