February 16, 2001
Issue # 34

STEROIDS AND THE MARTIAL ARTS
by Grendel

I am not an world-class martial artist nor would I ever claim to be. I did Tae-kwon-do (take-your-dough) when I was a little kid and got to the second degree of the red belt before I moved out of Thailand. I wrestled free-style and Greco-roman wrestling throughout high school and only lost one match. I studied Judo and Aikido for 2 years each; plus, I have seen the Matrix at least 10 times (and no, you cant be told what the Matrix is, if you don’t know, you should be shot). Bottom line, I have been around the martial arts enough to make a few informed recommendations.

As I see it, steroids have the following uses in the martial arts. One, they speed recovery. Two, they promote anabolism i.e. muscle growth which makes you stronger and quicker. Third, they increase your aggressiveness. Having considered all these factors as well as the issue of drug testing I have come up with some ideas and suggestions for using steroids in the martial arts. Most of my suggestions are equally applicable to a full-contact sport like football.
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Muscle Growth

Now the reason most people take steroids is for muscle growth and the accompanying increase in strength. To a martial artist, strength is particularly important but speed is also vital to a successful career. For a martial artist who is actively involved in competitions and training, I would suggest the follow drugs that increase strength without adding as much pure mass (this is basically because they do not cause you to hold water).

For the natural athlete (why are you here anyway? Just kidding of course) I would suggest products that promote anabolism.

Whey protein (or any high quality protein)

Branch-chain amino acids
Creatine
Prohormones

Basically a natural athlete must focus a lot more on diet and exercise because they walk a very fine line between progress and catabolism. 
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Muscle Recovery

Anabolic steroids will greatly improve your ability to recover and to heal damage. Look at modern football, a professional can practically lose his arm and the officials will say “oh yeah, looks like he is out for 2-3 games until that arm regrows…Thanks Met-Rx.” Martial arts take their toll on your body, they are physical exhausting, hard on the joints, and can result in bodily injury. Steroids are ideal at helping you get back after an injury. The steroid I would recommend for this is a very basic one; testosterone. I would also recommend growth hormone to a serious competitor.

For the natural martial artist, recovery involves two factors; food intake and rest. After each workout or practice, nutrition is key. I recommend that the athlete drink a recovery drink in the first thirty minutes after training. This drink is similar to what bodybuilders use after a workout.

Recovery Shake
50-80 grams whey protein
50-100 grams simple carbohydrates (glucose is ideal) 
5-10 grams creatine
5-10 grams glutamine
5 grams branch chain amino acids

This shake would be a good idea for a juiced athlete as well. 
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Aggression

I do not believe in “roid rage”. However, I do recognize that it is easier to work yourself up into frenzy when taking certain steroids. Aggression has an appropriate role in martial arts, as any practitioner recognizes. To stimulate your mood, take these drugs right before a match but be sure to allow about thirty minutes to an hour for the drugs to take effect. The steroids that I think are most likely to get someone into a fighting mode are:

Methlytestosterone
Halotestin
Anadrol
Cheque Drops (no one can get these, as far as I know)

These are all oral compounds that powerlifters are fond of. They are more liver toxic then other drugs and many people cannot tolerate this class of drug on any regular basis. As far as I am concerned, except for anadrol, these drugs have no real place outside contest preparation, powerlifting, and getting ready to fight.

The natural athlete is just going to have to think about his last ugly break-up. No, there are products that stimulate aggression because they raise natural testosterone levels. Pretty much, pro-hormones are your best bet. I find that the 4-androdiol works very well at increasing my aggression and I have used this before workouts to good effect. 
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Detection

This may not be an issue for all martial artist, but those who compete seriously should be aware of drug testing. This means that all long-acting compounds are out, particularly the common testosterone enthante and cypionate (which also means to sustanon). Furthermore, Nandrolone deconate (deca-durabolin) is completely out of the question.

This means that you will need to use fast acting drugs like testosterone propionate and suspension. Other fast drugs are:

Most orals

Trenbolone acetate

Furthermore, some drugs are completely undetectable such as growth hormone and insulin.

Obviously, the natural has nothing to worry about here.

Putting it all together

Well I feel like I have laid out many suggestions that would permit some people to put together their own drug regime. However, I am going to try to put everything together into a sample cycle and drug program. This is just a sample, everyone should think carefully about what works for him or her. If you have never used steroids before I recommend you do a lot more reading before trying the ideas in this article. Go through the back issues of Anabolic Extreme, you will find Scientifically Anabolic useful.

Ok so we want a drug to promote muscle growth but without causing a lot of water weight increase. I am going to use trenbolone acetate which is an excellent choice because it is also a fast acting drug and some people find it makes them more aggressive. I am also going to use winstrol. I will also be doing 700mg of testosterone per week. 4 weeks before the drug test I will switch to testosterone propionate and continue with the trenbolone (no winstrol). A week before the test I will stop using all drugs and I would use HCG to try to boost hormone levels in the body to get to a decent testosterone to estrogen level. Now, I admit I am not being very helpful with how to beat the drug test and there are many excellent ways to do this, but that’s another article in itself. If I was very careful and it was a very big competition I would stop using steroids a full month out from the contest and I would use high dosages of growth hormone.

Up to 4 weeks from competition:

75mg trenbolone every other day
50mg winstrol daily
700mg testosterone per week

In the last 4 weeks

100mg testosterone propionate/daily 
Growth hormone (no less then 6 IUs per day)

Day of fight

100 mg test suspension and 20-40mg halotestin 1 hour before the fight. 
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Conclusion

This is not an article that will be of use to Olympic martial artists; those guys have designer steroids and elaborate masking agents to get away with murder (from an anabolic prospective). This does not mean that many of you will not find some of the ideas in this article useful. If you are a recreational martial artist looking to improve your performance, then a more moderate cycle would be fine and there is no reason not to use a classic stack like testosterone and Nandrolone (deca-durabolin).

Now I know I was supposed to finish Castaway this issue, but I decided to write this article based on some comments I read on the Anabolic Extreme message board. This magazine is a service and so I think it’s important that we respond to our reader’s interest and help them do what they want to do. However, it can be hard to do this without feedback. Please don’t be shy, you won’t hurt our feelings (well ok you will hurt my feelings and I will cry a lot but…) and it will make the magazine better for everyone. On one final note, please, if you are ordering supplements try to go through the Anabolic Extreme store so that we can defray some of the costs of producing this magazine and also so I don’t have to get those damn IOUS from Jason scribbled on a napkin in crayon.

Well that’s its for now. Please keep the comments coming, I can be reached at Grendel@anabolicextreme and I read the Anabolic Extreme board with religious fervor so you can drop me a line there as well. Until next week…

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