INTRO:
So you want to create the
perfect cycle for yourself. So how do you go about this? Well there’s a lot of things you need to know before you can sit down and create yourself a perfect cycle.
The most important thing you need to know is what your EXACT goals are for THIS cycle. From here you can figure out exactly what steroids are right for you and at what dosages.
BASICS:
So what about steroids, ancillaries, and other drugs do you need to know? You need to know the basics of the most popular drugs available.
Steroids:
-Testosterone (Enan, Cyp, Prop, Sust, Omna)/Test
-Deca-Durabolin/Deca
-Equipose/EQ
-Dianabol/D-bol
-Winstrol/Winny
-Anadrol/Drol
-Halotestin/Halo
-Anavar/Var
-Tren/Fina
-Primobolan/Primo
Ancillaries:
-Nolvadex/Nolva (Tamoxifen)
-Arimidex/Arim (Anastrozole)
-Femera/Fem (Letrozole)
-Aromasin (Exemestane)
-Clomid
-HCG
-Proviron (technically a steroid, but oft considered an ancillary)
-Finasteride
-Bromocriptine/Bromo
Other BBing/Performance Enhancing Drugs:
-Clenbuterol/Clen
-Cytomel/Cynomel/T3
-DNP
-Insulin/Slin
-Human Growth Hormone/hGH/GH
-EPO
There are of course many other types of steroids, ancillaries and sports enhancing drugs, but they are extremely rare. I won’t go into a full discussion about each of the drugs above, but will just list properties of the drugs and state which steroids have those properties.
-Large Mass Steroids: Test, Deca, Drol, D-bol and to a lesser extent: EQ, Primo
-Strength Steroids: Test, Drol, D-bol, Tren and to a lesser extent: Halo, Var
-Steroids that have low/no aromatization: Drol, EQ, Primo, Halo, Var, Tren, Winny
-Steroids that raise red blood cell count: EQ, Drol and to a lesser extent: most others
-Low-Lean Mass Steroids: Winny, Halo, Var, Tren
-Steroids with direct fat-burning properties: Test, Tren, Var
-Mostly Androgenic Steroids: Halo, Methyltest
-Mostly Anabolic Steroids: Deca, EQ, Primo, Winny, Var
-Highly Anabolic Androgens: D-bol, Drol, Tren
-Mostly even Androgenic/Anabolic Steroids: Test
-Steroid most likely to cause aggression: Tren
-Liver Toxic Steroids: D-bol, Winny, Drol, Halo, Methyltest, Var
-Short Acting Steroids: Test Prop, D-bol, Winny, Drol, Halo, Var, Tren
-Long Acting Steroids: Test Enan, Test Cyp, Deca, EQ, Primo, Sust, Omna
-Progestins: Deca, Anadrol
-Prolactins: Tren
-Acts like an estrogen: Anadrol
-Anti-Progestin: Winny* (anecdotal evidence)
-Drugs for Mass (excluding AAS): Slin
-Drugs for Strength (excluding AAS): Slin, GH
-Anti-Aromatases: Arimidex, Femera, Aromasin, Proviron
-Anti-Estrogens: Nolvadex, Clomid
-Anti-Androgens: Finasteride
-Fat Burners: Clen, T3, DNP, GH
-Anti-Prolactin: Bromo
-Stimulates LH release: HCG
-Aids HPTA recovery: Clomid, Nolva, GH
-Drugs that increase red-blood cell count (excluding AAS): EPO, GH
-Drugs that raise IGF-1 (excluding oral AAS): Slin, GH
THEORY:
Ok so now that you know what drugs do what, we can begin to discuss what properties a cycle should have. From there we can begin to see how these drugs can be combined to form a “stack.” The idea behind the stack is to create a synergy between the drugs involved to give an effect that’s greater than the sum of the parts.
Mass Cycles:
These are cycles were all out mass is required. Here we give no consideration to fat gain, water gain or any of that stuff. We are just looking to pack on as much muscle as possible (don’t forget, water and fat are GOOD for muscle gains).
To get all out mass, we need to attack our system from all angles. We need steroids that are highly androgenic and highly anabolic. We need steroids that are known to pack on a lot of mass. In general, steroids that do not aromatize, do not
activate the AR and do not pack on a lot of mass aren’t needed. For injectables we would rather have long acting esters than short ones, as the long acting esters tend to pool up in your blood and generally leave you with more hormone at any given point. For orals we prefer those that either aromatize heavily, or cause an explosion of mass by similar estrogenic properties. The use of orals is mainly to kick off the mass cycle, gives you near instant results and puts your body in a good anabolic state when the long acting esters kick in.
With all that said the best steroids for mass are: Test Enan, Test Cyp, Deca, D-bol and Drol. Advanced users can also use things like Insulin and GH.
Cutting Cycles:
Realize that with the exception of Test, Tren and Anavar, no steroid has a direct impact on fat burning. Even Test, Tren and Var have limited effects on fat burning. You shouldn’t go into a cutting cycle with the mindset of “These steroids are going to help me loose fat.” Instead you should think of the steroids as muscle sparring. Basically you’re using them to preserve the muscle that you have, while, diet, cardio and your true fat burners (like Clen, DNP and T3) work on the fat. All steroids listed above meet the first requirement; they will all help you
retain muscle in a calorie deficient diet. However, if you are cutting you certainly do not want your steroids to be in the way either. Some steroids (drol) actually make it harder to loose fat. Others can bloat you up so bad that even with a low body fat percentage, most of your definition can be lost. So what we need here is steroids that are more androgenic than anabolic. We need steroids that have direct fat burning properties and steroids that do not aromatize heavily. If we do use a long acting ester, we would prefer to use one that doesn’t aromatize heavily, if the injectable does aromatize significantly, we would prefer to use a short acting ester as short acting esters don’t pool up, and an anti-aromatase would be a good idea.
Best fat burners: Clen and T3. Advanced users may also use DNP and GH
Best steroids for cutting: Test Prop, EQ, Primo, Tren, Winny, Halo, Proviron, Var
Sports/Performance Enhancing Cycles:
Now I can’t claim that I know what’s really best for a non-bodybuilding athlete. But I can take a guess and you guys that do participate in sports can probably figure it out given my explanations.
First let's look at sports that require strength without increased mass. Obviously any “mass builder” is out the door. Any steroid that aromatizes heavily is not desirable here, as the extra water will certainly make you put on weight. Your best drugs for this purpose would be: Halo, Winny, Var and GH. If you can afford a few extra pounds (like in the offseason or what not), Tren would also be a good steroid.
Now let’s look at cycles for sports that require endurance. As we’ve discussed before, some steroids increase red blood cell count significantly; this equals better endurance performance. The best drugs to use for this purpose are EQ, GH and EPO. Because EPO can have such a drastic effect on red blood cell count, it is NOT recommended that you use it along with steroids.
POST-CYCLE THERAPY (PCT):
When you use any steroid, your HPTA will be suppressed. What this means is that your system is not producing any endogenous testosterone, which means you won’t have any hormone to help maintain your gains. What good is a cycle if you can’t keep your gains? So the key to cycling is to get your endogenous test back on track ASAP.
One thing that will hinder HPTA activation is excess estrogen, whether it is from aromatizable steroids used in your cycle or whether it be endogenous estrogen. Using anti-estrogens like Clomid and Nolva will help prevent this negative feedback.
When your body sends out LH (leutinizing hormone), it signals your testicles to begin producing test again. During your cycle, LH release will be suppressed and will remain suppressed for a few weeks after your cycle. HCG mimics LH and helps your testicles start producing testosterone. For our purposes we should view HCG as a “bridge” between your cycle and the time your LH returns to normal function. However, HCG when used to heavily or for too long will actually suppress natural test production so it can be counter productive.
Different cycles will suppress your HPTA to different degrees. Cycles including Deca and Fina will be more suppressive than cycles including Var and Primo. I don’t have the energy to design a post cycle therapy for each cycle, so I will post here a post cycle therapy program that should help you recover from any sane and sensible cycle.
Before we outline the universal post-cycle therapy, we need to define when a cycle officially ends. If you are using long acting esters, your cycle ends 2-3 weeks after you take your last shot of the long ester (I wont explain why, just accept it). If you are using ONLY short acting steroids OR your last shot of long acting steroids was over 3 weeks ago, and the only thing you’ve been running since then is short acting steroids, then your cycle officially ends the last day of administration of your steroids.
So given that, here is the universal post-cycle recovery program:
HCG
2 Weeks Before End of Cycle: HCG @ 1500IUs 3 times a week
1 Week Before End of Cycle: HCG @ 1500IUs 3 times a week
First Week Post-Cycle: HCG @ 1500IUs 2 times a week
Clomid
Day 1 Post Cycle: Clomid @ 300mg
Days 2-14: Clomid @ 100mg ED
Days 15-28: Clomid @ 50mg ED
Nolva
Days 1-28: Nolva @ 20mg ED
More advanced users can also experiment with GH, Slin and DNP.
