[thesz]

My personal trainer told me that first application of anabolic steroids was in endurance sports like cycling.

One effect of testosterone is to increase red blood cells count, enhancing the oxygen transfer and thus endurance.

(BTW, red wine's quercetin blocks testosterone's drainage by kidneys and indirectly elevates red blood cells count)

The weightlifting also has positive effect on the longevity: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/04/190412085247.h...

To counter your article about cycling: https://www.dw.com/en/michael-goolaerts-death-raises-questio...

And obligatory reference to Marko Pantani: https://crushingiron.com/cycling-is-the-toughest-sport/

He was so fit, he has to cycle several times at night to make his heart go faster and not to die.

The article of yours was not about professional cyclists, more about "cycling fitness" approach. I love cycling - it improves deadlift immensely. But professional cycling is different. Very different. And dangerous.

[stephen999]

Pantani was in an age where drug testing was not very good so they pushed the limit of hematocrit level to improve performance. Now the tests are much better and so the level of drugs and thus side affects seems to be lower.

You don’t hear of cyclists dying in their sleep really of coagulated blood from EPO.

There are some legal pain killers like tramadol and excessive caffeine that you might not do if you are optimizing for health but not sure how detrimental that is long term.

[xref]

> He was so fit, he has to cycle several times at night to make his heart go faster and not to die.

That wasn’t because he was “so fit” was it, but rather from being in the middle of a powerful doping regimen (like all top cyclists were, you simply couldn’t compete otherwise) raising your hemocrit level to the point it could kill you?

Vid about it: https://youtu.be/hT8GZlBBv5k