This article is by NapsGear Review will help you get an idea on what good post cycle therapy looks like so that you can have a successful cycle as well as keep all your gains and stay healthy.
What is Post Cycle Therapy? Why is Post Cycle Therapy important? I’ll try to dumb it down without getting into too much science. Your body naturally produces hormones such as Testosterone. When you inject a bio-identical drug such as lab manufactured testosterone, you are essentially throwing your body’s natural testosterone production off balance. Your body will say wait a minute, I don’t need to produce all of this testosterone anymore because I already have it now. So your natural testosterone production process essentially shuts down. You are now reliant on injections for your Testosterone.
You complete your anabolic cycle and are no longer injecting Testosterone. Now your body needs to start naturally producing it again. But this process does not happen overnight. In fact it takes several weeks to return to a ‘homeostasis‘ or equilibrium. This is where a PCT (post cycle therapy) regimen comes in. By completing a proper post cycle therapy regimen you will allow testosterone to be produced faster than it would be naturally. Thus minimizing the loss of muscle and loss of gains you have made during your anabolic cycle.
If you do not engage in proper post cycle therapy you will have very low testosterone levels for several weeks until your body can resume testosterone production. By that point you may have lost a significant amount of gains.
Post cycle therapy is a process that involves specific compounds, nutrition, and often pharmaceutical drugs to help control levels of estrogen, regulate hormonal levels and get you back to normal after a cycle of anabolic steroids. If you don’t have a good post cycle therapy planned ahead of time, you can face side effects like gyno (Gynecomastia), high blood pressure and even a loss of almost all the gains you made.
Post Cycle Therapy 101
An effective post cycle therapy includes often a few things:
- A SERM (Selective Estrogen Receptor Modulator)
- An AI (Aromatase inhibitor)
- HCG (Human Chorionic Gonadotropin)
Each one has a very special role in your PCT and are all very important in assuring a successful cycle and long lasting gains.
#1: SERMS
Taking a SERM will help to control the effects of estrogen so you avoid gyno (“bitch tits”), help you maintain gains, and boost your testosterone levels.
These are often pharmaceutical grade and work the best, but in some cases you can use an OTC product, especially if you took a very mild anabolic. Typically the stronger your cycle, the better your SERM needs to be.
Remember, increased testosterone = increased estrogen levels.
Keep that in mind when planning your PCT so you’ll stay balanced not only throughout your cycle but post cycle as well.
The three most common and effective serms in order of recommendation is:
1. Nolvadex: aka Tamoxifen Citrate, is by far the most popular SERM when it comes to post cycle therapy and in my opinion your best option. Recommended dosing is 20-40 mg per day, and the length of time you use it depends on the strength of the cycle (see below)
2. Torem-fareston: Toremifene citrate is similar to both clomid and nolvadex, and is popular by steroid and prohormone users alike as it not not only helps prevent gyno, but may even increase testosterone levels. Although there are no human studies on the drug, because it works very closely to both Nolva and Clomid, the effects on testosterone would logically be the same. Recommended dosing is 60-100 mgs per day.
3. Clomid: also known as Clomiphene Citrate is probably the 2nd most popular option other than Nolvadex, and although the two are similar, Clomid is actually a weaker anti estrogen and needs to be dosed higher at 150 mg to achieve the same effect as Nolvadex. It’s very effective, but when factoring in cost, I’d go with Nolvadex or Torem any day when available. However, you can still buy Clomid for pretty cheap and it’s been proven throughout the years to be great in any PCT.
How should you dose your SERMS for maximum effectiveness?
This will vary, depending on the harshness of the cycle. If you are taking more than two steroids at a time, you will want a stronger dose of a SERM compared to a milder cycle or if you are taking a non methylated steroid.
Below is an example guideline for a normal cycle, followed by an example for a stronger cycle:
Regular PCT Cycle
| Nolvadex (Tamoxifen Citrate) PCT Week 1 : 20mg / day Week 2 : 20mg / day Week 3 : 10mg / day Week 4 : 10 mg / day |
Clomid (Clomiphene Citrate) PCT Week 1 : 50mg / day Week 2 : 50mg / day Week 3 : 25mg / day Week 4 : 25mg / day |
Stronger PCT Cycle
| Nolvadex (Tamoxifen Citrate) PCT Week 1 : 30mg / day Week 2 : 20mg / day Week 3 : 20mg / day Week 4 : 10 mg / day |
Clomid (Clomiphene Citrate) PCT Week 1 : 75mg / day Week 2 : 50mg / day Week 3 : 50mg / day Week 4 : 25mg / day |
As you can see, a SERM depending on the strength of your cycle will be stronger to combat the effects of hormonal levels and then are slowly decreased over 4 weeks. You will typically take a SERM for the same length of time you spent on cycle.
#2: AIs
AI’s are the 2nd piece to the post cycle therapy puzzle and basically block the conversion of testosterone to estrogen via the Aromatase enzyme. AI’s are often used during the cycle itself but can also be added to the end of a cycle to help eliminate and decrease estrogen levels. One of the more popular AI’s, Letrozole, has been found to decrease estrogen by 96-98%!
AI’s are important to help you increase gains while on cycle, and to maintain normal, balanced hormonal levels.
So if both AIs and SERMs deal with estrogen, why do I need both and what’s the difference?
AI’s help to eliminate the conversion of estrogen at the source during cycle, helping to eliminate bloat and increasing gains. SERMS are for damage control at the end of a cycle, to help prevent the estrogenic effects such as gyno and loss of gains as well as increase testosterone production naturally.
Since you can’t block estrogen forever, combining an AI to help eliminate increases in estrogen with a SERM will assure you end your cycle looking better than ever with little side effects and lots of muscle mass.
#3: HCG
HCG: Human Chorionic Gonadotropin is, for the most part, synthetic LH. It is a protein hormone manufactured in high amounts by pregnant females that contains a protein subunit that is 100% identical to LH, and therefore when administered to men, it will mimic the action of LH in target tissues, such as the testes. What results is an increase in Testosterone production via stimulation of the Leydig cells by HCG. HCG should never be utilized alone, as its nature as a gonadotropin will itself trigger a negative feedback loop whereby once HCG is utilized, the pituitary gland will halt output of LH until HCG use has discontinued. Therefore, HCG must be utilized with a SERM and especially an aromatase inhibitor, as HCG has demonstrated to increase aromatase activity in the testes, resulting in rising Estrogen levels.
NapsGear Review suggests continuing post cycle therapy with alternative products that will help you to control estrogen, keep your testosterone levels high, and protect you from many of the side effects you may experience while on a steroid cycle.