Intermediate Steroid Cycles

Posted in: ANABOLICS

Intermediate Steroid Cycles

By the time you reach the intermediate level of cycle experience, you should already understand and be familiar with all the simple basics and pre-use checks and considerations.

Therefore, these considerations do not need to be mentioned again.

If any readers are unfamiliar with these considerations, please refer back to the Beginner Steroid Cycle portion of this article to better understand or re-familiarize yourself with these important concepts.

Definition of Intermediate and Advanced Anabolic Steroid Users

So, the most important issue is

-What is the definition of an intermediate anabolic steroid user?

-What defines an advanced user?

These questions are ones that we will remind our subscribers of once again when we cover advanced anabolic steroid stacks.

But for now, the answers to these two questions are rather intermediate and not advanced users

Intermediate or advanced anabolic steroid users are not defined by taking increasingly higher doses of anabolic steroids.

The definition of an intermediate or advanced anabolic steroid user is a combination of the following learning and developmental characteristics

- Experience

- Knowledge

- Understanding

- Mastery of one's own body, its responses and reactions to various compounds, substances, and stimuli.

These are the characteristics that define intermediate and advanced anabolic steroid users.

For example, don't make the mistake of thinking that an advanced user is simply someone who uses very high or excessive doses of anabolic steroids.

This is absolutely not true, and falling into this mindset often leads to the same individual falling down the slippery slope of anabolic steroid abuse in the form of overdose.

However, while there may be instances where an intermediate and/or advanced user may take anabolic steroids at doses that are considered high, this does not constitute an intermediate or advanced user.

Instead, the high-dose use that can be found among intermediate and advanced users is a result of the aforementioned characteristics listed above, in that intermediate and advanced users understand their physiological responses well enough to understand high-dose anabolic steroid stacks.

It is important to note that this is not a regular or essential practice.

Anabolic Steroid Stacks

Intermediate users are much more likely to use a stack of multiple compounds than to consistently use cycles with a single anabolic steroid as the main ingredient.

Beginners should opt for testosterone-only cycles more often until they have gained enough experience to expand and explore other options.

Once you reach the intermediate level, you can be more relaxed about using a combination of compounds in a stack.

However, there is absolutely nothing wrong with intermediate or advanced users running testosterone-only cycles, and in fact many still do so.

In a "back to basics" sense, many intermediate and advanced users find comfort, convenience, and simplicity in running a testosterone-only cycle.

Furthermore, cycles that utilize only one compound (testosterone) are not necessarily limited to beginner steroid cycles.

Rather, such cycles are an essential part of any athletic/bodybuilding program that uses performance enhancing drugs.

Stacking, in particular, can be done by novice anabolic steroid users in the later cycles (3-4 cycles of use, or even earlier depending on the user's understanding and experience).

This tends to extend to intermediate level anabolic steroid use, but the difference is that some of the more complex anabolic steroids can now be used by intermediate users as well, provided they have the proper understanding and knowledge of these specific compounds.

Certain types of stacks for intermediate users who are not beginners include compounds that require a greater understanding and slightly higher complexity.

These include compounds such as Nandrolone (Deca Durabolin), Anadrol (Oxymetholone), and Trenbolone.

Trenbolone in particular should be saved for advanced users, but intermediate users should have no problem at all running a steroid stack with such compounds if they have a proper understanding of powerful and unique (and high risk) anabolic steroids.

What the mentioned compounds (Nandrolone, Anadrol, Trenbolone) have in common is that they are compounds with unique properties, attributes, and characteristics that other anabolic steroids do not exhibit.

These compounds are not basic compounds and are associated with features that are complex to understand, especially when used in combination with other compounds.

Anadrol, for example, is a derivative of dihydrotestosterone.

This means that it cannot aromatize into estrogen because it does not interact with the aromatase enzyme at all.

This is a characteristic of all anabolic steroids derived from dihydrotestosterone.

Anadrol, however, is one of those anabolic steroids that harbors a lot of mystery surrounding its properties.

Despite its inability to interact with the aromatase enzyme and convert to estrogen, it exhibits very high levels of estrogenic activity in the body.

This can lead to a tremendous amount of potentially undesirable estrogenic side effects (e.g., abdominal bloating and gynecomastia) that are not susceptible to the usual reactions and treatments (e.g., aromatase inhibitors) typically used to treat/prevent these side effects.

Gynecomastia can be effectively prevented, blocked, and treated using SERMs such as Nolvadex.

However, SERMs only block the activity of estrogen at breast tissue receptor sites and do not act to lower total estrogen levels in the body, so water retention/edema issues cannot be resolved with this treatment.

Some have hypothesized that the estrogenic action of Anadrol is actually due to the progestogenic activity associated with Anadrol (very similar to the progestogenic activity associated with nandrolone).

However, this may not be true, as one study conducted on Anadrol that examined its potential pregnancy activity determined that Anadrol does not actually have any pregnancy-inducing properties or activity [i].

The example of Anadrol is a very typical example of an anabolic steroid that novice users are unprepared for, and the problems and side effects that result from such premature use are likely to occur.

Anabolic steroids commonly used by intermediate users (ranked from most to least suitable)

- Testosterone Propionate

- Dianabol

- Nandrolone Decanoate (Deca-Durabolin)

- Nandrolone Phenylpropionate (Nandrolone Phenylpropionate)

- Masteron (Drostanolone)

- Anadrol (Oxymetholone)

- Trenbolone(Trenbolone)

Introduction to testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) doses

Although already covered and explained in the introduction of this article, it is important to mention the concept and practice of cyclically administering testosterone in testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) doses.

This is considered a method that can be introduced in the intermediate stages and is a very important factor, especially in cycles with anabolic steroids.

The simple concept is as follows

Testosterone does not always need to be utilized in high doses as the primary anabolic agent in a bodybuilding cycle.

Testosterone is often stacked with other anabolic steroids in a given cycle.

Testosterone does not always need to be run in doses of 300mg, 500mg, 700mg, or higher as individuals utilize other compounds.

In these cycles, testosterone can be relegated to a secondary role of providing testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) while other compounds are utilized as the primary anabolic agent to build muscle.

This is known as running testosterone at a TRT dose.

The concept is to utilize testosterone at normal physiological doses (approximately 50 to 70 mg per week, depending on the individual's genetics, age, lifestyle, etc. to the extent that they fall within that range) designed to mimic the same level of testosterone that is endogenously and naturally produced by the body.

The purpose of testosterone is to maintain the proper normal physiological functions that testosterone governs in the body, and this is accomplished during periods when the user's natural endogenous testosterone production is interrupted or suppressed as a result of the anabolic steroids used in the cycle.

The dosage of testosterone for TRT purposes is approximately 100 mg per week or less.

This also serves to eliminate or reduce the rate at which testosterone aromatizes into estrogen, negating the need for aromatase inhibitors in all but the most sensitive individuals.

Some experienced anabolic steroid users prefer to use TRT doses of testosterone periodically, while others do not.

This ultimately comes down to individual preference.

Ideally, you should try both protocols (stacking supraphysiologic doses of testosterone followed later by stacking TRT doses of testosterone) to find out what works best for you and what you personally prefer.

Readers should note that in the following intermediate anabolic steroid cycle examples, testosterone is utilized in TRT doses.

While TRT dosing of testosterone is mostly considered intermediate and above, beginners can also utilize this method, but it is not very common for beginners to use this protocol.

Intermediate Steroid Cycle Example

1-12week

-Testosterone Enanthate

100 mg/week

-Nandrolone Decanoate (Deca Durabolin)

400mg/week

1-6week

-Anadrol

50 mg/day

Intermediate Cycle Example #2 (12 weeks total cycle time)

1-12week

-Sustanon 250