How Much Muscle Can You Gain From A Steroid Cycle Or SARMs Cycle?

“How much muscle can you gain from a steroid cycle” or “how much muscle should I expect to gain from (insert name of any anabolic compound here) is probably the most common question I get asked.

I get a lot of questions about expectations for an upcoming cycle, AKA “Hey Derek, if I take ______ and ______ how much muscle will I gain?”

The general answer to that question is you will gain somewhere between 0 – 20 pounds of muscle, with the more likely answer being closer to 0-10 pounds of muscle.

Not the answer you were looking for I bet.

99% of guys who are brand new to performance enhancement want to know if they take X compound, exactly how many pounds of muscle will it equate to gaining.

This question is impossible to answer and I’m going to break down for you exactly why.

Genetic Response To Drugs

First of all, let’s talk about genetic response to drugs.

This is going to be one of the main factors determining how much “gains” you get from a cycle.

If you’ve ever looked at the progression of a pro bodybuilder, you will probably notice that even if they started out with an average physique, once they committed their lives to bodybuilding their physiques exploded.

These individuals have an amazing genetic response to performance enhancing drugs, and it allows them to reach superhuman levels of muscle mass very quickly.

Dorian Yates is a great example.

Before training he was just a normal looking skinny kid.

Dorian Before and after

No different than you or I, but he had an insane response to drugs.

No amount of training or diet can make up the difference between a guy with average or even above average genetics, and hyperresponders.

Within only 9 months of training Dorian had already gained more muscle than most guys will gain through an entire lifetime of working out.

Dorian Yates After 9 Months Of Training

Kevin Levrone and Phil Heath are a couple more great examples. 

Before taking bodybuilding seriously, they were just normal looking kids.

As soon as they started though, they blew up.

Phil Heath before and after Kevin levrone before and after

They didn't gain 100 pounds of muscle off of 1 cycle obviously, however, genetically they most likely have a lower amount of Myostatin in the body naturally, thereby inhibiting their body from regulating how much muscle they can pack on.

Now, if average Joe with average Joe genetic response to anabolics took the exact same drugs, he probably wouldn’t even gain half as much muscle as the pro bodybuilder did who took those drugs.

Why is this you ask?

Well, beyond the possibility of the pro bodybuilder training harder and eating better than the average Joe, the most likely reason is that the pro bodybuilder’s body simply responds far better to anabolics than the average human and they have less Myostatin.

This is why if you injected absurd amounts of steroids into yourself every week you would never look like Jay Cutler, even if you were taking more drugs than he did.

Genetic response is HUGE in determining a bodybuilder’s development.

If we took two guys, with the exact same diet and workout routine and gave them the exact same cycle, their gains would NOT be exactly the same.

There would be a difference, and that difference would be dictated by their genetics/genetic response to drugs.

Training Smart

If you train like crap and have zero intensity, don’t try to utilize progressive overload, don’t get a pump, don’t contract the muscle during your reps, or a variety of other factors, you will get subpar results.

So, when someone simply asks in general “how much muscle can you gain from a steroid cycle” this is impossible to answer because I have no idea what your training is like, or if you even know how to train at all.

This is another factor that will greatly impact your overall results.

If you took two guys with the exact same diet, genetic response to drugs, and gave them the same cycle, but one of them trained hard several times per week and meticulously utilizes progressive overload and uses perfect form, and the other guy uses improper form, trains lazily, skips the gym sometimes and just doesn’t know what he’s doing even when he is there, obviously the first guy will gain more muscle mass despite all those other factors being exactly the same.


Just like the previous two factors, diet also plays a huge role in your results.

If you are trying to pack on as much muscle as possible, but you aren’t eating enough, or you eat like crap 24/7, your body composition and cycle results will reflect this.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, if your diet is spot on and you are eating enough macronutrients to replenish, recover, and grow, your cycle results will reflect this and you will have much better results than the other guy who eats McDonalds three times per day for his bulking diet.

As annoying as it is, the guy who hyperresponds to drugs will still gain more muscle than you though even if he's eating McDonalds and crap all day.

Obviously the hyperresponder's results would improve as he became more regimented with his diet though too.

Even if you're a hyperresponder to drugs you will still need a sufficient amount of calories present to grow, your genetic limits are just far higher than the average guy.

In Conclusion

How much muscle can you gain from a steroid cycle is an unanswerable question and is only something you will learn for yourself from experience as you learn how your body responds to different compounds and factors related to your diet and training.

Embarking on your first steroid cycle, prohormone cycle, SARMs cycle, etc. and asking a third party who has never met you exactly how much muscle you will gain from such and such compound is an impossible question to answer as every one has completely different genetics, hormone profiles, lifting intensity, adherence to a strict diet, drug response, among countless other factors.


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