OK with a little more time on my hands now to respond to your Q's mate. To answer the initial question of 'Is it a must or not?' No, nothing is a must, but as there is plenty of evidence to support the fact that it will help with returning natural T levels to normal faster than leaving them to their own devices, it makes good sense to use a PCT protocol. Although levels will eventually self correct, it makes sense to use something which cost-effectively does so faster.
The sooner you have full natural T levels restored, the easier it is to maintain the gains made during the cycle!
Just a few studies supporting the elevation in natural T etc from Nolvadex dosing
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/...st_uids=3123401 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/...st_uids=6193975 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/...ist_uids=640052 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/...st_uids=7250160 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/...st_uids=6785950 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/...st_uids=6404663 Regarding Frontloading - I often read people suggesting it doesn't work, but the facts are clear that it does work, it all depends what you are expecting from it really, if you assume you will make peak cycle strength gains from week 1, then that isn't the case. Frontloading is all about getting blood hormone levels up to cycle peak levels as fast as possible rather than waiting for the natural taper by straight dosing. It does this without question! The fact that people may feel the benefits of this protocol don't appear worthwhile to them is an individual thing, but the fact is, it did get the levels to peak values faster!
Just for anyone reading this who doesn't understand Frontloading, here is a very simplified explanation I wrote many years ago on how it works.............................
Here is an example to simplify the activity for anyone not a believer in how it works, we will take a straight dose of 400mg/week in our example and see how blood levels are affected through the first few weeks, we will, for ease of maths, ignore the ester weight which is irrelevant to the outcome anyway other than dose difference. We will assume the steroid has a half-life of 7 days.
Week 1 start 400mg administered, after 7 days, 200mg left, so 200mg dose delivered in that week.
Week 2 400mg admin to give total 600mg, after 7 days, 300mg left, so 300mg delivered in that week.
Week 3 400mg admin to give 700mg total, after 7 days, 350mg left, so 350mg delivered in that week.
Week 4 400mg admin to give total 750mg, after 7 days, 375mg left, so 375mg delivered in that week.
As we can see even by the close of play in week 4, we are only getting 375mg of steroid in that week, it has slowly risen from 200mg, 300mg, 350mg to 375mg by week 4, it will continue creeping until you are getting the full weekly dose in a single week.
Now let us view the same dose, only following a front-load, we will double the weekly dose for week 1 only, everything else will remain the same.
Week 1 800mg administered, after 7 days, 400mg left, so 400mg delivered in that week.
There you have it! We have achieved the peak cycle dose (not exceeded it) by the end of week 1 as opposed to still short at end week 4 with a straight dose, you can continue adding the dose and halfing and see it stays constant at 400mg/week delivered.....Result!!! The benefit of achieving peak doses earlier in the cycle? Obviously achieving the gaining part of the cycle earlier is the benefit rather than waiting 4 to 5 weeks for the dose to peak and level out somewhat.
A good rule of thumb to front-loading is to take the dose you are to administer each half-life and double it upto the first half-life period in the cycle, this will not overshoot your peak, so there is no dropping of levels at any later date. It is also beneficial to the maintenance of even blood concentrations to split that weekly dose up as evenly distributed through the week as possible.
Hope that helps
Bigfella