Why Do You Recommend Against Spot Injections?

Hi Bill, I’ve read that you do not recommend spot injections. How come? I’ve injected in my biceps, triceps, and calves without problems. Are you going soft on us?

A: No, I don’t think I am. Maybe it could be said I am getting softer to some degree. I have been thinking more of health than I did in my 20’s. At that time in your life you tend to feel indestructible. I’m in my 30’s now, and more in touch with the fragility of life I guess. I’d never do today some of the things I did when I was 24 (2000mg of testosterone in one week, what the hell was I thinking?) So I guess I am trying to preach a message of steroid conservatism a bit more than I used to. But my recommendation in the London Lord’s lecture was not really based solely on that. It was more a function of my role in the conference. To give you some background, I was invited to speak with many of the great people that run and work in the needle exchange clinics throughout the UK. My goal was to not only educate the group, but to provide a strategy for what they term “harm reduction”.

Harm reduction is a concept that addresses the fact the people are using illegal drugs, and tries to minimize the negative impact of their use instead of simply judging the user. That is the function of these clinics. Some may say they facilitate drug use (often IV narcotics) by supplying free needles and syringes to users. Others, and I am one of them, believe this is far outweighed by the health protecting benefits of clean needles and free counseling. As far as steroids are concerned, I tried to provide some simple guidelines for reducing the health risks associated with their use for the average person. The cornerstone of this was the use of reasonable doses, limited administration of toxic oral steroids, regular checkups of health during and post cycle, and finding legitimate (as opposed to underground or counterfeit) drugs.

My recommendation for avoiding spot injections was simply another part of “harm reduction”. After all, I think few people will deny that there is a greater chance for injection error when trying to navigate the smaller muscle groups as opposed to the glutes and thighs, the recognized universal injection points for slow acting oil-based (depot) injections. Health issues due to local (small muscle) injections are not extremely uncommon. You hear them all the time. At the same time, many people have the experience and skill to run numerous cycles with many repeat injections into small muscles with no issue. My advice was to be applied to everyone that comes through the doors. Those that know what they are doing and have every intention of spot injecting will probably just ignore it. For those that are inexperienced, however, I definitely still believe that “spot” injections should be left for a much later time.

About the author

William Llewellyn

William Llewellyn is a research scientist and writer in the field of human performance enhancement. He is the author of several books including Underground Anabolics and Anabolics 10th Edition, one of the most widely read titles on the subject of performance enhancing substances.