Human growth hormone (HGH) is a banned sports supplement. HGH has to be injected to be active and has been widely used in the past for athletic performance boosting based on the premise that it can increase strength and perhaps muscle in similar fashion to anabolic steroids. Baseball in the US has been dogged by reports of players using HGH for performance improvement.
Now, a new study by Dr Ken Ho and colleagues at St. Vincent's Hospital in Sydney, Australia reports that the big winners in HGH doping are likely sprinters, who may gain enough advantage to make the difference between being at the back of the pack or in the places -- as much as a 4% improvement on a relatively low dose. In sports performance terms, that is a very significant improvement -- and it would apply to all sports where speed is a performance factor. HGH had no effect on weight lifting ability, muscle mass or jumping ability. This is the first study of this kind to show such an effect. The study included 96 recreational athletes, both men and women.
Further, combining growth hormone with testosterone injections in men doubled the improvement in sprinting to around 8%, a staggering performance boost, although an improvement of this size would probably not show up in elite athletes. Even so, some doping authorities believe it may be possible to combine low levels of HGH and testosterone so that the performance boost occurs at levels below the limit of detection of 'doping' relevance. The magic bullet!
The likelihood of this use having already occurred has to be very high.
--> First Scientific Study Showing Effects of HGH on Athletes
I have used a combo of test and hcg as a young bodybuilder and found both put a tremendous amout of lean bodymass along with proper weight training.