Disclaimer: With this article, I, as a writer, do not promote or endorse the usage of PEDs or AAS for muscle building or any specific goal. If you wish to use it, it is as per your discretion. This piece is purely for information.

The debate of 'is this bodybuilder or physique model natty?' seems to be going on since forever. And it won't stop anytime soon. In this article though, I am not going to spark another debate on that topic (at least not for now) and rather talk about how the performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs)/androgenic anabolic steroids (AAS) work and change things for people who take them and thus, what edge do they have over someone who is not taking these drugs. 

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An interesting study done by Bhasin et. al. in 1996 compared muscle gain rates among four groups. The study lasted for 10 weeks where the testosterone groups were given 600 mg of testosterone. 

The groups were:

A - Placebo with no exercise

B - Testosterone with no exercise

C - Placebo with exercise

D - Testosterone with exercise

The results of the group were:

A - No significant change in fat-free mass

B - An average gain of 3.5 kilos of fat-free mass

C - An average gain of 1.7 kilos of fat-free mass

D - An average gain of 5.8 kilos of fat-free mass

This means the group which did not even exercise and took testosterone gained twice the lean body mass compared to the group who did not take testosterone and exercised for 10 weeks. 

Basically, PEDs/AAS = better gains. 

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When you work out and lift weights, your muscles undergo trauma or damage and then muscle protein strands repair the damage caused to the fibers. Over time, these strands grow both in terms of number and size. Along with this, if your muscle protein synthesis (MPS) aka the rate at which your body stimulates/creates new muscle protein is higher than muscle protein breakdown (MPB) aka the rate at which the muscle protein is broken down, you gain net muscle. The degree of the muscle protein synthesis is largely regulated by the hormone testosterone and is a major reason that men have more muscle mass compared to women. 

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PEDs or AAS mimic natural testosterone, thus elevating the muscle protein synthesis and it is estimated that globally, 15% of gym goers use these substances. When you inject these drugs, your gene expression begins to change and that too from day 1 of injecting them. Steroids enter your cells and bind to the androgen receptors. Once they are bound to the androgen receptors, they can easily move into the nucleus and attach to your DNA. This, in turn, activates hundreds of genes in your body to increase muscle protein synthesis and reduce muscle protein breakdown. Because of this, people on PEDs can have 3 to 5x more nuclei than a normal individual. And more nuclei meaning more muscle cells. PEDs can also reduce a person's fat cells meaning gaining muscle and losing fat. 

Furthermore, this increase in nuclei also has a protective effect against muscle damage meaning that you do not induce damage to your muscle fibers with even intense bouts of exercise and you can work out for longer hours without being exhausted. 

Add to this, the speedy recovery time (partly due to lesser damage in the first place) allows you to exercise more and hit the gym more frequently without any dip in the intensity of your sessions.  

All in all, the usage of PEDs or AAS results in the following: 

1. Increased muscle size 

2. Increase in strength

3. Protection of muscle fibers against damage

4. Increased exercise tolerance

5. Increased recovery 

Note- This article is just scratching the surface and only looking at the benefits or upsides of AAS/PEDs usage. As every coin has two sides, these drugs have a lot of documented downsides as well which is a topic for another article altogether. 

Author bio:

Pratik Thakkar is the co-founder and director of GetSetGo Fitness, an online fitness company. He is regarded as someone who will make it easy for you to understand the process by putting things in the right context and providing science-based recommendations for natural bodybuilding. You can reach out to him at pratik@getsetgo.fitness and follow him on Instagram and Facebook.