A defined stretch of taking a compound, followed by a defined stretch of not taking it, with the pattern sometimes repeating. A cycle is a shape rather than a length: the word tells you the programme has a planned end, but nothing about when that end falls. Cycling is largely a community convention rather than a clinical one, and most trials simply dose continuously for the length of the study.

Why it matters here

If a record describes a study that dosed continuously, a cycled version of that programme is a different thing and the result does not automatically carry across. The reasons usually given for cycling, such as preserving receptor sensitivity or giving the body a break, are assumptions rather than things measured in the compound you are looking at.

Also called

• cycle
• cycling
• cycled
• cycleing
• cycle length
• run
• a run
• course
• blast

Run and course mean the same thing in casual use. The vocabulary arrived from anabolic steroid practice, where cycling had a specific hormonal rationale that does not transfer to every compound it is now applied to.

Compounds carrying this term

None on file yet. This term is in the controlled vocabulary but no compound record currently uses it — which is a statement about our coverage, not about the term.

See also

• On-Cycle and Off-Cycle — Dosing and scheduling
• Washout — Dosing and scheduling
• Dosing Protocol — Dosing and scheduling
• Stack — Dosing and scheduling