Too Young to use (Part 2)

So what age should I wait until? And why?
In my opinion I would say about 21. When you are a teenager, boys will have a naturally high testosterone level anyway, which is why we see growth spurts at that age in males. At that age the body is not fully matured. Bones, muscle tissue, internal organs etc are all still undergoing their natural maturity. Taking exogenous anabolic steroids and other hormones to young can play absolute havoc in the body during this delicate time of development.

The main problem is that they can cause premature sealing of the epiphyseal bone closure process which consequently means you will not grow as big as your genetics could allow you. You can actually get a test done to see whether your growth plates have sealed yet. Usually it is safe to say around 21.

At puberty, antigonadotropic effects of steroids are much more potent. People know that adult hpta (hormone axis) recovers but no one knows what happens with teenagers. What if you have permanently lower testosterone levels for life as a result of taking exogenous sources at 15 when your hpta is not in full swing yet? Obviously you don’t have as much testosterone at 15 as you will naturally have at 21.

When I started training at 15 some of my friends went on steroids almost immediately. I firstly decided to opt for the natural route as like most newbies I knew nothing about steroids other than the media portrayed horror stories. I researched all I could about training and tried virtually every natural supplement that was out at the time. As I got older at 18 I got talking to some serious bodybuilders at my local gym.

They told me some of the basics but I decided I wanted to know more. If I was going to use steroids then I wanted to do it safely. I bought the magazines and would search out for articles on steroids although at that time there were very few. I think Mick had only just started writing in Muscle mag at the time. I also talked about it with my father who is a Clinical Biochemist, just to get an unbiased opinion. He was in fact very helpful (and still is today).

I realised at that time that I would really be wise to wait until I was at least 21 so that I could maximise on my bone growth (if I had any left) as well as keeping myself as safe as possible. I was at the time 5’11″. It was difficult, especially seeing lads my own age growing huge with what seemed like no effort. As I got older I saw younger lads juicing and growing.

There was me, working what I thought was 10 times harder than anyone else (and I probably was). I was determined to get big but thought more in the long term than right there and then. I knew I would have my time, when I was ready. I just kept my head down, trained hard and spent the next three years doing as much research as I could. I went out and read many books including Mick’s Layman’s Guides as well as The Anabolic Reference Guide and the couple of books out by the late Dan Duchaine.

Coming soon Part 3

Tagged as: anabolic steroids, bodybuilders, Delicate Time, Effects Of Steroids, Exogenous Sources, Full Swing, Growth Plates, Growth Spurts, Havoc, Horror Stories, Internal Organs, Local Gym, Muscle Mag, Muscle Tissue, Natural Maturity, Natural Supplement, Puberty, Testosterone, Testosterone Level, Testosterone Levels