LBM gains w/o training?

I was just thinking of a study from 1996 in the New England Journal of Medicine in which three groups of men either weight trained naturally, were given 600mg of T with no training, or 600mg of T combined with training for a period of ten weeks.

The interesting part of the study is that the men who were given the T but did not lift any weights gained more LBM than the group that trained naturally! The strength increases were also similiar between those two groups (the T plus training group obviously gained the most).

Were the LBM and strength gains due solely to additional cellular leverage from water, increased glycogen storage, etc., or because of actual increases in contractile tissue? In other words, provided sufficient calorie/protein intake can androgens promote LBM gains independent of training?

Yes, but the increase is very limited, and
far less than what can be accomplished
with normal testosterone levels and
resistance training.

The steroid user who doesn’t train, but has
trained in the past, sees muscle disappear, thus proving this point. And believe it or
not, there are guys who do this.