One of my courses at my college is all about nutrition and performance enhancing drugs also take part. My teacher used to be the team doctor of a professional cycling team and he says there are multiple ways to avoid getting caught ( Even in 2007 ). For example, if I take micro - doses of EPO at 10 PM, and I get tested one day later at 8 AM, that there is no single test that can prove that I cheated. If I do this daily, I gives a significant improvement of my endurance and no single test will be positive.
I agree with the above, in-principle anyways. It's why doping is a 'science', and it's what I alluded to earlier in the thread about 'baseline level' drugs.
Maybe Nadal isn't one of them, he never got caught an he could be innocent. But on the other hand, several tests of Nadal show that his genetics are amazing ( natural or not, I don't know )
Most people in the top 10 in the world in a major sport have best-of-breed genetics.
I once tested my own endurance with a sports doctor. The ability of my lungs for oxygen uptake ( which strongly determines my endurance capacity ) or VO2Max, is 55. It is genetically determined and mine is a little bit better than an avarage person.
The VO2Max of cyclists is measured at a young age, and it measures their natural talent for endurance. The only way to improve your VO2Max, is to practice in very high mountains for years and years. This is what cyclists do. An other possibility is to use EPO ( much easier ), which is a must for cyclists because otherwise they can never make the top.
Err - we need to stop here. I have to disagree with the two statements in red, they're wrong. One's maximum VO2Max is genetically determined, but not one's current VO2Max. And VO2Max is very trainable, anyone who goes exercises aerobically will likely be impacting their VO2Max!
You're misunderstanding VO2Max a little here. This is going to sound tricky (because of the double-use of the term max), but it's not too tricky.
VO2Max is simply a measure of your current aerobic fitness / capacity / endurance (pick whichever word works for you).
If you train aerobically (in any way - from walking to running to hard singles tennis to anything that gets the heart going) and get fitter, up goes your VO2Max, unless you were already at your maximum (unlikely for 99.9% of the population!). Your
maximum VO2Max is indeed genetically determined, just like your maximum height. Unlike your maximum height, though, your VO2Max is indeed trainable up to that maximum.
Let's go to an example. These two people are untrained, they are couch potatoes:
Joe Average has a current VO2Max of 45.
James Agassi has a current VO2Max of 45.
Now both of them take up triathlon, and for the next 5 years they cycle, run and swim like crazy. Joe Average just has average genetics, while James Agassi is the son of Graf & Agassi, and has world-class genetics. They re-test their current VO2Maxs:
Joe Average has a current VO2Max of 68.
James Agassi has a current VO2Max of 75.
Both have become very much fitter, their aerobic capacity / endurance has increased massively, but because of his stellar genetics, James Agassi was able to exceed Joe Average.....
I hope that helps...
Nadal's VO2Max is 72 !!! It is exactly the same as a top - tour the France cyclists ! He might have monster genetics, which is what most cyclists claim to have. I am not accusing him because he never tested positive. I am suspicious though and I hope you don't blame me for it.
I'm not suspicious, I just wonder. We'll probably never know....
I think that in every kind of endurance sport, including claycourt tennis, banned substances are involved. Maybe not Nadal, but other guys have proven that it's true.
Agreed.
