Steroids Review | Uses, Results, Benefits, And Side Effects | Ultimate Guide 2021

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Written By Jonathan Deventer

Steroids User Guide For Bodybuilders

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Anabolic-Androgenic Steroids are synthetic variations of the male hormone testosterone.

Bodybuilders and athletes have been using steroids for performance enhancement since the 1950s.

They mostly come in the form of pills or injections to be taken in cycles.

They have helped bodybuilders put on massive amounts of weight in bulking cycles, reduce fat in cutting cycles, as well as increase speed, strength, and stamina overall.

The problem is that most of these drugs were not intended for performance enhancement, and people take significantly higher doses than what is medically recommended in order to get the benefits they’re looking for.

As a result, there is a significant risk of dangerous side effects. Some of these include:

  • Liver damage
  • Increased LDL cholesterol (bad cholesterol)
  • Decreased HDL cholesterol (good cholesterol)
  • Gynecomastia/man boobs
  • Virilization in women
  • High blood pressure
  • Acne, body hair growth, male pattern baldness

They have even been known to cause death in certain cases. For these reasons, anabolic androgenic steroids, also known as “gear”, are illegal in many countries and banned from most sports.

Health and legal risks mean that many people today are looking for safer alternatives that can still help them improve their results in the gym.

SARMs are one appealing option, but many fitness enthusiasts have achieved monster gains with natural steroid alternatives.

That’s why CrazyBulk has sold over 1 million bottles of their legal steroid alternatives.

These supplements have powerful natural ingredients that can help you get huge results without taking the risks associated with steroids. Buy legal steroids online here.

Steroids Overview

Despite drug laws and banned substance lists, steroids are still commonplace in sports and bodybuilding.

Some bodybuilders are dependent on pre-contest cycles that can include as many as 10 different anabolic substances!

What can steroids be used for?

They can be used for many goals from increased muscle mass, to muscle hardening, fat loss, cutting cycles, lean muscle, strength, and endurance, speed, or stamina.

It is important to maintain realistic expectations at the outset with steroids—they aren’t magic.

All of these positive results still require lots of hard work in the form of rigorous workout routines and strict diets.

They also require that you know what you’re doing.

What kinds of drugs are roids?

Anabolic-androgenic roids are classified as steroid drugs. There are also drugs called Corticosteroids that are used to reduce inflammation, but these have very little application in the world of performance enhancement.

Corticosteroids are used by physicians to prevent extreme immune responses like excessive, life-threatening swelling in a person allergic to bee stings.

These types of synthetic steroids mimic cortisol, a hormone produced naturally in the adrenal glands.

They are powerful medications but do not cause the serious side effects found in anabolic steroidsCommon Corticosteroids include:

  • Cortisone
  • Prednisone
  • Methylprednisolone

These drugs help speed muscle healing and provide a bulking effect to counteract muscle-wasting diseases.

Each steroid can be rated in terms of its anabolic and androgenic properties against the primary steroid testosterone, which carries with it a ratio of 100:100.

Anabolic refers to what builds up muscles and androgenic refers to increased male sex characteristics.

Common Types of Steroids

bulking ans cutting steroids

There is quite a variety of steroids with differing half-lives, degrees of risk, anabolic/androgenic properties, and speeds with which they start working.

The following is a list of the most common roids, along with their anabolic androgenic ratings.

  • Anadrol: 320/45
  • Anavar: 322-630/24
  • Boldenone Undecylenate/Equipoise, also known by brand name Veboldex: 100/50
  • Deca Durabolin: 125/37
  • Dianabol: 90-210/40-60
  • Halotestin: 1,900/850
  • Masteron, also known as Drostanolone Propionate and similar to Drostanolone Enanthate or DHT: 62/25
  • Primobolan, also known as Methenolone and including Primobolan Depot (Methenolone Enanthate): 88/44-57
  • Proviron: 100-150:30-40
  • Testosterone: 100:100
  • Trenbolone: 500:500
  • Turinabol: 53:0
  • Winstrol: 320:30
  • Bolasterone: 1,000/200
  • Esiclene Formebolone: (Rating Unavailable)
  • Mibolerone/Cheque Drops: 590/250
  • Norethandrolone: (Rating Unavailable)
  • Stenbolone: 88/50
  • Tetrahydrogestrinone (The Clear): (Rating Unavailable)

Despite popular belief, Clenbuterol and HGH are not roids.

Like insulin, they are on a list of non-steroid performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) and so not included here.

There is also a category of bodybuilding supplements known as prohormones which are related to steroids, but distinct in that they trigger the body to generate more testosterone and other hormones.

The defunct Beastdrol V1 steroid can now be found in a V3 prohormone version with an anabolic/androgenic ratio of 200/100.

Epistane, Pheraplex, and Hexadrone are just some of the prohormones marketed to bodybuilders today.

Some prohormones, such as M1T or Methyl-1-Testosterone are marketed as sports nutrition supplements.

Just to make things even more confusing, there are compounds on the market that specialize in fat burning like Ephedrine or DNP that often get confused with steroids.

How To Buy Steroids

As you probably guessed, purchasing anabolic androgenic steroids is not as simple as searching them on Amazon or dropping in on your local GNC.

The complex legal environment surrounding anabolic PEDs means buying steroids is in no way straightforward.

There are three main ways to get steroids for sale.

You can purchase them legally with a prescription, you can buy them from the black market and underground labs, or you can buy them online from international online pharmacies taking after Medix Pharma that are located in countries like China, Mexico, Paraguay, or India, where laws may be more lenient.

Unfortunately, most doctors are unwilling to prescribe steroids for performance enhancement purposes. So you won’t be able to go in and say you want bigger muscles and come out with what you wanted.

Some steroids, like the designer steroid Madol, are exclusively available on the black market.

That means bodybuilders are forced to look to other sources. The problem is that since these drugs are illegal, there is no one there to ensure that the drugs you are sourcing are of high quality.

The market is flooded with fakes, counterfeits, and contaminated products. One study suggested over 53% of steroids that were purchased online from the UK were fake.

Unless you choose to test your steroids in a lab, there’s no good way to know if what you’ve purchased is legitimate or not.

That means you’ll have no idea what you’re injecting or putting into your body.

Homemade steroid recipes are an option.

You could go the DIY route and make your own steroids, but we don’t recommend it.

Steroids already come with significant risks of side effects, and this adds another layer to those risks.

When people really ask “are steroids worth it?” while soberly adding up these considerations, it’s not surprising that the answer is often no.

That’s why steroid alternatives are becoming so popular.

Roids Alternatives

CrazyBulk has sold over 1 million bottles of its legal steroid alternatives in countries like Australia, the US, and the UK for one reason:

They work. They can help you get big results without taking big risks.

What are some of the advantages of organic steroid alternatives over anabolic PEDs?

No side effects. No illegal drugs. No injections. They’re easy to take, are completely legal and safe, and you can claim that you only take natural supplements.

Anabolics roids have a product for each of the main performance-enhancing drugs, including:

Muscle Growth with Steroids

When the muscle grows back it grows larger, which is how weightlifters create bulk.

For those athletes that want leaner, larger muscles more quickly, roids can provide the enhancing effects they’re seeking.

Anabolics are currently illegal in the United States without a physician’s prescription. Possessing these drugs is penalized under federal law with a maximum penalty of one year in prison and a $1,000 fine for first-time offenders.

If you’re attempting to sell steroids the maximum penalty is five years in prison and a $250,000 fine for first offenders. The penalty doubles for second offenders.

Steroids Effects

What Do They Do For You?

Across the globe, athletes seeking a competitive edge continue to turn to performance-enhancing drugs to support their training regimens. Steroids, designed originally for medical use, have made the news as boutique performance boosters for top-performing athletes.

In the United States, professional sports stars like Lance Armstrong and Kevin Levrone have admitted to using these substances. Steroids are so widespread, high school and college athletes have adopted their use.

How do they affect the body?

Steroid hormones bind to receptor sites within the muscle cells, activating structures favorable to rapid, quality gains in strength and size.

Anabolic-androgenic steroids are basically synthetic variations on the naturally occurring steroid hormone called testosterone.

In men and women, testosterone is key to the process by which muscles build new, stronger muscle fibers after the muscles have been damaged. This process is called muscular hypertrophy.

By injecting or ingesting anabolic steroids, this process of re-building muscle fibers is supported, helping the muscles grow larger and stronger at a faster rate with shorter recovery times.

Anabolic steroids release more Insulin-like Growth Factor-1, a critical hormone for muscle repair.

Steroids are often stacked or combined with other supplements or steroid compounds to improve the effect.

Athletes seeking physical performance improvements often dose these steroids in six to 12-week cycles that build from a low dosage too high and then gradually taper down to the end of the cycle.

What is the average length of a steroid cycle?

Between 8-16 weeks, although some bodybuilders are having success with short-burst cycles that go as short as 2 weeks.

Bulking Cycles

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The oral anabolic Anadrol and Dianabol are the best steroids for bulking up. However, both are harsh on the liver and cause serious side effects.

You should not use either of them for more than six weeks in duration because of their liver toxicity.

Also, you should absolutely refrain from drinking alcohol as this can exacerbate the risk to your liver.

Each causes the suppression of natural testosterone levels, meaning you should plan a post-cycle therapy with an aromatase inhibitor such as Danazol or one of the modern SARMs currently available on the market.

After a steroid cycle, an aromatase inhibitor can protect what precious testosterone you have left from converting into estrogen, preventing nasty side effects like gynecomastia (enlarged male breast tissue).

You can also always stack these steroids with some form of exogenous testosterone to avoid low testosterone levels.

The types of testosterone you can stack with include:

As C17 alpha-alkylated steroids, they should only ever be stacked with injectable steroids like Deca Durabolin. That means that they should not be taken together.

Anadrol and Dianabol aren’t the only bulking steroids however, people may also use:

  • Testosterone
  • Trenbolone
  • Deca Durabolin
  • Andriol
  • Primobolan

Stacks include:

  • Anadrol/Test
  • Dianabol/Test
  • Equipoise/Test
  • Primobolan/Andriol
  • Test/Deca/Winstrol
  • Test/Stanozolol
  • Trenbolone/Testosterone/Deca Durabolin

When it comes to bulking, diet is key.

Bodybuilders in a bulking phase should plan to eat 6 meals a day, with lots of starchy carbs to put weight on quickly.

Cutting Cycles

Crazy Bulk Cutting Stack

If you want the best steroids for weight loss, losing fat, and cutting cycles, here are some stacks to look into:

  • Anavar/Primobolan
  • Equipoise/Proviron/HGH/Clenbuterol
  • Proviron/Deca Durabolin/Winstrol
  • Trenbolone/Winstrol
  • Proviron/Anavar

Be aware that steroids like Deca Durabolin and Trenbolone are progestins and can lead to complications associated with too much secretion of prolactin.

There are some anti-prolactin strategies for bodybuilders using progestin-type steroids.

These mainly involve incorporating prolactin inhibitors such as Cabergoline or Bromocriptine.

Of course, with natural steroids like those offered by CrazyBulk you don’t need to worry about any of that.

Crazy Bulk also has some excellent stacks, made up of their steroid alternative supplements.

They include the Bulking Stack, the Cutting Stack, the Growth Stack, and the Ultimate Stack. By purchasing their stacks, not only will you have a better chance of seeing great results, you’ll get big savings of up to 20% off the retail price for buying in bulk.

Crazy Bulk is the leading cutting steroid alternative brand, but bodybuilders have also had success with slimming down on supplements like CYX3.

Steroids Side Effects

Overuse of anabolic steroids can cause many dangerous side effects.

The effects are particularly harsh on women, who are very limited in terms of the types of roids they can use, as well as the dose.

Men are in no way exempt, however.

Bodybuilders and athletes tend to take these drugs at very high doses, which means there is a significant chance of seeing many of the side effects listed below.

Each roid will have its own typical adverse effects, with some milder than others.

But overall these are the most common ones you’ll see:

  • Water retention
  • Bloating
  • Gynecomastia
  • Acne, growth of body hair, male pattern baldness
  • Reduced HDL cholesterol (good cholesterol)
  • Increased LDL cholesterol (bad cholesterol)
  • Liver and kidney problems
  • High blood pressure
  • Suppression of natural testosterone production
  • Roid rage
  • Cardiovascular problems
  • Virilization in women
  • Prostate enlargement
  • Sterility

Quick Tip: Water retention is a pesky, cosmetic side effect that can be mitigated by sticking with “dry muscle” PEDs like Winstrol, Anavar, and Clenbuterol.

These substances promote a lean, toned appearance made up of protein weight, as opposed to the water weight that characterizes wet muscle.

Steroids For Women

Women generally use a lower dose of roids so their side effects are often less than their male counterparts. But women may still experience:

  • Virilization
  • Hair growth;
  • Deepening voice
  • Liver damage
  • Strokes and heart attacks
  • Most of the side effects that men see

Women should generally stick to the following performance-enhancing drugs:

While the medical application of anabolic steroids is widely accepted, there is also a market for the drug in professional sports such as bodybuilding.

The muscle bulking results of steroids can be dramatic. Anabolic steroids can be effective in helping achieve a toned appearance combined with real increases in strength, endurance, and muscle mass.

You can find anabolic steroids for sale online from a variety of manufacturers overseas. When shopping for anabolic steroids, consumers will find two grades of products: underground and pharmaceutical grade.

Underground anabolic steroids are produced illegally on the black market, typically in other countries. These products are of questionable quality and the consumer should be wary.

Types of Injectable Steroids

There are many ways to divide steroids into types, but one important way when talking about injectable steroids is oil-based steroids vs. water-based.

Injectable anabolic steroids are for the most part oil-based, which is to say they are contained in oil and injected intramuscularly.

Stanozolol and Testosterone Suspension are two exceptions, although you can come across Test Suspension that is immersed in oil.

Water-based steroid solutions like these contain small crystals that carry anabolic steroids.

Regardless of whether the steroids are oil-based or water-based, there isn’t any real advantage to going with one over the other. Both are injected into muscle tissue, and any differences in side effects will come down to the steroid itself, not the format by which it is injected.

However, water-based compounds are easier to inject because they have a thinner consistency.

Injections are just one form of steroid.

You can also get steroids in the form of oral tablets, sprays, creams, pellets that are injected into the body, powders, and more.

Sometimes PEDs, such as Trenbolone or GHRP-6, is sold in forms that need to be converted into an injectable form.

It goes without saying that this leaves the user open to lots of opportunities for disaster as making a miscalculation in the conversion process can mean overdosing.

Half-Life & Detection Times

Comprehending steroid half-lives is dominantly discussed in terms of safety in online discussion.

Here is a list of anabolic steroid half-lives:

  • Oxymetholone (Anadrol): 8 – 9 hours
  • Oxandrolone (Anavar): 9 hours
  • Nandrolone Decanoate (Deca-Durabolin): 15 days
  • Methandrostenolone (Dianabol): 4.5 – 6 hours
  • Boldenone Undecylenate (Equipoise): 14 days
  • Halotestin (Fluoxymesterone): 9.5 hours
  • Drostanolone Propionate (Masteron): 4.5 days
  • Nandrolone Phenylpropionate: 4.5 days
  • Omnadren: 15 – 18 days (variable due to the mixture of a quartet of individual kinds of esters)
  • Trenbolone Hexahydrobenzylcarbonate (Parabolan): 14 days
  • Methenolone Acetate (Primobolan, oral): 2 – 3 days
  • Methenolone Enanthate (Primobolan, injectable): 7 – 10 days
  • Sustanon 250: 15 – 18 days (variable due to the mixture of four different ester types)
  • Testosterone Cypionate: 10 – 12 days
  • Testosterone Enanthate: 7 – 10 days
  • Testosterone Propionate: 4.5 days
  • Testosterone Suspension: 2 – 4 hours (some reports as long as 39 hours)
  • Trenbolone Acetate: 3 days
  • 4-chloride hydroxyethyl testosterone (Turinabol): 16 hours
  • Stanozolol (Winstrol, oral): 9 hours
  • Winstrol, injectable (Stanozolol): 24 hours

Without the facts about a drug’s half-life, a user can incorrectly take the drug and suffer self-harm, injury, or possibly a fatal outcome.

Incorrect administration scheduling due to a misunderstanding about a steroid’s half-life can be raising the degree and frequency of side effects.

Steroids in Professional Sports

roid use is widespread around the globe. Any athlete seeking a competitive edge might be using steroids as a way to grow stronger and faster more quickly.

Some of the most famous athletes in the world have tested positive for them, including Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, and Alex Rodriguez.

Rumors of steroid use have also followed other major figures in the spotlight like Lebron James, Mr. Olympia competitor Steve Cook, and Korean bodybuilder Chul Soon, though none of this gossip has been verified.

Other athletes who have been subject to unverified speculations and accusations about steroid use include:

While diet, training, and recovery remain the most important part of any athletic regimen, the simple truth behind winning competitions often hinges on supplementing with compounds like anabolic steroids.

Baseball players like Barry Bonds and Jose Conseco have all used steroids. Conseco even wrote a book where he stated 80% of pro baseball players use anabolic steroids.

Reports of steroid use have also cropped up in Crossfit competitions, the NFL, the NBA, and more.

A recent steroids review article stated how many people feel that anabolic androgenic steroids are required for people who want to be the best in professional sports because it’s simply too competitive to not use them.

Many are very much against their use and consider those people cheaters, however, they’re now a huge part of professional sports.

But major sporting organizations do test for PEDs, and the penalties for getting caught can be steep. Athletes caught using steroids can face fines and suspensions in addition to public shame and condemnation.

Celebrities Who Have Used roids

Hulk HoganArnold SchwarzeneggerSylvester Stalone, Charlie Sheen, Ben Johnson, and Barry Bonds have all been associated with anabolic steroid use.

These successful individuals made a living from their physiques and athletic prowess, in part, thanks to anabolic steroids.

Cases like these inspire rumors about other Hollywood personalities.

With the pressure to fit the role in movies with leading men who possess massive, hard physiques, it is not surprising that public speculation abounds about steroid use in the film industry.

Some casualties of this rumor wheel (none of them verified cases) include:

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