Sustanon-250 Before and After — Cycle, Dosage, Side Effects

Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the most controversial bulker of them all? Well, fuck me if it isn’t Sustanon-250. There’s a whole club of bodybuilders who HATE it. Even though I understand where all the anger comes from and know how satisfying it is to read hate-filled reviews, this time – nothing but fact and explanations. 

What Is Sustanon

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If we put all the emotions aside, Sustanon-250 is an injectable anabolic steroid. An oily solution that encourages your muscle to grow and boosts your gains. It’s a mixture of 4 Testosterone esters in strict dosage: 

• 30mg Testosterone Propionate; 
• 60 mg Testosterone Phenylpropionate; 
• 60mg Testosterone Isocaproate; 
• 100mg Testosterone Decanoate. 

30+60+60+100, and you get exactly 250mg of all of them in 1ml of Sustanon. What’s the reason to mix them in the first place? I’ll have to remind you a little basics before answering the question. 

Why Mix Four Esters In Sustanon 

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Ester form is practically an oily «tail» intended to slow down the compound’s release in your body once it’s injected. The longer it «dissolves» – the longer you get free Testosterone in your blood, and the longer you have the effects. 

The problem is – all esters have a different half-life. Say, Enanthate «lives» for about 10 days in your body. It takes time for it to get in your receptors and start acting.

Because of it, all esters give you peaks in Testosterone concentration. Those peaks are not a good thing: they can give you more notable side effects, but it’s hard to catch the peak to use it to your advantage in the gym. Athletes mostly look for the smoothest, most predictable protocol.

Constant levels of Testosterone on cycle
=
more gains and better results. 

And this is where Sustanon plays in. Guys from Organon – the company that also brought us Deca Durabolin – said: «What if we don’t fight peaks and instead give the patient so many regular, continuous and calculated peaks that the cycle itself gets actually smooth?» And so they did. All short, medium, and long Testosterone esters in Sustanon release in a manner, that should make it sustainable. 

Even the name of the compound is a wordplay: 

Sustainability+Organon = Sustanon

This mechanism would make Sustanon a perfect TRT compound. Just imagine having a straight high level of Testosterone in your blood for 4 weeks with just 1 injection a month. It would be a revolution! 

Does it work, though? Nah, it doesn’t. It never actually worked. And the worst part is that Organon probably KNEW it. That’s where all the hate towards Sustanon comes from. 

What Is Wrong With Sustanon History 

Back in the 1970s, Organon, being a big pharmaceutical company, wanted to make the most significant possible profits with their substances. To truly profit from something in the medical world, you need to patent the thing. You need to OWN it. Organon would love to own the holy grail of the sex hormones market: Testosterone itself. However, you can’t patent something created 40 years before your company was even established, so it was impossible. 

Organon decided to play a little trick: they patented the MIXTURE of Testosterone esters. Not compounds on their own, but a formula, the «balanced» ratio of them. Later Organon pushed it to the market as a «perfect TRT blend». The campaign was successful, and even today, Sustanon is believed to be the best TRT option in many countries (for instance, in the UK). By the way, zero studies would prove Sustanon’s effectiveness. Anecdotal reviews say that it’s not better than traditional TRT. Not worse – but not better as well. The company guaranteed itself a considerable part of the market, even though they didn’t synthesize anything practically new or extra-effective. 

Sustanon was created with the sole intention to make money from the patent, not to help people, treat something, or – at least – solve any existing problems. 

Now – enough with the lyrics. The good thing that you need to know is that Sustanon works, even though you’ll probably need more frequent injections than promised by Organon. It still gives you all the benefits you would expect from a Testosterone esters mix. It’s still more potent than any Testosterone ester alone. 

Sustanon Benefits 

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Here is why many athletes don’t give a single flying fuck about half a century-old marketing tricks and still take Sustanon today. 

Muscle 

It’s 100% as anabolic as Testosterone – it just acts longer. You can expect a little more muscle than you would expect from a basic Testosterone Enanthate cycle. The effect is mediated through some classic routes: 

• By binding to androgenic receptors; 
• By increasing the IGF-1 (Insulin-like Growth Factor) production rates; 
• By enhancing muscular contraction. 

I won’t say much here, you can just read our complete Testosterone guide, and you’ll pretty much see the same stuff. Another great option is to buy Apoxar Sustanon and check its effects yourself. If there’s one thing you can be sure about, it’s that Sustanon WILL make you bigger. It kind of doesn’t care about public opinion and just works. 

Strength 

Nitrogen retention that commands your muscle to hold protein and grow doesn’t care about the labels as well. Whether it’s Sustanon or just Propionate, it’ll help you crush your personal records. The effect is strictly individual, but you can expect your peak weights to turn into warm-up as well. 

I usually say that the effect is especially notable if you don’t have much experience with gear under your belt, but this time – it’s different. 

One of Sustanon’s most-appreciated aspects is its low ability to cause tolerance. 

Your second, third, or whatever cycle will – most likely – feel like the first one. Of course, if you’re cycling and blasting for the last 10 years, you won’t feel shit from a low dose, but many other steroids never repeat the «WOAH» effect of the first cycle, and Sustanon does. At least, anecdotally. 

Looks 

It would suck to build a ton of muscle and not be able to see it, right? Even though you actually won’t be able to admire your gains in the middle of the cycle (Sustanon is a «wet» compound with a high water retention rate, so you’ll probably look a bit puffy), you certainly will appreciate the effects later. Here is what you can expect: 

• Better pumps. The ones that look like you’re flexing so hard that you’re ready to shit yourself when, in fact, you’re totally relaxed. This effect is caused by enhanced RBC production; 
• Less fat. We’re talking about FAT tissue, not water in your body. It’s way easier to get rid of the water, and it takes time to get rid of fat. With all your calories going straight to muscle tissue growth, you will gain LESS on your belly. At the same time, you will burn MORE – thanks to a well-researched (here’s just an example of a classic study on the issue) fat-burning effect of androgen hormones. 
• Better details. What happens when your body fat drops and your muscle volume goes up? All the tiny muscle groups pop out, and vascularity gets crazy. A spiderweb of veins can be an excellent finishing touch for your bulked look. Attention – papercuts can be a real threat now. 

Other Benefits 

Some other positive effects are rarely the target of the cycle by themselves and serve as warm-welcomed additions instead. In the case of Sustanon, get ready for: 

• Increased libido; 
• Longer sex; 
• Harder erections; 
• More energy; 
• Better endurance; 
• The overall elevated state of mind; 
• Improved self-esteem. 

Watch out not just for the nasty side effects but also for unusual positive changes in your health and mindset. The full list of bonuses is also individual. 

How To Take Sustanon 

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It’s injectable and comes in ampules. Firstly, you need to buy NovoPharm Sustanon or Apoxar Sustanon. Secondly, you need to break the glass thing’s tip (use a towel or some kind of a tissue to avoid cuts) to open it. 

You also need a syringe and a needle. You can get literally any syringe that you are more comfortable with, but for me, a 29g 0.5 insulin syringe works just perfectly. Some people prefer 27 gauge, though, and it’s absolutely OK. It’s all about your comfort. 

Where To Inject Sustanon 

The traditional place to aim is your butt (specifically the upper right corner of your right glute), but some athletes prefer deltas since they are easier to reach. 

You can choose any large muscle or even go for a subcutaneous (aka subq) injection. In this case, you’ll need to stick the needle in a thin layer of fat between your muscle and skin on your belly. There’s a ton of guides on the Web, like this one – from a Children’s hospital in Los-Angeles. The process itself is easy, and you will master it with a little practice. 

Sustanon Dosage 

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It’s in the name Sustanon-250, duh. The most common Sustanon dose is exactly 250mg, 1ml per injection. 

Even though it’s a specifically pre-calculated dose for most, some athletes still like to play around with it. You can lower it to 125mg per injection (0,5ml). Some tough and experienced guys take up to 1g (1000mg) of the compound, but I wouldn’t recommend it for a basic bulking cycle. Those guys are mostly weightlifting monsters.

You should know that there are Sustanon blends with the different dosages – Sustanon-100 and Sustanon-400.

Sustanon-250 vs. Sustanon-400 

Sustanon-400 is a testosterone mix that was created by a different company (Thaiger pharma or LA Pharma), with the same intention (smooth ride with short, medium, and long esters), but it’s somewhat stronger. Sustanon-400 contains: 

• 25mg Testosterone Propionate; 
• 25mg Testosterone Acetate; 
• 75 mg Testosterone Phenylpropionate; 
• 75mg Testosterone Isocaproate; 
• 100mg Testosterone Decanoate; 
• 100mg Testosterone Cypionate (same as Enanthate in terms of half-life). 

Just as with Sustanon-250, it doesn’t solve any problems with sustainability. You still have to take it EOD or EW, but the dose should be lowered or even cut in half if you’re afraid of – or know that you are prone to – nasty side effects. 

Don’t mess it up with T-400 by Malay Tiger – these blends have different esters in them. Both are so shady and underground, so it’s easy to take one instead of the other. It wouldn’t be a tragedy (the rules are pretty much the same), but it’s important to distinguish them anyway. Here you can read our T-400 guide – it’s based on the same principle, but some slight differences need to be highlighted.

Sustanon-250 vs. Sustanon-100 

Sustanon-100 – as you could guess – is a much weaker blend. It contains fewer esters than the original Sustanon-250: 

• 20mg Testosterone Propionate; 
• 40 mg Testosterone Phenylpropionate; 
• 40mg Testosterone Isocaproate.

The compound is based on the same principle but STILL contains testosterone Propionate, making the EOD protocol the most logical one. In Sustanon-100, the longest ester you have is Isocaproate, with about 7-9 days half-life. It is reserved for athletes who react well to an EW protocol of Sustanon-250 and want to eliminate the bloating caused by long-acting esters. At least this is how it SHOULD work – it’s not a popular blend, to be honest, and it’s not the easiest one to get. 

Sustanon-250 injection frequency 

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Even though we know that the Organon-intended «injection once a month» approach failed, there are STILL 4 popular protocols: every 4 weeks, every week, every day, and every other day. Whichever you choose, get ready for a shit-storm because it’s a highly debatable thing. 

Sustanon EOD Injections 

Athletes that choose this protocol follow a simple rule that applies to all mixtures and pre-made blends: 

The shortest ester defines the injection frequency. 

With Sustanon, our shortest ester is Propionate. It has a half-life of just about 2 days, so you’ll have to pin it EOD. This way, you maintain the smoothest level of Testosterone in your blood — the closest one to Organon’s promises. 

Sustanon every 4 weeks injections 

This is the one that doctors prescribe for TRT. When you’re on Testosterone Replacement Therapy, you’re not necessarily an athlete. You just want to keep your Testosterone on point and live a normal life. For some athletes, that’s the way, even though no medical data supports this protocol. 

Sustanon Injections Frequency Anecdotal Experience 

This is where all other protocols come from. We are all special little snowflakes, unique, and unrepeatable. 

I know that it sounds like something that a Twitter LGBT+ social justice genderfluid 12-year old would say, but that’s also a damn medical fact: 

Your body has its own approach to metabolizing steroids. And everyone’s body does. 

The general process remains the same for all, but details may vary and alter the outcome. That’s why some athletes, after years of experimenting, recommend a 125mg every 3,5 days protocol, and others don’t feel shit unless they inject the full 250mg dose daily. 

The moral of the story is simple: find your own damn way to take Sustanon, depending on your targets and stats. I recommend trying the 250mg EOD one (with Monday-Wednesday-Friday injections) first. Or – if you can’t stand the sides on the EOD protocol – switch to 250mg once a week. It’s a powerful compound, it will work anyway. You just have to adjust THE WAY it works for you. 

Sustanon Cycle 

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I won’t give you any stacks here since Sustanon is ALREADY a stack itself. You can try experimenting behind my back, but if your balls fall off – don’t ask for help. I’m pretty sure that a solo cycle of Sustanon-250 is enough to give you the mass and gains you need. 

Sustanon Cycle Length is about 10 weeks – that’s enough to feel the effects of all the longest esters in it. 

Here is how a traditional cycle can look like: 

Week	Sustanon-250	Nolvadex PCT
1-10	250mg (1ml) EOD (or EW, or E4W, depending on what you believe)	–
11-13	–	–
14-15	–	20-40mg ED
16-17	–	20-40mg ED (if needed)

Note that you have to wait for your body to clean before you start the PCT. You can also add anything you want to the cycle. Some athletes say that it works just great with Deca Durabolin, Dianabol, Winny (aka Winstrol), and Trenbolone. I’d still run it solo, though, especially if it’s your first time. And here’s why.

Sustanon Side Effects

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Here are some special (some are Sustanon-only, some are not) things that you should watch out for. 

Testosterone Suppression 

Did you expect a free ride from a blend of synthetic sex hormones? Nope, in a couple of weeks, your balls will inevitably drop natural Testosterone production. By that moment, your Estrogen – due to aromatization – most likely will shoot through the roof. Depending on your personal tolerance to adverse effects of it, you can get a ton of nasty things, including: 

• Gynecomastia aka moobs; 
• Mood swings; 
• Acne; 
• Easier irritability; 
• Decreased sperm count. 

That’s not even the full list. To avoid seeing them all at once, add some AI (aromatase inhibitors), like Arimidex or Aromasin to your cycle. Here is our complete guide on AI’s and how to use them. Note that you don’t need to take them 100% of the time – just when your E2 starts to climb out of the safety zone in your blood works. Oh, and don’t even think about skipping PCT after Sustanon – at least if you want your balls to maintain their size. 

Water Retention 

We don’t have any medical data to support it, but years of anecdotal experience show that longer esters tend to cause more notable water retention. Enanthate will make you more bloated than Propionate if you’re prone to this effect. Imagine what a mixture of all esters can do! Sustanon is known as an extremely «wet» compound. You’ll need to let your body dry after the cycle, reduce sodium intake, and get ready to experience some low-level edema. You can reduce (or completely avoid) it by cutting the dose, though. 

Pain And Itching In The Injection Site 

Remember when I said that 250 in the name stands for 30mg propionate, 100mg Decanoate, and so on? We kind of have one more ingredient here: 100mg of benzyl alcohol per 1ml. More than in any other blend. It’s necessary to keep all the esters alive, but it can be a pain in the ass. Literally – a pain in the ass if you inject it in your glutes because alcohol doesn’t feel good when it’s under your skin. 

Luckily, itching and pain usually go away a few minutes after the injection, and some athletes don’t even notice it. You still should know that it becomes a red sign only if it lasts longer than 5 minutes or so. 

Other Sustanon Side Effects 

In general, athletes don’t feel any severe stuff on Sustanon. It might be a tricky one, but definitely not the toughest and not the most dangerous compound of all. However, there’s a list of things that it anecdotally can cause in addition to the things I mentioned above. Here they are: 

• Nausea; 
• LDL and HDL levels misbalance; 
• Higher BP: 
• Faster heart rate; 
• Sleep problems; 
• Depression; 
• Muscle or joints pain; 
• Painful erections; 
• Prostate issues. 

Watch out for the red flags, and don’t take any of them easy. Even though Sustanon is approved for human use and officially prescribed in many parts of the world, it doesn’t guarantee that you will respond well to it personally. 

Sustanon-250 Before and After

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First things first — as a golden rule, there’s no way to predict YOUR gains. If you’re a rookie athlete — you’ll get more, if you spent the last 20 years in the gym — you’ll get less. The same goes for your height, muscle density, body fat, strength baseline, age, genetics… and a shit ton of other factors.

Sustanon-250 before and after pictures that promise you insane gains no matter what are — well, most likely — not quite right. In other words, they’re a misleading pile of BS.

Here’s what an average athlete can expect realistically:

That’s right — you can mix dozens of esters, but Test is still Test. That’s why Sustanon-250 before and after pictures are not THAT fantastic. That’s just not the point. A closer look at the details:

• WET gains, with more pronounced muscles, but a visible bloating (and a bit over the top body fat);
• Yet, gains are clearly visible — especially in the chest area. This guy basically had no chest in the BEFORE picture.

Are we sure that these are the results of Sustanon-250? Nope. The guy could’ve been natural all along, and cycled something else, or didn’t go to the gym between the pics at all. Should this picture still be here? Yes, because it’s a good EXAMPLE of the gains an average athlete can expect from an average Sustanon-250 before and after comparison. There’s nothing fantastic or insane about it — and this is the whole point. There are no surprises as well.

Personal Opinion On Sustanon 

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As for me, Sustanon is a promising, but a somewhat outdated victim of marketing and dumb people. There are way too many athletes who think that 4 esters in one vial mean 4 times more gains. This is not how it works – and it was never supposed to work this way. Still, expectations are way higher than they should be. The dirty marketing thing – the whole history of Sustanon – adds to the negative picture of it. In a perfect world, it should have been released by an underground company like British Dragon, solely for the black market. In this case, the community would take it as it is – just a sustainable Testosterone blend with a tricky injection frequency. 

Even though we don’t live in a perfect world, Sustanon is still on the market and still has a fanbase for a reason. It God damn works and gives you gains. You just have to take it on a cold head and don’t expect any miracles. If you’re in the very beginning of your anabolic journey, Sustanon is worth giving it a try. At least to compare it to other options and see how it works for you. There’s a massive chance that you will join the fanbase. There’s an even bigger chance that you won’t, but you will – at least – have the moral right to shit on it on the Internet, with practically zero unusual health risks.