Tapering

[Musclehead]

Hey stragers, haven't been on here in ages it seems..nice to see this site still around! Anyways I'll cut to the chase, I've always tapered off cycles and not used HCG, clomid or anything really...just tapering and arimidex w trib. I haven't touched anything in forever but am feeling the urge again, I just need a training boost. Was thinking 500mg test E for like 3 months and tapering with prop towards the end (has worked well in the past). I guess my question is, at 29 yrs old is is tapering in this way a good idea? At 27 tapering worked fine...just want some imput. I'm very much against using more drugs than necessary, kinda old school. Thanks for all your advice! MH

[Delt King]

In order to keep your gains it only makes sense to get your HPTA (hypothalamic-pituitary-testicular axis) working properly as quickly as possible. If you're going to play the game...play it all the way and finish strong. HCG and Clomid or Nolva and Aromasin FTW.

As athletes, we are most concerned with the "PT" part of the hpta - hypothalamic-pituitary-testicular axis - . "P" being the pituitary and "T" being the Testes. To review, our hormonal responses are based mainly on negative feedback. For example, supragenetic levels of testosterone or any anabolic steroids will signal the pituitary to stop secreting lh - leutenizing hormone - and will signal the hypothalamus to stop secreting gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GRH). So, during an anabolic steroids cycle, we experience low, natural Testosterone levels, a reduction in testiclar mass, low lh - leutenizing hormone - , and low GRH. The goal of PCT (recovery) is to get the hpta - hypothalamic-pituitary-testicular axis - back to normal.

The most important aspect of recovery is getting testicular mass back to normal as quickly as possible. There is only one drug that will do this and do it quickly--hcg. hcg imitates lh - leutenizing hormone - (which is suppressed). hcg acts independently of the hpta - hypothalamic-pituitary-testicular axis - suppression and independent of the meds from the anabolic steroids cycle. In this situation, the only side effect we need to worry about is the return of estrogen to normal levels (estrogen rebound). Since estrogen is already at very low levels (the athlete used an aromatase inhibitor during his anabolic steroids cycle), Nolvadex is sufficient to block the onrush. By the time the athlete is using Nolvadex-only, his testes are up to their normal size. And the pituitary begins to release its own lh - leutenizing hormone - .

[Musclehead]

Thanks for he good info bro. Is it possible that using HCG can have a similar rebounding or suppressing effect like let's say, letro on estrogen, or synthetic test on your natural test? I've never used HCG. You say it works fast but is it a bandaid solution or does it fix he hpta for good? Basically have you used hcg with success and then been off AAS for over a year without issues? Anyone heard of hce, or ECG...forget the exact name but it's supposed to be incredible for restoring the hpta...more of permanent solution from what I hear. Thanks for the help!

[Praetorian]

HCG mimics LH but with much more kick...generally the LH produced via clomid or nolva or naturally after cessation of aas will not be strong enough to kick start the testes into action quickly. Thus the reason for HCG...at the same time HCG produces a spike in endogenous testosterone some of that may be converted to estrogen and again cause a negative feedback loop...this is the reason you should use some type of estrogen control ie aromasin etc to prevent the conversion and the inevitable feed back loop from occurring. The other item you may be referring to is HMG which has a more direct effect on FSH and is use to increase sperm count.
P