Personally I don't believe all the natural potential crap, steroids/prohormones are a shortcut. Like it or not. Try to convince yourself otherwise if you want, but it's the truth. I 100% believe that if I wanted to take my time I could bulk up naturally and be 220lbs lean eventually for example. Fact is it can be done much faster with steroids.
That being said I still think you should try to gain some naturally, at 5'11" 173 pounds is pretty light. I was 165 at the start of my halodrol cycle, but I'm 5'7" and my natural weight before I weightlifted was 125-130lbs. However I'm sure a lot of people still think I should/should have waited longer. Your friend will do the cycle if he wants to, I would say stano solo isn't going to do much for him though. Make sure he gets some knowledge about proper support supps and PCT. I think epi or hdrol would be a better first cycle. He could even run epi/stano, I have a friend who did epi/furaza for his first cycle and got great gains.
