I will say that a few of my 40+ friends who started… all echoed the same sentiment “Geez, I was expecting more of a difference”.
Now these guys were already pushing themselves very hard in the gym, had solid nutrition, etc. We all agreed it allowed us to actually see improvements (assuming training, rest, nutrition, etc. were all on point), rather than just trudging along with no progress. It does seem to help a fair amount with body composition… didn’t see big strength increases, and it certainly did NOT heal injuries overnight (common misconception). Again, my friends were already training hard, for many years, advanced strength levels.
Everyone responds differently, but I’d caution expecting amazing changes from TRT doses. Maybe you will, maybe you won’t.
You have a point. You and jackolee have clearly had great results. It’s obvious you guys have put on muscle. You guys provided me with the kind of feedback I was looking for.
I want to put on muscle but that’s secondary to improving my energy and recovery after working long hours. I don’t drink or smoke. I eat healthy. I’m just looking to function optimally and I feel like I am unable to do that without some help.
A lot of guys complain about having trouble dialing in therapy. In some cases, it takes them years to dial it in. I read horror stories of people who take AIs and crash their estradiol. I think I’m going to take the plunge. I hope it all goes well.
What does low normal mean? Total test of 300-400 ng/dL? Free test? If you are there, you will see significant benefits. I can’t really quantify it, but you will notice significant improvement.
Most of the problems guys have seem related to e2 levels being too high or low. I just watched a video posted by @physioLojik some months back, and it suggests you don’t want to lower your e2 and if you raise test you want higher e2.
Like I said, putting on muscle is a secondary concern, but if I’m on TRT and doing everything right regarding training and nutrition, I’ll be disappointed if I don see gains.
What kind of results have you seen either in body composition or energy?
Went from being out of shape to better shape than I was in the military in 7 months.
Once I adjusted my calorie intake, muscle came quickly as well. As long as I was pushing myself in the gym, consistently. I have been “off” for a little while now , still hitting it about 3 times a week, because of low e2 issues, but I have still retained most of my muscle and all of my strength.
As far as energy. It feels like I could workout all day, with little rests in between, and I would be motivated to do it also.
I regularly “smoke” my workout buddy in the later part of the workout, and after he leaves, I usually keep going. We lift about the same amount of weight, my gas tank just never empties it seems.
Not sure if you were asking me? If so… their levels were in the 300-350 range to begin with, moved to 700ish. (non-aggressive doctors, ~150-175mg/wk).
Personally I think part of their hormone suppression was the result of heavy training intensity… yes, some squats and deads help your hormone levels… but I don’t think that’s true when your really pushing your limits. There’s been a number of articles on NFL athletes having low test simply due to the massive workload & intensity of their lifestyle… would think this to be also common for middle-aged natural competitors who are really beating the shit out themselves.
When I had my test levels checked in my late 30’s, I was killing it in the gym via willpower, but the body wasn’t responding. TRT doses helped my personally lose a few % bodyfat while maintaining the same bodyweight… but it wasn’t until I went to higher doses I achieved the real magic (defined as dropping about 6% bodyfat over several years and adding about 10lbs total BW)
Personally I think TRT can change people’s life’s for the better once dialled in… BUT, getting dialled in can be very tricky if there other underlying issues such as thyroid, adrenals or other health issues such as autoimmune problems. I’m eight months into TRT and still feeling lots of negative sides. I want to workout but am totally exhausted so cannot. Also suffering from bad brain fog, joint pains, very low libido, memory issues and very low motivation to do anything. So for me it’s taking some time to get everything dialled in, but I’m not giving up because even with all those sides I’ve seen some improvements over the last eight months.
I think if people just have a low T issue, then the benefits of TRT can quickly be seen. But if there are other issues it’s gonna take longer (;
If you’re insulin resistance, overweight and thyroid isn’t optimal your results could vary. A high body fat percentage can cause problems with converting too much testosterone into estrogen, we are injecting far more testosterone in one injection than we produce on any given day, so if body fat is high, estrogen could be as well.
99% chance of not needing a AI? Just from 100mg test cyp/week had my estradiol at 34 which is borderline(8-35 ref range preferrably at 15)
HOWEVER I started lowest strength anastrozole .125mg 3x/week with my HCG Monotherapy and my estradiol went all the way down to 9 and I feel like I need to stretch and pop or crackle my elbows,legs,bones-my whole body all the time because doc said supposedly estrogen acts as lubricant.
Yeah, dude. I’m with @NH_Watts on this. You jumped the gun. I’m a newbie here, but in all my reading, guys seem to have the most problems with AIs and e2 levels. Low estradiol is worse for everything related to your health than high e2, and yours wasn’t even high.
I’ll defer to the expertise of someone like @physioLojik who, as far as I know doesn’t recommend AIs. If you felt fine with an e2 of 34 you shouldn’t have changed anything. Plus, “high” e2 is relative to testosterone. I believe physioLogic has suggested that, on TRT, e2 can get much higher than “normal,” 70-80, and you will be fine, because of the ratio of test to e2.
Low e2 is going to be bad for your joints, bones, heart, and a lot more.