The golden rule of thumb is as follows:
The rest time between cycles should be equal to the cycle duration and PCT together.
For example, say you had a 12 week cycle of testosterone enanthate, waited 2 weeks and did a 4 week PCT. This would make up 12+2+4= 18 weeks. This is the time you would need to be off steroids.
This is exactly right. If you want to use something during the 18 weeks between cycles, you can run a SARMS bridge.
The key to bridging between steroids cycles is to bridge with non-suppressive compounds like SARMS. If you bridge with suppressive compounds like pro hormones, you aren't actually bridging because your natural testosterone production will be suppressed. You are basically just staying on year round then. Not a good idea.
The SARMS triple stack is a SARMS bridge I commonly recommend. The triple stack is combination of S4 + ostarine + cardarine. You could swap the cardarine for SR9009.
Cardarine and SR9009 are very similar but cardarine is slightly better for endurance and SR9009 is slightly better for fat loss.
Bridging with SARMS basically looks like this -
1. Run your cycle.
2. After your cycle run a good pct protocol such as the perfect PCT:
http://www.evolutionary.org/the-perfect-post-cycle-therapy-pct/
3. After the PCT protocol, run a SARMS bridge -
Weeks 1 - 8
SR9009 20mg/day
s4 50mg/day
ostarine 25mg/day
4. run a mini PCT. 4 weeks of the following:
HCGenerate ES at 5 capsules/day
5. Then wait 3-4 weeks, ideally get blood work done to make sure everything is in the normal range and start your next cycle.
With doing 1-5 you will continue growing off cycle and your natural testosterone production won't be suppressed