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The Doctor Bodybuilding Newsletter - Issue Two

The New Doctor Bodybuilding Newsletter, Issue two, Thursday May 4th
2000

In this weeks issue of the New Doctor Bodybuilding Newsletter

Rules to grow by:
10 general bodybuilding rules
and
10 steroid rules

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please feel free to email us at doctorbodybuilding@h.... We
are always interested in hearing from you and getting your
suggestions on future issues!

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personal online consultations, please email us at
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10 General Bodybuilding Rules You Should Never Break

The purpose of this newsletter is to give bodybuilders everywhere
practical, straight forward and meaningful information that can be
applied to their bodybuilding program in order to illicit better
results. To this end I thought it would be a good idea to outline
some general rules that the average bodybuilder should always follow.
By doing this my hope is that everyone who reads this will construct
a plan based on a solid foundation which in turn will lead to better
results in the short and long term.

I'd like to start off with some general bodybuilding rules. Some will
involve your training, other your diet while other will involve more
general principles that can be applied to your daily life but that
will still have a direct impact on your bodybuilding progress. These
rules are very general and will apply to 99% of the bodybuilders out
there to some degree. Of course there are always the lucky few who
can pretty much do whatever they want and still grow. They are the
few and far between so I won't write any rules for them cause often
there aren't any. Here we go.

10 general bodybuilding rules to grow by:

1. Eat every 3 hours. Now I don't mean sit down to a 3 course meal
every 3 hours. What's required here is some protein at least every 3
hours. What this does it constantly supply your body with resources
it needs to build new muscle while inhibiting catabolism which is the
breakdown of muscle tissue. Basically your body can't build new
muscle without plenty of protein and protein is not like carbs and
fat. It does not get stored in the body for later use. The protein
you eat either gets used by your body or clears the system every 3
hours or so. Every time you go to the bathroom your body is removing
some excess protein from your blood, with the help of your kidneys
via your urine. In order to make sure your body always has protein to
work with, you need to keep feeding it and that means ingesting some
protein every 3 hours or so. For most bodybuilders 20-40 grams of
protein (the amount depends on your current size and on your goals)
every 3 hours seems to be adequate. By ensuring a constant supply of
protein in your blood you also prevent your body from braking down
your muscle in order to obtain protein. Your body has a lot of uses
for protein, one of them being to build new muscle but it also uses
it for other important functions as maintaining your immune system
and repairing other vital systems. When there is not enough protein
in the blood stream to carry out these functions, the body releases
cortisol to break down muscle cells which releases protein. Obviously
we don't want that because we are trying to gain muscle here not lose
it, right? So, to be safe and to ensure your body always has enough
to build new muscle and prevent breakdown, make sure you get at least
20-40 grams of protein every 3 hours.

2. Keep your work outs to 1 hour max. Preferably I would say keep it
to 45 minutes max but I know some people find it impossible to work
out that fast while other require longer rest in between sets making
a 45 minute work out impossible. So to be safe, lets say 1 hour. That
hour does not include the 5-10 minutes of warm ups and stretching you
should be doing in advance of your work sets. Why do we want to keep
the work outs under an hour? There are a number of reasons. For one
thing, study after study has shown that intensity, that is the
ability to give it all you can, drops significantly after 45 minutes
to 1 hour. This is probably due in part to the fact that it is very
difficult to work out at a super intensive pace for very long amounts
of time. After a while your body just gets tired, you begin to lose
interest and your mind begins to wander. Once this happens you can no
longer achieve the kind of intensity you need to grow. Another reason
why your intensity drops off so after 45 minutes to an hour is
probably due to a drop in testosterone levels after approximately 45
minutes of intensive training. Less testosterone floating around in
your blood means less strength and mental drive and focus. After all,
its testosterone that makes us big and strong, without enough of it
the work out is not going anywhere. This drop in testosterone levels
coincides with a gradual increase in cortisol levels throughout the
work out. Intense training causes your body to release cortisol which
is a bad thing but something we can't avoid. However, when
testosterone levels begin to drop, the raising cortisol levels in
your body change the balance of power and a catabolic rather then
anabolic environment is created. This is very dangerous for a number
of reasons. For one, a catabolic environment leads to the breakdown
of muscle. Secondly, attempting to train while in a state of
catabolism will lead to noticeable strength decreases and the very
ultimately, overtraining. Both of these factors are detrimental to
your progress and must be avoided at all times. One simple way to do
this is to keep your work outs below 1 hour so that you get out of
there just as your anabolic state is about to be replaced by a
catabolic one. Go as hard as you can for 45 minutes to 1 hour and
then get out. Its that simple.

3. Stay calm. What does staying calm have to do with bodybuilding? A
lot actually. Although this rule may sound a little simplistic, it
can actually play a leading role in deciding whether you progress or
stagnate. When you let yourself get all worked up and upset over
something your body releases stress hormones to combat the situation.
Its known as the fight or flight response. Your body prepares for a
tense situation by releasing cortisol to breakdown muscle for energy.
What could be worse then working out day in and day out to put on a
little extra muscle just to see it get burned away because your
stressed out? Now don't panic if you get upset once because your not
going to melt. This rule is for those people who work 10 hour days in
high stress jobs or for those people who seem to be wound up a little
too tight all the time. Relax. If you won't for your heart's sake
then for your muscle's sake. Being stressed out too often will lead
to an internal environment that frequently favours catabolism over
anabolism. You don't want that. So next time your ready to freak out
over something, remember, stay calm or else you may start burning all
that hard earned muscle away.

4. Have a post work out drink. This is probably the most important
meal of the day. Right after you finish a grueling, intense work out
your body is starving for all the nourishment it can get. Don't let
it suffer. You worked out hard need feed it and make it grow.
Immediately following each work out you should down a drink
consisting of a high glycemic carb (I like maltodextrim, glycemic
rating of 150) and a protein that can quickly be absorbed by your
body (for this I would go for whey isolate). Keep the fats out of
this drink because they will only slow down the absorption of the
carbs and protein. For most people a 3:1 to 4:1 ratio of carbs to
protein works best. For example, mix 200 grams of maltodextrin with
50 grams of whey isolate. If you can afford it I would suggest using
only 40 grams of whey isolate and adding 10 grams of glutamine
peptides to bring the protein count up to 50. Glutamine peptides are
great after a work out because glutamine makes up 60% of all skeletal
muscle and without enough of it you just can't grow. Glutamine
deficiency (not enough floating around in the blood) is one of the
major factors that lead to catabolism. Without a good solid post work
out drink, your progress will be seriously limited. If your going to
put any effort into your diet, put it into perfecting your post work
out drink.

5. Rest. Again, a simple one but one that most people especially
beginners neglect. Growth does not happen while your in the gym. It
happens after you work out especially when you sleep. Now don't fall
into the usual belief that muscle grows exclusively during sleep. It
doesn't. Your body is constantly in a state of rebuilding. However,
while you sleep your body does do most of its rebuilding work which
is why sleep and enough of it is essential to every bodybuilder. By
rest however I am not just referring to sleep. I'm referring more
generally to the time you take between work outs especially between
working the same body part. One of the biggest mistakes beginners
make is they fall into the work out everyday trap. They figure "the
more I work out the bigger I'll get". This belief is usually backed
up by the quick gains made by most beginners. What they don't
understand however is that most if not all beginners make quick gains
when they start simply because their body is responding to the sudden
change in activity level. The kind of gains beginners experience will
not continue throughout their entire bodybuilding career and are not
due to the high volume that most beginners usually put into their
work outs. One reason most beginners become discouraged from working
out after 4-6 months is because they are no longer seeing the kind of
results they saw when they began. A lot don't see any new results
after the first 6 months. The reason for this is because they are
still training the way they were when they started which means most
are highly over trained. The best way to over train is to not give
your body enough time to rest. Doing the whole body 3 times a week is
not nearly enough time between work outs to allow for growth. If
anything it will only lead to catabolism. Always leave at least 5
days between before working the same body part again and as a general
rule, work the entire body no sooner then every 5 days. This will
ensure your body has enough time to repair and rebuild. Some people
may require more then 5 days. To figure out just how long you need,
listen to your body and look at the progress you are making. Common
signs of over training include inability to sleep, prolonged
soreness, lack of appetite and irritability. Another good sign of
over training is lack of progress in the gym. If you don't seem to be
able to lift any more then you did a month ago or if your lifts
actually seem to be decreasing, its time to add some more days off to
your routine. In the case of severe over training, its sometimes a
good idea to take a full week off from working out or to cut your
volume in half for a week. This will allow your body more time to
recover.

6. Drink enough water. Again so simple but so often ignored. It is
vital to maintain an anabolic internal environment that you drink at
least one big glass of water every hour. Your body is made up mainly
of water which means your muscle cells are also mainly water. Your
muscles also use require water to pull nutrients such as protein and
carbs into their cells. This is really the easiest rule to follow but
one that most bodybuilders don't follow because most don't see what
water has to do with bodybuilding muscle. Its not that water is vital
in building muscle, water is vital in being generally healthy. You
can't possibly expect to build muscle when your not even healthy. So
drink plenty of water, at least one big glass an hour. Your muscles
and body in general will thank you.

7. Be intense. Its what seperates that average bodybuilder from that
guy who stands out in the crowd (no I'm not talking about steroids,
although those often do the trick also). Some guys will go into the
gym day after day, year after year and will not improve. usually they
wander in, look around wondering what they want to work today and
what exercises they want to do. Then they chat for a while with
someone then check out the fitness chicks ass while she does squats
and then maybe they will do a set, usually with the exact same weight
they have done for years and will put little to no real effort into
it. They think they are putting effort in because the weight feels
heavy but are they really pushing themselves to the max? Not even
close. If you want your body to grow you have to give it a reason.
You have to push it to the edge. You have to be intense. Intensity is
defined as the amount of weight you are lifting to relation to your 1
rep max. However intensity also relates to the mental intensity you
put into your work outs day in and day out. You have to want it. When
you get under the weight you have to be ready for war. You have to be
ready to hit failure and then push your body for one more rep. You
have to focus your mind to get it ready for the pain that a super
intense set will cause you and you can not back down just because it
starts to get tough. Do not let yourself be distracted when your in
the gym. Go there with a purpose and focus on that exclusively. Save
the fitness chick for after the work out (every hard working
bodybuilder needs some fun right?). Spend a minute or two before
every set mentally preparing yourself for what your about to do. See
the lift in your head and see how you want it to go. Imagine yourself
driving the weight through the ceiling. Working out is more a mental
battle then it it a physical one. When you have the mental intensity
ready to go, the physical will follow.

7. Always try to improve. This relates closely to the last rule
because its something that comes with intensity. One thing most
bodybuilders forget is that the body will only build as much muscle
as it needs to preform a certain amount of work. Basically if you can
lift a certain amount of weight for 8 reps and you continue lifting
that amount of weight for 8 reps for months or years on end, you body
will not grow. Why? Because it doesn't have to. The human body is a
very efficient machine. It won't hold any more weight then it has to.
If you don't give it a reason to grow it won't. So, in order to give
your body a reason to continuously build new muscle, you have to
continuously strive to improve in the gym. Now I'm not saying lift
more weight each week because this is obviously impossible because a
10 year bodybuilder would be squatting over a thousand pounds. What
I'm suggesting is that you try and get one more rep, or slightly more
weight, or slow down the lift to increase the time under tension.
Little changes like this will allow you to constantly increase the
demand on your muscles. For example, if you do a set of bench press
for 8 reps at 200 pounds at a tempo of 2-1-1 (2 seconds down, 1
second pause and 1 second up) you can add 5 pounds to the bar, go for
one more rep, or try to do 8 reps but at a 3-1-1 tempo. All three of
these options will increase the stress on the muscle and will force
it to adapt and hopefully grow. Continuous growth requires
progressive increases in work load. Even if these increases are small
they are still improvements and that will keep you growing.

8. Concentrate on basic movements. Complex and highly isolating
movements may look nice but they are not whats going to make you
bigger. There are a core set of exercises that all bodybuilders must
incorporate into their work out if they want to maximize their gains.
These core exercises are chest press (bench or dumbbell), military
press, pull ups, squats and dead lifts. These movements are big basic
lifts that utilize multiple joints and activate lots of muscle fibers
throughout the body. Some, like squats and dead%20lifts work the
entire body. The goal of working out is to get the most benefit out
of the least amount of work. These exercises allow you to do minimal
exercises while maximizing the workload. Chest presses for example
work the pecs, delts, tris, bis and lats. Pull ups work the lats,
bis, and delts. By activating as many different muscle groups as
possible in each exercise you increase the intensity of the work done
which promotes growth. Another benefit of big basic movements is
their ability to create an anabolic environment inside your body.
Squats and dead lifts for example have been shown to cause a spike in
growth hormone and testosterone levels. This is one of the main
reason why squats are considered to be the king of all exercises. By
involving practically every muscle group in the body, the squat
forces the body to respond by released an increased amount of
anabolic hormones. So, when developing a routine, make sure the
basics form the foundation of your work out.

9. Change your work out every 6 weeks. The human body is a master at
adapting to new situations. However this adaptation does not take
place immediately. In bodybuilding terms, your body will usually
adapt to a particular routine in about 6 weeks. For this reason it is
necessary to alter your routine before your body gets too used to it.
It is the during the processing of adaptation that your body gets
stronger and bigger but after it has found a way to adapt, the need
to improve (that is continue to get bigger and stronger) will be gone
and your progress will usually start to plateau. To combat this you
should try a new set of exercises, juggle the order of exercises or
change your desired rep range every 6 weeks at the most. Some people
prefer to alter weeks of higher rep and lower rep training in order
to keep their body guessing. Some people prefer to throw in the
occasion drop set based work out to challenge their body. The key
here is variation. You don't want to allow your body to get so
comfortable with a routine that it no longer needs to improve in
order to complete the desired work load. For most people 6 weeks is a
good time to change things up but some people find every 4 weeks to
be more acceptable while others will try a slight variation every
week. Its up to you.

10. Don't work out more then 3 days in a row. This rule applies to
the average bodybuilder, that is, the genetically average non-steroid
enhanced bodybuilder. People with superior genetics and those those
on steroids can ignore this rule because their recovery capabilities
are greater then those of the average individual. Most people can not
and for that matter should not work out for more then 3 days
consecutively. When you work out, you place intense stress both on
the muscles being worked and your entire neurological system. Just
like your muscles, your neurological system needs a break to from
time to time. Your muscles may be the ones moving the weight but they
wouldn't be able to do it without the signals being sent from your
brain to tell them to fire. Without that signal the muscles wouldn't
respond. When you work out for too many days in a row you tire your
neurological system out to the point where it can not function
efficiently. When this happens the signals from your brain will not
reach enough muscle fibers which will in turn lower your work load
capability. Not only will you find yourself unable to lift as much
weight but you may even begin to feel generally fatigued as your
entire neurological system begins to tire. To keep your nerves fresh,
give your entire body a day off at most every 3 days.

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10 Steroid Rules You Should Never Break

Of course, steroid use needs rules also. After all steroids are
powerful and possibly dangerous drugs that need to be administered
intelligently if the results are to be satisfactory and more
importantly, if your health is to be preserved. So here they are, 10
steroid rules you should always follow.

1. Always use clomid. This is an absolute must. Every single steroid
cycle you do must include clomid if you intend to keep your gains and
get your balls in working order again as soon as possible. How much
clomid you take and how long you take it for is a matter that can be
debated. Some bodybuilders like to take 50 mg's of clomid a day
throughout their cycle and then up the dosage to 100 mg's a day for a
couple of weeks once the steroids have cleared their system and then
taper it back down to 50 mg's a day for an other week or two. Others
won't start taking any clomid until the last week of their cycle when
they will take 50 mg's a day followed by a week of 100 mg's a day
followed by another week of 50 mg's a day. The great thing about
clomid is that is has almost no serious side effects and studies have
shown that it can be taken for up to one year at 50 mg's a day
without any adverse reactions. For this reason, I would suggest being
liberal with your clomid usage because in my opinion more simply
can't hurt you but too little can. I believe that clomid should be
taken throughout the cycle to keep your HPTA alive and then for at
least 3 weeks after the steroids have cleared your system (not, this
is not the same as saying 3 weeks after your last injection as some
steroids may be active in your system for up to 3 weeks after the
last injection eg. sustanon 250). I know many other experts would
consider this overkill but I would rather be safe then sorry. The
benefits of taking clomid easily outweigh the cost. Clomid will allow
you to continue producing natural testosterone even while on a cycle
this will in turn prevent testicular shut down and shrinkage during
long cycles. Once your testicles have shut%20down they do not simply
start back up again once you stop taking steroids. The process takes
time and can be a very long and upsetting process, especially for
those who were on long cycles (over 8 weeks). Studies have shown that
it can take up to 4 weeks for the body to even begin producing any
testosterone again after a cycle ends and it can take up to 6 months
for it to get back to normal levels. Even worse, it has been seen in
individuals who have taken extremely long cycles (6 months and over)
that natural testosterone production can take up to a year to come
back and that's if it comes back at all. One of the most severe side
effects of taking steroids for prolonged periods of time is that
shutting down your natural testosterone production for too long may
cause it to be permanently inhibited. Basically you want to keep your
balls working even while on a cycle and clomid, taken during the
cycle, can do the trick. Clomid taken after a cycle has ended will
help you return regain your natural testosterone levels within 10-14
days. The lack of endogenous testosterone and the abundance of
cortisol and estrogen after a cycle ends is the reason why so many
users lose so much size, also known as the post cycle crash. Clomid
not only gets your natural testosterone going again but it also acts
as a mild anti-estrogen which will help combat the high estrogen
levels typically seen in most bodybuilders post cycle. Clomid is
without a doubt the most important part of your cycle It may not be
the drug giving you the mass but it will keep you healthy and keep
you big once the cycle ends.

2. Start heavy, end light. This rule refers to the way you should
design your cycle. There are a whole lot of suggestions floating
around the net on how to build a cycle but I think simplicity is the
key. You should start your cycles with any strong androgens
(dianabol, anadrol, testosterone) you intend to take and then taper
off them and onto weaker, anabolic steroids (winstrol, primobolan).
The reason for doing this is simple. You build your mass in the first
2, 4, or 6 weeks (depending on the total length of your cycle) and
then spend the remaining weeks tapering off with mild anabolics which
will not inhibit your HPTA but will help you maintain the muscle you
gained in the first half of the cycle. For example, you could do a 6
week cycle like this.

Week 1 - 30 mg's dianabol a day, 500 mg's testosterone cypionate a
week, 50 mg's of clomid every day
Week 2 - 30 mg's dianabol a day, 500 mg's testosterone cypionate a
week, 50 mg's of clomid every day
Week 3 - 25 mg's dianabol a day, 500 mg's testosterone cypionate a
week, 50 mg's of clomid every day
Week 4 - 20 mg's dianabol a day, 250 mg's testosterone cypionate a
week, 50 mg's of clomid every day
Week 5 - 250 mg's testosterone cypionate a week, 50 mg's of winstrol
every other day, 50 mg's of clomid every day
Week 6 - 50 mg's of winstrol every other day, 50 mg's clomid every day
Week 7 - 100 mg's of clomid every day
Week 8 - 100 mg's of clomid every day
Week 9 - 50 mg's of clomid every day

By constructing your cycle in this fashion, the androgenic:anabolic
ratio of the cycle slowly shifts from highly androgenic to highly
anabolic. Dianabol is a high androgenic drug with a rating of
approximately 5:1. Testosterone is evenly weighted at 1:1. Winstrol
is highly anabolic with a rating of approximately 1:5. What this
allows for is 4 weeks of mass building followed by a week of
transition and then a week of anabolic maintenance. This of course is
followed by 3 weeks of clomid to avoid any post cycle crash (see rule
1). This cycle could be improved even more by extending the actual
time on steroids to 8 weeks from 6 and extending the time winstrol
only time from 1 week to 3 (instead of just being week 6 it would now
be weeks 6, 7 and 8). This would then of course be followed by 3
weeks of clomid. By extending the cycle in this manner, you would be
providing your body with a mild anabolic steroid that would not
inhibit its HPTA but would still work to maintain the sizeable gains
you should of made during the first 4 weeks. All good cycles mass
building cycles should start off favoring androgenics while tapering
off to favor anabolics. Of Course some cycles are done for the
purpose of cutting up or hardening up in which case the entire cycle
would be highly anabolic. Such a cycle would be an exception to this
rule.

3. Do not take steroids before 21. Unless prescribed by a doctor to
treat a legitimate medical problem (endogenous testosterone
deficiency for example), no one under the age of 21 should ever take
anabolic steroids. There are a number of reasons for this. One, teens
produce as much natural testosterone as a weak cycle of steroids
would give them. When you are in your teens there is no reason to be
adding any more testosterone to your system. You have plenty. If you
insist that you can't gain weight its cause your not eating enough.
Along with super high levels of testosterone, teens also have super
fast metabolisms which means they burn calories fast. So eat more,
its that simple. Adding extra testosterone to your system at this age
will only mess you up. Sure you will get bigger but at what cost? You
will inhibit your natural testosterone levels at a time in your life
in which it is imperative for your development that they be
functioning. Its during your teenage years that your body is changing
into its adult form and its developing its adult systems. Playing
around with your hormones at this age can hinder your development.
Taking steroids before your done growing can also prematurely stunt
your growth by closing your growth plates. Studies have shown that as
little as one cycle with 200 mg's a week of testosterone cypionate
can have this effect. Also, people who take steroids before they are
21 are often just being impatient. They have not reached their
natural potential yet and don't want to wait a couple more years.
They want the muscle now. This is not the way to approach steroids.
This kind of thinking will only lead you to quit working out once the
cycle is over the the gains have stopped or as in the cases of many
young steroid uses, that one cycle you said you would take quickly
becomes 5 or 10 cycles and then you are hooked. Its not worth it.
Wait till your body is mature and you have developed some size
naturally before you look to steroids.

4. Don't take steroids if you haven't worked out for at least 2
years. This is a situation I've seen way too many times which leads
me to add it to the list of rules. Some guy, who has been working out
for 2 months and is getting impatient because he wants to be huge now
decides to take steroids. As in the case of the last rule, this
usually ends in one of two scenarios. One, he quits after the cycle
ends and the gains stop coming because once again he has become
impatient with natural training and two, he decides to take another
cycle and another cycle after that and so on because steroids are the
only way to get big. This individual spent no time developing an
understanding for bodybuilding. Most people until they have worked
out hard for at least (and its usually way more) 2 years are no where
near their natural potential. They have jumped the gun and turned to
steroids robbing their body of muscle that it could of put on in a
much more healthy and long term way. People who do not have adequate
natural bodybuilding experience simply have not developed the
dedication required to continue training once the juice ends. They
become dependant. Steroids become the only kind of bodybuilding they
know and they come to expect steroid like gains all the time. This
leads either to chronic steroid use or quitting bodybuilding all
together. Do yourself a favor, train for a couple years at the least
before you decide to take steroids and only take them when you
honestly believe that your body has reached a point where it won't
put on much more then a couple pounds a year naturally.

5. Don't take less then 500 mg's a week. Again some experts make take
exception to this rule but I believe that most up to d ate steroid
experts will say that any less then 500 mg's a week, even for a first
time user is a waste. Some people believe that you can make gains on
250 mg's a week and I agree you can make gains but will you be
satisfied with your gains and will they be worth the effort of taking
an illegal substance and injecting yourself once or more a week?
Probably not. You don't take steroids because you want to put on 4
pounds. Chances are you could do that naturally be just properly
applying yourself. Most bodybuilders who take steroids want to see at
least a 10-15 pound gain )lean mass not including water) and this is
going to require more then 250 mg's or less a week. I should clarify
exactly what I mean by 500 mg's. By this I mean total miligrams of
steroids in your system in one week. For example, 250 mg's of
testosterone and 250 mg's of deca durabolin in one week would equal
500 mg's. As would 40 mg's of dianabol a day combined with a single
injection of 250 mg's of testosterone. The key is the total weekly
amount. People who try and play it safe by taking 250 mg's or less a
week will be taking enough steroids to replace their natural
testosterone which they will be inhibiting to the exact same degree
as someone taking 500 mg's a week. The body reacts the same to both
amounts. After more then 2 weeks of approximately 100 mg's or more of
steroid replacement, your body shuts down its own production because
it is getting plenty from outside sources. Therefore, since your body
is going to be inhibited no matter what you do (assuming you are
planning to take for more then 2 weeks), you might as well make it
worth your while and take enough to get satisfactory gains. For those
who worry that 500 mg's a week is too high for a first time user,
that's just plain untrue. Although this amount may increase the
likelihood of some side effects such as acne and water retention, it
will only put the most sensitive and susceptible individuals at a
greater risk for more serious side effects like gyno. If this worries
you, always make sure you take clomid (see rule 1) and if you want to
be extra safe, have some novadex on hand just in case you feel the
signs of gyno coming on.

6. Don't take 20 mg's or more of 17-alkenated oral steroids for more
then 4 weeks straight. Most of the popular oral steroids (dianabol,
anadrol, winstrol, anavar) are what are known as 17-alk. Basically
its a chemical way of describing their molecular composition. This is
important because their composition makes them very effective at
getting into the blood stream but also make them very hard on the
liver. The reason for this is because it is the livers job to break
down certain types of molecules that try to get into the blood
stream. Anabolic steroids are some of these molecules the liver is
supposed to break down. When you take oral steroids, you don't want
the liver to break them down because that will render them useless.
To combat this a method was developed by which the steroid molecule
would be protected from the actions of the liver. This method is very
successful and almost all of the steroid gets through. However, as a
result of this, the liver is put under a lot of stress. This stress
is signified by high liver enzymes and later by a range of illnesses
from mild to dangerous. For this reason, oral steroids that are 17-
alk and which are taken at amounts higher then 20 mg's a day, should
not be taken for more then 4 weeks at a time. After 4 weeks you run
the risk of a number of liver related illnesses. Although there are
some natural supplements (such as evening primrose oil) that you can
take you help your liver, I still think its s good idea to lay off
the 17-alk steroids after 4 weeks to let your liver recover.

7. Do not take steroids for more then 10 weeks straight. I guess this
rule can also be called "do not become a professional bodybuilder"
because many have been known to stay on steroids for as long as 6
months straight while others have been rumoured to be on steroids to
some degree or another for their entire careers. Why 10 weeks?
because after 10 weeks your body starts to enter a new level of shut
down. After 2 weeks your body has pretty much stopped producing
endogenous testosterone but after 10 weeks of usage your testicles
begin to shrink which can lead to a very lengthy recover process once
you come off or in the worst cases, permanent shut down. Although
this permanent shut down isn't always permanent, as it can be
reversed with the proper medication, it is still a very dangerous
situation because you risk permanently losing your ability to produce
testosterone (which would now require you to become a member of the
inject a week for life club) not to mention having raisin like balls
for the rest of your life. To avoid this very unhealthy and
embarrassing situation, come off steroids totally every 10 weeks at
the most.

8. Stay off for at least as long as you were on. This one is real
simple. If just finished a 8 week cycle, wait at least 8 weeks before
starting a new one. I say "at least" because the more time you wait
the better as you body will get a better chance to recover. The human
body likes balance and taking anabolic steroids completely throws off
that delicate balance. Taking plenty of time off between cycles is
the only way to allow your body to find that perfect balance again.
During your cycle your body will detect the abundance of androgenic
hormones in your blood and will respond by inhibiting your HPTA and
by converting some of the excess androgenic hormones to estrogen
which is your body's way of regaining that delicate balance. When you
stop taking steroids you throw the balance off again but this time
its in favor of the catabolic hormones where as it was in favor of
the anabolic hormones during the cycle. Again your body will respond
to this imbalance by increasing its output of anabolic hormones but
this takes time. That's why I suggest you take off at least as much
time as you were on. The logic behind this formula is simple and
doesn't fully explain the need to take off at least as much time as
you were on but it does serve our purposes. Basically your body will
require at least as much time to reset your balance as you took to
throw it off. Again, its simple but it works. Not only will you be
healthier using this method but your subsequent cycles will be more
more effective because you gave your receptor sites more time to
clear out.

9. Learn then do. Ok, this one shouldn't even have to be mentioned
here but I'm going to add it because I'm always amazed by the amount
of people who email me with a steroid related question, more
specifically about cycles they are about to try, when it is obvious
they have never even read one single book, article, or web site about
steroids. They hear about a steroid that supposedly makes people big
and they take it. They have no idea how much they should take or what
this particular steroid is good for or even if its safe but they
still dive right into it. Steroids are not a game. Steroids are not
something you can mess around with and hope that things turn out the
way you want them to. Steroids are drugs and just like any other
drugs they must be administered intelligently or you can get hurt.
Steroids used to be legal. Back then it was a doctors responsibility
to learn about different drugs and know exactly how to administer
them. However, steroids are illegal today which means most people
have become instant doctors and are administering their own drugs.
The only problem is people are not putting the required thought into
what they are doing. They are not learning about steroids before they
act. Some people just guess and hope for the best. Others blindly
trust others (usually the person they bought the steroids from) to
teach them what to take and how much to take. Some people just hear
the word steroids and figure nothing can go wrong and the only thing
that is going to happen is they are going to get huge. The truth is
you can get sick if you take steroids the wrong way. You can take too
much, take a particular kind that is too strong for you, take for too
long, inject wrong and injure yourself or fail to take the proper
precautions and expose yourself to greater risks. To avoid problems
like these, hit the books (or web) before you start. Find out
everything you can about the many different types of steroids
available to you. Find out how to spot a fake (as with all
underground markets, the steroid market is ripe with fakes). Learn
the proper way to inject. Read about cycling and cycle design. There
are many good books available. For example, the World Anabolic Review
(or WAR as its usually called) is definitely one of the best and most
popular. You can also check out our web site at
www.geocities.com/doctorbodybuilding/ for lots of great steroid
related material. Way too many people take steroids without putting
any thought into what they are about to embark on. This usually leads
to unsatisfactory results and in some unfortunate situations, injury.
Don't make this common mistake. Learn about steroids before you
start. Its the easiest rule to follow and its also the smartest.

10. Make sure you have all the necessary drugs before you start your
cycle. Here's an example for you. You plan to do a cycle of dianabol,
testosterone, winstrol and clomid. You buy the dianabol and
testosterone and plan to buy the winstrol and clomid in a couple
weeks when you need them. Four weeks into your cycle and just when
you're supposed to start the winstrol you find out that you can't get
any winstrol or clomid for that matter. Now you're screwed. You have
done 4 weeks of dianabol and testosterone and you about to be left
high and dry with no mild anabolic to taper off with and no clomid to
kick start your system and prevent you from crashing. With no
winstrol and no clomid you will have to try and find a way to taper
off with the testosterone (assuming you have enough testosterone left
to taper with) but the chances are you will still end up crashing
mightly hard when your shorter then expected cycle comes to an end.
How can you avoid this problem? Simple. Have all the drugs you need
for your entire cycle on hand before you start. By "all the drugs" I
mean any and all steroids you plan on taking during the cycle and any
preventative drugs you may need such as clomid and novadex. As per
rule 1, clomid is a necessity during any cycle so you should always
have clomid handy. Taking steroids requires planning and preparation.
Unless you want to suffer through unnecessary problems, have every
thing you need ready in advance.

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