Prohormones and Muscle Memory

Jon Stark

New Member
I read your article on "muscle memory", and mostly considered it in terms of detraining and muscle atrophy.

http://www.thinkmuscle.com/articles/haycock/muscle-memory.htm

But what about muscle memory after prohormone use? People tend to make some gains on prohormones, and then they bounce back to varying degrees (depending on diet, post-cycle supplementation, exercise). Some of the weight lost is water. But some real muscle mass is lost too, I assume.

Do you think this muscle memory effect holds true for gains acheived through training and prohormone use and then lost? I can't see why they wouldn't, but I'm curious to hear Bryan's (or anyone's) take on it.
 
Good question. There is only one receptor for androgens. Thus, testosterone, prohormones, and synthetic anabolic steroids all work the same way. They all cause anabolism through the androgen receptor. Most do this through nuclear receptors, others also interact with androgen receptors at the cell membrane.

So, anything we say about prohormones, also applies to testosterone and anabolic steroids. The only difference (I’m generalizing a little bit) is seen by different amounts used and for different periods of time. The effects of Androgens are dose dependant.

All androgens cause muscle growth by a similar mechanism(s).

· Enhanced growth factor activity (e.g. GH, IGF-1, etc.)
· Enhanced activation of myogenic stem cells (i.e. satellite cells)
· Enhanced myonuclear number (to maintain nuclear to sarcoplasmic ratio)
· Enhanced protein synthesis
· Enhanced amino acid recycling within muscle cells
· New myofiber formation


All of these things lead to bigger muscles, whether you train or not. Add to these effects, hypertrophy-specific training and hypertrophy-specific nutrition and you see dramatic increases in muscle mass.

Now when a person quits using prohormones/steroids, they have a greater number of myonuclei than they did before and additional new muscle fibers. This allows them to maintain a greater amount of muscle mass than they could have naturally. This “recently-natural” look is what you see in a lot of magazines today.

As long as you can maintain the new myonuclei, and new muscle fibers, you will store up muscle memory and a greater potential for later drug-free regrowth.
 
I'd like to know too, I keep throwing around the idea of doing a cycle or two. I can't decide though. Still have some research to do before making the leap.

Steve
 
Yeah Steve -- I'll be the guinea pig this time around. Hehe.

Being perhaps overcautious, I'm going with nordiol. The Nor-ADerm product from Avant Labs. Maybe later I'll experiment with more highly aromatisable substances, but for now I want to play it safe.

Just a 2 weeks cycle, following the general recommendations laid out for inserting a Mag-10 cycle into HST (i.e. make sure the weights are still increasing when you come off).

I'll be sure to post results, but I'm not going to make a big deal about them unless something really wild happens. I don't think my experience will be very applicable to others. This cycle of HST is more of a rehab, coming off my biceps tendon tear. So I'm not expecting striking results, because I have to stick to light weight/high rep work on pulling movements. I'm just hoping the prohormone will accelerate recovery of strength and size in my left arm.

(By the way, this was another reason for choosing nordiol -- there's a lot of anecdotal reports that it's easier on connective tissues. Clearly this would be a plus in my case.)

In terms of progress so far this HST cycle, I'm ending 10s and moving into 8s, and my right bicep seems to be getting bigger for the first time in a long while, maybe due to the fact that by necessity I work it in isolation. But that's good and bad. Big muscle is good, striking assymetry between my right and left arms is not so good. Legs are coming along nicely too.
 
That's one of the routes I was thinking of going myself. The lack of side effects is appealing. I was also thinking of 1-test (ONE) doing a 2on 2 off 2on 4off schedule. I don't know yet. Maybe I'll just let you be the guinea pig with the Nor A-derm since you're starting soon. ;)

Steve
 
Definitely Steve. I'll tell you how it works, and then you can better decide which route to go.

The only side effect I'm concerned with is loss of libido, but it's only 2 weeks. Hopefully it won't be a problem.
 
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