Post Cycle Therapy (PCT): Take Precautions!<\/b><\/p>\n

If you mess with after\u00a0horny Bull, you might get more than just the horns. Be warned, I\u2019ve seen it on YouTube. If the violent goring doesn\u2019t kill you, the irrepressible raping will! What does this have to do with bodybuilding and supplements? NOTHING!! I was just in repulsive shock and so ghastly petrified at witnessing such a video, that I had to write about it! Don\u2019t be randomly clicking on stuff when you\u2019re bored, you might not like what you experience. Although, now that I think about it, the old aphorism of; \u201cmess with a bull, and you get the horns\u201d, could apply to bodybuilding and supplementation after all.<\/p>\n

Now, bodybuilding doesn\u2019t NEED to have the stigma of anabolics married to it. It just so happens that bodybuilding is an EXTREME undertaking and with an extremist attitude, comes the search for all the tools that would allow for maximum performance enhancement. It is only natural for any physique athlete to want to push the natural and physical boundaries. Therein lies the problem\u2026or attraction! Depends on how you look at it! The point being, that when you take those radical approaches, you must be ready to suffer the consequences of your actions. With take, there must be a price\u2026and that price for men, is usually a trade for your erection, or, growth of feminine, shapely, boobies. Supplementing with anabolics, or the current crop of powerful pro-hormones (1-DHEA, 4-DHEA, 19-Nor-DHEA), WILL lead to maximum performance in the gym and recovery and, ultimately, bigger and stronger muscles, but what are you willing to sacrifice? Let\u2019s be truthful, not everyone experiences the dreaded \u201cside-effects\u201d of anabolic supplementation. Those dirty bastards are the few lucky ones, but for the rest of us, the post-cycle reaction may not be favorable. And some may be worse off than others!<\/p>\n

-Nostalgic Break-<\/p>\n

In the 60\u2019s and 70\u2019s it seemed like our bodybuilding icons NEVER experienced the ugly side effects of the anabolic game. Could it have been that they didn\u2019t indulge in as much usage? Could it have been that their \u201cgear\u201d was just that much better? Or perhaps, could it have been that they were just genetic freaks? It\u2019s really tough to say, because even 1981 Mr. Olympia, Franco Columbu, took home a Sandow with a hooter hanging off his right pectoral! The thoughts on usage back then were simple; stay on and then taper off. Simple enough, right? And for the most part, it seemed to work! Eventually, however, good, old fashioned, side-effects manage to persevere, as was in the case of Franco. It\u2019s my opinion that our silver age bodybuilding fathers were just plain LUCKY. We only ever heard about and saw the GREATS from that era, but what about the local bodybuilders that we never knew existed that were pounding Dbols and Primo?? My guess is that there were TONS of users experiencing estrogen bloat, gynecomastia, and plummeting sex drives, but we just never heard about all those poor fools.<\/p>\n

-End Nostalgic Break-<\/p>\n

Our fathers were kind of on to something with regards to the \u201ctapering off anabolics\u201d idea. In essence, it makes sense! Let the anabolics slowly leave the system, while at the same time, your own body recognizes the decline in exogenous hormone and correspondingly begins to prepare and produce its\u2019 own natural hormone levels again. Sounds like a win\/win right? Well, it will work for some and it won\u2019t work as well for others. The anabolic pursuit is completely individual in response. What do we do about this dilemma? We attack post-cycle with a state of readiness<\/b> (#RedCon1), and come prepared in case we face the hormonal backlash that we all but expected to endure. The best offense is a good defense, which surprisingly, I didn\u2019t quite understand what my football coach was saying, until I compared it to anabolic use.<\/p>\n

Given our current age in supplementation, we are at a brand new apex in over the counter effectiveness. In most cases of \u201cPost Cycle Therapy\u201d (PCT for short), we can now get away with effective supplements bought online! Sure, in some cases, pharmaceutical preparations will be necessary, but for the most part, Post Cycle Therapy can be handled via supplementation. Remember our silver age hero\u2019s? By using the old \u201ctapering\u201d schema of anabolics\/pro-hormones and then adding in estrogen management\/aromatase inhibitor supplements when needed, for example RedCon1\u2019s SHEILD<\/b><\/a>, you have effectively placed your own body\u2019s hormonal production factory in a much better place. If a stronger plan of preventative attack is needed, a more cohesive product with estrogen management with added pituitary stimulation, could be used, for example; RedCon1\u2019s AFTERMATH<\/b><\/a>. Like I stated previously, there will be extreme cases that will need pharmaceutical help post-cycle, but those are NOT majority cases, especially in the case of pro-hormone supplementation!<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s take a moment to get into WHY estrogen management is the key to post-cycle therapy for men. When coming off anabolic support, natural testosterone is extremely suppressed. Your anterior pituitary, in your brain, senses that the balance is off and sends a few hormones out (Luteinizing Hormone and Follicle Stimulating Hormone) to help stimulate the testicles to start producing more testosterone. The problem is, as testosterone is being produced, much of it is being aromatized into estrogen! And before a good ratio of testosterone to estrogen can be reached in the male body, there is a period in which estrogen becomes the dominant hormone. This is the main culprit as to WHY when coming off anabolics, side effects like muscle loss, fat gain, loss of sex drive, and potential gynecomastia becomes an issue! Control the estrogen repercussions, and you can recover like a champ! As a side note addition, if you control estrogen production the whole time WHILE using anabolic supplements and into the post-cycle phase, your body can recover much more optimally without experiencing the dreaded estrogen backlash! Take, for example, a 12 week cycle of SOMAL-4 and SOMAL-1 (4-DHEA and 1-DHEA). The SOMAL-4 will produce an estrogenic response via aromatization. If you used an aromatase inhibitor, such as SHEILD<\/b><\/a>, WHILE on cycle the whole time, not only would you keep estrogen levels in check, you would make the most of your cycle while keeping side effects at a bare minimum. More importantly, however, because estrogen levels would have been in \u201cnormal range\u201d the entire cycle, there is a good chance that natural testosterone production would NOT being drastically effected, and so recovery post-cycle would be optimal!<\/p>\n

Ah, the beauty of hormonal manipulation. To quote Brian Fantana; \u201c68% of the time, it works EVERYTIME.\u201d I quote this because, number one, it\u2019s hilarious, and number two, it is also somewhat relevant (kind of like our horny bull analogy). You are NOT smarter than your hormonal feedback loop. You simply cannot outthink your metabolic, hormonal, and biochemical pathways. However, what you can do is be prepared and have the right defense on your side! If you are going to play with the laws of nature and use powerful anabolic agents, or, powerful pro-hormones, such as SOMAL-1, SOMAL-4, or SOMAL-NOR (#RedCon1), then you should play a good defensive game and be ready to battle estrogen if you need to. SHEILD<\/b><\/a> and AFTERMATH<\/b><\/a> would be a great place to start. Be smart, use wisely, and be prepared, or make provisions for accepting a giant bull\u2019s penis. Choose wisely, my friends.<\/p>\n

~by Vijay Puri BS DC<\/p>\n