The Ugly Truth About Steroids
November 29, 2010 by Jamin Thompson
Filed under Muscle Building, Recent Posts
Guest blog by Kelechi Opara
I told a couple of friends I wanted to get this off my chest . Although I tend to be verbose at times, I will try to use a conservative approach with the economy of my words to make this short. Next to questions about fat loss and muscle gains, I often get questions about STEROIDS.
The questions are either posed with the assumption that I am on steroids to which I correct them or asked if they can achieve the same results I have or close to it without steroids to which I say YES. This doesn’t bother me as I have learned over the years to take it as a complement.
However, Two points I feel I must make clear.
1) I have never used steroids so when I say I’m natural, I’m 100 percent natural . I didn’t use at one time then stop.
2) What this post is about: While I have respect for everybody (including people who use), Its disconcerting that people don’t know the HUGE advantage these people have over us natural athletes. The most irritating aspect for me is when supposedly “natural”(read enhanced) athletes compete in shows that are supposed to be for real natural athletes.
I often hear people say “well even if they do use, you have to respect the fact that they worked for it (muscle gain). This implies that these enhance athletes wouldn’t be able to gain muscle while on steroids without exercise. This is NOT TRUE. The truth of the matter is when people are on it, they can be entirely sedentary (meaning sitting on a couch eating doritos) AND STILL GAIN MUSCLE MASS.
This HUGE advantage can not be overstated enough. In a well controlled study titled THE EFFECTS OF SUPRAPHYSIOLOGIC DOSES OF TESTOSTERONEON MUSCLE SIZE AND STRENGTH IN NORMAL MEN .
Now when I say well controlled this means they ensured confounders that might skew the results were tightly controlled. These included making sure the participants had the same amount of calories, performed the same exercises and fell into the same age group for instance.
The researchers used 4 groups:
Group 1) Placebo and NO exercise Group
Group 2) Placebo with exercise
Group 3) testosterone (steroids) with NO exercise
Group 4) Testosterone (steroids) With exercise
The Results as stated verbatim by the researchers themselves. I took the liberty of bolding the salient points
Body Weight and Composition
Body weight did not change significantly in the men in either placebo group . The men given testosterone without exercise had a significant mean increase in total body weight, and those in the testosterone-plus-exercise group had an average increase of 6.1 kg in body weight — a greater increase than in the other three groups.
Fat-free mass did not change significantly in the group assigned to placebo but no exercise (Table 4and Fig. 1). The men treated with testosterone but no exercise had an increase of 3.2 kg in fat-free mass,and those in the placebo-plus-exercise group had an increase of 1.9 kg. The increase in the testosterone plus-exercise group was substantially greater (averaging6.1 kg). The percentage of body fat did not change significantly in any group.
Muscle Strength
Muscle strength in the bench-press and the squatting exercises did not change significantly over the10-week period in the group assigned to placebo with no exercise. The men in the testosterone-alone and placebo-plus-exercise groups had significant increases in the one-repetition maximal weights lifted in the squatting exercises, averaging 19 percent and21 percent, respectively.
Similarly,mean bench-press strength increased in these two groups by 10 percent and 11 percent, respectively.In the testosterone-plus-exercise group, the increase in muscle strength in the squatting exercise(38 percent) was greater than that in any other group, as was the increase in bench-press strength(22 percent).
In case you missed the significant aspect of this study that I highlighted by putting the text in bold. This study indicates that you DON’T even have to step foot in the gym if you are juicing to induce muscle hyperthrophy. A huge advantage that can’t be overstated enough this advantage goes up almost exponentially when coupled with exercise as you can see from the study.
To be frank, the excuse that some if not most people have for these “enhanced” athletes –> that they still have to bust their butt as much as natural athletes does NOT hold water. To expound on this last point, its not that these enhanced athletes don’t work hard. Rather, they don’t have to work as hard as natural athletes.
From a different perspective, you may start seeing why some fitness models/athletes consider it a disservice to them when accused of taking anabolic/androgenic steroids .
From The Perspective Of Dieting
At this point some may say “well what does that have to do with dieting down, they don’t have advantage when it comes to dieting down” . Actually they do…as I have stated on two occasions on my Facebook status updates. The body undergoes a host of processes when you diet down to single digit bodyfat levels.
Testosterone , thyroid (speed of metabolism), I-gf1, GH (proliferation of satelite cells, muscle cells, lipolysis aka fat breakdown etc) and sympathetic nervous system (decreased caloric burning) output all bottom out when dieting to single digit bodyfat. Most of this adaptation that occurs during dieting is an evolutionary response developed a long time ago to fight starvation. For the natural athlete, this means a herculean effort to prevent muscle loss while shedding fat.
However all of this process is reversed when an athlete uses anabolic steroids and some of the other drugs that’s taken with it i.e. GH, clenbuterol, insulin etc…. This ensures maximum muscle retention while fat is being incinerated. You can certainly see why natural competitors are less than pleased to say the least when they person standing next to them on stage is enhanced.
In case some reading this note are tempted to cross over to the other side. Ask yourself this : what’s more important your health or pure aesthetics? You always have to look at the bigger picture is it worth the adverse effect to your kidneys, prostate or cardiovascular system? No.
A BETTER ALTERNATIVE
A better albeit natural alternative in my book is creatine. Most people associate it with its boost in strength via ATP not to forget water retention (this latter part may be due to manufacturing process). However what some people may not realize is that creatine have the ability to cause pronounced muscle hypertrophy and a faster recovery from atrophy (think muscle soreness also) due to resistance training.
The mechanism behind this anabolic effect of creatine have been said to be satellite cell proliferation–this is responsible for minimizing muscle soreness by repairing micro tears in muscle fibers quickly, myogenic transcription factors and insulin-like growth factor-1 signalling –this helps with muscle hypertrophy. I-GF1 causes growth on almost every cell in the body especially the skeletal muscle muscle. An additional effect of creatine supplementation, mostly when combined with training, is enhanced muscle glycogen storage through glucose transporter (GLUT4) expression.
This by no means puts people who uses creatine on the same level of playing field as those who uses anabolic steroids. Besides anabolic steroids being exponentially on a different level in terms of it effects. Unlike anabolic steroids, you actually HAVE TO WORKOUT to gain the benefits of creatine even then you are no where close to the people who use anabolic steroids.
At this point some may be shocked, perhaps your favorite bodybuilder who you know juices might be tumbling down your pedestal? The point of this note is not to demonize anyone. It is simply to shed some light on a subject people seem to be clueless about when they compare the efforts of natural athletes to their counterparts.
In other words to show the overwhelming advantage that can not be overstated. Another point to drive home is although some of us natural athletes may take accusation of using anabolics as a compliment. It can also be a disservice to the EFFORT–>the hours spent accumulating knowledge to circumvent our limitations, hours spent in the gym/track/trail and discipline to adhere to a well thought out program to hone our bodies that the people who chosen to use anabolic aids don’t have to go through as much.
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