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Is testosterone best for muscle growth?

April 7, 2024
Gary Chappell
testosterone muscle growth bodybuilding mechanism protein synthesis

Bodybuilder Josh Goold discusses how to find your optimal dose

POT OF GOOLD! The Josh Goold Column

BACK before my time, the thought process of running your weekly testosterone to 1000mg as quickly as possible was thought to be best.

Now we know more about anabolic steroids, progressing cycles and total anabolic load, we understand that this concept is a little outdated.

But there is merit in trying to run your testosterone as high as your body can tolerate, until a modulation of oestrogen is needed. For some this could be 250mg, for others this could be up to 500mg to 600mg.

Testosterone is naturally occurring in the body, so we are used to the hormone. That being said, not to the larger supra-physiological levels.

Exogenous testosterone is one of the most studied anabolic steroids we have at hand. So understanding its abilities, its mechanisms, the potential it can give to us and also the consequences, is very easy to come by.

Testosterone will increase protein synthesis

Testosterone will drive anabolism, recruit protein faster and Increase muscle protein synthesis (MPS). This is just like other compounds, but other compounds are not as widely used in medicine, unlike testosterone.

For me, this gives it merit in attempting to run testosterone as high as your body can tolerate . Find your optimal testosterone dose before looking at modulating oestrogen with a DHT or something else.

So you can see it’s a little different from the early 2000s of racing to a weekly amount of 1000mg. There’s a lot more thought going into it in finding your optimal testosterone dosage.

Now the question is how do we modulate oestrogen (e2) while tapering test.

Well, the idea is to find out how much testosterone you can tolerate without needing to modulate. This is your optimal dosage. You see the likes of bodybuilder John Jewett showing how to taper by 50mg per week. He does this to the point where we see those negative e2 sides appear.

I’m not saying you need to wait for bitch tits (gynecomastia) to grow. But until we start to see noticeable side effects, such as uncomfortable fluid retention and higher blood pressure.

Once you have found your optimal testosterone dose, then we can look at potential methods of modulation. An aromatase inhibitor (AI), SERM or DHT (primobolan or masteron) helps modulate e2 very well.

I will discuss which one is best over the coming weeks. And I will also discuss growth hormone and insulin stacked within a cycle.

  • Josh Goold is a competitive bodybuilder and online coach. You can enquire about his coaching here. He also has a YouTube channel called GingerTraining.

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