At first glance, anabolic steroid cycles may appear to be quite dangerous based on the information that is presented to the general public in the mass media (such as YouTube).

However, the truth is that following a number of careful and strict guidelines and conditions, using anabolic steroids can be a very safe practice if done responsibly, wisely, and properly.

If you have the proper knowledge necessary to fully understand the mechanics of anabolic steroids, how they work, what they do in the body, and under what circumstances, then properly maintaining a safe anabolic steroid cycle is actually a very real possibility.

However, it should be made clear that there is no such thing as 100% safety when it comes to anabolic steroid use or the consumption of any kind of compound, substance, chemical, or even food.

There is only the concept of safer use.

So what defines a safe cycle, safe, and safer use?

We'll cover this in the introduction to this article.

First, it's important to understand that using anabolic steroids for physique and performance enhancement purposes is not recognized as a legitimate use of anabolic steroids.

This has severely limited the amount of clinical research and clinical data regarding the effects and epidemiology of actual anabolic steroid cycles and doses for the purpose of athletic performance/physique enhancement, as opposed to medical use for the treatment of medical indications.

It is therefore unfortunate that as a result of the medical establishment distancing itself from anabolic steroid use for physique/performance enhancement purposes, anabolic steroid users and the anabolic steroid-using community over the past few decades have been forced to develop their own protocols and methods of use without proper advice from the medical establishment.

However, over the past year or two, this situation has been slowly changing as more and more clinical studies have been conducted utilizing real-world doses and conditions to study the effects and dynamics of anabolic steroid use for physique and performance enhancement purposes.

In the medical community, anabolic steroids are used extensively to treat a variety of diseases, debilitations, and medical indications.

The doses and protocols required for the medical use of anabolic steroids differ significantly from those aimed at physique and athletic performance enhancement, and in this sense, there is a significant dichotomy between the two different uses of anabolic steroids.

This article will therefore clarify the issues involved in the safe, responsible and effective use of anabolic steroids and anabolic steroid cycles.

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Safety of Steroid Cycles

Safety is the most important concern, and this should be true for any individual considering anabolic steroid use for the purpose of enhancing physique and athletic performance.

Therefore, five basic rules (or regulations) for safe and responsible anabolic steroid use have been developed.

In addition, there are additional safety guidelines beyond the five solid rules provided.

While anabolic steroids themselves are considered to be among the safest drugs in medicine, and the medical community considers anabolic steroids to be low-risk therapeutic compounds with a high degree of safety, the abuse of these substances (especially if the abuse slowly transitions into overuse) carries with it some very pronounced health risks.

When many anabolic steroid users first start using anabolic steroids, they often abuse increasingly higher doses of anabolic steroids and convince themselves that what they are doing is perfectly safe, even as they are harming themselves.

These anabolic steroid users typically underestimate the immense power of these drugs and expect too much too soon.

This is essentially ignoring and underestimating the immense power of these hormones.

The problem is that these people (and there are many in the anabolic steroid-using community) don't realize the extent of the potential damage they can do to the human body when abusing these powerful substances.

All potential and existing anabolic steroid users need to understand where the line is drawn when it comes to use and abuse, and when that line has been crossed.

Anabolic steroids have the potential to cause very serious short-term and permanent damage to the human body when used improperly and ignorantly, and the use of anabolic steroids for the purpose of enhancing athletic performance and physique is not considered a safe practice.

The general explanation for the safety of anabolic steroid use, as described by various people, can be summarized in two general statements

- Anabolic steroid use is not as deadly as many people claim.

- Anabolic steroid use is not as safe as many people claim.

5 Basic Rules for Proper Steroid Cycling and Responsible Steroid Use

1. individuals under the age of 24 should not participate in an anabolic steroid cycle under any circumstances.

2. testosterone should be the first and only anabolic steroid used in a beginner anabolic steroid cycle, and all cycles should include testosterone without exception.

3. cycle length should be kept as short as possible.

4. the lowest effective dose to achieve results should always be used before increasing the dose.

5. the absolute minimum number of compounds (no more than two at a time unless absolutely necessary) should be used in any given anabolic steroid cycle.

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A detailed explanation of the five stipulations:

1. There is no specific age for everyone that has been determined as the age at which the human body and its subsystems (especially the endocrine system, which is most important here) fully mature and develop.

The ultimate final age at which we all reach full growth and maturity is determined by genetic factors and lifestyle habits.

Because each individual's genetic "programming" is different, some people reach full maturity at a younger age, while others may reach full maturity at around 24 years of age, and some may reach maturity at an even older age.

It is common knowledge about the endocrine system that testosterone levels in men continue to rise until the median age of about 24-25 years, at which point they peak and begin to decline.

The hypothalamic-pituitary-testicular axis (HPTA), which regulates endogenous natural testosterone production, is a very sensitive network.

Furthermore, there is no specific "test" that you can take to determine if a subsystem in the human body has fully matured.

Therefore, the average age at which almost all humans reach maturity has been determined to be 24-25 years old.

As mentioned earlier, some may mature earlier and some may mature later than this.

If you introduce anabolic steroids into your body by participating in an anabolic steroid cycle before the age of 24, you run a very high risk of seriously and permanently disrupting and damaging your endocrine system.

Only after the age of 24 or 25 does the risk of serious and permanent HPTA damage decrease dramatically.

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2. Testosterone is literally the first anabolic steroid that is naturally produced in all humans and most animal species.

Testosterone is considered the safest anabolic steroid because it is a hormone that each individual's body already produces, already uses, and is already accustomed to.

Therefore, using testosterone for the purpose of enhancing athletic performance and physique is simply like introducing more of a hormone into the human body that the body already produces and uses.

Also, beginners new to anabolic steroids should always use testosterone only in some form as their first anabolic steroid cycle.

A testosterone-only cycle provides the user with a safe compound (testosterone) that the body is already naturally accustomed to, as everyone already produces endogenous testosterone.

This allows the user to measure their response to testosterone, the most basic anabolic steroid.

This measurement process allows the individual to assess their potential response to other anabolic steroids.

This is because if an individual responds horribly to a basic testosterone cycle, they are likely to have an even worse response to most other compounds, which are essentially modified analogs of testosterone.

As discussed above, a cycle using testosterone alone is an ideal cycle for beginners to start using anabolic steroids for the first time.

The problem with using multiple compounds together when a beginner first starts a cycle is that it can be potentially dangerous.

A hypothetical beginner who has never used anabolic steroids or run a cycle before would not know what to expect when using them.

If they use several compounds at once in their first cycle and have a very negative reaction (or experience certain highly undesirable side effects), this person would have no way of knowing which anabolic steroid caused the bad reaction.

This could be life-threatening if the reaction is a very serious one (e.g., an allergic reaction).

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3. Duration of use is a very influential factor, but it should be self-explanatory that the incidence of side effects increases as the duration of a particular anabolic steroid cycle gets longer and longer.

Additionally, as you run longer and longer anabolic steroid cycles, it becomes increasingly difficult to restore natural endogenous testosterone production after the anabolic steroid cycle ends.

While various anabolic steroids may exhibit higher levels of HPTA inhibition and blockade than other compounds, all anabolic steroids exhibit this HPTA inhibition and eventual blockade as the duration of use continues.

If the Leydig cells in the testes have been severely atrophied due to very long cycles, endogenous testosterone production will have a much greater difficulty reactivating due to the desensitization to gonadotropins caused by prolonged suppression/blockade.

The ideal cycle for short-ester anabolic steroids should be between 8-10 weeks, and the ideal cycle for long-ester anabolic steroids should be between 10-12 weeks.

Any longer than this and you run a high risk of HPTA recovery becoming increasingly difficult.

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4. The issue of using the lowest effective dose is straightforward.

Start with the lowest possible dose, work your way up to this dose, and then increase as needed (on average, it takes a few cycles of beginner use).

Many people (mostly beginners) tend to do something quite ridiculous, such as starting with 500mg per week on their first cycle, progressing to 700mg per week on their second cycle, and 1,000mg per week on their third cycle.

Not only is this absolutely unnecessary, but it's also unhealthy.

As mentioned earlier, many anabolic steroid users (both beginners and experienced users) seriously underestimate the power of these hormones, and when individuals do such things, it is most commonly because they claim that their gains and progress have stalled.

The cause is usually faulty nutrition or training (or both), not the total amount of steroids used per week.

It is important to keep these details and concerns in mind.

A very important detail that every individual should understand when it comes to anabolic steroid dosage is that the human body only produces about 50 to 70 mg of testosterone per week (depending on a variety of factors, including age, lifestyle, genetics, and more).

Considering this, we can use logic to draw a conclusion: 500mg is about 7 to 10 times the amount your body produces.

So, if you're a beginner just starting out, we can say that 300mg weekly is about right.

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5. In short, for the average recreational anabolic steroid user, stacking more than two compounds in a given anabolic steroid cycle is not necessary at all.

Stacking three or more compounds in a single anabolic steroid cycle is only necessary for competitive bodybuilders and professional athletes.

Increasing the number of anabolic steroids used in a cycle increases the total weekly steroid dose, which increases the risk and intensity of side effects tenfold and is an increasingly harsh stressor on the human body.

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Additional supplemental safety guidelines

In addition to the basic rules mentioned above, we outline a few other preliminary and secondary safety guidelines.

First, before participating in an anabolic steroid cycle, you should undergo a thorough medical examination and testing by a physician.

This is to ensure that the individual is in the best possible health condition prior to use and that there are no unknown medical conditions that could be exacerbated by anabolic steroid use or that could exacerbate side effects from anabolic steroids.

Proper organ function, including liver, kidney, and heart, should be checked before use.

If there are any pre-existing medical conditions that could be affected by anabolic steroid use (either indirectly or directly), the individual should make an appropriately responsible decision not to use them.

Where possible, blood tests are essential before, during, and after every anabolic steroid cycle to ensure proper internal functioning of the body and to monitor changes during use.

Avoiding high-risk anabolic steroids at all costs is of utmost importance.

Very powerful anabolic steroids like trenbolone or highly toxic steroids like anadrol should not be used unless absolutely necessary for very obvious reasons.

The use of high-risk anabolic steroids increases the risk of damage to body systems and stressors. Only advanced users should consider using these high-risk compounds, as they require extensive understanding and knowledge to use them as safely as possible.

The same is true for oral anabolic steroids, which are also hepatotoxic (liver toxic).

Whenever possible, individuals should always use injectable compounds that are not hepatotoxic.

In order for anabolic steroids to be effective through oral administration, they must undergo a modification called C17-alpha alkylation (also known as methylation), in which a methyl group (also known as an alkyl group) is attached at the 17th carbon.

This alkylation makes the anabolic steroid more resistant to hepatic (liver) metabolism.

The greater the resistance to liver breakdown of a substance, the more toxic and taxing it can be on the liver. However, this modification allows the anabolic steroid to survive liver metabolism and introduce a higher percentage of the anabolic steroid into the bloodstream.

Injectable anabolic steroids without C17-alpha alkylation (the vast majority) pose no problems for most liver-related issues.

When using an aromatase inhibitor, you should always use an appropriate and reasonable dose of aromatase inhibitor (if you need to use one).

Aromatase inhibitors (AIs) work by inhibiting the aromatase enzyme, which is the enzyme that converts androgens to estrogen, thus reducing the underlying cause of elevated estrogen levels.

The problem with the overuse of aromatase inhibitors is that several studies have demonstrated that reducing estrogen levels below normal physiologic levels has a worse effect on cholesterol profiles than anabolic steroids alone without an aromatase inhibitor.

Testosterone, in particular, was shown in one clinical study to have only a mild effect on HDL cholesterol after 12 weeks of 280 mg of testosterone enanthate administered weekly for 12 weeks.

When an aromatase inhibitor was later administered, the cholesterol profile changed for the worse, with a significant 25% reduction in HDL cholesterol [1].

All users of anabolic steroids should keep this in mind and closely monitor their estrogen levels to ensure that they do not decrease to the point of negatively affecting their cholesterol profile.

All potential anabolic steroid users should ensure that their body fat levels are at least 20% before using anabolic steroids.

It is recommended to get your body fat below 20% before starting a cycle, and many recommend that it is even better to get your body fat below 15%.

This is why individuals should not rush into using anabolic steroids.

Body fat above 20% not only increases the risk of estrogenic side effects due to aromatization, but can also lead to blood pressure issues, cholesterol problems, and increased stressors on the cardiovascular system due to excess weight.

Clinical studies have shown that the higher the body fat percentage, the higher the risk of estrogenic side effects [2].

This is because the aromatase enzyme is very abundant in adipose tissue (fat), so it makes sense that the higher an individual's body fat percentage, the higher the rate at which androgens aromatize into estrogen.

This is also why it is important to participate in a testosterone only cycle during the first beginner cycle to gauge each individual's response.

For this reason, all prospective anabolic steroid users should strive to reduce their body fat levels to at least 20% or less before participating in a cycle.

As with body fat loss, anyone considering anabolic steroid use should have at least 5 years of solid natural training under their belt before considering an anabolic steroid cycle.

Anyone without several years of serious, consistent training and dieting experience should never attempt an anabolic steroid cycle.

Beginner trainers run the risk of very serious injury when using anabolic steroids.

One reason for this is the proper form required for the exercises, which must be perfected through years of training before the strength gains from anabolic steroids can cause stronger muscle contractions to generate the immense force needed to lift much heavier weights.

Another reason is the increased risk of connective tissue damage.

Tendons, joints, and connective tissue all need to grow and strengthen to accommodate the increased strain caused by increased strength.

However, these various connective tissues do not repair, grow, and strengthen as quickly as muscle tissue.

When beginners use anabolic steroids too quickly in the early stages of training, the muscle tissue tends to grow at a much faster rate than the connective tissue can keep up, so the connective tissue is now unable to handle the increase in force generated by the larger and stronger muscle tissue.

The result of this type of premature anabolic steroid use is that beginners who start weight training too early tear and rupture tendons and ligaments during lifting.

Another concerning issue is that if you do not attempt to build as much muscle as possible naturally before entering an anabolic steroid cycle, it is much more difficult to maintain the anabolic steroid-induced muscle gains after the cycle is complete.

You should exhaust all natural muscle gain potential before starting anabolic steroid use.