Steroids are not miracle drugs:
Steroids have the ability to speed up protein synthesis, and allow you to get great muscle gains, however they are not, by any stretch of the imagination, miracle drugs. You still have to have a very good diet and training program to see results, as well as have a very good, well-planned cycle.
It's very important that you have a good grasp of proper diet, proper training, and have been training without steroids for at least a year. You shouldn't ever think of steroids as a quick way to get into shape, but more as a tool among many that you can use to help you achieve your physique goals.
Steroids are not for children or teenagers:
Steroids have very peculiar and most of the time dangerous effects on adolescents. Through aromatizing into estrogen, they cause the epiphysis (growth plates) to calcify (close) which will leave a person unable to grow any taller.
They also interrupt the hormonal balance of the body, and during puberty these hormones are very critical to proper body development, so please, if you are a teenager, especially one who is not yet done growing, please don't use steroids. Your natural testosterone production should be enough as to where you don't need it anyways to make good gains.
You have to inject:
Though not all steroids are injectable, in order to run a proper steroid cycle you need to prepare to inject. There are multiple reasons for this.
The number one reason is that oral steroids are extremely hepatoxic, they are not kind at all to the liver, since they have to alkylated in order to avoid the first pass through the liver so that they are effective. Using only orals is a great way to destroy your liver for not very much gains.
Another reason is that you must include injectable testosterone as the base of your cycle. If you were to use only dht derivative steroids they would shut down your HPTA (Hypothalamus-Pituitary-Testes Axis) extremely hard, and you would not produce any natural test so you would need to use synthetic injectable test either in the form of propionate, cypionate, enthanate, or suspension in order to have testosterone in your system.
Oral-only cycles are just too dangerous in comparison to the gains that they elicit, not to mention the gains are hard to maintain in some cases or happen to be water. That is why oral-only cycles are discouraged.
You need to have a good diet:
Yes, food should be your main anabolic; not steroids, not supplements, just food. You need a great deal of calories from carbohydrates, fats, and protien. Diet can be adjusted based on you goals; Be it bulking, cutting or a recomposition.
You need to have a good training program:
It's probably obvious that you need to train in order for your muscles to grow, but you never know, it's always good to reiterate it. Remember that a training program that works for someone else might not work for you. Find or create a program that will help you reach your goal and that is suited specifically for you.
You must be as lean as possible:
Being at 10% body fat or less is needed for running a cycle. Not only does it prevent blood pressure but it ensures you body will respond better to steroids.
You will see greater definition, greater mass gain, and overall greater changes to the physique at a low body fat including further reduction of body fat.
You need to use ancillaries and PCT compounds:
Ancillaries are compounds that are used to prevent the side effects of steroid use mainly by preventing aromatase or preventing estrogen from binding to it's receptors.
You should always use an anti-aromatase such as Letrazole (Femara), or Anastrazole (Arimidex), or Exemestane (Aromasin) to prevent test from aromatizing into estrogen, even when using a SERM because estrogen has non-receptor mediated effects that can be undesirable.
You should always have Tamoxifen (Nolvadex) on hand in case you start to encounter itchy nipples which is a sign of the early stages of gynecomastia ("bitch tits").
PCT is the abbreviation for "Post Cycle Therapy", which must be done in order to properly recover and keep the gains that you made while on cycle. Usually Clomiphene (Clomid) is used as the staple of PCT, but it can also include Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (Pregnyl) which mimics leutenizing hormone in the male body and causes the testes to produce testosterone again. It's important to always use clomiphene or tamoxifen also though because HCG can be somewhat suppressive of natural testosterone itself.
Steroids will not work if you are abusing drugs.
Being addicted to opiates or other drugs and trying to run a cycle will result in miniscule gains. It's a waste of time and money. You will spend more time being high than lifting, and you will either end up not eating enough or eating to much junk food. If you are taking pain meds or anxiety meds as directed you are able to run a cycle and if you are taking methadone or suboxone for maintenance you are able to run a cycle. it's only when you abuse drugs does it become an issue and a problem.
You need to have a well planned cycle:
15 week starter cycle
Weeks 1-15: 500mg Testosterone Enathate per week
Weeks 1-5: 50mg of Dianabol a day
Weeks 1-15: 0.25mg - 0.50mg of Anastrozole a day
Weeks 16-21: 20mg of Tamoxifen every day
Weeks 16-21: 50mg of Clomiphene every day
This cycle is perfect for some jumping into AAS for the first time after doing their research, getting their diet and lifting routine hammered out, and being over 21. It gets you familiar with injectables and orals as well. All the compounds are typically free of extreme side effect and are at reasonable dosages which will provide gains while minimizing complications. This cycle is pretty versatile, the orals can be substituted with others or taken out all together. Other injectables can be added as well but remember that every cycle should have Testosterone in it, even if it's a low dose.
As one becomes more experienced the dosages, types of compounds, numbers of compounds, and cycle length can be adjusted.
It is imperative that Testosterone be included in any cycle and orals should not be run more than 4 -5 weeks with a maximum of two oral types being run at once. However, there are some oral steroids that absolutely have to be run alone and can't be used longer than 2 weeks. Always do your research and always ask questions.
