Illegal steroids are commonly used in bodybuilding due to their ability to put on muscle mass fast. However, this can come with the addition of multiple short and long-term side-effects.
One of the side effects is not just muscle but also fat gain and water retention. This is why gym rat are often looking for the best best steroid cycles for lean mass and muscle gain.
Some of the best bodybuilders to have graced the sport have followed a steroid protocol, enabling them to build huge amounts of muscle mass, without excessive amounts of fluid surrounding the outside of their muscle cells (which can obscure muscle definition). Such bodybuilders are a dying breed, unlike the Mr. Olympia Pro’s of today who don’t care about gaining water; as long as they’re packing on more mass.
Here’s a few bodybuilders who ran solid steroid cycles for LEAN muscle gains:
- Arnold Schwarzenegger
- Franco Colombu
- Frank Zane
- Lou Ferrigno
- Serge Nubret
Plus many other classic bodybuilders from this golden era.
So, what’s the best steroid cycle for lean muscle gain? Anabolic steroids are dangerous and illegal which is why we have suggested legal alternatives instead.
TL;DR These are the Best Steroids for Lean Muscle Gain (Legal Alternatives)
Anadrol Alternative
Anadrol Alternative
Anadrole increases red blood cell production which leads to delayed fatigue and also helps to deliver immense muscle gains.
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Learn MoreDianabol Alternative
Dianabol Alternative
D-Bal creates the ultimate anabolic state for mega muscle growth, rapid strength gains and increased mass.
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Learn MoreBulking Stack Alternative
Bulking Stack Alternative
This is Crazy Bulk's ultimate stack for boosting testosterone levels, accelerating gains, and building strength.
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Learn MoreTestolone RAD 140
Testolone RAD 140
Testolone is considered to be the strongest SARM available. It directly stimulates muscle cells and encourages the production of testosterone.
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Learn MoreMyostine YK-11
Myostine YK-11
Myostine has the ability to inhibit the activity of myostatin, which is a protein that prevents muscle growth.
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Learn MoreBasic SARMs Stack
Basic SARMs Stack
Science Bio offers this basic liquid bundle for those who are new to taking SARMs. Contains the 4 basic SARMs.
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Learn MoreDisclaimer: The information included in this article is intended for entertainment and informational purposes only. It is not intended nor implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice. Prior to buying anything, check that it is compliant where you live with your current government laws.
Trenbolone and legal alternative
Trenbolone is predominantly a bulking steroid which doesn’t cause any water retention.
In fact, the opposite is true, trenbolone will actually cause you to lose water – making you look even more shredded, whilst your packing on muscle for fun.
Trenbolone also has some fat-burning properties, ensuring you don’t accumulate any fat, whilst generously eating on a cycle. The reason trenbolone can burn fat is because it’s able to decrease cortisol levels, which is the stress hormone responsible for causing fat storage.
Trenbolone will also result in epic 3D rounded shoulders and traps that pop out to the sky – Phil Heath style.
Testosterone and legal alternative
Testosterone is the only other bulking steroid that you can use to gain huge amounts of muscle, without turning into a human hippo. Aka it doesn’t cause crazy amounts of water retention that other compounds such as anadrol or dianabol can cause.
Testosterone actually increases muscle hardness and like trenbolone can cause fat loss too; hence how some bodybuilders use testosterone when dieting hard for a competition.
Test will result in some fluid retention, but this won’t be anything drastic. At the same time though testosterone isn’t a diuretic and thus won’t cause you to lose any water weight (like trenbolone can).
Testosterone is also very popular for beginners as it’s not as taxing on your internal organs as other AAS. Despite this, you should still have regular health checks, making sure you’re as healthy as possible (if you are going to take steroids).
Best Steroid Cycle for Lean Muscle Gain
Taking testosterone and trenbolone together is one of the best bulking cycles any bodybuilder can do. If you want to look dry and aesthetic too, this duo will also deliver on that promise.
Stacking these 2 steroids together will give a user HUGE size gains, and if that’s not enough, you’ll also develop strength even Hercules would be envious of.
Here’s how a typical cycle would look:
Testosterone – 12 weeks
Trenbolone – 8 weeks
A standard steroid protocol is to take trenbolone for 4 weeks first, then add testosterone after this period for the remaining 8 weeks of your cycle.
Note: Beginners should refrain from taking excessive doses as these are powerful steroids.
The only possible drawback that may happen on this cycle is if you don’t tolerate trenbolone very well. Tren’s a pretty toxic steroid; almost certain to cause some physical and mental side effects. These include: anxiety, paranoia, insomnia and high blood pressure.
If you do experience any adverse effects, which become severe at any point, reduce your dose or stop your cycle. Alternatively you you may find it safer and more comfortable implementing shorter cycles to eliminate such reactions in the future. Generally the longer you take a steroid for, the more likely it is to negatively affect you.
Other Steroids for Lean Muscle Gain
Anadrol and Legal Alternative
Anadrol is an incredibly powerful steroid when it comes to building mass. If you want to build muscle and size ASAP, and you don’t care about gaining water retention, anadrol is arguably the best AAS for the job.
However, if you’re concerned about looking puffy or bloated and want to remain looking aesthetic, then trenbolone or/and testosterone are better options.
It’s worth noting that the fluid accumulation you’ll experience on anadrol will diminish after your cycle finishes, so this is something to consider if it’s the off season and you don’t mind gaining 10lbs of water weight; in order to look your best in a few months. When it comes to building muscle tissue – anadrol is superior to testosterone and many other anabolic steroids.
Dianabol and Legal Alternative
Dianabol is similar to anadrol, but is less harsh and you won’t experience as many side effects. Like anadrol you’ll experience some water retention (typically more than testosterone/trenbolone), but if you’re taking a sensible dose – this isn’t going to be anything too extreme.
In terms of muscle gains (in relation to side effects), oral dianabol is up there as one of the best AAS on the black market. It’s not overly harsh and has proven to be one of the best steroids you can utilize for building muscle (which has remained the same for the last 50 years).
Summary
Taking trenbolone and testosterone together whilst eating large quantities of food is without a doubt classed as a powerful bulking cycle.
There’s no debating these are some of most powerful steroids in the world for piling on mass. Usually people think of a bulking cycle taking place in the off-season/winter; but bodybuilders also often run testosterone and trenbolone in the summer when it’s beach season.
This is because they won’t cause any water retention and have the ability to reduce a users body fat percentage.
Building muscle and burning fat at the same time is a very ambitious goal in the bodybuilding world; but it’s very possible when running testosterone and trenbolone in a cycle together.
2 More Effective Steroids:
Winstrol and human growth hormone are two very coveted compounds in bodybuilding. They have many different attributes and building lean muscle is one of them.
However, these 2 steroids above won’t build nearly as much mass as trenbolone or testosterone. For this reason (and because they’re both effective fat burners) they can also be used for cutting.
If your goal isn’t to build 30lbs of muscle, and you just want to gain a little bit of size (such as 10lbs), winstrol is a popular steroid used by many bodybuilders (especially if you want to burn fat simultaneously).
Human growth hormone isn’t technically a steroid, but it will help you build some muscle. However, this isn’t likely to be anything huge unless you take insulin with it, which maximizes its effect. If your goal is to look aesthetic, this combo isn’t recommended as insulin & HGH can result in a steroid gut – where your waist starts to protrude and stick out.
Best Steroid for Lean Muscle
The best steroid for lean mass, according to many experienced bodybuilders, is Dianabol. This was the steroid of choice for many of the stars of the golden age of bodybuilding in the 1970s, including Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sergio Oliva. Also known as Methandrostenolone, Dianabol is a potent oral steroid. That makes it popular among bodybuilders who are keen to make lean muscle gains without having to inject themselves like a pincushion.
As well as helping you to make lean muscle gains, Dianabol will also enhance athletic performance and strength levels. It will also provide you with more energy for your workout. Then, after the workout, it will boost your recovery.
You should be aware that gas and bloating are common side effects with Dianabol.
Dianabol Steroid Cycles for Lean Mass
The following Dianabol cycle is a good beginner protocol for making lean muscle gains. It involves taking 25 mg per day over an 8 week cycle:
- Week 1: 25 mg Dianabol per day
- Week 2: 25 mg Dianabol per day
- Week 3: 25 mg Dianabol per day
- Week 4: 25 mg Dianabol per day
- Week 5: 25 mg Dianabol per day
- Week 6: 25 mg Dianabol per day
- Week 7: 25 mg Dianabol per day
- Week 8: 25 mg Dianabol per day
Lean Bulk Cycle
If you goal is to add lean bulk to your frame in the shortest possible time, then taking a cycle of Deca Durabolin is a good bet for you. Deca is also known as Nandrolone Decanoate. Some people have been known to pack on as much as 20 pounds of lean muscular bulk over a 10 week cycle of Deca. A positive side effect of Deca is that it will help to enhance your joint functioning.
Deca does aromatize but at very low levels. As a result it has a low estrogen conversion rate, making it a relatively safe lean bulking steroid.
Best Lean Bulk Cycle
The following 10 week lean bulking cycle is an effective protocol for packing on lean bulk. Be sure to train at full intensity 4-5 times per week and to get plenty of rest while also increasing your caloric intake to at least 500 calories above your daily maintenance level while following this cycle.
- Week One: 200mg per week
- Week Two: 200mg per week
- Week Three: 200mg per week
- Week Four: 300mg per week
- Week Five: 300mg per week
- Week Six: 300mg per week
- Week Seven: 300mg per week
- Week Eight: 400mg per week
- Week Nine: 400mg per week
- Week Ten: 400mg per week
Best Cycle for Lean Mass and Strength
There are many cycles for lean mass and strength. One of the best involves testosterone cypionate. As well as packing on lean mass and boosting strength levels, test cypionate will improve workout recovery and increase endurance levels. It can be used for both bulking and cutting cycles.
Testosterone cypionate enhances the production of lutenizing hormone, which, in turn, boosts the body’s natural production of testosterone.
There are a number of side effects associated with Testosterone cypionate use including male pattern baldness, gynecomastia, acne, water retention and uncontrollable erections.
For an effective lean mass, strength stack pair Testosterone cypionate with Equipoise, which will ensure that you put on fat free muscle. Here is a sample 12 week stack:
- Week One: Test cypionate – 400 mg per week: Equipoise – 400 mg per week
- Week Two: Test cypionate – 400 mg per week: Equipoise – 400 mg per week
- Week Three: Test cypionate – 400 mg per week: Equipoise – 400 mg per week
- Week Four: Test cypionate – 400 mg per week: Equipoise – 400 mg per week
- Week Five: Test cypionate – 400 mg per week: Equipoise – 400 mg per week
- Week Six: Test cypionate – 400 mg per week: Equipoise – 400 mg per week
- Week Seven: Test cypionate – 400 mg per week: Equipoise – 400 mg per week
- Week Eight: Test cypionate – 400 mg per week: Equipoise – 400 mg per week
- Week Nine: Test cypionate – 400 mg per week: Equipoise – 400 mg per week
- Week Ten: Test cypionate – 400 mg per week: Equipoise – 400 mg per week
- Week Eleven: Test cypionate – 400 mg per week: Equipoise – 400 mg per week
- Week Twelve: Test cypionate – 400 mg per week: Equipoise – 400 mg per week
What About Legal Mass Building Steroids?
Anabolic steroids are a synthetic version of the male sex hormone testosterone. It provides both anabolic (muscle building) and androgenic (masculine sexual characteristic enhancing) effects. The increased testosterone level affects protein synthesis that facilitates the rapid building of the muscle. It also helps the body to make optimal use of the calories it gets from food to make you bigger and stronger.[1]
Legal mass building steroids attempt to closely replicate the effects of illegal steroids. They do this by bringing together a range of natural herbal and other compounds to work together to produce a testosterone boosting effect. They also attempt to increase the body’s natural production of human growth hormone (HGH), which is another power muscle mass enhancer.[2]
Legal mass builders will often be given names that sound almost identical to the actual illegal steroid that they are trying to mimic. For example, one of the very first legal steroids, put out by SDI Labs in the year 2000, was D-Bol, which was based on the steroid Dianabol, colloquially shortened to ‘D-Bal’
What Sort of Results Can You Expect?
The first thing you need to understand is that legal steroids will NEVER give you the same sort of results as you will get from illegal steroids. Anyone who tells you otherwise is lying. That being said, the vast majority of legal steroid websites will make that very claim. The next thing you should understand is that legal steroids will do nothing but waste your money unless you follow all of the advice in the section below on nutrition and weight training.
So, given that you are eating right for mass gain and training smartly and consistently, what can you expect? It is realistic to have a lean muscle gain of a pound per month. If you are genetically gifted that may increase to a pound and a half. That may not sound like much, but it equates to between 12 and 20 pounds of lean muscle tissue gain per year. Over 5 years you will add up to one hundred pounds to your body. That is precisely what RXMuscle founder Dave Palumbo did, though he was benefiting from steroids of the illegal variety!
How Should You Train & Eat for Mass?
Steroids, whether legal or illegal, are supplemental to smart nutrition. In other words, they are like the icing on the top of the cake. If you are not on point with what you are eating, then you are quite literally wasting your money on mass building supps. That’s why we feel it’s important to include here a quick primer on how you should be eating for mass gain.
To put on muscle mass, you need to eat at least 500 calories per day more than your daily maintenance level. Concentrate on lean proteins and complex carbs. Divide your total caloric consumption by six and plan those meals over the course of your day. It should work out to eating every 2.5-3 hours. Here are ten foods that you should be eating most days:
- Tuna
- Salmon
- Eggs
- Avocado
- Chicken
- Sweet Potatoes
- Beef
- Rice
- Milk
- Oats
A key tip is to keep your meals pretty consistent. Eating the same thing every day may get a little boring but remember that you are doing this for a specific goal – to add muscle mass to your frame. So, suck it up and get on with it! You will find it much easier to stick with the same meals than having to create new meals every day.
Want the full story on eating to get huge. Find it here (link to future article)
When it comes to working out for muscle mass you need to approach your workouts as if you were a warrior going into battle. Of the 24 hours in your day, this is the one hour when you are able to put in the hard yards to build your body the way you want to. So, get focused for your workouts. Rehearse your workouts in your mind and establish the mind-muscle connection.
Working out builds muscle in two ways. Firstly, it creates microtears in your muscle fibers. When you rest, recover and feed the muscle, the fibers will build back bigger and stronger. The other way weight training builds muscle is by increasing the storage of glycogen in your muscle cells. This brings on the pump effect in the muscle cell. For maximum muscle gains you need to be making use of both of these mechanisms. However, you must also avoid overtraining, which will actually lead to catabolism, the opposite of anabolism (muscle building). Your training shouldn’t take more than about an hour every day. You should hit each body part just once per week, with a total of about 15 sets per muscle group. These should range in reps from a high of 30 down to a low od 4. This will cover both mass building mechanisms (muscle microtrauma and glycogen capacity increase in the muscle cell). Here is an effective rep protocol:
- Set One: 30 reps
- Set Two: 20 reps
- Set Three: 15 reps
- Sets Four & Five: 10 reps
- Sets Six & Seven: 8 reps
- Sets Eight & Nine: 6 reps
- Sets Ten & Eleven: 4 reps
- Set Twelve: 30 reps
With each succeeding set, you should increase the weight. For the last set, strip it back to the weight you started with. Stick to just one exercise per body-part, making sure that you select the most effective mass building move that exists.
Best Muscle Builder: TestoPrime
The Best Mass Building Legal Steroids of 2021
Best Muscle Builder: TestoPrime
TestoPrime provides men of all ages with natural support for testosterone levels in order to maximize strength, boost energy, and raise overall confidence in their masculinity.
This potent testosterone booster contains 12 ingredients sourced from vitamins, minerals, herbs, and supplements that are clinically-backed and have been proven to enhance men’s natural testosterone production.
Some of the key ingredients included in this scientifically-researched formula include:
- 2,000 mg D-Aspartic Acid – Supports the production of luteinizing hormone (LH)
- 8,000 mg Panax Ginseng – Boosts sex drive and energy
- 668 mg KSM 66® Ashwagandha – Supports natural testosterone production and levels
- 800 mg Fenugreek – Boosts sex drive and sexual function
- 40 mg Zinc – Increases free testosterone by reducing its conversion into estradiol
It is recommended for men 18 and older to take 4 capsules of TestoPrime daily in order to maximize results. Whether you’re running low on energy and libido or need an extra boost of strength, TestoPrime has you covered!
Winsol
In order to build muscle, you gotta’ lift heavy. That is why a legal steroid that will get you stronger will also get you bigger. Winsol from Crazy Bulk is the best product that we have been able to obtain legally that does that. Winsol is designed to mimic the effects of the power strength enhancing steroid Winstrol. It contains the following 5 key strength building ingredients:
- Acetyl-L-Carnitine – 55mg
- Choline – 300mg
- Wild Yam Root – 300mg
- DMAE – 150mg
- Safflower Oil Powder – 126mg
When combined in the right dosages in your body, these ingredients act as precursors to both testosterone and human growth hormone. With more of both hormones surging through your body in the gym, you’ll be able to push out those vital extra reps that will result in lean muscle gains.
D-Bal
D-Bal by Crazy Bulk is a copycat of the original D-Bol by SDI Labs, which is, in turn, a mimic of the illegal steroid Dianabol. Like D-Bol it uses all-natural ingredients to boost natural, testosterone production. The 5 key ingredients on Crazy Bulk D-Bal are:
- Tribulus Terrestris
- Leucine
- Isoleucine
- Valine
- Whey protein
The complete ingredient profile is similar to, though not as extensive as, D-Bol by SDI Labs. However, the dosages in D-Bal are not as high as on D-Bol, which is why we have rated it at #5 rather than #1.
References:
Best Steroid Stacks for Sale
We've scoured the web for our favorite steroid stack alternatives and came up with this.Crazy Bulk has the bulking stack with alternatives to Dianabol, Trenbolone, Deca Durabolin and Testosterone.
They also have the cutting stack with alternatives to Anavar, Winstrol, Clenbuterol and Testosterone.
You can also buy them individually.
If you're interested in more potent compounds you can always check out the latest research on SARMs and buy them from Science.Bio.
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