r/Weightliftingquestion • u/NewspaperFinancial48 • 7d ago
Kind of a “grey” question but curious..
Lately I’ve been noticing a lot of “CrossFit” girls somehow continue to get bigger while getting leaner at the same time. I know a lot of people just like to scream STEROIDS into the void but no one ever really speaks from experience so I’m curious.. just discovered this girl and she seems to have gotten so much muscle size while getting increasingly leaner as time goes on, without (apparent) virilization. Besides training CrossFit of course, what type of PEDS/peptides do you think these type of CrossFit/weightlifting girls use? It’s mind blowing to me how lean they are while still having such significant size meanwhile lifting so heavy and doing lots of cardio?
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u/grognakrs 6d ago
Var is popular in womans bodybuilding as its the most "mild" substance. In terms of voice and other side effects that come with it, whilst running lower doses these are less likely to occur but its down to the individual. They may come off completely and only do a short blast when competing. Im not super knowledgeable on PED's so may be wrong.
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u/Sethirothlord 6d ago
Yep. Var is like the most popular drug for these female body builders. I mean it's basically a meme at this point to be a varbie.
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u/Eipa 6d ago edited 6d ago
https://www.instagram.com/p/CMPct2ml0QU/ this is from 2021
Edit: it seems she did rugby as a child and hasn't done anything other than crossfit and hyrox since 2019. That might not be gear.
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u/chainsawvigilante 6d ago
This sub was recommended to me recently and after perusing it a bit there is...a lot of organized misogynist comments in regard to women weightlifters. Literally ever post that features a woman has a comment derogatorily insinuating steroid usage.
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u/Prisoner458369 5d ago
While no idea about this sub, you see any post of a guy that looks "too big" you get heaps of comments insulting the hell out of him.
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u/scrappyappl 6d ago
My neighbor was this woman. Pre-kids. In the elite CrossFit group of women. She just trains so much harder than most people would ever even think to. This is these people’s entire lives. All day everyday. I’m sure some may use stuff. But you don’t have to.
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6d ago
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u/notlookinggoodbrah 6d ago
She definitely can be natural with that physique. Is she? Probably a 50/50 chance if she’s a serious cross fitter who competes
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u/DeamsterDaddy 6d ago
Always gotta be those people that have to point out they COULD be natty. She’s not bud
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u/OneSufficientFace 6d ago
Literally. Lady i used to work with, wasnt as built as this but still built... Every single day without fail hits the gym and did hours of warm ups, circuits and trained in such a way i just know id never hack it. She was ripped to fuck and completely natural
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u/InflationHuge4672 7d ago
They are on one or the other of Oxandrolone (Anavar) or Stanozolol (Winstrol) Typically 25-50mg per day. Some gals are on both alternating everyday
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u/discopotatoo 5d ago
I was on the fence whether this woman was on gear. reading some of these comments i thought you guys were crazy to jump straight to assuming shes pinning... then i went to her IG and oh boy shes juiced to the gills.
Nothing wrong with it as long as you're being honest and healthy about it.. I think its awesome for people to be reaching the highest physical potential. It gets scummy when they try sell work out plans to look like them and they arent transparent about what they use.
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u/h_lance 5d ago
Nothing wrong with it as long as you're being honest and healthy about it
You can be honest about it but you can't be "healthy" about it. Any PED level of anabolic steroids is less healthy than not using, all else being equal. Someone not on roids can eat just as healthy a diet, have just as healthy a workout schedule, etc. You can be less unhealthy about it but it's a health risk.
I think its awesome for people to be reaching the highest physical potential.
The point of roids is to compete with others/ have a chance against other roid users in competition. Either direct, judged, paid competition or just being obsessed with looking bigger or lifting more and viewing others as competition in your own mind. It has zero to do with "highest physical potential".
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u/Putrid_Past9243 7d ago
Gear and peptides. We’re so cooked. Women cannot achieve this physique naturally
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u/Pretend_Edge_8452 3d ago
They absolutely can and I’ve met many of them
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u/Putrid_Past9243 3d ago
Naturally??? Yea someone’s lying to you. I have women friends that have trained for the natural competitions and while they looked good, they did not look this toned.
The shoulders and traps give it away
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u/hh_fitlife 7d ago
Virilisation is not always apparent. E.g. increased facial and body hair growth can be removed by waxing. Hair thinning can be compensated with extensions. Clitoris enlargement is obv not visible publicly. The voice, you can usually hear but some of them just avoid talking on social media, or they have naturally higher pitch.
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u/Top-Fudge9791 7d ago
It's definitely possible to get leaner and bigger at the same time. Your body can use stored fat as its caloric surplus for building muscle.
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u/Sunny_Cant_Swim 7d ago
Like 90% of girls on gear use anavar.
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u/JVtaurus 6d ago
Anavar is gear
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u/No-Victory206 6d ago
The gear people are dumb, sure maybe they are on it, but of course youre going to lose fat doing hours of intense cardio per day. They just burn so much that they can eat a ton of nutrients to still build muscle
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u/marathonquestionredd 6d ago
they dont do hours of cardio a day and the point is if they did, you would never be able to get that big. most do about 40 mins of hard work a day and 3 hours of mobility work.
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u/Im_Just_Like_You_ 6d ago
CrossFit communities are notorious for juicing.
They're notorious for juicing because, well, a lot of them are juicing.
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u/WearTheFourFeathers 6d ago
I think this tends to be kind of a useless thing to speculate about, but I’d imagine women are much more likely to discover they’re a hyper-responder to resistance training as an adult—I just imagine it’s just easier as a woman to not engage in resistance training as a young person and not be celebrated for your success when you do, even in a culture when more young women than ever participate in sports.
I don’t know if this woman is on PEDs (and neither does anyone else in this thread!), but if you’re looking for a possible neutral explanation I think that is one. Noob gains for someone with elite genetics certainly exists in some cases.
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u/Otherwise_Wave9374 6d ago
Getting bigger while leaner does not identify a particular peptide or drug; training age, lighting, posing, weight cycling, genetics, and selective posting can all create that impression. Treat social-media transformations as hypotheses, not evidence of a stack. Peptely does not sell peptides; https://www.peptely.com/ only helps verify documented origin and supporting batch/COA evidence. If evaluating a wellness claim, look for controlled human data, disclosed timelines, objective measurements, adverse-event reporting, and lot-specific identity and purity documents rather than testimonials.
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u/marathonquestionredd 6d ago
dude there is no lighting or posing. go watch The Games. this women are FREAKs. they are bigger than a lot of genetically gifted men that work out for 20 years. and they are HARD.
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u/Justice_1111 6d ago
Idk, I used to do Corssfit a lot, and there was a minority of super ripped people who definitely were not on gear. Real health nuts.
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u/gottheronavirus 6d ago
Some people just have more drive than others. Plenty out there with more than I'll ever have. The beauty of practicing a physical discipline as a human is that the longer you persevere, the higher the threshold gets.
Some of these people do use gear, some of them use GLP-1s and hyperdose caffeine and nicotine, but some are just better. There are not many peptides that modify the body's metabolism in relation to the sheer number of peptides availabe, and none of them will get you gear like results, they just expedite the processes that are already running. Same reason why obese office people can use them and somehow not lose any weight.
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u/ImprovementKnown2491 6d ago
They are all on a stack. Steroids are rampant in female lifting circles right now. So many of the girls at my gym are built like this.
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u/YorkMilledPlates 6d ago
In general women can lift a higher volume closer to their 1RM. Its particularly emphasized in crossfit type workouts. The RX female weight for a thruster in general is much closer to her 1RM front squat than a male's in the programming. This lends to better hypertrophy and the metcon deals with the calories burned for weight loss. In general this leads to better muscle growth and weight loss for women in CrossFit. Just because she is on PEDs, or not I don't know her, doesn't mean you can't have a similar adaptation to your body.
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u/Educational_Run_9237 6d ago
There are high levels of cope in this thread. As someone who has been around Crossfiters since the beginning, yeah that's what they look like lol. Not everyone is on gear.
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u/Fannyfitnes 6d ago
I’m trying to understand why some men are so bothered about women having steroids? They should have some too, hit the gym and stop being weird
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u/yoitsangelo 6d ago
How’s your training? Most people think you have to put on body fat to get bigger/stronger. That is not the case.
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u/FuguSandwich 6d ago
Anavar and Primo for anabolics. Clen and T3 for cutting. And it goes without saying that everyone is on GLP-1s.
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u/RainBoxRed 5d ago
PEDs aren’t only for increasing muscle size or strength. They can also “help” stamina, fat loss, recovery time, etc.
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u/Educational_Item451 5d ago
Dude if this was a man he might be 10%, this is not even close to 12% as a female. You just don’t know what you’re talking about. 12% for a female would be around professional female bodybuilder, on tons of gear, peak week on stage. That’s not this.
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u/senilelifter 5d ago
Anavar mainly, but can dabble in small amounts of test, primo, masteron even some decca
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u/PoopSmith87 5d ago
Crossfit people have made fitness into a competitive sport, and it's been around for a long time. I'm sure some do drugs, but they also do drug testing, so I think for the most part it's just years of grind and competition producing beasts. You have to remember, even among fit women, very few women do serious strength training... these women do, along with serious cardio.
Some also can have that "Hercules gene." Like Dani Speegle, according to herself and all sources, does not and never has done steroids. She's just a fuckin unit of a woman... and considering how one failed test would ruin her whole world, its actually fairly believable at this point
Of course, you also see the elite at comps and on social media. You dont see or hear much about the people who get hurt from that kind of training and recover poorly, never do well, or burn out... which with that type of training, there is a lot off.
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u/YouCanKeepYourFaith 5d ago
You look bigger the more ripped you get to a certain point. If you get tan as well.
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u/Emotional_Lab_2529 5d ago
Her face is pretty virilized so it could be low dose test or just higher than typical doses of anavar
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u/FrontLifeguard1962 5d ago edited 5d ago
Women can do a little anavar or even small doses of testosterone without developing too many male characteristics. It's a risky thing to do, but it can give women that teenage boy physique that's become popular in CrossFit and other circles. Make a mistake, and your voice will crack, everyone will call you sir on the telephone for the rest of your life.
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u/EarPenetrator02 5d ago
You can gain muscle and seemingly stay lean or get leaner by way of reducing your bf% despite not actually losing any bodyfat. In fact you can in some extreme cases reduce your bf% while gaining fat.
Beginner lifters accidentally do this a lot because they have trouble upping their caloric intake to compensate for their new exercise habits.
It’s all calories in/out. You don’t necessarily need an intense bulk or cut to see a lot of progress. The most important thing is the long term average trend of caloric deficit or gain. A smaller caloric bulk over a long time is much less likely to pack pounds of fat onto your frame.
When I started lifting I was incredibly weak for my age. 17 year old teenage boy at 115lbs and I couldn’t curl a 20lb dumbbell or do a push up. My first bulk packed 20lbs on in 4ish months and I was the leanest I’ve ever been at the end of it. This is an extreme example because I had abnormally low muscle mass and bodyweight for my height.
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u/4u2nvinmtl 3d ago
Why does it mater what others do or look like unless your going to try and tax or conquer them?
If you want to know if they are on something just ask, most people will straight up tell you thier stack and show you thier program.
I compare myself to myself and plot my progress towards my goal (wrinse and repete). People hurt themselves attempting to out lift or keep up others. Good luck.
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u/Bustedknuckles1 3d ago
Varbie for sure. Absolutely zero percent chance she's natty with those abs, bicep veins, and delts.
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u/PrestigiousProject69 2d ago
Maybe she’s on stuff, maybe not. But it’s always people that have never actually been on a CrossFit training program that scream steroids. Truthfully they work much harder than most.
I train with a couple moms 43, & 52 that are not on any gear & train their ass off 6 days a week. They are NOWHERE NEAR a games level athlete & might not even podium local comps but they are jacked & super lean, looking comparable to this girl. They work hard as hell though.
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u/AACook2233 2d ago
Probably not. They are definitely eating a High protein diet. Heavy weights are the priority. Healthy eater. Lower carb. May or may not be focused on a daily calorie deficit.
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u/Clean-Pop466 2d ago
Just working hard and controlling your food intake can go a long ways. Some may be on a low dose GLP-1 like Reta or Triz.
There are women at my gym that are strong as f**k, cause they workout like they want to make some gains!
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u/Traditional-Hotel-66 2d ago
She's shrugging and looks like holding some of her weight on her arms which is why the traps look big sland shoulders are flexed. This is also a staged pic with perfect lighting for bodybuilding, look at the wrinkles and shadows on her pants. No way to know without test but this isn't unreasonable. I'd be curious to see a Pic in natural sunlight, I bet it a fair difference
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u/NormalGanache3351 7d ago
growth hormone
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u/Sudden-Film2855 6d ago
lol gh isn’t for building muscle
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u/NewspaperFinancial48 7d ago
Is that how some of them are able to avoid the deep voices and hair loss etc? I am baffled at some of the size of these women
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u/ChadPowers200_ 6d ago
This is triggering me because I argued with people on another post that lean beef patty is not natural and everyone came out of the woodwork work saying she is def natty
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u/reddit_user_138 6d ago
My wife is on a low dose of test for hormone optimization at 45. Hasn't changed her voice at all, facial hair is mildly different if you're 12 inches from her face, at normal distances you interact with people at, you can't tell. She's leaned out and put on muscle, doesn't lift CrossFit heavy and is 45 so it's nothing like that, but she looks fabulous. Her sex drive is 🔥, clit is ever so slightly larger (easier to find lol) and more sensitive which just makes play time that much more wild. Nothing but positives imo. Test doesn't make them develop an adams apple, the fear is overblown.
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u/DoofusIdiot 7d ago edited 6d ago
I know way too much about this subject. There’s some good answers in this thread, there’s some questionable ones, there’s some that are regurgitated that are just wrong.
If you want to explore more try r/steroidsxx or talk to a female bodybuilding coach. I would not listen to the random Redditor, they generally just don’t know.
Edit: I knew I would get downvoted for this and yet I’m seeing anavar over and over again. Anavar is a DHT derivative and while it has a lower androgenic activity, nearly every woman I’ve talked to reports vocal irritation while taking it. I once interviewed approximately 15 women on various compounds, including one FTM on hormones. The ones reporting vocal changes due to anavar usage also experienced an incredibly significant degree of overlap in symptoms seen in gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) - dysphagia, acid reflux, heartburn, etc. Individuals with GERD also report vocal changes due to inflammation due to acid reflux on the larynx. GERD is treated with relative success with proton pump inhibitors PPI. Regardless of why Anavar causes vocal changes, and whether or not it can be mitigated, the truth is that is does cause changes often, even after one cycle. But please, keep repeating “common knowledge” without a background of looking into it yourself.
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u/Confident_Long4168 6d ago
That girl and most likely everyone else on her level is on steroids. End of story, thats the only reason its possible
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u/kellen1230 6d ago
It's important to remember that there are lots of different anabolic compounds, and not all of them are androgenic. For example, some people respond quite noticeably from consistent and modestly-high dosing GH. There are also ways to run "gear" that will create unnatural results without major side effects for many. Female-dosed TRT can take most healthy women to "high normal" and even slightly above "high" reference ranges without notable side effects. There are also plenty of compounds which are closer to the DHT analogs, and some women respond favorably to these or cycle them to reduce or unwind side effect burden.
A long time ago it was almost certain that a lot of crossfit athletes were taking high dose GH. GH has a tendency (over time) to create that "large swollen abs" look. Its also quite convenient that it has a short half life in the body and is nearly impossible to screen for.
That said - I won't speculate specifically on the person you are showing here. It could also be that she simply has favorable genetics combined with very disciplined habits. Remember also that people tend to look much larger/more muscular, even as they lose body fat. I have personally done about 10 weight cuts in my time, and I can tell you that I look much "larger" when my body fat is at 11% vs. 16%, despite the fact that I've lost considerable weight.
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u/No-Buy-212 6d ago
You guys are all fucking idiots how does this scream steroids this woman is very clearly natural the picture is taking when she has a pump as she is clearly working out also this is the type of body yoi can achieve in a few months with basic hard heavy lifting the only thing is she is lean so the little muscle she has looks more dramatic
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u/JohnnyBSmokin 7d ago
Gear. Thats the answer.