What Happens When Bodybuilders Stop Taking Steroids?

There’s nothing wrong with wanting to look big and bulky. And if you play your cards right, you can do just that. But it’s when you start dipping your toe into the pool of steroid use things begin to get messed up.

If you’re a bodybuilder or dedicated gym goer and currently take steroids, just know that there’s another angle you can take. One that’s natural, clean and legal, and will allow you to maintain the body you want.

You just have to be willing to put some work in, have an open mind, and ditch the roids.

Do bodybuilders lose their gains when they stop taking steroids?

This is likely THE most pressing question a steroid user would have when he’s looking to wean off. Obviously, you wanted to gain size, that’s why you started using roids in the first place. But if you want out because of the health risks, you still want to maintain what you built up, right?

Here’s the deal. Steroids cause your body to produce a high amount of testosterone, which is the master hormone behind building muscle. It happens pretty rapidly too, evidenced by the speed at which people bulk up.

It’s not uncommon to put on several pounds of muscle in a few weeks and continue that trend for the duration that a cycle is being used. Now, once you start a period of steroid withdrawal, your body will no longer be pumping out as much testosterone or growth hormone, which will definitely have an effect on your size.

However, this doesn’t mean you’ll shrivel up into a prune and fade away. Your body can come back to normal once your hormones recalibrate. And, if you go the direction of using all-natural supplements instead of steroids, you can still get a good effect.

The bottom line is, yes you will likely lose some mass. But the good news is, you can still maintain a sizeable amount of bulk and be a healthier, happier human being all round.

Do bodybuilders need to do PCT when stopping steroids?

In case you were unfamiliar with the process, bodybuilders who use steroids go through a period of time where they take various steroids, and then they get off of them for a period of time.

The taking phase is called a cycle, and it’s during this time frame that their hormones are going through the roof, but their body is no longer producing them naturally. Yes, this goes against the laws of mother nature, and that’s one of the main reasons why steroids are so detrimental to your health.

Now, when they come off the roids for a spell of time, they often do what’s called post-cycle therapy or PCT for short. This involves using various other drugs to slowly wean the steroids out of their system and to get their bodies to produce testosterone and growth hormone naturally again.

The article PCT Uncovered: Why is Post-Cycle Therapy Needed After Steroids? goes into more detail about this concept if you want to get a little more dialed in. But to cut a long story short, the sad reality is bodybuilders generally do need PCT with steroid withdrawal.

It just makes sense. They spent months – or maybe even years, forcing their bodies to produce higher amounts of hormones to gain an advantage in the weight room. Then to just stop cold turkey and expect things to go back to normal is a far stretch.

This is similar to gaining a bunch of weight over the years because your eating and lifestyle habits were atrocious, then expecting to get right back in shape after one or two workouts at the gym.

That’s called fantasy and it’s unrealistic. Well, the same can be said about using steroids and thinking you can snap right back to your healthy self before you started using them.

When is the right time to start taking legal alternatives?

As the saying goes, “there’s no time like the present.” If you do take steroids and want to go the healthier route, there’s seriously no time like right now to make that happen. And here’s what’s in it for you:

• No side effects
• No risk of being thrown in the poky
• No erectile dysfunction
• A feeling of achievement that you accomplished a great body without cheating

You can’t really ask for anything better than that.

And if you’re concerned about losing size, legal alternatives might just be able to bridge that gap for you. These are made with all-natural ingredients that come directly from mother nature. They can give you a similar effect to hardcore steroids, but without the negative effects.

There are plenty of legal alternatives to choose from in the CrazyBulk range of supplements.

Final words of wisdom

There is an entire bodybuilding world out there free of steroids. At the end of the day, just know that you have a lot of options at your fingertips that don’t put your mind and body at risk of health issues. But it’s really up to you to make the decision and ultimately the transition away from roids.

If you’re in need of additional advice, the CrazyBulk blog is a great place to get started. The journey toward natural bodybuilding can be scary, but our blog contains a wealth of information for natural bodybuilders of all abilities. And once you get into it, I think you’ll find it was one of the best decisions you ever made.

Have you made the move towards natural bodybuilding already? How long did it take you to begin feeling ‘normal’ again? Tell us about it in the comments below.