Anadrol (Oxymetholone) is widely considered to be one of the best bulking steroids available and is very popular because it works fast to help you pack on the gains at the start of a cycle.

Anadrol is derived from dihydrotestosterone (DHT) and has a short half life of 8 to 9 hours so is a daily dosed steroid available in oral form.

While the benefits of Anadrol can be huge, the downsides also can’t be ignored so before you start using Anadrol make sure you’re aware of what it can do for you: both the good and the bad.

Anadrol is useful in two main areas: starting off a bulking cycle, and for contest preparation where as an experienced user you want to fill out after a heavy diet and cutting cycle.

However for the average user, Anadrol is not going to be a cutting steroid because the effects are fast but short lived, so it is rather one that has its main use as a potent bulking compound. The main benefits of Anadrol are:

• Kicks off gains at the start of a cycle
• Increases your appetite
• Stacks well with other steroids

Kicks off gains at the start of a cycle
Anadrol acts fast so helps you bulk up very quickly while other injectable steroids in your cycle take their time to start working. Most people will combine Anadrol with slow acting injectable steroids in a stack for this reason.

Increases your appetite
This obviously helps you gain weight quicker because you will be wanting to eat more. However this is another area where careful dosage is critical because taking excess Anadrol can have the reverse effect of decreasing your appetite which will negatively impact your gains and performance. So if you want peak appetite while on Anadrol: stick to a dosage of under 150mg and preferably around the 100mg daily mark.

Stacks well with other steroids
Anadrol is rarely used on its own so it’s critical it works in synergy with other compounds and that is indeed the case. While Anadrol’s effects take off fast, your other steroids take their time to kick in.

Anadrol stacks well with just about any other steroid out there, and the most common stacks include any form of testosterone (all Anadrol users should be adding testosterone as a bare minimum), and works particularly well with Nandrolone based steroids and Trenbolone, while it’s very commonly stacked with the powerful cutting steroid Winstrol.

Anadrol is a very simple steroid to take and does not require the stress and pain of injecting like most other compounds. A once daily dosage is the path that the majority of users take.

Most Anadrol tablets come in 50mg dosages, making it convenient to consume the optimal dosage of Anadrol which is considered to be either 50mg or 100mg daily.

More is not necessarily better when comes to Anadrol. Studies have shown that you can hit peak gains with a dosage of around 100mg daily, with gains falling after this amount while side effects increase.

Therefore, the optimal dosage of Anadrol needs to be carefully considered so you’re getting the perfect balance of positive results without stressing the liver to the point where you cause damage, plus experience other side effects that would negate your gains.

Everyone will differ, but in most circumstances you will benefit greatly from a dosage of 100mg per day, while keeping to a cycle to 4-6 weeks maximum not only to prevent liver stress.

Gains with Anadrol are known to drop off after this amount of time so there is little to no benefit extending the cycle length, and instead allowing other steroid compounds to take over and continue to build on your gains for the rest of the cycle.

For this exact reason that Anadrol is so widely used as powerful kickstarter steroid at the start of a cycle to build mass quickly.

Unlike some other steroids, there is not a huge disparity in dosages across people of experience levels.

The main reasons for this is that firstly, Anadrol is highly effective at moderate doses and is known to drop off in effectiveness if you go too high, while side effects increase too much to outweigh benefits.

Secondly, the level of liver toxicity Anadrol causes is always going to be a limiting factor when it comes to dosage. This is not a steroid that can or should (or indeed need to) be dosed at excessive levels.

Beginner Anadrol Cycle
A beginner can easily start on a 50mg dosage of Anadrol and see exceptional results quickly, but if you’re concerned about side effects and this is your first ever Anadrol cycle, a half tablet of 25mg will still be highly effective and will reduce adverse effects until you learn how to control them. A 4 week cycle is considered suitable for a beginner.

Intermediate Anadrol Cycle
Intermediate users can still benefit greatly from a 50mg per day dosage with very fast gains in strength and mass seen.

Increasing to 100mg daily can be considered if you have the side effects under control and at this point you should be using either 0.5mg or 1mg of Arimidex daily during the cycle to mitigate those estrogenic side effects.

A 6 week cycle length is recommended as the maximum to avoid severe liver toxicity.

Advanced Anadrol Cycle
An advanced user will either be using Anadrol to massively bulk up or for a highly specific cutting purpose. However, if used at the front end of your cycle for bulking, 100mg daily for 4-6 weeks is likely where the most advanced users will start, combined with 1mg of Arimidex everyday to combat side effects.

Making use of other compounds is essential for an advanced Anadrol cycle, at a bare minimum being Testosterone Cypionate at 500mg per week for 8-12 weeks, with Deca-Durabolin at at least 200mg weekly for 8-12 weeks being a common inclusion.

While many advanced users (and even some beginners) boast of using Anadrol at 200mg or more daily to get substantial gains, this comes at great risk of both immediate side effects and liver damage.

Stacking Anadrol
Whether you’re a beginner or advanced user, the majority are going to be using Anadrol as part of a stack (whether it be with just one or multiple other steroids), at the start of a cycle which provides a big kick start for the rest of the cycle when the other steroid compounds will take over in effectiveness while Anadrol stops at the 4-6 week mark.

Any stack with Anadrol is going to produce extremely effective results, and quickly. In a cutting stack it’s common to stack Anadrol with Winstrol at a dosage of anywhere between 25 to 100mg of Winstrol; but keep in mind that Winstrol is also very liver toxic. A quality strength and cutting stack of Anadrol at 100mg and Winstrol at 50mg is tried and tested amongst many users.

Another common stack is Anadrol and Dianabol with lower dosages of each, with Dianabol extending to 6 weeks and Anadrol stopping at 4 weeks. For this stack cycle, using Anadrol at 50mg daily and Dianabol at 200mg weekly is likely to produce dramatic results very quickly.

Perhaps the most simple and guaranteed to see extreme results stack is one consisting of 50mg of Anadrol daily for the first 6 weeks, combined with Testosterone Enanthate at 500mg weekly and Deca-Durabolin at 400mg weekly for 12 weeks.

The cycle is followed by a two week break then followed up with 3 weeks of PCT (100mg/day Clomid for 10 days then followed up with 50mg/day Clomid for another 10 days). This stack will allow rapid gains at the start with Anadrol, while testosterone and Deca kick in as slower acting injectables for the remained of the cycle.

While an exogenous source of testosterone during your Anadrol cycle is critical, just as important is to plan your post cycle therapy (PCT) so your system can get back to normal.

When your steroid cycle finishes, normal testosterone production will begin again but this is a slow process that you will keep you in a state of low testosterone if you don’t undertake PCT.

Post cycle therapy speeds up your hormone production so you can be quickly producing testosterone at an adequate level without the use of steroids.

Because Anadrol is often used at the beginning of a steroid cycle, when and how you start your PCT will often depend on what other steroids you’re taking in your cycle, and how long it goes for. If you’re using just Anadrol and testosterone cypionate for example, your main PCT will start two weeks after the end of the cycle.

Since you will likely be making use of Arimidex or another aromatase inhibitor during your Anadrol cycle to control estrogen, this will also continue through your PCT.

An example of post cycle therapy in this scenario includes continuing Arimidex at 0.5mg daily, while starting with HCG (Gonadotropin) at up to 2500iu weekly beginning at the end of the cycle and going for two weeks. Following this by starting 50mg of Clomid for 3 weeks while maintaining Arimidex at 0.5mg but reducing it to once every two days.