Injections before martial arts tournament?

Question

A couple years ago when I was at a TKD tourney and I saw 2 guys in our team (different schools) injecting themselves with something. Not by syringe but by a bag and tube. In warm up they were really getting hyper and it seemed to increase their performance alot. They both won 1st and one of them even broke his opponents arm. I was wondering what they were using and if it was legal.

Answer 1

Blood or Saline or both.

A common trick that is legal and doesn't flag you for any sort of drug usage is to rehydrate yourself with an IV, (especially if a weigh in is required) you will literally feel really great.

Another trick is do fill a bag with your own oxygenated blood, and saline a week or so prior.

Shortly before the tournament, shoot it up. You have more , more red blood cells in your system, hence more endurance and aerobic capacity is increased (your blood can carry more oxygen) and your are supremely hydrated. You would feel great, and you would not get as tired. It is definately a performance enhancer.

This is typically called blood doping. You may have heard about it in the cycling world, a ton of Olympic athletes did with the the help of EPO as well.

There are all sorts of things you can do via IV. (i.e. bag and a tube). So it is hard to tell.

More than likely they were just doing a simple saline rehydration if they had to cut weight to make a weight division. This would be totally legal.

Blood doping on the other hand, is considered illegal in most athletic sports, and probably by the tournament. Chances are if it was somewhat local and small time, they weren't doing any kind of testing anyway.

But technically blood doping is illegal.

However rehydration via IV is not, and is a common practice in competetions where people have to meet weight requirements.

Hope that helps.

Answer 2

if somebody is injecting themselves with a bag and a tube during a martial art competition, I'd get very ******* suspicious

Answer 3

Steroids? Who knows but it's probably illegal.

Answer 4

Injections sound pretty intense. There isn't any drug testing in tournaments so they might have been doping with a performance drug. I've seen roid rage at tournaments and it isn't pretty.

A lot of competitors take some sort of energy enhancer before an event, most legal like red bull or energy pills. Sounds like these guys took it to an extreme. Probably an illegal substance.

Answer 5

probably 20 gallons of redbull lol...

sounds weird... but there are millions of substances and we cant really tell what it was...