How Welshmen went from mining coal to pumping iron
Muscle-boosting steroids are no longer just for bodybuilders
RHYS CALLOWAY first went on the juice seven years ago. At 21, he was fit but skinny—football training every day at college had seen to that. He envied the bulging muscles of his mates down the gym, and he knew their secret. To make progress, he needed to pinch the added ingredient of their regimes: steroids. “Your veins are out, your muscles are full, arms nice and tight, chest puffed out,” he says. “All the compliments started coming in.”
It is tricky to work out how many Britons take anabolic steroids, synthetic compounds derived from the male hormone testosterone that promote muscle growth. Users are often keen to imply that they sculpted their bodies with hard work alone. One user told a researcher from Teesside University that his girlfriend “wouldn’t mind if I told her I did some crack [cocaine], but if I told her I took steroids she wouldn’t even want to know me.”
This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline "Welsh beef"
Britain June 29th 2019
- The front line of England’s NHS is being reinvented
- Boris Johnson, Britain’s first French prime minister?
- The search for ways to keep the Irish border open after Brexit
- A rare peep at the finances of Britain’s 0.01%
- Seeking students and status, regional universities set up in London
- How Welshmen went from mining coal to pumping iron
- Leaving the EU is straining the union with Scotland
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