Noob question. But i often read or hear that its always *some steroid* + testosterone...
Like, what is the difference? Isnt steroids, drugs that do what testosterone does? Grow bigger, recover faster, ect..
Testosterone is the foundation of all steroids, and should (imo) be the basis of all cycles.
Anyone who chooses to take steroids should have their first cycle be injectable testosterone (cypionate or enanthate) only.
(This is accepted consensus in bodybuilding community)
but humans tend to want more and so to get bigger or stronger they add other steroids to subsequent cycles. And other steroids have different chemical profiles which yield different results. Some are ideal for putting on lots of muscle mass, others help maintain strength and reduce strength loss when cutting weight (or reduce muscle wasting during disease, which is the intended medical use)
so a second cycle often has testosterone + maybe an oral steroid (or a different injectable). Think of it like a drinking tolerance. At first beer is great but eventually you graduate to shots, same idea.
Different steroids bond to different receptors in the body so doing 2-3 different steroids will have better results than just doing more of 1 steroid (testosterone) where you would exceed what your receptors and body can handle and wind up triggering more side effects.
So taking a smaller amount of 2-4 different steroids means more positive results and less side effects.
hope that makes sense. I’m not a doctor and this stuff can get pretty complicated.
Here is a good video on the 3 main steroid families, Derrick who runs this channel is insanely knowledgeable and pretty much a genius in biochemistry as it pertains to steroid use.