Gear & Gains
It seems that wherever you look, performance enhancing drugs come up. From gym bros to professional athletes, anabolic steroids are everywhere. But despite this, I believe they’re misunderstood by a majority of users.
This blog, however, is not to tell you they’re evil and you shouldn’t use them. That’s your decision. I am only here to help you understand how they work and what they do, so you understand what it takes.
What Are Performance Enhancing Drugs and How Do They Work?
Anabolic steroids are synthetic substances that mimic the effects of testosterone in the body. In terms of muscle building, the first thing I want to go over is a seemingly minor distinction that many people miss:
Anabolic steroids don’t increase muscle mass - they mediate pathways that result in muscle growth.
This might seem like splitting hairs, but understanding this is crucial in explaining why your mileage may vary with their use and why gains often disappear after a cycle ends.
Understanding AAS: Anabolic and Androgenic Effects
AAS stands for Anabolic-Androgenic Steroids:
Androgenic refers to the development of male characteristics. When someone takes anabolic steroids, they’re introducing compounds that promote traditionally masculine traits: deeper voices, increased body hair, more muscle mass (especially in certain areas), lower body fat, and greater strength. These adaptations are dose dependent, that is they remain only as long as hormone levels stay elevated, which is why you may go back to tiny after your cycle ends.
Anabolic means these substances bias the body toward tissue creation. This is the effect most users are after - the enhanced ability to build muscle.
Steroids & Muscle Growth
There’s four key mechanisms that drive their muscle-building effects, click on the toggle to learn more:
1. Increased Satellite Cell Activation
Muscle fibers grow by adding new myonuclei, which are provided by satellite cells - essentially the stem cells of muscle tissue. Anabolic steroids dramatically increase satellite cell activation and proliferation, allowing more myonuclei to be incorporated into muscle fibers.
Since myonuclei regulate a fiber’s capacity for protein synthesis, this raises the muscle’s ceiling for growth. This is one reason why even former steroid users may maintain some advantage years after stopping - these additional myonuclei can persist long-term.
2. Direct Stimulation of MPS
Steroids amplify both baseline and training-induced rates of muscle protein synthesis by upregulating androgen receptors. Multiple studies show that testosterone administration leads to increased muscle protein synthesis even without resistance training. When combined with proper training, this synthesis response is magnified well beyond natural capabilities.
3. Suppression of Muscle Protein Breakdown
Building muscle isn’t just about creating new tissue - it’s also about preventing existing tissue from breaking down. PEDs supress muscle protein breakdown (MPB), creating a more favorable environment for growth. The equation is simple: lower breakdown + higher synthesis = faster growth rate.
4. Enhanced Recovery
Enhanced athletes can often tolerate greater training volumes and frequencies. This increased work capacity means more growth stimuli over time, compounding the effects on muscle protein synthesis.
Why People Use Steroids to Build Muscle: The Reality
Those who use steroids to build muscle are often looking for results that exceed their natural potential. However, many users make a critical mistake: they view steroids as a replacement for proper training and nutrition rather than what it is, an amplifier.
Think of your body as a mill that produces muscle at a steady pace. Steroids make the mill output faster, but if it runs out of raw materials (proper nutrition) or isn’t operated correctly (effective training), the rate diminishes. If provided with the right materials and good operations - you’ll get a super-powered mill. The mill analogy helps explain why some enhanced athletes see dramatic results while others experience minimal gains despite using the same compounds.
Taking it back to the initial premise that steroids mediate pathways that result in muscle growth. Anabolics involve hormonal interactions that bias the body toward tissue creation. When someone begins using anabolics, there’ll be:
- Increased nitrogen retention
- Enhanced glycogen storage
- Improved nutrient partitioning
These changes create an environment primed for growth, but they only translate to significant, staying muscle gain when combined with proper stimulus (training) and building blocks (nutrition).
Getting Results
It’s important to understand that AAS enhance your building abilities but aren’t the central pillar of a program. Being smart about AAS pays off in both results and health outcomes.
While many users jump on gear to buffer their lack of nutrition discipline, low training adherence, or ineffective workouts, this approach minimizes benefits while still incurring all the risks:
- Hormonal imbalances
- Cardiovascular issues
- Liver stress
- Psychological effects
- Dependency concerns
The reality is that enhanced athletes need to be even more dialed into their fundamentals:
- You build muscle faster, so you need more nutrients to keep up
- You recover quicker, so you can (and should) do more, harder work
- Your body’s capacity for growth is elevated, requiring more attention to recovery factors like sleep
Thinking of Gear?
If you’re considering enhancement, ask yourself:
- Are you ready to work hard?
- Are you prepared to get strict with your food intake?
- Can you follow a program to the T?
- Have you fully considered, accepted and have a way of dealing with the potential risks?
- Have you already successfully exhibited #1-3 naturally for a significant period?
If you answered “no” to any of these questions, that’s where your focus should be before considering enhancement. The most successful enhanced athletes are typically those who have an excellent foundation, even without PEDs.
Understanding anabolic steroids doesn’t mean advocating for their use. Rather, it provides context for making informed decisions and recognising that there are no shortcuts to an impressive physique.
Whether you’re natural or enhanced, the fundamentals remain the same: progressive training, consistent nutrition, adequate recovery, and patience. Steroids can accelerate results, but they can’t replace the foundation that makes those results possible.
For most individuals, focusing on optimising natural approaches will yield impressive, sustainable results without the concerns. And for those who do choose enhancement, understanding them can prevent them from making the same mistakes that keep the tiny gym bros in the same place year after year.