While most supplement manufacturers recommend taking their bodybuilding supplements in cycles, opinions among bodybuilders about this topic are almost as varied as the bodybuilders themselves. Discussion of how to determine supplement-taking cycles is a fixture on bodybuilding blogs and forums.

Why Cycle?

The theory behind supplement cycling is this: If you continuously supplement with a substance that your body already produces naturally, your body over time will become lazy and stop producing the substance itself—meaning you’ll have to take the supplement for the rest of your life.

Most manufacturers recommend that bodybuilders give their bodies a rest from supplements from time to time. For example, BSN
recommends taking its nitric oxide (NO) product NO-Xplode on a minimal cycle of six weeks, an optimal cycle of 12 weeks, and a resting phase of four weeks. However, manufacturers’ cycling recommendations may be largely due to concerns about increased liability that might arise from advocating continuously supplementing with substances that the Food and Drug Administration has approved for sale but says that the degree of need for has not been established.

Whether or not to take supplements continuously or in cycles is a matter of continuing debate. Though no long-term studies are available to suggest that continuous supplement use adversely influences the body’s production of the substance being supplemented, anecdotal evidence suggests that this may well be the case.

Diminishing Returns?

For example, when most people begin taking creatine they find that it helps to build body mass. However, after a few weeks, many report that the gains they believe they made begin to diminish. And so, in order to avoid the continued diminishing returns that seem to occur from taking creatine-containing supplements such as CytoSport’s Muscle Milk and Cytogainer without a break, many bodybuilders take them in cycles that consist of three phases: loading, maintenance, and rest.

Loading

The loading supplementation phase translates to filling up your muscles with creatine much as you fill up your car with gasoline. During the creatine-loading phase, many bodybuilders commonly consume four servings of creatine per day: one before breakfast, one before lunch, one about two hours before working out, and the final one in the evening.

Maintenance and Rest

During the maintenance phase, the amount of creatine taken usually drops by about half, and during the resting phase, it ceases altogether. So, a typical creatine supplementation cycle would consist of taking 20 grams of creatine every day for a week-long loading phase, 10 grams of creatine for a two-week-long maintenance phase, and no creatine for a three-week resting phase.

Complications Arise

Taking multiple supplements, as most bodybuilders do, further complicates the cycling issue. Since individual metabolisms vary as much as individual genetic compositions do, it’s perfectly possible that a supplement cycling program that works spectacularly for one person may not work at all for another. Finally, though judging from the blogs, most bodybuilders seem to use a cycling ratio of four weeks on a supplement and two weeks off, perceived individual results about using a strict times “on and off” program also vary. Perhaps the best path is to follow the trope of balance in all things.

—Julie Crawshaw