How do anabolic steroids work? And what are steroids used for? Are important questions that any bodybuilder itching to use anabolic-androgenic steroids to enhance their physique needs to answer?
But apart from broadening your knowledge base on how anabolic steroid drugs work and what they are used for, it is also equally vital for you to know the health risks involved in whatever anabolic steroid you intend to use.
While performance-enhancing drugs will improve both your physique and your overall athletic performance, the use of any anabolic-androgenic steroid (AAS), like any other pharmaceutical drug, carries some element of risk.
When it comes to the health implications of steroid use, many considerations have to be made. First of all, the purity of the anabolic steroid you buy and use matters a lot. Using steroids that have impurities or adulterated can increase your exposure to several serious health risks.
Secondly, specific demographics (like your age and gender) play a significant role in determining your susceptibility to steroids side effects. Thirdly, where you have an underlying health problem, such as a kidney or liver problem, you may further exacerbate your medical condition with steroid use.
The type of steroid you intend to use can also contribute to increasing your health risk. Hepatotoxic steroid pills, for example, can be potentially harmful to your liver. Also, the steroid cycle you run and the dosage administered during the cycle can be detrimental to your health. Misusing or abusing steroids may not only lead to substance dependency but may ultimately lead to serious health concerns.
Anabolic Steroids for Cutting and Bulking
Many anabolic steroid medicines and performance-enhancing drugs come highly recommended for either cutting or bulking bodybuilding programs. For running a cutting training program, there are reliable and commonly used steroids for shedding weight. Three of these AAS include:
- Oxandrolone/Anavar (Var): Anavar is an oral anabolic steroid that can help you shed excess body weight quickly. Anavar will speed up your metabolic rate, burn visceral fat primarily in your abdominal area, and promote fat repartitioning into lean, dry skeletal muscle mass.
Anavar has high bioavailability, and this AAS is well tolerated by both male and female users. In addition to this, Oxandrolone will provide you with increased energy levels with only mild side effects to worry about. But despite the performance-enhancing benefits of Anavar, this Steroid Medicine is hepatotoxic.
However, if Anavar is appropriately used, you would be able to prevent liver-related health problems. A typical Anavar cutting cycle can consist of between 15 mg and 20 mg taken per day and over 6 weeks.
- Stanozolol/Winstrol (Winny): Stanozolol is an orally taken anabolic steroid that is also useful for burning excess visceral fat and achieving dry, vascular, and lean muscles at the same time. Winstrol is a popular trade name for this steroid, and just like Anavar, Winstrol is tolerable and has a high bioavailability. But consideration has to be made for protecting your liver health.
With liver supplements or the use of a liver protective drug, such as; TUDCA and SamaGen (Samarin140), you would be able to safeguard your liver from drug-induced damage. Using between 10 mg and 80 mg of Winstrol daily for 6 weeks is an ideal Winstrol cycle to implement.
- Metandienone/Dianabol (D-bol): While testosterone is one of many natural steroids in the body, it helps build muscle mass. Metandienone, otherwise known by the trade name of Dianabol, is an orally administered exogenous steroid that can also increase the extent of protein synthesis in your muscles which leads to leaner and bulkier muscles.
Dianabol or D-bol will also increase your bone mass. Still, it is advisable to use liver protection supplements with this hepatotoxic steroid, and post-cycle therapy (PCT) is necessary to stabilize your hormone levels. Anti-androgen and anti-estrogen medications like Clomid, Arimidex, Nolvadex, and Proviron can help to provide a balance to your hormonal level at the end of a cycle.
Using between 15 mg and 25 mg of D-bol daily for a 2-week cycle is considered ideal for beginners because of the steroid’s high hepatotoxicity.
- Nandrolone/Deca-Durabolin (Deca): Bodybuilding newbies also use Nandrolone to bulk up their muscle mass. This is an injectable steroid that will repartition fat to muscle mass, boost your red blood cell count, increase your energy level and give you more stamina in the process.
However, Deca can expose male users to feminization health implications. Gynecomastia is common with Deca male users, mostly if the steroid is used over an extended period.
With female users, masculinization is characterized by health concerns, such as; male pattern baldness, increased hair growth on the body and face area, acne, enlarged clitoris, etc. PCT is necessary for balancing your hormones after a Deca cycle.
Anti-estrogen and anti-androgen drugs will reduce the level of estrogen and androgenic hormones in your bloodstream and prevent feminization and masculinization, respectively. A 7 week Deca cycle with a 200 mg weekly dosage is best suited for newbies.
- Testosterone enanthate (Test): Test is the synthetic version of testosterone, one of the natural steroids in the body. The Test helps enhance bone density, increase muscle mass by promoting protein synthesis in muscle tissue, and increase aggression levels.
However, this injectable anabolic steroid is known to cause roid rage in long-term users. Testosterone enanthate will aromatize in the body, and so anti-estrogen post-cycle drugs are needed to regulate your hormonal levels. Typically, a 200 mg to 350 mg per week dose of Test taken over 7 weeks is the best Testosterone enanthate cycle for newbies.
What is Human Growth Hormone (HGH)?
The human growth hormone (HGH) is one of several natural steroids in the body. HGH is responsible for promoting cellular growth and regrowth. This hormone also boosts free fatty acids and glucose in the body while also stimulating IGF-1 production.
HGH will naturally provide you with quick bursts of energy needed in intense workout sessions as your glucose levels increase. However, a synthesized version of HGH has been available for quite a while. The Growth Hormone (GH) is a synthesized single-chain polypeptide, 191-amino acid stored up in the pituitary gland where somatotropic cells subsequently secrete the hormone.
GH is an injectable synthesized hormone that will increase your muscle mass while stimulating glucose concentration in your body and providing you with a tremendous amount of energy during your training routine.
Some of the dangers of injecting HGH for bodybuilding and performance-enhancement include;
– Skin reaction around the site of the injection. This skin reaction is characterized by inflammation, redness, skin irritation, and itching.
– Joint swelling and pain,
– Carpal tunnel syndrome,
– Diabetes,
– Hodgkin’s lymphoma,
– Colon cancer, and
– Prostate cancer.
What is Creatine?
Creatine is a natural non-protein compound found in the human body. It promotes adenosine triphosphate or ATP recycling by merging with one phosphoryl group and producing phosphocreatine in the process.
It is this phosphocreatine that is then used in recycling adenosine triphosphate or ATP. The recycling of ATP by creatine occurs when adenosine diphosphate or ADP is transformed back to adenosine triphosphate.
ATP is the energy concentration found in cells, specifically those in both brain and skeletal muscle tissue. However, the lean muscle tissue is believed to store up about 95 percent of all phosphocreatine and creatine compounds. The testes, blood, brain, and several other tissues store up the remaining phosphocreatine and creatine compounds.
Creatine is now being used as a performance-enhancing exogenous supplement. As an Anabolic steroid drug, this compound provides bodybuilders with short bursts of strength, energy, and stamina.
With improved energy levels, bodybuilders will engage in highly intense workout sessions while running their training program. Using creatine with medications that are primarily metabolized by the kidneys may cause significant damage to the kidneys.
Conclusion
Without a doubt, anabolic steroid use can improve the appearance, physique, and athletic performance of athletes. Anabolic and natural steroids will increase skeletal muscle and bone mass, boost power, energy, stamina, and strength while also encouraging weight gain or weight loss.
But with all the fantastic bodybuilding benefits you can gain from using anabolic steroids, there are also dangers and risks involved with their use. Your understanding of these health risks will help you safely use anabolic steroids by keeping to recommended cycles, taking liver supplements, and performing post-cycle therapy after each process.
This way, you can continue using anabolic steroids without worrying too much about the possible health complications that you could be exposed to with each cycle that you run.
Reference Resource:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creatine
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Growth_hormone
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anabolic_steroid
