Growth Hormone Does Not Enhance Performance

Meaningless. And wasteful.

First, I am not an advocate of sports doping for the masses and this is not a pro-doping blog or entry.

It is intended to elucidate a fallacy common to perceptions of what it takes to get better at a physical activity.

People think that if you just do it, it happens.

This is untrue.

To improve one's fitness, one has to train.

Likewise, to improve sports performance, one has to train. This is very different from exercising.

Exercise will almost never lead to improved fitness, sports skills or weight loss.

Training properly will almost always lead to improved fitness, sports skills or weight loss.

The problem with a study like this is that the subjects did not train to determine if HGH made a difference.

"A new study by researchers in the US found that contrary to what many people may assume, scientific evidence does not support claims that human growth hormone (HGH) increases strength or athletic performance...

Liu and colleagues reviewed randomized controlled trials comparing HGH with non-HGH treatment in physically fit, healthy people aged 13 to 45 and found that while growth hormone increased lean body mass it did not increase strength and the capacity to exercise."

Increased "exercise capacity," as it is commonly understood to mean, only results from a properly designed and implemented training program.

"The researchers concluded that the available scientific evidence does not support claims that GH improves physical performance. In fact while lean body mass may increase, strength does not and GH may even diminish exercise capacity and lead to other adverse side effects."

There are few athletic/sport undertakings that will not benefit from increased lean muscle mass and increased strength.

Perhaps HGH has some bad side effects that prevent improvement, but until there is a real study done with a large enough population that is trained, the jury remains out, to my mind.

Your takeaway points are these:

To improve at fitness, you must train. Exercise will almost never get you there. Training is a very specific undertaking. Training naturally is, still and will likely remain best since this is precisely how we were designed to get fitter.

If you want to learn how to train for general fitness, which can be applied to sport, go here.