Pumped: Straight Facts for Athletes about Drugs, Supplements, and Training [Paperback]

Cynthia Kuhn (Author), Scott Swartzwelder (Author), Wilkie Wilson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 17, 2000

Steroids, stimulants, supplements: today's athlete is offered an array of drugs and dietary enhancements to solve every problem from weight to speed.

What's safe? What works? What's a waste of money? "Pumped" offers research-based information. It explains the body basics that every athlete must know for optimum performance. It also offers the reader straight information about drugs and supplements for weight control, muscle building, and endurance training. What an athlete uses in the off-training time is important too, and this text covers recreational drugs - from alcohol to speed - how they can seem to help performance, how they hurt, and for how long.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

You see them everywhere. You can't walk into a shopping mall without seeing a store selling body-building nutritional supplements, and even the discount drugstores generally have large displays of muscle-enhancing and fat-burning potions. But do any of them work? And are they safe?

The authors of Pumped, who previously tackled recreational drugs in Buzzed, attempt to answer these questions in a straightforward way, free of scientific jargon. They conclude that many of these drugs and supplements actually work, but not as well as their proponents might claim. For example, they note that creatine produces about a 1 to 5 percent improvement in certain high-intensity activities like sprinting--significant if you're a trained athlete, but probably not cost-effective for the recreational weight lifter.

They also show that touted fat-burning drugs like ephedrine and caffeine do indeed help people lose weight, but just a few pounds over several months. And, they note, the brain eventually compensates for the hunger slowdown these drugs produce. So they're a short-term solution to a lifelong problem, and a modestly effective solution at that.

Pumped could easily have come off like a "just say no" campaign against performance-enhancing and appearance-improving drugs and nutritional supplements. And, indeed, the overriding tone is one of skepticism toward every drug and supplement they describe, from anabolic steroids to protein powders. (They show that a great protein source like eggs can cost seven times as much if you buy it as a supplement instead of in its natural form.) But the authors temper their skepticism by noting that scientists have looked foolish in the past by claiming that anabolic steroids didn't work while most of the world's elite power athletes knew better. Science, in other words, will always be a few steps behind practical application when it comes to performance enhancement.

Still, the lack of enthusiasm the authors muster for drugs and supplements will probably restrict the book's potential audience. Parents of athletes will want to absorb the information, but the athletes themselves will turn to bodybuilding magazines and Web sites for advice. Likewise, coaches and guidance counselors will find Pumped useful and informative, but the people they're coaching and guiding probably won't get too excited over it. --Lou Schuler

From Library Journal

This excellent book is not solely for athletesDanyone who wants to have more energy will benefit. Although the focus is on drugs and supplements, the advice on dieting and explanations of the body's physiology will interest those who would like to be fit. The tone is objective and balanced, and the authors (Buzzed: The Straight Facts About the Most Used and Abused Drugs from Alcohol to Ecstasy) explain with great clarity what published research has shown about steroids, hormones, dietary supplements, alcohol, and caffeine. The writing style is lively and fast paced: "Creatine is becoming increasingly popular as a nutritional supplement to prolong exercise tolerance. The problem is that it lasts about 10 seconds." An excellent chapter, "How To Read the Ads," tells the reader how to judge claims critically and evaluate scientific research. The work concludes with a bibliography in which the authors try "to list the best available studies supporting or refuting the effectiveness of various performance-enhancing agents." Highly recommended for public, undergraduate, and medical libraries.DNatalie Kupferberg, Ohio State Univ., Columbus
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; 1 edition (October 17, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393321290
• ISBN-13: 978-0393321296
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,239,423 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Outdated theories posed as facts, March 2, 2001

By 

C. Dancer (Riverside, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pumped: Straight Facts for Athletes about Drugs, Supplements, and Training (Paperback)

If you are looking for a book that will explain the uses, and the effects of certain sports supplements and or drugs this is not the book. The book uses scare tactics from out-dated and disproven information. If you are an athlete or have a child that is an athlete and you want up-to-date information on products then you are better off buying a book or a magazine that is written by, doctors that are also athletes. Save your money and buy a book that uses studies that were done after 1999 unlike the 5 year studies used in Pumped.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars For Health's Sake, May 18, 2001

By 

Tim Smith - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pumped: Straight Facts for Athletes about Drugs, Supplements, and Training (Paperback)

This is a useful, readable description and summary of drug and supplement use and the body's functioning especially written for athletes and those interested in physical fitness. It seems to make an honest effort to give the facts about drug and supplement use and sort out the truth from all the training ads that bombard anyone who uses fitness media. The problem is what most everyone suspects- there are no shortcuts and anything that does effect the body's functioning is a potential health risk. However, those who want all the drugs and supplements to work will be critical of this book because it doesn't tell them what they want to hear and unfortunately will probably continue to use what they want. The authors did a good job of describing the efficiency of the human body. It is such a remarkable machine that it adjusts to any "shortcut" and the effects become counter-productive. The well-known fact that the body starts to store fat when a person diets too quickly is a good example. I know the information in this book will not be accepted by some teens and exercising adults but it is worth knowing and hopefully the recommendations will be followed for health's sake.

5.0 out of 5 stars Totally Awesome!, March 29, 2005

By 

Vasa Dudikof "VaSA" (Chicago, IL, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pumped: Straight Facts for Athletes about Drugs, Supplements, and Training (Paperback)

I was doing a research paper on steroids, so i asked a friend of mine to get me some books out of the library. So one of the books he got me was "Pumped". I planned only to take a few notes and put it away, but when i started reading i just couldn't stop. The book is very informative. Like one of the reviewers said, it doesn't go into much detail, but its short and straight to the point. This book isn't only about steroids, it goes into things like alcohol, weed, cigarretes. So, if you have a couple of hours to spare, i suggest you pick this one up!