Learn how high androgenic anabolic steroids affect muscle gain and strength gain. All athletes know that androgens stimulate muscle growth. It is for this reason that steroids allow you to gain large amounts of mass. However, this is possible only in the case of combining AAS and strength training. We will now discuss how androgenic hormones and muscle growth are related.
You must understand that a high concentration of androgens in the body is not a guarantee of significant muscle growth. To get good results from strength training and AAS, you need to have a sufficient number of androgen receptors. They are the second component of your progress.
Receptors can interact with hormones and only after that growth factors in tissues are activated. As a result, we can safely say that the number of receptors is one of the main factors in large muscle mass. If your body has a poorly developed receptor network, then steroids will not be effective.
Ways to increase the number of androgen receptors
There has been enough research on this topic to be confident about the ability of strength training to increase the number of receptors. First of all, muscle tension stimulates the production of receptors, in which the athlete works in anaerobic mode. For this reason, cardio exercise does not promote muscle growth, since it cannot activate androgen-type receptors.
Also, the number of receptors can increase in the absence of serious damage to muscle tissue. When you work to failure, it negatively affects the activity of the receptors. The well-known muscle pain or sore throat that appears after intense training is a negative factor in terms of the work of hormones. As you know, soreness occurs when myofibrils are damaged, which significantly complicates the performance of their tasks for receptors.
Note that it is this factor that speaks against the existing theory of muscle growth in the conditions of natural training. Well, the best way to increase the number of receptors is resistance training with maximum weight in a low repetition mode. This is how you can achieve maximum muscle tension without damaging myofibrils.
There are also research results proving the relationship between fiber type and receptor activity. From the point of view of gaining mass, fast fibers look more preferable. It is believed that the number of receptors can be increased due to the daily intake of two grams of carnitine. However, there is no exact evidence for this fact. The same is true of various testosterone boosters, which are increasingly criticized by athletes for their low effectiveness.
Androgenic hormones and acne
If you have taken steroids, then it is likely that you have experienced acne or acne on the skin. At the same time, if AAS is not used, but acne takes place, then this is due to a high hormonal background. Training or age-related changes could lead to its strong increase. In this case, the main fault here lies not with hormones, but with blood.
The mechanism of acne formation is quite simple. From the bloodstream, androgens enter the sebaceous glands of the skin, increasing its fat content, and as a result, acne is formed. Note that androgen molecules can quickly penetrate into the skin, but problems with their delivery to muscle tissue can arise. If you develop acne, then your hormone levels are high, but androgens are poorly absorbed into the muscles.
It is important to remember that the anabolic background does not depend on the concentration of hormones in the blood, but on their level in muscle tissues. If there are not enough androgens in the muscles, then catabolic processes are activated. You may have heard that for acne, traditional medicine suggests using pumpkin seeds. This is due to the high content of unsaturated fatty acids in this product. Scientists have found that it is these substances that improve the permeability of cell membranes, thereby facilitating access to the nucleus of hormones. In addition, pumpkin seeds contain a large amount of zinc, the concentration of which decreases at the time of the release of androgens.
So, it's time to take stock of today's conversation. To accelerate weight gain, two conditions must be met:
- Increase the production of androgens, which should be in an unbound state (the stronger the hormonal background, the better, provided that the second rule is met).
- Your muscles need to be responsive to hormone molecules, which can be achieved by increasing the number of androgen receptors.
The urologist Dmitry Ermilov tells about the interaction of androgens and estrogens in the male body:
