How Much Muscle Can You Put on With Steroids?

Jeff Nippard compares natural to enhanced bodybuilding

The age-old question of how much muscle mass you can put on naturally vs. enhanced has been broken down by YouTuber Jeff Nippard, who is known for his scientific based lifting and dieting videos. While Jeff is a lifetime natural powerlifter and bodybuilder who does not use steroids, he still is very knowledgeable on the topic of anabolic substances, and dives deep into the subject. 

In this post, we detail and breakdown Jeff Nippard’s analysis on reaching your potential naturally vs muscle building as an enhanced bodybuilder.  

Disclaimer: Generation Iron team are not medical professionals and are not advising for or against the use of any performance enhancing drugs, rather stating the facts surrounding these substances.

What are PEDS?

PEDs, short for performance enhancing drugs, also known as steroids, are substances that are often associated with faster strength and muscular gains. They are a very debated topic throughout the fitness industry, as there are a lot of known risks associated with the drugs, as well as many people considering them to be cheating. 

While there are tested and untested strength competitions and bodybuilding shows, drug use in the fitness industry is becoming more popular than ever. But how much do these substances really help you? How much muscle can you put on with anabolic steroids?

Natural Potential 

The first part of Jeff Nippard’s video broke down the natural potential of bodybuilding, and explained just how much growth you can achieve before turning to the dark side (using steroids). Jeff Nippard has trained naturally for over 15 years, holding multiple titles in both bodybuilding and powerlifting. Though he holds all of these titles, Nippard still believes that he is not an absolutely elite example of a natural bodybuilder (though we disagree). 

Despite his beliefs, Nippard and his growth are a good measurement for what you can achieve as a lifetime natural with 100% dedication to your sport. He stands just 5ft-5in tall, and typically weighs between 73 kg (160 lbs) lean and 82 kg (180 lbs) bulky. It may not sound like a lot, but on a frame like his, that is a good amount of muscle mass. Another thing is that a lot of the muscle growth in the 32-year-old Canadian’s fitness career came within the first five years of his training. This is when Nippard gained nearly 20 lbs of lean muscle mass. Over the next decade, the growth significantly slowed down, and he gained around 7.5lbs of lean muscle mass in that time.

As you can see, the natural bodybuilding process is certainly a marathon and not a sprint, which as anyone knows can be a long and frustrating process. Progress is also not necessarily linear when you are natural. This is all part of reaching your “natural genetic ceiling” as Nippard states. He goes on to say that ​​“Men tend to max out their natural potential after gaining 20 to 40 lbs (9 to 18 kg) of muscle mass. Women tend to max out their natural potential after gaining 12 to 24 lbs of muscle mass.” 

How Can You Reach Natural Potential?

Now, reaching your natural potential is something that will take years and years of consistency across the board. You need to stay consistent with training and diet with intense training sessions and an almost perfect diet, making sure to get in enough protein each day as well as your carbs and fats. Then combine that with a good sleep schedule and proper supplementation regimen, and you may reach, or at least get close to your natural limit after a few years or even decades. 

If you look at natural bodybuilders such as Alberto Nunez, Jeff Alberts, and Alex Leonidas, these are guys that came extremely close to reaching their natural potential. 

Steroids Can Accelerate Growth and Surpass Your Limits

Gaining 20-40 lbs of muscle is not an ordinary thing, and it takes years to get there, if you get there at all. But, with the usage of steroids, combined with strict diet and intense training, is it possible to get there quicker, and then surpass it? Yes, it is possible, but according to Jeff Nippard, that extra gain will be marginal. 

Nippard references a 1996 study, “The Effects of Supraphysiological Doses of Testosterone on Muscle Size and Strength in Normal Men”. This study divided its subjects into four groups, and results were taken over a 10-week period. 

Two of the groups were natural, and the first group did not take anabolic steroids, nor did they train. This group showed no muscle growth, which came as no surprise. The subjects that trained but remained natural gained 4.4 lbs of muscle on average. 

The other two groups consisted of individuals who were dosed with 600mg of testosterone per week. The subjects that took testosterone and trained experienced an average gain of 13.4lbs of muscle 3x the amount of the group that trained naturally. Then, the subjects that took testosterone and did not train still gained an average of 7lbs of lean muscle mass in that period. To put that into perspective, that is over 1.5 times more than the group who trained naturally. 

An Expert’s Insight on Steroids

Jeff Nippard then went and consulted a famous anabolic steroids expert (who was anonymous but we believed to have been Derek from More Plates More Dates) to determine if the 600mg dose given in the study was too high or too low, or normal compared to modern-day bodybuilding standards. The expert goes on to say that doses can get up to 4000 or 5000 mg per week in modern bodybuilding. 

They go on to discuss that dosage has a direct correlation to muscle gain, and Nippard references a 2001 follow up study where it was found that those on higher doses of anabolics gained an average of 1lb of muscle per week, over 20 weeks. 

Nippard’s Real World Examples

Nippard discusses two very prominent bodybuilders in the industry, both of them being Mr. Olympias winners. They are 212 Mr. Olympia Shawn Clarida and Classic Physique Mr. Olympia Chris Bumstead. He states that Shawn maxed himself out naturally, getting up to 130lbs, then gaining 60 lbs on top of that after going on cycle. 

Bumstead on the other hand, who stands at 6’1”, gained 55lbs naturally and weighed about 225 lbs at his peak. Steroids helped him put on another 40 lbs of muscle.

Nippard then goes on to talk about genetics playing a large role in the body’s response to anabolic steroids and how some people, such as Chris Bumstead, may not need as heavy doses as others to put on muscle mass. 

Jeff Nippard: Are Steroids Worth it?

While steroids show to produce some pretty good results when it comes to packing on muscle, they do have a large amount of risks associated with them. Jeff Nippards take on steroids is that you can mitigate the risks of steroids if you use them under strict medical care, but it is still a gamble. 

Jeff Nuppard has made it clear that he is not against steroid usage, but highly recommends maxing out your natural potential before dipping your toes into that side of things, and says that if your goal is health and longevity, then maybe avoid them as a whole.

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