 Hello and welcome to another real English conversation with myself Adam Novus and Liz Wade. Hello Liz. Yes, I was gonna say my own name, but it's all good. It's always good to have someone else's What was I gonna say? Someone else's say your name. Let me start that over. And this is how you know that this is not scripted at all Real conversation a real conversation. Yeah, we turn on we turn on Skype and we have this conversation So exactly so today we're talking about the program Sports and steroids. I think I've got that name right or it's steroids and sports No, it's sports and steroids. I got it, which um, sometimes I think is a is a program That that maybe doesn't apply but it always applies. I feel like we always have Issues with sports or steroids in sports. Yeah, people are always looking for Ways to get an advantage, which is really what this program is all about It's about the different ways that athletes professional athletes amateur athletes Use steroids to get an advantage to get better in sports the program goes through some quite famous athletes who were using steroids and were penalized some who apologized and It even touches on why people Might use steroids and the risks versus the benefits. It's a very interesting topic Yeah, well, I will admit I don't watch a lot of sports But I think you do Adam you're very involved in this This sort of thing not steroids Um But before we get into that I do want to say some of our listeners are listening on On our podcast and some are watching on YouTube and I just wanted to first of all say thank you to our YouTube members We do have Memberships on YouTube. So if you join as a member of the spotlight English Channel you do get some extra perks So those are like extra things that you can take advantage of The first level is just some badges and emojis But also we thank you by name in every program There's a special end card that comes up with your name on it And then as the levels rise you get more perks So you get everything from the first level and then you get a PDF of any script that you want one a month at our advanced level and access to Exclusive members only videos at the next level up you get a Personal video shout-out from us. You can actually pick Probably whoever you want on the spotlight English team to give you a shout out. Oh, I think they're all gonna pick me Yeah, maybe you'll all pick Adam. 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I've if only in life we could go I know right. It was so fancy. Yeah well, yeah, so you did a great job with that and but I Want to talk about steroids because I have been thinking I have thought probably more than you about steroids So yeah, steroids are obviously in the program. We talked about that the The medicine steroids does a lot of different things Right. So you might be prescribed steroids by a doctor because you need them for I don't know some part of your body, right and those that kind of Maybe you have an autoimmune or you have some kind of reaction. Usually they calm your your body's natural reaction We're not those are not going to give you make you super muscular and super Strong. Yeah, that's a medicine that your body needs. Yes And so what we're talking about is not having doctors for medical reasons to improve your health but to give you an advantage either in sports or recovery or muscle growth and most sporting associations Have say that you cannot use them. Like they are illegal for those those purposes. I Think if you don't mind Adam Like I think that's a really interesting thing. I guess maybe we'll talk about that a little later, but like Yeah, it the reason is that it just makes it Not as amazing when you would do amazing things or yeah, why do you think that is? Why do you think? Well, that like you shouldn't you shouldn't use steroids when you play football or whatever I think there is something in sports, which is Fair play which means that the result of your of your Practices and your hard work and you have to practice hard and work hard and put in the put in the time And that results in either a win or a loss or a good time on a particular event And I think there's something about taking Something that Gives you an advantage that doesn't that doesn't do that now It gets really interesting because of course there are a lot of things that give you an advantage that aren't available to everyone Certain sports you have to have equipment that maybe you can't afford Right there are if you live in at a mountain you get your body adapts to doing oxygen And they have special devices that People can use for that so there is a lot of It's not just what you put in your body, but it's kind of what else is available to you some of the Technology there a few years ago certain swimsuits and swimming events were they said they give people they made them too fast Really? Yeah, so they out the material of the swimsuit. Yes is It glowed it glowed it glided through the water Too too fast, so they weren't allowed to use that correct. They were used for a few years, and then they were not allowed Huh, so why wouldn't they just say that? Anybody can wear this is it just that it was very expensive or that people couldn't access it? Well, I'm I'm not entirely sure but I think with with some of that it was Well, all the world records were set without this now All of a sudden a new technology comes in everybody uses it and everybody just gets faster So how do you compare the same thing is true with running shoes? You could certain shoes are illegal Because they basically yeah, they basically Return a certain amount of energy Beyond what's normal, so if you have basically think of having springs in your shoes like almost like a cartoon like white like you're jumping along There was a there's a the two-hour marathon there was a very controversial point of whether those shoes Returned enough of the energy or not See, it's it's a super complicated thing. Well, okay, so we're skipping ahead a little bit because I and that's my fault my bad But that actually we talked about that a little bit at the end of this program after we have talked about Examples of people and steroid use There is an expert a doctor or a sports expert or somebody who basically says You know football players are wearing these special jerseys that you know reduce Wind friction or something. How is that any different than steroids? And so you're You're kind of making the point that they are the same. I I do think that They are the same in one way Yeah, in another way is the long-term health benefits can it can have side effects That's a very good point wearing a different pair of shoes Might make your your feet hurt or whatever But they're not going to have long-term side effects to your health or but playing professional sports can also have long-term side effects for your health Okay, so this is a little more complicated than Then I would have imagined because I know you have thought about it You do a lot of running and exercise right and I exercise but not Not in the in the way that you do Yeah, so you've run like 50 miles Trained for yes, I enjoy that in a different way than you right exactly um, but Yeah, I would never have Thought that this was such a complicated issue. So here here. Let me complicate it and make it personal to you Right. Okay, so stare steroids are a thing that give you an unfair advantage, right? But they do they do work if you if you do them correctly So you are someone who does not play professional sports does not even play amateur sports No, but let's say you could Get what you wanted. Let's say you'd be the fittest you've ever been let's say you have a goal and you're like, you know what? I'm gonna be fit. I'm gonna do this Would you if you didn't if there were no long-term health benefits? Would you consider doing one of these things because you're not competing against other long-term health negatives negative like yeah, yeah Consonance side effects. Um, I don't know. I am a very Um, I was gonna say ethical person, but that might not be the right description Like I like to do the right thing and to me the right thing seems like not taking the steroids because Um Yeah, it would give an unfair advantage. I would feel like I had taken help on the other hand Uh, I mean sometimes I do take a protein powder. Yeah, which is you know, not a real food It's real food, but it's you know, you mix it into a drink or something And so is that is that cheating to get a lot of your protein in but who are you cheating? This is the thing and you're not in a competition Right, right So there is even in in um Powerlifting which is like how heavy of a weight can you lift? There's like two categories. There's like clean and dirty Really? Yeah, there's like there's like certain competitions that are under this banner that are like We will do anti doping testing and doping meaning using these various kinds of not just steroids And then there's like everybody's doing it. So how heavy can you lift? Yikes I feel like um, and maybe this is a judgment, but I feel like that would be the scary one Like I where I might walk in there and be like Whoa, yeah Yeah So you wouldn't you wouldn't use anything Uh, I mean, I'm never gonna say never But I don't think so. I think if you are watching this and you think Here's the question put in the comments Would you use not in competition? This is not what we're talking about to get an advantage Right, so your own personal life or your own personal life to say, you know what I'm going to um I'm just gonna I'm gonna get fit. It's gonna help me sleep better. It's gonna help me exercise harder Uh, what would you do? Would you you know, because we all You know Would you would just wear better clothes? Would you wear better shoes? Um, let us know because I don't really No one has come up to me. I've never I've never tried steroids or But I know that and when I was in high school people used creatine, which was something that is legal to use but Oh Hmm I don't know different things. Okay. Well, this is a real uh, this is a thornier question Then I thought it was. Yeah to be honest. Well, let's move to for before we end I really think one of the things that needs to be noted and it was noted in this program So if you've listened to it, you'll know this It's the it's the fact that this is um These are people who are taking a big risk By taking steroids if they get caught they often have multiple athletes athletes So like famous athletes like the people in the program like the football player and the runner Uh the runner Mm-hmm So they have huge they could get they could lose their job basically for their whole life or for just a few years Which is basically their whole life as an athlete But the the reason they do it is that the reward Is so hard to get that little competitive edge Right But then if you're found out you lose all that reward. There's such a huge risk to it The the example I think of was wasn't it uh, and maybe I'm gonna get in trouble if this is not right wasn't it like uh lance armstrong so one of the one of the um Consistent winners of all the bicycle races tour de France. Yeah the tour de France Uh one of the consistent winners wasn't he found uh doping. Yeah, and I feel like uh, I don't follow many sports So, uh, for me that felt so shocking You know to think I always thought wow He is just one of the best cyclists and well he denied it for a number of years It was like no no no no no right right and then to find out that like it was all a lie It was all doping and uh That for me is like that's the biggest example. I know of But yeah, you lose so much Well, I also think there is an element of um Let's do it Let's get a lot of money and then even if we lose our reputation then After a few years, we'll still have accumulated sponsorship money and you might lose those sponsorships eventually But your example lance armstrong still has millions of dollars Well, yeah, I guess maybe other people wouldn't uh save it as effectively. I know maybe not Maybe not you want you want to see him destitute you want to see him out on the street nothing Yeah, as long as you're not tiki steroids and spending all of your uh athlete money. Yeah I don't know yet. It is a thorny question I would be curious to hear what people think about this. Um, if you think Do you like do you know an athlete like not personally? But is there an athlete? You don't have to don't have to tell us their name Right. No, I don't mean personally But like if you know of an athlete who like like Lance Armstrong for me who you thought oh, wow, this is an amazing athlete and then maybe your opinion was Changed a little bit because of um You know finding out they use steroids. I would you know, I think that's interesting well, uh, this has been a far ranging conversation and I don't think I'm gonna end it by saying I don't think I would do steroids But I'm tempted. That's what I'll I think I think what's going on inside me I I don't think I would but I would be And I've already said I wouldn't oh, okay Uh, it makes sure that you check out that uh, the perks that are available by uh, youtube membership Also, make sure to check us out on facebook twitter and visit our website, which is spotlight english.com Uh, we have a lot of interesting content there Uh and like and subscribe Make sure you hit that little bell And until next time we hope you listen watch practice and learn spotlight out