Because steroids are a taboo topic, ordinary fitness enthusiasts rarely have access to them. Therefore, fitness enthusiasts account for a large proportion of drug abuse. And the most common concern is what steroids can bring and what are the side effects.
Are steroids angels or demons? Today, let’s talk about the pros and cons of steroids. This article does not encourage anyone to use steroids! At the same time, you don’t need to demonize steroids. The birth of steroids comes from the medical field to save patients.
The benefits of steroids for fitness
Steroids can undoubtedly make your muscles bigger
Because everyone’s testosterone secretion is basically constant in their natural state. An adult man’s natural testosterone secretion ranges from about 3-12 units per day, which is 21-80 units per week (normal people generally secrete 40-60 units per week). So your testosterone secretion is constant, then there is an upper limit to the muscles your body can bear, and you can’t become particularly large.
After you use steroids, the testosterone content in your body can be ten times or even dozens of times that of your natural secretion, so your body can bear more muscles and you can become bigger.
Steroids can improve the utilization rate of protein
Steroids can increase the body’s ability to assimilate protein, which means that the body can better absorb more protein.
In the natural state, even if you eat a lot of protein, it is difficult for the body to use, digest and absorb these proteins. However, when you use drugs, every gram of protein you eat is useful.
Steroids can increase the ability to recruit nervesSome steroids can improve the body’s muscle nerve regulation ability, that is, the ability to recruit muscles will be stronger. In this way, when you exercise, your target muscles will feel more congested, and the sense of force exerted by the target muscles will be more obvious, and your exercise effect will also be improved.
Steroids can accelerate fat decomposition
Some steroids or drugs can break down your fat and allow fat to directly provide energy. At the same time, the increase in testosterone will also increase the body’s basal metabolism and increase daily calorie consumption.
Many people dream of increasing muscle and reducing fat at the same time, which is possible when using steroids.
Steroids can increase your recovery ability
After using steroids, the body’s anabolic state will be greatly improved, while the catabolism state will be reduced. In this way, when you finish exercising, the recovery interval of your muscles will be greatly shortened. You can recover your muscle fibers faster, and even the recovery after injury will be improved.
Steroids can improve physical fitness
Steroids can improve your strength, endurance, and explosiveness. Therefore, drug abuse in the field of sports is the most serious. The higher the level of competition, the stricter the drug testing, but professional athletes may be involved in more high-tech drugs.
Use bench press as an example. You may have done 60KG in a set before, but in the later stage of a C cycle, your strength will definitely increase. If the strength increases more, it can even increase by more than 50%, that is, you can do a set of 100KG.
For example, the low-carb state in the late stage of preparation or fat loss. Under natural circumstances, due to the lack of glycogen, training will definitely be affected. You will definitely not be able to lift the previous weight and number of sets, but if you use steroids, you may be able to push the original weight.
To sum up the benefits of steroids, it is equivalent to everyone paying for VIP games. It brings you a shortcut, and you enter a fast lane. And allows you to get faster. It may take you two years to achieve what others achieve naturally in ten years, and it can also break through the limits of your natural genes.
A natural fitness group may only be able to train to about 70KG if the body fat is low, which takes a long time.
But with technology, you can train to 90KG, or even more than 100KG.
After explaining some of the benefits of steroids, let’s talk about the side effects of steroids that everyone is most worried about.
Side effects of steroids
Steroids cause hair loss
Now there is a very popular saying on the Internet, becoming bald and becoming stronger.
The root cause of hair loss is hair loss genes. If your family has a hair loss gene, then taking medicine may speed up the time of hair loss and aggravate the degree of hair loss. If there is no hair loss gene in the family, then basically it will not affect it. In other words, if you are destined to lose hair, steroids may make you lose hair earlier.
Acne caused by steroids
This is a very common problem when using steroids. The reason is similar to hair loss. If you don’t get acne during puberty, then you may not have the acne gene. You are unlikely to get acne during the use of steroids. At the same time, acne is also closely related to diet, lifestyle, etc. during the use of drugs. If irregular lifestyle leads to endocrine disorders, then acne may occur even without using steroids.
Steroids will make men’s testicles smaller and sexual ability decrease
This may be the most concerned issue for everyone, so let’s talk about it a little more.
As mentioned earlier, everyone has a secretion of testosterone, about 40-60 units for an adult male. But when external testosterone comes in, the body will feel that it does not need to secrete, and then the body will suppress the secretion of endogenous testosterone.
For example, you used to secrete 50 units of testosterone per week and lived well. At this time, you used testosterone and injected 500 units into the body every week. Your body is very smart. Since you suddenly have so much more testosterone to use every week, it will be lazy and reduce or stop secreting testosterone.
Especially when you stop taking the drug and do not do PCT recovery, your endogenous testosterone will always be suppressed. This is what some people say, the testicles will become smaller and disappear.
If you do not do PCT in each C cycle, the endogenous testosterone will definitely be suppressed, and the sexual ability will definitely be affected in the end. Therefore, external testosterone is used under a safe dosage, 250-500 units of testosterone per week, a cycle of 12-16 weeks, and it can be recovered after PCT. If you insist on continuous injection throughout the year, and do not do PCT, and inject 1000 or 1500 units per week, it will definitely be affected. Velvet promotion may not necessarily restore your endogenous aid, because you are suppressed too hard.
At the same time, a final reminder, I personally think that no matter how well PCT or recovery is done, no matter how accurate your dosage is, it is difficult for testosterone to return to its original state after each cycle. 100 points before use, no matter how well and scientifically you use it, you may only be able to recover to 99.9 points after use.
Steroids put pressure on the liver and cardiovascular system
Some steroids do put pressure on the liver, kidneys, and cardiovascular system. This problem mainly depends on whether the dosage and drug combination method you use are correct.
For example, if you take anti-inflammatory drugs when you are sick, the doctor will also tell you the dosage and usage time. But you must double the dosage and time given by the doctor, otherwise it will be easy for anyone to get into trouble.
So scientific methods and dosages can reduce the pressure as much as possible. At the same time, some supplements can also reduce liver and cardiovascular pressure. Using liver protection tablets and drinking a lot of water, using some fish oil, adjusting regular work and rest, and diet can reduce liver and cardiovascular pressure.
The most important thing is that no matter what cycle you do or what medicine you use, you must have a physical examination before that. Make sure there is no problem with the internal organs of the body. When the cycle is completed and PCT is over, you must also have a physical examination to see if all indicators have returned to normal.
Oral and injectable steroids
Let’s talk about oral administration first. Oral administration is definitely more convenient and more acceptable to the public, just like taking vitamins, you can take it with you at any time. However, oral steroids will put more pressure on the liver, because all oral drugs are basically metabolized by the liver. Of course, there are also some mild oral drugs that have less effect on the liver, but the effect will not be so obvious.
Injections generally take effect more obviously than oral drugs, and of course short chains take effect faster than long chains. But when you are not preparing for competitions, you don’t need short chains for normal training. At this time, long-chain drugs will take effect relatively slowly, and relatively slow drugs will make it easier to retain muscles after stopping the drug. And the cost-effectiveness of injections is higher than that of oral drugs. Of course, the biggest disadvantage of injections is that injections are more troublesome.
How much can be retained after using steroids, and will there be meat loss
After using the drug, it will definitely lose meat, it is impossible not to lose meat. Because testosterone has the strongest strength, endurance, and synthesis ability when taking the drug. When you stop taking the drug, the drug has a half-life, and when the drug is metabolized, it returns to its natural state. At this time, the muscle will definitely lose. Of course, the way to retain the most muscle is that the training intensity should not be reduced too much compared to taking the drug.
Some drugs grow very fast and quickly, and the visual and scale changes in a short period of time are very large. But the characteristics of these drugs are generally water storage, so they lose faster after stopping the drug. Some are more gentle, grow slower, but retain more.
So there is no drug that grows faster, retains more, and has fewer side effects. The use of drugs should be matched. You can’t just use pure mild ones, which will have a poor effect, and you can’t use too strong ones, which will easily cause trouble and lose meat.
Finally, the author’s personal opinion: the world of adults is all multiple-choice questions. If you want to get something, you often have to pay something. You have to weigh the pros and cons yourself.
I don’t encourage everyone to use steroids. At the same time, even if you use steroids, you must not have the idea that you don’t need to practice well after taking the medicine, and you can get good results without worrying about diet and rest.
Diet, training, and rest are always the foundation and the most important things. Don’t make steroids a myth. Whether it’s an angel or a devil depends on your thoughts.