The theme that ran through “Gym Candy” by Carl Deuker, was that the urge to reach the term “successful” causes people to go to extreme measures, and sometimes the choices they make turn out for the worst. However, this not only affects themselves, but also their loved ones around them. The main character, Mick, tried building his body to reach it’s highest peak of speed and power. The stakes meant so much to him that he even turned to taking two different forms of steroids, which both changed his life in ways he never knew imaginable. Mick took steroids after getting beat up, seeing his backup running back catch up to him talent wise, and to win games.
With two games left in the season, Matt Drager, the starting running back, was kicked off
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of the football team because he was caught at a party drinking. That left Mick Johnson to take the field. They managed to make it to the championship game against the undefeated Foothill High School team. They ended up losing the game by a touchdown. Mick was tackled at the one yard line by the biggest player on the other team. This led him to wanting to get bigger. Mick lifted nonstop all throughout the offseason and even spent his birthday money on months of protein shakes (Page 144). As he started getting bigger, Drager started bullying Mick around. He eventually jumped Mick with a buddy on his last day before moving (Page 128). This made Mick want to get even stronger now. he wanted to prove everyone he was truly better than Drager, even though he was two years younger. He met a trainer name Peter. Peter offered Mick steroids the first day, but Mick told him no. However, a week later he was on a steroid called “D-Bol” (Page 162). Putting steroids into someone’s body has its good and bad effects.
It obviously made Mick break all of his personal records and his max weights skyrocketed. However, all he wanted to do was take the steroids and become bigger. He even stopped hanging out with his friends. Until one day, his best friend Drew invited Mick to go swimming with him and a few girls and Mick surprisingly agreed. Mick left after half an hour though. The girl he had a crush on, Natalie, was there. She was clearly able to see that side effects of the D-Bol attacking Mick’s body, covering his torso with acne and giving him breasts. He saw her staring at his torso many times and got self-conscious and eventually left. Even events like this didn’t stop Mick from wanting to continue to be a monster on the football field. He slowed down with the D-Bol, but still used them to keep his strength going in a positive direction.
Mick eventually started getting other side effects from the steroids. There was times where he fell into a dark hole. He felt as if he was worthless and useless to the world. However, he managed to push through it, but wasn’t as successful in controlling what came next. The “Roid Rage”. He almost beat up one of his old friends in the hallway one day because the kid accidently knocked his book out of Mick’s hand. The worst part was when he acted up in a
game. Mick had tried moving on from D-Bol, but it kept managing to work its way back into his usual lifting routine. That meant the “Roid Rage” and depressions were constantly a threat to attack him. One game, Mick was absolutely demolition the opposing team. Running over anyone that was dumb enough to try and get in front of him. The game was clearly over by halftime, but Coach Carlson left Mick in. After one long run, a sneaky defensive back forced his helmet into Mick’s arm, jarring the ball loose for a fumble. He even managed to jump back on his feet, pick up the ball, and run for the endzone. It was off to the races. Mick versus the small defensive back. With the head start, the back made it to the endzone by three strides, but Mick wasn’t going to let him have any glory. The rage kicked in and Mick was one ticked off freight train. He drilled his shoulder into the celebrating kid’s back after scoring, causing the kid to fly across the field in excruciating pain. Within seconds, Mick regretted it. He was kicked out of the game and benched the next game. During those two weeks of not playing, Mick’s trainer Peter found a much more useful steroid for Mick. It was an injection called XTR. It took about 10 minutes to kick into the body system completely. When it turned on, Mick’s body would go absolutely insane for the next 2-4 hours. Mick took it for the first time before his game back. The next day the newspaper’s main headline was “Johnson is Unstoppable”. He destroyed everyone. While everyone was bending over and exhausted in the fourth quarter was when Mick finally started to feel the slightest bit of soreness. However, Drew was starting to think something was up. Especially since Mick was very touchy when it came to his duffel bag, which concealed his veil and bottles of XTR. Mick knew that if anyone found out about him cheating like that, he would be a disgrace and cheater to the entire world. That wasn’t going to stop him from taking it and being the best running back in the league. He couldn’t let anyone down, especially his dad who was a former NFL running back. After the semi-final game, the team was going out to get food and changing in the locker room after the big win. Drew was looking through Mick’s bag for some athletic wrap for his turf burn. When Mick saw Drew, he instantly freaked out and pushed Drew away to make sure the empty veil and bottle of XTR wasn’t discovered. Drew was instantly curious about what Mick was hiding in there. The championship game was the next week, and it was against Foothill High School, the team that stopped Mick’s winning run at the one yard line. Going into the final quarter, Drew was crushed by one of the bigger lineman on Foothill. The hit was enough to take Drew out of the game, so Coach Carlson put the team on Mick’s back on the final drive while needing a touchdown to win. Mick was still pumping strong going into the last play of the game thanks to the injection he took before the game started. The final buzzer went off as Mick became the superstar of the game by running over the kid that tackled him a yard short the year before and scoring the winning touchdown. The team was ecstatic for the rest of the night, but slowly made their way to the locker room. Mick found his duffle bag in a different place he left it and noticed someone rummaged through it. He went into straight panic mode, and to make things worse, there was no veil or bottle of XTR. He turned around and found Drew standing behind him. Drew told Mick they needed to talk (Page 293). They talked for awhile, and Drew made sure Mick knew how pathetic it was how he was constantly cheating. He told Mick how the year meant absolutely nothing now and just how devastating it was going to be after he told Coach Carlson. Mick finally broke down and knew how big of a failure he was. He knew everything he did was wrong. How he let the power of success get inside his head and destroy him on the inside and out. Mick ended up shooting himself. Mick ended up surviving after the shot to the head. He was taken to the hospital and then to a rehabilitation center for the steroids after recovering. In the rehab center, Mick read a passage of the bible that made him realize something. Mick Johnson was able to finally realize that success isn’t the only thing in the world, it’s just part of life and you’re not always going to become successful. But that’s not a bad thing, that just means a person has to work harder and become better. He also realized that the most important thing in life is something much more than winning a game. It’s to live life the right way. It’s to make memories with the loved ones you have in life because no matter what you do, they will always be there. They will support you and look out for you. They will make sure you make it another day when bad days are around. They make sure you keep going and enjoy life. They make sure you’re living life, the right way.
I’m reading Gym Candy. It is a book about football. This book is about a young boy named Mick is and his dad was a pro football running back. Mick would always talk about his dad and brag about how good he was and how he stopped because he blew out his knee. Well the truth came out and his dad wasn’t taking it seriously. Well now Mick is in high school and is on varsity as a starting running back. The team had just got a new coach and is weight training in the off- season. Well Mick is not progressing and is wanting to go to a different gym. Well his dad is sponsoring a gym called Popeye's and can get him a membership. So now mick has been going there and isn’t progressing and his trainer told him about gym candy, and now he is progressing.
The Novel “Gym Candy” is a novel written by Carl Deuker. This Novel Highlights the pressures of being a teenager, and how it can drive you to extreme measures. Mick is different from a lot of teenagers. Ever since he was born he was born with an abnormal amount of pressure to be as good as his father. This novel also shows how growing up isn’t as great as advertised.
For example, on pg. 115, it says, ¨I had to drink a protein shake and take two pills at school during lunch¨. This shows him trying to get fit, even though he already is. Also, on pg. 159, it says ¨When he came back, he sat down next to me, opened a plastic vail, and shook out four white tablets that were about the three times as thick as aspirin…¨This shows him taking pills to get stronger. Yet again, on pg. 169, the author said, ¨......A couple of minutes later, he came back with a small brown bag. Inside was a vial of pills, ¨I told you I'd never leave you hanging, didn´t I? You stop taking the D-bol and you take tease instead. They'll clean you out.¨¨. This shows that Mick would (and does) take even MORE pills to get and stay strong! Someone else might have some other claims about
One of the most striking parts of the novel Sugar, by Bernice L. McFadden is her choice of names, especially that of the main character, Sugar. McFadden chooses a name that was unconventional for the time period and remains unconventional today. Not only is there significance in the name Sugar, but the names Pearl and Mercy also have deeper meanings intentionally chosen by the author to further expand upon their roles as characters within the setting of the novel. Each of these three character’s names represent a persona that can be applied outside of the constraints of the novel.
something to his body and he did enhance his body using steroids, the most controversial drug in
Kuhn, C., Swartzwelder, S., and Wilson, W. Pumped: Straight Facts for Athletes about Drugs, Supplements, and Training. 2000. W.W. Norton, New York and London.
Ever since the introduction of steroids to professional sports in the 1970s (Assael), they have greatly undermined the core American beliefs that sports held dear for so long. Values like honesty, hard work, and dedication h...
In our days, most people have set the goal and dream to have the perfect body. They believe by having this image, they will be popular and/or attractive. People want to achieve the body that they desire, like a super star, a hero in a Hollywood movie, a strong soldier, and an Olympic athlete. However, what are the extent people will go to get the perfect body? The biggest problem for those who dream to have a beautiful body today, as many people know, is the consumption of steroids. It is amazing what people and athletes will do to enhance their performance, strength and muscle size by taking steroids. Whether right or wrong people who use steroids to become the fastest and strongest will prevail, so who would turn down a substance that could turn them into a super athlete and a muscle man? The purpose of this essay is to inform the reader on the popular anabolic steroids that most people use and the positive and negative side effects of steroid use on its users and finally my personal point of view.
Before the company started their drug testing policies the death of wrestlers were increasing. Wresters would admit to using drugs during the time they were working for World Wrestling Entertainment. Levy stated, He used steroids and more than 200 pain pills daily before he kicked the habit a few years ago”(Behind Fun Façade…). This was the way to help wrestlers from feeling the pain but to also keep ...
You’ve all seen them, the enormously large muscle-heads at the gym, the participates of the World’s Strongest Man Competition, the amazing offensive tackles, and the lightning fast runners. They were all unnaturally strong, and looked like gods. You tend to obsess over how beautiful their bodies are, how strong they are, or how fast they can run. All you can think about is reaching that level of athletic excellence, and nothing will hold you back. At times like these some people tend to take the quick fit to get closer to their idols, in the form of steroids. But what individuals tend not see is the horrible side effects that accompany the use of these anabolic steroids. These powerful drugs have both positive and negative results from their use. Along with increased strength and size, users of steroids suffer from a wide range of sicknesses such as cancer, shrinkage of testicles, bad acne, hair loss, damage organs, intense mood swings, and impotence.
My issue over the concern of athletes have been struggling with the usage of steroids has widely spread among athletes and others; not only do steroids give an athlete a hard times but it’s also an unfair advantage to the other athletes and what they’ve accomplish. “Besides making muscles bigger, anabolic steroids may help athletes recover from a hard workout more quickly by reducing the amount of muscle damage during the session” (“Steroids in Sports”,2005). Now a days steroids are everywhere as an athlete. Many males and female young athletes preferably take it because they want to look and feel good when it comes to impressing someone and trying to become someone they look forward too. Young teens and adults try to cheat themselves in the career of their dreams. When it comes to a sport, teen athletes are not aware of what type of consequences may happen to them at the time. It may come to the time where it’s too late to take care of. In other cases, some athletes may like feeling the aggressive they get when they take drugs such as steroids. Athletes shouldn’t take steroids as the harmful health effects of the anabolic steroid in population wise. Many people have had their lives ruined by the use of illegal steroids and yet the desired effects are overwhelming that people tend to forget about the results and consequences that may effect. Athletes on steroids believe taking steroids will enhance their performance, strength, and size without having to put necessary work. These benefits, however, are associated with much short-term and long term risk.
It is amazing what athletes will do to achieve higher levels of performance and to sometimes get the extra edge on the competition. Most of the time people do not realize the long-term effects that result from the decisions they make early in life. This resembles the use of steroids in a person’s life.
Meta: Candy is the theme of the moment within the world of slots, with Mobilots jumping on the trend with its latest release. Promising to deliver a taste worth savouring, is this game as sugary sweet as it proclaims?
I will be searching about the Security Risks of Mobile Phones, Expanding on them, how they affect us and what we can do to prevent them. “About 75 percent of the world has Mobile Phones”. I will be searching how it affects their everyday life. I will also talk about different Mobile Phones and what kind of risks they contain. It is a Vast and broad topic which requires a lot of Research. I will be searching different sites to make sure that I have
For many, many years, doping has been an integral part of athletic society. Research believes that doping derives roots back in ancient Greek and Roman culture, 776 B.C (Baron)! Granted PEDs back in the day were god-awful mixtures of herbs, drugs, and alcohol, the drugs athletes are taking now are just as bad. Margaret Goodman, a neurologist and the president of the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association (VADA), explains the different side-effects of steroids. As a ringside physician of boxing matches, she’s listened to the boxers talk about performance-enhancing drugs. Fighters using dope described the horrible consequences: heart, kidney, liver, bone, brain and psychiatric ailment (Goodman).