Steroids in Calisthenics? The Advantage and Many Disadvantages of using Steroids in Calisthenics

The use of steroids in Calisthenics is a touchy subject like in any other sport. Many athletes have historically used steroids, as is evidenced both anecdotally by admissions and from when they got caught after a “doping test”. Despite the controversy, I think it’s important that we talk about the use of steroids in Calisthenics and what the potential advantages and disadvantages are of getting “juiced up”. I’ll prove, with the help of a multi-pronged scientific, sociological and cultural meta-analysis, that you shouldn’t be using steroids for Calisthenics and that there are better alternatives.

I wrote this after watching Alisia Persa’s interview of athletes on steroids in Calisthenics and decided on a more science-backed article for you.

Play

What are steroids in Calisthenics?

Let’s get our definition straight first. When I say steroids in Calisthenics, I mean a specific type of synthetic compound that is not natural to the human body called Androgenic-Anabolic Steroids. These “Androgenic-anabolic steroids (AAS) are synthetic derivatives of the male hormone testosterone”^{[1: Fred Hartgens & Harm Kuipers, 2004]}.

Biologically, steroids are organic compounds that are important for the body’s cell membranes and act as signaling molecules between cells. In other words, if it involves the outer wall of the cell and the interaction between cells, steroids play a big role. Your body is packed full of these natural, normal steroids (that we often call hormones) and they play a very important part in keeping you alive and healthy.

Steroids could also mean Corticosteroids, which is a medicine to help lower inflammation and immune system activity. These corticosteroids are a lifesaver if you’re suffering from inflammation where topical medicines can’t reach (like your organs) or if your immune system is attacking your own body (like with autoimmune diseases).

I’m not talking about these naturally occurring steroids nor the corticosteroids used for real medical applications, rather those that you introduce into your body to artificially increase your performance; anabolic steroids. For the rest of this article, when I’m referring to steroids or steroids in Calisthenics, I’m only referring to these synthetic, performance enhancing, androgenic-anabolic steroids.

Why People Might Take Steroids in Calisthenics and the Advantages

For as long as people are doing sports to pursue physical performance, there have also been people interested in boosting that performance through any way possible. One of those solutions might be food or otherwise putting something in your body to enhance that performance. If steroids didn’t have any advantages at all, only disadvantages, people wouldn’t be using them. It would be a lie to state that steroids cannot boost your performance and I believe that lie would be detrimental in the long run.

What can Steroids in Calisthenics do for you?

Steroids are not a miracle drug. They are simple synthetic compounds that mimic natural compounds. Those natural compounds are already present in your body, and they don’t magically make you big, either. Rather, steroids are taken in conjunction with an increased exercise rate to see enhanced performance. Taking steroids on their own without doing the work will not cause any increase in muscle or performance. How much performance increase can you expect?

On the low end, you can expect 5% greater muscle gain over the same timeframe when using steroids than without using steroids^{[2: Elashoff, J. D., Jacknow, A. D., et al, 1991]}. This is based on a meta-analysis of 16 studies spanning 24 years and represents the median performance gain. The median, so around half of athletes will have performed better and about half will performed worse. 

Another study shows that “strength gains of about 5–20% of the initial strength and increments of 2–5kg bodyweight, that may be attributed to an increase of the lean body mass, have been observed” ^{[1: Fred Hartgens & Harm Kuipers, 2004]}.

Practical Performance Gains from Steroids in Calisthenics

Let’s be generous here and say that steroids give you 10% better performance, right between the 5% to 20% faster muscle gain that the studies showed. The way steroids interact with your cells allows you to recover faster, shortening the need for rest times where otherwise you’d be overtraining your Calisthenics without steroids. Your body will have recuperated and increased its muscle mass 10% faster using steroids than without.

If you are NOT a professional athlete, and you work out each muscle group 3 times a week, it means you can sneak in 1 extra session for that muscle group every 2.5 weeks or so. However, to make use of that extra 10% performance gain, you will have to do some very exact mathematics to your schedule while keeping your Calisthenics split routine intact.

Your schedule is now 10% shorter, which over a course of 18 days (~2.5 weeks) comes down to 43.2 hours. If you had one rest day a week, you could probably do that extra workout on that rest day now.

This is working based on allowing one additional full workout added to your current schedule. If your current, natural performance is lower or the steroids only give you 5% performance gain, you are at best looking at adding 1 or 2 exercises only to your schedule, perhaps on (one of your) rest day(s).

The Disadvantages of Taking Steroids in Calisthenics: Reasons Not to Use Anabolic Steroids

Since there are so many disadvantages to taking steroids, I’ve divided them into their individual topics below. I’ve approached this subject from many different viewpoints, trying to build as strong a narrative case as I could why you shouldn’t take steroids in Calisthenics. I came into this from as unbiased and neutral a perspective as I could, despite my prior knowledge and background that already informed me about the problematic nature of steroids in Calisthenics and any other sport.

I’ll come back to all these objections at the end, to give you an overview.

Cardiovascular: Increased Blood Pressure and Heartrate

The use of steroids is positively correlated with a slight but significant and constant increase in blood pressure and heart rate^{[3: Lenders, J. W., Demacker, P. N., et al, 1988]}. The researchers concluded that this “suggest(s) a seriously increased long-term risk for premature atherogenesis (arterial plaque leading to cardiovascular disease [red.]) and hepatotoxicity (drug-induced liver injury [red.]) ^{3: Lenders, J. W., Demacker, P. N., et al, 1988]}.

When you use steroids long-term, you will be at a serious risk of developing cardiovascular diseases as well as liver disease. Since you need to use steroids for a prolonged period to see results, the risks are large. Once the damage is done, it is very hard to repair if it isn’t irreparable altogether.

Let’s be completely selfish here and ask yourself if it’s worth sacrificing healthy years later or even shortening your lifespan for slight muscle gains now. Calisthenics is supposed to increase your quality of life, to increase the number of years where you retain full faculty over your body and with a little luck, also keep you alive for longer. Using steroids for Calisthenics is directly averse to why you’re doing Calisthenics for yourself.

Psychiatric: Changes to Emotional State, Mainly Aggressiveness

Hormones impact how we feel and how we experience the world around us. Testosterone is the main cause of muscular growth and the male sex drive. Increases in exogenous testosterone (testosterone introduced from outside the body), are positively associated with affective and psychotic syndromes, although only a tiny number of those require clinical treatment ^{[4: Bahrke, M. S., Yesalis, et al, 1996]}.

We humans are more self-aware, and we tend to have better control over our behavior than animals have. The stereotypical “roid rage” is largely a thing of fiction, however, you are introducing mood altering hormones. Even a slight change in your general mood and behavior could be noticeable to others, like irritability, being confrontational and overconfident. You’re sacrificing the total faculty over your mind to gain some muscle.

Dietary: No Reduction in Body Fat Percentage

Studies show no strong correlation between the use of steroids and losing fat ^{[1: Hartgens, F., & Kuipers, H., 2004]}. Calisthenics isn’t about losing weight when you’re obese, but about replacing that fat with lean muscle mass. This might not change your body weight significantly, or it may even increase. However, you are in the knowledge that Calisthenics is doing the healthy thing by replacing fat cells with muscle fibers.

You might be enticed to add steroids to your Calisthenics to speed up this process. However, none of the studies show any increase in fat reduction as your muscle mass increases. This means that all the steroids do is increase your metabolism and appetite to get new nutrients in to create muscle, instead of using stored fat.

Clinical: Reduced Immune System

A study shows that anabolic steroids can reduce your immune systems’ effectiveness, just like corticosteroids do ^{[5: Hughes, T. K., Fulep, E., Juelich, T., et al, 1995]}. You are actively suppressing your immune system, which makes you more susceptible to inflammation and infection. You might experience catching the cold more frequently and in the long run, certain virus infections which a healthy body easily defeats can cause much more severe illnesses. A study by cancer.gov showed that people who must take immunosuppressants (after an organ transplant) are at a significantly higher risk of developing cancer ^[6]. Don’t volunteer yourself to this treatment unnecessarily.

Dermatological: Acne Steroidalis

The reason you had or have pimples as a teenager are growth hormones, testosterone among them. Taking anabolic steroids is associated with developing acne, often resulting in far worse acne than the typical teenager experiences. It even has its own name, Acne Steroidalis, and is a known side-effect of medical steroid treatment as well^[7].

These lesions typically occur more widespread than the typical Acne Vulgaris teenagers suffer. They may sit deeper, be harder and cause permanent scarring to your face and body.

This is all contrary to the spirit of our sport. Because what is Calisthenics? It’s meaning ─ Kalis Sthenis ─ is literally “Beautiful Strength”, yet you are scarring your body in the pursuit of just muscle mass. This defeats the purpose of the sport you’re engaged in.

Psychological: Depression and Anxiety

Should you wish to stop after a while, you might face clinical depression as a side-effect of coming off anabolic steroids. One 2024 cross-study of other recent studies found that “use among male bodybuilders is associated with elevated levels of depression and anxiety” ^{[8: Karagun, B., & Altug, S., 2024].}

This study shows a significant increase in the likelihood that you’ll feel more depressed and experience higher anxiety. Although this is not part of any study I could find, I can only imagine that this ties in closely to the mood-altering characteristics hormones have, such as the psychiatric problems steroids have.

Cultural: Unfairness and Stigma

There are many social stigmas surrounding the use of steroids, including in Calisthenics. You’ll be hard pressed to find a professional athlete who uses steroids to readily admit to it, just watch the video above. Even if in their own little subculture the practice is condoned, broader society generally condemns the use of steroids to gain an advantage. The reasons for this stigma are incredibly diverse and impossible to sum up here with any sort of completeness.

From what I see, people have a negative view of steroids use to gain a performance enhancement because:

• We view it as an unfair advantage. “Just take this shot and you win.”
• We view it as detrimental to the self. A willingness to harm yourself for a momentary advantage is seen as unsportsmanlike.
• Anabolic steroids are regulated drugs and so are seen as hard drugs. Unlike soft drugs, users of steroids shouldn’t expect any understanding from the largely law-abiding society.
• It’s not you, it’s the drugs that win. So really, the pharmacologist won the contest and not your latent skill, talent, strength or capabilities.

Religious Objections to using Steroids in Calisthenics

If you are religious, or believe in God in any way, you should be very careful with using steroids in Calisthenics. 

Why Christians Should Not Take Steroids

According to the Bible, our body is the seat of the Holy Spirit:

“1 Corinthians 6:19-20: Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore, honor God with your bodies.”

You are the temporary steward of this seat of the Holy Spirit, your body. You are beholden to God to use it only in a way that glorified God. Since steroids can harm your body, taking them is averse to good stewardship and therefore sinful.

Why Muslims Should Not Take Steroids

According to the Qu’ran, taking any substance that causes harm to the body is Haram. It also incentivizes doing the right thing:

“Surah Al-Baqarah 195: And spend in the way of Allah and do not throw yourself into destruction. And do good; indeed, Allah loves the doers of Good.”

Since steroids do harm to you and cause the destruction of your body by your own hand, the practice is Haram and must be avoided. Moreover, if you are taking steroids in a professional setting, you are cheating and you are not a doer of good.

Why Jews Should Not Take Steroids

According to Rabbinic law, Jews are prohibited from causing harm to their own body, as their body does not belong to them but to God. The principal stems from Deuteronomy 4:15: “You shall diligently guard your life.” Rabbinic law therefore prohibits the use of harmful substances:

The Rambam (Maimonides) in Hilchot U’Mazzik 5:1: “It is forbidden for a person to injure anyone, neither his own self nor another person.”

Taking steroids for any other reason than legitimate medical ones is in violation of your sacred laws.

Steroids in Calisthenics are Pointless, It Is a Skill-Based Sport

Steroids may give you a small performance gain when it comes to gaining muscle mass and strength. However, Calisthenics is a skill-based sport. Sure, faster muscle growth may be a contributing factor, but just taking steroids and pumping up your muscles will not teach you the skills. Nor does taking steroids lead to greater agility and none of the studies show any impact on endurance either.

To be bluntly stereotypical and cynical to boot, they’re better served to a bodybuilder who just wants bigger muscles. Muscle mass alone won’t give you the agility for a muscle-up, or the balance to pull off handstand techniques.

If you factor in the time needed to learn these skills and build up agility, time “wasted” on steroids that isn’t purely spent on pumping your muscles, even that generous 10% gain will vanish into the thin air.

Let’s say you spend 25% of your workout time learning two new skills, while you’re also on steroids. That practice time won’t significantly build new muscle, so the presence of the steroids isn’t impacting that practice time in any way. Effectively, that 10% gain (maybe) from steroids, is diminished to 7.5%. For most non-professional athletes, that means you get maybe 1 extra workout day every 2 weeks. Absolutely not worth the adverse effects.

Increase Your Testosterone Naturally

Instead of relying on artificially produced hormones, like anabolic steroids, there are ways to boost your testosterone levels naturally. Studies show that testosterone production increases with larger muscle size. Specifically, the larger the muscle mass that is active during progressive overload, the more testosterone the body produces ^{[9: Loebel, Chad C.; Kraemer, William J., 1998]}. These findings are always an aggregate of exercise, diet and sleep.

This strongly suggests that, along with full body progressive overload exercise that targets large muscle masses (in other words, compound exercise), sleep and diet are important. Calisthenics fits perfectly in this picture, as Calisthenics is rife with compound exercise that targets large muscle masses. Combined with a healthy Calisthenics diet, you will effectively target all the key areas for an increased testosterone production.

The advantage of increasing your testosterone through Calisthenics exercise and diet is that it also burns body fat. And you are never too heavy for Calisthenics. Your metabolism is working at the rate of expenditure, instead of being artificially pumped up at a cellular level. This reduces or eliminates the need for a bulk-and-cut regime. You will have to bulk and cut with steroids as you are not burning fat but readily available glucose, instead.

Conclusions About Steroids in Calisthenics: Not Worth the Hassle and Adverse Effects

What can I say about steroids in Calisthenics? Don’t do it. But I’ll let you make your own decision based on the evidence I’ve provided. I’ve delved deep into the science from multiple angles and cited the most expert sources in many fields. All these different fields and angles where you could draw your wisdom from are independent. A religious scholar from the 12^th Century isn’t going to be in cahoots with a present-day meta-analyst comparing studies from the past 24 years.

Yet, all these different fields point towards the same conclusion: there is something bad about steroids. Cardiovascular research shows they are bad for your long-term vascular and liver health, immunological research shows that they suppress your immune system, cancer research shows that a suppressed immune system has a significantly higher chance of developing cancer, and so on.

We can put all these findings together in a network:

Put all of this against the 10%, but more realistically 5%, faster muscle gains you will experience. Are steroids in Calisthenics worth it? Certainly, not. There are ways to increase your testosterone naturally that are very effective and keep up with the metabolism of your cells, like following a Calisthenics Program with progressive overload.

Frequently Asked Questions About Steroids in Calisthenics

Here are a few more frequently asked questions about the use of steroids in Calisthenics.

Sources

1. Hartgens, F., & Kuipers, H. (2004). Effects of Androgenic-Anabolic steroids in athletes. Sports Medicine, 34(8), 513–554. https://doi.org/10.2165/00007256-200434080-00003
2. Elashoff, J. D., Jacknow, A. D., Shain, S. G., & Braunstein, G. D. (1991). Effects of Anabolic-Androgenic steroids on muscular strength. Annals of Internal Medicine, 115(5), 387–393. https://doi.org/10.7326/0003-4819-115-5-387
3. Lenders, J. W., Demacker, P. N., Vos, J. A., Jansen, P. L., Hoitsma, A. J., Van ’t Laar, A., & Thien, T. (1988). Deleterious effects of anabolic steroids on serum lipoproteins, blood pressure, and liver function in amateur body builders. International Journal of Sports Medicine, 09(01), 19–23. https://doi.org/10.1055/s-2007-1024972
4. Bahrke, M. S., Yesalis, C. E., & Wright, J. E. (1996). Psychological and behavioural effects of endogenous testosterone and Anabolic-Androgenic Steroids An update. Sports Medicine, 22(6), 367–390. https://doi.org/10.2165/00007256-199622060-00005
5. Hughes, T. K., Fulep, E., Juelich, T., Smith, E. M., & Stanton, G. (1995). Modulation of immune responses by anabolic androgenic steroids. International Journal of Immunopharmacology, 17(11), 857–863. https://doi.org/10.1016/0192-0561(95)00078-x
6. Risk factors: immunosuppression. (2015, April 29). Cancer.gov. https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/immunosuppression
7. Yu, H., Lee, S., Son, S. J., Kim, Y. S., Yang, H. Y., & Kim, J. H. (1998). Steroid acne vs. Pityrosporumfolliculitis: the incidence of Pityrosporum ovale and the effect of antifungal drugs in steroid acne. International Journal of Dermatology, 37(10), 772–777. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-4362.1998.00229.x
8. Karagun, B., & Altug, S. (2024). Anabolic-androgenic steroids are linked to depression and anxiety in male bodybuilders: the hidden psychogenic side of anabolic androgenic steroids. Annals of Medicine (Helsinki)/Annals of Medicine, 56(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/07853890.2024.2337717
9. Testosterone and Resistance Exercise in Men : The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research. (n.d.). LWW. https://journals.lww.com/nsca-jscr/abstract/1998/02000/Testosterone_and_Resistance_Exercise_in_Men.12.aspx?crsi=662496656&cicada_org_src=healthwebmagazine.com&cicada_org_mdm=direct