West suburban gym's bodybuilders very intentionally say no to drugs
CHICAGO (CBS) -- It's a busy time in the sports world; hockey playoffs just started, we're smack dab in the middle of baseball season, and basketball finals are approaching.
On occasion, something besides the score catches fans' attention: doping.
Morning Insider Lauren Victory takes us inside a west suburban gym with athletes who very intentionally say no to drugs.
"No pain, no gain" is the age-old motto of fitness, but the goal of the grimacing at B Fitness in Oswego isn't just to look trim and pretty. The athletes you'll find working out there are vying for the perfect muscle to fat ratio. They're bodybuilders.
Coach Brooks Robertson carefully calculates their output at the gym and input at home.
"What they eat, their sodium, how much water they drink," said Robertson, for whom precision is everything.
His trainee, Erin West, perfects her moves five to six times a week, for about three hours each session.
"It's kind of just to show people you can be small but strong too so that's what got me into bodybuilding because you're the oddball, you're the weirdo who likes to lift weights," said West.
The "weirdos" at B Fitness are even more unique in the bodybuilding world, because they're conditioning their physiques naturally. That means they don't use any performance enhancing drugs that can speed up metabolism and bulk you up at a faster rate.
"It's easy to be thin. It's easy to be strong. But it's hard to be strong, thin, pose," explains Robertson.
"For example, someone that is taking something might be able to prepare in 12 weeks. Someone that is natural might need 24," said bodybuilder Staci Boyer, who adds that refusing to cut corners levels the playing field.
Boyer is behind a special Naperville competition called the NPC Phoenix Natural Noble Warrior Bodybuilding Championship on May 7. Notice that "natural" is right in the title. The more than 100 bodybuilders signed up must take the no drugs pledge seriously.
"We have a random testing policy, so we will pick three men and three women, and we have polygraph," said Boyer.
The polygraph test will ask about steroid, growth hormone, and testosterone use in the past three years. Competitors are allowed to use over-the-counter supplements.
The show will also honor another type of commitment. Boyer, a U.S. Navy veteran, will invite anyone in the audience with military or first responder experience on stage for a tribute in honor of a nationwide day of service by the VFW.
"We've got all of the flags represented from all of the services," she said. "They're going there to see their family member compete that they worked so hard to and they [first responders and veterans] get to go up on stage and be recognized for what they have done."
