Why does it take so long to feel or see the effects of testosterone

[cousinmuscles]

It is said that injected testosterone appears to peak within 48 hours in the blood. When I read about people doing cycles, a common notion seems to be that you’ll only really start getting its intended effects in weeks 4-5. Are they referring to seeing significant muscle gains? I ask because logically if I’m injecting T, I would assume I’d feel it’s effects pretty quickly.

This also seems to conflict with the old school method of short 6 -8 week cycles. It’s only in the past 10 years that I’ve notice the longer 3-4 month cycles. What’s the verdict?

Mr. BBs response is correct if you were low on T you'd feel the effects pretty quickly.

For cycles it is not about going from a deficient state to normal. It is going from normal and trying to elicit a response from your body to go above normal. Testosterone reaches cells and activates a bunch of genes, this is called transcription. These responses increase nitrogen retention, increase protein synthesis, they affect your adrenal system so you have less catabolism et.c. They do not happen instantly. You also have to keep in mind that max effects start when you have reached the desired levels of testosterone in your blood, that would take 5-6 weeks with a long ester. 6-8 week cycles are definitely doable just use short esters, the ester breaks down much quicker and you get high levels of test quicker.

EDIT: A point I forgot to make about the effects of testosterone. Once the testosterone has done all this and the effects have taken effect on the inside, you have to train, eat and recover to make any gains to begin with. The high test will just amplify the response to training. How can you expect to look bigger just because you went on cycle? No stimulus = no growth, AAS just enhances the stimulus.

I wondered this a lot during my first cycle and asked tons of people and this is what I got from them and from my own researching, hope it helps.