Strength without steroids

DALLAS — Charlie Stern, a 17-year-old strong safety on the Greenhill School football team, would do almost anything to beat rival St. Mark’s, where his friend Kapps Killingstad is the quarterback.

“Almost” is the key word. Unlike some teenagers who want to become superior athletes or just look better, Charlie never considered taking steroids.

“I’m not willing to jeopardize my body and my ethics to cheat the system,” he says.

So he works out diligently – often with Kapps at the Cooper Fitness Center in North Dallas.

They’re old enough to lift weights, but young enough that they need to follow guidelines for their still-developing bodies.

“Strength training has clear benefits,” says Dr. Larry Gibbons, medical director of the Cooper Clinic, “as long as you have some guidance, don’t go overboard and don’t go to the illegal side.”

Charlie and Kapps are determined to make the most of their potential without illegal – and dangerous – supplements.

“One of my teachers was reading off a list of side effects and all the risks of steroids,” says Kapps, who’s 17. “It’s scary. I don’t see why anybody would do that.”

Their trainer, Shane Freels, understands the temptations. He was an undersized linebacker in high school and college who resisted the urge to bulk up illegally.

Now he encourages young people to do the right thing.

“The guys ask me, ‘What else can I do to give myself an edge?’ ” Freels says. “My response is to eat right and give me your best effort every day.”

At any age, that effort should include plenty of cardiovascular exercise, especially in an era where physical education classes are being cut and many children spend too much time in front of TVs and computers.

“That’s part of the reason our kids are getting out of shape and obese,” says Gibbons. “We’re paying a price for that now, and we’re going to pay a bigger price in the future.”

Cardiovascular exercise – it can include running, biking, jumping rope or other activities that get the heart pumping – “really pays off in terms of endurance, productivity, feeling better about yourself,” Gibbons says.

But many young people, particularly boys, want more: strength and muscle and bulk.

That means resistance training, and there, Gibbons says, “you really have to be careful.”

“You have to know the individual and how they’re developing,” he says. “It’s extremely important for a young man or woman who’s going to start weight training to get some guidance and learn good technique so they don’t hurt themselves.”

Generally, Freels says, boys who have not reached puberty should use their own body weight for resistance, with exercises such as isometrics, pull-ups, pushups and squats.

“Their bodies aren’t ready for much more than that,” he says.

Lifting a lot of weight, Gibbons says, could endanger growth plates in adolescents.

“That is the part of the bone that’s still growing,” he says. “If you damage it, you might not reach full bone height, or it could grow at an angle.”

Freels says his nutritional advice is the same for anyone on a fitness regimen: protein for muscle building and carbs for endurance, lots of water and laying off junk food.

He’s not big on supplements that promise to add muscle – even legal ones.

“Protein shakes are fine, if the body can handle it,” he says. “But you can’t force weight on a 17-year-old kid if the body doesn’t want it.”

As for creatine and other compounds that promise to help performance and add muscle: “I tell them not to mess with that. I don’t keep up with what’s in those things, and I don’t think they need it. I think they can get whatever results they’re looking for with hard work and a good diet.”

Charlie Stern says years of conscientious workouts have made him stronger and faster, and a better football and lacrosse player.

“I’m 5-7, 165, so I need to be as big and strong as I can,” he says. “But steroids never entered my mind.

“This way might be harder, but if you really want results, you have to work hard. That applies to all of life.”