The human body under natural conditions is designed for conserving energy. It is continually attempting to shed muscle and gain fat except where survival comes into play. If the human body deems that more muscle is needed for survival and there is sufficient nutrition to support this muscle growth it will allow muscle growth while it evaluates the situation, but there will always be a force in the direction of less muscle and more fat.
This is why if you don’t exercise you will lose muscle and gain fat. The human body was designed for hard times not for eating all the time and watching TV.
There are three things needed to build muscle and these are: sufficient nutrition, testosterone, and resistive training.
Although all three of these are equally important for muscle growth, usually only nutrition and the amount of resistive training can be increased. Once the maximum amount of muscle has been developed for the amount of testosterone naturally occurring in our bodies has been reached that’s as far as we can go.
Many body builders have increased the amount of testosterone in their bodies by using anabolic steroids. This is not only against the law in the United States but is also very damaging to your health with no long term beneficial effects.
Oral Anabolic Steroids
Oral steroids are extremely toxic to the liver. This damage can present itself many years after discontinued use. Oral steroids also tend to produce greater androgenic effects such as aggression than injectable steroids. This increased aggression can easily turn into what’s called roid rage that has cause many body builders to do things they regret doing.
Injectable Anabolic Steroids
Injectable steroids are not as toxic to the liver as oral steroids. Injectable steroids are injected into a major muscle which allows a slow release into the blood stream. But the huge amounts of liquid that need to be injected as the body becomes accustomed to the increased testosterone can damage muscle tissue causing scarring and impurities can cause intramuscular infections even years later.
The first thing the body does in reaction to the increased level of testosterone brought on by the use of anabolic steroids is to shut down its own testosterone production. This is usually not a problem at the beginning of a cycle because the level of testosterone in the body is increasing.
A cycle of increasing the dose of steroids for so many weeks then decreasing and discontinuing the dose for so many weeks is normally followed to counteract the body’s ability to adjust to the new levels of testosterone thereby increasing the effect of the steroids.
It’s on the down turn that many body builders will find themselves with the masculinity of a prepubescent girl. This can be devastating emotionally.
This is also why teenagers should never use anabolic steroids. Males in their teenage years are naturally producing enough testosterone to handle any muscle growth they could acquire at that age. To shut down their natural production of testosterone by introducing anabolic steroids would do more harm than good.
No Lasting Benefits
Once the use of anabolic steroids is discontinued all the muscle mass that was gained from the use of the steroids is lost.
Damage to Your Body
The pancreas is severely taxed by the increased need for insulin to process the large amounts carbohydrates consumed to finance the muscle growth. This could later lead to diabetes. Also the damage done to the liver by the toxic effects of the anabolic steroids could present itself years later.
Damage may also have been done to joints involved in lifting weight greater than the body was designed to lift.
The use of anabolic steroids just doesn’t add up to being a good thing.
References: Anabolic Steroids, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anabolic_steroid.