I am 28 and have been using for years. This post is eye opening, Thank you for being brave enough to share.
sometimes I think about when I will stop.
As mike arnold was awesome enough to share with us, I try to implement as many holistic combatives to negate side as much as possible
but it is still scary. I think breaks are imperative. and Cleansing , I have seen bloodwork drastically increase from certain cleanses
I think all long-term steroids users think about when they will stop. Unfortunately, it seems many of us don't "stop" until we have to (due to concerning medical issues), which is often somewhere between ages 40-50.
I have heard a lot of guys tell me they are going to stop when they turn 40, sometimes even 35, but then when they get there, they don't want to...because it's hard living one's entire life being big & strong and then just letting it go. For all of us, it has become part of our identity and this is not something that's easily changed. We don't hit age 35-40 and suddenly stop caring about being & strong, so when the prospect of quitting becomes a reality, many guys say "screw that" and stay on.
But the thing is--no one can use gear for 20-30 years and not suffer cardiovascular side effects. It is inevitable, so if someone is going to stay on that long, the best thing they can do for themselves is take steps NOW to minimize the damage they are doing to their body, so when they do finally come off, they aren't a complete mess.
The problem is many young guys don't necessarily think they are still going to be using drugs at age 40-50, so they don't take their health as seriously as they should when they are younger. They think to themselves that they will be off in 5-10 years and not have anything to worry about (note: even 5-10 years of chronic PED use can potentially do considerable damage), but the years slowly creep by and they don't go off. Then, before they know it, they are 40 something years old and the damage is extensive.
This is not meant to be discouraging to the guys who are now older and didn't take steps to protect their health, as even people in these situations can do a LOT to stop/undo the damage that was done, but it is FAR better to stop the damage from happening in the first place.
You mentioned that breaks were "imperative" and I couldn't agree with you more. The problem today is that way too many guys think that if they go off for even a short amount of time (even when TRT is in the picture), that they are going to lose a ton of their hard-earned muscle in just a few weeks. Or, they think that "all the pros" never go off and that they have to stay on perpetually if they want to maximize progress.
These people are wrong on both counts, as they are neither going to lose a ton of muscle fiber, nor are they going to hinder progress by taking some time off (depending on how "much" time is taken off, of course). I can understand why some bodybuilders might be convinced of the former, as going off a cycle of something like test, nandrolone, Anadrol, GH, and insulin is certainly going to result in a substantial loss in "size", but the majority of this initial size loss is NOT muscle fiber. It is muscle fullness.
While some drugs work better for this purpose than other, many steroids cause dramatic increases in muscle fullness due to an increase in intramuscular water levels and to a lesser degree, increased blood volume. Some drugs can cause the user to put on 10-15 lbs in just 2-3 weeks (Anadrol, SD, or M1T would be good examples), even though they might already be using fairly large doses of testosterone.
Most people here have experienced this--they go on Anadrol for a few weeks, blow up 10-15 lbs, then lose all of it within 7-10 days after going off, despite continuing to use testosterone at doses sufficient for muscle fiber maintenance. This is because all of that initial weight was not muscle fiber, even though it may look like it (I.M water is indistinguishable from muscle fiber).
This effect is even more dramatic when the individual adds things like GH and insulin on top of it, each of which can cause substantial increases in muscle size through non-muscle growth mechanisms. It is not unrealistic for someone already using testosterone to gain 20-25 lbs of bodyweight in just a few weeks when adding something like Anadrol, insulin, and GH into his program. While some of this weight will be sub-q water, much of it will be located inside the muscle, making the individual look "much" bigger than he was beforehand.
When you ask these people to go off those drugs and just run a low dose of test for a few weeks, they drop a quick 20 lbs and then start freaking out because they think they just lost 20 lbs of muscle tissue. This makes them want to stay on continually because they see time off as going backwards, and not just a little bit, but a lot. Even when you explain to these people what is going on--that all that lost size was not muscle fiber and will come right back on as soon as they start back up on the drugs, they often still have a hard time dealing with it because it messes with their head. They have to not only understand what is going on, but be mentally prepared to look smaller for a few weeks.
Taking time off is also essential for making maximum gains, as the body begins to adapt to the effect of AAS over time. I can't tell you how many people I have spoken to who have been on drugs for months and in some cases years, without making any progress at all. They have been stuck at virtually the same weight and strength levels for a long time, yet they think the answer to their problems is to either A) Stay on longer or B) Increase their doses even further, even though they are already using a ton of drugs.
When people reach this point, taking some time off is the best thing they can do to kick-start gains. Just 6 weeks can make a world of difference. Often, this 6 weeks off is more like 4 weeks off because it normally takes a couple weeks just for the drugs to leave the system, and no one is going to be losing a ton of muscle because they stopped blasting gear for 4 weeks, especially if they keep a few hundred mg of test in there program and continue eating and training properly. In these cases, as soon as the person goes back on, they are right back where they were in just 2-3 weeks--with a partially re-sensitized body.
.gif "IP Gear")
