Peptides for muscle growth
Compounds used to add or hold muscle.
Nothing on this page has been shown to build meaningful muscle in a healthy trained adult. What the compounds share is a plausible route to it, whether more growth hormone, more IGF-1 or a block on myostatin, and studies that stop short of measuring what people actually want measured.
The follistatin and myostatin compounds are the ones with the striking animal photographs, and they are also the ones with no human safety data worth the name. The growth hormone secretagogues have more human exposure but a smaller effect. IGF-1 variants sit in between and carry the most serious theoretical risks. For TB-500, a separate question is whether the research transfers to the fragment.
If you compete, treat this whole page as prohibited. Growth hormone secretagogues, IGF-1 analogs and myostatin inhibitors are all named on the WADA list, and several are detectable long after the last dose.
Myostatin, IGF-1 and repair compounds
A long-acting form of the hormone growth hormone works through. Drives muscle growth and drops blood sugar hard.
MGF with a PEG coating that makes it last far longer, so the same repair job runs on a less frequent schedule.
Blocks myostatin, the body's brake on muscle growth. Dramatic in animals, experimental in people.
An IGF-1 variant muscles make after hard exercise. Activates the stem cells that rebuild muscle.
A decoy receptor that soaks up the signals limiting muscle. Development was paused over side effects.
A short, extra-potent IGF-1 that acts where it is injected, then clears quickly.
Marketed as follistatin that lasts longer in the body. What is actually in the vial is unverified.
Myostatin itself, the growth factor that limits muscle. That is the opposite of what most buyers want.
An antibody that blocks myostatin, tested with semaglutide so more of the weight lost is fat.
An engineered follistatin injected into one muscle. Trials showed a bigger muscle and nobody any stronger.
An antibody that blocks myostatin, tested with tirzepatide to lose less muscle along with the fat.
An antibody that blocks a signal limiting muscle. Studied with GLP-1 drugs to add muscle while fat comes off.
The FDA-approved form of the body's own IGF-1, injected twice daily for children with severe primary IGF-1 deficiency; IGF-1 LR3 and DES are different molecules.
A cyclic peptide that blocks the brain's appetite brake, in phase 2 to prevent weight loss during cancer chemotherapy.
Growth hormone peptides
Peptides that ask your pituitary to release its own growth hormone, plus growth hormone itself.
Raises your own growth hormone and is proven to shrink deep belly fat. Approved for HIV-related belly fat.
Signals your pituitary to release a pulse of your own growth hormone, with little effect on hunger or stress hormones.
The short-acting version: a quick growth hormone pulse that clears fast. Usually paired with ipamorelin.
A shortened copy of the hormone that prompts growth hormone release. Gentler than injecting the hormone itself.
Two growth hormone signals in one vial. The CJC-1295 is almost always the no-DAC kind, also sold as Mod GRF 1-29.
A copy of the hormone that triggers growth hormone, with an anchor (the DAC) that keeps it working for days.
Two growth hormone signals in one injection, each working through a different receptor.
The older cousin of the CJC-1295 and ipamorelin blend, with GHRP-2 in ipamorelin's place.
A stronger growth hormone pulse than ipamorelin, with some rise in appetite and stress hormones.
A potent growth hormone releaser. The body adapts to it quickly, so it stops working well with continued use.
A daily pill that keeps growth hormone and IGF-1 raised around the clock, with no injections.
Lab-made growth hormone itself, injected directly. The most powerful option, the priciest, and prescription-only.
Sold as a cleaner successor to MK-677, also called Acetamoren. There is no published research on it at all.
The same idea as the CJC-1295 and ipamorelin combo, using the older, shorter-acting sermorelin.
A pill that raises appetite and lean mass in cancer wasting. Approved in Japan, and US regulators were not convinced.
The stomach's own hunger hormone, a 28-residue peptide with a fatty chain and the natural key to the ghrelin receptor; tested in small trials, never approved.
From the same 1980s research program as GHRP-2 and GHRP-6, and the family member development moved past.
Banned by name on the WADA prohibited list. Beyond that, almost nothing is published about what it is.
A four-amino-acid peptide for the same receptor as GHRP-2 and GHRP-6, with no human research behind it at all.
A five-amino-acid member of the GHRP family. What is published about it stops at its molecular weight.
Given once by mouth, as a test of whether the pituitary can release growth hormone. Nobody takes it repeatedly.
A ghrelin-mimicking pentapeptide built to speed stomach emptying in gastroparesis, dropped in 2020.
ACE-031 built muscle but was stopped for vascular side effects. Follistatin protein has not been tested by injection in people.
Distributing HGH for anti-aging is a federal felony carrying five years. Sermorelin lost to it commercially in 2008 and can still be legally compounded.
Neither has a single published human trial, and sources give LR3's half-life as anywhere from 6 to 30 hours. There is an FDA approved IGF-1, and it is neither of these.
Two GHRH analogs tested for the same condition. One completed two Phase 3 trials and got approved. The other's Phase 2 was halted in 2006 and never restarted.
Both are FDA approved. Tesamorelin asks your pituitary for growth hormone and HGH is the hormone itself, and only one is a felony to distribute off-label.
One name, two drugs: one has a measured half-life and three published human trials, the other has never been tested in a person.
They act on different receptors and are usually sold in the same vial. Each has human trials; the combination everyone buys has none.
Same receptor, a pill against an injection. MK-677 has far more human data, and that is exactly why we know more about what is wrong with it.
Two growth hormone peptides sold side by side. One was an approved drug and can still be compounded on prescription. The other was voted down in October 2024.
Three act on the GHRH receptor and one copies ghrelin. Only tesamorelin is approved, and the two with the weakest outcome data were both voted down by the FDA in late 2024.
Not two alternatives: ACE-031 is a drug built to neutralise GDF-8, the protein better known as myostatin. One has human trial data; the other is the brake itself.
Common questions
Do muscle building peptides actually work?
Evidence is thin for most of them. A few raise growth hormone or IGF-1 measurably, but changes in lean mass in humans are usually small and often come from studies that were not designed to measure muscle growth.
Are muscle building peptides the same as steroids?
No. Anabolic steroids act directly on androgen receptors. These peptides mostly work through the growth hormone or IGF-1 axis, which produces a different and generally weaker effect on muscle.
Are they banned in sport?
Most are on the WADA prohibited list, including growth hormone secretagogues and IGF-1 analogs. Assume any compound here is bannable if you compete in a tested sport.