Just asking out of curiousity! I have a lot of poeple at my gym that take steroids, and I have heard people say that they have lost muscle size when they stop taking steroids, but how exactly does that happen if you still continue to workout but naturally. I was thinking about asking one the personal trainers there or maybe even Gunter Schlierkamp because he works out at my gym also and they are incredibly knowlegable in gereal, but I figured I would ask you guys because you might be able to give me the science behind it.
Why does muscle size decrease when AAS is stoped?
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KingProtein
New Member
For those who have taken AAS to bring their muscle mass beyond their genetic limits, often they find that their bodys own natural testosterone level is not high enough to support such a large volume of muscle.
Those discontinuing AAS but below their genetic limit should be able to continue to add muscle successfully.
Those discontinuing AAS but below their genetic limit should be able to continue to add muscle successfully.
Any androgen used in large enough quantities as to elicit muscle growth will cause some suppression of the HPTA axis. When this happens, your endocrine system is no longer producing the androgens it normally does, and as you probably know, these androgens are what allows you to gain/mantain muscle mass and strength. After discontinuing AAS there's the period usually called "post cycle" where your endogenous hormone levels will (hopefully) return to baseline levels. Untill they do, and this process can take quite some time in some cases, you'll be in a very disadvantagous position in what concerns muscle mass/strength mantenance. Post cycle therapy auxiliar drugs usually speed the process up and avoiding some androgens will help minimizing this recovery period.
In layman terms I think this is pretty much it.
Bryan also has noted that when people take advantage of strength gains and use weights beyond what they can use naturally, they are usually forced to lower them in the post cycle period. This, coupled with HPTA supression, can lead to losing most of your gains since the repeated boot effect resulting from the heavy loads used while on androgens will prevent the ocurrence of the microtrauma natural trainers are dependant on in order to elicit muscle growth.
Reducing calories while post cycle doesn't help either.
In layman terms I think this is pretty much it.
Bryan also has noted that when people take advantage of strength gains and use weights beyond what they can use naturally, they are usually forced to lower them in the post cycle period. This, coupled with HPTA supression, can lead to losing most of your gains since the repeated boot effect resulting from the heavy loads used while on androgens will prevent the ocurrence of the microtrauma natural trainers are dependant on in order to elicit muscle growth.
Reducing calories while post cycle doesn't help either.
KingProtein
New Member
I'm sorry, I misinterpreted the question as meaning a switch from steroid using back to natural training (long term). The reasons for muscle loss in the short term after an AAS cycle are exactly as restless has stated. (Just to avoid any confusion).
