
Military personnel must be ready for operations at all times, especially in the event of deployment at short notice for which they must undergo a wide range of rigorous physical training like sprinting, distance running, and long-distance walking carrying their rucksacks, swimming, parachuting and weight lifting.
These are extremely demanding physical activities and often, military personnel are known to take dietary supplements including SARMs (selective androgen receptor modulators) for various reasons like enhancing performance, building muscle, losing weight or even promoting overall health and well-being.
What do statistics show about supplement use in the military
Military Usage Statistics
- Around 70% of military personnel claim to use supplements as compared to half the civilian population.
- Around 22% of defense members use 3 or more supplements in a week.
- All military bases across the U.S. sell dietary supplements. For instance, there are over 100 GNC stores on U.S. military bases nationwide
SARMs are powerful compounds that have effects similar to androgenic drugs; however, since their actions are more selective, they do not have the resultant dangerous side effects of drugs like prohormones and anabolic steroids.
Military personnel often undergo loss of sleep, deployment and battlefield risks, environmental stress, continuous operations and sustained and extensive physical, as well as mental demands.
All these can take a big toll on the bodies and body functions of military personnel leading to conditions like injuries, high blood pressure, sleep loss, insomnia, depression, hallucination, development of phobias, etc. Also, the stringent requirement requires that military personnel are healthy and fit. With irregular food supplies and limited time to work out, things can get quite complicated, which is why often, military personnel report using SARMs.
Some military personnel that we spoke with even reported taking anabolic steroids while on active duty. Apparently it’s not uncommon for SEALs to openly use PEDs either, but that’s a whole different story.
How military personnel use SARMs to get in shape
SARMs
Let’s take a look at how SARMs can help military personnel and which ones are best for people who are starting basic training.
Ligandrol in the Military
Popularly referred to as LGD-4033, Ligandrol or Anabolicum is a popular SARM that is used to increase lean muscle mass. The SARM helps to strengthen the joints, which in turn, helps to prevent injuries.
One of the strongest mass building SARMs, Ligandrol helps to increase the size of muscles and help in steady fat loss. These benefits of Ligandrol help military personnel to gain muscle mass, definition and size and retain it without losing stamina.
Cardarine
Also known as Endurobol and GW-501516, this is a cutting cycle drug and is among the best performance-enhancing drugs for losing stubborn visceral and abdominal fat.
Cardarine helps to boost endurance and stamina levels and the ability to withstand intense workouts. It’s also rich in nitric acid and helps to decrease LDL (bad cholesterol) levels in the blood and increases the HDL or good cholesterol.
All these benefits of cardarine enable military personnel to remain fit and in shape by getting more from their intense workouts.
MK 2866
Popularly known as MK-2866 or Ostabolic, this SARM is used for both cutting and bulking cycles. Using ostarine for around 8-12 weeks shows a significant increase in the levels of body strength, energy, stamina, muscle mass and recovery.
Ostarine simultaneously allows you to lose body fat and gain muscle mass at the same time and by using this SARM, military personnel can remain in top shape without losing out on their health and wellbeing.
Also, Ostarine is shown to slow down or reverse the process of physical atrophy, which makes it an excellent supplement for military personnel who are aging. The anti-catabolic role and selective action of ostarine make it excellent when used by itself or when stacked to enhance the performance of other SARMs.
Stenabolic
Also called SR-9009, the SARM helps to improve endurance and metabolism. It influences the body’s biological clock and increases the metabolic activity in the skeletal muscle. SR-9009 does not reduce the natural hormone levels and helps to improve wakefulness, which is a big plus for military personnel.
Can SARMs be detected in a military drug test?
Military Drug Testing
While a regular military drug test will not detect the presence of SARMs in your system, only some specific drug tests intended for detecting them will be able to detect SARMs. For this first, you must understand the duration for which SARMs will remain in your body after they are consumed. Once the SARMs are out of your system, they will not be detected even by the SARMs drug test.
All the SARMs, except S23 and S4, have a 24-hour half-life or less, which means that if you don’t take them for 10 days, then they will be eliminated from the body, whereas, in the case of S23 and S4, just five days of not taking them will flush them from your body completely.
This essentially means that most of the SARMs will be detected by the specific military drug test only if you’ve taken them often in the last 10 days. However, for example, if you’ve taken only one dose of ostarine, then it will not be detected because usually, it takes around 3 days of consuming the SARMs for the levels to be sufficiently high to be detected by the specific military drug test.
Does the military test for SARMs?
Testing For SARMs
Typically, the military does not test for use of SARMs, unless the usage is very obvious. The commanding officer must specifically write to the drug testing agency for the personnel to be tested for SARMs or steroids.
So, if you keep your SARMs consumption very low and below the radar, then you should be fine. Usually, the military does not test for usage of SARMs unless they suspect strongly that you have been using SARMs because it is a specialized test that costs around $300+
Another important point to note about SARMs usage is that you should always source your SARMs from a reputable source selling authentic, high-quality products. You can refer to the Verified Source Program by us at sarms.io that maintains the list of best sources of SARMs based on lab testing and customer reviews so that you can be at complete peace of mind knowing that you’re buying only the best.
Does the military test for SARMs?
No, none of the branches of the military specifically test for SARMs on their drug screening assessment. It is too expensive for them to test for anabolic compounds such as SARMs, since these tests are still being developed and not readily available.
What SARMs are best for basic training?
The best SARMs for getting into peak physical condition include a muscle builder like LGD 4033 combined with an endurance booster like Cardarine. Read this guide on the best sarms for recomping.
Can I ship SARMs to an APO address?
It depends on which SARMs source you buy from. In most cases, they will ship to an APO address, but you will want to read about their shipping policy before ordering.
Will SARMs fail a drug test?
SARMs are not considered a controlled substance and are therefore not tested for as part of a drug test in the military. This means that even if you take SARMs, it will not make you fail a military drug test.
Does the military test for peptides?
No, there isn’t a single branch of the US military that currently tests for peptides in their standard drug screening assessment.