In an article for RenegadeTrainging.com entitled, Outlaw The Gear, Coach Jim Massaro , wrote:
"I was first introduced to the sport of power lifting during the early eighties on "Wide World of Sports," when I can spend an excellent Saturday afternoon watching these great feats of strength. I thought to myself, "What sort of competition may be a lot better than this? mental and Physical toughness against huge amounts of steel!" To me which was a real test of determining what you had been made of."
I posted this article on my site as he spoke of Powerlifters now utilizing gear - http://Imageshack.us/photos/utilizing%20gear to improve their numbers and lifts and how the sport has lost the respect of its. A friendly website visitor commented:
"But how does a person get strong? Shirts might be considered "cheating" by a few, but in a sport where steroid and stimulant use is common (and not thoroughly tested) isn't it more appropriate to focus attention on the aids that produce "brute strength" more than any article of clothing ever will? "
Coach Massaro was friendly adequate to offer his comment:
"Steroids have with out any question left a dark cloud on most sports. One of the primary issues is the cost of testing. Most meets do not have the funds for it. or perhaps they turn the opposite eye. I are only able to hope that some day someone will come up with the right formula to this problem. But one thing I know beyond doubt is that the gear used doesn't reflect through numbers."
I am in agreement with Coach Massaro's original article as it expressed exactly my family's feelings of using gear in the sport and also offered the opportunity for me to reflect on the steroid issue- one that's continually hovering above something that my step-son does in Powerlifting or maybe Track and Field:
We value your comment and insight. Jimmie has racked up a few incredible numbers without steroids and with no gear. Granted he's great genes from the mother of his plus father Larry's history as well as strength is well known, although his mother was quite the competitor in the day of her and Jimmie gets a great deal of the lower body strength of his from her. It's widely recognized that Larry used steroids, but he was born with incredible, natural power and strength. From the morning of his, including Arnold Schwarzenegger has claimed, it was par for the training course to take Best Legal Steroids For Beginners - https://www.homernews.com/national-marketplace/best-legal-steroids-2021-... . Would Larry have gotten the same amounts without enhancement? Probably not, but the natural ability to dig deep, focus and find strength and power within can not be made in a lab.