Sweden: Man arrested for having big muscles

Tomislav Boduljak’s big interest is weight training and living a sporty wholesome lifestyle. He’s 6 feet 5 inches tall and weighs 275 lbs. Late one night in Stockholm he got into a conversation with a female assistant police officer. The original article from Metro is referenced in English by The Local:

According to Boduljak, 27, the police officer was pleasant at first, but changed her attitude when he said he worked out. Saying his muscles were ‘abnormal’, she said he must have used drugs.

“I asked if she didn’t think it possible that I work out a lot and eat well. She said that if someone looks like me, she assumes they have taken drugs,” he told Metro.

Despite Boduljak’s assurances that he didn’t use steroids, she forced him to go to the police station and give a urine test. In her report, the officer said he had “unusually large muscles, particularly large arm muscles, which are a sign of steroid use.”

The doping test was (of course) negative. And the translation of the police report above is probably a misquote. The Swedish article says that the muscle group the police officer reacted to was Tomislav’s large trapezius…

What is likely to have happened is that the assistant police officer has gone trough a lesson in “how to identify AAS-doped individuals based upon muscular appearance”. Eager to test the (newly?) gotten knowledge theory met harsh reality. The individual tested negative for doping. With more experience the officer wouldn’t have suspected Mr. Boduljak of doping based upon his appearance…

But the theory behind looking specifically at the trapezius muscle is sound. For more read Anders Erikssons dissertation from Umeå University (PDF): Strength Training and Anabolic Steroids: A comparative study of the vastus lateralis, a thigh muscle and the trapezius, a shoulder muscle, of strength-trained athletes:

Strength training is widely used to increase performance in sports with high physical demands. The use of drugs such as anabolic steroids among athletes is a well known phenomenon, and the effects of these drugs on physical performance documented.

The studies presented in this thesis focused on the mechanisms of muscle fiber hypertrophy in the vastus lateralis and the trapezius muscles of strength trained elite athletes. The main hypothesis was that the muscle adaptations to strength training and anabolic steroids are muscle specific.

The hypothesis was proven by the research, muscle groups reacts differently to anabolic androgenic steroids, and trapezius grows more than most muscle groups. From the conclusion:

The adaptation processes differ between muscles, supporting the concept in the Umeå muscle research group that each muscle is unique.

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