MESO-Rx Exclusive Peter Bond on anabolic steroids and muscle memory

[MESO-Rx Administrator]

What is muscle memory?

"Muscle memory refers to growing muscle more efficiently/faster after a period of detraining/atrophy than before. So if you’ve had bigger muscles in the past, it will help you to grow them big again at a later point in time."

The big question: do anabolic steroids increase muscle memory? @PeterBond examines the research to find the answer:

Anabolic Steroids and Muscle Memory

Muscle memory refers to growing muscle more efficiently/faster after a period of detraining/atrophy than before. So if you’ve had bigger muscles in the

thinksteroids.com

View: https://twitter.com/thinksteroids/status/1462527567248900099

 

[Cashton]

Really a great read @PeterBond, very well put together, with great depth and clear understanding, thank you for this, and thank you for the work you do and how it benefits the community, I hope people actually take some time to read through your stuff, as steroid users, or people who just want to educate themselves on this topic, these articles are always pleasant to read.

 

[PeterBond]

Really a great read @PeterBond, very well put together, with great depth and clear understanding, thank you for this, and thank you for the work you do and how it benefits the community, I hope people actually take some time to read through your stuff, as steroid users, or people who just want to educate themselves on this topic, these articles are always pleasant to read.

Thank you for the kind words, these are very much appreciated! I'm trying my best to put together an amazing collection of articles for MESO-Rx. @Millard is providing me, besides a large audience, full freedom to write whatever I want, which is really great.

 

[Type-IIx]

Peter, thank you for this excellent article. This is an area I am very interested in, and your article is concise and actually brings data I was unaware of to the table. This is a significant work! @Millard should be pleased!

 

[Iamnatty]

That was a great article and very well put together thank you

 

[Michael Scally MD]

The MMAAS Project: An Observational Human Study Investigating the Effect of Anabolic Androgenic Steroid Use on Gene Expression and the Molecular Mechanism of Muscle Memory

Objective: It remains unknown whether myonuclei remain elevated post anabolic-androgenic steroid (AAS) usage in humans. Limited data exist on AAS-induced changes in gene expression.

Design: Cross-sectional/longitudinal.

Setting: University.

Participants: Fifty-six men aged 20 to 42 years.

Independent Variables: Non–resistance-trained (C) or resistance-trained (RT), RT currently using AAS (RT-AS), of which if AAS usage ceased for ≥18 weeks resampled as Returning Participants (RP) or RT previously using AAS (PREV).

Main Outcome Measures: Myonuclei per fiber and cross-sectional area (CSA) of trapezius muscle fibers.

Results: There were no significant differences between C (n = 5), RT (n = 15), RT-AS (n = 17), and PREV (n = 6) for myonuclei per fiber. Three of 5 returning participants (RP1-3) were biopsied twice. Before visit 1, RP1 ceased AAS usage 34 weeks before, RP2 and RP3 ceased AAS usage ≤2 weeks before, and all had 28 weeks between visits. Fiber CSA decreased for RP1 and RP2 between visits (7566 vs 6629 μm2; 7854 vs 5677 μm2) while myonuclei per fiber remained similar (3.5 vs 3.4; 2.5 vs 2.6). Respectively, these values increased for RP3 between visits (7167 vs 7889 μm2; 2.6 vs 3.3).

Conclusions: This cohort of past AAS users did not have elevated myonuclei per fiber values, unlike previous research, but reported AAS usage was much lower. Training and AAS usage history also varied widely among participants.

Comparable myonuclei per fiber numbers despite decrements in fiber CSA postexposure adheres with the muscle memory mechanism, but there is variation in usage relative to sampling date and low numbers of returning participants.

Lima G, Kolliari-Turner A, Wang G, et al. The MMAAS Project: An Observational Human Study Investigating the Effect of Anabolic Androgenic Steroid Use on Gene Expression and the Molecular Mechanism of Muscle Memory. Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine 9900. The MMAAS Project: An Observational Human Study... : Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine