Yes, “gear” is slang for anabolic steroids. It’s not the name of a specific drug or compound. In gym and bodybuilding culture, “gear” is a catch-all term for any anabolic steroid, whether injectable or taken as a pill. When someone says they’re “on gear” or asks where to “get gear,” they’re talking about synthetic versions of testosterone used to build muscle faster than training alone allows.
What “Gear” Actually Covers
Because gear is cultural shorthand rather than a pharmacological term, it can refer to dozens of different compounds. All anabolic steroids are synthetic derivatives of testosterone, but they come in two broad chemical families. One group is designed to survive passing through the liver so it can be swallowed as a pill. The other group is formulated as oils or solutions meant for injection, typically into muscle tissue.
In practical gym conversation, any of these compounds counts as gear, whether someone is using a single substance or stacking several together in what’s called a “cycle.” The word carries no information about which steroid, what dose, or how it’s being taken. It simply signals that anabolic steroids are involved.
How Anabolic Steroids Work
Your body naturally produces testosterone, which drives muscle repair, bone density, and a range of other functions. Anabolic steroids flood the body with synthetic versions of testosterone at levels far above what your endocrine system would produce on its own. This amplifies the rate at which muscles repair and grow after training, increases the amount of nitrogen your muscles retain (a building block for protein), and can reduce recovery time between workouts.
The “anabolic” part of the name refers to tissue building. The “androgenic” part refers to the masculinizing effects these hormones also carry, like deepening of the voice, body hair growth, and changes in fat distribution. Every anabolic steroid has both properties to some degree, though different compounds lean more toward one effect or the other.
Oral vs. Injectable Forms
Gear comes in two main delivery methods, and the distinction matters for health. Oral steroids (pills) are chemically modified so they can pass through the liver without being broken down immediately. That modification is what makes them significantly more toxic to the liver. Users and researchers alike recognize that oral forms place greater strain on the liver, worsen cholesterol profiles faster, and raise blood pressure more sharply than injectables. For this reason, oral cycles are typically kept shorter.
Injectable steroids bypass the liver on their first pass through the body, which reduces (but doesn’t eliminate) liver stress. However, injecting introduces its own risks, including infection at the injection site. Most people who use gear for extended periods rely primarily on injectables, sometimes adding a short oral phase at the beginning or end of a cycle.
Health Risks of Using Gear
The risks depend on the compounds used, the doses, and how long someone stays on, but long-term steroid use at doses above what the body naturally produces carries well-documented dangers across several body systems.
Heart and Blood Vessels
This is the area of greatest concern. Supraphysiologic doses of anabolic steroids can cause high blood pressure, thickening of the heart’s left ventricle, unfavorable shifts in cholesterol (raising LDL and lowering HDL), and accelerated buildup of plaque in artery walls. Some of these effects, like blood pressure and cholesterol changes, tend to reverse after stopping. Others, particularly structural changes to the heart muscle and atherosclerosis, may be irreversible.
Liver Damage
Oral steroids are the primary culprits here. Documented liver complications include blood-filled cysts in liver tissue, bile flow obstruction, benign and malignant liver tumors, and, in rare cases, spontaneous liver rupture. Injectable steroids appear to cause liver problems far less often, though isolated cases have been reported.
Hormonal Shutdown
When you flood your body with external testosterone, your brain’s signaling system registers the surplus and stops telling your testes to produce their own. This is called suppression of the hypothalamic-pituitary-testicular axis. While you’re on gear, natural testosterone production can drop to near zero. After stopping, it can take weeks to months for the system to restart, and in some cases the suppression persists. During that gap, users commonly experience fatigue, depression, loss of sex drive, and in some cases infertility.
Post-Cycle Therapy
To counteract the hormonal crash after a steroid cycle, many users self-administer what’s known as post-cycle therapy, or PCT. This typically involves drugs that stimulate the testes to resume testosterone production and block certain estrogen signals that would otherwise keep natural production suppressed. A survey of 470 men found that using PCT was associated with reduced withdrawal symptoms after stopping steroids.
PCT is not a medically standardized protocol. It’s a self-directed practice developed within the bodybuilding community, and the specific drugs, doses, and durations vary widely. It does not guarantee a full recovery of natural hormone levels, and it introduces its own set of side effects.
Legal Status
In the United States, anabolic steroids are classified as Schedule III controlled substances by the Drug Enforcement Administration, the same category as ketamine and certain codeine products. Possessing them without a valid prescription is a federal crime. Legitimate medical uses exist, primarily for conditions where the body doesn’t produce enough testosterone on its own, but the doses prescribed for medical purposes are calibrated to bring levels into the normal range. Performance-enhancing use involves doses many times higher than therapeutic levels.
In competitive sports, all anabolic agents are banned. The World Anti-Doping Agency’s prohibited list explicitly includes anabolic steroids and their chemical variants, including ester forms. Athletes caught using gear face suspensions, stripped titles, and career consequences.
Why the Slang Exists
The word “gear” serves a practical purpose: it lets people discuss steroid use without immediately flagging the conversation. In online forums, gym settings, and social media, coded language helps users talk openly about compounds, cycles, and sources while maintaining some degree of plausible deniability. Other common slang terms include “juice,” “sauce,” and “roids,” but “gear” remains one of the most widely used, particularly in the UK, Australia, and online bodybuilding communities. If you encounter it in any fitness context, it almost certainly means anabolic steroids.