Are Steroid Gains Permanent? (According to a Doctor)

Yes, anabolic steroids may give you permanent gains because it changes the way your body builds muscle.

Recent studies on mice found that brief exposure to steroids may have long-lasting muscle-enhancing effects [1].

In a 2013 experiment on mice, researchers found that those briefly exposed to testosterone developed a sort of “muscle memory” that allowed them to regain muscle fibers rapidly later in life [2].

Both these studies suggest that once you take anabolic steroids to gain mass, your muscle fibers “remember” how to increase in size down the line.

While both studies were performed on mice, the researchers stated that the results could apply to humans as well.

“If [steroids are] sufficient to build muscle mass, I think it would be sufficient to give you this long-term effect. I think it could last ten years…”

- Prof. Kristian Gundersen, Depart of Biosciences, University of Oslo

To better understand whether humans could experience muscle memory and enhanced development of muscles long after taking steroids, let’s dive into the science behind muscles and steroids.

Your body has ways to naturally increase testosterone production, which is required for protein-muscle synthesis [5].

The more testosterone you have, the more efficiently your muscle tissues grow.

However, there are natural limits to how much testosterone you can produce. It could be your age, diet, lifestyle, or hormonal issues.

While you can naturally boost your testosterone levels, there’s always a genetic peak beyond which your muscle tissue doesn’t grow.

To combat this, athletes take steroids, which work as a synthetic form of testosterone to make up for what your body cannot produce.

Intake of anabolic steroids enhances the activation of satellite cells, which tell your myonuclei to build “more muscle” [6].

With higher testosterone levels, your body will encourage increased muscle strength and size beyond what was naturally possible.

This physiological change in your testosterone can affect the way your muscle cells grow and keep your gains even after a steroid cycle.

Related: How Fast Do Steroids Build Muscle?

How Steroids Change Muscle Memory

It’s also important to note that anabolic steroid usage in conjunction with working out can significantly increase your muscle cell nuclei [7].

This basically means if you take steroids and work out, you produce multiple nuclei that will “remember” how to build lean muscle quickly in the future.

This muscle memory gives athletes with previous steroid use an unfair advantage in a competitive sport — even if they don’t go on a steroid cycle before the event.

While the fact that steroids seem to give you permanent gains or make it easier to rebuild later on is certainly alluring, there are many health risks associated with them that make them not worth any potential benefits.

On top of that, they’re illegal.

A better alternative would be to go on legal steroids.

They’re natural testosterone-boosting supplements that'll enhance your strength training, muscle growth, and fat burn without wreaking havoc on your health.