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Posted by Dr. D @ Anabolic Minds
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How to "pulse" orals
A lot of guys have been asking me to clarify my method on this cycling technique, so here's a good explanation if you're interested in trying this. It can generally be applied to any steroidal compound.
What is "pulse" cycling? Pulsing is a method of dosing a product designed to intentionally avoid potential long term side effects such as HPTA suppression and liver damage. This technique is usually applied as a means of toxicity control when potent corticoids are used on children requiring long term therapy. However, this method can be applied to anyone using any oral steroid with great success and significantly reduced side effects. With pulsing, the serious long term side effects of chronic oral treatment are avoided and short term side effect like acne and mineral retention are much milder that usual. This allows for higher doses to be used since the dosing is less frequent. For example, if you would normally take a product at 30 mg/day, that equals a total intake of 210 mg/week. While pulsing, you might typically take 40 mg on work out days only, 3 times per week. That only comes out to 120 mg/week total! This provides the needed benefits of the product at the most crucial times, which are just before and just after a work out, and offers a means of avoiding the suppression of endogenous steroid production one would expect on a standard, daily dosing cycle. In other words, you can often pulse a compound for 6-8 weeks before you realistically need to start thinking about a conventional post cycle therapy. After a 4 week pulsing cycle, post cycle therapy should not even be required in most cases!
Basically, if you dose every day (ED) in perfectly spaced doses, you will achieve 100% effect, 100% short term side effects, and 100% long term side effects. If you dose every other day (EOD) like the pulse protocol, you still get about 60% effect and 75% short term sides, but only about 40% of the long term sides. That's not a bad trade off and very economical on the body and as well as the wallet! Of course, if you would have gained 10 pounds on a standard 1 month cycle, you will only gain about 6 pounds per month pulsing, but it also means you can do this for twice as long as a standard cycle. That equals about 2 months of worry free dosing, so the net effect is a gain of about 12 pounds over 2 months instead of 10 pounds over 1 month. This structure offers fewer sides and a milder post cycle therapy requirement (if even needed at all) plus the slower gains tend to have a better residual that is more likely to be permanent compared to faster gains. It's a great long term strategy for vets wanting to run 12 weeks, and good for new users too looking to run fast and clean 1 month cycles with no post cycle therapy needed later.
There are three common approaches to pulsing:
1) EOD dosing, so 3-4 times per week.
2) 2 days on / 2 days off
3) 2 weeks on / 2 weeks off (some guys do this and think it's great, I don't practice it but it looks exceptionally safe at least)
Depending on your workout schedule, I would use one of these options for optimal pulsing efficiency. Doses can usually be high (40-60 mg instead of 10-30 mg) but take them close together preferably before 6 pm. It's not crucial you take the last dose before 6 pm, but the earlier the better for avoiding shut down. Take half of the total dose pre work out and half post work out instead of spread out evenly over the whole day like a conventional cycle. If an odd dose is to be used, like 30 mg, take the majority pre work out (so 20 mg pre/10 mg post). However, when pulsing non methylated compounds or fast acting ethers, take the greater dose post work out instead of pre work out. When pulsing, dose at least 3 times per week but not more than 4 times to insure optimal results. 5 doses per week is pushing it and suppression will eventually ensue. If this is attempted, "holidays" of complete non use for up to a week per month may be required to discourage suppression. I do not recommend more than 4.5 doses per week and that is for advanced level only!
Also important to remember is nutrition. Have a good, high carb/calorie post work out meal or shake, and ingest sufficient protein especially on the off days. Off days are also a good time to take a cortisol antagonist or even just low dose DHEA (25-50 mg) if you're a slow healer or hard gainer especially. Cortisol peaks in the morning and again in the mid afternoon so dose at those 2 times minimum. Although pulsing is a great way to avoid suppression, if you're extra sensitive to shut down or using a very suppressive compound, an herbal testosterone booster can be used on the off nights or even included everyday. In fact, running test boosters as the core of your cycle and pulsing a methyl just to augment that is possibly one of the best methods you could employ if not using injectable testosterone. Also, avoid the use of SERMs with long half lives when pulsing. An aromatase inhibitor (AI) or test booster will further punctuate the positive, hormonal "bounce back" effect of pulsing. This bounce back phenomenon is an effect that is often noted when pulsing, so don't be alarmed if your testicular size increases dramatically on the off days. It is not uncommon for testicular volume and testosterone levels to increase above baseline, especially on consecutive off days during the pulse or after the cycle is over. This is like a built in post cycle therapy effect and if you're pulsing properly, you should experiences this to some degree. In pulsing, it is also important to remember that the smaller number of dose exposures means faster liver clearance. Normal safety ancillaries like healthy oils and lipid supplements are always advised on cycle and off, but be modest with liver protectants like Milk Thistle. They are generally counter productive and therefore not suggested when pulsing, except in conjunction with very potent or toxic compounds. If you elect to use liver protectants anyway, I would reserve them for off days only or take them no earlier than 6 hrs after your final dose of anabolics. Cycle safe!
Example of a 3x/wk pulse M,W,F:
Week-Dose(mg)
1 (10,20,30)
2 30
3 30-40
4 30-40
5 30-50
6 30-50
7 30-60
8 30-60
Example of a 4x/wk pulse Sat, Sun, Wed, Thur:
Week-Dose(mg)
1 (10,20,30,30)
2 30
3 30-40
4 30-40
5 30-50
6 30-50
