To begin, I’ll start by saying that I’ve done, what I think to be, enough homework where I can post something & get quality responses. I apologize in advance if Ive missed a research item, so here goes. My ultimate goal is to get a lean, hard body with a noticeable 6 pack and gain maybe 7-10 lean muscle, I’m not a bodybuilder & not looking to get huge gains. I also know that diet is key to a 6-pack, so I’ve listen my stats & background below.
Stats:
1st time on anything
35 years old
150 pounds
5’9"
Bodyfat is ~ 10% (I think). I will be pics later.
Weight Training - Been working out pretty hard for ~12 years. I do one body part a day, as strong and hard as I can. As an example, I’m 150 lbs and can plug out 2 reps of 225 on the bench press and can leg press 4 reps of 540 lbs. My workout is around 6:45AM, after my cardio. I’ll usually drink a protein shake while I’m working out.
Cardio: I run for speed and distance. I run about 3-4 days a week. I usually run for 20 minutes each time. On the tread, the first mile is set at 8.0 with .5 incline and the remainder of the time it’s set to 6.5 with 1 incline. My average is about 350-400 calories that I burn. I’m still trying to estimate how much of that is fat vs. muscle. My cardio is before I eat anything, around 6:15AM
ABS: I do the P90x ab exercise every 3 days. Example–I do it on a Monday & I’ll do it again on a Thursday and then again on Sunday.
Diet: I’ve been eating healthy pretty much all my life. As an example, my average daily meal is like this. After my workout, I’ll eat 2 jumbo hardboiled eggs and 2 jumbo hardboiled egg whites. Lunch is about 1 1/2 chicken breasts with broccoli or spinach salad @ 12PM. Snack is usually apple or Fage greek yogurt @ 3PM. Dinner is usually salmon, red snapper, or grilled chicken with red quinoa or spinach. Before I go to bed, I’ll eat mixed nuts, but lately, I’ve been drinking casein protein.
My total protein intake is about 200-225g and my daily caloric intake is about 2000-2250.
So that’s my background, now here is my plan.
- Test Cyp for 10-12 weeks (depending on when I get my hands on it. I should note that Ill be in Ibiza for 2 weeks, so I want to finish my cycle before I get on my flight…more on this later.) My dosage will be 350mg/week.
- Arimidex for my AI. .25mg/day for my entire cycle, which means if I get my hands on 1mg pills, I’ll be able to split them up. So I should get 21 1mg pills, split them in 4, which will yield 84 .25mg.
- Var for cutting up - I’ve gotten lots of mixed research on this…Please help. Some research has lead me to stack the var every day during the duration of the cycle @ 40mg/day. Some front-load it & some finish their cycle & do var the last 6 weeks of test–So I’m not sure here.
- PCT - Clomid 100/50/50/25 and Nolva 40/40/20/20. From my research, I should start this 2 weeks after I finish my cycle. So if I finish my cycle on the day I go on my trip & I’m gone for 2 weeks, then I should start my PCT when I get back.
So that’s my story, I appreciate any feedback/comments from experienced users. Thanks again for reading my post & helping me out.
There are claims by some authors for oxandrolone having special cutting properties, based on a study which failed to account for varying estradiol level between subjects. Of course, subjects treated with oxandrolone rather than an aromatizing steroid will have lower estradiol, which affects results.
In practice, anabolic steroids in general help cutting. It doesn’t take oxandrolone in particular.
As for the rest of the cycle, for example 350 mg/week testosterone cannot be expected to do much. On a testosterone-only cycle or testosterone-only weeks, , 500 mg is a reasonable minimum and 750 mg/week does substantially better. There is usually no need to run Clomid and Nolvadex simultaneously, and if that is done it would be at half-dose each rather than full-dose each as they work the same way. There is no need to run either Clomid or Nolvadex at double dose (100 mg/day is double dose for Clomid, 40 mg is double dose for Nolvadex) for a week or two at a time. There is no point in tapering off of either rather than using normal dose for either throughout.
Fat intake sounds low. That’s okay while on anabolic steroids but isn’t good for natural training, which may help explain your results to date.
I would decide if this is supposed to be a cutting cycle, a gaining cycle, or a recomp cycle (best done as gaining in the earlier weeks and cutting in the later weeks.) If you added say 10 lb of muscle, cutting would go easier.
[quote]Bill Roberts wrote:
As for the rest of the cycle, for example 350 mg/week testosterone cannot be expected to do much. On a testosterone-only cycle or testosterone-only weeks, , 500 mg is a reasonable minimum and 750 mg/week does substantially better.
[/quote]
i dunno… i guess i disagree about 350 mg/wk and the OP’s goals. obviously results are somewhat dose-dependent, 300 mg is still pretty effective, IMO.
http://ajpendo.physiology.org/content/281/6/E1172.figures-only
For some it can be. Even 250 mg/week Sustanon has sometimes been quite transformative. There’s definitely personal variation there. (Not that it proves anything, as individual variation is still possible, but I’ve seen low dose do surprisingly well much more typically with soft-endomorphic types than the skinny type.)
On the study you posted, an important point in the article is “Exercise stimulus. The participants were asked not to undertake strength training or moderate-to-heavy endurance exercise during the study. These instructions were reinforced every 4 wk.”
To gain X lb of muscle and lose Y lb of fat, a more solid dose will get the job done in fewer weeks of a cycle, less time suppressed, than a lower dose. I’d rather see anyone use for example at least 500 mg/week for an 8 week cycle than 350 mg for a 12 week cycle.
If the OP’s goals are modest enough then indeed the low dose might do it but it would take longer than necessary and with no safety advantage compared to a “real cycle” dose.
There definitely are personal opinions in steroid cycles and that’s valid: I’m in the “do it solidly rather than piddle around” category. (Jeez, what a bias coming across in that choice of words! 
I was also thinking of just running Test Cyp for 12 weeks @ 350mg/week without VAR. I’m wondering if that will allow me to gain the 5-7 lbs, but it only being lean gains. Any thoughts?
Accordingly to a study using 100mg of test/week and 20mg of oxandrolone (var)/day gives you similar results as using 600mg (a little confused on if it’s either test or nandrolone)for 20 weeks. The test + var group study was done over a eight weeks. Both group seems to have gained 8Kg (17.6 lbs) of lean mass. The study was done on HIV pos subject. Not sure if it matters or not.
When in doubt, follow the knowledgeable guys on here. Bill Roberts being one of them
[quote]dynamic wrote:
I was also thinking of just running Test Cyp for 12 weeks @ 350mg/week without VAR. I’m wondering if that will allow me to gain the 5-7 lbs, but it only being lean gains. Any thoughts?[/quote]
Thats a much better idea there bud.
Edit: woops i thought this was that oral only cycle thread. You can use the var or dont. If you train hard and good and have your diet on point i think your goal of 5 to 7lbs is reasonable.