How Much Time Should You Take Off Between Steroid Cycles After PCT

Does time on = time off?

How much time should I take off after a steroid cycle after PCT?

I get these kind of questions all the time.

Regardless of what suppressive anabolics you were on (SARMs, AAS, Prohormones, etc.) a PCT phase may be warranted.

However, there is a lot of ambiguity around the ideal amount of time you should off after PCT.

There is a common rule of thumb that goes around the bodybuilding community, and that rule is that “time on = time off.”

What you have to consider first is that this rule was designed to be a general overarching guideline to follow that will be satisfactory the majority of the time, however, this does not mean that this is always the best course of action.

For those who are oblivious to how to read blood work or assess their state of health, it's a fairly safe rule in general.

Even though it is generally applicable, you do not want to fall into the category of individuals who make broad uneducated assumptions about their health markers.

You want to know what is going on in your body, and if you don't know how to evaluate your general health markers, get a blood test and learn how, as you will need baseline blood work before starting a cycle anyways.

The ideal way to figure out how much time to take off after PCT lies in your current state of health after PCT.

If you PCT properly, there are a couple things you need to initially look at.

Endocrine System Recovery

Have your Testosterone levels returned to where they were pre-cycle (baseline)?

Is your libido feeling normal, do you have any erectile dysfunction, do you have any signs or symptoms of lack of proper recovery?

What does your blood work show?

Does your hormonal profile look exactly like it did pre-cycle?

Or are you still not quite there?

This is the main thing you want to know first and foremost, as if you haven't had full endocrine recovery yet, then starting up a new cycle of heavily suppressive drugs is not in your best interests.

Some guys take longer than others to bounce back.

As you get older, it will take longer to bounce back as well.

Just because you took your Nolvadex and Clomid for 4 weeks it doesn't mean that everything is just guaranteed to be back up to par.

You need to have pre-cycle baseline bloods to cross reference with your post-cycle bloods to make a true and accurate assessment if you have truly recovered after PCT.

Are your Total Testosterone (via LC/MS/MS), Free Testosterone, sensitive assay Estradiol, sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG), luteinizing hormone (LH) and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) levels where they should be?

Are your endogenous sex hormones back to where they were pre-cycle?

Were your pre-cycle bloods healthy in the first place?

Did you take T3 during a cut cycle? Get your TSH, T4, and T3 levels checked too.

Were you pounding tons of high-glycemic carbs during a manic dirty bulk phase?

Have you been using GH for a long span of time?

What do your fasting blood glucose levels look like now?

What's your Hemoglobin A1C look like?

Are you insulin sensitive? Or are you pre-diabetic now and about to hop into another mega-dosed cycle with GH in it?

There are many things that need to be accounted for before you just put your head down and go full tilt again on the good ol' sauzule my friend, and many of these things go totally disregarded.

Don't be that guy, get your sh*t sorted and know for a fact after PCT you are in a primed level of recovery before going into your next heavy duty run.

You want to get back to an ideal natural state that looks like this:

• High-normal total and free Testosterone levels
• Non-elevated Estrogen in the 20-30 pg/ml range (not set in stone, but generally most guys feel best here)
• In range TSH, T4 and T3 levels
• Healthy fasting blood sugar levels and insulin sensitivity

^ If any of these are unattainable, then you should be looking into getting those addressed and fixed before starting a new cycle of supraphysiological PED's.

Blood Work And Health Markers After PCT

Even if you have fully recovered endocrine function, your Testosterone levels are back up and everything is firing on all cylinders, the other equally important factor you need to consider is an assessment of your state of health.

How's your blood pressure?

What is your red blood cell count and what are your hematocrit levels?

What does your lipid profile look like (LDL and HDL cholesterol levels)?

Do you have elevated liver enzymes?

How are your kidneys doing?

Do you have unaddressed sleep apnea?

Do you have any ventricular enlargement or signs of cardiovascular stress?

These are just some of the main things you should be looking at extensively prior to starting any performance enhancing drugs.

A lot of guys will assume “my testosterone levels have come back and my balls look full again so I'm good to go to hop back on again”.

This is not always the case.

E.G. if you have borderline stage 2 hypertension, and then you hop on a cycle of Testosterone with some Deca and Dbol and your systolic and diastolic jumps up 30 points a piece, now you've taken yourself from the cautionary/borderline dangerous zone to holy Jesus get your blood pressure fixed immediately or else you will end up with renal failure, a stroke, a heart attack, or a myriad of other possibilities.

The point is, if you have a pre-existing medical issue, and you don't have perfect bloods or health in general prior to starting a cycle you need to get that fixed before you even consider starting something new.

And when you're on cycle ideally you want to only use compounds that your body responds favourably to from a health perspective as well.

If you can't take Dbol without getting nosebleeds several times a day and your blood pressure jumping up 30 points, don't use Dbol!

Use something else that doesn't make you a ticking time bomb.

So, time on DOES NOT = time off

Time off = however much time it takes after PCT for your natural endocrine function to return to baseline AND for you to get back to perfect blood work and an overall state of good health.