St. John's Wort

Submitted by RonnyT on Wed, 2015-10-07 09:02

St. John’s Wort is an effective alternative to many antidepressants based on the literature that I have reviewed.

But, you'll find in North America at least, the powers that be are trying to shape the view of this herb to be less efficacious than it really is. It's in the best interest of drug companies after all to promote their products and discredit other viable alternatives.

Real ostarine

Submitted by RonnyT on Mon, 2015-10-05 11:01

After reading some wonderful reviews on SARMs, I decided to give them a try.

In my opinion Ostarine would be the most suitable compound. I ordered myself some API (raw powder) and asked my buddy if he would punch me some tablets. So I started to search for the best dose.

I know that the doses used in medical studies are mostly very low. And that is partly because in those studies are made to treat certain medical conditions and bodybuilders and other iron warriors want to use it for off label reasons. That why I mostly try to find logs that describe the effects and side effects of certain doses on the different discussion forums.

Exercise Mimetics (EM)

Submitted by RonnyT on Wed, 2015-09-23 10:36

Skeletal muscle has long been known as the target of several growth factors and hormones, including IGFs, steroids, thyroid and neurohypophyseal hormones, often regulating both muscle development and homeostasis in postnatal life, as summarized in classical as well as more recent reviews. Such a complex hormonal regulation is not surprising, if one considers the many diverse functions muscle exerts: mechanical force production, body temperature regulation and metabolic storage due to its protein content. Active muscle accounts for over 90% of total body energy expenditure.

Much more recent is the view of muscle as the source of several hormones [5-7] making skeletal muscle the largest endocrine gland of the organism and probably the most complex, due to the number (hundreds) of peptides constituting its secretome.

Hypogondism in young bodybuilders

Submitted by RonnyT on Mon, 2015-09-21 09:42

An increasing number of young and middle‑aged men are seeking treatment for symptoms related to deficient levels of androgens (hypogonadism) including depression, loss of libido, erectile dysfunction, and fatigue. The increase in prevalence of testosterone supplementation in general and anabolic steroid‑induced hypogonadism specifically among younger athletes is creating a population of young men who are uniquely impacted by the testicular end‑organ negative consequences of exogenous steroid use. Exogenous testosterone therapy can alter the natural regulation of the hypothalamic‑pituitary‑gonadal axis leading to impaired spermatogenesis with azoospermia being a serious possible result, thus rendering the individual infertile.

Aromasin (Exemestane) for bodycomposition improvement

Submitted by RonnyT on Wed, 2015-09-16 09:37

Beginning this year I wrote about Aromasin**. But bodybuilders are very resourceful in combining synergistically acting compounds. Just remember the combination AS/GH/Slin that created the first mass monsters. Thus many combine Exemestane with SERM’s, roids and GH, and get good results. Anecdotic evidence shared on the discussion forums such as bloodwork-results and individual results.

Medical scientist don’t like these kinds of self-medication and bodybuilders are known to do this, this is perhaps the reason that de Ronde in his 2011 study wrote:

“Aromatase inhibitors may be an attractive alternative for traditional testosterone substitution in elderly men because these compounds can be administered orally once daily and may result in physiological 24 h testosterone profiles. Additionally, misuse of aromatase inhibitors is unlikely since testosterone levels will not be stimulated to vastly supraphysiological levels. A small, controlled study demonstrated that anastrozole in a dose of 1 mg daily during 12 weeks will result in doubling of the mean bioavailable testosterone level in older men. A more recent study also showed a moderate but significant effect of aromatase inhibition on estradiol and testosterone levels in older men. Treatment with atamestane 100 mg once daily resulted in a 40% increase in total testosterone levels after 36 weeks. However, no beneficial effects were seen on muscle strength, body composition or quality-of-life scores. A similar increase of testosterone levels in the absence of effects on body composition and strength was reported in a study, in which elderly men with borderline low levels of serum testosterone were treated with anastrozole during 1 year.”

High Volume vs Low Volume Training

Submitted by RonnyT on Sat, 2015-09-05 10:03

One of the most common questions that come up with weight training is how many exercises and sets you should perform; how long should you work-out for.

We've been led to believe that, historically, bodybuilders typically used long workouts with lots of sets. That sometimes equated to 40-plus sets, a workout that lasted over two hours. Irrespective of the accuracy of this perception, we're sure that this was the image presented by mainstream bodybuilding of the '70s and '80s. Were the articles accurate reflections of the bodybuilders' methods? Probably not — but they sure as hell made good reading!

Not to long after that magazine readers found out the pro’s and top amateurs used anabolic steroids. Anabolic steroid supports recovery and allows bigger workloads. Whatever was the truth, the reading public came to believe that if you want to be a bodybuilder, you need a high-volume workout, and you must also take drugs! So, with this little icing on the cake, the workouts had a greater chance of working. Were these high-volume workouts optimal, even for the drug user? I doubt it.

Aggression

Submitted by RonnyT on Thu, 2015-08-20 17:01

Sexhormones influence our behavior. Everybody knows that. They influence our sexual drive, our emotions, our risk behavior and aggression (just think of your puberty). But that’s due to our increasing level of endogenous testosterone and DHT. What about exogenous (injected or oral) testosterone and analogues?

I want to discuss the mental and emotional side effects of Anabolic Androgenic Steroids (AAS) in humans and animals. Why animals? They are mostly used for scientifically studies but more important animals are increasingly doped for ergogenic means like horse and greyhound racing (and don’t forget the betting’s involved) and for animal fighting roosters and dogs, mostly pit-bulls. I just recently posted a blog-post about that.

Short Muscle Bellies Part II

Submitted by RonnyT on Mon, 2015-08-17 11:26

Bodybuilding means that you try to develop an symmetrical, aesthetical pleasing physique with all muscle groups in proportion to each other.

In an ideal world you would be blessed with the right basics and genetic predisposition to easy gain muscle in the right proportion.

But as we’ve seen in our previous blogpost, most people have weak points, an uneven or unbalanced body, short muscle bellies and some are unlucky and have hard time to gain muscle.

Some muscles grow better that others, by example that the trapezius is a muscle that grows relatively fast for most people. It’s a tough muscle, full of androgenic receptors and with very favorable insertions for heavy and frequent training. Beside that anabolic steroids will make the traps explode right away.

Short vs Long Muscle Bellies

Submitted by RonnyT on Mon, 2015-08-10 11:20

On the drawing above you see a short muscle belly from the biceps and triceps compared with long ones.

A short muscle belly means that the muscle attaches high on the tendon, meaning the tendons are somewhat long and the muscle is somewhat short. Take an easy example : your bicep. Say your muscle bellies are attached high on the tendon, which means far from the elbow. That tends to create a gap between your bicep muscle and your forearm as you can see in the graphic.

Vet Steroids II

Submitted by RonnyT on Mon, 2015-08-03 08:49

Anabolic steroids were first developed in groups with small deviations, if scientist found the best analogue, they researched it and when their company believed it could become profitable they would market it. All anabolic steroids were just pharmaceutical drugs. There were roids for human and veterinary steroids. Also veterinary compounds for increasing muscle mass (meat) cattle.

They were used for a long time and some of them are still in use. So what’s wrong with? The answer could be short, nothing. Fact is that the global operating pharmaceutical industry is very powerful and earns very little on these compounds often with expired patents.

Prescription drug, biotechnology and medical device companies spent more than $700 million lobbying Congress and the Obama administration. They have spent millions in campaign contributions. Donations went to both Republicans and Democrats.