I Reduced My Steroids By 3x (The Results Shocked Me)

Androgens stimulate muscle protein synthesis and satellite cell activation, but their full hypertrophic effect requires chronic exposure—months of consistent elevated levels—to remodel tissue. Acute high doses disproportionately increase mineralocorticoid receptor activation and estrogen conversion, leading to water retention, hypertension, and bloating without proportionally more muscle gain. By escalating slowly, the body adapts gradually, and the water-weight spike is blunted, allowing a more accurate gauge of true muscle gain. Primobolan (metenolone) is used because it aromatizes minimally, adding anabolic signaling without estrogenic side effects, which can be titrated against testosterone to keep estrogen normal.

Mike previously climbed to 2,000 mg quickly and ended up with psychological burnout and excessive water. Now he follows this slow-escalation approach and reports feeling dramatically better and still achieving elite physique stats. He plans to never exceed 1,000 mg again.

At TRT doses, androgen receptor activation in skeletal muscle is sufficient to offset catabolic signals, preserving nitrogen balance and muscle mass. Meanwhile, the absence of supraphysiologic androgens reverses water retention, improves lipid profiles, reduces cardiac strain, and normalizes hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis feedback loops.

Mike personally spent a year at 150-500 mg, felt fantastic, saw his visceral fat drop to undetectable, and maintained or improved upper-body strength, proving that TRT-level doses can sustain almost all muscle.

Muscle atrophy results from a dramatic reduction in mechanical tension and volume, downregulating mTOR signaling and upregulating proteolytic pathways. The extremely low set volume (3 sets per week) is insufficient to maintain size but enough to retain neuromuscular coordination, so when training resumes, strength returns rapidly via muscle memory (myonuclear retention and neural adaptation).

Mike personally did this for a full year and now plans to regain his previous leg size over the next year or two as his physique goals change.

Tirzepatide is a dual GIP/GLP-1 receptor agonist; retatrutide adds glucagon receptor agonism. These incretin mimetics delay gastric emptying, suppress glucagon secretion, increase satiety, and enhance adipocyte lipid metabolism. In combination with reduced caloric intake, they preferentially deplete visceral fat, which is highly sensitive to GLP-1 agonism. Mike hypothesizes they also mitigate the lipolytic resistance induced by high androgens.

Mike personally took both drugs and says they 'zapped almost all of my visceral adipose tissue away,' contributing to his best-ever health metrics.

In 2024, Mike's competition peak involved 2,000 mg total androgens per week (test, Primo, oxandrolone, 100 mg tren). He then took a year off bodybuilding to do podcasts and recover from surgery, keeping androgens very low (150-500 mg). When he ramped back up to 750 mg for a fall 2025 peak, he was 11 lbs lighter, 0.3% leaner, had undetectable visceral fat and denser bones. The lean mass difference was 10 lbs, but detailed analysis—identical upper-body strength, some leg muscle loss from detraining—indicated about 5-7 lbs of that was transient water, not muscle.

Mike personally experienced the bloated state at 2,000 mg, noting he felt psychologically worse, and after cutting to 750 mg he felt 'incomparably better' while still achieving a contest-ready look. He directly saw his body weight drop but his strength remain, which triggered the investigation.

Mike previously followed the common bodybuilder pattern of climbing to very high doses (2,000 mg) over a few weeks to peak for a show, experiencing water bloat and psychological side effects. After the reduction experiment, he realized that the muscle-building effect of androgens requires months of exposure, not just high peaks, and that slow tapering up allows body water to stabilize, muscle to accrue meaningfully, and health monitoring.

Mike is now implementing this exact template for his own future cycles, having previously made the mistake of rushing to 2 grams and paying the price in health and psychology.

Current anabolic steroids are derived from testosterone and activate androgen receptors throughout the body, causing cardiovascular, hepatic, and psychiatric harms. Research into selective androgen receptor modulators (SARMs) and gene-therapy approaches is advancing. Mike mentions companies like BioViva and others, though no names given here; he simply states the timeline.

Mike states he will be 'on them shits like white on rice' and probably never take anything other than 100 mg TRT again, layering non-androgenic anabolics on top.

After his 2024 show, Mike realized his legs were ahead of his upper body aesthetically and that continued leg training would make it impossible to achieve his ideal X-frame. He decided to dedicate a year to growing arms/delts while letting legs atrophy.

Mike personally executed this detraining protocol and reports it worked exactly as intended: leg size shrank, upper body grew stronger, and now he feels his physique is better balanced.