Lesson video

Hello, everybody.

Great to have you with me.

My name's Mr. Broome, and this is a really interesting lesson on performance-enhancing drugs.

It's from the unit "Physical training: injury, injury prevention and performance enhancing drugs," which is quite a mouthful, isn't it? In this lesson, we're going to learn about several different types of performance-enhancing drugs, and I wonder if you've ever come across any of these before.

Maybe somebody in the sport that you follow has been found guilty of using them.

We're gonna find out a lot more, so let's get started.

Okay, so by the end of today's lesson, you should be able to identify the major performance-enhancing drugs and the positive and negative effects they have on both sporting performance and performer lifestyle.

Here's your keywords for today.

They're five names of performance-enhancing drugs, anabolic steroids, beta blockers, stimulants, narcotic analgesics, and diuretics.

However, there wasn't room on the list to add erythropoietin, growth hormone, and blood doping, which are other PEDs that we'll look at in today's lesson.

So, it's a big lesson today, four parts.

The first one is called "Explain why athletes use PEDs." Let's have a look at the reasons why athletes decide to use performance-enhancing drugs.

Well, in professional sport in particular, winning has become increasingly lucrative.

That means there's lots of money at stake.

It's become a big business.

And now some athletes, coaches, or maybe even the entire sports team or organisation may adopt a "win at all costs" attitude.

Have you ever heard of that before? For some, this may result in them using performance-enhancing drugs, many of which are banned and illegal.

And Izzy wants to know, "Which performing-enhancing drugs have you heard of?" Maybe you've heard of some famous case of somebody being banned for using a type of drug.

So different PEDs work in different ways.

They're by no means all the same.

Some drugs will enhance performance in some sports but not those in others.

And as well as having an enhancing effect on performance, many PEDs have a negative side effect, or negative side effects, and are banned or illegal.

So, using any of these banned substances to gain an unfair advantage against the rest of the competition is also what we call unethical.

Jun is wondering if you know what the word unethical means.

What do you think? Maybe discuss with somebody nearby.

So, unethical means that something is not morally acceptable behaviour, okay? And certainly, using banned substances to gain an unfair advantage is not morally acceptable behaviour.

Athletes who use banned substances, they risk their career, their reputation, all the accomplishments that they had before, and even their health.

Now, this is a really famous example.

The most decorated cyclist, or at least he was, Lance Armstrong, admitted to using the drugs EPO, diuretics, and human growth hormone as well as blood doping, four PEDs that are gonna be covered in today's lesson.

That meant his titles were taken from him, his reputation was destroyed, and he was even sued for his prize money.

Alex wonders, "Why do you think he risked it all by using PEDs?" Again, something you might want to pause the video and discuss with somebody else.

Here's your check for understanding.

True or false? As sport has become more lucrative to athletes, teams, and owners, the temptation to use PEDs to help gain an advantage has increased.

That's true, isn't it? And why is that? Well, professional sport is big business, and many people involved in it are looking for ways to gain an edge over the competition.

In some cases, they may risk taking an illegal PED to gain that edge.

Second check for understanding.

Which of these are possible consequences of being found guilty of using PEDs, like Lance Armstrong, the cyclist, in our example earlier? Is it A, winning tournaments and prize money, B, being arrested, C, getting banned from your sport, or D, destroying your reputation? And there may be more than one correct answer there.

Okay, there were, in fact, three correct answers there.

Being arrested, because many drugs that are used are illegal and they could realistically lead to the person being arrested, it could lead to them being banned from their sport, and destroying their reputation.

Well done if you said those three.

Here's a practise task for this section.

A young sprinter in the early stages of their career is approached by somebody in the gym offering to help them with a banned PED which will improve their power and speed.

So it's gonna improve their performance.

The sprinter is told there is a very small chance the PED will ever get detected in a drugs test.

So give two reasons why the sprinter might consider using this PED and two reasons why they might refuse.

Pause the video here and have a think.

Put yourself in the shoes of the athlete and think why they might accept the PED and why they might refuse.

I'll be back in a moment with some answers.

Okay, so, things you might have said about the athlete and whether he would accept the drugs.

Why might they take the PED? Well, they might want to enhance their performance.

They might want to become a better sprinter.

They want to get an advantage over the competition, albeit an unfair one.

They might think, "Well, if I use this PED, I might win more medals, awards, or prize money," with that "win at all costs" attitude.

It might lead to them becoming famous if they become the kind of sprinter who's winning lots of medals and awards.

Might also lead to them becoming famous.

And they might believe that other sprinters are probably using it already, and so all they're doing is keeping up with the competition and making sure that they give themselves a chance.

And they might think that the risk seems worth the reward because they probably won't get caught.

Remember, they were told there's a very slim chance of them getting caught using it, so maybe the risk is worth the reward.

These are all things that genuinely go through athletes' minds in real life when they are approached to take PEDs.

Things you might have said about why they might refuse the PED.

Well, it's unethical to use PEDs.

It might go against the sprinter's morals.

There's still a chance of being caught, even a slim chance, and all the negative effects which follow, like destroying your own reputation and so on.

The PED may have a negative impact on their health.

Lots of PEDs do.

They want to be a clean athlete and a role model.

They don't want to be somebody who uses PEDs.

Well done if your answers matched some of those.

You needed to put two reasons why and why they might not want to use the PED, and so well done if yours matched something like mine.

Onto the second part of today's lesson, and it's called "Describe PED use for muscle growth." Okay, so sometimes PEDs are taken by athletes to stimulate muscle growth, okay? They want to grow more muscle or bigger muscles.

Andeep wonders, "Which sports performers would benefit from muscle growth?" Okay, so what do you think about that? Which sports suit having big muscles and strong muscles? We'll find out shortly.

So the two most commonly used PEDs to achieve this are called anabolic steroids and growth hormone.

Let's have a look at my guide to anabolic steroids.

So, what are they used for? Well, it helps athletes to train harder and longer.

That means they can increase muscle mass and muscle growth.

And it speeds up recovery so they can get in the gym and train again sooner than they would if they weren't using it.

What's it used for? Sports requiring strength and power.

And what kind of sports are those? Just like Andeep asked.

Here are some examples.

So weightlifters and sprinters might be tempted to use anabolic steroids because their sports require strength and power, don't they? Negative effects of using anabolic steroids include liver, heart, and kidney issues, and mood swings, aggression, and depression.

Quick check, then.

In which of these activities might you find the use of anabolic steroids to benefit performance? Is it A, bodybuilding, B, shot putt, or C, marathon? Well done if you said that both A and B, bodybuilding and shot putt, the athletes may use anabolic steroids to benefit their performance.

Marathon runners are not looking to bulk up and get big muscles, and so therefore that was not a sport where you would find the use of anabolic steroids.

How about growth hormone? This is the second type.

Well, growth hormone essentially does the same job as anabolic steroids.

It's used by athletes to stimulate muscle growth, speed up recovery so they can train again sooner.

It's used for sports requiring strength and power.

Very, very similar to anabolic steroids.

Example sports could be rugby and discus throwing.

Again, strength and power are at the core of those sports.

Negative effects of using growth hormone, swollen and painful joints, abnormal growth, high cholesterol, and long-term heart issues.

Okay? So lots of negative effects to using growth hormone.

Quick check for understanding.

Which of the following are negative side effects of using growth hormone to enhance performance? Is it A, high cholesterol, B, aggression, C, liver problems, or D, painful joints? Well done if you noted that A, high cholesterol, and D, painful joints, are some of the negative side effects of using growth hormone.

Here's a practise task for this learning cycle.

Sofia has a question, or rather a statement, and she says that "using anabolic steroids is well worth the risk." Your task is to write a counterargument to this statement, so I want you to disagree with Sofia.

And your statement should recognise one ethical reason and two health risks associated with anabolic steroid use.

These could be mental or physical health risks.

Pause the video here and write down your three answers, and I'll be back in a moment with some suggested answers.

Okay, so, "Using anabolic steroids is well worth the risk." You were asked to write a counterargument, and these are some of the things you might have said.

Ethical reasons.

You were asked to write one ethical reason.

Well, it's illegal.

It's cheating.

It goes against the principles of competition.

It's not fair on the opposition if you're using a performance-enhancing drug that's banned and illegal.

You should be a role model.

As an athlete, lots of people will look up to you.

How about the health risks? You were asked to write two of these.

You can become depressed, aggressive, and mood swings.

That's to do with your mental health.

And with your physical health, you could get liver, heart, and kidney issues.

Okay, so well done if you put one ethical reason and two health risks of using anabolic steroids.

In our third cycle on performance-enhancing drugs, we're going to look at how PEDs enhance endurance.

Laura's question to you says, "If your body could deliver more oxygen to your muscles, which types of activity would you be significantly better at?" I want you to have a think about that.

Maybe discuss with somebody else.

How would having more oxygen to your muscles benefit you? Well, in endurance activities, such as triathlon as we have here, or marathon or tour cycling in which the athletes work aerobically for long periods of time, performance in those sports would be significantly increased if you could deliver more oxygen to the working muscles.

And athletes are able to gain this advantage by using a method called blood doping.

Let's have a closer look at blood doping.

How does it work? So first of all, blood is taken from the athlete.

Then that blood is put into storage.

Might be frozen.

Now, the athlete's body naturally will replenish the blood supply.

It will recognise that the blood is missing, that it needs to create some more, and naturally it will recreate and replenish the blood supply.

Now, just before competition, the blood that was in storage will then be returned to the body, injected back into the body.

Now, that means that now we have a red blood cell count much higher because you have the normal levels that your body has returned to plus the extra blood and red blood cells that have been injected.

Okay, so that's how blood doping happens, but Jacob's still wondering, "How are more red blood cells going to be beneficial to an athlete?" What do you think about that? Can you remember studying the components of blood, and what were red blood cells in particular going to help us be able to do? Well, red blood cells contain haemoglobin.

I wonder if you remember that.

And that's the substance which helps carry oxygen to the muscles.

Now, more haemoglobin from more red blood cells means more oxygen is transported to the muscles.

And the impact of that is that we can work longer without fatigue, we can have an increased VO2 max, and faster recovery.

Now, this effect of creating more red blood cells can also be achieved using a PED called erythropoietin.

Now, that's a mouthful, and I'm just gonna call it EPO from now on because it's commonly known as EPO.

This is a hormone which naturally occurs in the body, but athletes may inject a manmade version or a synthetic version of EPO, which stimulates the body to produce more red blood cells.

And again, as with blood doping, the impact means that more red blood cells, more oxygen can be carried around the body.

Here's a guide to EPO.

So it's used by athletes to increase red blood cell production, increase oxygen transport, therefore improve endurance.

What's it used for? Sports which last a long time and require endurance, such as marathon and tour cycling.

There are negative effects to using EPO.

That could be that the blood thickens.

If you think we've got all those extra red blood cells, the blood is going to get thicker.

That thicker blood has a higher risk of blood clots.

And risk of stroke or heart attack.

Also, high blood pressure.

So, several negative effects of using EPO.

There's a check for understanding on this topic of PEDs which enhance endurance.

So blood doping, or EPO, might be used by athletes in which of these sports? Have a look at the sports.

Is it A, swimming, B, golf, C, volleyball? And the answer was A, swimming.

Swimming, of course, can be a short-distance event, but also very much an endurance event, and the fact that you can't breathe underwater means that being able to deliver more oxygen to the muscles with every breath you take would be a clear advantage.

Golf and volleyball are not sports which rely on endurance, and therefore the use of blood doping, or EPO, would not be particularly beneficial.

Second check for understanding.

Which of these is not a reason some athletes use blood doping, or EPO? So A, that it improves how fast you recover from endurance activities? Is it B, that it increases your blood pressure? C, helps you to work aerobically for longer? Or D, increases your VO2 max? Which is not a reason? Well done if you recognised that B was not a reason.

We don't want the increased blood pressure, whereas the other three are actually positive impacts and reasons why people do use those PEDs.

Here's your practise task for this third cycle.

So I've written a passage about PEDs which enhance endurance, but some of the words are missing.

And your job in this task is to pause the video, complete the gaps, and then come and join me to see what the answers were.

Okay, so the passage should read like this, have a look at yours and check that you've got all the gaps right: Blood doping is a method used by athletes to improve their endurance.

This process involves removing blood and then storing it.

The body then replenishes the blood supply.

How'd you get on with those four? Prior to a competition, the stored blood is put back inside the athlete's body.

This causes there to be more red blood cells than usual, which means more oxygen can be transported to muscles.

This effect can also be created by using a synthetic, manmade, PED called erythropoietin, also known as EPO.

Saved the hardest word to last there, didn't I? Hopefully you managed to fill all those in correctly.

Well done if you did.

Brings us to our final learning cycle of today's lesson, which is to discuss performance-enhancing drug use for other benefits.

So, so far, we've looked at how PEDs can be used to enhance muscle growth and enhance endurance, but they may be used for several other reasons, which we're going to investigate now.

Quick question first, though.

Alex asks the question that this athlete we can see on the left has a big race next week but has a slight injury.

What do you think they might do? What would you do if you were in their shoes? So, many athletes will use painkillers, and the more exotic word for painkillers that we're going to use is narcotic analgesics.

And that allows them to continue training and tolerate pain as they do so.

Now, of course, that might mean that they can take part in the activity, and this athlete may be able to take part in the big race that they have next week.

But the danger of doing this is that the injury could be made worse if they continue participating and mask the pain with the use of narcotic analgesics.

Here's our guide to narcotic analgesics, then.

So it's used by athletes to mask the pain of an injury and participate despite being injured.

Used for any athlete who wants to continue performing despite an injury, okay? And many athletes will use narcotic analgesics, and they're not particularly illegal to use painkillers.

Used for any athlete who wants to continue performing despite injury.

I think it's important to note here that most narcotic analgesics are perfectly legal, and you probably use painkillers yourself perhaps.

And not all PEDs are illegal.

What examples of sports? Rugby and football.

I'm a football fan, and I know lots of footballers who will take painkilling injections to help them get through some of the most important games of the season.

Negative effects.

Well, performing with the injury can make it worse, and therefore the knock-on effect could be that the time injured and the recovery are prolonged for much longer.

Sofia's question for you as we move on to another PED, "Could it ever be beneficial in a sport or physical activity to slow down your heart rate?" I think that's a great question by Sofia, and I think this is worth pausing the video here and having a think or maybe even a discussion with somebody else to think about whether it could be beneficial to be able to slow down your heart rate in any type of sport or physical activity.

What do you think? Well, it is possible to do this if the athlete uses a PED called beta blockers.

Let's find out a little bit more about beta blockers.

Here's our guide to beta blockers, then.

So, what's it used by athletes to do? Reduce the heart rate and make their heart rate lower.

It can reduce muscle shakes.

Maybe through nerves, anxiety, or adrenaline have got your hands shaking, or part of your body shaking, and beta blockers can help reduce those shakes.

And it can help to reduce anxiety as well.

What are they used for? Activities which require a steady hand and activities requiring fine skills.

And if you remember, fine skills generally value accuracy and precision and are very small movements using small muscles.

I wonder if that's what you said in reply to Sofia's question a moment ago.

Two sports that fit the bill for this would be archery and shooting.

They're both activities which need a steady hand.

Okay, now, negative effects of using beta blockers include fatigue, so feeling tired, dizziness, depression, mood swings, and bradycardia, which is a slow-beating heart.

Moving on to another PED.

We're moving quickly through them all, aren't we? Aisha asks the question, "Who might benefit from using a PED which can quickly and temporarily make them weigh less?" What do you think about that one? Could a sportsperson benefit from being lighter? So, in horse racing, a lighter jockey will help the horse to run faster.

And for this reason, a jockey may use something called diuretics before a race to lose weight.

Now, diuretics cause the body to produce more urine and lose weight quickly, okay? So the athlete will go and use the toilet a lot, and therefore the weight will come down.

And they can also be used to help mask the use of other drugs, such as anabolic steroids, and get rid of them out of the system.

Let's say the athlete was going to do a urine test.

Well, they can flush out the urine, and therefore when it comes to testing, they can't be traced.

Another common use of diuretics is in sports in which the athletes are categorised by weight, such as boxing, kickboxing, and judo.

So diuretics can be used to reduce the weight quickly before a weigh-in.

A weigh-in happens before the fight where it's checked that the athlete falls within the right weight category.

And it could be that they've actually got quite bulky and quite strong for their weight, which has taken them over the allowed weight for their category.

So by using diuretics during the weigh-in, they can get their weight back down to a level that is acceptable.

And then once the weigh-in's finished, they'll then put that weight back on by drinking water again.

This is not a legal process, by the way, in these sports.

So diuretics is used by athletes to lose weight quickly and mask the use of other drugs.

It's used for sports in which being lighter is an advantage, and there are several sports in which that would be the case, and also for masking other PED use.

What examples can we think of of sports that might use diuretics? Well, rowing, again.

A little bit like horse racing, isn't it? If you're heavy, the heavy boat will take more energy to move.

If you're lighter, it will be easier to move and take less energy.

And boxing, and that's for the effect that we've just talked about with the weigh-in and making sure that you make the correct weight.

Negative effects of using diuretics.

Severe dehydration, dizziness, cramping, and kidney problems, okay? All problems that can be caused by flushing out all the water out of your body, as you might imagine, particularly with dehydration.

Quick check for understanding.

Performance could be enhanced in two of these activities by using beta blockers, and two by using diuretics.

Which are they? So two are diuretics, and two should be labelled beta blockers.

Okay, so A, rowing would benefit from diuretics to make you lighter in the boat.

B, darts would benefit from beta blockers because you need a steady hand in darts, as you do also in snooker.

So both darts and snooker are fine skills which require a steady hand and therefore beta blockers.

But with a triathlon, diuretics again, so you're trying to shift your body around a triathlon course, including running and being on a bike.

And so it might be that the lighter.

And so it might be that by making yourself lighter will improve your performance.

Of course, you need to watch out for the dehydrating effect of diuretics as well.

Okay, now this brings us onto our final PED to investigate in today's lesson.

Let's have a think.

I love a cup of coffee.

Do you? Now, when people want to feel more alert, they may drink a cup of coffee.

The caffeine in coffee, which is also found in many energy drinks, is what we call a stimulant.

Caffeine is a legal stimulant.

You can drink coffee, although some competitions limit its use.

You won't be able to have too much caffeine in some competitions.

But there are several other stimulants which do this job of making people feel more alert which are actually illegal or banned from use.

So things such as amphetamines.

Even the popular energy drink Red Bull, which contains caffeine, is banned in some countries.

Now, sportspeople may use stimulants if they want to feel alert, if they're tired and they want to reduce fatigue, or they want to speed up their reaction times, okay? And as I said, some are legal, like coffee, and others are not.

Here's our guide to stimulants.

So it's used by athletes to increase alertness, decrease reaction time, reduce fatigue.

What's it used for? Sports which need alertness and quick reaction times.

Which sports do you think we mean there? Here's some examples, as ever.

Table tennis.

Need really quick reactions, don't they? If you've ever seen professional table tennis players, the ball moves so fast you can't even see it sometimes.

And boxing, we've seen boxing in other PED use, haven't we, today? But again, it could be that that alertness and that reaction time to dodge a punch which is coming towards you may lead to a boxer using some type of stimulant before the fight.

Negative effects of using stimulants.

It can increase your heart rate and blood pressure, increase the risk of heart attack, lead to anxiety, and aggression.

Also, imagine if you drank lots and lots of coffee or other stimulants, it could lead to very poor sleep.

And also, they have a dehydrating effect.

Actually, coffee is a type of diuretic as well as a stimulant, and therefore it could lead to dehydration.

Quick check for understanding.

Why might stimulants be used by an athlete? Which of these match a reason why a stimulant would be used by an athlete? Is it A, increased alertness, B, to mask pain from an injury, C, to reduce fatigue, or D, to improve reaction time? There were three correct answers there.

The only one that is not a reason to use stimulants would be to mask the pain from an injury.

And for that, hopefully you remember we would use narcotic analgesics.

But stimulants are used by athletes to increase alertness, reduce fatigue, and improve reaction time.

Okay, and this is your practise task for this final cycle of today's lesson.

And we're looking again at the athlete Lance Armstrong, who admitted using four different PEDs, and I introduced you to him at the beginning of the lesson.

For each of those PEDs that he used, that's EPO, diuretics, growth hormone, and blood doping, I'd like you to explain why he would risk using it to benefit his performance in tour cycling.

And just for those of you who aren't sure what tour cycling is, imagine cycling for a long distance for many hours every day for three weeks with very few rest days, okay? Very much an endurance event.

One of the hardest.

So why would he have used them in tour cycling based on what you now understand about each of them? Pause the video here, and write your reason for each of the four PEDs.

I'll see you back in a moment with some answers.

Okay, so why would Lance Armstrong have used EPO? Well, it would have increased the number of red blood cells, which will improve oxygen transport and endurance.

It's very much an endurance event, tour cycling, so that would be really useful to him.

Of course, I'm not advocating the use of it, but we can understand why an athlete in this sport would use it.

Diuretics; he may have used diuretics so he was lighter on the bike to help save some energy and allow him to ride faster.

But it also could have been used to mask the use of some of the other PEDs that he's admitted to using.

He used growth hormone.

Now, growth hormone is used to help build muscle and will increase his power on the bike, okay? Lots of cyclists have large muscles that help them power up mountainsides, for example.

And finally, blood doping.

Just like EPO, isn't it? If you remember, they have a very similar effect.

So the increased number of red blood cells will improve oxygen transport and endurance.

Again, something that's needed in tour cycling.

Well done if you said something similar for all four of those PEDs and you recognise why Lance Armstrong took the risk of using these banned substances to try to improve his performance in tour cycling.

Of course, as I said earlier, it didn't work.

In fact, eventually he was found guilty of using them.

He lost all his prize money and his reputation and all the titles that he had won down the years.

That brings us on to today's summary.

Let's have a look and read along with me.

Performance-enhancing drugs come in many forms and with varied potential benefits.

The vast majority of PEDs are banned substances, and their use is unethical and can lead to serious health issues.

Anabolic steroids and growth hormones are used by athletes who want to increase muscle mass.

Blood doping and EPO are used to improve endurance.

Narcotic analgesics, beta blockers, diuretics, and stimulants are other PEDs which athletes may use to gain an unfair advantage.

We covered an awful lot of PEDs in that lesson.

Well done for sticking with it.

Hopefully you've got a much better idea of why athletes take those risks to use PEDs in this world where elite sport has become so lucrative.

But don't forget that most of them have serious negative side effects.

And of course, everything that you've gained through using them could be lost should you be found guilty of using them as well.

So certainly not worth the risk.

I've enjoyed teaching you in this lesson.

I hope you've enjoyed finding out about PEDs, and I hope to see you in a lesson pretty soon.

Bye-bye.