I like Stevesmi's answer a lot. It deffo applies to me. But gaining and losing strength on and off comes with the territory. Here's one way (assumes you're not at your all time strongest on any lift). I'll pick bench press.
Let's say my best off cycle bench was 140-kilos / 308lbs for one in January. I could do an off cycle strength program with a view to adding 10lbs over 8 weeks (the strength training cycle is 16 weeks in this example). By week 8 I'm doing 1 x 318lbs as planned. I then introduce some steroids. And over the next 8 weeks I add another 10lbs. So now, 'on', I'm at 328lbs for 1 rep. That's a 20lb total improvement.
There's NO WAY I'll keep all that. Not from cycling without or with gear. You just don't have max strength all year round. What you NEED to do is be a little better at the beginning of the next strength program. That might mean 313lbs (a 5lb increase). Eight weeks later 323lbs before gear then 33lbs on by the end of that cycle.
Back when I started lifting I did a real ugly 90kg bench press (all the weights I had then). That may have been some months in. I had to get my brothers to lift it from the floor etc etc lol. I got to the point where off gear I could do 170-kilos (I had done cycles before) and then 190-kilos was my best 1RM. So over time, with steroids and strength programs on and off, I added 100-kilos to my bench press. This took years.
I'm now 54 and I'll have been lifting 40 years this summer. My all day every day bench will be, for a few more years I'm sure, 300lbs or 3 plates a side. But that's old man strength
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