Victor Martinez shares his personal experience using SARMs, how it blurred his vision, and why he stopped after one month
Over the past two decades, Selective Androgen Receptor Modulators (aka SARMs), have grown in popularity in bodybuilding. They are often seen as an alternative to using steroids – possibly even avoiding certain side effects while gaining similar results. Victor Martinez tried utilizing SARMs during his bodybuilding career but ultimately did not enjoy the experience, side effects, and results. In our latest episode of the Generation Iron Podcast, Victor Martinez explains how using SARMs blurred his vision and made him feel “a year older” after one month of use.
Victor Martinez is not a doctor and cannot give detailed medical advice about the pros and cons and side effects of using SARMs. He has, however, used them personally for a period of time. Martinez may not be able to provide you with medical advice on using these relatively new substances – but he can tell you how he felt about them after use and the effects he experienced.
The new generation of bodybuilders have been turning to SARMs as a potential safer alternative to using steroids. Studies have shown that steroids can lead to a wide variety of side effects – some of which leading to serious long term health issues. SARMs, some hope, can provide benefits similar to steroids and other PEDs without the same kind of risk.
However, it should be noted that SARMs are in a state of flux at the moment. SARMs were first discovered in the late 90s – so there has not been an adequate amount of time to truly see the long term side effects they may cause. Also the substance, while technically legal “for research use only” and is illegal to sell or use for dietary or athletic use at this time.
This is ultimately a reason why Victor Martinez decided to end his use of SARMS. But he also experienced side effects that turned him off to these substances as well. Let’s jump into his personal experience below.
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.
Victor Martinez experienced blurred vision and other unpleasant side effects on SARMs
During our podcast conversation, Victor Martinez reveals that he tried using SARMs during his active years bodybuilding. He ultimately only use the substance for just over a month – as he was unhappy with the results and how they made him feel. Martinez believed that he would rather ultimately “use the real thing” – referring to anabolic steroids.
“Don’t care for it. Don’t like it. Why use SARMs when you can use the real deal? And obviously there are still side effects with the SARMS. One of them is blurry vision, equilibrium goes off. So why bother? The risk is not worth the rewards when it comes to SARMs… it was okay for one month. Then after that you start feeling weird. You start feeling the side effects way sooner than steroids. And that’s why I’m not a fan.”
– Victor Martinez
Producer Edwin Mejia Jr. questioned Martinez about this. He was under the impression that many athletes were using SARMs due to the fact that they don’t carry the same side effects as testosterone or anabolic steroids.
Victor Martinez admitted that he knows little scientifically about SARMs and also didn’t use it long enough to know the long term effects. He does know that the drug is so new – that there are not enough studies to adequately determine the long term affects of SARMs currently.
So ultimately it’s a risk and any athlete who uses them is driving blind. What Victor Martinez can comment on – is that he experienced short term side effects rather fast. These side effects were such that he wanted to stop using SARMs all together. He continued:
“I know blurry vision is one of them because that one month I was on it… I thought I aged a year in like a month. I mean that’s what it felt like. It was fast, you know? You did have that nice… that look, I was getting it. I was getting extreme pumps too but again main I didn’t like that friggin’ blur man.”
– Victor Martinez
Victor Martinez was most worried about the blurred vision. While he was still able to see, he was concerned of the longer term implications of the drug. He later stated that when it comes to your vision – anything that could even remotely risk to going blind is something he would rather avoid.
He admittedly wasn’t sure if the blurred vision would do any real permanent damage to his vision. By why would he risk waiting the long term to find out?
Victor Martinez details gaining 40 pounds of muscle in three months
While discussing SARMs, Victor Martinez reflects back on the previous story he shared about nearly dying from an IGF-1 injection. While that was a harrowing moment in his life – it was also a time where he accomplished an incredible feat of building 40 pounds of muscle in just three months.
While Martinez nearly threw off his contest prep (and his life) with a last minute IGF-1 shot, he spent the previous three months bouncing back into mass monster shape. He was 60 pounds lighter than he needed to be due to not training for over a year. What he found was some incredible muscle memory making his comeback in a very short amount of time.
“I remember I had lost like 60 pounds and then here I am… I am going to compete with Big Ramy. I just built like 40 pounds of muscle in three months. And again, that’s due to muscle memory, not training for a year and a half, so the rebound was fantastic… so the muscle memory is real”
– Victor Martinez
Victor Martinez emphasized that this was possible due to his long history of training. When you have not trained for quite some time, but have the muscle memory and history of consistent past training, it becomes much easier and quicker to build back muscle. He also went to Russia for his comeback training – which provided him with more focus and less distractions on the task at hand.
RELATED: Can Tony Huge really build 15 pounds of lean muscle in one week?
Wrap Up
Victor Martinez and the GI crew go into much further detail about personal experiences using SARMs and also peptides. So make sure to watch the full episode of the Generation Iron Podcast above. Don’t forget to check back every Tuesday for new episodes only on the Generation Iron Fitness Network or wherever podcasts are downloaded.
