Short vs long cycles

Hey all

Have been running shic's for the last year and half now and feel my recovery is far better on a 6 weeker vs the standard 12-14 weeker.
I usually run short esters, but my last cycle I tried experimenting with EQ using a frontload for three weeks and then riding the ester for the remainder of the cycle (3 weeks) on high initial dose.

Was quite happy with the results of the front load, but think I needed higher doses, but best to err on side of caution to start with.

The doses on shics are much higher than long cycles with a get in get out before the onset of sides and with much shorter period of shut down, so recovery is better.

I know a lot of guys say that androgen receptors can only handle so much and the rest is a waste, but equally a lot of guys complain that after 6-8 weeks on a long cycle the gains seem to dry up.

Other benefit is shorter down time if you follow time off = time on + pct.

Interested to hear other opinions and from those who've tried both which they thought was better.

I've always only done long cycles and to keep gaining after 8 weeks you have to go to stupid high doses at one stage I was shooting 200mg Cypionate a day.

With that said I believe that shorter cycles are the way to go and the year I'm going to experiment with short cycles. But I'm going to try dosages in the upper range of what guys ussually use.

Taking all this into account I also think that longer cycle are for some guys more economical because if you're on a short cycle you're going to use only short esters meaning that you're shooting more and need more product.

How would the results/gains compare ?

andre300 wrote:

How would the results/gains compare ?

Seemed quite similar to me, just the short esters are quicker to get you there.

THe big thing for me, were I noticed the difference was in the post cycle recovery. I've found if I keep estrogen low, I don't get that pct crash with shics.

But I never used HCG during the longer cycles so perhaps recovery would have been better if I had.

vega5 wrote:

I've always only done long cycles and to keep gaining after 8 weeks you have to go to stupid high doses at one stage I was shooting 200mg Cypionate a day.

With that said I believe that shorter cycles are the way to go and the year I'm going to experiment with short cycles. But I'm going to try dosages in the upper range of what guys ussually use.

Taking all this into account I also think that longer cycle are for some guys more economical because if you're on a short cycle you're going to use only short esters meaning that you're shooting more and need more product.

What are you planning for the shorter cycle and what doses?

Thing is most guys use long esters at stupid high doses for SHICs and this is where I disagree. I prefer traditional short ester cycles if you are going for a short 6 weeker. Not the silly idea of blasting yourself with mega doses of long esters and riding them out with short ones as is traditional with SHICs.

As I said before yes your body can only use so much gear at once, and yes there can be some damaging side effects at high doses even if run for short periods.

Also the body already begins to shut down testosterone after as little as two weeks of exposure to exogenous androgens, so surely higher doses in this time frame will have a greater effect in the short term on natural test production. Maybe the reason you feel that recovery on a SHIC is better is for the above statement of never using HCG with the long esters.

Also I like long cycles and short cycles equally. I think perhaps the title is a bit miswritten because when we were having this discussion on a highjacked thread my problem was not with short cycles at all, it was with SHICs.

Inja wrote:

Also the body already begins to shut down testosterone after as little as two weeks of exposure to exogenous androgens, so surely higher doses in this time frame will have a greater effect in the short term on natural test production. Maybe the reason you feel that recovery on a SHIC is better is for the above statement of never using HCG with the long esters.

Could be.

All the short cycles I've done have been with short esters, except for the last one with EQ and agree using long esters and riding out the ester is a bit of a balancing act.

A short cycle will shut you down, no doubt, it's just the length of time you are shut down. You're recovery should be better, all things equal, if you are shut down for 5 weeks than if you are shut down for 12 weeks.

Experimenting is the only way and will run a longer cycle with HCG and see if recovery is better.

Well all things aren't equal if yo running a SHIC... Because the doses are so high.

These cycles you ran, were they SHICs or just short cycles? What were the doses?

Inja wrote:

Well all things aren't equal if yo running a SHIC... Because the doses are so high.

By equal I mean same compound-you can't compare recovery from test with deca no matter what doses you use.
Logically to me if you're not using HCG and running same pct, you're recovery from 6 weeks of test prop will be better than 12 weeks of test prop due to the length of time you haven't been producing testosterone.
Even if the doses are higher on the short cycle, once you're shut down from test you're shut down, it then becomes the period you are shut down for.

The recovery from enth ester will take longer as well because the metabolites stay in your blood longer with the ester length and will exert some sort of suppression.


Inja wrote:

These cycles you ran, were they SHICs or just short cycles? What were the doses?

Well, depends on you're definition of a shic-Short High Intensity Cycle. To me a shic is a short cycle, with the doses being higher than they would be on a standard cycle as you are trying to shock the body and then get out. But not necessarily, or even usually mixing long and short esters in a front loading fashion, can be all short esters.

I only ran test prop as my testosterone on every cycle and went as high as 1,000mg/week, but found 800mg/week was a nice dose. So that is a high dose of testosterone.
With the test on different cycles I ran NPP at 500mg/week with test and winny 50mg/day, so that's not too high; masteron 450mg/week and test; proviron 50mg/day and test; Tbol 80mg/day and test; dbol at 50mg/day and test; and my latest cycle was a frontload EQ at 1,400mg/week for three weeks and then rode the ester for three weeks with test prop 800mg/week for 6 weeks and dbol 50mg/day for 4 weeks at the end of the cycle.

PCT was always nolva for 4 weeks 40/30/20/20, EFA's, zinc, vit c and ginseng. Tried tribulus for a couple fo them but am not convinced it does much.

So I guess it depends what you consider high intensity-800mg/test is considered high for some, but not to others