Which Supplements Need to be Cycled?

If you’ve been using body building supplements for any period of time, you’ve probably heard of the idea of cycling. This is a commonly used practice where you use a supplement for a period of time, but then go off of it for a period of time. Let’s talk about why you should do this with certain supplements and which supplements you should do it with.

Why to Cycle Your Supplements

So if using body building supplements can help you get a better physique, why should you cycle them? Well, if you’ve been using creatine supplements or NO2 supplements for a long period of time you may have noticed that they tend to have less effect as more time goes by.

You can limit this effect by cycling. By cycling your supplement intake you can keep your body from building up a tolerance and reliance on the supplement. In other words, you’ll get more benefit from the supplement for a longer period and you won’t become fully dependent on the supplement to maintain your physique. Sounds great right!

Supplements that Don’t Need Cycling

Before we talk about ideas on cycling, let’s talk a little bit about the supplements that you don’t need to cycle. These would include multivitamins, antioxidants, fish oils, and protein. Glutamine is another supplement that falls into this category. So don’t worry about cycling these, just take them consistently for their benefits.

Supplements You Should Cycle

As a general rule of thumb, you should consider cycling anything that really does make a difference in your physique. This would include creatine supplements, NO2, and fat burners. There are others I could add to this list as well, but these are the main ones that people use.

Here are some ideas for cycling creatine:

1. The standard loading phase followed by a maintenance phase. Then go off completely after 6-8 weeks, then start the cycle again
2. Take 10g per day for 6 weeks, then take 2 weeks off
3. Load for 3 days, don’t take any for 3 days, repeat

Do some experimenting and see what works for you.

Cycling NO2

As I’ve been searching around for a technique to cycle NO2 I haven’t found any great advice on it. It seems that some people (and apparently books) suggest that you don’t have to cycle it at all, but you’ll also find that a lot of people have found the effect wearing off over prolonged use.

I have seen a few suggestions to use NO2 for no more than a month, and this makes sense to me. Use it for a month, then go off for 2-4 weeks. This will keep your body from relying on the NO2 supplement for the nutrients it contains.

Cycling Fat Burners

You really shouldn’t take fat burners or other thermogenic products for a long period of time. It would be a good idea to follow a similar routine of one month on and then a few weeks off on this one as well.

Conclusion

To get the most out of some body building supplements for a longer period of time you really should cycle them in one way or another. You’ll find that there are a lot of different ways that people do this and so the best thing you can do is to try different cycling techniques to see what your body reacts to the most. Do this effectively and you’ll continue to reap the benefits of your favorite supplements!

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