I am relaying a question that was asked to me by an MMA fighter. I am not sure of the answer and would love to hear what you guys think.
BACKGROUND
Guy is an amateur MMA fighter competing at 185 lbs. He walks around at like 195. When he steps into the cage at 185, he is pretty lean already. So there is almost no room to lose fat, gain muscle and still compete at 185.
His question
"If I do a steroid cycle, I would have to stop the cycle and PCT like at least 8 months before I compete. I would like to gain more power for grappling. Let's say I start at 195 lbs, go ahead and do any sort of cycle, then after some time quit the cycle, do my PCT, finish PCT and then come back down to 195 lbs. So I finish where I started as far as amount of muscle and amount of fat; I will have the same amount of muscle mass as I had before the cycle and the cycle and PCT will have finished like 8-9 months ago (otherwise I can test positive when I compete). At this point, will I actually be more powerful compared to before doing a cycle?"
My answer is: he will possibly be a little stronger but not by much.
Of course he understands that doing a cycle will have the added benefit of speeding up recovery and he may be able to train harder during his cycle. He is a pretty smart guy and educated himself about this issue.
But he is primarily looking to be more powerful and I think the benefit in that regard will be fairly minor.
BTW, my understanding is that doing what he thinks of would not be illegal. When they do a test, they do not ask you something like "have you ever in your life taken a banned substance?". But do correct me if I am wrong. Say a UFC fighter came out and said "many years before starting MMA I took test + tren and I think even after a decade of having last touched steroids I still retain some of the extra power"... Would this be sufficient grounds for an athletic commission to revoke his license?
BACKGROUND
Guy is an amateur MMA fighter competing at 185 lbs. He walks around at like 195. When he steps into the cage at 185, he is pretty lean already. So there is almost no room to lose fat, gain muscle and still compete at 185.
His question
"If I do a steroid cycle, I would have to stop the cycle and PCT like at least 8 months before I compete. I would like to gain more power for grappling. Let's say I start at 195 lbs, go ahead and do any sort of cycle, then after some time quit the cycle, do my PCT, finish PCT and then come back down to 195 lbs. So I finish where I started as far as amount of muscle and amount of fat; I will have the same amount of muscle mass as I had before the cycle and the cycle and PCT will have finished like 8-9 months ago (otherwise I can test positive when I compete). At this point, will I actually be more powerful compared to before doing a cycle?"
My answer is: he will possibly be a little stronger but not by much.
Of course he understands that doing a cycle will have the added benefit of speeding up recovery and he may be able to train harder during his cycle. He is a pretty smart guy and educated himself about this issue.
But he is primarily looking to be more powerful and I think the benefit in that regard will be fairly minor.
BTW, my understanding is that doing what he thinks of would not be illegal. When they do a test, they do not ask you something like "have you ever in your life taken a banned substance?". But do correct me if I am wrong. Say a UFC fighter came out and said "many years before starting MMA I took test + tren and I think even after a decade of having last touched steroids I still retain some of the extra power"... Would this be sufficient grounds for an athletic commission to revoke his license?