How Effective Is An Anavar Only Cycle?

Anavar, or Oxandrolone, is one of the most popular oral anabolic steroids used today. Originally designed for the treatment of AIDS-related muscle wasting, alcoholic hepatitis, treatment of osteoporosis, trauma recovery and other weight loss illnesses, its popularity amongst athletes grew due to its potent muscle building effects and good safety profile.

If you’re below the age of twenty-one, we don’t suggest using anabolic steroids, Anavar included. However, if you’re set on using anabolic steroids regardless of our advice or anyone else’s, Anavar is certainly an option due to it not aromatising and converting to estrogen, as well as its mild overall effects. For a first cycle or introduction into the world of using anabolic steroids, going to the oral route is often favourable. That doesn’t leave a lot of options, but Anavar is one of them. Dianabol can also be used alone, but this compound does cause estrogen levels to rise, will impact testosterone production moderately and cause the steroid user to experience symptoms of low testosterone. Because Anavar is a dihydrotestosterone (DHT) related anabolic steroid, its androgenic effects can cause libido to increase, even though endogenous testosterone may be inhibited, making it an excellent choice as an oral only based steroid cycle. But how effective is Anavar used alone?

Today we’re going to look at a study done at the University of Southern California in 2004.  Thirty men over sixty years of age were given a relatively low Anavar dosage of 20mg every day. Twenty of the healthy and untrained men, got Anavar and the remaining ten got a placebo. The study lasted for twelve weeks and looked at a number of parameters. The men did not exercise during the trial.

One of the parameters measured before and after Anavar treatment was a cross section of the thigh muscle. This would indicate muscle mass accrual from Anavar use. The figure below shows the results.




The men using Anavar gained far more muscle mass than those using the placebo. The figure below indicates how much of this muscle mass was maintained after the study ended, and unfortunately, its not much.



A similar result was seen in muscle power from the Anavar group as shown below. The lat pull-down, leg extension and leg press were all tested which showed a more dramatic increase in the Anavar group. But again, these strength gains faded away leaving around 5-10% remaining after discontinuing Oxandrolone.




However, all was not lost post Anavar treatment. Fat loss was maintained more so than the muscle mass and strength gained from Oxandrolone after twelve weeks. Fat mass fell after two weeks and this loss was still evident twelve weeks later.



Other parameters tested were the men’s luteinizing hormone (LH) levels, cholesterol, PSA markers for prostate cancer and liver enzymes. There were no adverse effects in any of these.

Limitations of this study are that the men were untrained. The results are promising showing gains in muscle, strength and fat loss are evident in untrained males, and these results could be expedited with a high protein diet, training and cardio program. We don’t suggest using Anavar alone and not training, but instead consume a calorie surplus for more muscle mass, or calorie deficit for wanting to lose fat mass.

As with any anabolic steroids used alone or in combination, a post cycle therapy (PCT) will be needed, and Anavar is no different. Although a mild androgen on natural testosterone production, Oxandrolone is inhibitive so using drugs, such as Tamoxifen and herbal products will be needed post cycle to boost testosterone output.