Cardarine is not a SARM, even though it constantly gets lumped in with them. This is mainly because its commonly sold on research chemical websites primarily dealing in SARMSs. This is a similar situation to the growth hormone secretagouge MK-677 which often gets miscategorized as well.

Cardarine was developed in the 1990s as a drug candidate for metabolic diseases and cardiovascular diseases.

CLICK HERE   for the podcast episode on Cardarine.

Cardarine and Fat Loss

This compound is also known as GW 501516 and is actually a PPAR receptor agonist. A PPAR agonist changes the body’s fuel preference from glucose to fat lipids.  This process in turn up-regulates the expression of proteins involved in energy expenditure. This suggests that cardarine can correct metabolic issues and make the body become more efficient at using stored energy such as body fat.

Cardarine Cancer studies

Cardarine has gotten a bad rap because of a study from 2007. The flawed study observed mice getting cancer when given GW 501516 in extremely high doses.  If you read the details of the study, you’ll see that the mice were given 3 MG of cardarine per day. To put this in perspective, the common 200 pound athlete only uses 10 to 20 MG per day.

Considering the size variance between rodents and humans, this would have been like giving a human nearly 100 mg per day.

Also worth noting is that the mice in the study were given 7,12-Dimethylbenz(A)Anthracene (DMBA)  for an entire year. DMBA is a known carcinogen that is considered extremely toxic.  It is an immunosuppressor and a tumor accelerator. So, no wonder the damn mice got cancer!

Therefore, this study is pretty flawed and the public concern over Cardarine has been blown out of proportion.

I have been routinely using Cardarine for nearly four years and have yet to get cancer. I’ve used the pills, the liquids, and have even used an injectable form of  the compound!

I’m not saying that there is no risk whatsoever as any synthetic compound has some level of risk. However, I truly believe the credibility of the cancer studies should be taken with a grain of salt, especially when considering the rats being given DMBA for a  whole year.

My experiences have lead me to believe that as long as you use GW-501616 with common sense then the risks are greatly minimized. This means staying within the safe dosing levels and cycle duration.

Cardarine dosing

The half-life of cardarine is between 20 and 24 hours. This means that it can be taken once daily.  The low dose for Cardarine would be 10 MG daily and the higher would be 20 MG.

but even at the more effective 20 MG amount, this dosing is safe enough to consider it a low risk protocol. I would suggest keeping cycle durations at 12 weeks or less before the body builds up a tolerance to render it less effective and safe.

Cardarine Benefits

Here are some of the more interesting benefits of Cardarine along with links to studies to show the research:

Testosterone suppression

I often get questions from researchers as to how GW 501516 will effect the endocrine system and if it requires a PCT.

This compound does not bind to the androgen receptor whatsoever. Therefore, the compound is completely non-hormonal and wont effect natural testosterone production. This means Cardarine itself will not require a PCT.

The many versatile ways to use Cardarine

You’ve probably heard people refer to this compound as being  ‘exercise in a bottle’. That’s a pretty misleading statement  to be completely honest. The studies show that Cardarine has undeniable benefits in repairing the metabolism. But deeming it ‘ exercise in a bottle’ indicates that you should expect to loose tons of weight from doing nothing at all.

Cardarine works best when in a caloric deficit and following an exercise program geared toward weight-loss. This compound will basically act as a performance booster to accelerate your metabolism and intensify the results of your cutting/fat-loss protocol.

So here are some of the various ways to run Cardarine and stack it with other compounds. I’ve tried every single one of these cycles at some point or another.

Cardarine cycled by itself

This is probably the most popular way to run GW 501516 and what I did my first run. I was in a caloric deficit of 300 to 500 calories and took 20 mg a day for 2 months. Cardio was about 70% of my training at the time and this made my endurance go through the damn roof.

I also find that people doing higher rep, interval training, or even contact sports can greatly benefit from cardarine because it can help you push harder for longer before getting gassed out.  This is the ideal protocol for people that are novice about using performance enhancing substances or just want to take a single compound to accelerate their weight-loss efforts. My suggestion would be for women to start at 10 MG and men to do 20 MG.

Cardarine and RAD-140

This is one of my absolute favorite stacks ever and has cutting effects very similar to running Anavar. RAD-140 is hands down the best overall SARM in terms of results with lean gains. And when these two compounds get stacked together, they become a cutting powerhouse! CLICK HERE to see my full review/log on RAD-140.

I would not advise that women run this stack as RAD-140 was originally created to replace testosterone replacement therapy. But for a guy who wants to do a solid cutting cycle or just see some great fat-loss results, this is where its at.  This cycle should be ran up to 12 weeks with RAD-140 being dosed at 20 to 30 mgs daily and the GW 501516 taken at 20 MG.

Cardarine and Ostarine

This would be the female friendly version of the RAD-140 stack that I just mentioned. This is actually a pretty versatile combo depending on the style of training and type of diet being used.  Ostarine is the most mild of all the SARMs and women seem to get more out of it than men do in terms of sustainable results and strength gains. This would be like a mild run of anavar for a female and would have minimal hormonal side-effects. therefore, steroid-like masculinization issues shouldn’t be an problem. A good female dosing protocol would be 10 to 15 mg of Ostarine paired with 10 mg of GW501516 daily.  Women should only cycle Ostarine for a maximum of 8 weeks.

Cardarine to lower the side effects of Tren

Yep, you read that right. Its a little known fact that GW 5010516 actually helps negate many of the harsh side effects from taking the steroid Trenbalone! Tren is an incredibly potent steroid but is notorious for its negative effects on the cardiovascular system. I’ve ran Tren several times and my cardiovascular endurance goes to complete shit after about 4 weeks.

This is likely explains the dreaded Tren cough we all hear of, which I always end up getting halfway in the cycle. Like most guys cycling Tren, I always find myself  getting out of breath and winded easily. And not to forget having to really keep an eye on my blood work to make sure my lipids don’t get out of hand because its so taxing on the system.

Cardarine increases cardiovascular endurance and corrects metabolic damage. This is why more and more Tren users are adding  GW 501516  to their cycle. My experience is that adding 20 MG to a Tren cycle seems to reduce the mentioned side effects by about 50%.

Cardarine and SR-9009

These two go together like peanut-butter and jelly. SR-9009 is one of those compounds that is NOT a SARM but gets lumped into that category by many people. It is actually a Rev-Erba Agonist. This means that it amplifies the action of a group of proteins associated with several activities in the body.

These actions include:

  • Controlling energy expenditure,
  • Utilizing stored fat for energy instead of glucose
  • Reducing cholesterol levels,
  • Replacing dead mitochondrial cells with new ones
  • Balancing circadian rhythms.

Obviously, SR-9009 shares many traits with Cardarine. I’ve found that taking them together greatly increases their effectiveness because of the synergy they create together. I would suggest SR-9009 be taken between 30 and 40 mg for up to 12 weeks. This is a compound I highly advocate getting in liquid form.

SR-9009 doesn’t have very good bio-availability. Therefore it works WAY better if taken sublingual. This means that you will hold the liquid SR-9009  beneath your tounge for one full minute. This will allow the large blood veins on the bottom of your tongue to absorb the compound. Thus, getting more of it into the bloodstream. I like taking these two compounds together because they also seem to really boost my immune system every time I take them together.

My Recommended Source for Top Quality Cardarine

If your looking for liquid sarms, then CHEMYO is the company you want to take a look at. They’ve been around forever and have a great reputation for having great consistency with product quality and service. Additionally, They also post all their 3rd party testing results on each product page so you know that what your getting is actually real.

You can get 10% off any of their items by using the discount code: LEAVINGWEAKNESS

Here is my detailed product review and unboxing video on Chemyo so you can see their quality for yourself:

 
3rd Party testing on the exact brand of Cardarine that I regularly use.