The Anger of Compassion

Gregg Valentino's Arms Explode, Again. Uh, Or Not.

And they never exploded the first damn time, either, despite what you've been told.

Okay, so tonight I watched that TLC program about Gregg Valentino again, the one I discussed here. My god...anyway, a few more observations.

Steve Michalik tells his interviewer that "we [the bodybuilders of his era] were being used, basically, as guinea pigs." Sorry, Steve, but no, you weren't. Doctors and athletes knew that anabolic steroids had certain effects, and certain side effects. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Larry Scott and Dave Draper did, too, and that's why they took them. You, too.

We're also told that by the time Michalik's "steroid journey" was over, he was left with the testosterone level of a prepubescent girl. Okay. But you didn't tell me about his "journey," did you? As in, what did he take, in what doses, under what circumstances, and for how long? I'm no physician, nor a biochemist, but is this kind of thing at all credible reporting? I'll tell you one other thing I'm not: I'm not anti-Michalik, either. The guy had a fantastic physique in the 70s -- better than I'll ever have -- and he looks pretty damn good now. But is he knowledgeable enough, or qualified enough, to attribute all of his health problems to his steroid use in the 1970s? Wouldn't some discussion of his family/genetic background have been useful -- or would it have gotten in the way of the agenda of the program's producers?

Michalik mentions onscreen that heart attacks and heart surgery "happened" to "many bodybuilders." But none are named. Not one. Again, I have to wonder why. We all know about Schwarzenegger's surgery and about the deaths of the Mentzer brothers -- but those instances have all been explained, by the physicians involved, as something that ran in those families, not as having resulted from steroid use (Schwarzenegger and Mike and Ray Mentzer all used anabolic steroids during their careers as professional bodybuilders, and admitted to doing so). So who are the "many?" Well, if we're to depend on the people who brought us this show, we're not to know.

One segment goes from Dr. Harrison Pope's "what if" as far as the effects of steroid usage long-term, to the narrator saying long term use of large doses...yeah, well, we'll never know, will we? 'Cause it's illegal to find out! Come on, guys. Doing such research on athletic use of anabolic steroids is ILLEGAL, so where is such knowledge, long-term or otherwise, going to come from? Huh? No answer there, drug warriors?

Later in the show, Dr. Pope informs us that "My guess" is that guys taking large amounts are more likely to have bad effects on their health, later in life. His guess. Damn...Good thing guessing isn't illegal, eh, Dr. Pope?

The show's narrator, to end a segment, tells us that Gregg Valentino took so many steroids that his arms "fought back"

When the program returns after commercial messages, the narrator reminds us that "Steroids destroyed Gregg Valentino's body," and that he took so many steroids "his body finally fought back. His bicep exploded."

Bullshit: and this is not only bullshit in the sense of being wrong, but of being a lie. Anyone watching the program would have seen and heard -- and the program's writers and producers had to have known -- Valentino's own explanation of what happened, as I repeated here.

Ah, well, tabloid television -- and it appears that The Learning Channel has descended to that level -- loves a morality play. This particular Jerry Springer of "educational" TV tells us of Gregg Valentino: "He paid a price for his steroid use." The hell he did. He paid a price for his own unsanitary habits -- which he admitted to onscreen -- and for the illegality of dealing steroids (that is, of being willing and able to sell people something they wanted to buy).

You may not like Valentino. Tough shit. You may not like sports or physique enhancement by chemical means. But tell me what that has to do with the actual effect of synthetic testosterone. Until you can, I stand by everything I wrote here and here -- which includes my conclusion that damn near everything in this program was bullshit.

Posted by Craig Ceely at February 23, 2006 10:18 PM