Site Enhancement Oil

A Site Enhancement Oil (SEO) is a liquid substance, usually a mixture of oils, used by a few bodybuilders to increase the apparent size of some muscles. The effects of SEOs are purely and solely cosmetic and there is no increase in muscular performance.

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Usage and effects

SEOs work by filling the muscle up with an oil substance. It is site injected, that is, it is injected directly into the muscle whose size is to be increased. SEO is usually really only used to 'top up' a muscle that is not quite up to standard with the rest of the body, and once the use of SEO is stopped, all gains are lost, because the oil is soaked up into the muscle.

One of the more popular SEOs is Synthol, which was developed in the early 90s by the German bodybuilder Christopher T. Clark as a replacement for Esiclene which went out of production at the time. ^[1] Synthol consists of 85 % medium-chain triglycerides, 7.5 % Lidocaine and 7.5 % Benzyl alcohol. ^[2]

A site enhancement oil is not an androgen and contains no steroids. It is an oil that will remain in circulation for years in the body and it will tend to damage and scar the actual muscles. It is simply a cosmetic that creates scar tissue within the muscle to make it look like it has been trained hard.

Risks

Many doctors advise that the use of SEOs is extremely dangerous, if not potentially fatal, as injection into a major blood vessel can cause embolism, leading to heart strokes, respiratory crisis and/or permanent brain damage if SEO traces find their way into cerebral vessels. Yugoslavian IFBB bodybuilder Miloš Šarčev nearly died when he struck a vein in one of his triceps while injecting Synthol. ^[3]

Literature

• Synthol - Anabolic Report No. 2 (German)

References

1. ^ Dave Palumbo: Interview Of The Month: Chris Clark ergogenics.org, 17 May 2007
2. ^ Synthol im Bodybuilding Fitnessletter.de, Ausgabe No. 44, 20 September 2003
3. ^ Mark Fainaru-Wada, Lance Williams: Game of Shadows Gotham Books, 2006, p. 3