December 29, 2000
Issue #27

EXTREME ANABOLIC REVIEW
by Grendel

 Winstrol (Stanazolol)

The generic drug is stanazolol, although the common brand name for this particular anabolic steroid is Winstrol. Winstrol is a 17-alpha alkylated steroid, which means that the drug is orally active. Structural Features Of Androgenic/Anabolic Steroids (in the back issues of Anabolic Extreme) explains why this modification makes the steroid orally effective. The bottom line is that injected winstrol is no more effective then oral winstrol. That is the first misconception I would like to dispel about this drug. Many people see results from injecting winstrol, but don’t seem to get anything from the pills. This is because they are not using equivalent dosages. Traditionally, the oral dosage of winstrol has been around 20-30 mg per day while the injected dosage is 50 mg per day. It seems pretty clear what the problem lies, not in the method of delivery but the total amount of drug that’s used. Winstrol has recently become very available as a pure pharmaceutical powder. This has made proper oral dosing a reality. 

Winstrol has been considered a cutting drug, however, the only property that Winstrol has that would make this appear to be true is that users do not generally report much water retention. This is why competitive bodybuilders use winstrol, although frankly, they are better off using a DHT-steroid like Masteron. Winstrol has no inherent fat burning properties, none.

The chemical structure of Winstrol makes it impossible for this drug to convert into estrogen. Some people theorize that Winstrol affects the progesterone receptors and could cause some side-effects through that mechanism, however, this is not really a problem. Generally speaking, Winstrol can be used without any anti-estrogens. However, any dosage of Winstrol sufficient to induce anabolism will have an effect on the body’s natural production of testosterone. For 2 weeks after a Winstrol cycle, clomid is recommended at 100mg per day.

I think the most interesting potential application of Winstrol arises from its possible action on the progesterone receptors. “Oxymetholone cannot readily aromatize because the carbon at the 2 position is incapable of forming a double bond within the A ring (there are some reaction pathways that are possible, but that is beyond the scope of this article).” This statement from Sanjac’s article should be thought provoking because many users of anadrol report side effects generally attributed to the effects of estrogen or progesterone (like gynocomastia). Again, it’s theorized that anadrol has some activating effect on the progesterone receptors. Therefore, combining Winstrol with anadrol could theoretically prevent these side effects.  

Winstrol is one of the few steroids that are recommended to women. This is an anabolic steroid with very mild androgenic qualities; the development of male secondary sexual characteristics is unlikely with this drug.

Most males are going to find that Winstrol works much better combined with an androgenic steroid, namely testosterone. A very mild stack of Winstrol and primobolan would produce some degree of results, although not as much as a Winstrol and testosterone stack. In my opinion, Winstrol by itself is of little use to most male bodybuilders. Winstrol would make a good addition to the following types of stacks. I have given sample stacks for each sort of goal I could envision and then discussed any rationale below it. 

Type of Stack: Mass Gaining

Length of Stack: 6-8 weeks 

Week 1-4: 1000 mg testosterone per week, 50 mg oxymethelone (anadrol) every day, and 50 mg stanazolol every day. The testosterone used can be any ester, although long acting esters or blends like Sustanon are ideal.

Week 5-6: 700 mg testosterone per week. No orals are taken in this period. Trenbolone acetate can be used at 75 mg every other day. The testosterone used should be fast acting, 100 mg testosterone prop daily would be ideal.

Rationale: The heavy androgen base of the cycle is switched to a fast acting drug ester so that clearance time is more precise. The orals are discontinued after 4 weeks to ease strain on the liver. Trenbolone is used because it is fast acting and fast clearing from the body and it’s a very good anabolic agent. It is not overly liver toxic.

Type of Stack: Dieting

Length of Stack: 6 weeks

Week 1-2: 500 mg testosterone per week and 50 mg stanazolol every day. Use clenbuterol and cytomel.

Week 3-4: 500 mg testosterone per week and 50 mg stanazolol every day. Stop using clenbuterol, continue cytomel.

Weel 5-6: 50 mg stanazolol every day. Resume the use of clenbuterol. 

Rationale: This stack will help to preserve muscle mass and makes use of the low water retention properties of Winstrol. This stack is very basic and its not particularly unique, its only purpose is to highlight how to combine Winstrol with different drugs.

Clenbuterol

I think I will explode if I see one more question on the Anabolic Extreme board about how to use clenbuterol. I believe that clenbuterol is one of the most misunderstood drugs in the bodybuilding universe. People attribute way to much power to clenbuterol and frankly, I think most people are disappointed by it. However, lets cover the technical background of the drug..

Clenbuterol is an asthma medication used worldwide for the treatment of asthma.  It’s not an approved therapy in the US because of the long half-life of clenbuterol. It is not a scheduled drug but as an unapproved drug, it can be blocked from entering the United States. Again, the main reason that clenbuterol is not used in the United States is that is has a long period of action in the body, upwards of 10 hours. Drugs like albuterol have a much shorter period of action; doctors prefer to prescribe drugs that can be more accurately timed. Clenbuterol is used in animal medicine to stimulate growth but this does not mean that clenbuterol is anabolic in humans. Clenbuterol causes fat burning by activating the beta-adrenal receptors in almost the exact same manner as ephedrine; clenbuterol is more elegant in that it does not stimulate all the receptors but primarily the beta-2 receptors whereas ephedrine activates a wider range of receptors. Most people do not experience the general uneasiness associated with ephedrine when they use clenbuterol. I certainly do not. However, a lot of people experience muscle tremors; I cannot bring a fork to my mouth when I take clenbuterol nor can I sign my name in any legible manner (ok, fine I can’t even really write when I am not on clenbuterol) 

I really think clenbuterol should be compared across the board to ephedrine. Yes, clenbuterol is more potent, but a standard dose of clen will be equivalent to ephedrine in the fat burning department. I think its maybe a 2 percent increase in thermogenesis which is hardly worth it considering that clenbuterol causes such rapid receptor attenuation that you can really only use it for about 2 weeks in a row. Remember too that clenbuterol’s anti-catabolic properties are not really that significant. When clenbuterol first caught on, it was compared to anavar and other steroids. This could not be further from the truth. Dave Palumbo claims that extended use of clenbuterol will show its anti-catabolic properties but clearly at this point, there is no longer any thermogenic benefit from the drug. I do not think any male athlete will be particularly impressed with the lean body mass sparing aspects of clenbuterol even when compared to a mild oral steroid. Women tend to experience more muscle gain from clenbuterol.

In my opinion clenbuterol is really not the end-all-be-all of fat burning it’s reported to be. I think that ephedrine and norephedrine are potent substitutes that offer more to the athlete. Ephedrine is almost as good a thermogenic as clenbuterol and since it can be used for longer periods of time, it’s a better choice overall. Norephedrine is not really as potent a thermogenic, but it is a very potent appetite suppressant.

Another misconception around clenbuterol is the theories regarding how to properly cycle it. Clenbuterol, as I mentioned before, causes rapid receptor attenuation which is why it just plain stops working after about 2 weeks and progressively higher and higher dosages are needed. The old 2 days on 2 days off theory about clenbuterol is completely wrong; the simple fact is that clenbuterol has a very long half-life—more then 48 hours. This means that in those 2 days off you are not even experiencing a significant reduction of clenbuterol levels in your body let alone restoring some receptor sensitivity. Clenbuterol is best used in 2-week periods with several weeks between cycles. The use of t3 (cytomel) can prolong the effectiveness of clenbuterol by keeping thyroid levels high but you are going to see diminishing returns after about 2 weeks of clenbuterol use regardless. Alternating clenbuterol with ephedrine is commonly done, but this will not really help your sensitivity to adrenal stimulants. I recommend a 6 week burst of heavy stimulants coupled with a cycle of steroids and thyroid hormone followed by at least 6 weeks off the stimulants. This helps keep the body responding to moderate levels of these drugs; rumors abound of certain pros that take upwards of 20 clenbuterol tablets per day.  

If you look in almost every biochemistry textbook, you will see that beta-adrenal stimulation lowers growth hormone (GH) output in the body. This is another good reason to keep to a short dosing pattern for clenbuterol. Combining clenbuterol with either exogenous GH or a GH-booster like catapres or GHB (alternatively 1,4 butendiol) would certainly help your fat-burning plans.  

Well that is all from Grendel for this week. Next week I will try to cover two more drugs. The idea for this series came from suggestions on the Anabolic Extreme board asking that we profile certain drugs and offer our opinions. I think this is a good idea; there are many steroid descriptions out there but I do not think any are as in-depth as this series aims to be. Please contact me with suggestions as to what drugs you would like to see profiled (Grendel@anabolicextreme.com).

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