Understanding Steroid Half-Lives
The duration of activity and potency of all drugs including anabolic steroids is measured by the drugs half-life. In pharmacology, a half-life is the amount of time it takes for a drug to metabolize into half of its initial dosage. For example, if one was to take 100 mgs of an anabolic steroid with a 3-day half-life 50 mgs of that initial administration will be active in the body after that third day. The breakdown of the drug does not stop here. That same 100 mg application will continue to lose half of its potency and anabolic effect every three days until the drug is completely metabolized. On the sixth day after being administered, that 100mg dose will fall again to 25 mgs of active anabolics. This process will repeat over and over with the anabolic agent reducing 50% every half-life cycle until the drug is finally metabolized.
The most common mistake that people make when trying to understand the pharmacology of a drugs half-life is the idea that the half-life represents half of the total activity time of the drug. For example, the popular idea among body building circles was that if a drug had a seven day half-life it was widely believed that half of the drug was metabolized in seven days and the other half of the compound was then ?used up? after the next 7 days for a total anabolic life of 14 days. In reality if 400mgs of a drug with a seven-day half-life were administered, the metabolization of the drug would look more like this: Day #1 36mgs of the initial 400mg injection enters the blood and becomes active. Day #7 20mgs active in the body Day #14 10mgs remain active Day #21 only 5mgs is released into the body. This one injection will remain active in the body for a total of 44 days with only 3 to 1 mgs remaining in the body daily. (Diagram #1)
Diagram 1
Injects Day Total mg in blood/day
400mg 1 36 mg
2 32 mg
3 29 mg
4 27 mg
5 24 mg
6 22 mg
7 20 mg
8 18 mg
9 16 mg
10 15 mg
11 13 mg
12 12 mg
13 11 mg
14 10 mg
15 9 mg
16 8 mg
17 7 mg
18 7 mg
19 6 mg
20 5 mg
21 5 mg
22 4 mg
23 4 mg
24 4 mg
25 3 mg
26 3 mg
27 3 mg
28 2 mg
29 2 mg
30 2 mg
31 2 mg
32 2 mg
33 2 mg
34 1 mg
35 1 mg
36 1 mg
37 1 mg
38 1 mg
39 1 mg
40 1 mg
41 1 mg
42 1 mg
43 1 mg
44 1 mg
This is where great miscalculations were often made when planning a steroid cycle. While an individual might think that their one steroid injection was completely out of their system in 14 days, the reality is that drug will be active in your body for upwards of 6 weeks! Because of these half-life calculation errors, the build up of anabolics in your system can reach dangerous and unbeneficial levels. The build up of anabolics can be especially troublesome when drugs with long half-lives are administered weekly. The drugs are often active for 2 months after the athlete believes the drugs have been metabolized. That often translates into an athlete being ?on cycle? with active anabolics still in their system during the period of time they believed they were ?off cycle.?
That would mean that the time an athlete was taking off to let the body reset and return natural hormone to their pre-cycle levels, the body was really working to metabolize the drugs still in the body from a long acting injection.
With these excess hormones remaining after the last injection, the body would be unable to return hormone levels to normal. For example, take a look at this common cycle of Sustanon 250. Novice users commonly cycle 10 cc?s of Sustanon 250 in a five week cycle at a dose of 500 mgs per week. After they have finished 10 shots of sustanon the user will take 1 month off after last injection before starting this cycle again. Take a look at how the sustanon breaks down in the body. (Diagram #2) Four weeks after the last injection, this user would still have 3mgs of testosterone active in their body after the off period. Although this small amount of hormone may seem insignificant, in actuality is very dangerous. Your body will not return to baseline levels until there are no excess hormones in the body. Any user needs at least a month without any excess hormones in the blood before the body will be able to produce natural testosterone again. Repeating this cycle would translate into a never-ending cycle if the athlete goes back on anabolics before the body can return hormone levels to normal and for the drugs to completely clear the receptors.
As, you can see from the diagram, cycling sustanon in an attempt to achieve even hormone levels in the blood is very difficult. The first problem you will encounter while attempting to achieve even blood levels with sustanon is the different release times of the 4 testosterone esters that make up the drug. Sustanon is made up of 100 mgs of testosterone decanoate which has a half life of 14 days. The next drug in this cocktail is 60 mgs of test. Isocaproate which has a half-life of 8 days. The third drug is 60 mgs of test. Phenylpropioate withs its 6 day half life. And finally the last ester is test. Propionate which has a half life of 4 days. So not only is it extremely difficult to map out the life of these different esters, sustanon also is dosed at 250 mgs per ml. This means that if you are using ampules, you have no choice but to dose the drug in multiples of 250mgs. If you absolutely most use this drug, it would be best advised to use the multi-dose blends such as those used by British Dragon Dispensary. The multi-dose applications would allow you to inject 1 ? cc?s or 375 mgs. Although this may seem insignificant, not being limited to injections of 250 or 500 mgs ect, will allow you to better control the levels of hormone in the blood.
Diagram 2
Injects Day Total mg in blood/day
500mg Sustanon 1 49 mg
2 44 mg
3 39 mg
4 35 mg
5 31 mg
6 28 mg
7 25 mg
500mg Sustanon 8 72 mg
9 64 mg
10 57 mg
11 51 mg
12 46 mg
13 41 mg
14 37 mg
500mg Sustanon 15 83 mg
16 74 mg
17 66 mg
18 59 mg
19 53 mg
20 47 mg
21 42 mg
500mg Sustanon 22 88 mg
23 79 mg
24 70 mg
25 63 mg
26 56 mg
27 50 mg
28 45 mg
500mg Sustanon 29 91 mg
30 81 mg
31 72 mg
32 65 mg
33 58 mg
34 52 mg
35 46 mg
36 41 mg
37 37 mg
38 33 mg
39 30 mg
40 27 mg
41 24 mg
42 22 mg
43 20 mg
44 18 mg
45 16 mg
46 14 mg
47 13 mg
48 12 mg
49 10 mg
50 9 mg
51 9 mg
52 8 mg
53 7 mg
54 6 mg
55 6 mg
56 5 mg
The duration of activity and potency of all drugs including anabolic steroids is measured by the drugs half-life. In pharmacology, a half-life is the amount of time it takes for a drug to metabolize into half of its initial dosage. For example, if one was to take 100 mgs of an anabolic steroid with a 3-day half-life 50 mgs of that initial administration will be active in the body after that third day. The breakdown of the drug does not stop here. That same 100 mg application will continue to lose half of its potency and anabolic effect every three days until the drug is completely metabolized. On the sixth day after being administered, that 100mg dose will fall again to 25 mgs of active anabolics. This process will repeat over and over with the anabolic agent reducing 50% every half-life cycle until the drug is finally metabolized.
The most common mistake that people make when trying to understand the pharmacology of a drugs half-life is the idea that the half-life represents half of the total activity time of the drug. For example, the popular idea among body building circles was that if a drug had a seven day half-life it was widely believed that half of the drug was metabolized in seven days and the other half of the compound was then ?used up? after the next 7 days for a total anabolic life of 14 days. In reality if 400mgs of a drug with a seven-day half-life were administered, the metabolization of the drug would look more like this: Day #1 36mgs of the initial 400mg injection enters the blood and becomes active. Day #7 20mgs active in the body Day #14 10mgs remain active Day #21 only 5mgs is released into the body. This one injection will remain active in the body for a total of 44 days with only 3 to 1 mgs remaining in the body daily. (Diagram #1)
Diagram 1
Injects Day Total mg in blood/day
400mg 1 36 mg
2 32 mg
3 29 mg
4 27 mg
5 24 mg
6 22 mg
7 20 mg
8 18 mg
9 16 mg
10 15 mg
11 13 mg
12 12 mg
13 11 mg
14 10 mg
15 9 mg
16 8 mg
17 7 mg
18 7 mg
19 6 mg
20 5 mg
21 5 mg
22 4 mg
23 4 mg
24 4 mg
25 3 mg
26 3 mg
27 3 mg
28 2 mg
29 2 mg
30 2 mg
31 2 mg
32 2 mg
33 2 mg
34 1 mg
35 1 mg
36 1 mg
37 1 mg
38 1 mg
39 1 mg
40 1 mg
41 1 mg
42 1 mg
43 1 mg
44 1 mg
This is where great miscalculations were often made when planning a steroid cycle. While an individual might think that their one steroid injection was completely out of their system in 14 days, the reality is that drug will be active in your body for upwards of 6 weeks! Because of these half-life calculation errors, the build up of anabolics in your system can reach dangerous and unbeneficial levels. The build up of anabolics can be especially troublesome when drugs with long half-lives are administered weekly. The drugs are often active for 2 months after the athlete believes the drugs have been metabolized. That often translates into an athlete being ?on cycle? with active anabolics still in their system during the period of time they believed they were ?off cycle.?
That would mean that the time an athlete was taking off to let the body reset and return natural hormone to their pre-cycle levels, the body was really working to metabolize the drugs still in the body from a long acting injection.
With these excess hormones remaining after the last injection, the body would be unable to return hormone levels to normal. For example, take a look at this common cycle of Sustanon 250. Novice users commonly cycle 10 cc?s of Sustanon 250 in a five week cycle at a dose of 500 mgs per week. After they have finished 10 shots of sustanon the user will take 1 month off after last injection before starting this cycle again. Take a look at how the sustanon breaks down in the body. (Diagram #2) Four weeks after the last injection, this user would still have 3mgs of testosterone active in their body after the off period. Although this small amount of hormone may seem insignificant, in actuality is very dangerous. Your body will not return to baseline levels until there are no excess hormones in the body. Any user needs at least a month without any excess hormones in the blood before the body will be able to produce natural testosterone again. Repeating this cycle would translate into a never-ending cycle if the athlete goes back on anabolics before the body can return hormone levels to normal and for the drugs to completely clear the receptors.
As, you can see from the diagram, cycling sustanon in an attempt to achieve even hormone levels in the blood is very difficult. The first problem you will encounter while attempting to achieve even blood levels with sustanon is the different release times of the 4 testosterone esters that make up the drug. Sustanon is made up of 100 mgs of testosterone decanoate which has a half life of 14 days. The next drug in this cocktail is 60 mgs of test. Isocaproate which has a half-life of 8 days. The third drug is 60 mgs of test. Phenylpropioate withs its 6 day half life. And finally the last ester is test. Propionate which has a half life of 4 days. So not only is it extremely difficult to map out the life of these different esters, sustanon also is dosed at 250 mgs per ml. This means that if you are using ampules, you have no choice but to dose the drug in multiples of 250mgs. If you absolutely most use this drug, it would be best advised to use the multi-dose blends such as those used by British Dragon Dispensary. The multi-dose applications would allow you to inject 1 ? cc?s or 375 mgs. Although this may seem insignificant, not being limited to injections of 250 or 500 mgs ect, will allow you to better control the levels of hormone in the blood.
Diagram 2
Injects Day Total mg in blood/day
500mg Sustanon 1 49 mg
2 44 mg
3 39 mg
4 35 mg
5 31 mg
6 28 mg
7 25 mg
500mg Sustanon 8 72 mg
9 64 mg
10 57 mg
11 51 mg
12 46 mg
13 41 mg
14 37 mg
500mg Sustanon 15 83 mg
16 74 mg
17 66 mg
18 59 mg
19 53 mg
20 47 mg
21 42 mg
500mg Sustanon 22 88 mg
23 79 mg
24 70 mg
25 63 mg
26 56 mg
27 50 mg
28 45 mg
500mg Sustanon 29 91 mg
30 81 mg
31 72 mg
32 65 mg
33 58 mg
34 52 mg
35 46 mg
36 41 mg
37 37 mg
38 33 mg
39 30 mg
40 27 mg
41 24 mg
42 22 mg
43 20 mg
44 18 mg
45 16 mg
46 14 mg
47 13 mg
48 12 mg
49 10 mg
50 9 mg
51 9 mg
52 8 mg
53 7 mg
54 6 mg
55 6 mg
56 5 mg
