What Athletes Are Really Taking to Bulk Up : Protein Drinks, Powders and Amino Acids Emerge as Safer and LegalAlternatives to Steroids, but Nutritional Supplements Are Still Taking a Back Seat to Good Old Fashioned Hard Work

Vince Ferry got knocked around last season playing tight end at Alemany High. Defensive ends weighing as much as 250 pounds treated the 180-pound Ferry like the fabled 98-pound weakling who has sand kicked in his face by bullies at the beach.

“I was tired of getting beat up,” Ferry recalled.

So he did something about it.

In preparation for his senior year, Ferry has supplemented his regular diet with a canned drink formulated to support maximum muscle development. Now, four months later, he weighs 220 pounds. Bring on the bullies, baby.

“I can see and feel the difference,” Ferry said. “I’m going to stick with it throughout the season.”

Although the dramatic results Ferry enjoyed are rare, nutritional supplements have become exceedingly popular with high school and college football players. Many athletes, realizing steroid use can be as dangerous as driving onto a freeway off-ramp, have searched for alternatives to gain lean muscle.

The market, naturally, has become flooded with pills, powders and potions that promise results. Experts say most of the products are more nutritionally sound than the bogus concoctions advertised years ago in muscle magazines, but it’s still a case of “let the buyer beware.”

There is nothing magical or secretive about supplements, which fall into three general categories: those high in carbohydrates, those high in protein, and combinations of amino acids. And any supplement, experts insist, will only add muscle if the user is lifting weights and exercising regularly. If someone takes a high-calorie supplement and doesn’t work out, he’ll look like Dom DeLuise after a week-long pasta binge.

“The bottom line is that you have to train really hard for these things to help you,” said Frank Bredice, a Sherman Oaks chiropractor with a Ph.D. in nutrition who specializes in treating athletes.

Supplements are easy to find. Besides being sold in gyms and health-food stores, they are hawked by modern-day snake oil salesmen right out on the practice field.

“We’ve made a strong push in getting out to campuses,” said Mary Whalen, a sales representative for Exceed, a nutritional supplement especially popular with football players.

Exceed, which was formulated by Ross Laboratories 13 years ago as a nasal-tube feeding for hospital patients, supplies in two cans more than the recommended daily allowance of protein, calcium, iron, potassium, Vitamin C and Vitamin D. Athletes began to show interest in the product six years ago, and now it is peddled to colleges and high schools coast to coast. Cal State Northridge, UCLA, Pepperdine and Loyola Marymount have bought large amounts, Whalen said. Even youth football organizations are showing interest.

“All the Pop Warner teams are calling now,” she said.

Ross Laboratories also markets a high-carbohydrate powder and a fluid replacement drink under the Exceed label. Because carbohydrates restore muscle glycogen and help sustain energy through long workouts, products high in carbohydrates are very popular.

Not everyone uses supplements to gain weight. Hoping only to improve his team’s nutrition, Kennedy Coach Bob Francola bought several cases of a nutritional supplement and encouraged players to drink a can an hour or two before practice each day.

“A lot of kids don’t eat breakfast, eat a burrito and french fries for lunch, then rip through the refrigerator when they get home from school,” Francola said. “Nutrition is an area kids are ignorant about.”

Indeed, Whalen promotes her product as “a balanced meal in a can.” And if an athlete maintains his regular food intake, Whalen claims that two cans a day will put on two pounds of lean body weight per week. A can of Exceed costs about $1.

Powders high in carbohydrates (Carbo Plex is an especially popular brand) help athletes sustain energy as well as gain weight. Also popular are powders like Multi-Power, which are high in carbohydrates and protein.

Plain protein powders, which cost from $6 to $12 per pound, have been around longer than canned drinks like Exceed. Their quality, however, varies greatly.

“I’m a firm believer in proper amounts of protein,” Frank Bredice said. “Recent studies show that heavy exercisers are deficient in protein. The problem with powders is that several are difficult to assimilate. They can cause digestive disorders and lots of gas. If it’s not a quality product, you’re wasting your money.”

Chaminade Prep lineman Doug Kavulich, who will be a senior this fall, has been contacted by Penn State after gaining 45 pounds of muscle since last season. Kavulich weighs 252 pounds after supplementing four meals a day with three milkshakes laced with heaping scoops of a protein and carbohydrate supplement that added 1,500 calories per day to his diet.

“Now my size is an eye-catcher,” Kavulich said. “At 207 pounds, I was too small for Division I. The program I was on changed the whole thing.”

Rigorous weight training--not protein powder--was the most important part of the program, Kavulich is quick to point out. He lifted weights four days a week under the direction of trainer Rob Gal at Gold’s Gym in Northridge.

“The protein powder definitely played a minor part,” Kavulich said, “The bottom line was hard work in the weight room.”

And some luck. Kavulich, who has a large 6-3 frame, happened to catch a growth spurt during the period in which he worked hardest at adding muscle.

“Weight gain like Doug’s is very rare,” Gal said. “He had the potential to get that big and it all came together. He lifted, he ran, he had some protein supplements and mom kept putting meals on the table.”

In fact, the biggest misconception with nutritional supplements is that of miraculous weight gain. Exceed, for example, provides only 360 calories per can.

“If all you want is the calories, eat two muffins instead,” Bredice said.

Ferry, the Alemany tight end who put on 40 pounds, also admits Exceed was not the only factor. His lanky frame had a lot to do with it.

“I grew two inches during the time I gained the weight, so the whole thing coincided with a growth spurt,” he said. “Exceed just gave me the extra edge.”

With or without supplements, proper nutrition at home is stressed by most coaches and nutrition experts.

“I recommend normal nutrition without health supplements,” Westlake Coach George Contreras said. “Just good, basic nutrition. I don’t discourage protein powders and these things, but I don’t encourage their use, either.”

Crespi Coach Bill Redell goes as far as to recommend against any addition to a regular diet.

“I just feel that whatever you weigh is what you weigh,” Redell said. “I recommend that players do not take weight supplements. This whole study into nutrition is valuable and maybe some things fit into nutritional balance, but I’m not going to recommend anything artificial to any kid.”

Whip up a high carbohydrate or high protein meal right in your own kitchen, Canyon Coach Harry Welch tells players.

“Lots of programs talk about supplements, but I’m just not into them,” Welch said. “You can duplicate these things at home by preparing high carbohydrate meals. Pasta and potatoes do it.”

But pasta and potatoes are boring compared to a slick-sounding product like Exceed. The enticement of something new, something exciting, that promises dramatic results is strong.

Yet it is that same quick-fix mentality that makes several coaches cautious. Redell and Contreras believe that in a society where drugs are prevalent, youngsters shouldn’t believe they need a pill or powder to gain an edge.

“I doubt if there is a real danger with supplements, but what bothers me is the psychological aspect,” Contreras said. “Where do you draw the line? The same kids, down the road, may be looking for a secret, magic answer.”

Said Redell: “What if a kid has high blood pressure, or is a diabetic, and I don’t know about it? In our society, with its focus on drugs, I don’t want to be the one who says, ‘Take this, gain 30 pounds and be a great player.’ ”

Francola, however, believes that if anyone is counseling kids on nutrition, it should be their coach.

“Kids are faced with the reality of what a Division I program wants,” he said. “If they’re not getting counseling from their coach, they turn to advice from guys at a gym or on the street. That’s how they are introduced to the dangerous things like steroids.”

The latest supplement advocated as a safe alternative to steroids is amino acids, which claim to build strong bodies 1,600 ways. Jack Youngblood, the six-time All-Pro who now works in the Rams’ front office, convinced the Rams to implement an extensive program of amino acid supplements.

“I see results,” Youngblood said. “What we’re talking about is maximizing personal potential.”

From the 22 amino acids, 1,600 different types of proteins can be formed. Bredice acknowledges that amino acids can rebuild muscle and add lean muscle mass. But he warned that some amino combinations do little good.

“Aminos are beneficial if they are totally free form,” he said. “In other words, they should be in the exact formulation utilized by the human body. If not, they will not be absorbed readily.”

Because a program of amino acid supplements can cost as much as $100 a month, not many high school athletes use them. The cost, however, is declining as demand increases.

“Amino acids are coming of age with consumers now because of advances in technology and mass production,” said Marjorie Tyson, president of Integrated Health, the company that manufactures pharmaceutical-quality amino acids. “The cost is coming down the way the cost of transistor radios and four-function calculators came down.”

Clearly, athletes are able to choose from a long list of supplements. Francola views them as something he can offer that many schools don’t.

“Everybody is running year-round programs, everybody is in the passing leagues,” Francola said. “Every kid likes to feel like they’re doing something that gives them an edge. Nutrition--and nutritional supplements--is one of the few untapped areas where we can get that edge.”