The main argument is: He's too young. The validity of which is questionable.
In the end, the only real problem might be stunted long bone growth but he could have that checked out to know if he's finished growing.
The main questions of this thread have been raised in another one about waiting to reach genetic potential to use steroids.
I am trying to reconcile various statements mentionned here with the reality that is ''gear use''.
1)Not needing them because you are too young.
Now, even in youth, between puberty and your 30s the testosterone range is basically the same we've always seen of 300-1000 ng/dl, granted, many teens and young adults may be sligthly in the upper margins, but from what we've been able to read here and from other medical sites, the vast majority of us are in the relative low end of the spectrum.
Now, injections of 600 mg of Test Enanthate once per week raised Total Testosterone (ng/dl) from 431+-38 to 3244+-305 in an exercising group and from 502+-63 to 2828+-417 in the non exercicing group which are respectively a 7.4 and a 5.6 increast from baseline and Free Testosterone (pg/ml) going from 90+-6 to 572 +-305 in the exercing group and 79+-7 to 497+-62 in the non-exercising group which again are respectively a 6.35 an a 6.29 increase from baseline.
(the guys were 19 to 40 years of age)
So even the young in the very high high testosterone range, which are usually by definition a rarity) could still basically double or triple his total test levels and have concurrent muscle growth. Most juiced guys in the study were in their 20s, low and high 20s. (Bhasin, Storer. 1996. The effects of supraphysiological doses of testosterone on muscle size and strenght in normal men. The New England Journal of Medicine, vol 335)
While it is true that a young man, with little lifting time (post-beginners gains) under his belt could really gain a significant amount of weight by training consistenly for a number of years, it is false to assume that there would be little benefit to a cycle to accelerate muscle developpement.
2)Young and therefore low training age
It is possible to argue that being young implies low training age and therefore you would not benefit as much from your cycle than you would if you really knew how to lift correctly and properly. However, this argument seems irrelevant in this thread considering its argued that 19 is too young for steroids period, not that a guy would not make the best gains.
3)Too young for steroids, physiologically.
Now, beyond the real possibility of growth stunting that would occur in the long bones in a young person, long bone growth stops at the end of puberty which in the vast majority of boys is around 17.5 years in North America, some go on for longer but is rather rare. Post-pubertal growth being due the cartilagenous disk enlargement in the spinal and I have not seen anything that indicates whether or not they would in any way be affected by testosterone increase.
Again, if growth was the major issue, simple wrist and knee X-rays and an appointement with an pediatric endocrinologist would be sufficient to rule out further long bone growth.
4) Fucking up the endocrine system longterm.
Well unless you do something like high and long cycles of nandrolone which is mentionned to be the most suppressive, I don't see how that would even be an issue considering that even with hardcore cycles of nandrolone and proper if not longer PCTs, people regain , at least to their knowledge in term of function, their HPTA function.
So I am actually trying to understand where the too young issue comes from or if it is akin to ''your testicles will disappear forever if you touch a steroid vial''.
So what are people's actually reasonning behind the too young principle? Because last time I checked, some 2X year old guys are making rapid and impressive gains while juicing and while they probably could have gotten there in 10 years of hardcore training/nutritions, most would rather do it in 2. Especially that for many, the end, not the journey is what interests them in bodybuilding.
Anyways. ciao
