Steroids or roids have been present in the market for decades. One shouldn’t confuse anabolic steroids with corticosteroids. Both have different usage. Anabolic steroids are primarily used for building muscles, obviously. Corticosteroids, on the other hand, are used for reducing swelling and boosting immunity.

As we all know, anabolic steroids are the synthetic version of testosterone (a male hormone naturally produced by the human body). Although testosterone is a male hormone, it’s also produced by females. Like all other hormones, it is responsible for regulating the basic functions. If this hormone is out of balance, it can result in a range of consequences.

The Good Reasons for Taking Steroids

So are you an actor or an athlete whose livelihood is tied to appearance and physical performance? If yes, then you have good reason to take steroids. But that’s not all, many average users take steroids too especially the ones with a skinny physique.

Gaining muscle mass is not the only benefit of taking steroids, there are lots of other good reasons for it. Let’s have a look:

Faster Recovery

In the world of bodybuilding and also when you are bulking, faster recovery is something every individual desire. The reason for that is it is in the recovery process that muscles develop. Plus, if your recovery is delayed, you won’t have the strength to stand up in the gym for a long time.

Taking steroids expedites the recovery. Almost all steroids give you the strength and reduce the recovery time. This is something athletes and bodybuilders greatly value. Even cyclists take steroids so that they can recover from faster from the grueling training sessions (Which mostly includes more than 30 hours of exercise each week.

See Also: Winstrol - Uses, Benefits, and Everything else

Muscle Growth

In most cases, taking steroids increases your muscle growth by 50%. There’s a whole list of steroids out there in the market that are known for bulking. They increase the testosterone levels in the body, raise the production of red blood cells to supply more oxygen to the organs in your body for muscle growth, and give you extra strength and endurance to lift more weights in the gym.

Together, all these factors help in muscle growth. Usually, you can see the results in the second week of your steroid cycle.

It’s important to choose the steroids that help bulk up without causing water retention. Otherwise, when you on PCT, you will be losing half of the muscles built.

Vascularity

Bulking is not the only goal of taking steroids. After you have built muscles, there’s a lot more to work to do, and having a lean figure is one of them. You would want your muscles to look more refined and vascular. The great news is steroids help in enhancing vascularity as well.

They cut the extra fat from your body and give your muscles a great shape. Those bodybuilders don’t look good on their own, they rely on steroids for achieving such great vascularity.

Fat Reduction

Yes, steroids have a role to play in burning extra fat from the body. But wait, they don’t work like magic. You shouldn’t be taking them just because you want to burn fat and achieve a certain weight loss goal.

Steroids increase your metabolism rate. When you all jacked up and active in the gym, meeting your training goals, not only do you bulk, you are also able to reduce fat. A good diet also has a huge role to play here. Therefore, this fat reduction has nothing to do with losing weight.

Therapeutic Benefits

Some steroids have great therapeutic. If you are among those who when train in the gym and lift weights have to deal with joint pain, certain steroids can provide you relief. Therefore, you will no longer have to worry that your joint pain will slow you down to keep you from achieving your goals.

Protein Synthesis

Steroids are great in increasing protein synthesis. Protein is the major building block of muscles. Protein synthesis is the process in which protein is produced for repairing muscle damage caused by performing intense exercise. These proteins also create amino acids that travel to your muscles and stimulates new muscles. This is how you get to build new muscles.

Nitrogen Retention

Apart from increasing protein synthesis, steroids also increase nitrogen retention. When the protein synthesis results in breaking down of protein, nitrogen balance is increased which promotes the growth of muscles.

A positive nitrogen balance is great for muscle growth. A positive balance means the nitrogen intake is greater than the nitrogen output. This also ensures that the body of the athlete recovers from the last workout sufficiently. A greater nitrogen balance means a faster workout recovery.

Strength and Endurance

How can we forget? Steroids have a significant role to play in boosting strength and endurance. After muscle growth, the second most important reason why people take steroids is they jack them up with strength.

This strength is essential to keep you going. Some steroids also make you aggressive, which is something bodybuilders need to put their hours in the gym and train hard.

Estrogenic Combat

There are a handful of steroids that have proven to act like amortization inhibitors to combat the estrogenic side effects of taking anabolic steroids. these estrogenic side effects include water retention and enlargement of male breasts.

not all steroids act like this. Most of them increase the production of estrogen in the body, especially the powerful ones. This is exactly why every bodybuilder or athlete has some sort of amortization inhibitor in their steroid stack. This helps them enjoy the bulking and strength benefits of the steroids by keeping the estrogenic side effects at bay.

Of course, exercise and the right training plan help but anabolic steroids are the only way to get there. several studies say even a moderate steroid cycle can make you gain up to 16 pounds of muscles in 6 weeks, provided that you follow a regime (including diet and exercise). It’s also true that diet and exercise alone don’t provide the same results which steroids do.

When you hear bodybuilders say taking your vitamins, they are referring to steroids. They are the staple of sports. Even though dope tests are performed to ensure no athlete is on steroids, but it’s very evident that all players use steroids. Why? Because it’s the only way to get strength and endurance to keep you motivated for training hard.

The Bad Reasons for Taking Steroids

Steroids have plenty of benefits no doubt but there are some drawbacks associated with their use.

First of all, it’s easy for anyone to abuse steroids. We are living in an age of digital media where every other person is self-obsessed and wants to become an influencer or a celebrity.  When you are all jacked up and built muscles, and everyone appreciates your physique, an obsession starts developing. It’s easy to believe that without steroids, you won’t be able to look this good.

Caution: The abuse of steroids can lead to several health problems such as:

·         High blood pressure

·         Liver intoxication

·         Risk of heart diseases

·         Stroke

·         Kidney problem and more

These are the side effects of that come with abuse. But that’s not all. When you take steroids, you have to deal with some side effects, most of which are normal. Let’s have a look at some of them:

·         Acne

·         Hair growth in unwanted areas

·         Oily skin

·         Gyn

·         Water retention

·         Anxiety

·         Depression

·         Insomnia

·         Irritability

To keep these side effects at the minimum, it is recommended to stick to your usual steroid dosage. Don’t exceed the dosage just because you believe taking a higher dosage will expedite the results or let you build more muscles. It will only increase the side effects.

In case you experience something unusual, stop taking the steroid and rush to your doctor immediately.

The Bottom Line of taking Steroids

Too much of anything can make you sick and the same goes for steroids. While steroids certainly help you become a Greek god but they also take a toll on your emotional, mental, and physical health if they are abused.

They mess up your natural testosterone cycle and maybe even cause hormonal imbalance. This is exactly while all professionals who start their steroid cycle also go on PCT (Post Cycle Therapy). It is extremely critical to reverting your old hormonal cycle.

In general, it may take a year or two for the testosterone production to normalize. The longer your steroid cycle was, the longer you would have to go on PCT. steroid cycles last for 4, 6, 8, and 12 weeks, depending on the goal of the individual. Anything more than 12 weeks could result in abuse.

While you are on the PCT, you will experience some withdrawal symptoms, which is again normal. You might also lose some muscle so make sure you prepare yourself for that.

If you or anyone you know is planning to take steroids, make sure they are aware of the good and the bad. This way, they will be able to save themselves from steroid side effects, addiction, and abuse.