Luke A. Turnock

Bio: Luke A. Turnock is an academic researcher from University of Lincoln. The author has contributed to research in topics: Psychological intervention & Masculinity. The author has an hindex of 2, co-authored 4 publications receiving 8 citations.

Polydrug use and drug market intersections within powerlifting cultures in remote South-West England

Abstract: With the rising use of Image and Performance Enhancing Drugs (IPEDs), research has increasingly pointed to a need for in-depth understanding of users' consumption behaviours, in order to form effective harm reduction policy. With polydrug use prevalent in IPED-using cultures, both among ‘hardcore’ and non-competitive trainers, it is clear there is a need to understand this use, and its socio-cultural contexts, as well as how drug access and supply occurs within these cultures. This paper offers an exploration of the motivations and contexts of hardcore powerlifters' polydrug use, as well as their experiences of IPED and other illicit drug market intersections, through findings drawn from 18 qualitative interviews with participants involved in these lifting cultures and gyms in South-West England, supported by ethnographic fieldwork conducted in nine gyms in the region over a four year period, including five ‘hardcore’ powerlifting and bodybuilding gyms, as well as four commercial gym establishments. Results first demonstrate how cultural narratives around what is drug ‘use’ versus ‘abuse’ influenced powerlifters' consumption and perceptions of polydrugs, with a number of illicit drugs and other medicines used by these sportsmen, despite cultural opposition to other drug consumption considered to be harmful, and associated by powerlifters with ‘gym rats’, or YOLO type trainers. This leads into exploration of where powerlifters' polydrug consumption behaviours present the greatest risk, particularly in relation to the acceptance of benzodiazepine use as a form of ‘steroid accessory drug’ for long periods, as well as the common sharing and use of opioid painkillers to allow continued training through injury, and discussion of where harm reduction policy might therefore be most appropriately targeted for this population. Findings then turn to an exploration of how polydrug supply occurs within powerlifting culture and gyms, and the intersections between IPED markets and other illicit drug markets perceived to exist in the region. This documents the prevalence of social supply norms of polydrugs following patterns observed for IPEDs in the existing literature, before discussing the extent to which individuals with links to criminal organisations may be ‘pushing out’ culturally-embedded IPED suppliers in the region, and the impacts this is having on risk for IPED buyers. This is followed by further discussion of relevance to policy, and avenues for future research into polydrug use and supply from a harm reduction perspective, as well as the limitations of this study as specific to a remote region of the UK.

Exploring user narratives of self-medicated black market IPED use for therapeutic & wellbeing purposes

Abstract: With the rising use of IPEDs, it is important to understand how user motivations and practices influence harms, in order to formulate effective harm reduction policy. Existing work has consequently developed user typologies to address this need for specific interventions for differing users. Within this, the ‘wellbeing’ user type is one of the most prominent, however this broad category encompasses a range of users with distinct motivations and needs. This paper consequently explores the subcategory of therapeutically-motivated IPED users, whose IPED use is targeted at repair, rehabilitation, and self-medicating for health conditions, and considers the specific needs of this user category. Findings are drawn from a connective ethnography of gyms in South-West England, and digital fitness platforms, to analyze the motivations of therapeutically-oriented users, and how their behaviors and experiences are important to formulating interventions and broader policy discussions. Motivations explored include: (1) repair and injury rehabilitation, including those who access IPEDs for repair relating to sporting or competitive endeavors, as well as those whose IPED use is self-medicating for chronic health conditions. (2) General ‘wellbeing’ motivations for which participants self-medicated with IPEDs, including: health-oriented fat loss, rehabilitation for sleep, irritable bowel syndrome, and offsetting the negative health effects of hard sporting training. And (3) self-medicated testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) to offset negative symptoms ascribed to ‘low testosterone’, in both older gym participants whose natural levels were declining and who were looking to offset this, as well as men who experienced mental health difficulties such as depression, and sought to restore wellbeing through use of black market testosterone. This article demonstrates the breadth of therapeutic motivations for IPED use, and points to the ways in which the specific needs of this user category may be distinct from broader ‘wellbeing’ users. Significantly, participant narratives regarding the medical community's perceived unwillingness to treat them, and their feelings that this pushed them to access illicit IPEDs, indicate the importance of understanding the specific needs in relation to harm reduction policy formation.Keywords: IPED; HED; TRT; self-medication; wellness enhancement

‘There's a difference between tolerance and acceptance’: Exploring women's experiences of barriers to access in UK gyms

Abstract: Weight-bearing and moderate intensity exercise are increasingly recognised as important to wellbeing, yet women have been shown to participate in these activities at lower rates than men. With gym training a primary means of engaging in these health-promoting activities, one way in which disparities in exercise participation may be addressed is through understanding of women's experiences accessing gym spaces, and barriers to participation experienced in these environments. Drawing on 18 in-depth qualitative interviews with female gym staff and gym users, and ethnographic fieldwork conducted in four commercial gyms in the South & South-West of England, this article explores the experiential realities of women seeking to access gym training and the barriers they identify to equal access in these spaces. Findings examine four key ways in which gyms environment and the gendering of this space create barriers to women's access: through the sharp gender segregation of weights areas and emotional barriers crossing into this ‘male space’ creates; through insufficient equipment provision for women's needs and how this raises costs to women's participation; issues with the performance of masculinities in gym space and associated intimidation and harassment in increasingly (hetero)sexualised gym space; and how gym structures create the impression one is always ‘on show’, and subject to scrutiny. This research offers insights into the experiential realities of women regarding how these barriers are felt and perceived, and in doing so offers understanding which can help direct gym policies toward more equitable outcomes, contributing to this important area for health and social research.

Postmodern Subjects, Postmodern BodiesThinking Fragments: Psychoanalysis, Feminism, and Postmodernism in the Contemporary WestYearning: Race, Gender, and Cultural PoliticsGender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity

Abstract: Preface (1999) Preface (1990) 1. Subjects of Sex/Gender/Desire I. 'Women' as the Subject of Feminism II. The Compulsory Order of Sex/Gender/Desire III. Gender: The Circular Ruins of Contemporary Debate IV. Theorizing the Binary, the Unitary and Beyond V. Identity, Sex and the Metaphysics of Substance VI. Language, Power and the Strategies of Displacement 2. Prohibition, Psychoanalysis, and the Production of the Heterosexual Matrix I. Structuralism's Critical Exchange II. Lacan, Riviere, and the Strategies of Masquerade III. Freud and the Melancholia of Gender IV. Gender Complexity and the Limits of Identification V. Reformulating Prohibition as Power 3. Subversive Bodily Acts I. The Body Politics of Julia Kristeva II. Foucault, Herculine, and the Politics of Sexual Discontinuity III. Monique Wittig - Bodily Disintegration and Fictive Sex IV. Bodily Inscriptions, Performative Subversions Conclusion - From Parody to Politics

The Symbiotic Evolution of Anti-Doping and Supply Chains of Doping Substances: How Criminal Networks May Benefit from Anti-Doping Policy

Abstract: Doping in sport has been explored predominantly from a user-perspective, widely neglecting an analysis of the supply-side of the market for doping products. In this article, we aim to fill a gap in the existing literature by demonstrating that the supply chains of doping substances have evolved over the course of the past two decades, not least due to the zero tolerance approach of anti-doping policy. Specifically, adopting the case studies of (elite) cycling and recreational weight-training (RWT) and bodybuilding (BB), we outline how the supply chains for performance and image enhancing drugs (PIEDs) have shifted away from “culturally embedded dealers” and into new organizational structures independent from these sub-cultures. We maintain that the evolution of doping supply mirrors the evolution of doping use; whereas doping was previously the result of a socialization process, and PIED suppliers were a cultural product, consumption is now often a secretive practice and “social suppliers” are no longer prepared to take risks in (openly) supplying doping products. Consequently, the increasingly clandestine nature of doping practices has led consumers to increasingly consider the “black market” as a potential source for PIEDs. Most importantly, this shift in doping supply chains has led to greater inequality among athletes, increased health risks and the rise of suppliers devoid of sociocultural characteristics. We suggest that as the current anti-doping regime, focused predominantly on punishment and control, continues unabated these unintended negative consequences are likely to increase. As several countries have begun to rethink their position on the criminalization of drugs and drug users, it is time to rethink our approach to curbing the problem of doping in sports.

Anabolics coaching: Emic harm reduction or a public health concern?

Abstract: This article investigates the phenomena of ‘anabolics coaching’, which describes the practice of providing support and guidance on the appropriate and effective use of image and performance enhancing drugs (IPEDs), either as part of a more general PT relationship or as a stand-alone service. Building upon van de Ven and Mulrooney's (2017) notion of the ‘steroid mentor’, we utilise digital and offline ethnographic data as well as interviews with several anabolics coaches and their clients to shed light upon this practice and interrogate the nexus of harm-reduction, IPED normalisation, and the health and fitness industry. The article first examines the anabolics coaching market, before addressing coach and client motivation, as well as the troubling crossover between coaching and supply of IPEDs. It concludes by posing the question of whether anabolics coaching represents an ‘emic’ form of harm reduction, or whether it undermines and contradicts the public health efforts to promote safe consumption practices, where we ultimately argue that, although not unproblematic, anabolics coaching has the potential to bolster safer consuming practices and reduce IPED-related harm.

Exploring user narratives of self-medicated black market IPED use for therapeutic & wellbeing purposes

Abstract: With the rising use of IPEDs, it is important to understand how user motivations and practices influence harms, in order to formulate effective harm reduction policy. Existing work has consequently developed user typologies to address this need for specific interventions for differing users. Within this, the ‘wellbeing’ user type is one of the most prominent, however this broad category encompasses a range of users with distinct motivations and needs. This paper consequently explores the subcategory of therapeutically-motivated IPED users, whose IPED use is targeted at repair, rehabilitation, and self-medicating for health conditions, and considers the specific needs of this user category. Findings are drawn from a connective ethnography of gyms in South-West England, and digital fitness platforms, to analyze the motivations of therapeutically-oriented users, and how their behaviors and experiences are important to formulating interventions and broader policy discussions. Motivations explored include: (1) repair and injury rehabilitation, including those who access IPEDs for repair relating to sporting or competitive endeavors, as well as those whose IPED use is self-medicating for chronic health conditions. (2) General ‘wellbeing’ motivations for which participants self-medicated with IPEDs, including: health-oriented fat loss, rehabilitation for sleep, irritable bowel syndrome, and offsetting the negative health effects of hard sporting training. And (3) self-medicated testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) to offset negative symptoms ascribed to ‘low testosterone’, in both older gym participants whose natural levels were declining and who were looking to offset this, as well as men who experienced mental health difficulties such as depression, and sought to restore wellbeing through use of black market testosterone. This article demonstrates the breadth of therapeutic motivations for IPED use, and points to the ways in which the specific needs of this user category may be distinct from broader ‘wellbeing’ users. Significantly, participant narratives regarding the medical community's perceived unwillingness to treat them, and their feelings that this pushed them to access illicit IPEDs, indicate the importance of understanding the specific needs in relation to harm reduction policy formation.Keywords: IPED; HED; TRT; self-medication; wellness enhancement