Trenbolone (Tren)

What does an anabolic rating of 500 bring to the table?

Apart from myths and a legendary status that is.

For the uninitiated, Testosterone, which is considered to be the base of all anabolic steroids has an anabolic rating of 100.

Merely 100 and yet most users get pretty dramatic gains with testosterone alone.

What can something that is five times more anabolic than testosterone do to you?

That’s Trenbolone for you. Touted as the most powerful injectable anabolic steroid of all times.

It has surpassed Deca Durabolin and Dianabol as the most widely used bulking compound. And for good reason too.

Tren not only helps you gain muscle fast, it hardens the new muscle tissue.  

It’s like the gains made with Dianabol with zero water retention and hard, fibrous muscle tissue instead.  

Anybody who’s done anabolic steroids would at some point be tempted to add Tren to the mix.

But this incredibly powerful compound should be handled with extreme care.

Here’s the lowdown on Trenbolone.

An overview of Trenbolone

Trenbolone is a 19-nor anabolic steroid that is an altered form of the Nandrolone hormone.

Two double bonds are added to the molecule that make it a lot more anabolic than Nandrolone or any other steroidal hormone to be fair.

What a lot of people find surprising is that Tren was first discovered in 1969. But it was never approved for human use.

Sometime in the 1970s the fast acting acetate ester was added to it and it was approved for veterinary use and sold under the brand name Finajet by Hoechst-Roussel.

The same company would later develop tiny pellets called Finaplix which was administered subcutaneously to cattle.

The purported use was to turn aging cattle into super muscular cattle.

Another company started to market Trenbolone with the long, slow acting Hexahydrobenzylcarbonate ester attached to it, with the brand name Parabolan. This one was approved for therapeutic uses in humans and attained a lot of success until it was phased out in 1997.

In the early days of Tren, athletes used Finaplix pellets to cook their own recipe for Trenbolone Acetate. However, most UG labs stock injectable versions today.

Technically, there is no Trenbolone in the market that is approved for human use. Anything that you find is veterinary grade. And therein lies some of the risks.

The Results with Trenbolone

What is it about Trenbolone that makes it the blued eyed baby of bodybuilders?

In theory, Trenbolone is very similar to Deca Durabolin since they are both modified versions of the same hormone.

But the fact is that even if you stack multiple anabolic steroids including Deca, you might not be able to match the results that you can get with a Trenbolone Acetate cycle alone.

Calling the results dramatic, can be an understatement.

Nitrogen retention & Protein Synthesis:

Ideally, we would have separated these two as individual effects of using Tren. But we have a lot more to cover in this short article. So we decided to club these two. Trenbolone will boost nitrogen retention and improve protein synthesis. These are the building blocks of anabolism based on which new muscle tissue is produced at an accelerated rate.

Suppresses glucocorticoid hormones:

Tren shows a strong affinity to bind with glucocorticoid receptors and suppresses the activity of these hormones in the body. This prevents catabolism and reduces fat.

Improved nutritional efficiency & nutrient partitioning:

Another unique trait of Tren is to improve nutrient efficiency. The absorption of nutrients from the food you consume is enhanced even when you consume the same or even lower amount of calories.Think of it like utilizing every macro nutrient to its max potential even when you are fasting. Once again, more muscle, better recovery.

Strong affinity for Androgen Receptors:

Tren shows remarkable efficiency towards binding to Androgen receptors. This is more pronounced than what most other anabolic steroids are able to do. Not only does this result in explosive mass gain, it also boosts fat loss at a subcutaneous level and at a visceral level.

Increases Insulin-Like Growth Factor-1:

While there are many anabolic steroids that increase the secretion of IGF-1 in the body, none come even close to Tren. Tren skyrockets IGF-1 levels which in turn has a profound beneficial effect on just about everything. Right from enhanced recovery, more endurance, to ligament healing, tendon tears, better functioning of the central nervous system and the pulmonary system, the benefits of IGF-1 are unparalleled.

Vascularity:

Trenbolone will make the vein network in your body pop out like never before. Some people add Winstrol to further amp the vascularity factor. But unless you are a steroid veteran, that’s overkill.

The Side effects of Trenbolone

With an androgenic rating of 500, androgenic side effects are a given with Tren, especially if you are genetically predisposed to it.

On a positive note, the chemical structure of the hormone ensures it does not aromatize. So, you won’t be needing an AI while you are on tren.

• Androgenic side effects: Trenbolone can cause severe hair thinning, acne, increase oil secretion on your skin and possibly even prostate enlargement if you are predisposed to it. Moreover, even a 5-alpha reductase inhibitor like Finasteride cannot combat the sides since Trenbolone molecule cannot be metabolized by it.
• Gynecomastia: There’s a misconception that since it does not aromatize, Trenbolone cannot cause gynecomastia. Nothing could be further from the truth. Tren has a very strong progestin nature which means that it can cause extreme bloating as well as gynecomastia. A strong anti-estrogen during cycle can help minimize the risk of gyno.
• Mental side effects: Trenbolone is notorious for causing extreme mental side effects like anxiety attacks, depression, aggression, brain fog and sleeplessness. The risk of mental side effects are pronounced at higher doses though. Moderate and low doses rarely cause these sides.
• Cholesterol, Kidney and Liver: Trenbolone can be extremely harsh on your cholesterol levels, your kidney and liver function. Moreover, it will shut you down 100% and you will have to use the peptide hormone HCG during your cycle to prevent this from occurring.

Trenbolone dosage and cycle

In 6 weeks, fat mass increased by 34±7% in CTRLs (p<0.01). Fat mass decreased by 37±6% and lean mass increased by 11±4% with TREN (p<0.05). Serum triglycerides, HDL and LDL were reduced by 62%, 57% and 78% (p<0.05) respectively in TREN rats.

2015 Feb;94:60-9. doi: 10.1016/j.steroids.2014.12.017. Epub 2014 Dec 30.

The ideal dose for Trenbolone can be between 50-100mg every other day depending on your tolerance to the drug.

That takes the weekly total dose to 200-400mg.

Very rarely, seasoned users can up that to 700mg/week.

But even if you can tolerate that high a dose without major physical sides, the risk of mental side effects looms large.

Why would you want bigger muscles if you feel like shit all the time?

Stick to a low dose and enjoy the amazing benefits that this steroid offers.

To sum it up

There’s no better bulking, cutting or off-season bulking steroid in the world than Trenbolone.

But not everyone is cut out for the power that it offers.

If you wish to add it to your cycle, do your research. Keep an eye on your bloodwork and do it safely.