So, you decided to take the plunge and did your first steroid cycle. The muscular gains you made were incredible, and your strength went through the roof. On the downside, all that fun is over and you’ve come to the end of your cycle. You don’t want to lose that impressive mass of new muscle, so what to do now to keep it? Luckily, bodybuilders have been dealing with this situation for years, and there are a whole slew of ways you can keep most of what you gained.

Post cycle therapy can be done effectively with more drugs, such as clomid or human chorionic gonadotropin, or you can do it with over the counter nutritional supplements. For arguments sake, let’s say you’ve decided to go the supplement route. You want to focus on supplements that will help you get your natural testosterone levels up and moving once again.

Steroid use may suppress your natural occurring testosterone production, and that can lead to many unwanted side-effects such as:

Decreased sex drive

Depression

Slower muscle recovery

Lower energy levels

Muscle loss

Not just any old nutritional supplements will do if you’re coming off a steroid cycle. Focus should be put on those supplements that help to naturally increase testosterone levels, such as prohormones and herbal testosterone boosters.

Some of the benefits to using these testosterone-boosting supplements are:

Increased libido

Enhanced muscle recovery

Elevated strength levels

Harder looking muscles

Improved muscle pumps

Prohormones are actually precursors to human steroid hormones. This means that they are not hormones themselves, but once they are ingested, your body will convert them into an actual steroid hormone through a biological process. These steroid alternatives have often been praised as "legal anabolic steroids." Recently, many of these anabolic supplements have come under fire by the FDA and some have even been banned.

Tribulus Terrestris has been around for years as an herbal steroid alternative. During the 1990’s, bodybuilders and athletes alike began to use tribulus supplements for their potential muscle building properties. Tribulus does not act directly on testosterone production, but rather it stimulates the body’s production of luteinizing hormone, or LH. An increase in LH tells your body to naturally produce more testosterone. Tribulus is a safe and natural way to improve your testosterone levels for Post cycle therapy.

ZMA is another popular and all natural testosterone booster. The combination of the two minerals - zinc and magnesium aspartate – makes up the basis for ZMA. In men, the prostate has one of the highest concentrations of zinc, and using supplemental zinc helps to naturally produce more testosterone. Magnesium helps to induce a deeper and better quality sleep because it is has natural muscle relaxing qualities. Because of this, ZMA products are best taken before bed. The ZMA combination is also very beneficial to muscle recovery after those hard-hitting workouts.

It is also vitally important that once you finish your steroid cycle that you do not stop weight training. While you may not be able to lift the same heavy poundages you could during your steroid cycle, your muscles still need to be challenged in order to gain permanent growth. Be sure to train your largest muscle groups, back and quads, with heavy weights as well. Stimulating these muscles will also cause your body to produce higher testosterone levels.

By combining all of these aspects, you can be sure that your Post cycle therapy will be adequate to improve your testosterone levels and help you keep most of your gains from your steroid cycle.