Expert profile
Bodybuilding coach and YouTuber (VigorousSteve)
YouTube · Clips channel · Website · Instagram
Vigorous Steve (first name Stephan) runs a large bodybuilding YouTube channel that reviews performance-enhancing compounds and peptides. His videos walk through the animal and human studies and then describe the protocols he would use, often including his own experience.
iNo endorsement. Vigorous Steve is quoted for public statements only and does not endorse this site. Quotes are word for word; follow each link for the full context.
“I've run a BPC-157 many a time to heal injuries for four to six weeks in duration.”
Context: His own use, not a recommendation. He says this while discussing reported anhedonia, which he says he has not experienced himself. Both caption tracks render the compound name as "BBC 157"; we normalised it to BPC-157.
“So, what is the most effective dose for BPC-157 when it's run solo? Well, for soft tissue injuries, based on all of the scientific evidence that we just reviewed together, a dose anywhere between 200 micrograms to 1,000 micrograms BPC-157 injected either subcutaneously, intramuscularly, or intra-articularly at least as close to the site of injury as possible for a duration of, let's say, four to six weeks.”
Context: The summary at the end of his BPC-157 review. He goes on to say it should ideally be combined with other healing measures (he names thymosin beta-4, growth hormone or secretagogues, GHK-Cu, collagen peptides and vitamin C), and that torn tendons need surgery first: "if you need surgery, get the surgery out of the way first". Earlier in the video he stresses that almost all BPC-157 evidence comes from animal models. The main-channel captions garble "soft tissue" and "site"; the captions of the same audio on his clips channel read as quoted.
“If you suffer from […] intestinal injuries, whether that's irritable bowel syndrome or something else, stomach ulcers, for example, then anywhere between 250 micrograms to 500 micrograms orally once or twice per day, so that's a total between 250 micrograms to 1,000 micrograms oral BPC-157 every single day until the injuries internally within the intestinal tract are resolved.”
Context: He adds that it should ideally be combined with LL-37, KPV, glutamine, probiotics and fibre, and that you should follow an elimination diet first to address the root cause. The main-channel captions read "Orly" and "intestinal track"; the clips-channel captions of the same audio read "orally" and "intestinal tract".
“So based on this data, I would advise you to split up your daily dose of BPC-157 into two administrations”
Context: "This data" is animal pharmacokinetics: he cites an intramuscular half-life of 15 to 30 minutes in animal models, and says the anecdotal figure of 2 to 6 hours "is not confirmed anywhere in the literature". He wants the effects to be continuous.
“That being said, there are no completed human safety studies of BPC-157 and it appears that it's not entirely side effect free.”
Context: He says that in animal models it appears generally well tolerated. He then lists commonly reported side effects of injections: post-injection pain (mostly burning), sometimes redness at the injection site, and rare anecdotal reports of anhedonia.
“And extrapolating from the angiogenesis benefit and the wound healing benefits of BPC-157, there could be a potential for cancer progression if cancer is already present in the body.”
Context: Later in the video he calls it "a bit of a double-edged" sword: some animal data suggest protective effects against cancer-induced cachexia, while "there's some speculation in the medical community that BPC-157 treatment might actually accelerate cancer growth".
“For soft tissue injuries I would recommend between 500 microgram up to 1 mgram TB 500 subcutaneous, intramuscular or intraarticular, once or twice per day, so that's a total dose of 500 micrograms up to 2,000 micrograms daily”
Context: He introduces this as “the cookie cutter healing protocol for TB-500” and goes on to suggest combining it with other compounds. Earlier in the same video he stresses that TB-500 itself has never been in clinical trials. “1 mgram” is how YouTube’s auto-captions render the upper figure; we have not changed it.
“[…] Clinical trials on tb500, there are none.”
Context: He explains that the benefits attributed to TB-500 are extrapolated from research on the full thymosin beta-4 protein, which has been in clinical trials, whereas the TB-500 fragment has not.
“The scientific evidence on tb500 is very very thin”
Context: Said near the end of the video, before suggesting a separate deep dive on thymosin beta-4 itself.
“IP morelan 150 microgram to 300 microgr subcutaneously up to three times daily”
Context: One line from a spoken cheat-sheet listing several ghrelin-receptor agonists. Shortly before, he says “most people would use a growth hormone releasing hormone receptor agonist maybe once or twice per day in combination with a” ghrelin-receptor agonist. “IP morelan” and “microgr” are how the auto-captions render ipamorelin and microgram; words are unchanged.
“[…] no drug Affinity complex, that's what Dak stands for. We have a dosages ranging between 150 micrograms to 300 micrograms administered subcutaneously up to three times daily”
Context: From his spoken GH cheat-sheet. “Dak” is the auto-caption spelling of DAC (drug affinity complex).
“But if you want less injection frequency I would go with CJC 1295 with the drug Affinity complex, which allows for once per week administrations between 1 milligram to 2 milligram subcutaneous one time weekly”
Context: Directly follows the no-DAC line above.
“and tesamorelin 1 milligram to 2 milligram subcutaneous up to three times daily”
Context: One line of his spoken GH cheat-sheet. He follows it with “that being said most people would use a growth hormone releasing hormone receptor agonist maybe once or twice per day in combination with a” ghrelin-receptor agonist.
“It's probably safer to microdose retatrutide or the other GLP-1 receptor agonists, maybe three times weekly, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, at a low and effective dose, just enough to blunt your appetite, promote satiation, and take away the food noise when you're undergoing a cutting phase”
Context: Said in a video about retatrutide and applied by him to “the other GLP-1 receptor agonists”; he does not give a semaglutide-specific dose. Clip published on VigorousClips; the same passage is in his full video of 31 Mar 2025.
“I either used liraglutide for a couple months, then came off and got fat again, or used tirzepatide for a couple months, came off and got fat again.”
Context: Own use, no dose given. He says he now uses retatrutide.
“Basically, the sustainable and tolerable dose really depends on how much appetite management you need during a cutting phase, and that could be between 0.25 mg up to 1.66 mg subcutaneous three times weekly, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, aka 0.75 mg to 5 mg weekly.”
Context: Introduced as his “retatrutide dosing protocols for men and women”. Just before, he notes that side effects in trials were far lower at 1–4 mg weekly than at 12 mg. Clip published on VigorousClips; the same passage is in his full video of 31 Mar 2025, whose captions garble the compound name.
“[…] which again is the commonly used dosage amongst the bodybuilders and everybody else in the fitness community nowadays. 3 mg retatrutide weekly split up 1 mg Monday, Wednesday, Friday, that seems to be the sweet spot for most people using this particular compound.”
Context: Describing common use in the fitness community rather than giving his own recommendation.
“I do know guys that administered 5 mg, aka an entire vial of retatrutide, in one single shot, and all the gastrointestinal adverse events manifested to the point they could not even hydrate themselves […]. So, uh start low, build your way up so you prevent these terrible side effects”
Context: Anecdote about other people; he adds that he has never spoken to anyone who went up to 12 mg weekly.
“I either used liraglutide for a couple months, then came off and got fat again, or used tirzepatide for a couple months, came off and got fat again. And now nowadays I use retrotide […]”
Context: Own use, no dose given. “Retrotide” is the caption spelling of retatrutide.
“I started low, 1 millgram ghk copper per day, gave that 2 weeks […] so did 1 milligram for a while, then I increased to 2 milligram and then I increased to 5 milligrams”
Context: Describing his own experiment. The cut removes a passage on side effects (quoted separately below). “millgram” is how the auto-captions render the first figure. He does not state the route in this passage.
“now I'm going to increase it to maybe 10 milligram of ghk copper […] considering that I'm going to run this peptide for maybe 3 months, 6 months, to really give it adequate time for it to help with skin anti-aging”
Context: He frames this as his “individual risk to reward” decision. The cut removes a garbled phrase and his remark that he does not expect to approach the upper tolerable copper intake.
“ghk copper is 18.7% copper, so if you use that at particular higher dosages you can actually bring yourself over the tolerable reference range for copper intake on a daily basis if you run that compound every day, which then compounds with the dietary copper that you're consuming”
Context: Part of his own risk assessment before running GHK-Cu.
“the most predominant side effect that I'm experiencing is a post injection pain, which is what everybody reports with ghk copper, but it's tolerable”
Context: Describing his own experience. Just before, he mentions that nausea and dizziness are reported in the literature.
“I would not recommend GHK copper injections directly into the cheeks because again the post injection pain is brutal.”
Context: From a short clip on GHK-Cu for appearance (“looksmaxxing”).
“I think i1 lr3 is great if your source is great, right. Ideal dose is anywhere between 50 micrograms bilaterally up to 500 micrograms bilaterally […] it's 500 micrograms per side, okay, so 1 milligram per day, uh, up to 21 days and then one week off”
Context: Answering a viewer question in a solo Q&A livestream. “i1 lr3” is how the auto-captions render IGF-1 LR3. The cut removes him correcting himself out loud (including a profanity) about milligrams versus grams.
“you find out your sweet spot. For most people that's like 250 micrograms to 500 micrograms bilaterally, so that's double the dose obviously because you do two administrations. You do intramuscular administrations into the muscle group that you're going to train, um, and then you run that for 21 days […] 21 days on and 7 to 10 days off”
Context: Continuation of the same answer. The cut removes a self-correction (“off 7 to 10 days or”).
“if I didn't have access to incx then I would run maybe 100 micrograms i1 lr3 bilaterally during a bulking phase and up to 250 mics […] lr3 bilaterally on a cutting phase”
Context: Solo Q&A. He says he uses prescription IGF-1 (Increlex, captioned “incx”) himself; this is what he says he would use otherwise. The cut removes two garbled words in the captions (“I just W”), flagged for a listen.
“So I tried kagarinitide […] tried, um, I think at the time was four milligrams of rotoutide or 1 milligram rotoutide three times a week, so four milligrams a week or three milligrams a week, and then I added in half a milligrams ka linenotide three times a week. So it's 1.5 milligrams total, and I was so lethargic, dude, I was so tired, so I just ate more.”
Context: Solo livestream answering chat questions. The auto-captions garble the drug names: “kagarinitide” and “ka linenotide” are cagrilintide, “rotoutide” is retatrutide (flagged for a listen). The cut removes a mention of where the compounded product came from. A few seconds later he says: “after 3 weeks I was like you know what [ __ ] this ka linenide is out.”
“I would do a dose low and and escalate your way up. It seems that people on a milligram for milligram basis compared to the GLP ones, they respond a lot more […] substantially. So you would maybe run 1 milligram to two milligrams of the amalin receptor agonists”
Context: Same livestream. He is speaking about amylin-receptor agonists in general (cagrilintide and eloralintide). He ends: “it's you know worth looking into but I didn't get a good response.” The cut removes a hesitation (“um um how do you say this?”).
“so over the last three or four months the protocol has been as follows: I administered either 250 micrograms hch frag 176 to 191 or anti-obesity drug 9604 1 hour before fasted cardio or 1 hour before workout, so that's seven administrations per week pre-cardio”
Context: His own comparison of HGH fragment 176-191 and AOD-9604 (“anti-obesity drug 9604” in the captions). He says he alternated the two and saw no difference between them.
“now what I've noticed is that this dosing protocol doesn't really work ideally. I found that it works better just to administer the H frag or aod right before I go to the gym”
Context: Same video, continuing from the protocol above.
“250 micrograms of H frag or aod does not change my serum triglycerides or blood glucose levels”
Context: He injected either compound 30 minutes before blood draws to compare with growth hormone. He later adds that he would have expected a rise in triglycerides: “so it was a little bit of a red flag for me”.
“out of all the choices that we have, I would forego Melanotan 2, I would forego PT-141, I would forego Selank […] And even though I got a libido boost from PT-141, it's not anywhere close to the libido boost I got from Semax.”
Context: Comparing compounds he has tried for libido. He gives no PT-141 dose. The cut removes his comment on Selank.
“You generally don't see this in individuals who, um, just run melanotan to, let's say, half a milligram, 1 milligram per day, to increase their tan. Their hematology doesn't really change that much.”
Context: He is discussing anecdotal rises in haematocrit seen in bodybuilders who combine Melanotan II with anabolic steroids, and says there is no clinical evidence of this in drug-free people. “melanotan to” is how the captions render “Melanotan 2”. This describes what others run, not a recommendation.
“after two weeks on 100 micrograms kisspeptin 10 three times per week they did not increase […] so I increased to 100 microgram kisspeptin 10 every day, ran that experiment for another two weeks and see if there was any changes, again no changes”
Context: Describing his own blood-work experiment while off steroids. He started from the protocol of “the people that I had a consultation with”. Measured LH, FSH and testosterone did not change. The cut removes his description of the blood panel.
“they administer 20 micrograms every two hours, which, let's be honest, is incredibly cumbersome. I can't remember if that was intervenous, subcutaneous or intramuscularly”
Context: His summary of the research protocol, explaining why he thinks his own experiment showed no effect.
“consider taking about 500 to 750 iuse oxytocin internally about 1 hour before your L day. Seems to have about a 2hour half life when taking internasal”
Context: Solo video. The captions read “iuse”, “internally” and “L day”; he appears to mean IU, intranasally and leg day. His 2026 figures are far lower (20–100 IU), so this line is flagged for a listen.
“My leg days became ultra pleasurable, a very positive association with training to failure on particular exercises and far beyond. So, my leg days were legendary after taking maybe 20, 40, sometimes 100 IUs oxytocin pre-workouts.”
Context: His own experience. He does not state the route here; in a 2021 video on the same topic he describes a nasal spray.
“20 IUs, 30 IUs, 50 IUs, whatever your sweet spot is, is sufficient. You can keep it at that dose, taken about an hour before sexual activity. But if you start to use it every day, you might end up with 200 IUs or 500 IUs, which is an insane dose. You might experience a little bit of flushing as a side effect of very high dosages of oxytocin. So, I'd use oxytocin intermittently.”
Context: Just before, he says “the dose highly depends on your tolerance” and that he and clients “noticed that you need to continuously bump up the dose”.
“which unfortunately doesn't seem to be the case for myself and everybody that I've talked to: oxytocin nasal spray seems to be ineffective regarding sexual activity”
Context: In 2021 he found no libido effect; in his 2026 clip he says the opposite (that his libido became “problematic” on oxytocin combined with Semax).
“yeah, I've used epitalon a couple times while fasting, um, but it's so hard to measure a telr length that I'm, I'm not even sure if it's working”
Context: Answering a viewer’s question in a solo Q&A livestream (he reads the questions aloud). “telr length” is how the captions render “telomere length”. He adds that he may run it more often when older “as a preventative measure”.
“So for those people and for most people I would suggest just to start low, start with subcutaneous administrations and build your ways up. If you go with 10 milligrams intramuscularly, it's probably not going to end well for you. […] So, um, I circumvent that by doing daily micro administrations of modsi subcutaneously.”
Context: “modsi” is how the captions render MOTS-c. The cut removes his description of anaphylaxis at high doses (quoted below). He does not give an amount for his “micro administrations”.
“Between 0.5 to 1 millig subcutaneously, you'll notice a slight post injection irritation, but no pain, perhaps some redness for about 24 hours following the injection. […] Between 2.5 milligrams to 5 milligrams subcutaneously, you'll definitely get a severe rash making it look like you have a credit card sized patch of cellulitis”
Context: From his own experience. The cut removes his comments on intramuscular injection and the energy “wave”.
“beyond 5 milligrams subcutaneous or intramuscularly, you can expect an adverse reaction whether it was subq or intramuscularly. And at 10 milligrams intramuscularly, you might cause anaphylactic shock. […] Yeah, it happened to me twice. It's not fun.”
Context: The cut removes his description of symptoms and of keeping an EpiPen on standby.
“That's 40 milligrams every single day. That's the problem resolving dose. Um, I ran 10 milligrams per day to see if it would improve kidney markers. It did not. I use 2 milligrams right now. I, I don't notice a difference anywhere between 1 millig to 10 milligrams.”
Context: Answering a viewer’s question about the minimum effective dose in a solo Q&A livestream. Just before, he says the effective dose in the evidence he reviewed is “40 milligrams, but not in all contexts”. He does not state frequency beyond “every single day” for the 40 mg figure.
“So I'm running 2 milligs right now. Uh, based on my research, it makes sense that 1 millig to 2 milligs is a maintenance dose. 5 milligs, 10 milligrams is like a healing dose and then 40 milligrams is like the full monty dose where your mitochondria are completely and you need it for medical purposes. And still not in all the context.”
Context: His own interpretation, not a clinical recommendation. The sentence “where your mitochondria are completely” is cut off in the original.
“glutamine post surgery, glutathione post surgery, SS31 post surgery very very very beneficial to manage oxidative stress […] I was already on glutamine and glutathione and SS31 pre-surgery so my levels didn't deplete that much”
Context: Answering a viewer in a solo livestream. No dose given.
“So I, I just got sick of it. I just inject my glutathione intramuscularly three times a week 600 milligrams and NAD plus 20 milligrams subq or uh 40 milligrams split bilaterally as part of my interworkout protocol”
Context: Explaining why he stopped going to IV clinics; said in a solo Q&A livestream.
“So I, I take it subq man. I stopped nicotine monucleotides because NAD plus 20 milligs per day is subq is way way way way cheaper than 800 to 1,000 milligrams NMN.”
Context: Answering a viewer who asked whether subcutaneous NAD+ is worth it if IV is unaffordable.
“um, well I think NAD plus should be done intervenous, uh, but I think you can do it subq, right […] now the problem is with injectable gluathione and N plus and other injectable antioxidants basically is that they might have some Pro, um, prooxidant effects at the site of administration”
Context: Answering a viewer who asked whether subcutaneous NAD+ is worth it. Captions render NAD+ as “N plus” and glutathione as “gluathione”. The cut removes a remark about grey-market products.
“Every time I took NR up to 1,200 milligs per day, I got a minute effect compared to a low dose of NMN. Now I've supplemented between 250 to 1,000 milligs of NMN per day. That's either with NAD+ administrations or without it.”
Context: About oral precursors (NR, NMN), not NAD+ injections. His later video (above) says he has since stopped NMN in favour of subcutaneous NAD+.
“to be clear, i've been using a thousand micrograms c-max upon waking inter-nasally like once per day so i administer 500 micrograms in each nostril with the nasal spray upon waking”
Context: “c-max” is how the captions render Semax. He was 10 days in and planned “four weeks and then take a break”.
“I've been doing this comparison with dosages of exactly a th000 micrograms SX nasal drops or subcutaneous administrations or 1,000 micrograms sank nasal drops or subc subcutaneous Administration so the dosing protocol has been exactly the same”
Context: “SX” is how the captions render Semax and “sank” Selank. In part 1 he says he used both for four weeks.
“but I've tried some Max, I like it one month on, one month off. I haven't touched it in a while because of course the fertility data is uh far from, far from conclusive”
Context: “some Max” is how the captions render Semax. Said in a solo Q&A livestream.
“now the clinical dosages vary from 100 to 300 micrograms once or twice per day again that's from what I was able to piece together there's a little bit of caution advised dosing SX Beyond 5 micrograms per 1 kilogram of body weight so for 100 kilo bodybuilder that would be 500 micrograms of SX and Beyond those dosages several Studies have shown that might raise liver enzymes and alter lipid concentrations”
Context: His summary of clinical use in Russia, not his own protocol. We have not verified the liver-enzyme claim.
“now the clinical do of sank seems to be ranging from 150 to 450 micrograms once or twice per day depending on the treatment where salang is prescribed”
Context: His summary of clinical use, not his own protocol. “do” is probably “dose”.
“Delta sleep inducing peptide, abbreviated to dsip: personally, about one and a half years ago I ran an experiment where I took a th000 micrograms, 1 milligram, before bed, 10 days subcutaneously and then 10 days intramuscular […] it didn't really do anything, but to be fair I do hear good anecdotal reports”
Context: The cut removes a garbled phrase (“lease so r two vs 20 milligrams in total so you don't have to”). He adds that he was already using growth hormone, melatonin and other sleep aids at the time.
“but if you're not on this stack you might get some benefits out of it. doses range between 250 to 1,000 microgram subq 1 to two hours before bet. there's a lot of scientific evidence performed on animal studies, not a lot on human subjects”
Context: “bet” is how the captions render “bed”. He does not say where the range comes from.
“man, there's so many sleep aids you can look into. Melatonin, delta sleep inducing peptides, whether that's injectable or intraasally. Epylon can make you sleepy. […] Um pinealon or pinolon can make you sleepy.”
Context: Answering a viewer in a solo livestream. “Epylon” is probably epitalon. No dose given.
“it's basically a naturally occurring antibiotic that you can inject. l37 will work systemically but potentiates most of its effects in the intestinal tract. ideally you run that about 500 microgr per day for about 20 days or 3 weeks in duration, after which you discontinue it, and you probably never have to use this compound ever again because it will kill everything, so that means that you'll have to completely repopulate your gut microbiome after you're done with ll37”
Context: From a 90-second short. “microgr” is where the captions cut off “micrograms”. He follows with advice to eat fermented and raw foods afterwards. Not described as his own use.
“I think I heard it over a decade ago about ll37 and I never had the opportunity to try it until I hooked up with the compounding pharmacy here in Thailand, right, so one course for me really improved my gut microbiome and my ability to digest. again I did have to repopulate my gut microbiome afterwards”
Context: From the full video that his LL-37 short (above) is taken from; earlier in it he describes the same “about 500 micrograms per day for about 20 days” course, combined with a fast.
“uh 600 milligrams injected with glutathione three times a week intramuscularly because the injection volume is a little bit higher. Subq 600 milligrams is for most people like 3 cc's 4 cc's and that's quite a bit and it burns more if you put it subq compared to intramuscular”
Context: Said in a solo Q&A livestream while describing his own antioxidant intake.
“and with bio regulators, all I've heard is that yeah, it's great, it's great, it's great from the people who sell it, and then I look at the scientific evidence and I'm like, maybe in a decade.”
Context: Said about Khavinson-type “bioregulator” peptides in general (he had just discussed Cartalax). He does not name pinealon here.
“mk677 better known as IBU tomor 20 milligrams to 30 milligrams Orly once daily before bed”
Context: One line from a spoken cheat-sheet of growth-hormone secretagogues and the ranges he lists for them. “IBU tomor” and “Orly” are how the auto-captions render ibutamoren and orally; words are unchanged.
“growth hormone releasing peptide 6 ghrp6 100 microgr to 200 microgram subcutaneously up to three times daily”
Context: One line from a spoken cheat-sheet of ghrelin-receptor agonists; just before, he says most people would use a GHRH-receptor agonist “once or twice per day in combination with a” ghrelin-receptor agonist. “microgr” is how the auto-captions render microgram.
“No, keep the NAD plus dose the same and start injecting 50 milligs 5 m1MQ. That seems to be comparable to 150 mg uh 5 m 1MQ orally. So, it's a 3:1 ratio.”
Context: Answering a viewer, not a general protocol or his own use. He first reads out the viewer’s question: “About to start injectable 5 minute 1MQ. I'm running injectable NAD plus 20 milligs daily. Should I stop NAD+ […] or keep the injectable NAD plus and should I adjust the NAD+ dose?” “5 m1MQ” and “5 minute 1MQ” are how the auto-captions render 5-Amino-1MQ. How often and for how long are not stated. The 3:1 comparison with an oral amount is his own estimate.
“the uh 51 mu I don't I don't see a reason to inject that. Um yeah I I injected 50 milligrams for a while just to give it a try but honestly didn't notice much of a difference”
Context: Own use. He says this while answering a viewer who wrote that they had started “4 milligs 51 MQ subq”. “51 mu” and “51 MQ” are how the captions render 5-Amino-1MQ. He does not say how often or for how long.
“Protocol: 500iu rHCG 3x weekly on Monday-Wednesday-Friday, ideally upon waking. You don’t have to take the HCG before Penis Pumping, it has a long active life, and might keep you awake when taken too late in the day!”
Context: From a written protocol for a penile-enlargement experiment that also uses a vacuum pump and DHT cream. “rHCG” is recombinant HCG. Elsewhere in the article he writes “500iu SubQ 3x weekly”. He also cites a 2023 study that found HCG did not speed up the tissue changes involved.
“ex morelan, also know as hex Morin, 100 micrograms to 150 microgr subcutaneous up to three times daily”
Context: One line from a spoken cheat-sheet of ghrelin-receptor agonists. “ex morelan” and “hex Morin” are how the auto-captions render examorelin and hexarelin (two names for the same peptide); “microgr” is microgram. Just before, he says most people would use a GHRH-receptor agonist “once or twice per day in combination with a” ghrelin-receptor agonist.
He has covered these in other videos; quotes will be added only after word-for-word checks.