Zeitschrift für Sportmedizin und Dopingstudien

Skeletal and Cardiac Muscle Ergogenics and Side Effects of Clenbuterol Treatment

Abstract

Aymeric Douillard

Well known, well detected and still used by athletes, clenbuterol is one of the β 2 -agonists which has no authorization for therapeutic use, contrarily to salbutamol, salmeterol and formoterol in the 2012 World Anti-Doping Agency list. However, clenbuterol is still detected in athletes’ antidoping test samples. Its ability to induce muscle hypertrophy but also its strong lipolytic action and the absence of androgenic effects have made it a prized substances by athletes, specially females, without scruples whose performance requires significant muscle strength. Like the effects of clenbuterol on the heart, the effects of clenbuterol on skeletal muscle are dependent on the doses used and duration of the treatment. If there is a consensus concerning the clenbuterol action on the phenotypic conversion from slow to fast type fibers and on the hypertrophy, there is, to our knowledge, no consensus concerning the effects of clenbuterol on the slow type fibers and slow profile muscles. There is also no consensus concerning the clenbuterol effects on performance. We will shortly reviewing the known operating mode, side and benefits effects of short and long term β-agonists, and specially clenbuterol, treatment on mammals