Strength Basics

Getting stronger, fitter, and healthier by sticking to the basics. It's not rocket science, it's doing the simple stuff the right way. Strength-Basics updates every Monday, plus extra posts during the week.

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Steroids vs. Natural post

So how much difference does adding 600 mg of testosterone, under a doctor's supervision, make to a trainee?

Over at A Workout Routine, there is a look at a study that compared no exercise vs. exercise, steroids + no exercise and steroids + exercise.

Steroids vs Natural: The Muscle Building Effects Of Steroid Use

Long story short: even with no exercise, additional testosterone can add muscle. With it, it no comparison with natural trainees.

This harkens back to the advice I started out with, by Stuart McRobert, who repeatedly made the point that non-steroid using trainees were ill-served by the advice of steroid-using routines. This article and the review it cites make a similar case. It's long but interesting.

Very Short Version: If you aren't taking steroids, get your training advice from someone who isn't, or trains people successfully who don't.

4 comments:

  1. So, where do you stand, Peter pro or con anabolic steroids?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I don't use them, or have any interest in using them.

      Delete
  2. Fascinating.

    One thing though is that I think people assume that non-steroid users need tons of downtime for recovery, and I don't think that necessarily follows.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. How much recovery you need, natural or not, isn't always clear. It does seem clear that for a given amount of exercise, the anabolic steroid users will get better results and recover more quickly. That doesn't necessarily mean natural trainees need a long recovery. But it does seem to mean overall the steroid users will be able to train longer, harder, with less breaks - if only because of the increased muscle gain.

      Delete

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