Alexxx,
I'm posting this because I've lost several gym-mates and training partners to the lure of steeeroids... try a cycle; gain 10 lbs; stop juicing; loose 15 lbs; can't face training naturally (psychologically) after using roids... result: stop training.
It's so predictable, so self-defeating, so pathetically tragic... quite depressing actually.
In your case Alex, this is even more applicable... tall, good-looking kid, enthusiastic and (presumably) hard training who has built a solid foundation... now lured by the promise of steeeroids. In the interests of educating the weightlifting public at large, here is a list of questions any would-be steeeroid user should ask himself/herself:
Q Why do I want to use steeeroids?
...most bodybuilders decide to use steeeroids as a result of a prolonged plateau (usually a year or more). This fact dooms most steeeroid users to failure from the start. If you can't gain muscle naturally with a constant natural (normal) androgen level then the only benefit you'll likely get from steeeroids will happen while the level of androgen in the body is steadily increasing to supraphysiological levels. Once the androgen concentration levels off at the (new) higher/enhanced level then whatever you were doing wrong that had caused you to plateau in the first place will catch up with you again and progress will once again come to a grinding halt.
Don't believe me? Well, during the 70's and 80's and early 90's (when everyone was training the same [volume] and using pretty much the same doses [1,000ish mg p/w]) bodybuilders remained the same size and few if any could break the 250 lb (5'10'') barrier. The current crop of mass monsters are the result of GH and mega-dosing. If you decide to use steeeroids consider the possibility that you if you haven't gained any muscle in the last year (using same poundages etc) then chances are you'll gain 10-15 lbs of muscle during the first 4-8 weeks of your cycle and that'll be it. Beyond that point, assuming you don't lose any muscle coming off and going back on again (you will) or assuming that you simply stay ON (not a good idea) you'll only gain 1.5 to 2 times the amount of muscle per year that you were gaining while natural.... and twice nothing is still and always will be nothing.
Having accepted the probable results... (accept it) now you should consider whether you're willing to keep increasing the dose till you get the results you want? In your case Alexxx, this means 15 lbs on your first dose... 10 lbs for a doubling of that dose... 8 lbs for a further increase in dose (by the same original dose)... and 5 lbs of muscle for each increase after that. Starting low with a dose that has been shown to cause a muscle gain of 15 lbs in medical studies (while a similar training schedule and diet produced NO muscle gain in the weight-training control group)... that's about 500 mg p/w of testosterone... there are 15 steps to the hundred lbs of muscle you need to be Mr Olympia... and you'll eventually be taking 8 grams a week. Believe me, people who don't know how to gain muscle naturally use mega doses to succeed... Mike Morris admitted to using 4 grams a week... guess what, he fried his kidneys and can't seem to gain naturally.
Make no mistake, Ronnie is 300 lbs because he was gaining 5 lbs a year, each and every year while natural.
Q Have I reached my natural limit?
...No, you haven't.
Just about everyone (male) is capable of benching 300, squatting 400 (all the way down), and deadlifting 500 (with a narrow stance). From personal experience I'd say 5 reps with 3/4/5 hundred is attainable for at least 50% of healthy men.
Yet if everyone waited till they could do that BEFORE they started juicing we'd have 8 pro bodybuilders competing today. The best method of determining your natural limit is to gain 10 lbs of new muscle in a year, now do the exact same thing again... and again... and again till you only gain 5 lbs one year, try reducing your training frequency and total sets and/or increase your intensity... if that doesn't get you back to gaining 10 lbs a year then just stick with 5 lbs a year till you grind to a halt... that's your natural limit. For someone Alex's height... I reckon it'd be about 280 lbs @ 10-12% bf... maybe 250 lbs ripped.
If you can't gain 10 lbs of muscle in a year... then that's probably why you want to use steeeroids in the first place. Steeeroids don't replace proper training and nutrition, if you can't gain naturally you'll quickly plateau on steeeroids. Just for the record, I personally believe that volume training is the number one cause of plateauing in bodybuilding... virtually EVERY successful natural bodybuilder trains HIT style or some variant of such.
Q Which version of 5-alpha-reductase have I inherited?
...are your uncles on your mothers side of the family bald? What about your own brothers? If so, then you'll probably go bald (80% probability) eventually. There's no getting around it, there's a gene that codes for a version of the 5-alpha reductase inhibitor that in turn produces an isoformic version of DHT (dihydrotestosterone) that bonds to some hair follicle receptors and causes baldness. You can take 2mg of finasteride (Proscar or Propecia) every day and offset the effects of isoformic DHT (I do)... but steeeroid users need 5 mg per day to offset the higher conversion rates. 5 mg means a very real possibility of "erectile dysfunction". I have seen steroid users lose all their hair in less than 6 months on the sauce... conversely their brothers can often keep most of their hair well into their forties.
Q What is my cancer risk exposure?
...if your parents/grandparents/aunts and uncles/cousins etc have a higher than average cancer rate then you should really consider all the repercussions of introducing growth factors into your body. Steeeroids (and GH) can greatly accelerate the growth of tumours. Remember, sex-hormone specific cancers are more prevalent in men (higher sex hormone levels); four times as many men die from testicular cancer as women die from breast cancer.
Q What are the possible benefits?
...you could become Mr Olympia. Just gain 150 lbs of muscle and die prematurely... or alternatively gain 50 lbs of muscle and become the Natural Mr Olympia... compete into your 50's and live to be 100 years old (cheaper too).
The Luke
PS-I know I've simplified some of the steroid related science in this post, it was done for demonstrative purposes and the gist of it is correct. No nit-picking/hair-splitting needed.
