Cutting Steroids vs Bulking

Cutting drug examples: Anavar, Winstrol, Primobolan.

Bulking drug examples: Sustanon, Anadrol, Testosterone Enanthate.

Ever since I entered the world of bodybuilding, I always heard: "There are certain drugs for cutting and certain drugs for bulking" - never the twain shall meet, as they say.

Thing is, some 20 years later, people still spout the same tenet: "Use cutting drugs for pre-contest dieting, and use bulking drugs for adding mass."

Is there a difference between drugs, or is one steroid the same as another? Can you get cut of D-Bol and add size with Winstrol? You bet!

Here is the distinction I always make: Steroids are steroids, and while there is no such thing as a drug that will "cut you up" without dieting (because they don’t burn fat, as such), there are drugs that are better for one thing than another. BUT… technically speaking, if you diet religiously and train correctly for that period of time (pre-contest prep or off season) you really can use whatever you like.

I know I’ve said it before, but I once trained a very good amateur in New York who had very little stage experience. He was fat in the off season and I trained him down to the point of being the only guy on stage with ripped glutes. Back then (1992) having ripped glutes in the amateur ranks was unusual. This guy stepped on stage shredded and everyone said, "Dude, what are you taking!?"

His reply? I’m just taking D-bol - six a day. No one believed him.

Truth is, that is all he was doing because he wasn’t particularly well connected and I’ve never procured steroids for anyone I’ve trained. That was all he had. Now did I tell him to take six? No. I told him to take three, knowing he’d take at least four or five. Six was excessive, no doubt, but it also made him hard as a rock with a diet high in creatine from all the steak he was eating - 5 twelve ounce steaks daily - and no carbs. He literally was holding ZERO water and looked like a road map.

Point is you can take 100 mg of Anadrol ED and 250mg Test, EOD, and with a clean diet, come in stage-worthy.

Okay, okay… are there better drugs for dieting than bulking and vice versa? Yes. And that’s mainly because each does have a "better" purpose. And personally, I’d rather take Deca and Test in the off season, as opposed to Winstrol and Anavar. It’s just that if you source and buy the perfect cycle, you can always improvise.

The main thing to keep in mind is your own situation. Ask yourself these questions:

• Are you able to stick to a diet, to the letter, without cheating?
• Can you stick to a diet religiously for 16 weeks?
• Are you prone to abuse substances or food?

Despite risking your health with AAS, do you take care to stay healthy in other ways? (Ex: Don’t get overly fat in off season, still do maintenance cardio after contests, take supplements and vitamins)

If you aren’t a food abuser and don’t overdo drugs, stay mostly healthy when you can, and can stick to a diet, you can probably use any drug in place of another if supply and demand forces you to do so. If you do abuse food and can’t help but cheat on diets, then you are not suited to taking water-inducing drugs. What’s more, most of the drugs that you are supposed to avoid in a pre-contest training cycle are estrogen-producing/ activating drugs, and cause a great deal of hunger. If your willpower sucks, then you won’t want to chance it.

The real irony of all of this is, most androgenic drugs (trenbolone, masteron) are not converted easily, or at all, to estrogen. Estrogen is the reason you put on water. Most anabolic drugs are those that are used for pre-contest "cutting" cycles, and do convert to estrogen (Deca, Equipoise, Anavar). The latter is what most associate with dieting.

But dieting on androgenic drugs makes more sense if your system handles the side effects well. Your diet and cardio are even more effective due to the lack of estrogen in the body. Taking Nolvadex, or Arimidex can even aid that further. So, essentially you set up an environment much more ideal for fat burning, and retaining muscle.

The real part of any good bodybuilder’s success? Diet, diet, diet. Set up an environment that is ideal for fat burning and muscle retention with drugs, and diet strictly - drugs alone won’t cause success or failure. They’ll just amplify whatever it is you are or are not doing right.

Author: Mike Zelenski