Anabolic steroids can also interact with alcohol and drugs such as marijuana, cocaine, MDMA, Adderall, and opiates. Steroids reduce the pleasurable effects of those substances, which could lead the user to take more than usual and potentially overdose. Withdrawal symptoms are also a risk of illegal anabolic steroid use. They can include mood swings, fatigue, depression, insomnia, low sex drive, and cravings for steroids.
Only take them if prescribed by a doctor, and use them as directed. Last updated October 28, Written by Michael Martin. Disclaimer If you have any medical questions or concerns, please talk to your healthcare provider. What are anabolic steroids? Vitals Anabolic steroids are a man-made version of the hormone testosterone, its precursors, or other related compounds. Some athletes and weightlifters take them to improve athletic performance and increase muscle mass. Some non-athletes take them too, to improve their gains at the gym or just to look better.
The recovery rate would also be faster and you could build heavy-looking muscle mass, all with dangerous complications at the end waiting! The side effects of using anabolic steroids range from minor to severe which are:. Imbalance of hormonal levels. Suppression of testosterone hormone. Gynecomastia where manboobs appear on your chest. Infertility, low sex drive and hair loss in men. Liver and kidney damage.
Fluid retention in the muscles. Mood swings, aggression, and mental health issues. Looking at the side effects of anabolic steroids, in only a few people are convinced by the steroids before and after results. Without negative side effects and have to deal with life-threatening issues, natural bodybuilding via natural steroids giving a chance to bodybuilders to stick with something effective in real.
If you are looking to gain huge muscle mass, find a way to increase natural testosterone production instead of pushing it harder on the muscles. The better version for bodybuilding is natural because unless anything is suspiciously dangerous, you can use it for sure.
Herbal supplements, legal steroids are a few changes in that invite millions of men and women to natural bodybuilding. Steroids have a history of causing Virilization in females which should also be considered.
The harmful effects of steroids come secondary when it comes to the legality status. According to the newest guidelines about steroids, their use for athletic performance or bodybuilding gains is strictly prohibited and its users could be banned from sports. Only medical doctors are capable enough to recommend anabolic steroids to those who are in dire medical need.
Even then, a piece of paper called Prescription is required for you to avail yourself of steroidal compounds from the hospital pharmacy. There is a felony charged on those who are selling or taking steroids illegally, especially black market dealers who are accused of selling the wrong types of steroids to bodybuilders.
In many cases, there have been reports of heart attack and myocardial infarction that occurred shortly after using the banded compounds. The results on your body can be harsh than what we are trying to portray here. We cannot be sure about what bodybuilders did or might be using in the future. The best bodybuilders in the world have one thing in common, all of them in their careers took a little bit of help from steroids.
This sometimes goes unnoticed since they have developed high respect among their followers. Speaking of steroids that Arnold used , Dianabol was the best steroid around that time. Arnold Schwarzenegger also told he used testosterone derivatives of different types after coming to America. We were experimenting with it. It was a new thing. Arnold advised youths and young men to use natural supplements instead and this has been explained in his YouTube channel millions of times.
John Cena Steroids. Based on the evidence from multiple sources, we could finally say John Cena used juices in his career for sure. The pink-colored skin, bloated GUT, skull enlargement, and blockier midsection all rule out the use of the following steroids.
Human Growth Hormones. HGH is associated with enlargement of the skull, experts said. Dwayne Johnson ; The Rock in his wrestling days consumed a plethora of testosterone, this helped him gained massive traps and monstrous muscles. Steroids are potentially beneficial, especially for wrestlers who have competitive advantages over others.
Over the years, The Rock mentioned few steroids which he used to increase strength and muscle mass. Crazy Bulk steroids are popular for their natural composition and the different role they serve for bodybuilders.
The official site of Crazy Bulk has more than a dozen legal steroids aiming for muscle growth and fat loss. There is also a high level of testosterone abuse in teenagers who want to boost their looks or improve their performance.
One survey suggests that an alarming 3. The first rigorous study of the performance-enhancing effects of testosterone in young men was not carried out until Volunteers were given weekly injections of either milligrams of testosterone enanthate or a placebo for 10 weeks bodybuilders usually take much larger doses.
Performance tests done at the end of this period showed the hormone had improved muscle size and strength in those doing strength training, and to a lesser extent in those who did not exercise. The only other comparable study, in , looked at the effects of different doses, but the volunteers were only tested after 20 weeks. In the latest study, Weatherby monitored the performance of 18 male amateur athletes over a six-week training regime. Nine were given weekly shots of testosterone enanthate at a dose of 3.
Those conducting the tests did not know who was receiving testosterone and who was on the placebo. When I'd squeezed as much out as I could, I filled another syringe with sterile water, attached it to the needle still stuck in my skin, injected it, then unclipped the syringe and squeezed most of the water out. I figured it was a decent job for an untrained meatball like myself.
And it did the trick: a week later I was sleeping on my side again. Week 12, I peak at lb. I've packed on 35lb in less than four months. My body has gone through an extreme thickening process. My pectoral muscles are solid slabs of meat hung off my clavicles.
My latissimus dorsi muscles flare out from the midpoint of my back: what bodybuilders call a 'cobra's hood'. My triceps and biceps have swollen so much my T-shirt sleeves bunch up at my shoulders, too narrow to fit over my arms. But the list of physical ailments is mounting. Chronic back pain has set in. I can't walk more than a few blocks before what feels like a fist-sized stone settles upon my lower back.
My flexibility has vanished. There are areas I can not reach due to my new size; if I want to scratch my neck I have to go to the cutlery drawer for a fork. One night I was watching a legal drama on TV - one of those 'ripped from the headlines' type shows. A morbidly obese man was suing a snack company, whom he held responsible for his obesity. It was revealed that the main ingredient in the snack was high fructose corn syrup, a compound that inhibited the hormone leptin, whose function is to send a signal to the brain that the stomach is full - essentially, leptin tells us when to stop eating.
But if this signal is never received, a person will go on eating past the point of reason. Steroids are like high fructose corn syrup. Essentially, they fool a body into a sense that it is stronger and more resilient than it truly is. You accomplish feats that, in your heart and mind, you know are beyond your capacities - and yet you feel so good, so strong, that you convince yourself otherwise. But afterwards it is impossible to deny the toll these exertions have taken on you. After a workout my joints felt like they were hyper-extended.
They popped and cracked, noises like wheel nuts rattling in a cement mixer. I felt calcified, hardened, and frighteningly old. My cycle ends. One morning I wake up and everything has changed. The first thing I notice upon waking is that I feel No sluggishness, only minor joint pain. Genuinely refreshed. Then, on my way to the bathroom, I sense a new weight between my legs - my testicles! Fellas, where have you been? Great to have you back, boyos! The feeling of elation lasts exactly 10 paces: the distance from my bed to the bathroom mirror.
I'm staring at a human boneyard. Where are my pecs? I see two shrivelled bags hanging off my chest. My arms - dear lord, my arms! Shapeless shoestrings dangling from a pair of rotten-apple shoulders. My stomach looks like a deflated clown balloon. My legs belong to a coma victim. I step on the scale: lb! I've shed 13lb overnight. Now I realise only the most deluded of lb men can stare into a mirror and see a skeletal horror staring back.
But I'd become so used to my new body that I felt like a scarecrow with a tear in its belly, bleeding its stuffing all over a farmer's field. The fact that I'd packed on 12lb of raw muscle over four months, that my testicles were up and running again, that I'd woken up feeling better than I had in months - all of this was erased by what I'd lost. It got worse once I hit the gym. Chest day, which meant dumbbell bench presses.
I didn't even attempt to pick up the pounders, which I'd been maxing out with. I settled on the 90s; if I could lift them, it'd be a 20lb increase over my pre-cycle max. I could barely get the things off my chest. I struggled through a single rep, arms quaking, and halfway through the second the dumbbells crashed down and I rolled awkwardly off the bench, barking my elbows. I felt like a total fraud.
Everyone who'd been watching me the past few months as I heaved massive weight about, bellowing like a steer in rut - all these knowing eyes now saw me as a charlatan. I'd lost it. Everything I'd gained had been washed away. Popeye without his spinach. Weak and broken and utterly human. All the needles, the gallons of protein I'd chugged, pound after pound of tuna, the urine of pregnant women running through my veins, the fainting spells and sleepless nights, the muscle knots and bitch tits and shrunken gonads and the hair in my food and abscesses and caveman brow - every risk I'd taken, all that sweat and toil for nothing.
I fell into a week-long funk. I cleaned my apartment out: the unopened cans of tuna, the uneaten protein powder - all of it went in the bin. I ordered a large pizza, pepperoni and double cheese. I wolfed it down with gulps of Pepsi. I wanted to get fat and disgusting. I wanted to inflict damage upon myself. The rational part of my mind was going, 'You did the research - you knew this was bound to happen. I headed to the doctor's. Though I felt much better now that it was over, I was still suffering aches and pains.
The results: a partially herniated disc in my lower spine, the result of either bad posture or an accumulation of pressure due to excess body weight. A chiropractic visit was scheduled.
An enlarged prostate. I was prescribed Avodart, which worked wonders. Fluid build-up on left knee - again, the result of excess weight. The doctor told me he'd get back to me with the blood test results. I started out weighing lb and ended up at My body looks no better now - if anything, it's worse. Bloated somehow, like I'd died, my body abandoned in a gassy swamp.
The gyno has left nipple-nubbins that poke out when I wear anything tighter than a golf shirt. Has it been worth it? The question presupposes that I expected to benefit from the experience.
I embarked on the steroid cycle in order to bring a level of real-world verisimilitude to my novel. I wanted to feel what my character felt, experience a portion of his life, write with conviction about what he went through. In a way, I am ashamed of myself. Was it worth it - all for a book?
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