How much is too much? You can never have too much money, right? Well, once you’re on the radar, your new friends at the IRS will ensure you have a whole lot less of it. Muscle is something you could never have too much of, right? Well, you could reach 400 pounds of muscle, but then your heart would promptly stop, as it is unable to move that much blood to feed that much muscle. If these two very wonderful things (money and muscle) lead to trouble in large doses, it’s probably safe to say using large amounts of steroids will also put you on a path to “too much of a good thing”.
We’ve all read bodybuilding hero interviews in which the so-called “honest” bodybuilder claims to only use 200 mg per week of testosterone to achieve his 245-pounds of stage-ready muscle. We are supposed to believe that he only uses a little, and that his genetics do the rest. Equally unbelievable are the macho men who attempt to brag about how much of a steroid or steroids they are running. They wear this drug over-use as a sign of honor, a symbol of just how devoted they are to being number one.
Some of these claims are funny, some are ludicrous, and some are outright dangerous. Young bodybuilders on their first or second cycle may not realize the importance of drug use in moderation, and may attempt to copy these insanely high cycles. They’ll end up with a liver that looks like Swiss cheese, an empty wallet, and shot muscle receptors by their second cycle.
Front-loading is one thing. This refers to the practice by which a bodybuilder will attempt to enjoy cycle gains before week 3 or 4 of his cycle. Typically, with injectables, it takes at least two weeks for the concentration of AAS in the bloodstream to reach a high enough level to elevate testosterone levels. In many users, there is actually a drop-off of levels for those first few weeks when HPTA function is shut down (read: no testes function) but artificial levels aren’t high enough to affect the user yet. In times like these, some bodybuilders will run an insanely high amount such as 1500 mg of testosterone and 1000 mg of EQ 500 – in an attempt to get their levels very high, and very quickly. They will then back off the dose to a standard 600 to 800 mg cycle after that.
The world’s top bodybuilders do take more than the guys in your gyms do. They probably outweigh them by 100 pounds or more in the off-season, and it does require very high testosterone levels to maintain such a high level of muscle. However, their use very rarely eclipses 1000 or 1500 mg per week. Going above those levels results in side effects so drastic the user normally becomes ill. The body rejects the drug and muscle growth is the last thing on the mind of cell receptors. Don’t short-circuit your gains. Keep your cycles under 1000 mg per week.
