@armonadibi83's Ronnie Coleman supplement claims, fact-checked

What did @armonadibi83 actually say?

Armon Adibi is sharing a personal story here, not a clinical lecture. He describes training heavy, squatting six plates for reps, until an injury forced him to stop. When he tried to come back, he says he felt weak and that getting "off all the gear" made everything "really start hurting." His main takeaway: don't get injured, because recovering from major joint repairs is brutal.

This is gym-floor wisdom from someone who has clearly been through it. He isn't claiming to be a doctor, and he isn't selling anything specific in this clip. He's telling Ronnie Coleman's story as a reference point for his own experience with training, size, and the cost of injuries at that level of bodybuilding.

That said, the offhand comment that losing muscle and coming off gear is when injuries "really start hurting" is worth pulling apart, because it contains a real pharmacological idea wrapped inside some vague language.

Does the science back this up?

Mostly, yes, with some important nuance. The idea that anabolic steroids mask pain and that withdrawal from them coincides with increased pain perception is supported by research, though the picture is more complicated than a single sentence can capture.

Anabolic-androgenic steroids (AAS) have well-documented anti-inflammatory properties. Testosterone and its derivatives suppress pro-inflammatory cytokines and can reduce joint pain during active use. A 2019 review by Sagoe et al. in Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention, and Policy summarized that AAS users often experience rebound inflammation and pain after cessation, partly because the body's own testosterone production is suppressed and takes time to recover.

Muscle loss after stopping AAS is also real. Bhasin et al. (2001, New England Journal of Medicine) demonstrated that testosterone dose-dependently increases muscle mass, and that gains are partially lost after cessation. Weaker muscles mean less joint stabilization, which increases injury vulnerability and pain perception. So the sequence Armon describes, stopping gear, losing muscle, feeling everything hurt, tracks with known physiology.

What did they get wrong (or right)?

He got the general arc right. Where it gets muddy is the implication that the pain is primarily about coming off gear rather than about the injury itself, or the cumulative load years of heavy training puts on connective tissue.

Joints, tendons, and ligaments do not adapt as quickly as muscle does to anabolic drugs. This is a documented mismatch. Kadi et al. (2008, Histochemistry and Cell Biology) noted that while AAS dramatically accelerates muscle hypertrophy, connective tissue remodeling lags behind. So you can build strength faster than your tendons can handle it, which is a setup for exactly the kind of catastrophic injuries Armon and Ronnie Coleman both experienced.

The pain after stopping AAS is real, but it isn't just about the gear being gone. It's about tendons that were already stressed, now without the anti-inflammatory buffer, and muscles that can no longer stabilize the joint adequately. Framing it only as "get off the gear and it hurts" undersells the structural damage that was likely already accumulating.

His actual advice, try not to get injured, try not to do something that will put you out for a long time, is genuinely good. It's obvious, but it's also the thing ego-driven lifters most frequently ignore.

What should you actually know?

If you are using testosterone or other androgens, either prescribed or otherwise, there are real physiological consequences to cessation beyond mood and libido. Pain perception, inflammation, and muscle retention are all affected by hormonal status.

For people on medically supervised testosterone replacement therapy (TRT), sudden discontinuation is not recommended. The Endocrine Society's clinical practice guidelines (Bhasin et al., 2018) recommend gradual tapering and monitoring when discontinuing testosterone therapy, specifically because of the hormonal rebound effects Armon is describing in lay terms.

Injury prevention in heavy resistance training is also not just about listening to your body. It requires periodization, mobility work, and realistic load management. A 2017 meta-analysis by Lauersen et al. in British Journal of Sports Medicine found that strength training programs with proper progressive overload reduced sports injuries by up to 50%. Training smart is not the same as training less hard. It means managing accumulated fatigue and load over time, something elite bodybuilders at Ronnie Coleman's level were not exactly famous for doing.

One more thing worth saying plainly: if you are experiencing joint or tendon pain that you think might be related to hormone use or cessation, this is a conversation to have with a physician, not a podcast guest or an Instagram comment section.