Last Updated on June 28, 2024 by Kaira
Anabolic steroids are complicated. To describe them easily, I would say that they are a synthetic form of a human hormone found in both males and females, but more present in men, known as Testosterone. This artificially crafted form of testosterone tries to increase its levels on the body and its effect to achieve certain benefits at the cost of risking the health of the user in different ways.
When testosterone is increased without surpassing healthy levels, it can increase the body’s capabilities to produce muscle mass, as well as how it absorbs protein and nutrients from the food we eat, making the diet more effective. It also increases how effective we burn fats, making it easier to lose weight.
Testosterone also affects muscle strength, endurance, energy, motivation, and provides a higher quality of sleep. Overall, Testosterone is great, but when you use steroid drugs to achieve this purpose, you may encounter some nasty side-effects that can permanently affect your health.
Steroids can be used for healthcare purposes besides using them to enhance physical condition. In adolescents going through puberty, it’s not rare to find cases where a male suffers from hormonal imbalance.
This hormonal imbalance may cause low levels of testosterone, which leads to poor development of male characteristics. Doctors may prescribe steroids to help them deal with this problem, and improve their development of male features such as voice, facial and pubic hair, genitals, and so on.
Other uses include reducing inflammation when inflammation has become harmful to the body. Inflammation is a defensive response to injuries and infections, and sometimes it might harm muscle tissue, including internal organs. A good example is when kidney inflammation causes kidney failure, and this can be prevented by using steroids.
How to Get Them
You can look for anabolic androgenic steroids on the internet in the form of pills or serums. Pills tend to have weaker effects on the body but have fewer side-effects. On the other hand, serums are stronger and provide faster results when it comes to muscular workouts and training related to sports.
You can also find supplements and other complements that might help your body achieve higher performance while used along with steroids. These can all be found on the internet, but try to look for reviews and testimonials before purchasing.
Most people would believe that just by using them, it’ll be more than enough to achieve their goals, but that’s most certainly not the case. It’s pretty normal to work twice as hard to get the most out of anabolics.
Professionals and veterans in the world of sports and bodybuilding try not to depend too much on them and focus on doing as much training as possible on getting results in short periods. It’ll certainly help avoid some of the possible side-effects.
Further reading: Considerations with Health and Wellness Supplements
Possible Side Effects
Even the less effective anabolic steroids can cause a wide range of side-effects. Along with that, you’ll have to work very hard to achieve your goals before they affect your body to a no-return point. Most steroids are used through injections, but you can find pills that can be as effective, but it heavily depends on each individual.
Most of the time, injections are way more effective, but they can cause pain in the injected area for quite some time. And if you use them without prescription, you’ll probably get arrested for it, as mentioned in this article talking about its legality.
Now, the most common side-effects are caused because of the hormonal changes happening inside your body. These side-effects are often related to your physical appearance. Severe acne and oily skin or hair are some of the examples. Hair loss, baldness, pubic and facial growth are other good examples.
It can also incredibly affect your health. When you use steroids, you can suffer from heart, liver, and kidney diseases. They are probably the most known complications caused by it, as well as testicle shrinkage.
Another good example of how it affects men is that it causes mood swings, irritability, lack of sleep, bad quality of sleep, poor sleep routines, aggressive attitudes, and even depression. Men can also get pretty addicted to it, which can turn into a cycle of side-effects.
Is It Worth It
It depends. I mean, people who are not into training and have a goal in mind shouldn’t even consider using them. Those who are more willing to use anabolic steroid drugs are athletes, bodybuilders, and people who train every day to achieve a goal.
Of course, the side-effects are scary, and they can be pretty harsh, but if you are careful while using them and pay a lot of attention to your body, you can reduce these side-effects and turn them into temporal problems which won’t be as harmful to your body. The most effective method to achieve this is training hard, get results, and cut them from your life as soon as the side-effects start popping up.
You can use some alternatives which are milder effects but produce fewer side-effects. Steroid pills are a good example, but you can also use supplements or try to engage in a healthier lifestyle.
How to Properly Use Steroids
You’ll have to create a more effective training routine, depending on what you are looking to achieve. When it comes to muscular training, reducing the resting time and increasing the intensity of the reps and sets is a must.
For sports, you’ll have to increase the amount of training accordingly. You’ll have to train at least five days per week and give time to your muscles to recover from the training, so they get stronger whenever they heal themselves, thankfully, thank the anabolics, this process will be much faster and effective.
Another good way to get more benefits from anabolics is by engaging yourself in a diet filled with carbs, healthy fats, and proteins. Sleeping enough and having healthy sleeping routines, as well as reducing stress, will help your body regulate hormonal levels, thus, increasing the effectiveness of testosterone and steroids.
Stress and poor sleep increase cortisol, which directly affects our physical condition and performance when doing exercises and reduces our motivation to keep on being proactive about physical activities and work.
If you are unsure about how to create a great diet for you or how to approach an unhealthy lifestyle, you can always research online for guides and tips to help you out.
Further reading: 5 Different Ways to Recover From Overtraining
