Not if the people who test you are switching samples.
How are you “fake natty” if you compete untested? I don’t get this.
Maybe I was unclear here… enhanced competing in untested = level playing field… fake natty (i.e. enhanced) in drug tested (assuming you dont get caught or are just not on elite level) = easier to be more successful. I can imagine there are people who would trade that one moment of fame of being on the podium vs being banned from that drug tested federation for life. That was the point of my argument here, people like the easy quick success route. And the often goes with bending the rules.
To be fair, it is in the IPFs best interest to let most juicers slip through the net. Why? Simple: for views. Most people watching the IPF world’s are only interested in seeing people break records year after year. Watching the same weights being lifted year and year becomes boring for many viewers.
In an ideal world where everyone was truly natty (never taken anything in their life), an organisation would not survive for long.
Another thing to consider is that every year two things happen: qualifying totals increase and records keep being broken. Sure, every year more people are joining powerlifting, but you are not breaking records after one year of training natty. You are just not. Even then, humans don’t evolve year on year enough to break records. Sure, education and science progresses, but that doesn’t mean humans evolve their strength significantly over a single year.
If anything, I think there needs to be more rigorous drug testing at the local levels. I would be curious then to see how the qualifying totals would change.
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You would observe a sharp decline in local meet participation, as meet entry fees (which are already absurdly high) would become astronomical in order to facilitate such testing.
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Sure, but I would gladly pay the increase in fees if it meant more rigorous testing.
I am all for increasing the popularity of the sport, but not at the expense of diluting local meets with juicers and artificially boosting the qualifying totals.
I just don’t understand how tested powerlifting federations can claim they are trying to promote a clean sport when le totals and records keep being boosted every year.
Maybe I missed a chapter in evolutionary biology at college.
Right, which is why I didn’t say NO one would do it; just a sharp decline. You’ll find that the percentage of people competing in local meets that really care about making sure everyone is drug free is pretty low. If it’s a local meet, it’s going to have a lot of folks that are just there to try out the sport, high school kids, old timers that no longer care about going to nationals, casual trainees, etc etc.
It also weeds out folks who simply don’t have the cash readily available.
Do you think the drug testing thing will ever change in the future? Especially at the local level for powerlifting?
I really hope so tbh.
Hopefully: I’m hoping it goes away, like in strongman.
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Leave it all untested? Then removes all doubt right.
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If people want to be drug free, they can be. If they don’t want to, that’s their decision. Truly unified powerlifting.
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The funny thing about that, last year they made a new rule where lifters at IPF worlds would be randomly tested rather than testing the medallists and those who break records. In other words, winning a medal or breaking a record no longer means that you are going to be tested, and the last place guy is just as likely to be tested. I think this confirms your theory.
I don’t know about that, the last couple meets I did were with a WPC affiliate and the entry fee was only about $100 plus no membership fee, and they actually did test a bunch of people in the tested division (including me). On the other hand, the IPF-affiliated meets I competed in cost at least as much plus a membership fee (Around $100 again) and they eventually increased entry fees supposedly to get more money to put towards drug testing. I’m not aware of anyone being tested at their local meets, ever, only at provincials/regionals/nationals.
So how come they need so much more money to test less people than WPC? The question is where is the rest of the money going.
For people who feel that way there is always the option to compete untested. I don’t really enjoy pissing in a cup with some guy standing beside me anyway. But at the same time, not having a tested division is a disincentive for drug-free lifters to compete, it’s like saying that the only way to succeed in the sport is to use drugs.
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Doesn’t seem to be the case in strongman.
Why is that?
The way I see it, a lot of people have this sort of moral outrage against steroid use, which would make them not want to compete. Those people are not too bright, but it’s not uncommon. On top of that, people are more likely to want to compete in something where they will be at least somewhat successful, if you have a chance of making the top 5 or 10 it’s more motivating than knowing you will be at the bottom no matter what. Kind of like the guys who post on here asking if we think they are strong enough to do a meet, if they know they are up against guys on juice then they are going to be even more intimidated.
I would compete in an untested meet, better than the IPF any day, I was going to sign up for on in July but I can’t get the time off work. But I’m also not a beginner and my main focus is on getting myself better, not winning because the competition is weak.
I hate in when people ask whether they are strong enough to compete in a meet. There will always be someone stronger than you, and there will be more than likely someone at every meet who blows your ass and everyone else away.
This is why I think it’s good to train in a proper powerlifting gym. Get used to training around people who are 10x stronger than yourself.
Accept this and you will stick this sport out and not drive yourself crazy haha
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Some kid just asked that too.
I just train in my basement and watch videos of the world’s best lifters to keep my head straight.
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I don’t see why it would.
Do any of you guys follow the powerlifting reddit board? Same discussion going on over there and the amount of naivety over drug use in the sport blows my mind. People still desperately trying to hold onto the dream that he is/was natty.
Reddit is a little too stupid for me. Looks like half the people that post there don’t even lift weights at all either.
A lot of people bought into this nonsense about the IPF being the “gold standard” of powerlifting, but in reality it looks like the most crooked federation of all. Drug use is just one part of it. I would rather compete in any other fed.
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In the UK and Holland we only have IPF affiliated meets. It’s a shame.