- Performance enhancing drugs: Any drug that is taken to improve athletic performance
- Ergogenic aids: Substances that provide athletic advantage
- Over the Counter Drug: A therapeutic agent that does not require a prescription, which the FDA feels can be safely self-prescribed by non-physicians
- Anabolic steroids: Substances used to increase muscle mass
- Roid rage: Uncontrollable violence associated with the use of steroids
- Stacking: Ingesting or injecting several steroids at once
- Cycling: A pattern of use in which steroids are taken for periods of weeks or months, after which use is stopped for a period of time and then restarted
- Bulking: Adding muscle mass through taking steroids
- Pituitary Gland: A small oval endocrine gland attached to the base of the vertebrate brain and consisting of an anterior and a posterior lobe, the secretions of which control the other endocrine glands and influence growth, metabolism, and maturation
- Human Growth Hormone: the naturally occurring growth hormone of humans or a recombinant version that is used to treat children with growth hormone deficiencies and has been used especially by athletes to increase muscle mass—abbreviation HGH
- Mega-dosing: Taking massive amounts of steroids
- Tapering: Slowly decreasing steroids intake
- Cycling: Taking multiple doses of steroids over a specified period of time, stopping for a time and starting again
- Plateauing: When a drug becomes ineffective at a certain level
- Blood Doping: an illegal method of temporarily improving an athlete's performance in a race of competition by increasing the number of red blood cells in the body