Find out how steroids interact with your muscles at the cellular level, what the pros and cons you will experience from taking anabolic steroids. Most ordinary people, seeing a well-muscled guy, most often have the confidence that he is using steroids. However, they have no idea how much effort is required even when using sports pharmacology. This is largely due to ignorance of the features of bodybuilding. And also how steroids work on your muscles. Today we will try to answer the second question in as much detail as possible.
How steroids work
If you do not eat and exercise properly, then the use of sports pharmacologists will bring you nothing but side effects. To quickly understand how steroids work on your muscles, you need to understand the mechanisms for gaining muscle mass. This happens due to the acceleration of the production of protein compounds and the processes of restoration of fibers of muscle tissue.
Human muscles are made up of bundles of oblong cells called fibers. During a lesson in the gym, the athlete inflicts microdamage to the muscle cells. After completing a workout, the body begins to repair these injuries. This process has been called compensation by scientists. However, the human body has strong adaptive properties.
To avoid further damage in the future at a similar level of physical activity, fiber recovery occurs with a certain margin. This stage of the regenerative process is called supercompensation. It is thanks to this that we have the opportunity to build muscle mass. Since the muscle fibers after recovery become a little thicker and stronger.
Admittedly, this is a rather lengthy process and with the help of steroids you can speed it up. If, on average, the process of regeneration of cells damaged during training lasts two days, then on an anabolic course it takes 24 hours. Since steroids accelerate the recovery process, athletes can train with greater intensity and frequency.
We have just talked about this in an extremely simplified way. If we consider all these processes at the cellular level, then they are extremely complex. However, ordinary athletes do not need to delve into all the subtleties. It is important to understand that steroids can only be effective with a competent approach to training and nutrition. With the ability to accelerate regenerative processes, these drugs are not able to produce other effects on the muscles. Even if you decide to start using sports pharmacology, positive results will not be achieved without other components.
The positive properties and effects of steroids
Although we said that steroids affect recovery processes, in practice they have a lot of both positive and negative properties. It's just that the rate of regeneration of muscle tissue has the most significant effect on mass gain. In addition, the course increases strength, endurance, etc. If AAS were effective only for increasing muscle volume, then they would not be used by representatives of other sports disciplines, except bodybuilding.
However, for more than six decades, AAS has been used in cycling, athletics, etc. Agree that in these sports, the amount of muscle mass does not play such an important role as in bodybuilding. Moreover, steroids are used not only by professional athletes, but also by athletes. For most ordinary people, steroids are exclusively associated with negative effects. Of course, they have a place to be, but these drugs can also bring a lot of benefits.
Let's start with the fact that all drugs in this group were created primarily for use in medicine. Only after that the athletes paid attention to them. To correct the situation somewhat, today we will talk about the positive properties of anabolic steroids. Many articles have been written about their health hazards, and not everything stated there is supported by compelling scientific facts.
Among all the effects of AAS, first of all I would like to draw your attention to the growth of power parameters. Almost every builder knows about this, but few are familiar with the mechanisms of this phenomenon. And it's all about accelerating the synthesis of protein compounds, which leads to an increase in the size of the two main contractile elements of our muscles - actin and myosin. Strength growth, as well as a set of muscle mass, is possible only with properly organized nutrition and hard training.
In addition, a slight increase in strength is associated with an increase in the volume of cell sarcoplasm. This substance is an intracellular fluid. However, after completing the course, the volume of sarcoplasm is restored to its previous level. Moreover, the athletes themselves, before the start in the tournament, try to get rid of excess fluid so that the body looks more prominent or to reduce body weight, because the transition to a new weight category is not always justified.
The second important effect of steroids is gaining muscle mass. It is to this question that we devoted the previous section, when talking about how steroids work on your muscles. However, we have something to add to all of the above. The volume of our muscles also increases due to the increase in blood volume. According to the results of scientific research, within two or three weeks after the start of the anabolic course, the amount of blood in the body increases by 10-20 percent.
In sports such as cross-country skiing or cycling, endurance is the most important characteristic. Steroids can also be very effective to increase it. Scientists suggest that during the course, the number of mitochondria is rapidly increasing and cell structures can actively utilize oxygen under the influence of heavy physical exertion. In addition, an increase in hemoglobin levels also has a significant effect on endurance.
One of the important properties of AAS for bodybuilders is their ability to accelerate the processes of utilization of adipose tissues. Its presence has been known for a long time, but the mechanisms have not yet been studied. The scientific world puts forward various hypotheses on this topic. Most are inclined to believe that under the influence of anabolic steroids, the processes of release of fatty acids from adipocytes are accelerated, and the body, in turn, actively uses them as a source of energy. However, ordinary athletes are of little interest to theory, because the presence of this property is important. Note that not all steroids are powerful fat burners. First of all, such drugs should include stanozolol, testosterone propionate, trenbolone acetate, oxandrolone, etc.
It's early to end the conversation about how steroids work on your muscles, because anabolic drugs have a fairly wide range of positive effects. For representatives of all sports disciplines, the ability to increase performance is important. Agree, the more actively a person works in training, the more effective it can be. It is assumed that performance increases due to the acceleration of the processes of creatine phosphate resynthesis. It is known for certain that this substance is a source of energy for muscles. If the concentration of creatine phosphate in the body is low, then the athlete will quickly feel tired. In such a situation, you cannot count on quality training. In addition, there are research results suggesting that creatine phosphate deficiency can cause overtraining and activation of catabolic processes.
We have already said that steroids significantly accelerate the regenerative processes in muscle tissue. This is largely due to the suppression of nitrogen excretion reactions, as well as an increase in the rate of synthesis of protein compounds. As a result, with the help of AAS, you can speed up recovery not only after classes in the gym, but also from burns, wounds and previous injuries.
All this indirectly has a positive effect on the effectiveness of your training process. It's no secret that injuries in sports happen often and it is important for athletes to get back in shape in a short time. Without anabolic steroids, this process can take a long period of time. Let's remember again about the fat burning properties of steroids.
However, this is not the only effective way to improve body constitution and muscle quality. Experienced athletes have already understood that we are talking about venous drawing. By the way, accelerating the process of creating new blood vessels in the muscles should be considered not only from the point of view of aesthetics (although not everyone likes protruding veins, this parameter is taken into account in tournaments), but also improving the quality of tissue nutrition. The more blood, under the influence of physical activity, enters the muscles, the more nutrients and oxygen they receive.
From the point of view of psychology, the work of steroids is perfectly manifested precisely due to the strong filling of muscles with blood. This effect is called pumping and helps to increase performance. Due to the supply of a large amount of oxygen to the cellular structures. Many representatives of strength sports disciplines at some point begin to experience pain in the joints. First of all, this applies to professional athletes working with large weights.
Steroids can do more than relieve pain like this. But also to improve the work of the entire articular-ligamentous apparatus. In medicine, this property of AAS is used quite actively. It should also be noted that there are several psychological effects:
- Improved mood.
- Psychological recovery.
- Self-esteem increases.
- Attention and concentration are increased.
All these effects are useful not only for professional athletes, but also for amateurs. In conclusion, when talking about how steroids work on your muscles, we note an increase in the rate of glycogen production processes. Speaks about the positive properties of anabolic drugs can be for a long time. Do not assume that steroids are an absolute evil.
Proper use of AAS will do more good than harm. We do not urge all bodybuilding lovers to necessarily start using anabolic steroids. Everyone should have the right to choose and decide for themselves. Does he need drugs that can improve his results? It is important to understand the principles of using sports pharmacology and to avoid serious mistakes when designing or delivering courses. In this case, you probably will not encounter the side effects that occur. That's all the information we wanted to share with you on this issue.
For more information on how steroids affect muscles, see the video below:
