Earlier this month, bodybuilding fans from across the nation flocked to the Arnold Classic, the sport's showcase competition and trade show event held in Columbus, Ohio. As always, they packed the aisles of the Arnold EXPO, enduring long waits for featured attractions.

This year, however, they weren't queuing up for a $20 personalized photo with Lou Ferrigno, or even hoping for a handshake from the legendary bodybuilding icon and Governator himself, Arnold Schwarzenegger. Instead, they were waiting patiently for a much greater prize: a free, signed copy of the runaway best-selling guide to performance-enhancing drugs, supplements, and training methods called Extreme Muscle Enhancement, and a few words of invaluable in-person advice from its author, famed bodybuilding guru Dr. Carlon Colker.

In recent months, as high-profile athletes linked to steroids and growth hormone come under increasing scrutiny from Congress and the media, a fascinating counter-phenomenon has been taking hold at the grassroots level. Amateur athletes are seeking accurate, unbiased information on how these performance enhancers work. Who's taking what and how? What are the advantages and disadvantages? What are the long-range effects? To answer these questions, athletes are turning to a definitive resource born out of one respected doctor's lifetime spent in gyms with the bodybuilding elite. That man is Carlon Colker and his breakout book is Extreme Muscle Enhancement.

"You can't blame athletes for not trusting the media," Dr. Colker says. "They know the difference between real science reporting and rubber-stamped denunciations. At the same time, they know that there are valid concerns about performance-enhancing drugs and compounds that need to be addressed in an unbiased manner. In Extreme Muscle Enhancement, I try to pass on what I've seen and experienced in decades of consulting with top athletes. And that means everything from taking drugs to how to eat, how to train, and how to excel on a competition stage."

Steroids and growth hormone injections have been around for decades. As a result, an enormous amount of anecdotal information has piled up about them. Readers of Extreme Muscle Enhancement are finding invaluable, in-depth descriptions of all the major steroids the pros are using, their effects, their pros and their cons, all supported with truly fascinating case histories of those who used them, for better or worse.

While interest in steroids has been a constant over the years, Dr. Colker has seen a huge recent upswing in queries about human growth hormone. Instead of making blanket condemnations, Colker offers highly specific information about what athletes can expect upon undertaking a regimen of GH injections. Where else, for instance could you get an accurate description of a side effect of GH injections commonly called "GH belly"? Or a clear-eyed, informative discussion of the clinical study link between GH injections and carpal tunnel syndrome? This is the information that athletes crave, and they're finding it in Colker's Extreme Muscle Enhancement.

Asked to sum up in a few words the advisability of taking up GH injections, Dr. Colker is typically forthright. "The truth is, the benefits of GH injections are not long-lasting. In order to gain any real strength or size advantage, you'd have to take the shots daily over a lifetime. That's more than anybody is really willing to do.

"A better course of action would be to naturally stimulate your body's own production of GH. There are several interesting products available that potentiate GH secretion by utilizing naturally occurring precursors. Just walking around the floor at the Arnold, I saw one such product, a Prosource supplement called DopaTech-HGH, that has shown real results in this area. It's been getting great word-of-mouth from athletes I've talked to."

Finally, on a lighter note, what's Colker's take on his surprising newfound celebrity?

"I'm just happy to be in a position where I can help athletes," the highly sought-after consultant says. "There's so much wrong-headed, unfounded information flying around. Every time I can steer an amateur athlete off a path that leads to wasted effort, wasted money, and possible health endangerment, and guide that athlete back onto the road to safe, healthy strength and performance enhancements, I feel like I've done a good deed. I have a very fulfilling line of work."