french_muscle
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maybe some of you have already seen this before ...
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Prostaglandins
Among the most potent growth factors produced locally in the muscles are the prostaglandins. These quasi-hormones use fats as their raw materials. Several classes of prostaglandins exist. We will mainly focus on the most potent one, namely the prostaglandin F2 alpha or PGF2 for short. If you apply PGF2 to a muscle cell, you are going to trigger a very strong anabolic response. PGF2 has been used by veterinarians for years not only to get animals pregnant but also to make them grow. A few daredevils figured out that if it was making animals more muscular, it would make bodybuilders bigger too. This was a big leap of faith as many drugs produce wonderful effects in animals only to fail miserably in bodybuilders. Clenbuterol is a good example of this: ultra potent in animals, deceptive in humans. Amazingly enough, this time it worked wonders.
WARNING:
What I am going to reveal is true for men ONLY. Women will not get any benefit from what I will describe below. Further, no women should EVER touch this drug which will induce a very severe pain in their ovaries. As men do not have ovaries, this is something that will not happen to them.
PGF2 and anabolism
Many studies have demonstrated an anabolic effect of PGF2 in skeletal muscles of both humans and animals. Paradoxically, PGF2 usage is still reserved to a bodybuilding elite and no one is willing to divulge the precious secret edge. One of the most remarkable effects of PGF2 is that it mediates the major part of the anabolic effects of insulin. By using PGF2, you can use far less insulin and get a far stronger muscle building effect.
PGF2 and weak bodyparts. The cardinal rule of PGF2 is to inject as far away as possible from the intestine. You see, PGF2 induces a very strong contraction of the intestine and the bladder (both smooth muscles). The major candidate as a site of injection was the front shoulders. But by repeating injections in the shoulders, bodybuilders soon ended up with grossly overdeveloped front delts. They looked like walking monkeys. The rest of their body was growing too, but not as fast as the muscles closest to the sites of injections. What this means is that if you want to develop a weak muscle, just inject PGF2 locally and watch the muscle grow. We are talking about a real muscle growth and not an artificial swelling like Synthol or Esiclene would induce. Calves are a muscle of choice. In fact, even if your calves failed to grow no matter how much steroid and training you administered, PGF2 will solve your problem. After a single cycle of PGF2, unresponsive calves start to respond to both training and steroids even if they never did before.The localized growth induced by PGF2 may appear magical, but there is a simple explanation. The life cycle of the injected PGF2 is terribly short (minutes). Most of it will be destroyed in your lungs. If you hit your right calf for example, this muscle will be exposed to a maximal concentration of PGF2. As the prostaglandin rapidly leaks out of the calf and passes into the blood, it will quickly reach the lungs where most of it will be destroyed. What is left of the PGF2 will be dispatched evenly though your whole body. It means that the other muscles will be exposed to far less of the anabolic effects of PGF2. So unless you want to make a weak point grow, you should rotate the sites of injections frequently which as we will see is not a problem.
PGF2 is not to be confused with steroids. You've probably realized by now that PGF2 produces growth in a radically different way from steroids -- although I do not exclude that part of the anabolic actions of androgens are mediated by a local release of PGF2. The way PGF2 should be used is therefore radically different from that of androgens. Steroid use is rather comfortable. You inject or swallow them once in a while and wait for the growth to occur. This is not the case with PGF2. Their main drawback is precisely their difficulty of administration. Steroids once injected survive several days in your body. PGF2 will last only several minutes though their stimulatory actions on anabolism will be far longer lasting (hours). It means that frequent injections are compulsory. Ideally this would be five times per day, 30 minutes after meals.
You will also notice that once you have injected PGF2, the muscle which received it gets sore almost immediately. If the muscle was already sore from training, that painful sensation may become very intense. You definitely do not want to repeat injections at the very same location, hence the necessity for rotation. By the same token, you will notice that you cannot inject in a muscle and then train this muscle. PGF2 is algesic (a pain mediator). Therefore, the timing of injections is key. You should wait for at least 2 to 3 days after you have trained a muscle to inject it. Then you will have to wait for 24 hours before training this muscle. If your muscle is already sore, I advise against using it as a site of injection as long as it hurts. You will also learn that it is more comfortable to hit the outer part of the muscle than the inner part. For example, it is less painful to hit the outer head of the triceps than the inner head that touches your lats. Some bodyparts such as the biceps, the back, etc. are especially sensitive to the pain sensation PGF2 will induce.
Is PGF2 safe?
The answer is clearly no, but neither is the use of steroids, insulin, clenbuterol, etc. By the way, PGF2 is absolutely invisible at any drug test. What kind of side effects to expect? The first ones -- if we except the elevation of temperature -- are that it will empty your guts of whatever they contain. So make sure you have unrestricted use of a bathroom. This is going to last around 20 minutes. What you do not want is to inject PGF2 into a vein! Learn to do the aspiration test. PGF2 is to be injected intramuscularly with an insulin needle if you are lean enough. This is going to hurt like hell and for a very long time (up to an hour) if you inject into a vein. You also may feel as if you had some kind of cold in your throat. It is due to the vasoconstricting effect PGF2 has in your lungs. Vomiting is a reported side effect but I have never heard of it in men.
Dosages.
The lowest possible "effective" dose should be used You should start with a low dosage no higher than (a half milligram) and see what happens. From there, build up VERY slowly. Then, the sky is the limit. You can inject what is normally needed for several cows and survive but believe me, you do not want to go through this and it is potentially deadly. Do not forget to keep the vials refrigerated. If you are new to PGF2, for simplicity choose the natural form and not an analog. PGF2 analogs have several advantages over straight PGF2 in that they have a longer half life and less side effects, but some of them have no anabolic properties while others are more potent than straight PGF2. Do not take a chance on that.
Many readers enjoyed my previous article about prostaglandins as muscle builders. This short introduction to prostaglandins produced critics, controversies and queries. Prostaglandins, especially PGF2 are no wonder drugs. They will not make you a Mr. Olympia in a matter of days. They do not represent a substitute for training. Neither are they free of side-effects. Some are benign while others are more worrying. Besides, PGF2 is tricky to manipulate. So by no means do I pretend to have uncovered the ultimate anabolics. There is one fact though that cannot be denied: prostaglandins are very potent anabolic substances. It is true that thousands of champions were able to build their muscle mass without it, but we are living in a society in which the extra edge is always needed to more quickly achieve or exceed your goals. This is why I am going to discuss the pros and cons as well as the how-to of prostaglandins.
Prostaglandins: a very important modulator of growth
Each of our muscle cells produces prostaglandins naturally and continuously. Each of our muscle cells contains prostaglandin receptors. A muscle failing to manufacture enough prostaglandins will rapidly waste away. Animal studies have shown that immunization against PGF2 impairs the muscle growth even though scientists were expecting it would boost anabolism. In humans, a reduction of muscle prostaglandin production is associated with wasting. The potent inhibitors of prostaglandin synthesis such as cortisol produce their wasting effects in great part by reducing the muscle production of prostaglandins, thus slowing protein synthesis rate.From a physiological point of view, prostaglandins are very important if not one of the ultimate growth mediators. All the problems arise from their mode of actions. The cells which need more prostaglandins manufacture them for their own consumption or for the nearby cells. Prostaglandins do not have to circulate like testosterone which is mostly an endocrine hormone. Once in the blood, prostaglandins are rapidly destroyed. Those major discrepancies mean that prostaglandins cannot be used in the same way as anabolic steroids.Once injected, steroids slowly pass into the blood. They will eventually find their ways to the muscles among other tissues. Steroid usage is therefore pretty simple: inject and wait. Because of both their very short life cycle and their very localized actions, prostaglandins are far harder to manipulate.
PGF2 analogues
Just as testosterone has analogues such as nandrolone, so do prostaglandins. The analogues are an attempt to solve the problems caused by the original hormone or substance. Steroid molecules such as nandrolone or trenbolone were developed in the hope they would induce more favorable actions (anabolism) while producing less side effects (virilization) compared to testosterone. Researchers designed PGF2 analogues in order to address the three main problems inherent to PGF2. First: to increase its very short life cycle, second: to lessen the incidence of the numerous side effects associated with PGF2 usage, third: to ease prostaglandin usage by developing oral versions.
As with testosterone some analogues proved useless while others do have some interesting properties, at least in the test tube. I am not going to tell you which analogue is the best. The truth is that I don't know. I only have experience with the real thing. This may be disappointing but I am not going to lie just to look better.
Aspirin as an anti-prostaglandin
Aspirin or aspirin-like substances have the potential to reduce some of the side effects such as pain associated with PGF2 administration. However I tend to consider that the use of aspirin along with PGF2 weakens the overall anabolic effects without effectively fighting the side effects. This is true for the aspirin you can find in medication as well as the aspirin hidden in some ephedrine-caffeine stacks. I suggest that you avoid both of them. Several hypotheses could be advanced about the inhibiting effects of aspirin. Some research has shown that aspirin could block prostaglandin receptors. It may also impair the conversion of PGF2 to PGE2 which seems important for a maximal muscle building effect. I know that PGE2 is considered as a muscle enemy in the bodybuilding magazines, but the fact is that several studies have pointed out its usefulness in the bodybuilding process as a growth agent for the muscles. One last hypothesis is that PGF2 stimulates the subsequent natural release of muscle PGF2 or PGE2 which could further enhance the anabolic process. Aspirin would prevent this secondary anabolic secretion.
Preventing the local growth by rotating the sites of injections I consider the local growth induced by PGF2 as a side effect. As I said last month, it is due to a weakness of PGF2 (a very rapid degradation) rather than a magical effect. Unless you want to bring up a specific weak point, you should constantly rotate the sites of injections. One more restriction is that it is easy, for example, to inject PGF2 in some body part like the front shoulders but far harder in the inner side of the biceps. You should also make sure to avoid hitting too close to the intestine which exacerbates the gastro-intestinal discomfort caused by PGF2. Though close to the intestine, the front legs are a rather interesting and "easy" site of injections. You just may feel your quads "better" as you walk. I would suggest you mark all the possible injection sites you have in order to structure your injection pattern. If you have weak points, they should be hit more often than your strong bodyparts. No injecting your right calf will make your left calve grow to the same extent. Same thing with the gastronemius and the soleus. Hitting one will mostly make the injected muscle grow with a lesser stimulation for the nearby muscles. So for the calves only, we have at least 15 possible sites of injections. One on the upper, outer soleus, one for the lower, outer soleus and one for the lower inner part of the soleus. One or two for the front calves depending on your degree of development. For the gastronemius, you have both the upper and lower part of the outer side as well as the upper and lower parts of the inner/rear part. Of course, you can multiply that by two as you hopefully have 2 calves. I consider that you have the same number of sites on the upper legs. Avoid the abs, the lower back and maybe the forearms. Your triceps hold at least 6 sites and at least 4 for your biceps. Your shoulders have at least 12. If you are not too sensitive, you can manage 12 more on your chest. It is a total of at least 64 sites (excluding the back) to choose from every day.If you are not sure about the muscle locations, check with an anatomy chart to avoid hitting a tendon or a bone. Note carefully which side of the body you last hit so that you can shift from the right to the left and from the left to the right with each injection. If a friend of yours is willing to help you with the injections, it will increase the potential number of injection sites by adding your whole upper back and helping the right handed persons with their right side of their upper body (and the opposite for the left handed persons). You will always find a helping hand in the gym.The main problem with the rotation is to inject into muscles that you are not about to train or muscles that you trained recently. This is why training each bodypart seriously only once a week will ease our use of PGF2. Light pumping sessions should not interfere with the PGF2 rotation schedule as the mild pain should be bearable. In fact, during a light workout, having a soreness-like mild pain should help you feel the muscle contraction better and should enhance your focus on the trained muscles.As I said last month, you should wait for at least two to three days after training to inject PGF2 because of its pain promoting effect. This length of time depends upon the degree of trauma inflicted to the trained muscles. If your training was really traumatic (by including plenty of heavy negative reps), you may have to wait longer. But PGF2 users do not have to traumatize their muscles to get results. In fact, thanks to the muscle pump you will obtain with the light weights, you will not have to go too heavy. Your workouts are more likely to be non-traumatic, allowing you to inject after only two days after the workout.I also advised to stop injecting into a muscle 24 hours before retraining it. This means that you have a three day window of opportunity for a single muscle per week to soak it up with PGF2.
Here is a one week schedule example. It assumes that your upper body is lagging a bit compared to your legs and is therefore trained a bit more. The first muscle is the bodypart of the day and should be trained hard (but avoid overly traumatic techniques such as pure negative reps and super heavy weights). The second and sometimes third muscles are meant to be trained in a light high rep fashion for around 5 sets each. In the least column, the muscles receiving PGF2 are mentioned. You will note that even though there are days off training, it is best to administer PGF2 everyday. Again, this is due to the short life cycle of PGF2 which makes it necessary to repeat injections frequently.
Day Muscle of the day Pumping muscles of the day Muscles in which PGF2 can be administered for the day
Monday Back Chest Chest*, Arms
Tuesday Legs Shoulders Shoulders*, Arms
Wesnesday Chest Back Shoulders, Arms
Thursday Rest Rest Shoulders, Back.
Friday Arms Legs Back, legs*.
Saturday Shoulders Back, Chest Back*, legs, chest*
Sunday Rest Rest Legs, Chest
* Inject after training rather than before.
The dosage issue
Most readers are interested in an "ideal" dosage schedule. Unfortunately, such a miraculous schedule does not exist. Steroids have been used for decades, yet no one is able to come up with a one fits all, fail-safe schedule. Though some claim to know exactly how to use steroids and how to stack them, this is a lie. The same applies to PGF2. The ideal schedule does not exist. It is up to you to figure out which one suits you best. I can give you some guidelines but I am more able to tell you how not to use it than to prescribe its use. As mentioned last month, I suggest to start with half a milligram. At that dosage, not much should occur. Better to be safe than sorry. If everything goes well, go up to a milligram the next time. See what is happening. If you are fine, try 2 milligrams. I think you understand how to build up your dosage during the first days of your very first cycle. There is normally 25 mg of PGF2 per 5 milliliters. At 1 ml. (therefore 5 mg.), you should start to be able to tell the drug is working. I suggest not to go above 2 ml. per injection. If you are using 1 ml. five times a day, it means one vial a day (two if you use 2 ml.s). 5 ml. is the most I have ever heard with a single injection, but I consider it as a huge dosage. Maybe in 5 to 10 years, it will sound like a sissy dosage, but only time will help us determine an upper limit.
Lowering the required dosage One easy way to reduce the PGF2 dosage (and therefore the side effects) while optimizing the anabolic response is to administer PGF2 while insulin secretion is high. This means at meal time -- or more precisely after a meal. Insulin can trigger the muscle secretion of PGF2. This is probably how it produces anabolism. But insulin does not stop here: it increases the muscle sensitivity to the anabolic effects of PGF2. This is why you can reduce your PGF2 dosage if it is used at meal time or administered with insulin or an insulin booster. The dosages mentioned above already take into account the beneficial synergetic action of insulin on PGF2.
The Role of PGF2a in Muscle Growth
After that brief introduction into prostaglandins, we can now begin to discuss more specifically the role of prostaglandins in muscle growth. In a nutshell, mechanical stimulation (i.e. intermittent stretch) results in the production and efflux of two prostaglandins, PGE2 and PGF2a. PGE2 increases protein degradation where as PGF2a increases protein synthesis. Muscle hypertrophy is usually achieved by an increase in protein synthesis as well as a proportionately smaller increase in degradation. The simultaneous release of both PGE2 and PGF2a creates this condition.
It is well known that mechanical stretch, without any electrical activity, is sufficient to induce muscle hypertrophy. Recent studies have shown that the mechanism by which mechanical stretch leads to prostaglandin production and ultimately muscle growth, involves G proteins embedded in the cell membrane. These G proteins increase the amount of cyclo-oxygenase, the enzyme responsible for making prostaglandins from arachidonic acid. Skeletal muscle cyclooxygenase generates PGE2 and PGF2 alpha at a ratio approximately equal to one.
The exact mechanism by which PGF2a increases protein synthesis is not entirely clear. That’s just a spineless way of saying, "I don’t know the exact answer to that!" We are free to speculate though. It may involve short phase protein synthesis and/or long phase protein synthesis.
2 phases of protein synthesis modulation
Modulation of protein synthesis rates occurs at two levels, the short phase and the long phase. The short phase alteration in protein synthesis rates occurs by altering the activity of existing ribosomes and/or eukaryotic initiation factors (eIFs). This happens within minutes of the appropriate physiological trigger. The long phase modulation of protein synthesis happens by way of increasing the number of myonuclei. This mechanism involves hormones and growth factors such as HGH and IGF-1 bringing about the activation of myogenic stem cells. This can take several days to effect protein synthesis rates. This is a simplified view but for our purposes it is sufficient.
The role of PGF2a in short phase protein synthesis in muscle tissue is speculative at best. In non-muscle tissue, prostaglandins effect calcium fluxes, plasma membrane ionic channel activities, and cyclic nucleotide levels. All of which are important regulators of protein synthesis rates in muscle. PGF2a has been shown to interact with the S6 small ribosomal subunit, increasing its potential to form the ribosomal initiation complex with the large subunits. It is also plausible that PGF2a may effect the activity of eIFs.
Initiation of translation (the binding of mRNA to the ribosomal pre-initiation complex) requires group 4 eukaryotic initiation factors (eIFs). These initiation factors interact with the mRNA in such a way that makes translation (the construction of new proteins from the mRNA strand) possible. Two eIFs, called eIF4A and eIF4B, act in concert to unwind the mRNA strand. Another one called eIF4E binds to what is called the "cap region" and is important for controlling which mRNA strands are translated and also for stabilization of the mRNA strand. Finally, eIF4G is a large polypeptide that acts as a scaffold or framework around which all of these initiation factors and the mRNA and ribosome can be kept in place and proper orientation for translation. There is yet no direct evidence to confirm that PGF2a works through this mechanism however.
Long term modulation of protein synthesis involves the activation of myogenic stem cells or satellite cells. If you recall, when a muscle is stretched it not only produces PGF2a, but also PGE2. PGE2 is a potent inducer of satellite cell proliferation and fusion. This is how existing muscle cells increase the number of nuclei they contain. This is important because in order for a muscle to grow rapidly, it must produce more mRNA. This is done in the nucleus of the muscle cell. The more nuclei you have, the more mRNA you can produce. Within the cell, prostaglandins may also be involved in regulating the number of ribosomes. This could have long term implications on growth and development as well as stretch induced hypertrophy.
PGF2a + IGF-1: The ultimate cocktail for localized muscle growth?
Say good by to lagging body parts forever. It is a special time to be a bodybuilder. With the advent of PGF2a as a localized anabolic agent along with the newly available rhIGF-1 which has also been shown to build muscle where you want it, the future for genetically challenged bodybuilders looks bright indeed. A brief refresher course on locally injected IGF-1. Non-exercised muscle, when injection with 0.9 - 1.9 micrograms/kg/day of rhIGF-1 was shown to mimic the effects of physically loading the muscle. Much the same effect PGF2a but by different mechanisms. With local IGF-1 injections there is an increase in protein content, cross sectional area and DNA content. The increase in muscle DNA is presumed to be a result of increased proliferation and differentiation of satellite cells which donate their nuclei upon fusion with damaged or hypertrophying muscle cells. Take note that the quantities of IGF-1 needed are extremely small, much smaller than studies that have shown relatively poor results from administering IGF-1 systemically which range from 1.0 to 6.9 milligrams/kg/day.
Now add PGF2a to the mix and whalla! You can virtually mimic the mechanical stimulus of training without even picking up a weight. You have PGF2a to accelerate short term protein synthesis by activating ribosomes and/or eIFs and thereby translation, as well as IGF-1 to activate satellite cells to bind and donate additional nuclei to boost the amount of mRNA to be used by the ribosomes. Because the mechanism of action is different, the two compounds should compliment each other delivering results beyond what either one alone could produce.
Are these compounds going to replace traditional training? Not in the near future. The use of site injectable drugs only reaches the surface musculature. Deeper muscles are only stimulated to grow with traditional training. For strength athletes, strength is dependant on neuromuscular training which is not enhanced by simple muscle hypertrophy without actual lifting in a coordinated fashion. Are these compounds going to replace traditional anabolics? No. The reason is basically the same as with training. Deeper muscle groups are only reached by systemically administered anabolics that are carried throughout the entire body. In addition, androgens are needed to influence genetic expression in favor of whole body skeletal muscle growth. Are these compounds going to change the face of bodybuilding? It is very likely that they will, depending on their availability and cost. I would hope that as competitors become educated about these alternatives that we will no longer see implants in top level competitors. It would also be nice to see people have an option when it comes to pumping their muscles full of "stuff" in hopes that it will improve their symmetry. No doubt the future will bring us even more new and exciting drugs like non-steroidal androgens and compounds that alter the expression of myostatin (GDF . Once again, it is an exciting time in the science of bodybuilding, perhaps now more than any other time since the introduction of testosterone.
:cheers:
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Prostaglandins
Among the most potent growth factors produced locally in the muscles are the prostaglandins. These quasi-hormones use fats as their raw materials. Several classes of prostaglandins exist. We will mainly focus on the most potent one, namely the prostaglandin F2 alpha or PGF2 for short. If you apply PGF2 to a muscle cell, you are going to trigger a very strong anabolic response. PGF2 has been used by veterinarians for years not only to get animals pregnant but also to make them grow. A few daredevils figured out that if it was making animals more muscular, it would make bodybuilders bigger too. This was a big leap of faith as many drugs produce wonderful effects in animals only to fail miserably in bodybuilders. Clenbuterol is a good example of this: ultra potent in animals, deceptive in humans. Amazingly enough, this time it worked wonders.
WARNING:
What I am going to reveal is true for men ONLY. Women will not get any benefit from what I will describe below. Further, no women should EVER touch this drug which will induce a very severe pain in their ovaries. As men do not have ovaries, this is something that will not happen to them.
PGF2 and anabolism
Many studies have demonstrated an anabolic effect of PGF2 in skeletal muscles of both humans and animals. Paradoxically, PGF2 usage is still reserved to a bodybuilding elite and no one is willing to divulge the precious secret edge. One of the most remarkable effects of PGF2 is that it mediates the major part of the anabolic effects of insulin. By using PGF2, you can use far less insulin and get a far stronger muscle building effect.
PGF2 and weak bodyparts. The cardinal rule of PGF2 is to inject as far away as possible from the intestine. You see, PGF2 induces a very strong contraction of the intestine and the bladder (both smooth muscles). The major candidate as a site of injection was the front shoulders. But by repeating injections in the shoulders, bodybuilders soon ended up with grossly overdeveloped front delts. They looked like walking monkeys. The rest of their body was growing too, but not as fast as the muscles closest to the sites of injections. What this means is that if you want to develop a weak muscle, just inject PGF2 locally and watch the muscle grow. We are talking about a real muscle growth and not an artificial swelling like Synthol or Esiclene would induce. Calves are a muscle of choice. In fact, even if your calves failed to grow no matter how much steroid and training you administered, PGF2 will solve your problem. After a single cycle of PGF2, unresponsive calves start to respond to both training and steroids even if they never did before.The localized growth induced by PGF2 may appear magical, but there is a simple explanation. The life cycle of the injected PGF2 is terribly short (minutes). Most of it will be destroyed in your lungs. If you hit your right calf for example, this muscle will be exposed to a maximal concentration of PGF2. As the prostaglandin rapidly leaks out of the calf and passes into the blood, it will quickly reach the lungs where most of it will be destroyed. What is left of the PGF2 will be dispatched evenly though your whole body. It means that the other muscles will be exposed to far less of the anabolic effects of PGF2. So unless you want to make a weak point grow, you should rotate the sites of injections frequently which as we will see is not a problem.
PGF2 is not to be confused with steroids. You've probably realized by now that PGF2 produces growth in a radically different way from steroids -- although I do not exclude that part of the anabolic actions of androgens are mediated by a local release of PGF2. The way PGF2 should be used is therefore radically different from that of androgens. Steroid use is rather comfortable. You inject or swallow them once in a while and wait for the growth to occur. This is not the case with PGF2. Their main drawback is precisely their difficulty of administration. Steroids once injected survive several days in your body. PGF2 will last only several minutes though their stimulatory actions on anabolism will be far longer lasting (hours). It means that frequent injections are compulsory. Ideally this would be five times per day, 30 minutes after meals.
You will also notice that once you have injected PGF2, the muscle which received it gets sore almost immediately. If the muscle was already sore from training, that painful sensation may become very intense. You definitely do not want to repeat injections at the very same location, hence the necessity for rotation. By the same token, you will notice that you cannot inject in a muscle and then train this muscle. PGF2 is algesic (a pain mediator). Therefore, the timing of injections is key. You should wait for at least 2 to 3 days after you have trained a muscle to inject it. Then you will have to wait for 24 hours before training this muscle. If your muscle is already sore, I advise against using it as a site of injection as long as it hurts. You will also learn that it is more comfortable to hit the outer part of the muscle than the inner part. For example, it is less painful to hit the outer head of the triceps than the inner head that touches your lats. Some bodyparts such as the biceps, the back, etc. are especially sensitive to the pain sensation PGF2 will induce.
Is PGF2 safe?
The answer is clearly no, but neither is the use of steroids, insulin, clenbuterol, etc. By the way, PGF2 is absolutely invisible at any drug test. What kind of side effects to expect? The first ones -- if we except the elevation of temperature -- are that it will empty your guts of whatever they contain. So make sure you have unrestricted use of a bathroom. This is going to last around 20 minutes. What you do not want is to inject PGF2 into a vein! Learn to do the aspiration test. PGF2 is to be injected intramuscularly with an insulin needle if you are lean enough. This is going to hurt like hell and for a very long time (up to an hour) if you inject into a vein. You also may feel as if you had some kind of cold in your throat. It is due to the vasoconstricting effect PGF2 has in your lungs. Vomiting is a reported side effect but I have never heard of it in men.
Dosages.
The lowest possible "effective" dose should be used You should start with a low dosage no higher than (a half milligram) and see what happens. From there, build up VERY slowly. Then, the sky is the limit. You can inject what is normally needed for several cows and survive but believe me, you do not want to go through this and it is potentially deadly. Do not forget to keep the vials refrigerated. If you are new to PGF2, for simplicity choose the natural form and not an analog. PGF2 analogs have several advantages over straight PGF2 in that they have a longer half life and less side effects, but some of them have no anabolic properties while others are more potent than straight PGF2. Do not take a chance on that.
Many readers enjoyed my previous article about prostaglandins as muscle builders. This short introduction to prostaglandins produced critics, controversies and queries. Prostaglandins, especially PGF2 are no wonder drugs. They will not make you a Mr. Olympia in a matter of days. They do not represent a substitute for training. Neither are they free of side-effects. Some are benign while others are more worrying. Besides, PGF2 is tricky to manipulate. So by no means do I pretend to have uncovered the ultimate anabolics. There is one fact though that cannot be denied: prostaglandins are very potent anabolic substances. It is true that thousands of champions were able to build their muscle mass without it, but we are living in a society in which the extra edge is always needed to more quickly achieve or exceed your goals. This is why I am going to discuss the pros and cons as well as the how-to of prostaglandins.
Prostaglandins: a very important modulator of growth
Each of our muscle cells produces prostaglandins naturally and continuously. Each of our muscle cells contains prostaglandin receptors. A muscle failing to manufacture enough prostaglandins will rapidly waste away. Animal studies have shown that immunization against PGF2 impairs the muscle growth even though scientists were expecting it would boost anabolism. In humans, a reduction of muscle prostaglandin production is associated with wasting. The potent inhibitors of prostaglandin synthesis such as cortisol produce their wasting effects in great part by reducing the muscle production of prostaglandins, thus slowing protein synthesis rate.From a physiological point of view, prostaglandins are very important if not one of the ultimate growth mediators. All the problems arise from their mode of actions. The cells which need more prostaglandins manufacture them for their own consumption or for the nearby cells. Prostaglandins do not have to circulate like testosterone which is mostly an endocrine hormone. Once in the blood, prostaglandins are rapidly destroyed. Those major discrepancies mean that prostaglandins cannot be used in the same way as anabolic steroids.Once injected, steroids slowly pass into the blood. They will eventually find their ways to the muscles among other tissues. Steroid usage is therefore pretty simple: inject and wait. Because of both their very short life cycle and their very localized actions, prostaglandins are far harder to manipulate.
PGF2 analogues
Just as testosterone has analogues such as nandrolone, so do prostaglandins. The analogues are an attempt to solve the problems caused by the original hormone or substance. Steroid molecules such as nandrolone or trenbolone were developed in the hope they would induce more favorable actions (anabolism) while producing less side effects (virilization) compared to testosterone. Researchers designed PGF2 analogues in order to address the three main problems inherent to PGF2. First: to increase its very short life cycle, second: to lessen the incidence of the numerous side effects associated with PGF2 usage, third: to ease prostaglandin usage by developing oral versions.
As with testosterone some analogues proved useless while others do have some interesting properties, at least in the test tube. I am not going to tell you which analogue is the best. The truth is that I don't know. I only have experience with the real thing. This may be disappointing but I am not going to lie just to look better.
Aspirin as an anti-prostaglandin
Aspirin or aspirin-like substances have the potential to reduce some of the side effects such as pain associated with PGF2 administration. However I tend to consider that the use of aspirin along with PGF2 weakens the overall anabolic effects without effectively fighting the side effects. This is true for the aspirin you can find in medication as well as the aspirin hidden in some ephedrine-caffeine stacks. I suggest that you avoid both of them. Several hypotheses could be advanced about the inhibiting effects of aspirin. Some research has shown that aspirin could block prostaglandin receptors. It may also impair the conversion of PGF2 to PGE2 which seems important for a maximal muscle building effect. I know that PGE2 is considered as a muscle enemy in the bodybuilding magazines, but the fact is that several studies have pointed out its usefulness in the bodybuilding process as a growth agent for the muscles. One last hypothesis is that PGF2 stimulates the subsequent natural release of muscle PGF2 or PGE2 which could further enhance the anabolic process. Aspirin would prevent this secondary anabolic secretion.
Preventing the local growth by rotating the sites of injections I consider the local growth induced by PGF2 as a side effect. As I said last month, it is due to a weakness of PGF2 (a very rapid degradation) rather than a magical effect. Unless you want to bring up a specific weak point, you should constantly rotate the sites of injections. One more restriction is that it is easy, for example, to inject PGF2 in some body part like the front shoulders but far harder in the inner side of the biceps. You should also make sure to avoid hitting too close to the intestine which exacerbates the gastro-intestinal discomfort caused by PGF2. Though close to the intestine, the front legs are a rather interesting and "easy" site of injections. You just may feel your quads "better" as you walk. I would suggest you mark all the possible injection sites you have in order to structure your injection pattern. If you have weak points, they should be hit more often than your strong bodyparts. No injecting your right calf will make your left calve grow to the same extent. Same thing with the gastronemius and the soleus. Hitting one will mostly make the injected muscle grow with a lesser stimulation for the nearby muscles. So for the calves only, we have at least 15 possible sites of injections. One on the upper, outer soleus, one for the lower, outer soleus and one for the lower inner part of the soleus. One or two for the front calves depending on your degree of development. For the gastronemius, you have both the upper and lower part of the outer side as well as the upper and lower parts of the inner/rear part. Of course, you can multiply that by two as you hopefully have 2 calves. I consider that you have the same number of sites on the upper legs. Avoid the abs, the lower back and maybe the forearms. Your triceps hold at least 6 sites and at least 4 for your biceps. Your shoulders have at least 12. If you are not too sensitive, you can manage 12 more on your chest. It is a total of at least 64 sites (excluding the back) to choose from every day.If you are not sure about the muscle locations, check with an anatomy chart to avoid hitting a tendon or a bone. Note carefully which side of the body you last hit so that you can shift from the right to the left and from the left to the right with each injection. If a friend of yours is willing to help you with the injections, it will increase the potential number of injection sites by adding your whole upper back and helping the right handed persons with their right side of their upper body (and the opposite for the left handed persons). You will always find a helping hand in the gym.The main problem with the rotation is to inject into muscles that you are not about to train or muscles that you trained recently. This is why training each bodypart seriously only once a week will ease our use of PGF2. Light pumping sessions should not interfere with the PGF2 rotation schedule as the mild pain should be bearable. In fact, during a light workout, having a soreness-like mild pain should help you feel the muscle contraction better and should enhance your focus on the trained muscles.As I said last month, you should wait for at least two to three days after training to inject PGF2 because of its pain promoting effect. This length of time depends upon the degree of trauma inflicted to the trained muscles. If your training was really traumatic (by including plenty of heavy negative reps), you may have to wait longer. But PGF2 users do not have to traumatize their muscles to get results. In fact, thanks to the muscle pump you will obtain with the light weights, you will not have to go too heavy. Your workouts are more likely to be non-traumatic, allowing you to inject after only two days after the workout.I also advised to stop injecting into a muscle 24 hours before retraining it. This means that you have a three day window of opportunity for a single muscle per week to soak it up with PGF2.
Here is a one week schedule example. It assumes that your upper body is lagging a bit compared to your legs and is therefore trained a bit more. The first muscle is the bodypart of the day and should be trained hard (but avoid overly traumatic techniques such as pure negative reps and super heavy weights). The second and sometimes third muscles are meant to be trained in a light high rep fashion for around 5 sets each. In the least column, the muscles receiving PGF2 are mentioned. You will note that even though there are days off training, it is best to administer PGF2 everyday. Again, this is due to the short life cycle of PGF2 which makes it necessary to repeat injections frequently.
Day Muscle of the day Pumping muscles of the day Muscles in which PGF2 can be administered for the day
Monday Back Chest Chest*, Arms
Tuesday Legs Shoulders Shoulders*, Arms
Wesnesday Chest Back Shoulders, Arms
Thursday Rest Rest Shoulders, Back.
Friday Arms Legs Back, legs*.
Saturday Shoulders Back, Chest Back*, legs, chest*
Sunday Rest Rest Legs, Chest
* Inject after training rather than before.
The dosage issue
Most readers are interested in an "ideal" dosage schedule. Unfortunately, such a miraculous schedule does not exist. Steroids have been used for decades, yet no one is able to come up with a one fits all, fail-safe schedule. Though some claim to know exactly how to use steroids and how to stack them, this is a lie. The same applies to PGF2. The ideal schedule does not exist. It is up to you to figure out which one suits you best. I can give you some guidelines but I am more able to tell you how not to use it than to prescribe its use. As mentioned last month, I suggest to start with half a milligram. At that dosage, not much should occur. Better to be safe than sorry. If everything goes well, go up to a milligram the next time. See what is happening. If you are fine, try 2 milligrams. I think you understand how to build up your dosage during the first days of your very first cycle. There is normally 25 mg of PGF2 per 5 milliliters. At 1 ml. (therefore 5 mg.), you should start to be able to tell the drug is working. I suggest not to go above 2 ml. per injection. If you are using 1 ml. five times a day, it means one vial a day (two if you use 2 ml.s). 5 ml. is the most I have ever heard with a single injection, but I consider it as a huge dosage. Maybe in 5 to 10 years, it will sound like a sissy dosage, but only time will help us determine an upper limit.
Lowering the required dosage One easy way to reduce the PGF2 dosage (and therefore the side effects) while optimizing the anabolic response is to administer PGF2 while insulin secretion is high. This means at meal time -- or more precisely after a meal. Insulin can trigger the muscle secretion of PGF2. This is probably how it produces anabolism. But insulin does not stop here: it increases the muscle sensitivity to the anabolic effects of PGF2. This is why you can reduce your PGF2 dosage if it is used at meal time or administered with insulin or an insulin booster. The dosages mentioned above already take into account the beneficial synergetic action of insulin on PGF2.
The Role of PGF2a in Muscle Growth
After that brief introduction into prostaglandins, we can now begin to discuss more specifically the role of prostaglandins in muscle growth. In a nutshell, mechanical stimulation (i.e. intermittent stretch) results in the production and efflux of two prostaglandins, PGE2 and PGF2a. PGE2 increases protein degradation where as PGF2a increases protein synthesis. Muscle hypertrophy is usually achieved by an increase in protein synthesis as well as a proportionately smaller increase in degradation. The simultaneous release of both PGE2 and PGF2a creates this condition.
It is well known that mechanical stretch, without any electrical activity, is sufficient to induce muscle hypertrophy. Recent studies have shown that the mechanism by which mechanical stretch leads to prostaglandin production and ultimately muscle growth, involves G proteins embedded in the cell membrane. These G proteins increase the amount of cyclo-oxygenase, the enzyme responsible for making prostaglandins from arachidonic acid. Skeletal muscle cyclooxygenase generates PGE2 and PGF2 alpha at a ratio approximately equal to one.
The exact mechanism by which PGF2a increases protein synthesis is not entirely clear. That’s just a spineless way of saying, "I don’t know the exact answer to that!" We are free to speculate though. It may involve short phase protein synthesis and/or long phase protein synthesis.
2 phases of protein synthesis modulation
Modulation of protein synthesis rates occurs at two levels, the short phase and the long phase. The short phase alteration in protein synthesis rates occurs by altering the activity of existing ribosomes and/or eukaryotic initiation factors (eIFs). This happens within minutes of the appropriate physiological trigger. The long phase modulation of protein synthesis happens by way of increasing the number of myonuclei. This mechanism involves hormones and growth factors such as HGH and IGF-1 bringing about the activation of myogenic stem cells. This can take several days to effect protein synthesis rates. This is a simplified view but for our purposes it is sufficient.
The role of PGF2a in short phase protein synthesis in muscle tissue is speculative at best. In non-muscle tissue, prostaglandins effect calcium fluxes, plasma membrane ionic channel activities, and cyclic nucleotide levels. All of which are important regulators of protein synthesis rates in muscle. PGF2a has been shown to interact with the S6 small ribosomal subunit, increasing its potential to form the ribosomal initiation complex with the large subunits. It is also plausible that PGF2a may effect the activity of eIFs.
Initiation of translation (the binding of mRNA to the ribosomal pre-initiation complex) requires group 4 eukaryotic initiation factors (eIFs). These initiation factors interact with the mRNA in such a way that makes translation (the construction of new proteins from the mRNA strand) possible. Two eIFs, called eIF4A and eIF4B, act in concert to unwind the mRNA strand. Another one called eIF4E binds to what is called the "cap region" and is important for controlling which mRNA strands are translated and also for stabilization of the mRNA strand. Finally, eIF4G is a large polypeptide that acts as a scaffold or framework around which all of these initiation factors and the mRNA and ribosome can be kept in place and proper orientation for translation. There is yet no direct evidence to confirm that PGF2a works through this mechanism however.
Long term modulation of protein synthesis involves the activation of myogenic stem cells or satellite cells. If you recall, when a muscle is stretched it not only produces PGF2a, but also PGE2. PGE2 is a potent inducer of satellite cell proliferation and fusion. This is how existing muscle cells increase the number of nuclei they contain. This is important because in order for a muscle to grow rapidly, it must produce more mRNA. This is done in the nucleus of the muscle cell. The more nuclei you have, the more mRNA you can produce. Within the cell, prostaglandins may also be involved in regulating the number of ribosomes. This could have long term implications on growth and development as well as stretch induced hypertrophy.
PGF2a + IGF-1: The ultimate cocktail for localized muscle growth?
Say good by to lagging body parts forever. It is a special time to be a bodybuilder. With the advent of PGF2a as a localized anabolic agent along with the newly available rhIGF-1 which has also been shown to build muscle where you want it, the future for genetically challenged bodybuilders looks bright indeed. A brief refresher course on locally injected IGF-1. Non-exercised muscle, when injection with 0.9 - 1.9 micrograms/kg/day of rhIGF-1 was shown to mimic the effects of physically loading the muscle. Much the same effect PGF2a but by different mechanisms. With local IGF-1 injections there is an increase in protein content, cross sectional area and DNA content. The increase in muscle DNA is presumed to be a result of increased proliferation and differentiation of satellite cells which donate their nuclei upon fusion with damaged or hypertrophying muscle cells. Take note that the quantities of IGF-1 needed are extremely small, much smaller than studies that have shown relatively poor results from administering IGF-1 systemically which range from 1.0 to 6.9 milligrams/kg/day.
Now add PGF2a to the mix and whalla! You can virtually mimic the mechanical stimulus of training without even picking up a weight. You have PGF2a to accelerate short term protein synthesis by activating ribosomes and/or eIFs and thereby translation, as well as IGF-1 to activate satellite cells to bind and donate additional nuclei to boost the amount of mRNA to be used by the ribosomes. Because the mechanism of action is different, the two compounds should compliment each other delivering results beyond what either one alone could produce.
Are these compounds going to replace traditional training? Not in the near future. The use of site injectable drugs only reaches the surface musculature. Deeper muscles are only stimulated to grow with traditional training. For strength athletes, strength is dependant on neuromuscular training which is not enhanced by simple muscle hypertrophy without actual lifting in a coordinated fashion. Are these compounds going to replace traditional anabolics? No. The reason is basically the same as with training. Deeper muscle groups are only reached by systemically administered anabolics that are carried throughout the entire body. In addition, androgens are needed to influence genetic expression in favor of whole body skeletal muscle growth. Are these compounds going to change the face of bodybuilding? It is very likely that they will, depending on their availability and cost. I would hope that as competitors become educated about these alternatives that we will no longer see implants in top level competitors. It would also be nice to see people have an option when it comes to pumping their muscles full of "stuff" in hopes that it will improve their symmetry. No doubt the future will bring us even more new and exciting drugs like non-steroidal androgens and compounds that alter the expression of myostatin (GDF . Once again, it is an exciting time in the science of bodybuilding, perhaps now more than any other time since the introduction of testosterone.
:cheers:
