Short cycles: why you may want to consider them

Short cycles: why you may want to consider them

In practice, any use of supraphysiological hormones for a period of 2-6 weeks can be considered a short cycle. However, there are a number of situations in which a shorter cycle might be advantageous, such as for someone just starting out, someone who is only looking for moderate growth, an athlete who has a limited amount of time (for example, if they need to clear it out of their system for anti-doping purposes), someone who wants to reach their natural limit faster, or even a long-term user who wants to reduce the risks of cycling.

Usually a 4-week cycle is the sweet spot for the gains to losses ratio, while still allowing for rapid HPTA recovery as testicular atrophy is reduced in that time.

Let's take a look at the advantages of a short cycle:

1. Reducing the time spent with a disturbed lipid profile: as we all know, steroid use generally leads to a reduction in HDL and an increase in LDL, which is probably the main reason for coronary risk after genetics. We're looking at an overall healthier person if we can keep that to a minimum;

2. In general, less and less adverse reactions: many people who would otherwise have bad skin don't even get acne on a short cycle, as well as hair loss, mood changes, etc;

3. In terms of gains, short cycles will make you progress much faster than natural training, which is to be expected, and this can have a huge effect on sticking to the diet and training plan;

4. In terms of breaking plateaus and pushing a person beyond their limits, short cycles are particularly good;

5. Over the long term, gains will be less noticeable and more spread out, which can be helpful for those who wish to hide having used steroids;

6. Significant reduction of water retention compared to normal cycling, which tends to improve health.

Obviously, the expectation on a short cycle should be consistent with the approach adopted, where the person sees good gains during the "on" period and a rapid HPTA recovery during the "off" period, especially if working on the shorter side. Of course, a short cycle won't produce the sheer mass that a regular cycle will, but in the long run it may be roughly equivalent, while tending to be a little more health-promoting.

Hormone choices are extremely important for short cycles. For example, there is absolutely no point in using boldenone undecylenate, which is a very slow acting substance, in a 2 week cycle. For injectables and orals, the preferred esters should be the fast acting / fast clearing ones. You want your levels to rise immediately and clear as soon as you stop, so shorter half-lives are the way to go.

Frontloading injectables is a good idea, taking higher doses the first week. You can also inject more mgs per shot as with shorter cycles the body tends to tolerate more hormones and build them up quite well.

Overall, doing several short cycles with some time off in between (a good rule of thumb is 1/3 on and 2/3 off, for example 4 weeks on, 8 weeks off, 4 weeks on and so on) can give some pretty good results if you're in one of the cases listed above, so if you're interested you should definitely consider giving it a try.