Pyramiding and Tapering Oral Anabolic Steroids During a Steroid Cycle

Q: “How do I time my use of oral anabolic steroids within the weeks of a steroid cycle? Should I pyramid up and down or taper their use?”

A: Usually the principal use of oral anabolic steroids within a cycle is to add to the total effect of the stack. In the simplest instance, make every week of oral use the same, unless you encounter new information during the steroid cycle. There’s no reason to pyramid up, taper down, or “diamond.”

However, there can be other reasons to change dose of orals.

One factor is that oral anabolic steroids will preferably be used for only 6 weeks at a time. Alkylated steroids have liver toxicity, and nearly all orals are alkylated. When use of orals is limited to 6 weeks and cycle length is greater than this, then obviously some weeks will employ orals while others will not.

In many cases, the best weeks to choose for orals are the final weeks. One reason is that the later weeks of the cycle are more in need of a boost than are the earliest weeks, as the body needs less help to make gains in the earlier weeks.

Another advantage of using orals at the end of a cycle is that past the last injection, levels of injected steroid are dropping and are of reduced effectiveness. Orals can really boost the effectiveness of this period.

But in other instances, the earlier weeks can have the greater need for a boost. A common case is where the user wishes to bulk in the earlier weeks and cut in the final weeks. Here, I’d use orals in the first weeks, or principally in the first weeks. Some orals might be saved for the end of the cycle: for example 5 weeks’ worth could be used at the beginning, and 1 week’s worth at the end.

A final reason for changing oral dosing during the steroid cycle can be if you encounter new information as the cycle progresses. For example, perhaps you’d have liked to use 50 mg/day of Dianabol, but you had concern about side effects and so decided on 25 mg/day. After a week or two with the lower dose, your new personal experience might relieve that concern. So, you might decide to increase the dose. This would be entirely reasonable, as would the reverse situation.

About the author

Bill Roberts

Medicinal chemist

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.