The Role of Testosterone in Bodybuilding

Testosterone will always be the king of anabolic-androgenic steroids since it is a reliable mass building agent. As proof of its efficacy, you can use it alone and still have substantial bodybuilding feedback with just 500mg per week.

To have a better grasp about how synthetic testosterone behaves, you have to understand first how natural testosterone acts in the body.

Testosterone is a steroid hormone form the androgen group that is responsible for the mental, sexual, and physiological development in the human body. This hormone is behind the androgenic effects in the body - development of the reproductive tract, increase of the size of the penis, growth of body and facial hair. Testosterone is also responsible for anabolic changes as illustrated by growth spurts and increase in strength and muscle bulk.

In the human body, testosterone occurs in two states - the bound and unbound testosterone . Ninety-eight per cent of natural testosterone is bound to the plasma protein called sex hormone-binding globulin. That makes only 2% of unbound testosterone that is free to circulate in the bloodstream to bind with androgen receptors located at different parts of the body, including in the muscle cells. When the hormone binds with the androgen receptors it's then and there that anabolism takes place.

Synthetic testosterone is designed to mimic this specific activity of natural testosterone - to attach to the androgen receptors for the promotion of muscle tissue building. Designers of steroids are able to manipulate the structure of this hormone, but only up to a certain degree. So far, they have been unable to completely get rid of the androgenic effects of testosterone, which cause changes in the body that bodybuilders (particularly female bodybuilders) find unattractive. Thus, when you take testosterone you experience massive and dramatic muscle gains plus the attendant androgenic effects.

Testosterone has strong binding affinity with androgen receptors, thus it dramatically induces muscle mass. However, testosterone converts to estrogen. If testosterone is referred to as the male sex hormone, estrogen is the female sex hormone. Both of these hormones are present in both sexes but in different amounts Testosterone, of course, occurs at a higher amount in males and estrogen in higher amount in females. These two hormones fulfill important role in both genders; however, when they occur in abnormal levels side effects may arise. In males, abnormally high amount of estrogen can result to feminization symptoms which include gynecomastia and fat and water retention.

Testosterone also converts to dihydrotestosterone ( DHT ), a hormone that's up to three times (some say up to five times) more potent than testosterone. Thus, in areas where testosterone is converted to DHT, side effects are most likely to occur. These include tissues in the skin, scalp, and the prostate. As such, with testosterone use male pattern baldness (androgenetic alopecia), acne, and prostate enlargement can occur, especially in predisposed individuals. There have been several instances when testosterone is blamed for the occurrence of prostate cancer, but recent studies shown that this is not the case. Testosterone does not cause this disorder; however, it can hasten the growth of existing prostate malignancy.