If you’re regular with your workouts, the chances are high that you might have already heard of steroids – perhaps you might even be using them first hand!
Anyone who has heard about steroids is also aware of prohormones. Many times, the two terms are used interchangeably. But that doesn’t imply that they are the same.
Although steroids and prohormones might deliver the same type of results, they are distinct compounds.
Both of these compounds are actively used by a great multitude of bodybuilding fanatics as they can greatly contribute to the muscle growth progress.
However, they take entirely different approaches to this process, with prohormones being generally considered slightly safer than steroids.
Let’s understand:
- What are steroids?
- What are prohormones?
- How the prohormones of the past compare with the prohormones of today
- Which one of the prohormones and steroids is safer
- Which one of the two is more effective
- And the final word on the prohormone vs steroids analysis
Steroids – What You Should Know
Getting a little technical as the topic demands so, a steroid is a compound with the below-mentioned two primary functions.
As against the popular perception, these compounds aren’t necessarily always used for the growth of muscle mass.
Steroids play a very critical role in the health maintenance of the cells in your body. Many of them impact cells’ permeability, enabling the flow of less or more amount of fluid in or out of the cells.
This function makes steroids extremely important for the human body’s every biological function.
Steroids serve as signals for steroid hormone receptors spread all over the human body. It’s how they make people manlier, as they can trigger a regular release of testosterone.
Steroids are of several different types, even though the most common perception among the masses that steroids are just steroids! There’s much more to them than that.
Carry out some research and you’d find that there are plenty of steroids with completely different functions. The ones we are talking about here are the anabolic steroids.
These are to do with our body’s muscle mass and are also referred to as androgens.
- A special property of anabolic steroids is that they can impact the extent of protein allowed outside and inside of the cells.
- They feature several masculine or androgenic properties, the reason they make people hairier.
There is also a fair amount of risk of suffering from serious side effects directly because of anabolic steroids’ usage. The side effects are more likely if you’re careless with them.
It’s very important that you consume steroids only consulting a doctor, and consume them exactly as prescribed.
It’s important to note that anabolic steroids are categorized as Schedule III drugs in the United States and it’s illegal to buy them without a prescription.
Regardless of that, several people continue to sourcing them from various online retailers. It leads to a whole lot of dangers and risks as you can never be sure about what you’re getting.
There are no guarantees with regard to the proper tests being carried out on such steroids, and whether they contain the promised ingredients or not.
Some of the commonly known anabolic steroids are:
Injectable: Trenbolone, testosterone, Primobolan, equipoise, and nandrolone
Oral: Halodrol, Anavar, d-Bol, Superdrol, Winstrol, Anadrol-50 and Epistane
What are Prohormones?
Simply put, a prohormone can be termed a substance that the body converts into a hormone.
Many times people also refer to them as steroidal supplements, which leads to plenty of confusion as they are far from actual steroids.
They aren’t hormones in themselves either, since the body must process them into hormones.
The conversion-ability of prohormones into hormones can improve the bioavailability of certain hormones in the body, which cannot be consumed orally.
This can be particularly helpful for people who don’t respond well to the injectables.
Prohormones give you the power to decide the hormones you want to impact your body.
For instance, if you’re after more of androgenic features (a result of testosterone), you could opt for a testosterone-related prohormone, enabling your body to process its desired level.
Please note, this is quite different from the actual consumption of testosterone, which is actually a steroid.
Testosterone is a hormone that is greatly responsible for the repair and growth of muscles, the reason why testosterone-related prohormones are extremely popular in the marketplace.
Prohormones are ideal compounds for people who are not comfortable with the idea of consuming highly synthetic steroids.
Although they might be extracted synthetically, they provide your body with just the right building blocks to help it create its own hormones.
Regular consumption of a prohormone enables your body to naturally regulate its amount by deciding how much needs to be converted into actual hormones.
This prevents a situation where your body might go into a hormonal overdrive, also referred to as roid-rage.
Some of the commonly known prohormones are:
Epiandrosterone, 5-andro, 4-andro, 1-andro, 5aOHP, 1,4-andro and 1,4-OHP
Prohormones in the Past vs Prohormones These Days
In the past
A compound known as 1-AD was the first ever prohormone invented by the mankind. It was an invention of a chemist called Patrick Arnold.
The consumption of this prohormone increases the levels of 1-testosterone in the human body, causing results quite like that provided by Winstrol, the anabolic steroid.
Owing to the effectiveness of 1-AD many other prohormones were invented later, over a period of time, allowing men to pack on big muscles and score major strength gains without the need for anabolic steroids.
But these gains had their own cost in the form of certain negative side effects, some of which were the same as that of anabolic steroids. People regularly consuming prohormones started developing:
- High LDL cholesterol levels
- High blood pressure
- Low testosterone levels (per cycle)
- Liver damage
All such side effects didn’t go unnoticed and led to the introduction of the Anabolic Steroid Control Act of 2004, leading to a blanket ban on the purchase of prohormones.
Today
There are several different types of prohormones you can purchase from the marketplace today, that are available in accord with the Anabolic Steroid Control Act of 2004.
It implies that the prohormones available for purchase in the market have less dangerous side effects than earlier.
On the other hand, they are much less anabolic compared to the steroids, therefore their results are also a fraction of what can be achieved with the use of anabolic steroids.
Following are some branded prohormones that can be purchased from the market today:
- Liquidien
- Havoc
- Cynostane
- XI-KT
- Halodrol
- Androtest
- Protodrol
- Nanodrol
- Triumphalis
- Nano Mithras
Steroids vs Prohormones – Which One is Safer?
Prohormones are considered safer than steroids. However, it should be kept in mind that both can cause some major side effects.
But when it comes to steroids, they are likely to cause some serious and fatal problems. Among the steroids too, there are few that are more dangerous than others.
For instance,
- Superdrol and Anadrol 50 come with a serious risk of causing hair loss
- Nandrolone, which is a type of injectable steroid, is very dangerous for the heart
- Superdrol also poses a serious risk to the heart and prostate condition
- On the whole, oral steroids pose a major damage risk to the liver.
While all steroids can be termed as particularly dangerous, the ones that are consumed orally also carry some risk of prostate pain, liver damage, heart damage, and hair loss.
Some of the other commonly known negative side effects associated with steroids’ consumption are:
- Flu symptoms
- Loss of libido
- Sweaty palms
- Insomnia
- Shrinking of testicles
- Oily skin
- Hypertension
- Infertility
- Elevated heartbeat
- Liver toxicity
- Night Sweats
- Acne
- Spike in cholesterol levels
- Gynecomastia
- A shutdown of the body’s natural testosterone production
- Mood swings, Organ failure, Increased risk of stroke and more
Coming to prohormones, although not absolutely safe, the side effects caused by them are less severe compared to steroids.
But, as mentioned earlier, there are some prohormones that might cause problems similar to steroids because of the way they overstimulate certain hormones. For instance,
- 5-Andro comes with a serious risk of causing estrogen imbalance in the body, which might lead to extreme mood swings and/or development of male breasts.
- Epiandrosterone, on the other hand, is well known for causing prostate pain and baldness.
Prohormones vs Steroids – Which is more Effective?
Going further into the prohormones vs steroids analysis, if we talk about their effectiveness, it mostly depends on the end result that you are trying to achieve.
When you’re consuming anabolic steroids, your results will be extremely fast, especially if you opt for the right dosage and cycle.
Now, the exact results you’ll witness would depend entirely on the steroids you use. Some of them help in fat burning, while others build muscle mass.
In general, a majority of the AAS enable users to put on significant amounts of muscle mass, simultaneously burning body fat.
Many users are known to add to the extent of 30 pounds of muscle mass to their bodies after following only one six-week cycle.
Prohormones on the other hand function as precursors to the natural hormones produced in the human body, hence, the results from them cannot be expected to be equally dramatic.
Steroids bind themselves with the receptors in the muscular cells that make use of natural testosterone. This implies that they mimic the testosterone’s effects on the human body, thus causing quicker results.
However, you can still look forward to significant muscle and strength gains, apart from the reduction in body fat percentage, when you’re cycling prohormones.
But to be honest, the results obtained from prohormones are incomparable to that of steroids like trenbolone and others. Nevertheless, there would be some improvement.
Final Word
The final word on prohormones vs steroids analysis is that prohormones are very different from steroids.
No one should be mistaken that they can get the same type of muscular gains and results from prohormones as they can get from steroids.
What more, the prohormones available in the market today, in accord with the Anabolic Steroid Control Act of 2004, are way weaker than before.
Anabolic steroids, on the other hand, cause so many serious side-effects that you’d be better off avoiding them in entirety.
If you’re keen on achieving the same type of results as steroids but without any of their harmful side effects, using legal steroid alternatives is the way to go.
These safes steroid alternatives are developed with the idea of replicating the effects of anabolic steroids, but because they are made up of all-natural herbs and plants, they don’t lead to any nasty side effects. They definitely deserve a check-out.
