GymIntensity said:
deca isn't androgenic? you are insane bro.
Dude you need to do some SERIOUS research. Deca is one of the LEAST androgenic AAS known.
"Deca - Durabolin ("Deca") is actually the brand name for Organon´s version of the compound Nandrolone Decanoate. This is a 19-Nor compound (some would say that it is the 19-nor compound), and as such, it shares basically the same characteristics with all of them. One thing unique to Deca, above nearly all steroids, is the mystique it has had for the last quarter of a century. On a personal level, I´ve included Deca in cycles at doses ranging from 100mgs/week to 2,000mgs per week. Suffice to say, I have my fair share of experience with this compound. This drug was regarded very highly by Dan Duchaine in his Underground Steroid Handbooks as well as many of his later writings. For many, this was and is the final word on Deca. Let´s delve into some of the reasons that Deca´s mystique may be well deserved.
First of all, Deca (and Nandrolone in general) doesn´t produce many estrogenic or androgenic side effects. This is because Deca has a very low rate of aromatization (conversion to estrogen via the aromatase enzyme), roughly equal to 20% the rate of Testosterone.
Also, I´ve read many places that Deca stores water in connective tissue, thus alleviating joint pain. I have no idea what "storing water in the joints" means. I have no idea how to really quantify that statement, or where it started. However, in one study of postmenapusal women, Deca impoved collagen synthesis (1), and in another study deca increased bone mineral content. (2)Both of these studies used VERY low doses, which were far too low to promote muscle growth. In my estimation, based on these 2 studies, an athlete attempting to use Deca only for these two effects (increasing bone mineral content and collagen synthesis) should be using 100mgs of deca every week. That´s actually a higher dose than those two studies used successfully. Even at ½ of this dose, in HIV+ patients who have experienced significant wasting, a 100mg/E2W (every 2 weeks) injection of Deca resulted in a "significant increase in weight" (5). I´d never recommend that low of a dose for an athlete, but it´s evidence of Deca´s strong anabolic properties. Deca is a very nice anabolic, causing nice (albeit slow) gains in quality muscle. This could be due to its moderately strong binding to the Androgen Receptor, or its many positive non-Androgen-Receptor mediated effects. One such effect is nitrogen retention, which is a major factor in muscle growth and lean mass gains; in one study, with low-doses (65 mg/week) and high-doses of Deca (200 mg/week), both low-doses and high-doses resulted in significant nitrogen retention (33-52 g nitrogen/14 days, representing gains of 0.5 to 0.9 kg lean tissue/week), and body weight increased by 4.9 +/- 1.2 kg, including 3.1 +/- 0.5 kg lean body mass, and treadmill exercise performance (cardiovascular fitness) also improved (7). Need I say that the higher doses in this study produced more gains? Steroid.com members who have posted their results with deca confirm this in many posts and threads, with their average reccomendation being to take 400-600mgs/week for muscle gain. I have to agree.
Deca also has a very long active life. We can see from the chart below that a 100mg shot Deca (represented by the circles) produced relatively active and stable plasma nandrolone levels until day almost 10, hence once a week shots are all that´s necessary for stable levels of nandrolond decanoate (as a side note, the nandrolone phenylpropionate used in this study was active, and only experienced a severe drop off around day 5, shooting NPP every 4th day is the way to go). You´ll also note that higher blood plasma levels of Nandrolone are found with Gluteal injections as opposed to Deltoid injections (this is true for all oil-based steroids, I suspect)."
From:
http://steroid.com/Deca.php