Roids.

April 6, 2005 11:41 PM

I'm a little confused about all this steroid talk. Let's say a high school athlete, in his senior year does one cycle. Assume he worked out before, during and after the cycle (attempting to keep up the gains he made). Is this one cycle enough for noticeable gains both in appearance and in performance? Would both the appearance and performance gains recede after the cycle is done? If not what would stop players from taking a year off, dope up, then come back into professional sports.

I'm not talking about huge bodybuilders, but the average athlete. If they cycled once, or a couple times -- can't they keep up that extra amount of performance? Or is it say a gain of 30 pounds of muscle (pulled out of my butt) that even with constant training goes down after six months?

The media has been frusterating silent on how exactly steroids work.

posted by geoff. to Health & Fitness (9 answers total)

Next time I'll proofread my question, I promise.
posted by geoff. at 11:42 PM on April 6, 2005

Let's say a high school athlete, in his senior year does one cycle.

Shouldn't do steroids that young, would stop your growth. Not just height, but in other noticeable ways as well, athletes who take steroids too young don't develop fully between the shoulder blades, for example. Should be at your peak before you take steroids, ideally.

Assume he worked out before, during and after the cycle (attempting to keep up the gains he made). Is this one cycle enough for noticeable gains both in appearance and in performance?

Yes, if perpared for carefully. The first cycle is often said to be the best.

Would both the appearance and performance gains recede after the cycle is done?

Somewhat, but again depends on the preparation.

If not what would stop players from taking a year off, dope up, then come back into professional sports.

A year off is still a year off, you still need to train and risk testing if you are still in a program, and some steroids last a long time in your system, whereas others can be masked or eliminated fairly quickly, so why not take those?

If they cycled once, or a couple times -- can't they keep up that extra amount of performance?

They can keep a lot, if they prepare carefully.

Or is it say a gain of 30 pounds of muscle (pulled out of my butt) that even with constant training goes down after six months?

Nope, they should keep most of it, if they are careful. Steroids isn't the only thing taken, there are other drugs, depending on what steroid/s is are being used, that stop the side effects of estrogen rebound and stop the effects of coming off, dietry changes while on and off. There are in fact a lot of dietry measures that need to be taken, ideally, supplements like milk thistle for your liver, for example.

The forums at elitefitness are pretty good.
posted by lucien at 1:22 AM on April 7, 2005

As with many vices, a significant aspect of the addiction is psychological. Once you try any shortcut in life, it's hard to revert to the straight and narrow path.
posted by randomstriker at 1:51 AM on April 7, 2005

Go do some reading perhaps.
posted by peacay at 5:14 AM on April 7, 2005

I've heard it said that a man taking physician/expert supervised doses of steroids is analogous, physiologically speaking, to a woman on the pill.
Is this just BS?
posted by jikel_morten at 8:45 AM on April 7, 2005

Just to interate, I wasn't at all interested in taking steroids (though I see how it could come off as that). I just was trying to figure out if steroid use while someone is clearly beyond the scope of testing, such as in high school, would benefit an athlete later down the road. My professional athletic career ended with 7th grade C-team baseball.
posted by geoff. at 9:03 AM on April 7, 2005

Steroids will increase your ability to work to complete fatigue at higher weight; the increase in muscle mass is very real, unlike other suplements such as creatine which offer only temporary enhancement (it's actually more complicated than this with creatine, but your question was about steroids).

What you do afterwards with the muscle tissue you grow is up to you. If one wished to keep their gains, they'd simply continue to work out. If you take time off, the muscles will atrophe like normal. Basically, it doesn't matter how you gain the muscle tissue, once it's there it will follow the normal patterns of growth or decline based on nutrition, workout schedule, sleep patterns, etc.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 10:19 AM on April 7, 2005

Oh, and everything lucien said.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 10:20 AM on April 7, 2005

Depending on the gains, the diet, and such, I've heard it said very seriously by those who've retired from the professional body building lifestyle that if you do one cycle a year you can hold on to it through good old fashion hard work.

If you don't eat protein, you eat muscle. If you don't lift, you shrink. Other than that, I'm not sure you can't keep what you juiced to.
posted by ewkpates at 11:40 AM on April 7, 2005