Anabolic steroids, without question this is a topic of enormous debate. However, when it comes to anabolic steroids very few people actually understand what they are. If you ask the average man what these compounds are, he'll state they have strong muscle building properties, but in most cases, he'll make some strong links between anabolic steroids and recreational drugs like cocaine or heroine. While anabolic steroids share nothing in common with recreational drugs, it's not surprising that many tend to equate them as one in the same. This is largely due to the massive amount of misinformation that's been spread and touted as the truth despite no evidence given to back up the claims. Countless physicians and medical experts tout the dangers of anabolic steroids, but when asked to provide data that supports such claims they rarely produce any credible evidence. Even so, most tend to believe them; after all, we trust such individuals to provide us with the best information possible.
When it comes to anabolic steroids, we have a topic that is largely discussed on the basis of emotion rather than facts. When Galileo made claims that the earth was not the center of the universe, the emotional outcry was enormous. The facts made no difference to many people, as they were content to base their argument on emotion rather than hard, concrete evidence. When it comes to anabolic steroids, the same thing can be said. The issue of anabolic steroids is for all intense purposes the same kind of thing, it's the modern day version, and those who purport the false information are more or less modern day witch hunters. This brings us to one important question, what are anabolic steroids? Let's take a look and see what we can find.
Anabolic steroids are synthetic hormones based on the primary male sex hormone testosterone or a structurally altered version. Testosterone itself is the primary anabolic steroid, but dihydrotestosterone (DHT) makes up a large portion of the steroid grouping as well. DHT is simply a byproduct of testosterone. The testosterone in the body has the ability to reduce to DHT through the 5-alpha reductase enzyme. Many testosterone based steroids have this ability as well, and some anabolic steroids are already in their DHT state.
With all anabolic steroids, there can be structural alterations to the testosterone hormone that give us a unique anabolic steroid. There are actually numerous anabolic steroids to choose from. Contrary to the movies you've seen, someone doesn't buy a bottle that is labeled “steroids” any more than they go to the grocery story and buy a jar labeled “food.” The term steroid is rather generic, and it simply refers to a large class of hormones.
When structurally altered, there are numerous changes that can occur to the primary hormone. For example, by taking an anabolic steroid and adding a methyl group to the carbon 17th alpha, this allows a hormone to be ingested orally. By introducing a double carbon bond at atoms one and two, this will reduce a steroid's andrgenicity giving us a completely different anabolic steroids; more on androgenicity shortly. Then there are 19-nortestosterone compounds like Nandrolone, which is simply testosterone lacking the carbon atom at the 19th position. There truly are limitless combinations we can come up with when it comes to anabolic steroids.
Regardless of the anabolic steroid in question, all anabolic steroids carry an anabolic and androgenic rating. These ratings are based and measured against testosterone, which carries a rating of 100 in both categories. By providing structural alterations to a hormone, we can increase or decrease its anabolic or androgenic nature. For example, by taking the DHT hormone and replacing the carbon-2 A-ring with an oxygen atom, this gives us the anabolic steroid Anavar (Oxandrolone) and it provides it in a way that greatly increases its anabolic rating (630) and decreases its androgenic rating (24). What's more important than the ratings, which are based on a steroid's structural nature, is how the anabolic and androgenic activity translate into real life. It's not uncommon for certain steroids to produce far more or far less activity in either category despite its rating implying otherwise. Nandrolone would be a primary example, it carries a relatively low androgenic rating, however, often displays androgenic traits a little higher than it's rating implies. As for the meaning behind anabolic and androgenic, anabolic refers to muscle building, while androgenic refers to the male sexual characteristics.
Anabolic steroids often receive a lot of bad press on the basis of being foreign substances to the body. Based one what we discussed above can we actually call anabolic steroids foreign substances? The answer would be yes and no. They are synthetic hormones, and on that basis you could possibly make a foreign connection. However, they are synthetic hormones of the identical hormones our body naturally produces. The human body naturally produces testosterone, dihydrotestosterone and nandrolone, and when it comes to synthetic forms of say testosterone the human body does not know any difference. Granted, these hormones can be structurally altered in order to enhance or minimize specific traits, but it doesn't really change the base hormone itself. In some ways, anabolic steroids are more natural to the body than some vitamins and minerals. After all, human beings cannot naturally produce vitamin-c, but we all produce testosterone.
There are numerous types of anabolic steroids, seemingly countless. For example, if you take the basic testosterone hormone in its pure form, that's one anabolic steroid. You can then attach an ester to it, and that gives you another anabolic steroid. Esters are often attached to steroids in order to control their release time, but they do not affect the actual hormone's natural mode of action. Then you can take the same testosterone hormone and start making structural alterations to its carbon atoms or things of that nature, and low and behold you have another steroid. While there are countless anabolic steroids, those who supplement will normally only use a few. There are 24 specific compounds that represent the most common compounds, and most who supplement won't even use all 24. Absolutely, there are numerous anabolic steroids beyond the primary 24, but when you understand the primary 24 you'll generally be able to understand the rest.
With various types of anabolic steroids in mind, we have listed the primary 24 below by compound name (hormone & ester if applies) and the compounds most well-known trade name. We have also included the steroids anabolic and androgenic rating, and how its rating translates. From there we will move to our second chart, chart B will simply list the primary 24 anabolic steroids by their most commonly associated name including their half-life and recommended administration frequency.
Compound |
Trade Name |
Anabolic Rating |
Androgenic Rating |
Translation |
Oxymetholone |
Anadrol |
320 |
45 |
ADG + |
Oxandrolone |
Anavar |
630 |
24 |
ABC- |
Nandrolone Decanoate |
Deca-Durabolin |
125 |
37 |
ADG+ |
Nandrolone Phenylpropionate |
Durabolin (NPP) |
125 |
37 |
ADG+ |
Methandrostenolone |
Dianabol |
210 |
60 |
ADG+ |
Boldenone Undecylenate |
Equipoise |
100 |
50 |
ABC- |
Trenbolone Acetate |
Fina |
500 |
500 |
PT |
Fluoxymesteron |
Halotestin |
1,900 |
850 |
ABC-, |
Drostanolone Enanthate |
Masteron E |
62 |
25 |
PT |
Drostanolone Propionate |
Masteron |
62 |
25 |
PT |
Testosterone Mixture |
Omnadren |
100 |
100 |
PT |
Trenbolone Hexahydrobenzylcarbonate |
Parabolan |
500 |
500 |
PT |
Methenolone Acetate |
Primobolan |
88 |
57 |
PT |
Methenolone Enanthate |
Primobolan Depot |
88 |
57 |
PT |
Mesterolone |
Proviron |
150 |
40 |
ABC- |
Testosterone Mixture |
Sustanon-250 |
100 |
100 |
PT |
Testosterone Cypionate |
N/A |
100 |
100 |
PT |
Testosterone Enanthate |
N/A |
100 |
100 |
PT |
Testosterone Propionate |
N/A |
100 |
100 |
PT |
Testosterone Suspension |
N/A |
100 |
100 |
PT |
Trenbolone Enanthate |
N/A |
500 |
500 |
PT |
4chlorodehydromethyltestosterone |
Turinabol |
100 |
0 |
PT |
Stanozolol |
Winstrol |
320 |
30 |
PT |
Stanozolol |
Winstrol Depot |
320 |
30 |
PT |
· ABC-: Anabolic translation less than rating implies
· ADG+: Androgenic translation greater than rating implies
Compound |
Half-Life |
Administration Frequency |
Anadrol |
8.5hrs |
M: 1x/ed P: 1x/ed |
Anavar |
9hrs |
M: 1x/ed P: 1x/ed |
Deca-Durabolin |
15 days |
M: 1x every 1-2 wks P: 1-2x/wk |
Durabolin (NPP) |
5 days |
M: 2x/wk P: EOD |
Dianabol |
5hrs |
P: ed |
Equipoise |
14 Days |
P: 1-2x/wk |
Fina |
3 Days |
PEOD |
Halotestin |
9.5hrs |
M: 1x/ed P: 1x/ed |
Masteron E |
8 days |
P: 1-2x/wk |
Masteron |
2.5 days |
P: EOD |
Omnadren |
15 Days |
M: 1x every 2-3wks P: 3x/wk-EOD |
Parabolan |
6 Days |
P: 2x/wk |
Primobolan |
5hrs |
M: 1x/ed P: 1x/ed |
Primobolan Depot |
10.5 Days |
M: 1x every 1-2wks |
Proviron |
12hrs |
M: 1x/ed P: 1x/ed |
Sustanon-250 |
18 Days |
M: 1x every 2-3wks P: 3x/wk-EOD |
Testosterone Cypionate |
12 Days |
M: 1x every 1-2wks P: 1-2x/wk |
Testosterone Enanthate |
10.5 Days |
M: 1x every 1-2wks P: 1-2x/wk |
Testosterone Propionate |
3.5 Days |
M: 2-3x/wk P: EOD |
Testosterone Suspension |
24hrs |
M: 1x/ed-EOD P: 1-2x/ed |
Trenbolone Enanthate |
8 Days |
P: 1-2x/wk |
Turinabol |
16hrs |
P: 1x/ed |
Winstrol |
9hrs |
M: 1x/ed P: 1x/ed |
Winstrol Depot |
24hrs |
M: 1x/eod-every 3 days P: 1x/ed-EOD |