Isometrics or Steroids? Exploring New Frontiers of Strength in the Early 1960s, from the Journal of Sport History Vol. 20, No. I (Spring 1993), looks at the early haphazard experiments by Dr. Ziegler with weightlifters, combining new isometric training routines, hypnosis, and little pink pills. The article’s conclusion is startling:
It was only in the latter stages of their experiment, by the most haphazard course of trial and error, that steroids were reluctantly identified as an influential agent in the enhancement of strength.