Regardless if you’re planning to use either anabolic and androgenic steroids (AAS), SARMs or Prohormones – you would be required to have a Post Cycle Therapy.
Post Cycle Therapy often shortly called PCT is extremely important for anyone who is looking for using Performance Enhancing Drugs (PEDs) because using such drugs, usually, interferes with your hormones and health. A PCT Plan means that you need to have a protocol that would help you get off your steroids or whatever other drugs you use for physique and performance enhancement purposes.
There are various things that make a PCT plan so important. The first and foremost, the protocol is helping you to bring your body’s natural testosterone production back after you’ve had a cycle.
That’s extremely important because after using steroids, the body stops producing the extremely important hormone – testosterone in natural ways. If you stop using steroids without a Post Cycle Therapy, then your body doesn’t produce testosterone and you don’t get it from the steroids (since you’ve stopped).
This is going to result in low testosterone levels – the exact opposite of what you want to happen. Low testosterone levels is specific to elder people (they have lower levels naturally) and this is resulting in losing your gains, lowering your libido and sexual drive, losing strength levels, having mood and confidence issues as well as dramatically losing energy levels.
What is Post Cycle Therapy? | What Means PCT Plan?
In this article, you would be able to find the most effective Post Cycle Therapy (PCT) Plans. These protocols would make sure you stop using steroids whilst maintain your gains and remain healthy.
Any suppressive compound should be followed by a PCT and the protocols that you would find below would make sure that you get the best effects.
Be sure that if you’re thinking that you could get away by stopping using PEDs without following a PCT that’s a huge mistake. Everyone thinking so, made a big mistake. That’s why make sure you read this article and take the most out of it.
Clomid PCT – Post Cycle Therapy
Clomid is a medication that is containing Clomiphene (or Clomifene) Citrate but if most often called Clomid because is the most famous brand name for this drug. There are various other trade names of Clomiphene too.
- So, Clomid is by far one of the most famous and widely used medicine during a PCT protocol. That’s because Clomid used as a PCT medicine is considered to be one of the most effective compounds that you can find available on the market for helping you to restore the natural hormone system.
Being the most powerful and effective medicine for a Post Cycle Therapy plan, the compound is also coming with its negative part – is the medicine with some of the harshest effects on the body, compared to other products for a PCT Plan.
If you’ve ever done a bit of research on PCT, then you most likely heard about Clomid and you know at least something about it. Clomiphene Citrate (the active substance) is a Selective Estrogen Receptor Modulator (SERM) and therefore an anti estrogen.
However, Clomid is working as an agonist of estrogen in certain body parts, while is antagonist of estrogen in other body parts. With this being said, is very different from other anti estrogen medications classified as Aromatase Inhibitors (AIs).
You can buy Clomid here.
Clomid is medically being used for helping to treat infertility in women who does not ovulate.
But as much as we can see, the medicine has a completely different role in bodybuilding settings. Anyone who is using steroids or other PEDs is using Clomid as a very popular medicine for PCT plan.
Clomid is having the ability to block the synthesis of estrogen, as it was earlier mentioned, but in our case, we are mainly looking for the Clomid’s ability to stimulate the natural testosterone production in the testicles of a man.
Clomiphene Citrate found in Clomid, as mentioned, is a strong medicine for PCT and therefore is very effective, but compared to other PCT drugs such as Nolvadex, is offering more side effects. That’s why we highly recommend to give Clomid a try to see how it works for you and your needs. It might be extremely helpful without bothering side effects or none at all, but while it still would be very helpful for PCT, the side effects can become an issue.
Although not too much steroid users report getting nasty side effects, some of the main issues of using Clomiphene includes vision issues as well as mood swings. Yet, you still have high chances you won’t get them.
Here is a common PCT protocol with Clomid –
- First week after all the steroids are flushed out of your body – 50 mg a day for entire week.
- Second week you continue the same dosage.
- At the beginning of the third week you reduce the dosage in half – 25 mg a day
- Fourth is the last week continued with the same dosage of 25 mg a day.
But then again, this is the common PCT protocol including Clomid based on a typical steroid cycle. In case you’ve went through a really harsh steroid cycle then you would require a harsher PCT plan. This is why you can find people running Clomid at doses of 100 mg per day in the first few weeks of PCT after they stopped the steroid use.
However, such a high dosage administration is way too much for most people. There are very few situations when you would need more than 50 mg a day at the beginning of your cycle. That’s due to the fact that Clomid is an extremely powerful PCT medicine and using too high doses is never a good idea.
But then again, the PCT protocol with Clomid greatly depends on various factors such as how you react to the compound, how harsh your steroid cycle was as well as how bad your natural hormone system is being suppressed including others.
But, in order to give you an example – if you go through a simple cycle consisting of Dianabol and Testosterone that can be run up to 16 weeks (obviously, Dianabol only first few weeks), the Post Cycle Therapy protocol that was offered earlier is going to be enough. But then again, there are much harsher steroid protocols (in terms of dosage and cycle length) or you might have been blasting and cruising for years.
You may require a different PCT plan in such cases. If you do find that a lower dosage of Clomid works well enough – don’t use higher doses.
Most commonly, a PCT Plan with Clomid is 4 weeks. Yet, there are people reporting that this is not enough for their needs so they use it longer. Usually, no need more than 6 weeks.
WARNING!
You may find information suggesting that you can use doses of 200 mg a day of Clomid or maybe even higher. You may find blogs or sites suggesting that Clomid can be taken for as long as you want. Doing any of this is extremely dangerous. We recommend to use the lowest possible effective dosage. Don’t increase the dosage or use it for longer periods just because.
Nolvadex PCT – Post Cycle Therapy
Because of the fact that Clomid (Clomiphene Citrate) is considered quite a harsh medicine that may give you side effects, some people found out that Nolvadex is working better for their needs during a PCT protocol. While others prefer Clomid, different people love Nolvadex – it is up to you and your needs.
Yet, Nolvadex is still considered one of the best compounds that you could use for a really helpful Post Cycle Therapy (PCT) Plan.
You can buy Nolvadex here.
Nolvadex is another extremely famous medicine for PCT protocols but exactly as Clomid, it wasn’t designed for bodybuilding needs.
Nolvadex was made and is still used for helping to treat breast cancer in women including various other medical uses. In bodybuilding settings for steroid users, is an extremely effective PCT drug.
- Nolvadex is the most famous and widely used brand and trade name for Tamoxifen Citrate – the active substance. Tamoxifen, however, can be found being sold as other trade names too.
The active substance Tamoxifen Citrate found in Nolvadex, exactly as Clomiphene Citrate found in Clomid, is a Selective Estrogen Receptor Modulator (SERM) and therefore an anti estrogen. It works in very similar ways as Clomid with very similar mechanism of action. However, there are still some little differences that make the 2 compounds different from each other.
There are many people that consider Nolvadex to be one of the strongest and most effective PCT medicines for a successful PCT plan. The main reason is because the drug is superb for restoring your natural hormone balance without offering you too nasty side effects.
But not being too harsh in terms of side effects doesn’t make it absolutely safe and fully free of side effects. Exactly as with Clomid, there are very few users who report getting side effects, generally, because steroid users using these SERMs for restoring natural hormone production need lower doses compared to women for their needs. But there are still possible side effects like for example:
- Hot flashes
- Stomach issues / pains
- Headaches
Many people consider that the side effects are much milder and less likely to occur compared to the issues that you have the chance to get from using Clomid.
Here is a common PCT plan containing Nolvadex (Tamoxifen Citrate):
- First week after all the steroids are flushed out of your body – 40 mg a day for entire week.
- Second week you continue the same dosage.
- At the beginning of the third week you reduce the dosage in half – 20 mg a day
- Fourth is the last week continued with the same dosage of 20 mg a day.
Exactly as with Clomid, a usual PCT plan cycle would last about 4 weeks. But again – Nolvadex PCT Protocol might last longer depending on your steroid cycle type, tolerance to medication and level of suppression.
If you would do well enough with a lower dosage of Nolvadex – do not opt for a higher one.
Also, is very important to take in consideration the half life of steroids. You need to start the Post Cycle Therapy protocol after all steroids are completely flushed out of your body.
Being a combination of high effectiveness with low side effects, Nolvadex is a favorite PCT medicine by many people.
Tamoxifen Citrate sold as Nolvadex most often, is a mild medicine, yet is very effective in helping you to restore back the natural production of testosterone after it got suppressed by the use of steroids or other PEDs.
Nolvadex and Clomid PCT – Post Cycle Therapy
There is a Post Cycle Therapy Protocol that is made of both these PCT medications. There’s a high chance that you’ve already heard of someone using Nolvadex and Clomid together for their PCT cycles. Taking in consideration that taking each medicine separately would offer high effectiveness for a PCT protocol, you may wonder:
“What’s the point of using both medicines Clomid and Nolvadex combined together for a Post Cycle Therapy?”
Well, there’s actually a good point. Except for the fact that the PCT protocol is getting even more effective, which you may have already guessed, the mix would offer amazing results.
The reason behind this is that many people think of Clomid as a way too strong drug, while Nolvadex is a way too weak drug.
This is what made many people to start using them together during a Post Cycle Therapy plan. If you think where you should use them together or not then we can recommend you to start using them alone. Go either with Nolvadex or with Clomid alone and see how it would work for you. If you’re going to feel like they are not doing the proper job and you need something else then you may combine them.
But there’s no point in starting to use them together without using them alone separately.
- If you’re looking more into going through a mild cycle then we are recommending you to use Nolvadex alone.
- In case you’re more into going through a heavier cycle that is usually containing more products combined (steroid stacks) and/ or if you use the cycle for a pretty long period of time, then you would most likely need to go through a stronger PCT plan, with Clomid.
Anyway, once again, there are still people who find that they don’t get what they need from a single compound. That’s why, they start using these 2 products combined. Is important to know that this rarely happens – there are few people who need a combination of the 2. But, if you’re among such people then here’s how usually people combine Nolvadex and Clomid during a PCT protocol:
- 4 weeks cycle length and entire time Nolvadex 20 mg with Clomid 50 mg per day
There are various other methods as this is just an example. You may reduce the dosage in half after first 2 weeks or some people might require more dosage (although that’s very rarely) in the beginning. The same rules apply: you should start with PCT only when all suppressing compounds have been fully flushed out of your body.
Post Cycle Therapy Supplements
Exactly as there are supplements that are used during your bulking or cutting cycles, mainly for reducing the side effects and offering you a few more benefits – there are also supplements made for post cycle therapy.
You may use them if you want as this is up to you, but be sure that they are not alternatives to actual PCT medicines such as Nolvadex or/ and Clomid. You may combine the actual PCT medicines with PCT supplements, but in absolutely no case they won’t be alternatives.
Those are Post Cycle Therapy supplements that are containing some natural ingredients which may help you a little bit to recover a bit faster, pretty much as with all natural solutions which are taken for boosting your health – but they are never an alternative to actual medicines.
So, use Post Cycle Therapy supplements only if you’re using actual PCT medicine.
The PCT supplements are optional, while PCT medicines are absolute necessity by everyone who has been using suppressing drugs.
What Is The Best Post Cycle Therapy Protocol?
Is quite obvious that a lot of people are wondering: “What is the best post cycle therapy protocol” after they find out that each suppressing cycle should be followed by a PCT protocol. And is obvious that everyone what’s “the best”. However, things don’t work like that here.
We cannot answer that question precisely taken in consideration that the best PCT protocol is individual. Every person is running various different compounds at various different dosages. There are many factors that come at play deciding what compound you need, what dosage and so on and so forth.
- This means that what is “best PCT plan” for a person, it would be detrimental for another and it would ineffective vice versa. It depends on how bad was the suppressing cycle, its length, what is your tolerance to the specific medication, how your body reacts and many different factors.
However, you would still find that most people are going to go through a very good Post Cycle Therapy plan by using Clomid or Nolvadex since they are amazing medications for these needs.
Nonetheless, by doing some research online and reading people’s reviews and testimonials you would find out that a lot of people swear Nolvadex is the best PCT medicine, while there are others suggesting that their favorite PCT medicine is Clomid. Others prefer using them both. Once again, it very much depends on many different factors.
Nonetheless, I do recommend people to start with Nolvadex. That’s because is a milder medicine for these needs and in case you’re doing good with Nolvadex, then you may not need anything more. So you can stop there. Both Nolvadex and Clomid are amazing for helping you to restore your natural hormone production but Clomid is considered more effective, but with more side effects.
That’s why we recommend Clomid only if you find Nolvadex not enough. But there’s no need to jump to a more effective, yet more side effects inducing medicine as long as Nolvadex works well.
As for PCT supplements – you may add them to both Nolvadex or Clomid PCT, but in no case don’t try to use them as an alternative – that’s going to be a huge mistake.
In whatever the case, is extremely important for you to have at least any of it ready when you start using any suppressing compounds like steroids. Stopping to use suppressives without a PCT plan with effective medicines would lead to nasty results. Your body is capable to recover back on its own, however, this could take up to months or maybe even years (with nasty symptoms in all this time and losing your gains) before your body is going to be able to recover back the hormone levels back to normal.
There’s just no point to go through a cycle and then losing all the gains within a matter of months. And in all that period, you are going to feel extremely bad too. All of this would happen mainly because your body stopped producing testosterone naturally and you don’t get them from the steroids. Therefore, you are not going to have enough levels of testosterone and this comes with nasty symptoms such as feeling very weak, tired, low energy, demotivated, with low libido and losing muscles and strength including others.
Is obvious that you don’t want to feel like that and this is the reason why is a PCT plan is so important.
More Info And Tips
We would recommend absolutely everyone to get a bloodwork done for their cycles. Constant blood works would rule out the possibility to get some negative side effects and know if it affects your health. Is very important for you to see if a product is affecting your lipids.
Always have your diet and exercise regime at check. This would help you control, reduce or maybe even avoid getting side effects. Adding supplements may be helpful too, both for PCT or during the cycle, but never assume that they can be alternatives to whichever need.
Post Cycle Therapy Protocols are extremely important for anyone who is using suppressing compounds. Here’s a list of few examples of steroids that should be followed by a PCT:
- Anadrol (Oxymetholone)
- Anavar (Oxandrolone)
- Equipoise (Boldenone)
- Dianabol (Methandienone)
- Deca Durabolin (Nandrolone)
- Primobolan (Methenolone)
- Sustanon (Testosterone)
- Trenbolone
- Turinabol
- Winstrol (Stanozolol)
There are only few examples. I’ve mentioned the most famous steroids here only, but there are many others and absolutely all steroids should be followed by a good PCT plan. In addition to that, is important for you to understand that not only anabolic steroids require a PCT. The exact same thing is going for SARMs as well as Prohormones and any other Performance Enhancing Drug (PED) that is suppressing your hormones.
All suppressing drugs should be followed by a PCT plan because your body stops producing testosterone on its own after each cycle. PCT plan is giving a hand to your body, allowing it to produce more and faster the needed testosterone hormones.
In the comments section below, you can write down what is your preferred PCT plan. Have you ever tried a cycle without a PCT plan? Write down your experience – help others understand that this is not something to do.
PCT Conclusion
Absolutely everyone who is searching for starting a cycle with steroids or other suppressing compounds should firstly read and learn about the Post Cycle Therapy (PCT) since is extremely important for anyone with such needs.
Any performance enhancer drugs are great for growing muscles mass and generally improving physique and performance levels, however, they are increasing the testosterone levels and this is the reason why your body gets signals that there is “too much testosterone” so it stops producing testosterone on its own. So, while they are amazing for physique and performance enhancement, they would have a negative impact on your production of testosterone levels in natural ways.
- Your body doesn’t produce testosterone (at least not enough), but you still receive it from steroids. That’s why, as soon as your cycle is stopped, the levels of testosterone are going to be very low.
That’s the moment when a PCT protocol is so helpful and is required. A good protocol is going to make sure that your body starts producing more testosterone naturally and much faster, so it helps the body to restore the levels back to as it should.
You should also know that except for Clomid and Nolvadex, there are many other different compounds capable to restore the testosterone levels back to normal. Some people use them, however, most people found out that there’s nothing better than these compounds for such needs.
PCT medicines does come with negative side effects, however, you have much bigger chances of having much worse negative side effects by stopping to run a suppressing cycle without running a PCT. That’s why is much safer and overall better to run one.
In addition to that, in case you are not going to go through a proper PCT plan, then your endocrine system is going to take months (or sometimes up to even years) until is going to be fully recovered and get a properly balanced hormone system.
Try to do everything as good as possible because if your endocrine system isn’t going to be normally recovered, then you would go into a low testosterone levels condition. Men with low testosterone levels suffer a lot of different nasty symptoms. That’s very unhealthy overall as it affects the men both physically and psychologically.
Low energy levels, fatigue, muscle and strength loss, mood swings and depression, low libido and no sex drive, Erectile Dysfunction and constant tiredness are all only a few examples of what can happen with low T levels.
By properly using a Post Cycle Therapy (PCT) plan after you stop using a steroid cycle or any other Performance Enhancing Drug (PED) that is suppressing T levels you would make sure that your cycle is both effective and healthy.