Post by Everlast on Sept 3, 2005 2:36:59 GMT -5
Real Site Muscle Enhancement Injection
- Patrick Arnold
It was May, 1997 and I was in what was then my very modest little lab, sitting at my desk. I had Dan Duchaine on the phone and we were talking about the hottest new thing. It was supposed to be some exotic synthetic oil that you inject into your muscles where it collects and expands and causes permanent increases in size.
I remember first reading about this stuff in Muscle Media 2000. They made vague mention of some elite bodybuilders catching on to this german made product for site enhancement. They made it sound like a professional pharmaceutical preparation, and its name was Synthol. Boy was my curiosity piqued!
So I went to the library and found the reference books for foreign made drugs. There it was, Synthol. It was some French product containing menthol, resorcinol, salicylic acid, water, ethanol etc. “You are supposed to inject this stuff?” I thought to myself. Then it dawned on me that this was some sort of topical solution – an antiseptic or analgesic or something. Definitely not the Synthol I was looking for.
So I figured that either I just could not find this drug in the reference sources or maybe it was not a legitimate drug at all.
So, I was talking to Dan and he told me that he actually had a vial of the stuff with him. He said it was called “Pump and Pose”. It was deceptively labeled as a topical posing oil. He also said it costs about 450 dollars for 50ccs. I instantly became very skeptical. How can some small grey market operation have invented some sophisticated synthetic oil that is compatible in the body and never breaks down? That sounds like the product of a multi million dollar research budget, not of some small operation run by a german bodybuilder guy (whose name I later found out to be Chris Clark).
I told Dan to send me some of this pump and pose oil and that I will have it tested by a local lab that does a lot of fatty acid analysis. If pump and pose contained any fats commonly known then this lab would identify them.
The results came back (see figure 1) and I was unimpressed. It looked like it contained some simple saturated fatty acids. I went upstairs and showed it to my partner Lakhan who immediately said “that’s fractionated coconut oil”. I said, “fractionated coconut oil is the same thing as MCTs, right?” “Yes” he said. “d**n” I said.
So this German guy was taking oil that costs a few cents and a vial that costs maybe $1.50 and marking it up about 300 times. Wow. Dan is gonna love to here this.
So Dan wrote this all up in muscle media or in his magazine dirty dieting (don’t remember which) and blew the cover on Pump and Pose. I guess that must have pissed a lot of people off (not least of which the german guy). Still, for quite a while afterwards people were still paying the top dollar. Either word did not get out or people were just stupid.
So what was this MCT oil doing? Probably what any vegetable oil would do if injected in large amounts in the muscle. It would disperse a little and just stay there while your body slowly tries to hydrolyze it down to free fatty acids and carry it away. The more you put in there, the more room it displaces and the more size is imparted to the muscle. Oh, and of course large amounts of oil are irritating so an inflammatory response leads to additional swelling.
What you end up with is areas in the muscle that are packed with oil and somewhat inflamed. The appearance is a smooth swelling that is localized in a particular spot in the muscle (unless you methodically spread dozens of shots throughout the entire muscle belly). If you have been to a bodybuilding expo like the Arnold Classic you would know what I mean. You see the guys walking around with what looks like deep bee stings on their triceps and rear delts. Like huge pimples that originate deep in the muscle. Ouch! And Yuck!
A spot injection that actually results in new muscle growth?
Synthol as you can see does not actually make your muscle fibers grow, or stimulate the growth of new fibers. It simply provides a temporary artificial swelling effect to the muscle. Not only that, it can be dangerous as its overuse can result in tissue necrosis (killing of the muscle tissue) which then has to be removed surgically. Even more serious is the possibility of an oil embolism. An oil embolism happens when you accidentally inject the Synthol directly into a vein or artery. The oil then can travel to the heart where it can block one of the arteries supplying blood to cardiac muscle. The result is basically a heart attack. This actually happened to a well-known Olympia contender years back and the story was quite frightening. He almost died. The same bodybuilder had necrotic tissue in his bicep from the use of Synthol I felt it – it was like a hard steel nugget.
Obviously Synthol was not the bodybuilding panacea that everyone once hoped it would be.
Recently however while researching other things I accidentally ran into some Japanese research. Here is the abstract from one of the articles and it is pretty self explanatory
“The effect of carrageenan on skeletal muscle growth was investigated. Significant long-lasting increases were obsd. in soleus muscle wt. 1-16 wk after treatment with ë-carrageenan, when the drug (>50 mg in saline) was directly injected into the soleus muscle in normal mice. However, ë-carrageenan did not affect body wt. On histochem. examn., hypertrophy and hyperplasia of skeletal muscle cells were obsd. in the soleus muscle of mice treated with ë-carrageenan, but edema or granuloma was not obsd. On the other hand, ê-carrageenan failed to increase soleus muscle wt. The direct injection of ë-carrageenan into the soleus muscle (right leg) of dystrophic mice (MDX mice) caused an increase in the soleus muscle wt. of the treated leg but not in that of the untreated leg (left leg). The max. strength caused by the twitch contraction of the soleus muscle in the ë-carrageenan-treated leg of dystrophic mice was significantly higher than that in the control leg. Similar phenomena were obsd. in the max. strength caused by the tetanic contraction of the soleus muscle. These results suggest that ë-carrageenan enhances the growth of skeletal muscle in both normal and dystrophic mice.”
Carrageenan is a polysaccharide (a high molecular weight sulfated complex carbohydrate) isolated from red algae. It is used in foods, cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals for its emulsification, gelling, and other properties. Often it is injected into meats to help them maintain their moisture content and fresh appearance on the shelf (it also swells the meats up making them look really nice in the supermarket displays)
Carrageenan is also commonly used in medical research as a way to promote inflammation in animal tests. At the doses used in these studies, the injection of carrageenan solution produces massive edema and an immune response that results in the destruction of tissue.
However, these Japanese researchers (who also have two patents related to this discovery) have found that injections of lower dosages of carrageenan – specifically ë-carrageenan – do not result in edema and cell destruction. Instead what is observed is muscle growth (40-70% by weight in the mice over control), and this growth consists of both hypertrophy (increase in size of muscle fibers) and hyperplasia (increase in muscle cell number). Furthermore, this new muscle is fully functional as the researchers found corresponding increased strength along with the size. Finally, the muscle growth that occurs (which is seen to begin about a week or so after injection) is sustained for up to 16 weeks
The literature is all in Japanese so I had to get it translated. They used both mice and rabbits and injected the solution into the soleus muscles. They used a considerable amount – what would be equal to around 30cc of solution per muscle if you are a human!!
So obviously doing this all at one time is not practical for the average guy. An alternative would be to do 5 cc a day for 6 days per muscle. Optimally the injections would be placed in different parts of the muscle every day, so that after 6 days a very even dispersion of solution is achieved throughout the length of the muscle.
The shots themselves are pretty painless. A few hours afterwards however, a dull ache can be experienced. This is usually pretty tolerable, and an NSAID like ibuprofen can definitely help ease the discomfort. You may notice an apparent increase in muscle size the next day and for days afterwards if you are taking it for the 6 days. This increase in size however is not muscle growth. It is swelling similar to what you see with Synthol
The actual growth results are seen perhaps one to two weeks after the last shot. The swelling will dissipate and you should see an increase in muscle density and muscle hardness. Size increases are there, however don’t expect to have any Greg Valentino like increases in size. Real muscle growth is not like that. But the plus side is you may see increased vascularity and definition – definitely NOT things associated with Synthol!!
So that’s it pretty much. The stuff will be available and will be quite affordable too. No promises that it will turn your biceps into Schwarzenneger’s right away, but you won’t break you bank account experimenting with it either. Don’t worry, there is a very good possibility you will be quite pleased with the results.
It is also important to note that carrageenan is known to be a safe product and that it is non-toxic to your body. The solution is aqueous so it does not stick around like oils do. The physiological stimulus (whatever it is) that the carrageenan imparts will happen and then the stuff will be flushed away.
I have been very open here about the use of the product and what the product is. The only secret I have kept is what the concentration of the solution is. That, I will keep my secret. If anyone wants to know what it is then they will have to pay a couple of grand to get the literature translated and then do the math just like I did. Be aware though that if you try to make your own solution and miscalculate then you will either get no effect (underdoses) or you will end up possibly causing pain and damage (overdosed).
So now the experimentation is passed on to whoever wants to give it a whirl. I am sure that many more specifics will be learned by those brave few that try it and share their feedback on internet boards. Should be interesting!
- Patrick Arnold
It was May, 1997 and I was in what was then my very modest little lab, sitting at my desk. I had Dan Duchaine on the phone and we were talking about the hottest new thing. It was supposed to be some exotic synthetic oil that you inject into your muscles where it collects and expands and causes permanent increases in size.
I remember first reading about this stuff in Muscle Media 2000. They made vague mention of some elite bodybuilders catching on to this german made product for site enhancement. They made it sound like a professional pharmaceutical preparation, and its name was Synthol. Boy was my curiosity piqued!
So I went to the library and found the reference books for foreign made drugs. There it was, Synthol. It was some French product containing menthol, resorcinol, salicylic acid, water, ethanol etc. “You are supposed to inject this stuff?” I thought to myself. Then it dawned on me that this was some sort of topical solution – an antiseptic or analgesic or something. Definitely not the Synthol I was looking for.
So I figured that either I just could not find this drug in the reference sources or maybe it was not a legitimate drug at all.
So, I was talking to Dan and he told me that he actually had a vial of the stuff with him. He said it was called “Pump and Pose”. It was deceptively labeled as a topical posing oil. He also said it costs about 450 dollars for 50ccs. I instantly became very skeptical. How can some small grey market operation have invented some sophisticated synthetic oil that is compatible in the body and never breaks down? That sounds like the product of a multi million dollar research budget, not of some small operation run by a german bodybuilder guy (whose name I later found out to be Chris Clark).
I told Dan to send me some of this pump and pose oil and that I will have it tested by a local lab that does a lot of fatty acid analysis. If pump and pose contained any fats commonly known then this lab would identify them.
The results came back (see figure 1) and I was unimpressed. It looked like it contained some simple saturated fatty acids. I went upstairs and showed it to my partner Lakhan who immediately said “that’s fractionated coconut oil”. I said, “fractionated coconut oil is the same thing as MCTs, right?” “Yes” he said. “d**n” I said.
So this German guy was taking oil that costs a few cents and a vial that costs maybe $1.50 and marking it up about 300 times. Wow. Dan is gonna love to here this.
So Dan wrote this all up in muscle media or in his magazine dirty dieting (don’t remember which) and blew the cover on Pump and Pose. I guess that must have pissed a lot of people off (not least of which the german guy). Still, for quite a while afterwards people were still paying the top dollar. Either word did not get out or people were just stupid.
So what was this MCT oil doing? Probably what any vegetable oil would do if injected in large amounts in the muscle. It would disperse a little and just stay there while your body slowly tries to hydrolyze it down to free fatty acids and carry it away. The more you put in there, the more room it displaces and the more size is imparted to the muscle. Oh, and of course large amounts of oil are irritating so an inflammatory response leads to additional swelling.
What you end up with is areas in the muscle that are packed with oil and somewhat inflamed. The appearance is a smooth swelling that is localized in a particular spot in the muscle (unless you methodically spread dozens of shots throughout the entire muscle belly). If you have been to a bodybuilding expo like the Arnold Classic you would know what I mean. You see the guys walking around with what looks like deep bee stings on their triceps and rear delts. Like huge pimples that originate deep in the muscle. Ouch! And Yuck!
A spot injection that actually results in new muscle growth?
Synthol as you can see does not actually make your muscle fibers grow, or stimulate the growth of new fibers. It simply provides a temporary artificial swelling effect to the muscle. Not only that, it can be dangerous as its overuse can result in tissue necrosis (killing of the muscle tissue) which then has to be removed surgically. Even more serious is the possibility of an oil embolism. An oil embolism happens when you accidentally inject the Synthol directly into a vein or artery. The oil then can travel to the heart where it can block one of the arteries supplying blood to cardiac muscle. The result is basically a heart attack. This actually happened to a well-known Olympia contender years back and the story was quite frightening. He almost died. The same bodybuilder had necrotic tissue in his bicep from the use of Synthol I felt it – it was like a hard steel nugget.
Obviously Synthol was not the bodybuilding panacea that everyone once hoped it would be.
Recently however while researching other things I accidentally ran into some Japanese research. Here is the abstract from one of the articles and it is pretty self explanatory
“The effect of carrageenan on skeletal muscle growth was investigated. Significant long-lasting increases were obsd. in soleus muscle wt. 1-16 wk after treatment with ë-carrageenan, when the drug (>50 mg in saline) was directly injected into the soleus muscle in normal mice. However, ë-carrageenan did not affect body wt. On histochem. examn., hypertrophy and hyperplasia of skeletal muscle cells were obsd. in the soleus muscle of mice treated with ë-carrageenan, but edema or granuloma was not obsd. On the other hand, ê-carrageenan failed to increase soleus muscle wt. The direct injection of ë-carrageenan into the soleus muscle (right leg) of dystrophic mice (MDX mice) caused an increase in the soleus muscle wt. of the treated leg but not in that of the untreated leg (left leg). The max. strength caused by the twitch contraction of the soleus muscle in the ë-carrageenan-treated leg of dystrophic mice was significantly higher than that in the control leg. Similar phenomena were obsd. in the max. strength caused by the tetanic contraction of the soleus muscle. These results suggest that ë-carrageenan enhances the growth of skeletal muscle in both normal and dystrophic mice.”
Carrageenan is a polysaccharide (a high molecular weight sulfated complex carbohydrate) isolated from red algae. It is used in foods, cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals for its emulsification, gelling, and other properties. Often it is injected into meats to help them maintain their moisture content and fresh appearance on the shelf (it also swells the meats up making them look really nice in the supermarket displays)
Carrageenan is also commonly used in medical research as a way to promote inflammation in animal tests. At the doses used in these studies, the injection of carrageenan solution produces massive edema and an immune response that results in the destruction of tissue.
However, these Japanese researchers (who also have two patents related to this discovery) have found that injections of lower dosages of carrageenan – specifically ë-carrageenan – do not result in edema and cell destruction. Instead what is observed is muscle growth (40-70% by weight in the mice over control), and this growth consists of both hypertrophy (increase in size of muscle fibers) and hyperplasia (increase in muscle cell number). Furthermore, this new muscle is fully functional as the researchers found corresponding increased strength along with the size. Finally, the muscle growth that occurs (which is seen to begin about a week or so after injection) is sustained for up to 16 weeks
The literature is all in Japanese so I had to get it translated. They used both mice and rabbits and injected the solution into the soleus muscles. They used a considerable amount – what would be equal to around 30cc of solution per muscle if you are a human!!
So obviously doing this all at one time is not practical for the average guy. An alternative would be to do 5 cc a day for 6 days per muscle. Optimally the injections would be placed in different parts of the muscle every day, so that after 6 days a very even dispersion of solution is achieved throughout the length of the muscle.
The shots themselves are pretty painless. A few hours afterwards however, a dull ache can be experienced. This is usually pretty tolerable, and an NSAID like ibuprofen can definitely help ease the discomfort. You may notice an apparent increase in muscle size the next day and for days afterwards if you are taking it for the 6 days. This increase in size however is not muscle growth. It is swelling similar to what you see with Synthol
The actual growth results are seen perhaps one to two weeks after the last shot. The swelling will dissipate and you should see an increase in muscle density and muscle hardness. Size increases are there, however don’t expect to have any Greg Valentino like increases in size. Real muscle growth is not like that. But the plus side is you may see increased vascularity and definition – definitely NOT things associated with Synthol!!
So that’s it pretty much. The stuff will be available and will be quite affordable too. No promises that it will turn your biceps into Schwarzenneger’s right away, but you won’t break you bank account experimenting with it either. Don’t worry, there is a very good possibility you will be quite pleased with the results.
It is also important to note that carrageenan is known to be a safe product and that it is non-toxic to your body. The solution is aqueous so it does not stick around like oils do. The physiological stimulus (whatever it is) that the carrageenan imparts will happen and then the stuff will be flushed away.
I have been very open here about the use of the product and what the product is. The only secret I have kept is what the concentration of the solution is. That, I will keep my secret. If anyone wants to know what it is then they will have to pay a couple of grand to get the literature translated and then do the math just like I did. Be aware though that if you try to make your own solution and miscalculate then you will either get no effect (underdoses) or you will end up possibly causing pain and damage (overdosed).
So now the experimentation is passed on to whoever wants to give it a whirl. I am sure that many more specifics will be learned by those brave few that try it and share their feedback on internet boards. Should be interesting!