Steroids and Injury Recovery

[DoOver]

Whats up everyone, need some general advice,

I am 190lb 27 y/o male have been lifting seriously for 10 years. Lifting stats (pre injruy) 440 lb bench, 620 dead, (no longer max squats due to past past injuries). The only prior use I have is Havoc a few years ago and stopped there as i figured the risks were not worth the reward (so not to much experience here). I read as much as I can but often see conflicting opinions and it's hard for me to sort it out so I'm posting on multiple boards and trying to get a concensus. So the situation is this...
I blew a disc out 3 months ago, I had neck surgery and things are going well as far as recovery. My body still looks in pretty good shape, but problem is I am weak as hell compared to my prior stats and also would like to lose the little body fat I gained while not working out. I am wondering what you guys think of running a cycle in attempt to gain my strength back and maybe even help the healing process? (I've read some places that steroids can actually hurt the recovery time of a neck injury). If I did do a cycle I would only want to do something that is very mild for a short time span. For PCT I am able to obtain Clomid and/or Nolvadex and likely anything else and I'll have all cycle support on hand as well. I'd like to be as safe and caustious as possible without wasting my time/money on a cycle. So basically I am asking if A) is running a cycle this soon a bad idea? B) What would you consider a decent option for someone with my situation. I'd also like to hear from anyone who has had a serious injruy and used to help recovery and what there stratedgy/limitations were on theirself. Thanks in advance.

[gymfu]

Steroids will help speed recovery. How long has it been from your surgery?
I always recommend people to get blood work done before cycling.
Steroids might not be the right choice for you though, you trained naturally hard for a long time. If you only want the steroids to help with healing might want to look into hgh? Only if you have access to some good stuff, not the Chinese crap.
It's going to take a long time to heal up completely from this and you might not ever be 100% again. Be patient no mater which road you take.
Gl

[fit2bOld]

I would recommend you get back to the gym and train naturally for a while before using AAS. Purely for the fact that you could set yourself up for further injuries in the ligament and tendon category. You would more than likely gain muscle strength at a faster pace than the ligaments and tendons can keep up with. Setting yourself up for strains and tears.

Be patient and smart about your recovery....

[calstate23]

Whats up everyone, need some general advice,

I am 190lb 27 y/o male have been lifting seriously for 10 years. Lifting stats (pre injruy) 440 lb bench, 620 dead, (no longer max squats due to past past injuries). The only prior use I have is Havoc a few years ago and stopped there as i figured the risks were not worth the reward (so not to much experience here). I read as much as I can but often see conflicting opinions and it's hard for me to sort it out so I'm posting on multiple boards and trying to get a concensus. So the situation is this...
I blew a disc out 3 months ago, I had neck surgery and things are going well as far as recovery. My body still looks in pretty good shape, but problem is I am weak as hell compared to my prior stats and also would like to lose the little body fat I gained while not working out. I am wondering what you guys think of running a cycle in attempt to gain my strength back and maybe even help the healing process? (I've read some places that steroids can actually hurt the recovery time of a neck injury). If I did do a cycle I would only want to do something that is very mild for a short time span. For PCT I am able to obtain Clomid and/or Nolvadex and likely anything else and I'll have all cycle support on hand as well. I'd like to be as safe and caustious as possible without wasting my time/money on a cycle. So basically I am asking if A) is running a cycle this soon a bad idea? B) What would you consider a decent option for someone with my situation. I'd also like to hear from anyone who has had a serious injruy and used to help recovery and what there stratedgy/limitations were on theirself. Thanks in advance.

It depends on what type of injury..With your type of injury, GH would be a better option as GH can regrow cartilage, strengthen tendons and ligaments which steroids will not do..Many times steroids help lube the joints so to many sometimes it does help with certain pains...But when you come off it will most likely just start hurting you again...As steroids won't really heal and strengthen the injury like GH can do..

I would hop on a GH cycle and maybe add IGF-1 to increase the effectiveness

[cherrydrpepper]

Does anyone know if insurance could cover HGH in this situation since the dude has a legit serious injury?

OP I have re-injured my shoulder for the 3rd or 4th time and suspect I need surgery. I know nothing about spinals but in my case I am doing a lot of rehab exercises. The stats on your pre-injury lifts are awesome. I would not try to get back to that level again. I posted a video in the lounge where Kai Greene talks about weightlifting versus bodybuilding. http://forums.steroid.com/showthread...g#.UHhuhq6z7D4
I think if you go back into the gym with this expectation you are going to be a weightlifter you will be very disappointed. I do however think bodybuilding is still going to be an option if you are very careful and start out with low weight. I would ask what you were doing in the days before your injury that you attribute to it? Would you say squats/dead lifts? If so I would stop doing these for a while several months at least and then come back only after doing a lot of research and a lot of digging around youtube to see testimonials of people who had the same problems. I found a video on youtube about injuries recently that really stood out to me. I can't find it again but basically the guy said he has seen so many people go in the gym and get re-injured trying to go back to military presses and bench presses with a shoulder injury. I finally have admitted defeat on this front and plan on being a cable / hammerstrength / machine monkey unless something changes for me. My advice is forsake this idea that you are going to be a weightlifter throw that out the window but decide yes I want to be a bodybuilder. You explore the mind muscle connection and stretch and contraction like Kai is talking about and you will see results.

[calstate23]

Does anyone know if insurance could cover HGH in this situation since the dude has a legit serious injury?

OP I have re-injured my shoulder for the 3rd or 4th time and suspect I need surgery. I know nothing about spinals but in my case I am doing a lot of rehab exercises. The stats on your pre-injury lifts are awesome. I would not try to get back to that level again. I posted a video in the lounge where Kai Greene talks about weightlifting versus bodybuilding. http://forums.steroid.com/showthread...g#.UHhuhq6z7D4
I think if you go back into the gym with this expectation you are going to be a weightlifter you will be very disappointed. I do however think bodybuilding is still going to be an option if you are very careful and start out with low weight. I would ask what you were doing in the days before your injury that you attribute to it? Would you say squats/dead lifts? If so I would stop doing these for a while several months at least and then come back only after doing a lot of research and a lot of digging around youtube to see testimonials of people who had the same problems. I found a video on youtube about injuries recently that really stood out to me. I can't find it again but basically the guy said he has seen so many people go in the gym and get re-injured trying to go back to military presses and bench presses with a shoulder injury. I finally have admitted defeat on this front and plan on being a cable / hammerstrength / machine monkey unless something changes for me. My advice is forsake this idea that you are going to be a weightlifter throw that out the window but decide yes I want to be a bodybuilder. You explore the mind muscle connection and stretch and contraction like Kai is talking about and you will see results.

No, HGH is hard to get covered even with a TRUE hormone deficiency...They definitely aren't going to cover because you want to recover from an injury.

[gymfu]

Does anyone know if insurance could cover HGH in this situation since the dude has a legit serious injury?

OP I have re-injured my shoulder for the 3rd or 4th time and suspect I need surgery. I know nothing about spinals but in my case I am doing a lot of rehab exercises. The stats on your pre-injury lifts are awesome. I would not try to get back to that level again. I posted a video in the lounge where Kai Greene talks about weightlifting versus bodybuilding. http://forums.steroid.com/showthread...g#.UHhuhq6z7D4
I think if you go back into the gym with this expectation you are going to be a weightlifter you will be very disappointed. I do however think bodybuilding is still going to be an option if you are very careful and start out with low weight. I would ask what you were doing in the days before your injury that you attribute to it? Would you say squats/dead lifts? If so I would stop doing these for a while several months at least and then come back only after doing a lot of research and a lot of digging around youtube to see testimonials of people who had the same problems. I found a video on youtube about injuries recently that really stood out to me. I can't find it again but basically the guy said he has seen so many people go in the gym and get re-injured trying to go back to military presses and bench presses with a shoulder injury. I finally have admitted defeat on this front and plan on being a cable / hammerstrength / machine monkey unless something changes for me. My advice is forsake this idea that you are going to be a weightlifter throw that out the window but decide yes I want to be a bodybuilder. You explore the mind muscle connection and stretch and contraction like Kai is talking about and you will see results.

No way. I only wish the medical community would recognize the healing capabilities of hgh.

That's not a condoned use for hgh there for just about no doctor would prescribe it and certainly no insurance would pay for it.

[DoOver]

Thanks for some of the responses,

Just to clarify, the injury is somewhat of a mystery. Here's the story. For like the last 4 years I had like a pinched nerve type injury in my neck give or take once a year, I never went to the doctory for it, it would always get better and every now and then i could feel it when I did certain things in the military or if I was lifting and did certain shoulder raise exercises. So, one day I go into the gym do a shoulder day and everything is fine, the next day I go in the gym and start jumping rope when i feel a pinch nerve feeling which puts me out of commision for like a week (this is usually what happened). I let it rest for about a month and was liek 90%, went back to the gym reagrivated it doing light ass curls. It stayed "hurt" for a couple weeks and then one morning I woke up and it got worse, the next day even worse and so on. Eventually my left arm had shooting pain and weakness I got an MRI saw a nureosurgeon and was in surgery in a couple of weeks getting a c5-/c-6 spinal fusion. I asked the Doctor how this occured and he said with the size of the herniation I would of had to did someting that "jerked really hard" to make that happen, which is not the case. My guess is that the disc was bulging for a long period of time and it was just time for it to explode. That being said, its been about 3 months now since the surgery, I am back in the gym and allowed to do whatever my pain tolerance allows (I can like everything, my left arm is just weaker then, I get sore pains in the neck/back area, and im just weak in general lol). I realize I will never be lifting massive weight again although I hope to get back somewhere near my old fitness level in a few years. And, shit, I'm too scared to anyway, I don't want to paralyze myself. My goal now is to just keep my body looking good so I feel good about myself and to help make my body feel as painless as possible by safetly regaining strength. I think some or you are right about the patience thing,(i'm very impatient) I'm nowhere near where I need to be to be going all out in the gym yet, it takes a year or 2 for the bone to fully heal. However, if I am able to only go at about 75% and can get GH would it still be as benefitial if I'm not able to fully tax my body. I'm going to have to do more reading on GH as I don't know to much about it but what are the signifigant differences with cycle support and the like with GH? I've considered asking my doctor/surgeron about it but I know at this point they wouldn't suggest anything as its only been 3 months and the healing process is a 1-2 years for full recovery (although I would think some "assistance" would greatly decrease that time frame). Hence, the reason I'm asking around the interwebs first, with caution on who I'm getting my opinions from but I think any guidance can be helpful.