Deca 101: Everything you ever wanted to know about Nandrolone Decanoate
Deca, every time I hear that word out of someone’s mouth it brings tingles to my body!!!!! Well not exactly like that, but I will say that Deca is a pretty great compound lol. For starters, it bangs one hell of a punch in a very small amount! On just 100 mg a week you will see some nice recovery and tendon healing benefits, as well as a nice increase in strength that a lot of other compounds will not give you.
One huge benefit of Deca is the long chain ester that it is attached to, allows for a much lower injection frequency compared to a lot of other compounds. With a half life around 9 or so days, a once a week injection frequency is the most common among users. Now if you are getting the dosage up to around 600 mg or so, then you may want to increase the injection frequency, but anything 400 mg or lower a once a week injection works well!!!
Now I have used Deca a handful of times over the years and it is one of the most side effect friendly steroids one can use. It has very little in terms of estrogen conversion and is low on the Androgenic scale, meaning acne and other notable side effects are often minimized. Now that does not mean that this steroid is side effect free, it just means that estrogen and androgenic side effects are often times not of a concern. But the one difference between Deca and a lot of other compounds is it does have a fairly high rate of Prolactin conversion. For me, this was a concern and one of the big reasons that I no longer run Deca. Prolactin will cause many of the same side effects that estrogen will, as well as a few that are unique. Gyno, acne, mood swings, lethargy and the like are still common with higher levels of Prolactin. For me personally, Gyno was an issue, especially when my dosage was taken a little bit higher. Now everyone is different, and I know plenty of guys who have no issues with Prolactin induced side effects while running Deca, I was just not one of them. Now most of this can be remedied by the use of Cabergoline, which prevents Prolactin from forming in the bloodstream. Typically a dose of 0.5 mg twice a week will be all one needs. Another common side effect you hear about is the dreaded “Deca Dick” which is essentially a limp pecker lol. When Prolactin levels get too elevated it will be very difficult or damn near impossible to get an erection no matter how hard you try. Keeping your Testosterone dosage neck and neck or slightly higher than the Deca dose can often prevent this. So if the Deca dose is 400 mg, 500 mg of Testosterone will often times be used as an offset for Prolactin induced side effects.
In terms of cycle length, I would recommend 12 weeks as a minimum, with 16 being far more common. This is due to the longer ester attached to Deca, which causes peak blood concentrations to be reached around the 8-10 week mark. Deca is best suited as an off-season builder, do to the fact that it is not going to have much leaning out or hardening properties. One can see a pretty high level of size gain in a fairly short amount of time with Deca. The strength increase is also quite a bit higher than many other compounds, so much so that one may need to really focus on keeping the weight lighter and training in the higher rep range to keep one from getting injured. One big issue with some compounds is that because we get so strong so fast, we essentially outgrow the tendons and ligaments. This is where a lot of strains and tears come from, essentially the body has not adapted to the increase in strength because it was so rapid. But, by modifying things and being smart, we can remain in this game for the long haul. Always remember there is no finish line with bodybuilding!!!!!!
Sample Growth Phase Cycle
Weeks 1-16 500 mg a week Testosterone Cypionate
Weeks 1-16 400 mg a week Deca Durabolin
Weeks 1-4 25 mg a day Dianabol
BEYOND JUST BODYBUILDING!!!!