Steroid Cycles
Anabolic/androgenic steroidsare not medically approved to promote excessive muscle mass gains (bodybuilding) or improve athletic performance. Aside fromearly experimentation on athletes by a handful of sports physicians, an extensive effort to study the physique- and performance-enhancing properties of these drugs, specifically with an eye on developing strategies for using them to maximize benefits and minimize adverse effects, has not been undertaken by the medicalcommunity. Because of this, illicit users have been left to develop their own protocols for administering these drugs. The result has been a large variety of differentapproaches to using these agents, some safer or more effective than others. While it would not be possible to comprehensively evaluate all known approaches, this section will discuss some ofthe most fundamentaland time-provenmethods for usingAAS.
Sample Steroid Cycles
The following cyclesare presented asexamples ofcommon steroid administration protocols. These programs have not been evaluated in a clinicalsetting for safety and efficacy, and are provided for informational purposes only. These are not recommendations for anabolic/androgenic steroid use. As with any supplemental drug program, it is important to examine your own individual health status, health risks, and performance goals before deciding to engage in any anabolic/androgenic steroid use. For those who have made the decision, it is important to emphasizeagain that therecommended approach to AAS useis to limit drug intake to the lowest levels necessary to achieve the next rational goal. More aggressive cycles should not be attempted unless one is sure they cannot achieve the results needed on a more moderate program. Note that given the difficulty in predicting androgenic threshold and dosages for female users, the below cycles are examples of programs for men only
