While gaining muscular bodyweight is your primary concern while on a cycle, maintaining it becomes vitally important when the cycle is over. Unless the proper steps are taken, coming off the sauce can mean total hormonal chaos for your body. If muscular bodyweight can't be maintained between cycles, the athlete finds himself in a constant yo-yo situation, putting on muscle with steroids and losing it all when off. This is the primary reason many athletes eventually get to a point where they never come completely off gear.

Step 1 - Maintain the HPTA
The most effective step in retaining muscular bodyweight when cleaning out is to never allow your endogenous production of testosterone to stop as a result of your cycle. This can easily be accomplished through the use of clomid and HCG and we discussed earlier. Athletes who come off cold turkey with a screwed up HPTA will most likely lose every ounce of muscle that was gained during a cycle. Additionally, the lack of androgen in the body allows circulating estrogen to wreak its havoc and cause a host of unpleasant side effects.

Step 2 - Use Insulin
Although many bodybuilders fear the use of insulin, it's safe when used properly and can work wonders for maintaining muscle between cycles. Insulin is extremely anabolic and can help prevent the wasting often experienced while off gear. Beginners should never exceed 10 iu's a day while more experienced bodybuilders can use upwards of 30-40 iu's. The key to using insulin successfully is carbohydrate intake, carbs must be consumed along with any administration of insulin. Please refer back to the Insulin and DNP articles in the archives for more information on the proper and safe use of insulin.

Step 3 - Allow your body a rest
The period between cycles is not the time to crank up the intensity or go for that new record on the bench. On the contrary, the body should be given a rest during this period, and workouts should be reflect this. Immediately after the end of the cycle, and for some time afterward, the body will be in a very catabolic state. It's important to take every natural step possible to reduce this level of catabolism in order to maintain muscle mass.

Workouts should be kept brief. In this state, the body is not capable of recovering from long, intense workouts. While it's important to keep training, it's also just as important to realize you haven't the recuperative abilities now that you possessed a few weeks previously. It's important to get adequate sleep. Sleep becomes vitally important during this period to help recovery and reduce cortical secretions.

Step 4 - Continue your nutrition program
Consuming the necessary calories and nutrients to maintain muscular bodyweight becomes difficult during the cleaning out period. Often the athlete will lose his appetite and have no desire to ingest food. Force feed yourself if necessary. Failing to consume adequate calories and protein is a sure fired way to lose the majority of the hard-earned mass you've gained during your cycle. Caloric intake can be lowered to some degree as the body does not have the same need for energy as it did during your cycle, but protein intake should still remain very high.

Before we close, I'd like to address a question that was submitted more than once as a result of Part One of this article. "How do you know what pro bodybuilders take?" In all honesty, I don't. No one, save for the actual bodybuilders themselves, have any idea what they are really putting in their bodies. Now, I've worked with some elite level athletes. I've had conversations with some of the bodybuilders at the top, some I believe, some I don't. However, I've never actually monitored the pharmaceutical intake of any professional bodybuilder around the clock for 10 weeks.

Most elite level athletes are very insecure about disclosing certain aspects of their athletic preparation. Bodybuilders are no exception. Believe it or not, many of these guys have been known to lie about their actual level of steroid use! Shocking, huh? Sarcasm aside, it's very rare to deal with an elite level bodybuilder who is honest about his steroid usage. This is understandable for several reasons. One, they are protecting one of the secrets of their success. If I've reached the pinnacle of bodybuilding success, what reason do I have to disclose all of the intellectual property I've gathered along the way? Two, for most it's embarrassing to admit to the extremes they endure to compete in the sport. One of the unfortunate truths about national and professional level bodybuilding is that drug abuse is required to achieve a necessary cosmetic affect. Notice I said abuse and not use. The level of abuse is quietly accepted by the athletes and higher ups involved in bodybuilding, but rarely openly discussed.

A lot of learning is done through trial and error. I could certainly attribute most of my knowledge of sports pharmacology to that particular method. It certainly helps that I've read most of the literature on steroids, scientific and otherwise. It certainly helps that I have a degree in Food Science and Dietetics. However, the real education comes with hands-on experience. The problem with a lot of the so-called "gurus" today is that they spend too much time with their nose in the latest scientific journals and not enough time working with real athletes. It's nice to sit back in your pristine little enclave and write nice neat little cycles without ever getting your hands dirty. It's always been my decision to practice what I preach and get down in the trenches with the athletes to see what's really working.