In response to a relatively distressed and frustrated e-mail from a chap that had been on steroids for a year and a half now and was not getting any further……

It has always been a given that steroids needs to be cycled. Most people think that this has more to do with health issues than anything else. Pretty much anybody you talk to about steroids is always figuring out, or on, or just got off some kind of cycle. Over time most people just accepted it as a given but there is much more to it than that.
Guys that have been on steroids non-stop for long periods of time will hopefully understand why they are not getting any further. I’ll try to makes this as simple as possible.

You need to understand that there are two parts to carrying muscle. One is getting your body to put on the muscle mass and second is for the body to maintain it. The reality is that your body will typically only gain about 3-4 kgs of muscle in one year. Most of the time it is even less than that. Two things need to happen before the body will put on more weight and this is the first hind towards cycles the body goes through.

You have to train and stimulate the muscles to grow. You have to eat and supply the body with the protein to repair, recover and grow the muscle. The body then has to get the system supporting that muscle to do just that, support and maintain the increase in muscle mass. Consider that most of the guys you know have been in the gym for 10 years or more. At an average of 3 kgs a year, that equals 30 kgs. If they started training at say 80 kgs then they will now be around 110. Take a moment to think about the size of most of the big guys you know, it should make sense. If they where putting on 12 kgs on every 12-week steroid cycle, they would probably weight 400kgs by now but they don’t.

So lets track the typical path a steroid user would walk. Most guys start training clean and get good gains. This is normal because the body is being stimulated and it will grow to its balance point quite fast. Then the progress stops and the guy get frustrated. Along comes the juice. A good Anabol and Depotrone combination for 12-weeks and most guys have put on 10-12 Kgs. Shoulders have popped out and the physiques is staring to look good. Now there comes a cutting cycle, some Winstrol and Equipoise and 18 weeks later 75 kgs has gone to 85 kgs. Next they guy get more adventurous because he got really good results, so he’s back on Sustanon and something else this time. And so it keeps going.

Before you know it, you have been on juice non-stop for two years and your weight is around 88 Kgs. Suddenly you realise that your taking good juice but you are not getting any bigger. More frustration. What actually happened is that you ignored the natural cycles need for your body to adjust, so instead of adjusting and getting the system to maintain the weight you have gained, you forced it past that point. All the juice is doing is maintaining the extra weight for you, there is no space left for growth.

Remember what I said before, your body can only gain about 3 kgs of lean muscle in one year? If you got off the juice, start train naturally and did everything right, in 3-4 months you would be 3-4 kgs heavier and you would be stable at that weight. By not allowing this process to take place after the first cycle of juice, all you did was take lots of juice just to maintain the extra 8-9 kgs you put on. If you did, you’ll find that you use far less juice, and still get your 3-4 kgs a year. I hope this is makes sense.

Now I know that there are some huge bodybuilders out there that seem to defy this whole process. There is an explanation for that too. Insulin. It is no secret that taking insulin makes you grow, and it is also no secret that insulin can kill you. Juice is one thing, insulin is anther animal altogether. One I leave alone. I want to have a good physique, but I am not prepared to put my life on the line for one. Some guys are. Then there is Growth hormone. The drawback here is cost and the use of Insulin. Combined they can work miracles; GH alone only works small wonders.

Many people think steroid is an easy way to get big. The truth is that it is an accelerated way to put on weight but it takes effort to do it in a short time and keeping the weight is a disciplined process. I hope this helps someone out there and I hope it is clearer that cycling steroids is not just a health thing, it is part of the entire process and it is very necessary if you are going to grow.