By Jackson Santy ’13
THE ROUNDUP

In today’s world of high school athletics, participants are focused on one thing—being better.

Student athletes are always striving to be bigger, faster and stronger than their opponents and they will do anything to attain that goal.

Throughout the nation, athletes on all levels, even in high school, are reverting to unhealthy means of increasing their performance on the field, court or mat.

With professional and collegiate athletes setting a poor example with extreme diets and workout routines, it is becoming harder to persuade high school athletes that these methods of training are unhealthy and to be avoided.

Athletes consume products such as whey protein, high-grade energy drinks and creatine with disregard or ignorance of the harmful side effects of these products.

The common misconception is that the more they take, the more muscle growth they’ll have. But in fact when the body consumes more protein that it needs, it converts that protein into fat.

Creatine is another popular product used by athletes more than it should be.  It is a nitrogenous organic acid that occurs naturally in our vertebrates and helps to supply energy to all cells in the body, primarily for muscle, according to the National Institute of Health.

Artificial creatine intake by athletes has become very popular in the world of competition because athletes often don’t know the true effects of the product.

Creatine distributors have created the fallacy that the product will increase the body’s muscle content rapidly.

In reality, the supplement causes muscle to draw water from the rest of the body, therefore dehydrating other parts of the body.

Once an athlete stops using creatine, the water weight of the muscles vanishes and the apparent muscle mass is lost.

Creatine is allowed by the International Olympic Committee, National Collegiate Athletic Association and professional sports. However, the NCAA no longer allows colleges and universities to supply creatine to their students with school funds, according to both organizations.

The Brophy philosophy for athletes is to “not only learn about his sport, but also about dedication, responsibility and good sportsmanship. Brophy strives to motivate its athletes to practice, play, and achieve athletic excellence.”

When players habitually use these products, they are throwing the true meaning of Brophy’s view on athletic completion out the window.