Published 18:21 IST, December 6th 2024
SARMs For Beginners: Safest To Use, Cycle Advice –Best SARMs Stack For Cutting Or Bulking
This is a complete guide in 10 minutes to all you need to know though. We’ll talk about how the different SARMs work, and what the problems and benefits are.
- Initiatives
- 12 min read
If you’re hoping to dive into SARMs as a beginner then you need some solid info to not waste time, money, and harm yourself. Finding the best SARMs stack for beginners is just part of the battle.
This is a complete guide in 10 minutes to all you need to know though. We’ll talk about how the different SARMs work, and what the problems and benefits are.
I will also cover creating beginner SARMs cycles, and focusing on the safest SARMs to do so.
We will also do full beginner SARMs cutting, bulking, and strength stacks (including a beginner’s stack for females).
All that, plus I’ll talk you through where you can still buy high purity SARMs.
How Androgenic SARMs Work
SARMs work by stimulating (being agonists) of androgen receptors. They do this by mimicking testosterone and it signals.
SARMs are clever because they only stimulate a response from the androgen receptors in muscle and bone tissue, so you don’t get damaging side effects and other areas the body (things like hair loss and prostate growth).
In mimicking testosterone signals they tell muscles to grow larger, stronger, and denser. They also produce higher levels of strength and endurance in your muscle tissue.
On the downside though, androgenic SARMs also convince your body it’s producing too much testosterone, and over several weeks, faster if the SARMs you’re using other highly anabolic androgenic ratio, it will start to chop back its production levels significantly.
Here’s a list of the main androgenic SARMs:
- RAD-140 Testolone (RAD-150)
- S-4 Andarine
- S-23
- LGD-4033 Ligandrol (LGD-4)
- MK-2866 Ostarine (OTR-AC)
- AC-262,536
Note that throughout this beginners SARMs guide I refer to some similar sounding alphanumeric names. This is where they have a slightly different formula to get around legalities, but are absolutely identical, and sometimes more efficient, than the original alphanumeric SARM.
These SARMs Are Not SARMs At All
It may surprise you to know that not all chemical sold the SARMs target androgen receptor sites at all.In addition, energy boosting SARMs are not androgenic either.
This is actually good because when you are creating beginner SARMs stacks you can pair up an androgenic SARM with a non-androgenic bodybuilding chemical to get the same effect, but halving the potential testosterone depletion.
These are the main ones you need to know about:
- GW-501516 Cardarine is an incredible energy booster that is referred to by athletes in the know as “energy in a bottle”. It rebalances your energy metabolism to burn more fatty tissue than you would normally, through your body focusing on using it as much as glucose.
- SR-9009 Stenabolic (SR-9011) is another energy boosting chemical. It works as a Rev-ErbA agonist, to produce high levels of alertness and energy, and also rebalances energy metabolism in a similar way to Cardarine.
- MK-677 Ibutamoren works as a ghrelin receptor agonist, primarily in the stomach. This has two benefits for bodybuilding. Firstly, it stimulates higher levels of appetite. So, as long as you eat the right stuff, you’ll be able to bulk up bigger and faster and have more energy. Secondly, it stimulates higher levels of growth hormone production in the pituitary gland.
- YK-11 is a myostatin inhibitor. Inhibiting this hormone allows for larger muscle growth across the body. Therefore, it’s a bit more like a steroid, and at high doses, it can be uncontrollable for muscle growth and be too much for some people, so dosing should be kept nice and tight.
What’s The Safest SARM To Try?
When it comes to trying the safest SARM first, then there’s a clear winner which makes it easy. It’s one of the few clear wins you’re going to get making decisions on SARMs.
Ostarine is the safest of all. It’s safe for the following reasons:
- It’s the mildest androgenic SARM
- It barely depletes testosterone even at high doses
- It’s not strong in its androgenic side effects
- It’s anabolic effects are mild
- It’s great for cutting fat risk-free
- It will give you more energy and protect muscles in a cut
- It’s been through the most human trials
Dosed at around 20 mg per day as a beginner, after eight weeks of use you’ll really notice the difference in your composition.
If after four weeks you not feeling much, increase the dose from 20 mg to 30 mg, you’ll still be below the level where there will be much testosterone depletion, and you can run a decent cycle to see how it works for you to shred extra fat from the body and harden your muscle tone.
Using SARMs Individually Is A Great Beginners Trick
A great beginners trick, especially if you are risk adverse and looking not only for the safest SARM, but the safest way into trying them, is to use them individually.
This is not something I see mentioned often. People get obsessed with stacks and potency. But in the beginning, when you don’t know how they feel how they work, how will you understand if you stack three or four together?
I’m not saying you try them all, but try the main ones for bulking, energy, and cutting individually so you can see how they feel and work before stacking.
If you’re going to try the strategy, this is what I would advise you think about doing:
- Cut using Ostarine (20 mg dose) for six weeks
- Build strength using Cardarine (20 mg dose) for six weeks
- Build muscle using RAD-140 (10 mg dose) for six weeks
If you are even more risk adverse and don’t want to use the highly depletive RAD-140 yet, then try MK-677 at a dose of around 20 mg per day instead.
After doing that you will have a great idea about how the main SARMs work, and the effects they will have in your body at those moderate doses.
Constructing A Beginner SARM Cycle (Dosage, Length, Stacking)
Remember that when you stack, your doses are stacked as well, not just the benefits and effects.
So even at a much lower dose, three androgenic SARMs will have a significant effect. Individual doses should be lowered dramatically, especially if you’re looking for the best SARMs stack for beginners.
To give you some ideas, let’s talk you through the main beginner stacks you’ll need to get started.
Beginner SARMs Cutting Stack
Before you bulk you’ll probably want to cut to reveal your existing shape more, and perhaps build strength, so you can then hit the bulking hard.
Remember, a cutting stack needs to be used in a calorie deficit. Look at your usual calorie intake, perhaps recorded over several weeks, and then drop it by about 25%.
Don’t worry about energy loss and muscle loss, because the SARMs we are going to employ here will help offset those progression problems.
This is a great beginners SARMs cutting stack:
- 20 mg Ostarine per day
- 10 mg Cardarine per day
- 10 week cycle
- No PCT needed
Note you can swap out the Cardarine for Stenabolic SR-9009 if you’d like a slightly different feel to the rebalancing of energy metabolism.
This isn’t overpowering, but it’s enough to increase your energy levels so you burn more fat, and to protect your muscle mass in a calorie deficit.
SARMs Strength Stack
So you probably want to build some strength to really maximize the amount of muscle tone you can gain when you bulk?
That’s easier using SARMs, and you can use some of the safest SARMs as well to help achieve your goals.
Here’s a really simple strength stack that helps to harden and strengthen muscle tissue, build endurance, and allow you to gain fitness:
- 20 mg S-4 Andarine
- 10 mg GW-501516 Cardarine
- 8 week cycle
- PCT needed
You’ll need to use the simple stack alongside a gym routine that is focused on reps and exhaustion, rather than huge weights. You’ll also need to do cardio to build your endurance as well.
The Andarine dosage is just enough to give you strength and endurance gains in your muscle tissue will also hardening and slightly building them. It’s a dose moderate enough though to not significantly deplete your testosterone rapidly.
As usual, the Cardarine repositions your energy metabolism to give you more energy to burn, allowing you to push your body harder and longer to build that strength and endurance.
Andarine is supercharged Ostarine. It does basically the same thing, but more aggressively. Therefore, even at the moderate dose stated, you will need some sort of PCT regime post cycle, and you need to keep an eye out for the symptoms of testosterone drop in the second half of the cycle.
SARMs Bulking Stack
So you’ve cut the fat, built strength, and now you want to get into bulking up and toning that muscle to look incredible.
The best SARMs stack for beginners to build muscle can use a wide range of supplements, so it’s all about how fast you want to make progress against your risk profile.
If you really are risk adverse, then this stack will work well:
- 10 mg RAD-140
- 10 mg MK-677
- 10 mg GW-501516
- 8 week cycle
- PCT required
There’s only one low dose androgenic SARM in there, but it will still deplete testosterone over about six weeks.
- So to offset this, we are using the appetite raiser, and growth hormone boosting MK-677 to attack things from a different angle, rather than just relying on mimicking testosterone in your muscle tissue.
- All that is underpinned by the potency of the extra energy and fat burning you’ll get from Cardarine.
- If you’re slightly more happy to take the risk, swap RAD-140 out for a similar dose of the very aggressive S-23.
- Or you could increase the RAD-140 dosage to around 15 mg, or switch it out for a lower dose of 10 mg or less of LGD-4033 Ligandrol.
- You could even just avoid androgenic side effects completely by switching to a stack that uses YK-11 as the primary muscle builder alongside MK-677.
On the downside, because it’s not twanging your androgen receptors, that can leave large but watery and less toned muscle gains, but it’s great for building initial bulk to sculpt later.
Beginner SARMs Female Stack
If you’re female and want to get started with SARMs then it’s actually simpler than if you are male because you don’t have the same issues with testosterone depletion.
Only if you are taking very large doses of androgenic SARMs will affect your testosterone levels notably.
At low doses you just won’t get the depletion of your testosterone, which women still need, and could cause an imbalance between testosterone and estrogen, alongside the fact it can cause an increase in growth of body hair and a deepening of the voice, although this is rare.
As a woman, you probably just want to tone up, cut fat and build strength, to look and feel great.
Even as a beginner, this is actually easy to achieve at low doses with SARMs as follows:
- 10 mg Ostarine daily
- 5 mg Cardarine daily
- 12 week cycle
- No PCT required
Because you will not get testosterone depletion problems you can run this a little longer than men would be able to run the same SARMs. The dose you are using may be low, but it’s enough for the female body to cut a ton of fat and tone up beautifully.
The Role Of PCT After SARMs (Very Important)
SARMs guides, especially talking about a beginner SARM cycle and use, often rarely mention details about PCT. It’s a huge and important topic.
Post cycle therapy is how you recover from the use of androgenic SARMs, using other supplements that help build your testosterone levels up again.
The three most common are the SERMs Clomid and Nolvadex, and aromatase inhibitors such as anastrozole.
- SERMs block estrogen receptors, and help to spike the production of other related hormones to testosterone, like growth hormone and IGF-1. Anastrozole and other aromatase inhibitors block the conversion of testosterone into estrogen, protecting the levels you are developing back.
- Most people initially use Clomid for a week. It’s the best initially at blocking the receptors and building hormone creation.
- From week two, most people switch to Nolvadex, because it’s actually better at doing the above the longer term, but not so aggressively initially.
- Around week three or four, you can also put in a very low dose of an aromatase inhibitor, which will help to protect the growing testosterone levels your body is producing.
So don’t ignore PCT, and don’t ignore the signs of testosterone drop. As soon as you feel it’s symptoms, lower the doses, or end the cycle and start PCT.
Where To Buy Great Quality SARMs To Begin Your Journey
Beginning with SARMs is better if you get good quality ones, because then safety concerns are minimized, and you’ll get the best results for the least amount of money wasted.
The pandemic almost killed the SARMs industry, alongside China banning the export of grey market lab SARMs into the USA.
But things are recovering as other locations pick up the slack, and although there are an increasing number of companies out there again, many aren’t great quality.
Thankfully, two of the long term players have consistently managed to keep selling SARMs that have high purity independent lab testing to back them up.
These are the people I use, and I recommend you at least try them so you can experience good quality SARMs at the start of your journey.
1. Chemyo SARMs
One of the key reasons I love Chemyo SARMs is the fact that they sell 50 mL dropper bottles rather than the more usual 30 mL dropper bottles of SARMs.
As prices are often not proportionately higher, if you shop carefully you’ll get more SARMs for your money.
The purity guarantees are also excellent. Each bottle of SARMs has a batch number on it, and a QR code. Scanning that will take you to the certificate of analysis you can see exactly what it is, as well as being able to see it before you buy on the webpage.
As an example on pricing, right now, 50 mL of Cardarine (dosed at 10 mg/mL) costs just $59.99.
They also do paired SARMs at a discount, allowing you to get started with small stacks.
As an example, the classic Cardarine and Ostarine stack we have talked about in this guide is available as a pair of 50 mL dropper bottles for just $119.99.
2. Science.bio SARMs
Science.bio SARMs have been the best for a number of years. They also offer a huge range of peptides and supporting supplements as well.
With a long track record, and those important purity guarantees in place, Science.bio are definitely the place to shop from.
In terms of pricing, it’s good.
As an example, as of today, a 30 mL dropper bottle of RAD-140 (dosed at 10 mg/mL) costs just $49.99.
You can also buy bundles of Science.bio SARMs. As an example, there is a liquid bundle pack that offers 10 different types of SARMs at a $100 discount, so shop those bundles for huge savings.
Updated 18:21 IST, December 6th 2024