T Nation

Bicep Rupture & Steroid Therapy

Pharma
#1

Hello,

I recently had to get surgery done for a distal bicep rupture (separation of the inner bicep from the elbow). I am a long time (19 years) natural and past competitive bodybuilder, who has had some ups and downs in my training over the last five years.

I am considering a brief course of steroids cycling to assist in recovering full use of my arm. I recently saw an article that mentioned a Belgian study indicating that Deca was observed to increase the rate of tendon growth and elasticity in cultured human tendon cells. I have also read anecdotal reports that equipoise may be beneficial to tendon injury recovery.

My question is as follows; would anyone out there have suggestions regarding using Deca and/or Equipoise individually or in a stack for recovering full tendon function. This would be assuming that weight usage would be kept to standards prescribed by a physiotherapist. If so, can you also state the pattern of a cycle like this and what PCT would be best.

I am 5’9", 33yrs old, and weigh 185 pounds at 12% body fat.
Although I have been off training and clean dieting for the past 4 weeks, I do plan to get back on track prior to any drug cycles usage (at least for cardio and lower body training, while the arm recovers enough to do some light lifts).

Thanks for the help in advance.

#2

This is a tough question, that nobody really has the answer too. I am just finishing up a pretty bad cartilage injury myself and I looked into Deca as well. I think Growth hormone has a better potential for helping, but Deca MIGHT as well.
I would do this if I had the funds
wks 1-X 2iu GH EOD
wks 1-x 150-200mg Deca/week
wks 1-X 200mg Test/week

That would probably be your best best for a recovery aid. Along with fish oil, glucosamine, etc.

#3

Thank you for getting back to me on this. Your insight is appreciated.
I should mention that I have a few concerns about taking some of the stuff you mentioned.

When I was 19 (14 years ago) I did two cycles over five months. The first cycle was D-bol and Test enathate (I gain 35lbs, going from 160 to 195). Because I didn’t cycle down properly or do any PCT, I dropped to 175 lbs in four weeks. This resulted in my doing a second cycle, after the 4 week layoff. It consisted of Sustenon 250, D-bol and Equipoise. This resulted in my gaining 42 lbs, taking me to 217. I still came off the cycle improperly and, with little natural test in my body, I quit training and dropped to 155lbs over the next year.

All of the above is very dumb and wrong headed. However, being older and wiser, I would never approach cycling this way again. It did teach me that my receptors respond very well to the gear. That said, I have established myself as a guy who has a solid natural physique and has learned to avoid radical swings in gains, from my past mistakes.

Long story short, I worry about taking Test and/or GH, as I don’t want to see immense jumps in size, (even if there is a large amount of water retention that dissipates). I also am looking to avoid the skin thickening look that often accompanies GH use.

I was really looking for the best solution to enhance my tendon and gain a small amount of side effect muscle increase. With the test and GH there is also a risk of becoming over confident in my strength and causing another rupture. I recall that during the above mentioned steroid cycle I went from shoulder pressing 205 to shoulder pressing 315 for reps. I got some temporary nerve damage in the back of my arm, but was lucky I didn’t do any permanent damage with my excessive lifting.

If I want to keep the formula mixture mellow, what is the best drug or drug combo, considering the reason I was going to use Deca was because of its potential benefit to tendon recovery? Thanks gain.

#4

Lol, you need to read up more before doing this. 200mg/week of test will NOT “blow you up” It is a little above physiological levels, which are used to keep your libido up. Unless you want Deca dick, do not run it alone. 2iu of GH EOD also, will not “blow you up” or give you any of the ridiculous things you mentioned. I am also assuming from your second post that you will still be working out? Don’t think that is very smart unless youre just planning on doing legs. If you really want to adjust your dose do this to “mellow” measures do this:

wks 1-x 150mg Deca/week
wks 1-X 100mg Test/week

You can’t get any more mellow than that.

#5

Yeah, I’m walking around with a shoulder injury (no probs in normal life, but hurts as hell with incline bench and shoulder press). I too am wondering about the beneficial sides of light steroid use on tendon injuries.

Does somebody have a scientific clue?

#6

Probably should come up with a real diagnosis before you start treating it, don’t you think?

#7

[quote]Detroitlionsbaby wrote:
Probably should come up with a real diagnosis before you start treating it, don’t you think?[/quote]

Well, thanks for asking but I already did. Inflammation of the supraspinatus tendon. Had it a few times during my life. Most of the times it just went away after some weeks of altering my excercises. But this time it’s been around for almost half a year. It’s not impingement syndrome, so surgery is not an option (luckily).

non steroid anti inflammation drugs just lower the pain, but it doesn’t last. A little sick and tired with using leight weights on the bench and doing rotator cuff exercises every day.

If a mild steroid could fix the tendon, that would be great. Just curious.

#8

[quote]Dahollow wrote:

[quote]Detroitlionsbaby wrote:
Probably should come up with a real diagnosis before you start treating it, don’t you think?[/quote]

Well, thanks for asking but I already did. Inflammation of the supraspinatus tendon. Had it a few times during my life. Most of the times it just went away after some weeks of altering my excercises. But this time it’s been around for almost half a year. It’s not impingement syndrome, so surgery is not an option (luckily).

non steroid anti inflammation drugs just lower the pain, but it doesn’t last. A little sick and tired with using leight weights on the bench and doing rotator cuff exercises every day.

If a mild steroid could fix the tendon, that would be great. Just curious. [/quote]

Ah, different story then. I am not sure what a mild steroid is, but I would research the following compounds.
Oxandrolone
Nandrolone
GH
Those are the only compounds I have seen that have shown any evidence of helping collagen, but even then it seems somewhat bleek.

#9

Deca has always helped me with inflammatory conditions, and injuries such as tears in the past. You should take some test enanthate or cypionate with deca in equal or greater amounts to keep deca dick in check. I tore my bicep a few years ago deadlifting 725lb. I never had surgery on it, but didn’t pull with that arm for a few months, and now it’s back to normal except for the muscle belly appearing shorter and slightly weaker than my right.

#10

I’m really planning on working out my upper body unless given a green light on some light range of motion exercises. Essentially I will be doing no more for my arms than the physiotherapist says I can.

Regarding the cypionate or enanthate dosages, that was exactly what I had done on my first go around and I gained huge amounts of strength and size on just 200mgs of it a week, combined with 3 d-bol tabs a day. I’m not just tooting my horn when I say my receptor sites are highly responsive, as the 200mg a week dose caused me to gain 35 pounds in four weeks.

I want to keep the gains solid and dry this time, while emphasizing the tendon recovery. I’m not worried about the Deca dick, so long as I go back to normal after the cycle. I’m most concerned about the long term issues all the way around.

#11

Well, if that is really the case how about this

wks 1-x Deca 150-200mg/week
wks 1-x HcG 200iu EOD

This will be as close to normal test levels as you can get.

#12

I red HGH for 6 months and felt it caused more joint pain then it relieved. Everyone will react differently like we mentioned at another thread.

In the End the end user will have to experiment to see what helps. I feel there is as much science as art in this.

#13

[quote]IronBrother wrote:
I’m really planning on working out my upper body unless given a green light on some light range of motion exercises. Essentially I will be doing no more for my arms than the physiotherapist says I can.

Regarding the cypionate or enanthate dosages, that was exactly what I had done on my first go around and I gained huge amounts of strength and size on just 200mgs of it a week, combined with 3 d-bol tabs a day. I’m not just tooting my horn when I say my receptor sites are highly responsive, as the 200mg a week dose caused me to gain 35 pounds in four weeks.

I want to keep the gains solid and dry this time, while emphasizing the tendon recovery. I’m not worried about the Deca dick, so long as I go back to normal after the cycle. I’m most concerned about the long term issues all the way around.[/quote]

Im the same way. Always responded to really low dosages. Any dosage beyond my response point resulted in drastically higher side effects, namely in the form of bloat.

Great results can be had with:

250 mg of Test Weekly.
200 mg of Deca Weekly.
200 mg of Primo Weekly.

#14

This post was flagged by the community and is temporarily hidden.

#15

[quote]bushidobadboy wrote:

[quote]Dahollow wrote:

[quote]Detroitlionsbaby wrote:
Probably should come up with a real diagnosis before you start treating it, don’t you think?[/quote]

Well, thanks for asking but I already did. Inflammation of the supraspinatus tendon. Had it a few times during my life. Most of the times it just went away after some weeks of altering my excercises. But this time it’s been around for almost half a year. It’s not impingement syndrome, so surgery is not an option (luckily).

non steroid anti inflammation drugs just lower the pain, but it doesn’t last. A little sick and tired with using leight weights on the bench and doing rotator cuff exercises every day.

If a mild steroid could fix the tendon, that would be great. Just curious. [/quote]

It’s probably an functional impingment, not a structural one.

In a functional impingment, the patient has rounded shoulders and internally rotated humeri. This closes down the subacromial space, resulting in compression irritation of the supraspin. tendon.

BBB
[/quote]

Dear BBB,

Thank you for this insight! I’ll look this up straight away!