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08/13/09
Making gains on a steroid cycle isn’t rocket science. There are all sorts of scientific processes occurring with the development of new muscle, but the average lunkhead in the gym doesn’t have to understand any of them. Heck, all the bodybuilder has to be able to comprehend are the steps to injecting, lifting, eating and sleeping. We’ve all seen some professional bodybuilders mumble their way through interviews or expose themselves as barely literate on the message boards. Ours is not a sport of geniuses. However, when the cycle has run its course and it’s time to return to ‘mortal’ status, it does take a smart bodybuilder to retain his muscle mass when the artificial testosterone stops flowing. Here are some general rules to follow to ensure you retain a majority of the muscle mass gained on your cycle.
Eliminate stress sources
Cortisol is a stress chemical released during the course of our everyday lives. When your girlfriend starts a fight with you or your boss makes you stay late, you feel stress and your cortisol levels rise, costing you valuable muscle. Steroids effectively kill cortisol - eliminating its impact upon muscle tissue. When you end your steroid cycle, cortisol suddenly impacts you in a major way. However, if you make a concentrated effort to eliminate stress from your life, you will have a great deal of luck with keeping more muscle. Use meditation, yoga, breathing techniques, or any other means you have at your disposal. When all else fails, walk away from a stressful situation and return to it when you’re back on cycle, if that is an option!
Bounce the HPTA back
As you may already know, the use of anabolic steroids cripples your natural testosterone production. Any steroid – even lightweights such as Anavar – leads to a slowdown or shutdown of your natural testosterone production. Immediately following your cycle, you should use HCG, or human chorionic gonadotropin, to stimulate the testes to begin sperm production once again. The shrinkage of the testicles will subside, and your own natural sex drive will return. If things don’t return in a month, visit your doctor and request a Clomid cycle.
Train with great intensity
Much of the reason you got bigger on steroids wasn’t the greater protein uptake or added recovery. It was also your newfound ability to train harder than ever. When you complete your cycle, your aggression and energy levels which have been propped up by the AAS will plummet. You have to work through this. Avoid the use of creatine and caffeine products while you are on cycle so that they can be used to boost your water weight and energy in the gym once you no longer have the tools that AAS delivers at your fingertips. Don’t force yourself to train in a haphazard way, and be aware that the poundage you use in the gym is going to be much less without the gear. However, if you can keep up 100% intensity, you may be able to maintain 80% of your muscle gains.
