Poll: Dbol-take on off days or no?
SAD
TID Board Of Directors
- Feb 3, 2011
- 3,690
- 2,335
I promised you that I had done my research and have strong viewpoints about this subject, so what I am about to say is by no means an excuse or way to backtrack.
The exact mechanisms by which steroids in general increase strength and muscle mass are not known. That's right, the EXACT mechanisms are not known. We're pretty close to having a definitive answer, but as of right now it is down to hypothesis about what happens at the cellular level. With that said, there is one study that I've seen that does a pretty good job answering why, anecdotally, we feel like we have better strength gains, and workouts in general, when we pound some orals before-hand.
Here's a couple excerpts that I pulled out for you, along with the link to the full article.
Mechanisms of action
Anabolic steroids are thought to exert their actions by several different mechanisms. These mechanisms include modulating androgen receptor expression as a consequence of (i) intracellular metabolism and by (ii) directly affecting the topology of the androgen receptor and thus subsequent interaction with co-activators and transcriptional activity. Other mechanisms include (iii) an anticatabolic effect by interfering with glucocorticoid receptor expression; and (iv) by non-genomic, as well as by genomic pathways, in the CNS resulting in behavioural changes. These mechanisms are discussed herein.
As an adjunct, much of the physiological importance of non-genomic actions of androgens is still to be elucidated, not least with respect to androgen-induced cell-cycle progression. The induction of second messenger signal transduction cascades by steroids commonly occurs within seconds to a few minutes, in contrast to genomic activity of the classic steroid receptors that takes 30–60min. Regarding androgens, several non-genomic mechanisms appear to be involved, including mediation by the membrane-bound sex hormone-binding globulin receptor and also a putative G-protein-coupled receptor that androgens directly bind with, as well as through stimulation of nonreceptor tyrosine kinase c-SRC. The complexity of these mechanisms is described in detail elsewhere (Cato et al., 2002; Heinlein and Chang, 2002a; Losel et al., 2003). Ultimately, gene transcription may be modulated by these ‘non-genomic' pathways but a well-recognized exception is the rapid elevation of calcium ion influx by a pathway that is confined to the cytoplasm. It is not currently known whether non-genomic actions of androgens at physiological concentrations are important in skeletal muscle growth, let alone what the non-genomic effects may be evoked by the administration of anabolic steroids. For the sake of brevity, this review will only very briefly touch again on non-genomic pathways under ‘Behavioural Effects' (see the section ‘Behavioural mechanisms').
Behavioural mechanisms
The behavioural effects of androgens/anabolic steroids in men and women, including those concerning sexual behaviour, cognitive abilities, aggression and mood, have been reviewed by Lukas (1996), Christiansen (2001, 2004) and Kuhn (2002) and are also discussed in the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) Research Monographs (Katz and Pope, 1990; Svare, 1990; Yesalis et al., 1990). Androgens are critical to the human male sexual behaviour and they can also enhance female sexual desire and arousal. Testosterone appears to play an important role in cognitive functioning, such as attention and alertness, memory and spatial skills, although based on the conclusions of a limited number of studies. With respect to mood, there are significantly positive correlations of endogenous androgen concentrations with a sense of well-being and joyfulness, and negative correlations with depression and anxiety. Major mood syndromes can arise with anabolic steroid use, including mania or hypomania (mania of a mild type) during exposure and depressive symptoms during steroid withdrawal (Pope and Katz, 1994). Anabolic steroid administration is also associated with increased aggression, especially in high-dose users, but this is not a foregone certainty given that the interaction between androgens and behaviour in men and women is complex. It is an entirely reasonable hypothesis that the athlete may learn to recognize and harness the increase in aggression that can arise with steroid use to help drive their training and increase their competitiveness (Brooks, 1978). Furthermore, male athletes who administer anabolic steroids and then withdraw just before competition in anticipation of a drug test may then experience (in the author's opinion) a lack of motivation and possibly depression, because they will be in a state of androgen deficiency, taking time for testicular steroidogenesis to recover. In an effort to avoid this problem, it is possible that some athletes may switch to using fairly small doses of short half-life formulations of testosterone for replacement purposes in the hope that, at the time of collection of their sample for drug testing, the urinary testosterone/epitestosterone ratio will be below the WADA reporting threshold of 4.
Clark and Henderson (2003) have summarized the literature with respect to the effects of anabolic steroids on the neural circuits that underlie behavioural effects; their review focusing on animal models and steroid exposure that mimic human abuse regimes. Androgen receptors mediate the effects of anabolic steroids in the mammalian brain; the expression of progestogen and oestrogen receptors may also be affected. Non-genomic pathways are important too, the best-characterized example being the allosteric modulation of GABAA receptor function by anabolic steroids, possibly through a putative binding site for anabolic steroids residing within the transmembrain domain of the receptor. Induction of aggression by anabolic steroids appears to overlap with neural circuits underlying the regulation of aggression by endogenous androgens, these being systems utilizing GABA, serotonin and arginine vasopressin.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2439524/
Keep in mind that I don't blindly trust and follow articles OR broscience, but rather a combo of the two in whatever ratio works for me. From a broscience perspective, it's rarely questioned whether or not a decent dose, preworkout, will increase the workout's intensity and total efficacy.
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J-dub
MuscleHead
- Feb 16, 2013
- 1,171
- 178
Thanks SAD the most compelling part of this article is the increased aggression during a workout I've often wondered if thats just psychosomatic or a real result from the drug. Not that it would really matter either way. I've tried running dbol just about every way I can think of and I prefer to take it all at once everyday but i've taken it the way you described as well and I have tried it post workout too and to be honest each way was very close to the same results. Also I have to take in to account that Im not getting my dbol from a legit pharmacy and have never truly known the exact dose/strength of the drug when I've run it. But until the science actually supports a protocol I'll just take it everyday.
graniteman
MuscleHead
- Dec 31, 2011
- 6,133
- 1,556
I recently had to drop dbol because of my bp issues. It's always been a favorite, so when I read this I said wth. Im now running 30 mg's the lil blue ones
a good hour before workout days only for a couple weeks now and I gotta say SAD hit it pretty good. Great pumps , better intensity in workouts and my bp has dropped to acceptable levels. I'm lovin it and will be prescribing myself a bit higher test dose!
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