Anabolic steroid cycles are used for one of three purposes. They are:

1.To improve mass and strength.
2.To promote a harder and leaner physique.
3.To improve athletic performance.

It is illegal to use anabolic steroids without a prescription in the U.S. But thanks to the internet, they can be easily bought by anyone. As a result, thousands of athletes and bodybuilders, most of them amateurs have started using anabolic steroids.

The thing is, when used sensibly and properly, anabolic steroids can be safely used. However, no one can guarantee that the use of anabolic steroids is absolutely safe. You can only make their use safer.

First of all, the use of anabolic steroids is not prescribed for enhancing physical performance. In the early phases, there were not many clinical studies on how anabolic steroids effected physical enhancement and performance. In the absence of this data, people developed their own cycles and dosages, usually through trial and error. However, that has now changed and many clinical studies have been conducted in real world conditions, with actual dosages to examine the effect of anabolic steroids on enhancing physique and performance.

Some of these studies have shown that anabolic steroids give the greatest benefit when used in a logical sequence. This sequence is also called a steroid cycle. Body builders and athletes often use the term ‘on-cycle’ to refer to the time when they are taking steroids. The period when they are not taking steroids is called an ‘off-cycle’. The average cycle can last anywhere between six to 12 weeks.

Many individuals also take two or more anabolic steroids at the same time, in a process called stacking . Stacking can cause a massive gain in strength and mass, which a single anabolic steroid cannot deliver. But it is recommended only for advanced steroid users.

While oral steroids are quick-acting and give faster results, they can be toxic if taken for a long time. Therefore, some individuals will take oral steroids for a month and then switch to injectable steroids. Injectable steroids can take some time to show their effect, so people who are looking for quick gains may ‘front load’ or take a larger than normal quantity of the anabolic steroid initially.

In palliative medicine, anabolic steroids are used for treating different diseases and debilitations. But the dosage is usually small and there are no ‘cycles’, unlike when they are used to enhance physique.

Safety Issues When Starting a Steroid Cycle

Your first concern if you are planning to use anabolic steroids (to enhance your physique and performance) should be safety. When used for therapeutic use, anabolic steroids are considered to be safe, but if you start abusing them, like some bodybuilders do, they can easily become dangerous. Here is a list of things that you should keep in mind before you start taking anabolic steroids for muscle gain.
Do Not Take Anabolic Steroids for Body Building Before the Age of 25

Some teenagers are taken in by the photos of professional body builders in body building magazines and they start desiring bodies like that. They hear that anabolic steroids can help them attain such mass and they start experimenting with them. But they do not know how hard the body builder must have worked to develop his muscles. The teenagers also do not know that at their age, there is no steroid in the world that can get them bodies like that.

No individual should start taking anabolic steroids before he reaches the age of 25 and even then must resort to using steroids only if he has been lifting weights for at least 5 years. Between the age of 12 and 26, the hormone level in a man’s body will steadily rise. After 26, these levels start tapering off and by the time they reach 40, it is a fraction of its peak level .

When puberty begins, there is a spurt in hormone levels, which causes male characteristics such as body hair, deep voice and increase in height to develop. In this stage of growth, the body is awash with naturally produced hormones and it is like a mild steroid cycle in itself. Introducing exogenous anabolic steroids into the body during this period will be counterproductive. If an individual uses anabolic steroids without having reached his genetic potential, there can also be many side effects like stunted growth, stretch marks, hair loss, acne, water retention, gynecomastia and even organ failure.

An anabolic steroid is not a replacement for a good diet and exercise. While you may get some gains initially, without the proper nutrition and workout, you may have trouble hanging on to it after you finish your cycle. Teenagers can achieve their natural limits by adjusting their food intake, eating foods that build muscles and following an effective training program.