I Reduced My Steroids By 3x (The Results Shocked Me)
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Big myth in bodybuilding: the more gear you take, the better things go. It is not true. If you increase your steroids quickly, you're going to gain a shitload of weight. Almost all of it will be body water. Was on 100 mg per week of tren, which was not fun. Organs are like the floor of a party with gum, beer, and cigarette butts and people stepping on it. If you haven't used steroids yet, highly encourage you to never use them. Steroids have absolutely shortened my predictive lifespan. Is it really worth it?
Hey folks, Dr. Mike here for RP Strength. Taking three times less total steroids did to my body. In summer of 2024, did a show prep for competitive bodybuilding, getting back to it soon. Was not doing great: hurt back, psychology stuff, social support, genetics, tan, other people. Taking normal amount of gear for size and level of muscularity: peak total steroid amount per week of about 2,000 mg.
Combination of testosterone, primobolan (primo, similar to testosterone but fewer side effects, can take more for muscle gain), Anavar (oxandrolone, oral), and 100 mg/week tren (not fun for health or psychology, but not a lot of tren). Post-show DEXA: 233 lbs at 6.3% body fat, lean mass 218 lbs, 4 lbs visceral adipose tissue, bone density T-score 4.8 (higher is better, more dense bones).
For a year after, low gear phase (break from bodybuilding half of 2024 and first half of 2025). Went on podcasts: Diary of a CEO, Peter Attia, Trigonometry. On lots of gear, judgment cloudy, aggro. Prioritized podcasts over bodybuilding. Took time away from training (high steroids without hard training is stupid and worse for health). Got love handle and lower back skin/fat cut out (stored fat/skin hung when lean; videos on surgery exist).
Total androgen load: 150-500 mg/week (at most quarter of peak, usually 150-250 mg, TRT territory). Trained arms and delts hard until surgery recovery, stopped overloading legs (legs were biggest part of physique, no weak point, massive; wanted to shrink for aesthetics/competition). Leg workout every 5-7 days: set of 10 stiff-legged deadlifts at 135 lbs (normal 300-400+ lbs), set of 10 bodyweight squats on tippy toes, set of 10 unloaded lunges. Total ~2 minutes.
Legs shrunk substantially as wanted. March 2025 surgery, 7 weeks later back to harder training. Began 6-month recomp/dieting phase: first 2.5 months recomp (bodyweight same, super healthy eating, no more androgens beyond 150 mg/week total androgen TRT, trained hard, more activity). Next 3.5 months: calories down, weight trained intensely, 10,000 steps/day, cranked androgens higher monthly.
New peak: 750 mg total weekly androgen exposure (~1/3 of 2024 peak; if counting orals differently, less than third). Recent peak physique DEXA (same location/machine, ~1.5 years later): 222 lbs at 6% body fat, lean mass 208 lbs (11 lbs lighter, 3% leaner, 10 lbs less lean body mass), undetectable visceral adipose tissue (vs 4 lbs before), bone density T-score 5.0 (higher than 4.8).
2024 peak (~2,000 mg): 10 lbs more LBM, more fat mass, way more visceral fat, less dense bones. Same ancillary drugs: 3-6 IU growth hormone, no insulin. Recent peak: on tirzepatide and retatrutide (zapped visceral fat, made healthier). Psychologically better on 1/3 gear: less anxiety, anger.
Upper body strength at 2024 peak (~2,000 mg) almost identical to 2025 (1/3 gear); recent upper body PRs higher than 2024. Legs weaker (stopped training year, restarting). Leg difference: visually/strength apparent, 2-5 lbs muscle loss (will regain next year). Upper body same/more. Remaining ~5 lbs LBM difference: water weight (higher androgens store more water intracellularly/ extracellularly; transient, not muscle).
Upper body same, legs smaller due to no training (not dosage). Didn't get much more muscle from 2,000 vs 750 mg (not on either long enough for much muscle growth; 2,000 mg only ~2 weeks, prior ramp). At high doses, body water increases fast (weeks), muscle slower (months). Generally: 500-1,000 mg gains more muscle than 1,000-1,500 or 1,500-2,000 (diminishing returns); above 2,000 mg hits hard (especially older, 25+ years training, prior gear use).
Myth busted: more gear ≠ better (mostly water, diminishing muscle returns). On ~750 mg/week get 95% results of triple dose. If never used: don't start (shortens lifespan). TRT safer for low T/aging/weight loss. SARMs like LGD-4033 (liendrol) safer short-term. Non-androgenic anabolics few years away—wait to avoid downsides.
If using: start super low, time in each range to minimize high-dose exposure. Fictional example:
- Months 1-3: 150 mg total androgens (e.g., 100 mg test + 50 mg primo or 150 mg test).
- Bloodwork every 3 months; if good, bump +100 mg (prefer primo for fewer sides; adjust test/primo for normal estrogen).
- Months 4-6: 250 mg.
- Months 7-9: 350 mg.
Grows muscle linearly, feels each range fully, monitors health. Then 3 months at 150 mg TRT to recover/maintain. Then 3 months at 250 mg to cut fat gained, get DEXA to assess.
See how the results are and then later when another one of these phases comes in you'll get another dex. If your health is good and remember every three months blood work and you're making grownup decisions with the help of a medical professional and a coach what you can do is restart at 250 milligrams. So you 250 for the cut and then 250 for this next phase and then you go through those three muscle gain phases again and up 100 each time. So you did that fat loss of 250 for 3 months. You go to a bulk at 250. 3 months later, check your blood work. If it's all good, go to 350. 3 months later, check your blood work. If it's all good, go to 450. So you have a 9-month stretch of slow muscle gain, aiming to gain half a pound per week, even more like a third of a pound per week. And the androgens will add tons of body water, so that should happen no problem. That'll give you 9 months of amazing gains. After that, you go down to 150 milligrams. Wash out. The next thing you do is your fat loss phase. This time you go to 350 milligrams cuz like you want to take more gear and see how the other side lives. 350 for that fat loss phase. Instead of 250 last cycle, 350 again for muscle gain one, then you go 350, 450, 550. That's the template. It will take you years to get way above 500 and into the gram range. And you will have gained an unbelievable amount of muscle using what in bodybuilding circles is considered very low dose cycling because you did it smart and you took the drugs for long enough for them to actually have a big effect instead of being dumb and going up to two grams to get all bloated for no reason for a few weeks, burn out on psychological effects, and then abandon ship.
Here's the big one. Once the side effects, psychological not having a good time, health side effects are really impinging you, stop raising that first cycle androgen number, that fat loss phase where you go to 250, then 350, then 450. If at 450 it's no bueno anymore, just go back to 350 because you can rerun the same cycle and get tons of muscle growth out of it. You don't always have to go up. For many people, for most people, starting cycles at most at 500 milligrams and only upping by 100 is way better for a combination of look, physical health, and psychological health and long-term probability of death, by the way, than starting at 1500 milligrams with a yolo attitude. This way by doing things slowly in a measured way. You can always check in on health stuff cuz every 3 months you're getting blood work. And if you think that's too often to get blood work, just don't do steroids because if blood work is annoying, that's kind of like if someone's like, I want to get really jacked. And you're like, well, you have to buy a gym membership. They're like, gym membership? Now you're going to tell me I have to go to the gym also. That just buying a membership doesn't get me jacked. Like, okay, this isn't for you.
This way, doing it smart. And there are many ways to do it smart. This is just an example. You can make use of a muscle growing power of gear which takes months. Not just the body water effect that takes days and weeks and get amazing safer long-term progress. Or check this out. Or just go straight to a 1000 mgs daily of tren. Scott, >> let's party, baby. >> Hell yeah. It's not a fun party. You are the party. Actually, your organs are like the floor of a party with gum and beer and cigarette butts and people stepping on it. Awesome. Would recommend out of a hundred. That was a joke. Please don't go to the moon at 1000 milligrams of tren. You know what's funny, Scott? This whole moon thing. Uh NASA just cleared like the moon base project for like 2027 or whatever and like SpaceX is going to be launching rockets to build a moon base. I'm just wondering like why don't they take a couple of pros on thousands of milligrams of Tren and just have them lift the moon base onto the moon. >> That's an easy solution. >> Like you're going to go to the moon anyway. Might as well take some useful with you.
All jokes aside, here's my plan for my future pending that my health doesn't go down the which is a big if. I'll probably compete in bodybuilding again soon. But I'm unlikely to ever exceed 1000 milligrams at my peak. We're talking about half of the steroids that I did in my prior history in my late 30s. And when I don't think it's if when non-androgenic anabolics come out, they're going to be 10 times plus safer and as or more effective than steroids. When they come out in a few years, I'll be on them shits like white on rice. And to be honest, fellas, I'm probably never going to take anything other than 100 mgs of TRT, testosterone replacement therapy, ever again. And I'm going to do the same layering process I just described, except each one of those little stacks is not going to be primabolin. It's going to be non-androgenic anabolics. The second renaissance of muscle gain is almost upon us.
Until that happens, I do have the RP diet coach app as my friend link in description and the RP hypertrophy app. These are absolute no joke, bro. You guys, real talk, I use these apps every single day. Yes, even the hypertrophy app because I don't train every day. I train about 6 days a week, but on my off day, I in the evening, usually on the not that you guys needed to know that, but it's been accused of too much transparency. Why not? I will look up my workout that I have like tomorrow and get really excited about it. So, pretty much I log into my hypertrophy app every single day. I use my Diet Coach app every single day for every single meal. I love it. I'm inseparable from those apps. And I will never tell you that you have to buy anything ever. I'm the worst advertiser of all time. But if these apps can be useful for you, I would give them a thought. They're in all the Google, Apple Play stores. Find them there. Links in the description. All that stuff. We have discount codes. Other than that, that's my plan. Yay, guys. I'm going to see you next time. And until I see you, and also during me seeing you and after me seeing you, please continue to make safe legal choices. And to quote Lieutenant Dan from Forest Gump, don't do anything stupid getting yourself killed. See you next time.
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