Before BALCO: how Patrick Arnold and a bottle of Andro built the prohormone industry before got it banned

In August 1998, an Associated Press reporter spotted a brown bottle in Mark McGwire's locker at Busch Stadium. The bottle was androstenedione. McGwire was in the middle of the home-run chase that would end with him at 70 and Sammy Sosa at 66. He confirmed to reporters he had been taking the supplement for over…

ByJon LipseyMay 14, 20260Comments

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Patrick Arnold: the chemist behind BALCO on doping, ketones, and the rules he tried to live around

The chemist who designed the most consequential undetectable steroid in the history of professional sport spent the last decade of his life trying to build something else. A ketone ester for a Navy-funded research lab. BHB salts. NAD precursors. A longevity formula he was developing with an old partner. A gram of NMN every morning.…

ByJon LipseyMay 13, 20260Comments

stacy sims women should lift heavy weights

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Will lifting weights make women bulky? Dr Stacy Sims on why every woman should lift heavy

The fear that lifting weights will make women bulky is the single most damaging idea in women's fitness. Not because it's the most obviously wrong — there are wronger ideas in the field. But because it's the most consequential. The women who avoid the weights room because they're worried about getting bulky lose access to…

ByJoe WarnerMay 12, 20260Comments

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Steve Cook on steroids: the four-or-five-compound stack he refused to take

For most of the men who reach the top of competitive physique sport, the question of what to take is not really a question. It is an entry fee. The line between a clean athlete and a chemically optimised one runs not through the locker room but through the wallet of whoever is willing to…

ByJon LipseyMay 6, 20260Comments

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Steve Cook on building a body, walking away, and the cost of optimisation

Most former IFBB Men's Physique competitors do not talk on the record about why they stopped competing. Steve Cook does. The conversation below, recorded in January 2024, when Cook was 38, is his retrospective on the trade he refused to make: the four-or-five-compound stack required to win at Olympia level, and the realisation that becoming…

ByJon LipseyMay 6, 20260Comments

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The Athletes walking into the Enhanced Games, and the ones who almost did

Most of the athletes who said yes to the Enhanced Games were referred by other athletes who had already said yes. This is one of the things Rick Adams tells you that almost no one in the wider coverage of the games has bothered to mention. More than half of the 40-plus athletes preparing to…

ByJon LipseyMay 6, 20260Comments

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What is Xenom, and why it could reshape fitness competition

Xenom has raised $15 million and calls itself the “decathlon of fitness”. That’s the headline but it’s not the most interesting thing about the latest addition to the competitive fitness calendar. Xenom is a new global fitness competition designed to test all-round fitness across a standardised format. What really stands out is how Xenom founder…

ByJon LipseyMarch 25, 20260Comments

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What is Xenom and how it is standardising competitive fitness

Competitive fitness is moving towards structure. For years, the category has been defined by variation: different workouts, different formats, different interpretations of what “fitness” means. That has driven participation, but it has limited comparability and made it difficult to scale as a spectator sport. Xenom is part of a new wave attempting to change that.…

ByJon LipseyMarch 25, 20260Comments

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What are hybrid fitness competitions and how are they turning training into a sport?

Fitness has historically been personal. You train to improve strength, endurance, or appearance. Progress is tracked individually. Outcomes are largely private. Hybrid fitness competitions introduce a different model. They turn training into something measurable, repeatable, and comparable across individuals and locations. Hybrid fitness competitions are structured events that combine multiple training modalities—typically strength, endurance, and…

ByJon LipseyMarch 24, 20260Comments

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Dr Alyssa Olenick: Why every woman must build more muscle!

Dr Alyssa Olenick Dr Alyssa Olenick is a highly regarded exercise physiologist, ultra-marathon runner and powerlifter with a deep passion for fitness, health, and wellness. She specialises in understanding the intricate relationship between resistance training, endurance sports and metabolic health, and is known for her science-based approach to exercise and recovery, and her ability to…

ByJoe WarnerJanuary 19, 20260Comments

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