Incredibly, for a long time, official science believed that steroids did not stimulate muscle growth. Base? Lack of evidence-based scientific experiments in this regard. Why were the experiments not carried out? For ethical reasons, scientists feared that the dosages used by athletes would harm the research participant. But nevertheless, an experiment took place in the USA, the results of which put an end to a long-standing dispute. Participants in the experiment were divided into two groups.
One took a winny pills and injections and didn’t exercise, the second took testosterone and didn’t exercise either, the third also took a placebo, but trained, and the fourth, which took testosterone and trained. In total, 43 experienced power athletes participated in the study. The steroid dose was 600 mg of testosterone entanate weekly. Established blood compared with the physiological norm. It can be assumed that 600 mg of testosterone entanate led to an increase in the concentration of testosterone by 4-10 times.
The training was conducted with high intensity three times a week. Exercises were performed in 3 sets of 6 repetitions. All subjects adhered to the same diet, calculated from an indicator of 36 calories per kilogram of body weight. The protein norm was 1.5 g per kilogram of body weight.
For 10 weeks of the experiment, the following side effects of steroids were identified. Three athletes poured acne on their skin, and two more athletes complained of chest pain, which was regarded as the initial symptom of gynecomastia.
Based on the results of the experiment, force testing of participants of all groups was conducted. His results are truly sensational.
In the group that took testosterone but did not exercise, the bench press increased by an average of 10 kg. And this is much more than in the group that trained, but did not take steroids. Well, those that trained and took steroids added neither more nor less than 24 kg to the bench press. Thus, their strength increased by 22%.
In squats, the situation was about the same: the group “steroids + training” turned out to be an unattainable leader.
Those who received testosterone injections without training added an average of 3.2 kg of muscle. Those who trained without testosterone – 1.9 kg. Well, the last group of steroids + training is 6.1 kg. The proportion of fat in all groups remained virtually unchanged.
It is amazing that in the group of untrained athletes, the increase in strength and weight turned out to be much higher than in the group of athletes training but not taking testosterone. This once again proves how effective anabolic steroids are.
The irony of the experiment is that it was started for the sole purpose of proving the effectiveness of “pure” training. Researchers were sure in advance that the results in the group of “clean” athletes would not differ much from those in the “steroid” group. In fact, everything turned out the other way around, but in addition, the experiments presented scientists with an unexpected surprise – you can increase muscle mass on steroids without exercising, and the increase will be much higher than for those who work hard in the gym before a sweat.
However, it was always clear to bodybuilders that there was no better stimulator of muscle growth than steroids in the world.