I've done some anavar only cycles. 40mg a day for 8 weeks will give you some good strength and body changes.. you might even want to go up to 50mg. I ran BTG for 6 weeks at 40 mg alone and it made my body pretty hard, i lost body fat, gained atleast 20lbs on all lifts while adding reps.. had veins popping out everywhere. As for sides, I had none.. blood tests were normal, blood pressure stayed the same, no acne, nothing. My diet wasn't great due to work which really limited my gains however i kept about 90% of them.
Right now I'm doing papervar @ 50mg/d for 8 weeks, with 10-15g of creatine, high protein diet.. im on week 7 right now and my strength is through the roof. I've added 50lbs on my squat.. and kept the reps up there. When i bench I can always increase the weight without losing reps. I'm up 10lbs.. vascular, hard, strong, no sides.