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Proviron is an oral steroid that is approved in some countries as a treatment for hypogonadism (low testosterone). As is the case with many other medications that increase testosterone, Proviron is often abused in bodybuilding as an anabolic steroid.
Although plenty of bodybuilders use Proviron, it does not rank among the most popular bodybuilding steroids and offers very little value for bulking.
Testo-Max is a legal Sustanon brand from specialist bodybuilding company CrazyBulk.
CLICK to view Testo-Max price and availability
Sustanon is a good all-rounder. Many bodybuilders include in their bulking and cutting stacks. It's good for building muscle and it's good for protecting existing muscle mass.
Testo-Max provides Sustanon-like benefits by boosting natural testosterone levels. That's right, it encourages your body to make more of this important anabolic hormone instead of suppressing it. It is widely used by bodybuilders on a testosterone cycle.
Testo-Max can be used as a standalone testosterone booster or combined into a stack - and used with other cutting, bulking and strength stacks. Using several legal steroids simultaneously can give you quicker results. The Crazy Bulk Ultimate stack provides a turnkey bodybuilders strategy.
CLICK to view legal steroid ULTIMATE STACK
Proviron is more useful as a cutting steroid but Anavar and Clenbuterol are more popular choices. As is Sustanon , which is an equally good choice while bulking and has a universal appeal Proviron cannot match.
Despite its limited value, many bodybuilders are keen to learn more about Proviron. Having said that, there are probably many more who have no idea this particular anabolic steroid even exists.
That alone says much about its potency and value. If Proviron was qualified to hang with the big guns there would be more people talking about it and including it in their steroid cutting cycle stacks .
Proviron is a brand of Mesterolone. Although many bodybuilders may not be familiar with either name, Mesterolone is one of the oldest anabolic steroids on the market.
It was created in the early 1930s by Schering. Back in the day, this Germany-based pharmaceutical company was a big player that distributed its products worldwide.
However, although Schering was a big name in the Pharmaceutical industry, to say it had questionable ethics would be a huge understatement. The company had unsavory connections with concentration camp experiments conducted by Josef Rudolf Mengele, the notorious Angel of Death. [1]
Since it first became available in 1934, Mesterolone has been marketed under a variety of different brand names. The Proviron brand was always one of the most popular options and remains so to this day.
However, although the FDA has never approved Mesterolone's use in the USA, the drug is approved for use in Italy and certain other European countries.
Mesterolone has similarities with Masteron, along with Anavar and Winstrol, which are both more popular options although, like Mesterolone, these three do not rank among the most powerful steroids.
However, don't make the mistake of thinking any of them are safe to use. All other anabolic steroids present health risks. Steroids such as Mesterolone, Masteron, and Anavar are no exceptions.
As we already pointed out, Proviron is an anabolic steroid that offers greater benefits while cutting than it does if used for bulking. If you want to become the next Hulk, you will need to choose stronger options to help you to do it.
However, it works okay if all you want is a steroid that can help you to burn fat faster without losing lean muscle mass.
When used as a treatment for hypogonadism, the standard Proviron dose is 50-100 mg, taken by mouth, 2-3 times per day.
When used for bodybuilding, the average dose is 50 mg per day. However, some bodybuilders reduce the dose to 25 mg per day, while others increase it considerably⸺up to 250 mg per day.
The average Proviron cycle is 10-12 weeks. It's unwise to use Proviron in longer cycles because, like other steroids, it suppresses natural testosterone production.
It's equally important to follow Proviron cycles with a post-cycle therapy (PCT). Failure to do so will result in undesirable issues such as fatigue and loss of muscle gains.
Needless to say, issues such as these come about because, without daily top-ups of the steroid, the body will have very little natural testosterone and it can take a long time for normal production to come back online.
There are 4 types of testosterone:
When used alongside a suitable diet and workout schedule, Proviron can provide several benefits.
Proviron supports fat loss by functioning as a thermogenic fat burner. If you don't know what this means, allow us to explain.
Thermogenic fat burners enhance a natural process known as thermogenesis that produces heat within the body. When people take Proviron, it's a little like turning up the thermostat. The effects are not overly dramatic but the resulting increase in the body's core temperature causes the body to begin losing extra energy as heat. This increases metabolism making it possible to burn extra body fat.
Meanwhile, the anabolic abilities of the steroid offer protection from loss of muscle mass.
When you are consuming so few calories per day your body begins burning its fat, losing muscle mass is always a very real danger. Proviron takes that danger away.
Although Proviron will never be able to hang any of the most popular bulking steroids such as Dianabol or Trenbolone, in addition to helping you to avoid loss of muscle while cutting, it can also support modest improvements in lean muscle tissue.
Most bodybuilding steroids encourage a process known as aromatization that converts testosterone (and testosterone-like steroids) to estrogen.
Estrogen is the female sex hormone. When guys have too much of it, it causes side effects such as gynecomastia (man boobs), water retention, and male pattern baldness.
However, not only does Proviron not aromatize to cause these problems, it actually offers protection from them due to a favorable interaction with the enzyme responsible for driving aromatization.
The best way to prevent any problem is to cut it off at the source and that's exactly what Proviron does.
Bodybuilders who choose Proviron often use it in a stack (steroid cycle). You probably won't be surprised to learn one of the reasons for this is that doing so can limit the risk of estrogenic side effects due to aromatization.
The other reason for stacking Proviron with other steroids is it can enhance their abilities. This is due to it having such a good binding affinity with the androgen receptors that play such an important role in protein synthesis and muscle growth.
Although Proviron has a longstanding association with bodybuilding, there has been little research into the way the steroid influences muscle mass and body composition.
However, some researchers have speculated Proviron may improve muscle hypertrophy by acting on satellite cells.
Satellite cells are mononuclear myogenic stem cells that play a key role in postnatal muscle growth.
Research conducted on chickens supports this theory. Furthermore, treatment with Mesterolone (Proviron) helped put extra meat on the chickens' breasts. [2]
Although it is not one of the worst offenders, like other steroids, Proviron can cause side effects for steroid users. It's one of the worst steroids for causing issues with cholesterol.
In addition to significantly elevated LDL cholesterol (bad cholesterol), Proviron reduces HDL cholesterol (good cholesterol). Sometimes the reduction can be 30% or higher.
Bodybuilders who already have issues with their blood lipids will need to give this option a very wide berth.
As we pointed out earlier, Proviron also suppresses natural testosterone.
Although there will be no testosterone-related issues while taking the steroid, if you skip the PCT, things will get bad.
Oral steroids are notoriously hard on the liver. Some sources say Proviron is the exception. It's not. Don't think about it for a second. One 43-years old bodybuilder who required hospital treatment for liver damage admitted he'd used Proviron for 12 days.
Although that was an unusually short cycle, the damage was done. However, it took three weeks for his symptoms to become bad enough to encourage him to seek medical treatment. [3]
Women who are considering using the Proviron steroid for cutting or bulking need to be aware it poses a risk of virilization.
Although using doses of 25 mg per day and restricting cycles to just 5 weeks can reduce the dangers, the best protection is to not use the steroid at all.
To make matters worse, because Proviron is derived from DHT, not testosterone, it's not possible to use anti-androgenic drugs to prevent virilization from happening.
Men who are thinking of using Proviron need to know it can enlarge the prostate gland. This can lead to many undeniable issues including poor bladder control and an increased risk of prostate cancer.
Although Proviron is not one of the worst steroids for suppressing testosterone levels, it still does it so it's important to end every cycle with a PCT.
Clomid and Nolvadex are popular options to run as Proviron PCT.
Some people who have been running other steroids, actually include Proviron in their PCTs. They do so to take advantage of its estrogen-blocking capabilities.
Although it is easy to understand why using Proviron in this way may seem like a good idea, it's not.
However mild the effect may be, Proviron still suppresses testosterone. That's the last thing you need from a PCT.
Buying Proviron without a prescription is illegal but many bodybuilders manage to do it. Some source the steroid via personal contacts and recommendations, while others buy Proviron illegally online.
The cost of buying Proviron can vary considerably, but a box of 20 (25 mg) tablets generally costs around $30-$40.
Even if you forget about the legalities, using Proviron as a bodybuilding steroid is still a risky business. Granted there are worse options to choose but it never pays to gamble with your health.
Anything that can push up your cholesterol levels or may damage your liver has to be seen as bad news.
The good news is there are safer routes to take. If you want a safe alternative to Proviron, Testo-Max is the best supplement to buy.
Testo-Max is part of a range of legal steroids developed by Crazy Bulk. In addition to being one of the top dogs when it comes to cutting, Testo-Max is also an excellent choice for bulking.
Testo-Max is the Crazy Bulk alternative to Sustanon
CLICK to view Testo-max price and special offers
Sustanon is a popular brand of testosterone isocaproate (synthetic testosterone) that's intended to be used for treating hypogonadism but is often abused for bodybuilding/
Sustanon is a good all-rounder. Many steroid-using bodybuilders include in their bulking and cutting stacks. It's good for building muscle and it's good for protecting existing muscle mass.
Like Proviron, Sustanon also accelerates fat burning. Unfortunately, it suppresses natural testosterone and presents other undesirable side effects.
Testo- Max provides Sustanon-like benefits by boosting natural testosterone levels. That's right, it encourages your body to make more of this important anabolic hormone instead of suppressing it. It is widely used by bodybuilders on a testosterone cycle.
Why settle for a chemical impostor, when you can have more of the real thing?
In addition to providing some of the best testosterone-boosting herbs, such as fenugreek [4], Testo-Max also provides nettle leaf extract.
Nettle leaf extract in a testosterone booster? It may sound like a strange choice but it's not.
To benefit your muscles, testosterone needs to be free to bind with androgen receptors. Unfortunately, free testosterone levels drop when the hormone becomes bound by sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG). Nettle leaf is one of the few natural compounds that can prevent this from happening. [5]
So, not only does Testo-Max boost testosterone instead of suppressing it; it also keeps it free to offer the maximum benefit to your muscles. It's a very clever product that gets a lot of respect the world over and has a 60-day money-back guarantee.
Although Proviron and other brands of Mesterolone offer real value to men suffering from hypogonadism, using the drug for bodybuilding presents several areas of concern.
The risk of liver damage is one of them. The potential for cardiovascular issues is another. Proviron is one of the worst steroids for increasing cholesterol.
Although many bodybuilders are willing to accept these and other risks, a growing number of them are not. More importantly, with great alternatives like Testo-Max, bodybuilders who are unwilling to accept the risks don't have to. There's always a better choice.
1. WWII Survivors Sue German Drug Cos: https://apnews.com/article/91f217716ae908ce57911b8fa34f6e90
2. Influence of Mesterolone on Satellite Cell Distribution and Fiber Morphology within Maturing Chicken Pectoralis Muscle: https://anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ar.22439
3. Drug-Induced Liver Toxicity Due to Mesterolone: A Case Report: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S021057051930158X
4. Beneficial Effects of Fenugreek Glycoside Supplementation in Male Subjects During Resistance Training: A Randomized Controlled Pilot Study: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6191980/
5. The Effect of Extracts of the Roots of the Stinging Nettle (Urtica Dioica) On the Interaction of Shbg With Its Receptor on Human Prostatic Membranes: https://europepmc.org/article/MED/7700987
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