A battle rages inside every bodybuilder. It is a conflict between two compounds, of polar opposite function in the muscle gain/loss spectrum. It is a lifetime struggle between the two, each more determined than the other to dictate the level of muscle you hold. It’s the battle between myostatin and androgens, and it’s taking place in your body right now!
Okay, perhaps that is a tad dramatic. The truth is that there are always positive and negative agents at work in your body, competing for resources, and countering each other’s effects in order to keep your body’s natural levels in check. Myostatin and androgens are no exception. Let’s learn more about them!
Myostatin is a natural regulator of muscle growth. In other words, it prevents muscle growth. People with too much myostatin are scrawny and lean. People with too little (those fabled people with the myostatin deficiency gene) are naturally highly muscular. Myostatin levels determine how limited you are in terms of muscular growth. Androgens are the opposite. They positively affect muscle growth in the body. They cause muscles to grow. The more androgens present, the more muscular growth occurs.
When you take steroids, you fight the effects of myostatin in the body. You introduce new (artificial) androgens into the body. These androgens adhere to the muscle group site receptors, and new growth is stimulated. The effects of myostatin in those receptors are negated, and growth occurs. The more artificial androgens are delivered into the bloodstream (and hence to the muscle receptors), the less effect myostatin has. For this reason, the more steroids you take, the more you grow.
Keep in mind this is not a binary process. You can never have 0% myostatin or 0% androgens. The body keeps a natural mix present. Otherwise, growth would go unchecked until some system crashed. Likewise, remember that you cannot stimulate myostatin reductions indefinitely. As one consumes more and more androgens, the receptors in the other parts of the body particularly the liver become overloaded with the androgenic agents. While more and more androgens might reduce myostatin further and further, there comes a point where liver damage surpasses the gains made.
Learn more about myostatin and androgens, and keep an eye out for myostatin blockers, which should be on the scene in the next five years. They’ll cut myostatin production, causing muscle growth without the negative effects of androgens. The entire muscle game changes once that arrives on the scene!
