Q: “For anabolic steroid cycle planning, when should I consider a cycle to have ended? At the end of the last week that I used steroids, or when the steroids have cleared?”
A: Any system can be used if the thinking is consistent, but I prefer figuring cycle length according to how long anabolic steroid levels are suppressive.
For example, suppose someone is considering using testosterone cypionate at 2000 mg/week. Perhaps some may think it an unrealistic case, but depending on the individual case this amount may be entirely suitable. And suppose the user is health-conscious and wishes to have a quick recovery. This also can be realistic: many users at this level are quite careful in what they do.
This person knows that recovery after a well-planned 10 week cycle is usually fairly quick, and as cycles become longer than this, typically so do the recoveries. So a 10 week cycle is what he wants.
Well, figuring it as 10 weeks of injections, recovery would not go as he hoped!
Let’s make things simple and round the half-life of testosterone cypionate up to exactly one week, even though it’s probably a little shorter than this.
Then, at the end of week 11, his levels of injected testosterone would still be as high as if he’d been injecting testosterone at 1000 mg/week! Levels will be far too high to allow any recovery. And most likely, the reason he planned his cycle at 2000 mg/week is that he knows he wouldn’t achieve a new best at 1000 mg/week, let alone do so after peaking from 10 weeks at 2000 mg/week. So week 11 gives him neither further gains nor any recovery.
By the end of week 12, levels will still be as high as if he’d been injecting testosterone at 500 mg/week. Still no recovery, and with no further gains to show for it.
Even by the end of week 13, levels will be too high for recovery! Still another week would be lost.
Only by somewhere around week 14 could levels be low enough for recovery to even have a chance. But now, after this many weeks of inhibition, recovery will be slow or very slow for him.
This wasn’t what he was looking for. He’d have rather have had the quick recovery associated with only 10 weeks of inhibition, after having 10 weeks of strong gains.
But this situation is what can happen when figuring by weeks of injection rather than weeks of inhibition.
By planning according to weeks of inhibition, he’ll most likely have a fast recovery. He’d adjust the steroid cycle where transition will be fairly fast from the 2000 mg/week level to a level low enough to allow recovery, such as the 100-200 mg/week level.
This is done by taking advantage of short acting esters, suspension, and/or orals towards the end of the cycle, in place of long acting esters.
About the author
Bill Roberts is an internationally-recognized expert on anabolic steroids and performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs). He received a bachelor degree in Microbiology and Cell Science and completed the educational and research requirements for a PhD in Medicinal Chemistry at a major American university.
Bill entered the nutritional supplement industry prior to completing his doctoral thesis but his education was invaluable so far as being able to design/improve nutritional supplement compounds, since it was in the field of designing drug molecules and secondarily some work in transdermal delivery.
His education was not specifically "geared" toward anabolic steroids other than expertise with pharmacological principles having broad applications. This has allowed Bill to provide unique insight into the field of anabolic pharmacology with knowledge of points which he would not have known otherwise.
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