How do steroids affect your muscles— and the rest of your body? – Anees Bahji

As a number of studies have already shown, anabolic steroids do enhance our workout efforts, and in more than one way. Let us have a closer look. When we do some form of strenuous exercise, the fibers in the muscles suffer from many micro-tears. What repairs these tears is the hormone testosterone which is produced naturally by our body. The hormone does not only repair tears, but at the same time as it is performing this process, it also overcompensates by way of building stronger muscle fibers.

Steroids also help us recover quickly than is normal from fatigue accumulated in the muscles during exercise. When muscles are overworked, they tend to release the hormone cortisol, also known as the stress hormone. These stress hormones contribute to the breakdown of the muscles by binding themselves to the receptor sites of the muscles. But what anabolic-androgenic steroids do is they inhibit this process, thereby reducing the fatigue. And when there is less fatigue, we can work out more days a week, thus gaining muscle more quickly.

The benefits of steroid are not only limited to muscle growth and strength, but they also help one reduce body fat and stay lean (which means that you do not need to observe a strict diet all the time and may even go over the top once in a while!).  Research has shown that the natural hormone testosterone slows down the creation of fat cells, which is why lower body fat percentages are associated with higher levels of testosterone and similarly, higher levels of body fat with lower testosterone levels.

What Do Steroids Do To Your Body?