Welcome to the 11 OXO bridge page. On this page you will find the information you need to make your prohormone or steroid cycle the best it can be. By incorporating new technology in the field of hormone manipulation you will be able to
• Lose fat and water to reveal the bulk you gained on cycle
• Introduce an anti-catabolic state in your body to minimize post cycle muscle loss
• Enter into your PCT looking your best and with your body in a more normalized state
Cortisol Control is the key
The key to the 11 OXO bridge is cortisol control. But not just crude suppression of cortisol control, we are talking targeted cortisol control. And by targeted I mean tissue specific cortisol control.
To understand what I mean by tissue specific cortisol control you first need to be aware of how cortisol travels throughout your body. In your bloodstream there are two sources of cortisol that your body draws from – cortisol itself and its inactive precursor/metabolite cortisone. In your body’s cortisol sensitive target tissues (which include liver, muscles, fat, blood vessels, and central nervous system) there is an enzyme which will convert the inactive circulating cortisone to cortisol. It is this enzyme – 11bHSD1 – that is the key to targeted cortisol control.
So let’s use your muscles as an example of a cortisol sensitive target tissue. Your muscles are constantly drawing in cortisol and cortisone from your bloodstream. The cortisol will get into the muscle; we can’t do anything about that. The cortisone will get into the muscle too, but as long as it stays as cortisone (which is relatively inactive) it’s really not a problem. However some of that will get converted to cortisol in the muscle and this is dependent on the amount of active 11b-HSD enzyme there is. If there is a lot of active 11b-HSD1 in the muscle than you will not only have cortisol from the circulation doing its thing, you will also have an extra dose of cortisol from the cortisone that the enzyme converted.
So how can we control this enzyme and prevent too much cortisone conversion to cortisol? By using a product called 11 OXO. And what is 11 OXO? 11 OXO is a natural hormone called adrenosterone
Adrenosterone is a hormone produced in the adrenal gland and it is abundant in the bodies of both males and females. It is not particularly well studied, but we do know that it serves at least two purposes. First off, it is a precursor to the androgen 11-ketotestosterone. 11-ketotestosterone is closely related to testosterone and has many of the same properties; however unlike testosterone it does not convert to estrogen and is not strongly suppressive to the HPTA (the body’s system that regulates testosterone production).
The other purpose we know adrenosterone serves is as a counter-regulatory adjunct to cortisol. Both cortisol and adrenosterone are produced in the adrenal gland under the influence of the pituitary hormone ACTH. These two hormones are produced simultaneously when ACTH is released, and the ratio of one to the other will vary depending on the influence of other biochemical variables present in the body (which are presently not clearly understood). The amount of adrenosterone released from the adrenal relative to the amount of cortisol released has a large impact on your body’s health and appearance.
Remember the enzyme I mentioned called 11b-HSD1that increases tissue cortisol levels by converting cortisone to cortisol? Well interestingly enough adrenosterone blocks this enzyme and prevents it from doing its job. It is through this enzyme control that adrenosterone controls cortisol access to tissues in your body. Mind you, it does not block all cortisol – circulating cortisol in its parent form still gets through – but it minimizes the amount of extra cortisol that arises from the precursor cortisone.
This is what I mean by targeted cortisol control. Targeted as in it does not change the amount of cortisol that circulates in your blood and it does not reduce drastically the amount of cortisol that reaches your tissues (as doing so would be traumatic). It simply means you keep cortisol levels healthily low. And what are the benefits of controlling cortisol in this fashion?
• Decreased body fat (especially visceral adipose tissue)
• Increased muscle density (hardness)
• Enhanced insulin sensitivity and glycogen deposition
• Increased strength
• Improved cardiovascular health
• Improved brain and CNS function
Now this is not just theory, this is true cutting edge medical science. Recently it has become apparent that excessive cortisol activity in the body is a prime culprit in many of the most common diseases of the modern world. Millions of dollars are being poured into the development of 11b-HSD1inhibitors for the treatment of diabetes and obesity due to cortisol excess. And lucky for us, with the natural compound adrenosterone you do not have to wait for these drugs to hit the market
Adrenosterone’s role in steroid/prohormone cycles
Steroids and prohormones are testosterone analogs. So when you take them your body responds by reducing its own testosterone production to keep things in balance. As a result, when you stop taking them your body has to go through a period of readjustment during which your testosterone levels will be lower than normal. During the time your testosterone levels are low, your estrogen sensitivity will be high. This is because androgens serve to “dull” the signal that estrogen delivers to cells. Remove the androgens and the signal becomes strong.
The dual problem of low testosterone and high estrogen are generally handled by administering estrogen blockers, and these include aromatase inhibitors and estrogen receptor antagonists. This is called post cycle therapy or PCT. PCT generally works quite well and the hands on aspects behind the practice are widely discussed in the bodybuilding arena.
Anti-estrogens however do nothing to address the heightened cortisol sensitivity that occurs after a cycle. What do I mean by heightened cortisol sensitivity? It has to do with how androgens interact with the ability of cortisol to relay its signal to cells. When you have androgen receptors and cortisol receptors present in the same tissues there is an interaction. Androgen activation of androgen receptors will end up affecting certain genes – genes that can “turn off” the ability of cortisol to carry out its functions in that tissue. The more androgen you have around, the less cortisol activity there will be.
Of course the converse to that is true as well. The less androgen you have, the more cortisol activity there will be. This is precisely why the period right after you discontinue steroids or prohormones is a vital period. It is at this time that androgen levels will plummet below normal and cortisol activity will skyrocket. This happens immediately and PCT therapy is not going to help, at least not right away. PCT simply takes too long to work.
This is why the 11 OXO bridge is so important. By taking 11 OXO right after your cycle you will reduce the amount of cortisol that can access your vital tissues. By limiting the amount of cortisol you will compensate for the elevated cortisol activity and bring things to a relatively normal state. Muscle loss will be controlled, fat gain will be minimized, and water retention kept under wraps. Then after a few weeks you can safely take your PCT. You will have skated through the period of potential catastrophe untouched – and probably looking better than you did even on your cycle!!
How to use the 11 OXO bridge
The concept of the 11 OXO bridge is really quite simple. It is a period of 2-4 weeks between the time you were on your cycle and the time you begin your PCT. Below are some examples but by no means do these represent the only way to do the bridge. As long as the general concepts are adhered by the bridge will work.
Let me give you some examples of an 11 OXO bridge
Standard
Week 1 – 6: Steroids (or prohormones) of choice
Week 7 –9: 6 capsules 11 OXO daily (3 capsules twice a day with meals)
Week 10 -13: Post Cycle Therapy of choice
Blitz
Week 1 – 6: Steroids (or prohormones) of choice
Week 7 –8: 9 capsules 11 OXO daily (3 capsules three times daily with meals)
Week 9 – 13: Post Cycle Therapy of choice
Tapered
Week 1 – 6: Steroids (or prohormones) of choice
Week 7 –8: 6 capsules 11 OXO daily (3 capsules twice a day with meals)
Week 9 – 10: 3 capsules 11 OXO daily (1 capsule three times a day with meals)
Week 11- 14: Post Cycle Therapy of choice
The steroid and PCT parts can consist of products of your personal preference and their durations are flexible. Each bridge type (Standard, Blitz, and Tapered) requires two bottles of 11 OXO.
Does the 11 OXO bridge work? I will be honest with you, until recently this was just a theory but after putting it into real world practice a few months ago the results I have witnessed are way more impressive then I could have imagined! Not only are people keeping their gains but they often increase them during the bridge. Bloat just strips away, leaving hard dense muscle.
So please, for your next cycle give this a shot. You have my word that you will not be disappointed.
Patrick
p.s. if you have any questions please email customerservice {at} ergopharm {dot} com