Proper Injection Technique
Over the last few months that I have been active here I have continued to see tons of questions asked by both 1st time users and and experienced users about proper injection techniques and sterilization.
I thought I would take a moment to dispel some myths and to offer my take on proper procedure to avoid injury, illness and risks.
IM or Intramuscular injections: (from Wiki)is the injection of a substance directly into a muscle. In medicine, it is one of several alternative methods for the administration of medications (see route of administration). It is used for particular forms of medication that are administered in small amounts. Depending on the chemical properties of the drug, the medication may either be absorbed fairly quickly or more gradually. Intramuscular injections are often given in the deltoid muscle of the arm, the vastus lateralis muscle of the leg, and the ventrogluteal and dorsogluteal muscles of the buttocks.
Choice of injection site is a matter of preference and amount of substance to be injected. Some of the bigger muscles such as glutes and quads and lats are noted to be able to take up to 5ML at one time where some of the smaller muscles such as delts, pecs, tri's and bi's may be limited to 2-3ML depending on size. (personaly I limit smaller muscles to 2ML and larger muscles to 4ML).
The number of sites a person uses is a matter of preference but should never be less than 4 sites and 6 sites or more would be more prefered during a short ester cycle that requires more frequent injections. This is neccessary to avoid or limit scar tissue buildup from frequent injections. The following link offers a number of injection sites and detailed mapping of the location.
http://www.spotinjections.com/index3.htm
SC, SQ, SubQ or Subcutaneous injections: (from Wiki)is administered as a bolus into the subcutis,[2] the layer of skin directly below the dermis and epidermis, collectively referred to as the cutis. Subcutaneous injections are highly effective in administering vaccines and medications such as insulin, morphine, diacetylmorphine and goserelin. Subcutaneous, as opposed to intravenous, injection of recreational drugs is referred to as "skin popping."
It should be noted that the SubQ method of injections allows for a slow, sustained absorbtion and is considered to be much more pain free than IM injections. Typical doses administeres SubQ are 1-2ML typicaly at the most. This is a prefered method when constant injections are required! These injections are normally done in the abdominal area where sub dermal fat is more common.
The most frequently asked injection question has to do with PIP (Post Injection Pain).
There are a number of reasons for post injection pain and ways to avoid it and deal with it. The most known causes of PIP are:
1) Trauma to the injection site during injection. This is most often caused by an unsteady hand that causes the needle to move while in the muscle. This essentialy acts as a sharp knife creating small tears in the muscle that in turn get inflamed and sore!
2) The amount of BA (Benzyl Alcohol) in the gear. Most Pharm grade gear contains less than 1% BA while some UGL's can contain up to 2% BA. Typicaly short estered gear like Prop contains a higher concentration of BA hence why there are so many complaints of PIP being caused by Test Prop. If a proper mixture of BA and BB (Benzyl Benzoate) exists then your gear will not be the cause for PIP!
3) Higher concentration of gear is also noted as causing PIP but agin this has to do with the concentartion of BA.
4) Injecting a high volume into one location can cause PIP do do fascia displacement. Lower volume injected either more frequently or in multiple locations will help avoid this problem.
Warming gear will NOT eliminate PIP!!!!!! This is the biggest injection myth out there! Warming your syringe under tap water that averages 110 degrees will have no affect on it's absortion rate once injected into the muscle body. Consider that the oil will be injected in the body that is already 98.6 degrees and will not hold any increase in temp from warming for any great amount of time!
The only benifit to warming gear is that you can change the viscosity of the oil to a small degree in turn allowing the oil to be injected a bit easier, causing less chance for movement of an unsteady hand. If you absolutly feel the need to do this then please use the practice of placing your entire vile partialy submerged in warm water. Do not...I repeat, do not run your syringe under tap water. Tap water contains bacteria as well as the bacteria in everyones bathroom and kitchen areas. This will greatly increase your risk of an infection occuring during the injection.
Other frequently asked questions are:
Can I mix more than 1 compound from seperate vials in the same syringe so that I only have to inject one time? YES!
Any oil can be mixed, so you can draw Test E and Deca from 2 seperate vials into one syringe and inject them together for an example!
What size syringe and needle should I use? This is mainly a matter of preference but typical suggestions are to draw from the vial with an 18-22 gauge needle, change the tip and inject with a 22-27 gauge needle (my preference is draw with a 22 and inject with a 25). Some will warn against drawing from the vial with anything less than a 22 gauge to avoid damage to the rubber stopper and possible causing contamination by small pieces of the rubber stopper being pulled into the syringe.
Length can be determined to a degree by how lean one is but to inject Glutes and Quads I recommend a 1.5” and all other muscles a 1” or 5/8”.
Nothing is more important than sterile injection techniques!Step by step this is an example of my injection routine.
1) Have everything ready and available ie: vials, alcohol wipes, pins and a bandaid if it makes you feel good
2) Make sure you are not in a hurry and there are no distractions.
3) Remove an alcohol wipe from the package and swipe the top of the vial. This should be done in one direction several times.
4) Remove the syringe and screw the 22G tip on to the syringe. Pull in the same amount of air that you plan to draw from the vial into the syringe (so if you are drawing 1ML of oil then fill the syringe with 1 CC of air). Inject the tip into the vial without touching anything else and push the air into the vial. This creates back pressure in the vial and makes drawing the oil easier. Now draw the desired amount of oil from the vial.
5) Remove the syringe from the vial and then draw up a small air bubble into the syringe. This is less than .2 ML of air.
6) Remove the 22G needle and replace it with the CAPPED 25G needle.
7) Use a FRESH alcohol wipe and swab the area to be injected. Do this fron the center out in circular motions. Let the area swabbed dry!
8) Uncap the syringe and inject the area that was prepped with alcohol. It's personal preference if you inject quickly or push the needle in slowly. Make sure the needle is all of the way into the muscle body.
9) ASPERATE!!! Pull back just slightly on the plunger and assure the syringe doesn't fill with blood. A small amount of blood is no danger. If you are in a blood vessel the syringe will easily fill with blood. Remove the syringe and choose a new injection location. It is NOT neccessary to pull hard on the plunger nor is an air bubble showing during asperation neccessary!
10) After asperating properly, push slow and steady on the plunger making sure that the syringe does not move or shake. There is no such thing as injecting too slow. Push all the way until the oil is completely injectedand the small air bubble you drew up fills the tip pushung all of the oil out. The air will not hurt you!!!!
11) Remove the needle quickly and apply slight pressure with the alcohol wipe. Hold for a minute so that any bleeding will stop. Sometimes after removing the needle blood will come from the site, sometimes it will actully squirt from the injection site! Do not worry..this isn't common but it does happen.
12) Cap the syringe and dispose of everything properly!
If PIP occurs it is usually within 48-72 hours. It may swell, become red and sore and even get a lump. Do not ice or massage! Use a heating pad and anti inflams such as Motrin or Ibuprofen. It may stay for up to a week or so. Keep an eye on it and make sure it doesn't get warm to the touch and increase in size and severity.
If it get's worse see a doctor!!!!
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by capetown
.
