Your First Steroid Cycle

If you’re contemplating starting your first steroid cycle, the internet can be a dangerous place. It’s hard to find the “right” information as to what you should use, how you should use it and what you should expect. 

So in this article what we’re hoping to do is outline clear information as to what you need to do in advance of and for your first steroid cycle. 

Disclaimer; 

We are not advocating or encouraging the use of anabolics, merely giving information to people whom will have/are looking to make that decision. If you choose to use anabolics, you do so at your own risk and knowing the risks associated with doing so. Always consult with a registered physician before making any decisions that may be detrimental to your health. 

When are you ready to start using steroids?

There really is no simple answer to this, some people get in the gym and then jump on gear almost immediately (which is dumb), some wait until they’re close to their natural limit, in reality, there is no right or wrong answer here.

What we would say however is you need to have all of your other variables locked down first, before taking the decision to use steroids. 

By that we mean;

• Have you built a good foundation of base muscle tissue
• Have you been training for a good 5 years or so
• Is your nutrition nailed on
• Do you see good progress with your current training and nutrition

If the answer to any of these is no, there’s plenty of scope for you to build and grow naturally first, before taking the jump onto anabolics. 

It takes a long time to learn your body, how to train effectively and nail nutrition, without those things in place, you’ll still not grow as effectively through anabolics, and will require significantly larger doses to reap rewards, which in turn comes with higher risks and side effects.

Preparation

Preparing both your body and mind for the needs of anabolics is a key component to entering the steroid world.

Something that anabolics do, is to decrease your glucose sensitivity, if you’re at a high body fat %, this is already compromised to an extent, so you may want to lean up a bit first before jumping on. 

Health markers are extremely important in the world of steroids. If you have any underlying health issues, we would strongly advise against the use of anabolics. The likelihood is, these will be aggravated by use.

We wholeheartedly recommend getting blood work and a routine medical check up done both before and during the use of anabolics. What you want to do is establish your baseline testosterone levels, blood pressure and also risks to your heart and lungs, hormone balance and even fertility. 

If you’re based in the UK we recommend using medichecks sport hormone blood test. There’s more info there on the link attached, but essentially they test for every health marker (blood wise) that you should be concerned with. The rest you can do with regular blood pressure and heart rate readings, with the exception of things like an ecg which you’ll need to do through a medical practice.  

What to take for your first cycle

I’m an avid believer of getting the most from the least in regards to steroid use. With higher dosages comes increased risk. So for your first cycle we want to establish your natural test baseline and go marginally above into an elevated TRT dose. 

A lot of the first cycles you’ll see online will state 500mg/week of a long esther testosterone, but your natural levels will be somewhere in the 150mg range, so why take more than triple that for your first cycle? 

I would advise on starting low, something like 250-300mg/week of testosterone enanthate or cypionate, you’re still well over natural testosterone and will reap great results from small doses. 

Your next cycle would then be going 300-350mg/week instead of needing 550mg/week, you see the lower you start, the more you can taper up over time. If you start with 500mg/week, how long before you’re needing to inject 1g/week+ of gear to see a “novel” response?

When you first start using steroids, it’s a totally novel stimulus, so you will grow with anything over your natural baseline testosterone levels. Hence why lower doses are advantageous for longevity and decreasing the risk of side effects. 

The reason we chose a long esther is because injecting every day and having more frequent foreign bodies within your body increases risk. This is the risk of infection, inflammation in multiple injection sites etc and quite frankly no one wants to inject more than they have to. 

With testosterone enanthate, you’re looking at a half life of 5 days, so injecting every 5 to 7 days will more than serve purpose. 

You’ll be most likely looking to run for an initial stint of 10-12 weeks and you’ll likely only need to buy one bottle of test to get you through the first cycle. 

Injection Sites

Your safest bet is the upper outside quarter of the glute using a blue 1.25” needle.

The reason for this is that it has very few nerves and blood vessels, so is a fairly painless and risk free injection site. 

You can find plenty of videos showing how to inject correctly, and it’s really not as bad as you may think it is. If you’re apprehensive about injecting, then steroids really aren’t for you, as injecting is the least of your problems. 

On Cycle Checks

We recommend that you regularly check bloods as mentioned earlier and have health check ups whilst on cycle to ensure that you’re being safe and have your health markers in range whilst on cycle. 

The earlier you catch something out of range, the easier it is to change and get back to normal, so stay on top of your health for sure!

Post Cycle

So you’re coming to the end of your first steroid cycle, now what? Well you have two options;

1. Come off and go through PCT or post cycle therapy
2. Stay on, but drop to a TRT (cruise) dose and enter into blasting and cruising

Ultimately what you chose to do here is entirely up to you, but essentially it should be driven by your goals and health markers. Remember guys, health comes first! 

If you do decide to come off, a proper PCT is completely recommended, on the most part, it’ll ensure your body reverts to normal levels asap and kickstart natural test production so that you’re not off a cliff for a particularly long period. 

In terms of PCT protocols, that’s probably for another post, but have it readily on hand either way. Drugs like Tamoxifen and Nolva are your friends here as well as HCG to give the boys a boost. 

 

 

So I hope you’ve found this informative, it’s a lot to take in and definitely do your research as much as possible before making the decision. It’s not something to be taken lightly and you need to be as prepared and informed as possible before deciding to jump onto anabolics.