I am a competitive athlete who snapped his forearm in half about eight months ago. I have subsequently had two surgeries to repair the break. The second surgery involved taking a bone graft from my hip to help stimulate bone growth in my ulna. The bone graft was a success, and the break is currently about 25% healed over. As I have a plate holding the two halves of the ulna in place, the surgeon has given me the ok to start light lifting again. The only problem is that my next competitive season starts in four and a half months, and I really have not been able to do any upper body lifts for the past eight months. In about six weeks, I am contemplating doing a cycle of sustanon and dbol (with clomid throughout), to help get my strength back up. At this point, the bone will still not be completely healed. My question is: does anybody know any negative side effects that these drugs may have on bone resorption and deposition rates? (I did a medline search, and most of the information dealt only with the elderly and osteoporosis, not young healthy athletes). Thanks.
What good will increased strength do if the bones in your arm are unable to handle it? I would be most concerned about healing the arm first.
I can emphathize with your frustrations. I snapped my right humerous bone in half (twisted in half would be more accurate - spiral fracture in the lower bicep area) during an armwrestling practice last May 2000. I was in a brace for 4 months (too long), then started light physical therapy. Eventually I graduated to pretty much my normal weight training routine, except using high reps (25 reps per set) as per the doctors instructions. It has been almost a year now, and I am still not completely back to normal. My right arm is smaller and weaker than my left (I am right handed, so this is the opposite of before), but getting stronger every week. My advice would be to use lighter weights and higher reps until the bone is completely healed. Exercise is one of the best bone growth stimulators (pro tennis players have a humerous 25% larger in their playing arm). My bone did not show any healing at all until I started the physical therapy and later the more vigorous weight training. If I were you, I would consider skipping this season and maybe make a comeback next year. Why risk snapping your ulna again using heavy weight and juicing when the bone may not be able to handle the stress just yet? After it heals, you will have a big, fat bone which can handle pretty much anything, eventually remodeling back to its normal shape. I am a retired pharmacist, so as to your drug questions, the testosterone is anabolic to bone, I imagine Dianabol would be also. Estrogen is anabolic to bone also, and you would be blocking that to an extent with the Clomid, but I understand your concern about side effects. The bottom line is, I don’t think you would necessarily hinder bone formation with your regimin, but it might be a mistake to push much heavy weight until the bone completely heals.
As an aside, the 25 reps per set routine is really packing on the mass. I am almost as big as I was a year ago (not quite), but not nearly as strong. I like the mass, so I may stay on this routine.
The reason why I’m so concerned about getting my strength back up quickly is that this is my last year of eligibility at this level. I have a very realistic shot at turning pro the following year, but unless I have another good season, that shot may be gone. If I take the year off, my eligibility, and any future I have in this sport, will be done.
Surly, I can see your position. I am guessing you are a college athlete on the verge of going pro, so about 20 years of age or so. Your bones are going to heal much faster than mine (I’m in my 40’s). Maybe you could start out with higher reps now, gradually lowering them as the weeks pass. Chugalug the calcium citrate with vitamin D tabs (ask your pharmacist). Higher than normal calcium levels in the blood causes a hormone to secrete which pushes much of this into the bones. The exercise itself will do the most good, as I mentioned before. You might want to get an x-ray prior to your cycle to see how robust your bone looks at that point. I don’t have to tell you that you are going to have a sudden burst of roid induced strength when you start, so the bone will have to be able to withstand it. I can’t blame you for not wanting to miss out on the pro life and bucks. If the bone breaks, it breaks, I guess, at least you took a shot. Best of luck to you.