by Mike Arnold
In a sport rife with misconceptions and misinformation, there will always be a never ending supply of falsehoods to shine some light on, but this time around I want to address a relatively basic subject that has been made way too complicated by maybe well-intentioned, yet misinformed individuals. I am talking about the differences between pharm-grade and UGL made gear. Opinions abound as to what this actually entails, making it nearly impossible for the community to come to any sort of a general consensus. Therefore, I want to take a moment to separate the wheat from the chaff and in so Camiseta Real Madrid doing, hopefully instill a a lot more balanced view of reality in those who have been disillusioned relating to the truth.
For various reasons, pharm-grade gear has taken on an nearly mythical status among a certain population of steroid users. While pharm-grade gear is certainly higher quality from a purity standpoint, and is also a lot more likely to meet label claims, the truth is that there is plenty of UGL-gear on the market capable of supplying the same results. how likely this is to be the case is dependent on lots of factors, such as the compound in question, the maker used, company ethics, whether or not independent lab testing is employed, etc. with that said, I am now going to address some individual drugs, as well as different classes of PED’s, as the possibility of getting what you pay for can vary substantially based on what you are actually buying.
Let’s look at steroids first. I remember a few years ago, when Muscular development magazine published an post relating to the steroid use of 3 past bodybuilding greats: Dorian Yates, Kevin Levrone, and Shawn Ray. Although everyone knew the post would draw heated discussion, one statement that kept being made by readers was how much better the gear was back in “those days”. In fact, this was typically cited as the main reason (along with being accused of lying) for why those men could build their physiques on dosages frequently employed by beginners today. While it is true that a lot of bodybuilders from the 90’s relied on pharm-grade gear to met their PED needs (more out of necessity than choice, as the “UGL” did not really come into existence until the 2000’s) and were as a result a lot more likely to source legit gear (assuming they didn’t get a fake), this reasoning was faulty, as there is still plenty of accurately dosed AAS available through today’s UGL’s.
Those who were involved in the steroid using community in the mid-90’s are well aware that the doses claimed by these men would have been considered normal for advanced bodybuilders. a lot of men back then, including pros, kept their test dose at 750-1,000 mg/week, while a smaller percentage of a lot more adventurous users went up to about 1,500 mg/week. other steroids were normally used at smaller dosages. For example, Deca was normally administered at about 400-600 mg/week and tren was used much lower doses than what we see today, with 150-350 mg/week (roughly 50-100 mg/EOD) being considered the norm. While there have been men in every generation who pushed the envelope, jabbing 2-4 grams of testosterone and 1-2 grams of tren just did NOT happen with regularity, not even at the highest level of the sport.
We see this same mentality applied to the pros of the 70’s, with lots of of today’s less experienced (and typically less genetically gifted) steroid users claiming that the golden era pros were only able to build their physiques with such low doses because of the huge superiority of their gear. You see, this excuse comes in really helpful when trying to rationalize why someone can’t build an equivalent physique despite using 5X the dose. Yet, I still see people spout this kind of nonsense all over the boards.
Of all the steroids available today, testosterone, particularly testosterone enanthate, is the most likely to be both real and appropriately dosed. There are a couple reasons for this. For one, the stuff is very low-cost and easy to make, supplying little incentive for makers to sell UGLs bad stuff. In turn, there is little incentive for UGL’s to intentionally under-dose their testosterone products. additionally boosting the odds of obtaining appropriately dosed test is the rampant public lab-testing that goes on in the online steroid using community.
Unlike other AAS, in which one need to send a actual sample of the drug to a lab to for testing (which is both expensive and legally risky), all one needs to do in buy to ascertain whether or not a test product consists of an accurate dose of testosterone is get some bloodwork. While this is by no indicates a foolproof way of assessing potency, it does give the individual a pretty good idea of where the product stands, especially when examined within the context of other user lab reports.
Knowing that such products will likely be subjected to publically posted lab work, UGL’s have even a lot more incentive to make sure their testosterone products are on-point. This has even led some UGLs to intentionally over-dose their products, so as to leave no room for speculation. Now, when it pertains to other AAS there is less assurance of legitimacy/potency, as these steroids are not going to impact one’s testosterone reading and therefore, user bloodwork is pretty much worthless for assessing the legitimacy/potency of non-testosterone based gear. With these drugs, confirmation can only be gained by sending them to an actual lab for testing, which as stated previously, isn’t a sensible option for most.
In attempting to rank the remaining steroids in a most-likely to be real and/or appropriately dosed list, I can only generalize. As a general rule, the more affordable a steroid is to produce the a lot more likely it is to be real and/or appropriately dosed, as the incentive for screwing over one’s fellow man goes down as personal cost/risk decreases. Therefore, when ranking AAS according to their probability of meeting label claims, I tend to place them into one of three categories. The first and a lot of likely to meet label claims is testosterone enanthate, followed by other testosterone based products. The second group includes drugs such as nandrolone, boldenone, oxymetholone, methandrostenolone, etc. The last group includes steroids like Halotestin, Anavar, and Primobolan. While this may be an overly simplistic ranking system, and there are certainly other aspects than just production cost involved in estimating the probability of obtaining legit gear, I have found a lot more typically than not that the a lot more expensive a drug is to make, the a lot more likely it is to be improperly labeled and/or under-dosed.
Most people, with a little bit of insight and by spending some time on the boards, won’t have a problem finding potent testosterone products. even a lot of steroid using newbies with little in the way of education or connections can manage that, but when attempting to purchase AAS such as Halotestin or Primobolan, for example, it requires a little a lot more discernment and knowledge of the market if one wants to increase their chances of obtaining a high quality product.
The greatest difference between UGL and pharm-grade AAS products is their purity. due to less than optimal manufacturing, assembly, and transportation conditions, UGL-made products are usually exposed to a large variety of contaminants in any way stages of the production process. This can result in heavy metal contamination and a lot more importantly, the formation of bacteria leading to infection and abscess. This is really the greatest worry associated with the use of UGL-made drugs and can potentially be quite serious, even deadly in extreme cases. At any rate, even if you never develop an infection requiring surgery or medical intervention, nearly all UGL-made steroids have been exposed to some level of contamination/bacterial growth, making redness, pain and swelling at the injection site a common occurrence.
The bottom line is that the UGL market, despite its inferior production practices, still uses appropriately labeled/dosed steroids of all types. You may have to look a bit harder to find quality versions of the a lot more costly drugs, but pretty much everything is widely available. Therefore, the notion that the old-school bodybuilders were only able to grow off of low doses because their gear was “so much better“ is faulty.
If you think AAS are the only PED’s subject to these kinds of distorted perceptions, then you undoubtedly haven’t seen the way some people talk about pharm-grade growth hormone and IGF-1! Camiseta Selección de fútbol de Francia With a degree of reverence bordering on near fanatical, you would think some of these people believe they have been anointed by shamans and imbued with magickal qualities! After all, it is the use of “true” pharm-grade IGF-1, otherwise known as Increlex, that is responsible for turning all these middle Eastern bodybuilders into monsters…and of course, it is high-dose pharm-grade growth hormone that figures out whether or not someone turns pro or remains an amateur.
At least with these drugs there is somewhat of an understandable reason for the confusion. first of all, only a relatively small percentage of bodybuilders have ever used higher-dose pharm-grade growth hormone for even a short period of time, let alone over the long-term, simply because it is too expensive for a lot of to afford. This removes personal experience from the equation, automatically leaving 99%+ of all bodybuilders prone to the influence of fairy tales. Secondly, not all pharm-grade growth hormone is synthesized in the same fashion, which is the reason why different brands can supply different cosmetic effects. any individual who has experience using multiple brands of GH will confirm that they do not all affect the body in the same way from a visual standpoint. Some cause significant water retention, while others cause much less by comparison.
With the same drug appearing to produce different results based on brand, you can see how the “super growth” theory developed. Lastly, while there is some very good UGL-made GH out there, a lot of of it doesn’t come anywhere near pharm-grade growth in terms of quality or effectiveness for no other reason than it is either fake and/or under-dosed—often severely. This additionally reduces the possibility of being able to make an accurate comparison on a personal level and only lends to the confusion.
With pharm-grade IGF-1 (Increlex) considerably scarcer than pharm-grade GH, and with such a small percentage of bodybuilder’s having used even a single kit, let alone dozens of kits, it has been the subject of even a lot more outlandish claims. I have heard bodybuilders make claims ranging from it being the most powerful muscle builder in the world (the truth is that AAS have the potential to build much a lot more muscle mass than IGF-1), to it being responsible for making big Ramy who he is today. When these individuals are questioned as to why the IGF-1 from research/peptide companies, which is readily available through legal indicates (when used for research, of course), doesn’t produce these kind of incredible results, the normal action is that those companies don’t sell real IGF-1.
Let’s forget for a second that IGF-1 really isn’t that expensive or tough to produce, and that an entire continent of Chinese makers is ready and ready to produce the stuff for any individual who wants to get it, and ask why these people believe this. I have…and until this day I have yet to hear a plausible explanation. The truth is that real IGF-1 is sold by many, lots of research-peptide companies each day to customers all around the world, but some people simply refuse to part with their illogical belief because it would force them to come to grips with the truth—that there is no secret drug out there responsible for building all the mass monsters (myostatin inhibitors maybe the closest thing to a “secret” in today’s scene, although any mystery behind them is due to a lot more to an inability to have them made cost-effectively than it is some kind of hidden knowledge). This, in turn, would require them to accept the fact that they just don’t have the genetics to look like the big Ramies and Ronnie Colemans of the world…and that is something that some people just aren’t ready to give up.
Trying to wade through all the B.S. when one first enters the PED scene can be tricky, so I recommend trying to find someone with experience—a vet—who is ready to take you under their wing and educate you on the ins & outs of the blackmarket while guiding you through the process. This type of help can be indispensable for not only saving you a lot of headaches and disappointment, but in avoiding lost funds and potential health problems as well. with that said, don’t allow any optimism I may have expressed relating to the potential suitability of the blackmarket to bring you to false conclusions. While you can certainly find everything you need to build Camiseta SC Braga your physique on the blackmarket, UGL-made drugs, as a whole, are of substantially lower “overall” quality compared to those made by pharmaceutical companies. This is especially true from a purity/safety standpoint. until next time…