If you want to know more facts about steroids and how effective they are in muscle building, there are plenty of resources available now. In fact, you need to know how they work, what are the benefits and side effects, etc. before starting to use it. In this article, we will discuss a few essential aspects of steroids one should know before use.

Many of the recreational bodybuilders say that steroids won’t make much of a difference. However, a quick look fitness competitor may suggest otherwise. There are a lot of mysteries around the usage of steroids and people are largely confused about it. So, what are steroids?

Basics of steroids

 When we say steroid regarding bodybuilding, we are mentioning about "anabolic steroids," which are man-made substances which offer similar effect to the body hormone of testosterone and help in increased muscle building, strength, recovery, and leanness.

Steroids do muscle building through different mechanisms, but the process is primarily the same as protein synthesis gets increased, which results in quick muscle building. It may also be the protein degradation rate getting reduced, resulting in the same effect.

Different types of steroids

Testosterone is the best natural steroid; there are many other artificial steroids which are quite popular among the bodybuilders as:

Trenbolone, Stanozolol, Oxandrolone, Nandrolone, Dianabol, Deca Durabolin, Boldenone, Methandrostenolone, Drostanolone, Oxymetholone, etc. to name a few

You can get more information on steroids from the other articles here explaining about them. Each of these steroids has unique particulars regarding potency, side effects, toxicity, and synergism. Individually or in combinations, these steroids are used in various ways by bodybuilders to create different steroid cycles to meet specific goals.

Effectiveness of steroids

One research conducted by body scientists of Maastricht University concluded it as, during a ten-week period of less, the average muscle gain in individuals doing resistance training while consuming steroids range from 4 to 11 pounds. The most impressive result in the study was about a 16-pound lean mass gain in 6 weeks with steroids and weightlifting. Comparing it with the natural weight gain, the most accurate models of a natural muscle mass building shows that men may gain around 20 to 25 pounds in the first whole year of weightlifting.

This ultimately points out that a right steroid cycle along with diet and training may help you accomplish your goals naturally in two to four months which otherwise may take a year to accomplish naturally.

Steroid side effects

When used properly, steroids may not be as dangerous as people think. But, if anyone is using it in a belief that they are fully harmless and safe is in a fool's heaven. Researchers have shown that there are some specific side effects of a steroid, in which some reversible and a few are not.

Say, for example, testicular atrophy is noted to be a side effect of steroid which is reversible. Some other common symptoms are cysts, acne, oily skin, oily hair, elevated blood pressure, etc. Increase in the amount of bad cholesterol, sperm count lowering, increased aggression, etc. are also noted in some cases. Irreversible damages may also include male-pattern baldness, liver disease, heart dysfunction, etc.

The bottom line of it is that you can achieve good lean muscle mass without having your life revolving around strenuous workouts and troublesome diets with the use of steroids. However, it needed to be done knowledgeably and carefully to uphold your health and well-being over time.