To build muscle, both anabolic steroids and SARMs work via androgen receptors but they’re not the same at all. Steroids bind to a huge number of different tissues which is why they’re so effective at building muscle, albeit at the expense of your prostate, liver and heart as well. SARMs are very selective and primarily act on muscle and bone, resulting in much smaller gains and far fewer androgenic side effects. Both will suppress your natural testosterone to some degree so neither are without risk.
How Do Anabolic Steroids and SARMs Actually Work?
In order to work both anabolic steroids and SARMs have to bind to androgen receptors. They have different effects on different organs and they interact with those receptors in different ways. Anabolic steroids are essentially artificial versions of testosterone which work on a wide range of tissues by binding to and activating androgen receptors. They’re responsible for the muscles getting bigger but they also have an effect on the skin, the liver, the heart and the prostate.
The concept with the SARMs is that they’re going to bind to the androgen receptors more selectively – they’re going to have an effect on muscle and bone and be less effect on the rest of the body. “Selective” doesn’t mean “no side effects” though. Both of those compounds are capable of suppressing hormones by stopping your body from making testosterone naturally.
Specificity not safety is the issue. Rather than resort to the kind of simplistic comparisons, it’s better to understand how each compound actually talks to the androgen receptors in order to assess its potential pros and cons.
Which One Builds More Muscle?
Anabolic drugs generally work better than the SARMs in terms of muscle gain and the evidence is far from equal. In the anabolic steroid vs SARMs debate, the muscle gain from steroids is usually much more pronounced as the traditional steroids bind very strongly and in large quantities to androgen receptors all over the body. There’s no doubt that SARMs do lead to some degree of muscle gain in both the clinical and anecdotal evidence, just not a huge amount.
Despite all that, you don’t get stronger for free. The side effects of steroids get worse the more potent they are. You get severe hormonal suppression, heart stress and organ stress. There are side effects from the SARMs too but the overall androgenic load is generally much lower.
Steroids will give you more hypertrophy if that’s what you’re after. You can certainly get results with the SARMs if you’re after real but modest gains, just both options carry real health risks.
What Side Effects Should You Actually Worry About?
When it comes to side effects, anabolic steroids and SARMs are both very much in the same ballpark. There are real risks with both so neither one really comes off easy.
You can suffer a whole host of adverse effects from the use of anabolic steroids including the detrimental effects on cholesterol (bad for the heart), stress on the liver from the oral chemicals and the androgenic effects (hair loss, acne etc).
SARMs aren’t without their downsides. They still suppress hormones and in some cases at certain doses this can be very serious. An early study also demonstrated alterations in cholesterol and the potential for liver damage.
The absence of long term human data makes it very difficult to work out the side effects of the SARMs. You’re essentially working with incomplete data and it’s not valid to assume that something is safer simply because it’s newer or more targeted.
Which Is Safer for Long-Term Use?
To answer the question of long term safety honestly we have to say that neither anabolic steroids nor SARMs have a completely clean bill of health in that respect, just for different reasons. The long term health risks of anabolic steroids are well documented. They can cause profound hormonal suppression, heart damage and liver problems (particularly with the 17-alpha alkylated compounds taken orally). That stuff is scary, that’s for sure. It does exist.
SARMs are not the same as any other drug. It’s not necessarily a safer option, it’s just one you haven’t really considered. We still don’t have a great deal of long term human data on SARMs so we don’t really know what the long term implications are in terms of liver health, heart health and hormonal control.
Self reported anecdote and short term studies are not good enough to replace proper longitudinal research. The reality is that SARMs haven’t actually earned the ‘safer’ moniker in terms of long term health risks.
Are Steroids and SARMs Legal to Buy and Use?
Legality is far from straightforward in this instance as it’s very much dependent on where you are and how the various chemicals in question are named. Anabolic steroids are Schedule III controlled substances in the US. They are drugs and as such are subject to regulation for reasons of known health risks and potential for abuse in the context of performance enhancement. You can’t have them without a prescription.
SARMs are in a rather different (though still complex) bracket. They’re not approved as medicines for humans, they’re sold as research chemicals and the legal status of them is therefore very murky. The FDA have issued warnings against their use and a number of sporting bodies will have absolutely no tolerance for them.
In lots of places it’s actually an offence to buy either substance without a doctor’s oversight. You mustn’t just assume that something is legal or medically acceptable simply because you can find it online.
