HCG in Post Cycle Therapy (PCT)

It is our opinion that HCG is probably one of the most misunderstood and misused compounds in bodybuilding. Hopefully this information will go some way towards rectifying that for the members of MuscleTalk. HCG stands for Human Chorionic Gonadotrophin and is not a steroid, but a natural peptide hormone which develops in the placenta of pregnant women during pregnancy to controls the mother's hormones. (Incidentally, this is the reason you may hear of people testing for growth hormone (HGH) with a pregnancy testing kit - If their HGH shows 'pregnant', they've been ripped-off with cheaper HCG - but we digress slightly).

Its action in the male body is like that of LH, stimulating the Leydig cells in the testes to produce testosterone even in the absence of endogenous LH. HCG is therefore used during longer or heavier steroid cycles to maintain testicular size and condition, or to bring atrophied (shrunken) testicles back up to their original condition in preparation for post-cycle Clomid therapy. This process is necessary because atrophied testicles produce reduced levels of natural testosterone, this situation should be rectified prior to post-cycle Clomid therapy.

HCG administration post-cycle is common practice among bodybuilders in the belief that it will aid the natural testosterone recovery, but this theory is unfounded and also counterproductive. The rapid rise in both testosterone, and thus oestrogen due to aromatisation, from the administration of HCG causes further inhibition of the HPTA (Hypothalamic/Pituitary/Testicular Axis - feedback loop discussed above); this actually worsens the recovery situation. HCG does not restore the natural testosterone production.

The typically observed dosing of 2000 to 5000IU every 4 to 5 days causes such an increase in oestrogen levels via aromatisation of the natural testosterone that this has been responsible for many cases of gynecomastia.

From the above discussion it is clear that HCG is best used during a cycle, either to:

1) Avoid testicular atrophy, or
2) Rectify the problem of an existing testicular atrophy.

HCG Dosage
Smaller doses, more frequently during a cycle will give best overall results with least unwanted side effects. Somewhere between 500IU and 1000IU per day would be best over about a two-week period. These doses are sufficient to avoid/rectify testicular atrophy without increasing oestrogen levels too dramatically and risking gynecomastia. This dosing schedule also avoids the risk of permanently down-regulating the LH receptors in the testes.

It is important for the HCG administration to have been completed with 6 or 7 clear days before the onset of PCT in order to avoid inhibition of the Nolvadex and/or Clomid therapy. Also, a small daily dose (10-20mg) of Nolvadex would normally be used in conjunction with HCG in order to prevent oestrogenic symptoms caused by sudden increases in aromatisation.

Presentation and Administration of HCG
Synthetic HCG is often known as Pregnyl (generic name) and is available in 2500iu and 5000iu (not ideal for the above doses!). Administration of the compound is either by intra-muscular or subcutaneous injection. It comes as a powder which needs to be mixed with the sterile water. The powder is temperature-sensitive prior to mixing and should not be exposed to direct heat. After mixing, it should be kept refrigerated and used within a few weeks - though there are sterility issues which need to be considered after mixing.

Summary and Presentation of Clomid and HCG
Clomid and/or Nolvadex are more effective than HCG post cycle, but some long-term users like to use HCG during a cycle, or to prepare the testes for Clomid and/or Nolvadex therapy.

Clomid is available in 50mg tablets most commonly, but also comes in 25mg capsule, often in boxes of 24 tablets. Tamoxifen is made by a number of manufacturers and comes in 10mg or 20mg tablets, most commonly 30 x 20mg tablets. HCG generally comes in kits of three ampoules of powder needing to be mixed with the provided injectable water as 1500IU, 2500IU or 5000IU per ampoule kits.

A Guide to Dianabol

Dianabol (dbol) is one of the more popular and well-known orals one can take. But there are often many questions surrounding how to use dbol, when to take dianabol, among other things. I will try to address these concerns and lay out possible solutions the best I can.

Dosing:
Liver toxicity is a concern when taking orals, but with proper protection and dosing, it is unlikely any harmful situations should arise. Common doses range from 20mg everyday (ED) to 50mg+ ED. The higher the dose generally translates to shorter duration of use. Those looking for benefits in the 20mg ED range can feel safe running dbol for around 8 weeks. This is of course a guideline and proper bloodwork should be taken to minimize risk. Those looking for more pronounced benefits, namely strength and pure size, can get away with running around 40mg ED for 3-6 weeks.

Timing:
Timing can play a large role with this drug due to its 6-8 hour half-life. Those looking for mainly strength increases would benefit from taking the majority of their daily dose pre-workout; usually an hour or so before hand. This will not translate soley to strength gains, but moreso than spreading the dose throughout the day. That leads me to the next way of dosing dianabol. Other users may chose to take 5-10mg every few hours to keep a steady stream of the drug in their system; thus leading to being more anabolic. However, there can be a compromise. Users can also benefit from taking a large portion of their daily dose preworkout and the rest a few hours postworkout. The only disadvantage to this route is that there is not as steady a stream of the drug in your system throughout the day. However, you get the best of both worlds by getting a great workout and being very anabolic postworkout. This will aid in muscle recovery when it is most important, postworkout, and when you should be getting in the majority of your high protein meals.

Precautions:
First and foremost, bloodwork should be kept track of to make sure blood levels remain in a reasonable and healthy range. Although liver toxicity is generally over-emphasized, it still is an issue that needs to be addressed. Therefore, a liver support such as NAC is a great addition to any cycle containing a liver-harsh drug. High amounts of water (ie 2+ gallons) should be consumed daily with Dianabol and other orals. Sodium intake should also be watched more carefully due to the fact that it increases water retention and bloat. That is not something you want alot of while taking dbol. Now what about alcohol? It should be avoided at all costs and that's all I'll say on the subject. If you're serious about this then you should already have a good answer.

What To Expect:
One should feel the effects (namely in the gym) within the first week of beginning the regimen. Increased blood pressure and intensity are common. Rapid weight gain within the first two weeks are also very common, but don't be fooled. Most of this gain is water based. The "real" gains will begin to show usually after the first few weeks once your body is able to synthesize more protein more effectively, therefore increasing lean body mass. As noted earlier, strength increase is a major side effect of this drug. Therefore, one should pay extra attention on the new weight they are lifting in order to minimize risk of injury of the tendons and ligaments. This is because the tendons and ligaments do not grow in conjunction with the muscles, so as your muscles continue to grow, you are asking more and more from the same tendons and ligaments.

Keeping Gains:
Since Dianabol only cycles are generally a bad idea, it is assumed you are using test as a base for this cycle. Running test for a longer duration than the dbol is usually a good idea as your body is still very anabolic and thus, the ability to retain new muscle is increased. This is just a general rule of thumb and does not equate to holding onto any portion of your gains as there are many factors involved. Another factor, and probably the biggest factor, is diet. Diet during your dbol use and after will be the biggest determining factor on what you gain and what you hold on to. For the most part, expect to lose ~5 or so pounds once the dbol is out of your system. This number will usually be around the same to as much weight (bloat and water) that you initially put on. Your post-dbol diet should not differ too much than when you were taking dbol, but increasing calories and protein slightly is usually a good idea. You will need to "eat at your new weight." If you were originally 200lbs and now you're 215lbs, you need to eat like a 215 pounder to STAY at 215lbs. The inverse is also true.

Summary:
All in all, Dianabol is a great compound and should meet every one of your expectations, but it isn't perfect and considerations need to be taken based on your goals and YOU. Therefore, in order for you to get the most from it, you need to understand what is going on and what you need to do to maximize your results. Hopefully this piece has helped you to do that and has answered any other questions and concerns someone new to dbol may have.

Monsters Stuck: Test Prop, Tren Ace and Winny

The purpose of this article is to educate and help support the use of a very powerful cycle; Test prop, Tren ace, and Winny. The correlation of short esters, the monster that Tren is, and the drying effects of Winny make this cycle great for a summer shredder. Before we get into the cycle itself, lets take about the compounds separately.

TESTOSTERONE PROPIONATE

When it comes to compounds and stacking testosterone is king. It is the foundation which cycles are built upon. Running any compound without the use of testosterone will leave you with hormone levels similar to a females. Testosterone propionate is a fast acting ester. With a 3 day half-life, it requires a more frequent dosing schedule to reach and maintain stable blood levels. Ideally, prop should be injected every day, but every other day injections have been deemed acceptable (but not optimal). Dosages for testosterone prop range from a minimum of 50mg every other day up to 150mg every other day (some may choose to go higher, but must understand that high dosing should be reserved for very advanced bodybuilding).   Estrogen side effects are an issue with prop. Though the peak values of prop are usually lower than those of longer esters, it hits you much faster. If you are sensitive to aromatization its recommended you take the necessary precautions with an SERM or AI.

TRENBOLONE ACETATE

Trenbolone acetate, or tren ace as its more popularly known, is by far one of the most powerful injectable anabolic steroid. It is considered five times more powerful both anabolic and androgenic properties than testosterone. Tren is a derivative of testosterone. The 19th position of testosterone was altered to give us Tren. Being a 19-nor, tren is up there on the list in terms of liver toxicity. Though tren does not aromatize, it will cause a rise in progestin levels. Proper anti-estrogen/progestin drugs should be used (cabergoline or prami would be best). Tren has a very high binding affinity to the androgen receptor. It also raises igf levels in a way no other compound can (secondarily). One of the most amazing traits of Tren is its ability to increase feed efficiency. The drug allows the body to utilize more of the macro and micro nutrients you ingest, allowing you to eat less and get more out of your nutrition. Tren is well known as a recomp or hardening compound. It has been hailed as the “devils juice” due to the side effects of insomnia, over-active sweat glands, and changes of temperament (it’s the only steroid to show true changes in temperament). Supplementation of thyroid hormones should be used with tren since it has shown to reduce thyroid function. The acetate ester is one of the shortest esters popularly used in the bodybuilding community. Having a shorter ester than propionate (by about one day) its highly recommended that tren ace be injected daily. The ace ester allows for quick absorption of the compound if side effects occur and the user has to discontinue the drug. Since tren and testosterone fight for the same androgen receptor, its recommended that tren take the higher dosage in a cycle while testosterone takes on more of a maintenance dosage. The proper dosage of Tren ace should be no more than 50mg ed for beginners. Once you get a feel for how much you can tolerate you can slowly raise the dosage of Tren while keeping eyes on any sides that may come of it.

Winstrol (WINNY, STANOZOLOL)

Winstrol has been used by bodybuilders as a cutting steroid for years. Its known for its strong drying properties, making it ideal for those last few pounds of water weight that would usually be stubborn. It is a 17aa compound. It has been altered to survive the first pass through the liver which also makes it highly liver toxic (like most oral steroids), so the use of the injectable version is recommended. Winny also does a great job of lowering SHBG levels, keeping the body from robbing you of free testosterone. The effective dosage of winny is 50 to 100mg daily but cycles should be kept under 8 weeks due to the high toxicity of the compound.

THE PROPER TEN WEEK CYCLE

The up side of running a cycle with short esters is that you can run it shorter than a long estered cycle. Justifiably, you shouldn’t need to run this cycle more than 10 weeks (though you can go as short as 6 weeks).  I will set this cycle up for an every other day injection schedule to make it easier on the user. Remember that this is a beginners cycle for these compounds.

    Testosterone Prop 50mg eod week 1-10steroid muscle
    Tren Ace 75mg eod week 1-10 (dosage can be raised up to 150mg eod if the body allows without adverse side effects)
    Winny 50mg ed week 2-10
    Prami for progestin control should start the second week of tren at .25mg once a week (then up to twice a week if necessary) Keep in mind prami can make you feel sick. Its recommended to take it at night before you sleep. Week 2-10
    HCG 250iu twice a week week 1-10
    T3 25mcg ed week 1-10

PCT – Post cycle therapy should start one week after your final injection and last for 4 weeks

    Clomid 100/50/50/50
    Nolvadex 100/100/50/50

Winstrol and Primobolan Cycle

Most people who do this cycle are looking to cut. Cutting means that you are trying to lose your body fat and increase the mass of your lean muscles. You can get this goal from the use of winstrol and primobolan cycles. Unfortunately, most countries have banned the use of steroids. It means that not much active research is taking place in the safe use of steroids, but having said that lot of people have been experimenting with the use of steroids and they have hit on the right formulas for themselves through trial and error. Although, you should never forget that what works for them may not work for you and what does not work for them may work for you.

Therefore, you have to design your own cycle and experiment with it to get the best results. Most people recommend that you should not use just winstrol and primobolan in a cycle. One of the main reasons for that is that they both suppress the natural production of testosterone in your body. It means that if you do a cycle based on just these two drugs for a period of 10-12 weeks. You can end up with a serious deficiency of testosterones in your body. You should know that testosterone deficiency could cause serious problems like depression, impotency and irritability besides others. Don't forget to buy tamoxifen - the antiestrogen tablets. Also you can take Proviron and HCG after the winstrol primo cycle.

It means that if you want to use these drugs, than you will do well to add test to your stack as well. Another thing that most people who has been using steroids will recommend you is to take very special care of your diet. It is the most often neglected aspect of any cutting cycle. Using these steroids is not going to provide your body with the required nutrition. It is a very important fact that many people either do not know, or chose to ignore. Steroids are just artificial hormones. They do not provide your body with energy. They just help your body ion using up the energy that is already stored in it.

Most probably, you are going to use these drugs to reduce your body fat and working out followed by cardio is going to help you a lot, but you need to remember that your body has other needs than just burning fat. Your body needs proteins to repair and build muscles among other things. Therefore, to get maximum benefits out of your workouts and steroids you need to plan your diet very carefully. It should have plenty of proteins and carbohydrates. When you work out your body need lot of energy. Most people make the mistake that they do not use carbohydrates in the food they take before workout. It means that their body will use up glucose that their muscles need and they will not be able to get the maximum benefit.

Therefore, do not start your cycles arbitrarily. Think about them and provide your body with enough nutrients to keep you going during and after the cycles.

hCG (Human Chorionic Gonadrotropin)

HCG (human chorionic gonadotropin) is provided as a glycoprotein powder to be diluted with water and taken by injection, either intramuscularly or subcutaneously. It acts in the body like luteinizing hormone (LH), stimulating the testes to produce testosterone even when natural LH is not present or is deficient. It therefore is useful for maintaining testosterone production and/or testicle size during a steroid cycle.

Additionally, outside of or in-between steroid cycles, it can be very useful for increasing testosterone production. The success of this depends on the ability of the testes to actually produce greater amounts of testosterone with increased stimulation. Where the testes themselves are the limiting factor, HCG cannot overcome this.

Including HCG as part of a hormone replacement therapy (HRT) program is superior to relying on testosterone alone if maintenance of sperm production and/or normal testicle size is considered important. Use of testosterone alone can result in infertility or reduced fertility, as normal testicular function depends on higher intratesticular testosterone levels than results from such use.

With regard to steroid usage, HCG should either not be used as part of post-cycle therapy (PCT) at all, or should be used only in a rather precise manner to avoid impeding recovery, shortly to be described.

Post-cycle recovery of LH production requires androgen levels to have fallen back into the physiological range. With use of medium or long-acting esters, this is a slow process. For example, let’s suppose that a given testosterone ester’s half-life is 7 days, and that 800 mg/week was used during the cycle. If so, then one week after the last injection, levels will be similar to what they would be if 400 mg had been taken weekly for some time, and with another 400 mg having just been injected. At the two week point after the last injection, levels will be commensurate with ongoing 200 mg/week use.

This is without using HCG during this period.

By this point, ordinarily some recovery could begin with use of Clomid or Nolvadex.

But if HCG were used during this time, or started at this point, testosterone levels would be similar not to those of ongoing 200 mg/week usage, but to that level plus another 100-200 mg/week of equivalent increase from HCG. This would interfere with recovery of LH production.

The better plan is, if using HCG, to employ it during a cycle to maintain testicular function so that the testes will be responsive to LH as soon as its production is restored. There will also be the advantages of maintaining testicle size and of providing some additional testosterone via HCG-stimulated production.

This last point will be of no great importance when a large amount of steroids is being used weekly, but can be quite significant if the total milligram amount is modest.

Such added testosterone production is of particular value if a stack is entirely non-aromatizing and dosed high enough to be fully inhibitory of natural testosterone production. In that situation, estrogen levels would fall abnormally low unless or HCG is taken to yield normal testosterone levels during the cycle, as estradiol is produced from testosterone.

The traditional HCG dose was 5000 IU at a time. While this produces blood levels representing a vast overdose for at least the first week after injection, this dosage had a medical use as in many cases it is desirable to administer only a single injection, or infrequent injections, than to require two or more office visits per week for injection. And as the half life is only a few days, an extremely high initial level is required to obtain extended duration of action from a single injection.

This dosage is far more than should ever be used in bodybuilding or for hormone replacement therapy.

My previous recommendation of 500 IU/day as being generally sufficient was a radical break from bodybuilding practice at the time, which employed far higher doses that gave HCG a reputation as a harsh drug; but further experience as well as a medical study on the matter published in 2005 by Coviello et al. has shown that even less than that is needed.

Little if any difference exists in resulting testosterone production between dosings of 250 IU every other day (EOD) and 500 IU EOD. Dr Eugene Shippen has also found low-dose use effective in extensive clinical practice, and bodybuilding practice has also shown such doses to be completely effective.

Accordingly I now consider a dosage of 500 IU EOD (or 3x/week, which is nearly equivalent), or 250 IU daily to represent a reasonable absolute maximum.

As values for general use, 100 IU daily, 200 IU EOD, or 250 IU three times per week are very effective. The medical study mentioned above found no significant difference in results between this dosage level and the above recommended absolute maximum, but it may be the case that for some individuals there could be some small difference.

At these doses, unlike what is the case with vast overdoses, HCG has no perceptible side effects.

As a part of PCT, as already explained HCG should not be used during that period in which inhibition would result from the combination of the resulting testosterone production and the remaining levels of injected steroid. However, upon levels of injected steroid falling below what would be commensurate with 100 mg/week use, very low dose HCG such as 100-125 IU every other day is acceptable as a part of PCT.