Steroid cycles for bodybuilders will differ from those of other athletes because a bodybuilders sole purpose is to increase muscle size. Muscular endurance, stamina, and strength are not factors one must concern them self with when entering into a competition. Additionally, because everyone responds differently to different drugs, it's difficult to be specific when making exact recommendations as to what drugs to use during a given cycle. What is possible is to design cycles based around principals which apply to everyone, then tailor each cycle to each individual athlete. This article will discuss the facts around which every cycle should be based

In order to achieve the kind of muscular size and definition found at the highest levels of bodybuilding today, bodybuilders lives revolve around the triad of training, nutrition, and drugs. As we will see, drugs are merely the vehicle that allow bodybuilders to break their natural genetic barrier once it has been reached. Steroids and other bodybuilding drugs should be used only to push past this barrier, not to accelerate the time in which it is reached. I cannot stress how important it is that athletes refrain from using anabolics until they have reached the absolute pinnacle of their natural development. Bodybuilders who use performance drugs before peaking naturally are cheating themselves of muscle at the back end.

Bodybuilders at the national and professional level rarely come off bodybuilding drugs. Generally they will stay of heavy amounts of anabolics constantly, with periods of lower use which constitute their "off" cycle. However, for the most part, they are constantly "on", despite what they may claim. Ideally we would want a system that would allow for bodybuilders to come completely off steroids for a minimum period of three weeks to allow the body to stabilize, that is return to homeostasis, while maintaining the majority of the size they gained while on. This allows for continuous growth, not the eventual plateau that is reached by never coming off. While the size exhibited by today's bodybuilders is certainly mind-boggling, we will continually see bodybuilders getting ever massive with advances in drugs, nutrition, and training techniques.

Let's first dispel a few myths surrounding steroids and their mechanism of action in the body. A very popular theory that has been endorsed by many is that steroids cause growth by blocking the actions of cortical in the body, therefore shifting the body away from homeostasis towards anabolism. However, if steroids blocked the affects of cortical in the body, two things would happen. All of our muscles would grow at an increased rate, regardless of whether we trained them or not, and we would see a concomitant increase in cortical levels in the body. Neither is seen to any appreciable degree during steroid cycles. It is also thought by many that steroids are purely anabolic, and that the growth seen during steroid use is entirely due to steroids anabolic affect on muscle. Again, if this were true, we would see all muscles grow at a rapid pace, regardless of whether they were trained or not. The truth is that steroids are both catabolic and anabolic at the same time, and that steroids are virtually useless unless combined with proper training and diet.

As almost everyone has experienced, the first cycle of steroids is usually the most productive. Subsequent cycles work according to the law of diminishing returns, and as the user becomes bigger and bigger, steroids will become increasingly less effective. Many pro bodybuilders have reached a plateau, and simply administer incredible amounts of bodybuilding drugs to maintain the mass they have built. These individuals reach this stage after years and years of heavy juicing. Take any pro bodybuilder and you will discover they all follow the same pattern. When they first began using steroids they took minimal amounts. As time went on, they took more and more to continue growing. As time goes on, cycles end and they remain on growth drugs continuously, ensuring two things. One, they won't lose any of their hard earned size, and two, that they can never successfully go off the drugs in order to clean out and give their receptors a chance to up-regulate.

When the body is exposed to large amounts of exogenous anabolics for long periods of time, several things happen. Endogenous production of testosterone will cease since blood levels of androgens are at supraphysiological levels. With continued use, androgen receptors will down regulate as the body attempts to maintain homeostasis. This down regulation of steroid receptors is one of the primary reasons why the first cycle of steroids is usually the most effective. Fortunately for us, training helps keep this down regulation of steroid receptors in check, at least to some degree. This is one of the reasons why trained muscles grow while on steroids while untrained muscles do not. While supraphysiological levels of androgens are down regulators of androgen receptors, intense muscular contractions are up-regulators.

Let's talk about anabolic steroids and cortical again. As I stated earlier, steroids do not block the actions of cortical in the body. What steroids will do is reduce the rise of cortical levels in the body that is associated with training. Natural bodybuilders will always be limited in the quest for size because cortical is naturally elevated in response to training. Eventually these cortical levels balance out the anabolic effects of training and growth stops. Steroids blunt this effect of training and shift the body towards a more anabolic state.

What happens when steroid use is stopped? Why does the body tend to shrink so rapidly? As we have discussed, natural testosterone production stops during long term periods of steroid use. Additionally, many of the androgen receptors will down-regulate. Cortical, which has been kept in check by the steroids despite the enormous stresses placed upon the body, will now rise as the levels of steroid diminish. What we are now facing is the ultimate anabolic nightmare. Little or no natural hormone being released to stimulate androgen receptors, many of which have down-regulated anyway, and cortical levels rising unchecked. It's no wonder bodybuilders can never successfully come off steroids. However, imagine the possibilities if we could. What would happen if you could successfully cycle steroids, growing at an amazing rate while on, while maintaining the majority of your muscle mass while off? This off period would allow your receptors a chance to up-regulate and future cycles would still produce significant amounts of growth.