The 6 pros for using short steroid cycles

Anabolic steroids help you build big muscles, but the main problem with them is the side effects they carry on. Long cycle are more effective in building big amounts of muscle gains, but there are big chances you will experience a huge drop in your lipid profile or such effects as acne, prostate hypertrophy or even baldness. Beginning with 4th week of cycle many of body indicators begin to worsen, so it is good to stop on this time. If you do so you can enjoy decent results, and almost no side effects.

This is the specific of short cycles. Generally, any cycle that has 6 or less weeks is called short cycle. You can organize the cycle in 2, 4 weeks, but every time it has to be followed by at least the same amount of time for recovery. The most popular is 4 weeks on, and 4 weeks off letting you to be free of steroids almost half a year. Short cycles benefits your body in many ways. Here they are:
Preserve muscle gains made during the cycle

Long cycles are followed by long time for recovery during which you lose a big part of your gains. If you are tired about it than you can switch to short cycles. Since the time your are “off” is much shorter, the losses in muscle gains are lower.

It is true that you have not to expected the big muscle gains as you used to during long cycles. But the main point here is that you are able to preserve most of it,  and all this with no side effects. What can be better than this?!
Keep you lipid profile in normal ranges

Anabolic steroids taken even in small doses affect your lipid levels. You have notice everytime you take steroids there is a big decrease in good cholesterol (hdl), and increase of bad cholesterol(ldl). In the first two weeks of cycle the hdl level lowers with almost 50%, while ldl raises with almost 40% during the first 4 weeks. The further you go, the worse situation is.

During a long cycle good and bad cholesterol levels reach dangerous thresholds and may lead to heart diseases. The best is to keep dhl level at least 40, the minimum being 35, while the ratio of good/bad cholesterol should be 3 to 1. Short cycle allow you to keep cholesterol levels under control and once it finished they return to normal values pretty fast.
Reduce the stress you put on liver

Oral steroids used for a long time affect your liver function. This is a fact and most of bodybuilders faced this problem. Going  for short time allow you to put less total stress on your liver and let it fully recover in the short time that comes after cycling.

If you already have some genetic predisposition to a liver disease than taking oral steroids, even for short time, can be dangerous for your health. Most of injectable steroids have no effects on liver, so you are recommended to choose one of them.
Prevent testicular shrinkage

After just a week of running a steroid cycle the Hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis (HPTA) begin to shutdown, affecting the size of testicules. Since this period is quite short, it happens in a very small degree, letting the HPTA to recover pretty soon once the cycle is ceased. The use of HGH is not necessary, but you can do it if you want.

No need to use antiestrogens

First of all, high estrogen level is bad for your prostate. Many of professional bodybuilders put their prostate function down because of taking powerful steroids for many weeks in row. You do not want it to be this way, so be careful with your estrogen level. Running a short cycle allow you do not take them at all, but if you want to feel safe and keep the water retention low, you can add them to your cycle.

Avoid side effects as acne, baldness, gyno or prostate problems

For all these side effects there are mainly two main cause: the dose and the period of administration. The worst is when you take big doses for long time, than some of these side effects are granted. Short cycles are safer, since even taken in higher doses the time you take them is pretty short, thereby side effects are easy to keep under control.

What short cycles can not give you?

Huge muscle gains. If you are a professional bodybuilder, than surely short steroid cycles are not what you need.  High doses for long time is what you search to keep up you muscle mass. Meantime, all those who just look to improve body shape with no other complications than short cycle is what they need to follow.

Short steroid cycles help you to gain decent amount of muscle mass, with almost no side effects on your health. Adding up to 10-15 pound of muscle gains during a 4 week steroid cycle is possible. Just make sure you follow a proper diet and exercise program.
What is really good with short cycles is that muscles losses during PCT are minimal. Which can not be said about long cycles, after which most bodybuilders lose out much more than 10%-15% of gained muscle.

Boldenone Use and Cycles

Given the mild nature of boldenone, one should not expect dramatic gains. One may compare the gains from boldenone to that of methenolone (primobolan) for example, in that the gains are slow and steady, however generally quite retainable post-cycle. As there is little aromatisation, little water weight will be put on, so many may be disheartened at the beginning of a cycle when compared to an AS such as testosterone, which will put on several pounds of water in the first week. However one must remember that this water will be lost post-cycle, and if one can gain 1lb of muscle per week then little more can be asked of any AS. Given the relatively long half-life of the undecylenate ester (at least 8 days) and the mild nature of boldenone, it is best taken for a minimum of 10-12 weeks. Users do tend to suggest that the drug is best utilised in longer cycles. PCT should begin approximately 3-4 weeks after the last shot of boldenone undecylenate. Although many people claim boldenone is useful for cutting given its low aromatisation rates and increasing vascularity, the amplification of appetite is a negative aspect for cutting. Thus it is my opinion that the best use of boldenone is as part of a bulking cycle. This use gets the most out of boldenone's benefits – namely increased appetite.

Alternatively boldenone could be stacked with other non-aromatising drugs such as primobolan (methenolone) or masteron (drostanolone) where the small amount of estrogen produced by boldenone is beneficial and the resultant gains should be lean and more easily kept. Given the long undecylenate ester (11 carbons) normally attached to boldenone, injecting the hormone twice a week is more than sufficient, although favourable for stable blood levels over injecting once per week. If one purely wants to use boldenone for its appetite enhancing properties, lower doses of 400mg/week should suffice for this purpose, although the full benefit of boldenone in my opinion is not achieved at these lower doses. Some example cycles are outlined below (I recommend in all cases 500IUs HCG is administered weekly from week 1 throughout the cycle as this will significantly aid recovery by helping to stop shut-down from fully occurring):

Novice Mass Cycle
500mg Testosterone Enanthate/Cypionate pw, weeks 1-12
600mg Boldenone Undecylenate pw, weeks 1-11
Dianabol 30mg ed weeks 1-4 (alternatively the injectables can be doubled in the first week for a front-load)
PCT – 3 weeks after last testosterone injection

Low-aromatising Mass Cycle
800mg Boldenone Undecylenate pw, weeks 1-12
600mg Primobolan (Methenolone Enanthate) pw, weeks 1-13
(Optional – Anavar 60mg ed, weeks 1-16)
PCT – 3 weeks after last Primobolan injection

Advanced Mass Cycle (For very experienced users – recommend regular bloodwork before, during and after such a cycle)
500IUs HCG pw, weeks 1-18
1000-1500mg Testosterone Enanthate/Cypionate/Sust pw, weeks 1-16
500-750mg Deca (Nandrolone Decanoate) pw, weeks 1-14
800-1000mg Boldenone Undecylenate pw, weeks 1-14
150-200mg NPP (Nandrolone Phenylpropionate) eod, weeks 14-18
150-200mg Testosterone Propionate eod, weeks 16-18
100-150mg Trenbolone Acetate eod, weeks 12-18
(Optional kick-start with 40-50mg dianabol ed weeks 1-4)
PCT – 3 days after last Trenbolone Acetate injection

The Five Basic Stipulations of Proper Steroid Cycles and Responsible Steroid Use

1. No individuals under the age of 24 should engage in any anabolic steroid cycles what so ever.
2. Testosterone must be the very first and the ONLY anabolic steroid used in the very first beginner anabolic steroid cycle, and Testosterone must also be included in all cycles, no exceptions.
3. Cycle lengths should be kept as short as possible.
4. The lowest effective dose in order to provide gains should always be utilized before increasing doses.
5. An absolute minimum of stacked compounds (no more than 2 at any given time unless absolutely necessary) should be used in any given anabolic steroid cycle.

Detailed explanations of the five stipulations:

1. There is no specific age for each and every human that has been determined to be the age by which the human body and its subsystems (especially the endocrine system, which is our primary concern here) have fully matured and developed. The ultimate final age by which we all reach full growth and maturation is determined by our genetics and to a lesser extent, our lifestyle habits. Every individual’s genetic ‘programming’ is different, and therefore some individuals will fully mature at a younger age while others may reach full maturation at approximately 24 years of age, and others will perhaps mature at an even older age. It is general knowledge concerning the endocrine system that Testosterone levels in males are continually rising until the median average age of approximately 24 – 25 years old, at which point these levels reach their peak and begin to decline. The Hypothalamic Pituitary Testicular Axis (HPTA) which controls endogenous natural Testosterone production is a very sensitive network. Furthermore, there is no specific ‘test’ that one might be able to undergo in order to determine if he/she has reached full maturation of the human body’s subsystems. Therefore, the average median age by which almost all human beings reach maturity has been determined to be 24 – 25 years of age. Some may mature earlier (as mentioned earlier) and some later than this. By engaging in anabolic steroid cycles and introducing anabolic steroids to the body prior to the age of 24, the risks of severely and permanently disrupting and damaging the endocrine system is extremely high. Only after the age of 24 – 25 do the risks of considerable and permanent HPTA damage drop drastically.

2. Testosterone is literally the original anabolic steroid, produced naturally within all humans and most animal species. It is considered the safest anabolic steroid one could use for this reason, due to the fact that it is the hormone that each individual’s body already produces, already uses, and is already accustomed to. Therefore, the use of Testosterone for the purpose of performance and physique enhancement is simply the equivalent of introducing more of a hormone into the human body that it already manufactures and uses.

Furthermore, all first cycles for bare beginners to the world of anabolic steroids should always use some form of Testosterone-only as their very first anabolic steroid cycle. Solitarily run Testosterone cycles provide the user with a safe compound (Testosterone) that the human body is already accustomed to naturally, as all humans already produce Testosterone endogenously. This will allow the user to gauge their response to the most basic anabolic steroid, Testosterone. It is from this gauging process that individuals can assess their potential responses to other anabolic steroids, as the chances are that if an individual responds horridly to a basic Testosterone cycle, then there will likely be a higher chance of the individual responding even worse to most other compounds which are essentially modified analogues of Testosterone.

As explained above, solitary Testosterone-only cycles are the ideal beginner first-time anabolic steroid cycles. The problem with stacking multiple compounds in a beginner first-time cycle lies in the fact that it is quite a potentially dangerous practice. A hypothetical beginner who has never used anabolic steroids or whom has never run a cycle before would not know what to expect upon use. It stands to reason that if a stack of several different compounds are run for a first cycle and the individual reacts in a very negative manner (or experiences a particular very undesirable side effect), there will be no possible means for this individual to figure out which anabolic steroid is responsible for the bad reaction if a cocktail of several anabolic steroids have been stacked in one cycle. This would become possibly life-threatening if said reaction were to be a very serious mortal reaction (such as an allergic reaction, for example).

3. Duration of use is an extremely very influential factor but very easily understood, as it need not be explained that the longer a particular anabolic steroid cycle is run, the increased incidence of side effects will also present themselves as the duration of use becomes longer and longer. The recovery of natural endogenous Testosterone production also becomes increasingly difficult following the termination of an anabolic steroid cycle if a cycle is run for longer and longer lengths of time. Various anabolic steroids may exhibit higher degrees of HPTA suppression and shut-down than other compounds, but all anabolic steroids exhibit this effect of HPTA suppression and eventual shutdown as duration of use continues. Severely atrophied Leydig cells in the testes following extremely long cycles will have far greater difficulty re-engaging endogenous Testosterone production again due to desensitization to gonadotropins resultant of long-term suppression/shutdown. Ideal cycle lengths for short-estered anabolic steroids should be in the range of 8 – 10 weeks, and for long-estered anabolic steroids, 10 – 12 weeks. Any longer than this and the individual runs high risk of increasingly difficult HPTA recovery.

4. The issue of utilizing the lowest effective dose is simple: make progress with the lowest possible dose first, grow into this dose, and then increase the dose as required (which is on average, several cycles into beginner use). Many individuals (mostly beginners) tend to engage in extremely ludicrous activity whereby a brand-new first-timer will run 500mg/week on their first cycle, then proceed to 700mg/week on their second cycle, and then 1,000mg/week on their third, and so on and so forth. This is absolutely unnecessary, and, not to mention not very healthy at all. As mentioned earlier, many anabolic steroid users (both beginners and experienced users) severely underestimate the power of these hormones and most usually when individuals do things like that, it is because they claim their gains and progress has stopped. The culprit is usually a flaw in their nutrition or training (or both), not in how many mg per week of total steroid they are using. These details and concerns must be kept in mind. A very important detail for all individuals to understand in relation to anabolic steroid doses is that the human body only manufactures approximately 50 – 70mg weekly of Testosterone (depending on various factors such as age, lifestyle habits, genetics, etc.). Considering this, we can use logic to conclude that: 500mg is approximately 7 – 10 times the amount that the human body produces. Suffice to say, 300mg weekly should then be perfect for any first-time beginner cycle.

5. Quite simply put: the use of more than two compounds stacked in any given anabolic steroid cycle is completely unnecessary for the average casual recreational anabolic steroid user. The stacking of three or more compounds in a single anabolic steroid cycle is only necessary for competitive bodybuilders and professional athletes. Increasing the number of anabolic steroids utilized in a single cycle increases the weekly dose of total steroid, which thereby increases the risk and intensity for side effects tenfold, and presents increasingly harsh stressors on the human body

Common Mistakes People Make During Steroids Cycles

1. Using Excessive Dosages
When taking steroids, the more you take is not always the best way to go. Taking excessive dosages has become a huge problem with steroids today. It isn’t only dangerous, but studies have shown it to be ineffective. The body can only use a limited amount of the steroid so the extra is turned into estrogen by the body.
2. Staying On Steroids Too Long
In several cases, steroid users avoid waring signs telling them not to go on a cycle more than 8 to 12 weeks without an off period. If an off period is not taken, there is a higher chance for the negative effects of steroids to occur. If there is no off period the body does not have a chance to recover from the steroids, so more damage is done. This also is terrible for the kidneys and liver.
3. Eating Poorly
Many people ignore magazines and educators that explain eating as being an important asset to growing, but the truth is, eating healthy has a big effect on the body. When on steroids the user must consume between 4000 and 7000 calories a day, not meaning eat only fat foods. The diet must be high in calories and protein, but low in fat.
4. Training Incorrectly
When on steroids the training must be intense and difficult. Instead of the usual weight that suits you, you must do excess weight and strenuous work for the best gains. The workout should involve the maximum weight possible, and make progress each time.
5. Not Getting Regular Blood Tests
Steroids are very dangerous and can cause great problems. Blood tests should be done often and regularly. When steroids are first taken many tests become elevated but will return to normal with in a few weeks. During the off period tests should also be done to make sure the body is recovering properly. If there is a problem with the Blood test, consult a doctor that you can trust.
6. Using The Wrong Steroids
Many athletes will increase their chances of getting negative effects when they take the wrong steroids. The strongest steroids that build more muscle mass, have the most side effects. These drugs should be avoided if possible, unless there is a reason to have an unbelievable gain. But these drugs are very toxic and I would recommend not taking them.
7. Using Counterfeits
Counterfeit steroids are a bigger problem than you would believe, there are more counterfeit steroids in the market than you would think. These steroids offer no positive gains, and some give the side effects of real steroids. Taking counterfeit steroids is like injecting poison into your body, bad effects nothing positive.