Recent studies show that muscle-building behaviors such as steroid use are rising among young men. But why is this happening? The answer lies partly in a societal obsession with hypermasculine ideals.

Steroid use, long an open secret in bodybuilding, can be devastating on the body, expert says Loading up on donuts and cheeseburgers is far from the riskiest technique for building muscle.

I open up about my experience with bodybuilding, the unhealthy culture it perpetuates, and why I had a life-altering ...

Beyond that, they have no problem with steroid use or randomly tested events. “I don’t drink, I don’t smoke or use drugs, but I also don’t walk into a bar and say you shouldn’t be doing ...

Bodybuilder Keith Hunter, 52, works out at the Fitness Factory on Washington Avenue, where he is also a trainer. He dislikes competitors who take steroids. (Robert Cohen/P-D) ...

John's case of steroid use is far from isolated. Anabolic-androgenic steroids have long been widely used, the worst-kept dark secret of the bodybuilding world.

"It's the great Catch-22 of bodybuilding. People want the competitors to be that size, but the only way they can be that size is by using steroids," he said.

Baggish says the current situation with steroid use reminds him of smoking in the 1950s, before a large enough number of people had been smoking long enough for the public health implications to ...

Yet anti-steroid crusaders inevitably point to the extreme steroid use by some amateur and professional bodybuilders to support their assertions of the deadly and dangerous side effects.

When Keith Hunter competes in a bodybuilding contest, he actually wants to have a polygraph test and urinalysis. That way, he knows he'll get a fair shake.