In part one of this article, we discussed the boring stuff about growth hormone: what’s growth hormone, the function of it in the body, history of GH and its medical uses, I know many didnt find it so exciting and want to cut down to the issue: how to use it for bodybuilding and leaning,

Well before you start reading this part, I need you to go back to part one and read it, I don’t care how many time you yawn while doing so, if you planning to use any drug, you have to understand as much as you can about it, then you would know for sure if it’s good for you, what to expect from it, and you probably won’t be disappointed.

Remember knowledge is the best weapon in the sport of bodybuilding and in life in general, a great body does come from using your mind more than using your muscles.

In this article, I will discuss the main benefits GH for athletes, the best way to use GH, complementary drugs to be take with, GH brands, GH Scams and things to watch for and side effect.

Growth Hormones Benefits for athletes

what made GH so interesting among athletes is its ability to burn fat, increase muscles mass and shorten the recovery times, along with other additional benefits such as healing damaged tissues and strengthen ligament and joints.

Weight loss

Weight loss, especially from fat is one of the best benefits one can get from GH, numerous studies proofs the ability of GH to decrease fat percentage, while its not many support its ability to promote muscles gain, by itself it’s not a great anabolic drug as many thinks.

One of the main ways GH works, is by increasing the amount of IGF-1 excreted by the body. When we eat, the pancreas release insulin hormone to transform carbohydrate into glucose, and later it saves some of the glucose in the fat cells.
IGF-1 prevent this process, and make the body switch to use fat as energy faster, which will result to significant fat loss, since you will be using fat as the main source of energy even in inactive period during normal life activities.
 
Not only this, GH hormone also happen to heightened energy level and metabolism, that why when adult use it, they feel young and active again, an increased energy and metabolism helps along with fat loss, even without exercise, but coupled with exercise, it can show significant improvements in the fat percentage.

Growth hormone also as the name reflects, helps muscles to grow. A more interesting property, GH helps increase the number of muscle cells, which actually stops growing after puberty, by taking GH, your body start increasing the number of muscle cells again. So both sizes of muscle cells and the number increase (processes referred to as hypertrophy and hyperplasia, respectively). Muscle cells are active and require energy all day, which lead to an increased Basel metabolic rate and helps with the fat loss process. Again, accompanied with exercising, one would notice more significant results.

Last point is, while using GH, the body tends to use the extra calories for more effective uses such as building muscles, providing more energy, and cells rebuilding, so it’s very unlikely you will gain any fat while using it.

Increase muscle mass

While training and steroids increase the size of the muscle cells, GH hormones as we mentioned increase both, the number and the size. so obviously it has a great benefit for muscles gain, still compared the weight gain to steroids ones, it’s very small and slow to gain, sometimes as low as 1 kg in 2-3 weeks, but all the gain are lean muscles mass , while with steroids most of it is water retention.

basically by growing new muscles cells, we reverse genetic dispositions and achieve greater muscles density, the new cells over the long run will also grow larger, with training and steroids use, You will be headed to a much better physique, not to mention the overall performance enhancement of GH on workouts, shortening recovery time and strengthening the joints and ligaments.

By taking cycles of GH, even if you barely notice any effect, in the long run with training and anabolic steroids, you will notice a much better physique, you got more muscle cells, you will grow bigger, you will train better and you will lean easier.

As I mentioned, GH by itself wont got amazing effect in the short run, and may disappoint many of the user who believe it’s the missing link, and magic drug that will change their bodies, don’t be disappointed, with GH the effect will take time, don’t expect mass gain in short term like the one you get from anabolic steroids, it has a slower and milder effect, and will take time to show its muscles building properties.
 

Contest preparation

GH use in bodybuilders started mostly in the late 70's and most 80's, and its obviously that bodybuilder were coming in a great dry condition with etched rock muscularity, without doing much different than they use to do, GH probably the reason for that.

we already mentioned how GH helps shed the fat to a great deal, even in non trained individual it helps, so imagine for a bodybuilder who is on diet, doing cardio and hard workouts, result are pretty obvious.
GH support both anabolism and lipolysis (fat loss), and it has anti-catabolic properties that proofed in many studies, that’s why HIV and other wasting diseases have GH as part of its treatment, the anti catabolic properties are just so profound, and helps bodybuilder during the contest preparation not to lose any of the hard gained muscles, maybe even gaining more.

Effective Administration of Growth hormone

Not all people respond to GH the same, some will benefit from it more than others. It’s all about the genetics and how much you body can utilize from the GH taken to give effect.
Most of the benefits of Growth hormone also come from its ability to stimulate the liver to exert many growth factors, such as IGF-1, and this may change the dosage needed from one person to one, accordance to how their body respond.

A very good recommended dosage will be 4-8 IU a day, preferably taken in two dosages a day with a gap of four to seven hours, since the liver can about 4 IU at a time.
The more the better bodybuilder attitude may only cause side effect and waste your money with GH, there is no need to go above 8 IU a day, as your body/liver may not utilize all of it, however you may still end up with the side effect of such doses like water retention.

GH hormone works also better for a longer period of time, than a shorter higher dosage one, for example 4 IU/day for two month will be much better than 8 IU/day for a month, as I mentioned earlier, and GH benefit takes time to be noticed.

GH most effective when used in conjunction with anabolic steroids since it diverts calories in food towards protein synthesis and away from fat synthesis, so the more you get in, the more muscle you will gain while not having to worry about fat gain.

GH better taken in a two dosage a day, preferably on times where blood sugar level are low, since GH works back to back with insulin, it’s a better environment for GH, that’s why its effect noticed better during contest preparation, because bodybuilders restrict sugar and are on a diet that won’t get blood sugar so high, which in turn exert insulin.

And since GH work put the body in insulin resistance states when taken with it diabetogenic effect on carbohydrate metabolism, which means that it causes blood sugar levels to rise, it’s not advised to take insulin and GH at the same time.

One should figure the two best times with lowest blood sugar for them, a post workout time is a good time for this purpose, as the blood sugar is low after training. Another good time is before you go to bed, with the last meal not being rich in carbohydrate, or preferably even in the middle of the night, sit the alarm and take the 2nd dosage during the night, wake up, take it and sleep again, since blood sugar is the lowest at that point and make it ideal.

Growth hormone comes in both IU (international unit) and mg, and very easy to use pens or vials, each mg equal to 3IU, so a pen of 5 mg is equal to 15IU.

Growth hormone injection can be given either intramuscular or subcutaneous, subcutaneous injection has a similar but moderately higher level of bioavailability than intramuscular, its preferred to be taken subcutanesly for daily administration, although the drug absorption is acceptable in both methods.

Growth hormone can be taken in conjunction or a steroids cycle to improve its effect or/and between cycles as a bridge to prevent any muscles loss with its anabolic/anti catabolic properties and because it doesn’t down regulater androgenic receptors.
It’s also not detectable in doping tests, since its degraded by the liver and kidney to its basic amino acids, and will show a urine sample identical to a person who orally taken amino acid.

Complementary drugs

Thyroid drugs (T3): GH has known effect on lowering the thyroid levels, so it’s best to use small doses of T3 while on GH to avoid low thyroids hormones, it will also significantly enhance the fat loss during the cycle.

Insulin: another drug commonly used with GH, since GH has effect on glucose tolerance, insulin can increase the receptor sensitivity to IGF-1, and reduces the levels of IGF-1 binding protein-1, and since GH By itself may lower IGF Binding protein levels, Insulin will help with that. if you taking GH and insulin after workout, its best to take GH immediately after workout, and insulin within 30-40 min after that, as mentioned before, GH more effective when taking when insulin levels are low.

GH brands

As mentioned in part one, GH was first taken from the pituitary glands of an autopsied bodies, nowadays protein secretion or Mouse-cell technologies are the methods used in manufacturing GH, creating GH that us identical to GH produced in human body naturally (Somatropin).
Somatrem is still available nowadays, it was made by Inclusion body technology, it was developed by researchers and compared to cadaver GH, unlike Somatropin, somatrem was not pure and contain 192 amino acid sequence, users started do develop anti bodies against it, and developed some reactions, however, some bodybuilder still use it, preferred not to use this type for bodybuilder, as it may not be effective ex of brands still available (Ansomone, Tev-Tropin and Fitropin.

This table shows the most common Somatropin GH brands:

GH Scams and things to watch for

GH is a very expensive drug, even if it is easier to get nowadays, it’s still expensive to use, and many will be victims dealing with this drug, its best always to get it from a respected pharmectucial company, and not to deal much with dealer you don’t know.

Many counterfeits are available, and very deceptive, the first thing you check when getting GH, is the way it was stored by your source, GH is very sensitive to temperature and light, even the lyophilized type will be affected by temperature above 45 degrees. Before reconstitution GH can be good for over a year (or until the expiry date) if refrigerated between 2-8 degree (GH shouldn’t be frozen), and at room temperature up to 37 degree it will be good for about a month, the higher the temperature the less it will last, temperature up to 45 degree will be good for about a week.
After reconstitution, it should be refrigerated all the time and will be good for a 20 day.
If you buy liquids GH, never buy it from the black market or through internet, liquid GH is very sensitive to heat and lose potency if not kept at temperature of 2-8 degree, it’s even sensitive to movements and vigorous shakes can shatter the fragile links between the atoms of the molecule. Using this type should be only when get it from the pharmacy and checking the expiry date.

Another thing to watch for is the powder in the vial, GH powder should form a solid lyophilized disc, if it contains loose powder, don’t take it.

some counterfeits GH are made by relabeling vials of HCG (Pregnyl), since they are very close in resemblance, you can check this type by doing a simple home pregnancy test, take 3-4 units of it before sleeping and make the test in the morning and if your result shows positive, congratulation, you have been screwed.

I noticed many dealers also recommend vets GH for bodybuilders, and since they don’t know much, and see its much cheaper, they may be fooled and take it, unlike anabolic steroids, animal growth hormone shouldn’t be used in humans, it’s very different in the structure, and may cause plenty of side effect with no effect.

You should look out also for Unknown HGH Brand. Producing real GH is not very easy and requires very expensive equipments that are worth millions, so any company who affords these equipments will mostly likely afford a proper brand name, so maybe it is better to stay away from unknown brands.

Beware of useless GH products that are being marketed a lot these days, products that promise an alternative to GH and markets themselves as an as effective as real GH, whether nasal sprays, oral sprays, capsules, powders or tablets. Real GH is only available with a doctor prescription, it’s expensive and the only source of it is from human genes, using a meticulous recombinant DNA technology, GH can’t be absorbed by mouth, spray or sublingual route.
Same things go for HG releaser, they aren’t as effective as they marketed, and nothing works as real human growth hormone.

Last thing, beware of many internet sites and dealers, some look so real as legal online pharmacy, offer prescriptions, and charge credit card, and you never get your products, or you never sure about how they were stored and what you getting, so stick with good sources and well known ones.

 
Growth Hormones Side Effects

Another good thing about GH, it’s a very safe drug, and especially if used in the right way, it’s much safer than anabolic steroids and you don’t need special post cycle therapy, or detoxification using it, especially if you are using a legitimate GH.

Still let’s discuss possible GH side effects:

The most common adverse reactions to GH therapy are flu-like symptoms, joint pain, headache, water retention, and back pain.
Less common adverse reactions include dizziness, numbness on the skin, inflammation of mucous membranes in the nose (rhinitis), upper respiratory infection, bronchitis, reduced sensitivity to touch, nausea, sore bones, carpal tunnel syndrome, chest pain, depression, gynecomastia, hypothyroidism, and insomnia.

Now this might look scary, but the occurrence of such side effects are very rare, especially if used as directed, if you check any medication prescription you taking, you would see a whole list of possible adverse reaction as well, even with normal ones you use frequently, such as Panadol, so this shouldn’t be worrying you, and if you start experiencing any of these side effect, you can stop taking GH and will go away.

A larger abuse of GH may cause more serious problems such as diabetes, acromegaly progression, and enlargement of the internal organs.

Of course as with any drug injection, the injection site may have some effect, such as redness, itching and sometimes infection when not using sterilized injection procedures.
An interesting noticing when injecting GH in the same site repeated times, it may cause localized decrease of adipose tissue.

Summary:

GH is a very misunderstood drug, but proven to have many big benefits for athletes and especially bodybuilders, the GH usage among professional bodybuilder is the best proof.
GH is defiantly is not a wonder drug, it won’t make step on a pro stage, won’t let you change your clothes size anytime soon, and won’t replace you belly with packs. GH will just help you in transforming you body on the long run, accompanied by good training, nutrition and mostly steroids use, will go a long way in your quest for a better physique.
Good luck

Next month we will have a comparison between anabolic steroids and Growth hormone, stay tuned.

Shady Eid is a certified Personal Trainer, writer and competitive bodybuilder based in UAE, for questions and comments you can contact him at: Shady@arabianmuscles.com