Hi guys I just joined and i would like to share with you my first cycle and maybe someone can get something out of it.
I am 28 I have been lifting since I was a teen and learned gradually over the years. My lifts aren’t that big but I bench 120kg, squat 170kg and deadlift 180kg. I weigh 106KG and I am 6 foot tall. The reason I want to use AAS for the first time is to add some size and strength - no other reason than that - I love training and would love some faster gains.
My cycle proposal is to use Dbol for first 4 weeks at 30mg on training days and 20 on non-training days and test cyp for the same 4 weeks plus another 5 making 9 weeks at 1 mil per week (300mg)
I have nolva and clomid for when I am done with the AAS and I should start this 2 weeks after my last shot as I understand it. I am yet to decide on hcg but it sounds like this would be a good option. Arimidex is on hand for any gyno issues during cycle.
Training split will be:
Day 1: vertical push pull with chest flyes and triceps
Day 2: legs and abs with emphasis on quads
Day 3: off
Day 4: horizontal push pull with shoulder raises and biceps
Day 5: legs and abs with emphasis on hams and glutes
Day 6: off
Back to Day 1
I will update how I am getting on as it may be of interest to some people. If I am doing anything really wrong then maybe someone can point that out too and I would be grateful. I am out of time now so have to run but I can add a bit more detail later on. Thanks.
Only 300mg of Test per week? I’d go for 500mg (2x250 EW). Even with 300mg of test you will shut your HTPA down. Why should you do that if 500mg per week will grant more results?
Yea I did notice people recommending higher dosages. I thought I would see how I go first time off and I should still make good gains at 300mg as my body has not experienced it before. It should mean that when I run my next cycle next year that I can shoot for 500mg per week and get extra gains based on the fact that I should be more sensitive to the test by starting off with less. I plan on going for test enanthate next time too as changing the testosterone shuold give me a fresh kick.
Am I right in thinking that increasing dose and changing the type of testosterone will work together or would changing the type of testosterone and keeping the dose the same elicit the same gains from a “bang for your buck” perspective? I am just cautious about going for what would be considered a full dose early on in my AAS experience. I would like to increase my exposure to it gradually to make better gains without taking so much that the side effects start to make less worthwhile.
The main reason for taking this lower dose was I didn’t know how it was going to affect me and lets face it, it can affect everyone differently. For me I would not like to become aggressive so I will see how it goes first time round.
250mg is a (high) TRT dose, but it’s your call. Together with the dbol you should see some decent results. Don’t expect much from it though.
Just keep your diet in check. Eat, eat and eat some more!
I appreciate your reasons for wanting to take a lower dose, but with your experience, dedication and love for the game, why not make it 500mg a week? If someone suggested Anadrol 50, I would understand the concern of not wanting to become too aggressive. I'm about to start my first cycle. I'm not going to run crazy dosages,although there is a part of me that believes the first cycle will yield the most gains.
I’ve come up with all sorts of cycle idea’s for my first. “Extreme” cycle’s with crazy dosages and all the exotic bodybuilding drugs I could get my hands on. (haha) There was a time when I considered running a very conservative cycle like Test E 250mg for 10 weeks.
Alas, I settled for 10 weeks of Test E @ 500mg per week with a frontload, and 30mg of dbol for the first 3weeks and last 3 weeks. IMO, if your going to shut down your HPTA, you better get some solid results. Good luck to you Mr. Ballbagbaggins!
Thanks guys. I guess if I feel ok after the first 2-3 weeks I could up the dose to 500 a week.
I will certainly be eating a great deal and I have arranged work so that i will be getting all the sleep I need for the duration of this cycle. Hopefully thats all 4 bases covered - nutrition, rest, training and hormones.
I will let you know how the gains are coming along.
I did some research on the hcg and it seems to be effective but not used by everyone. What would be the downsides to hcg at the end of this cycle? I can see the benefits being less muscle lost as it will take less time to get the natural hormone production back up.
The downside to using HCG at the end of the cycle would be a slower recovery. HCG is suppressive. If your going to use it, run it during your cycle to maintain testicular size and function, “setting the stage” for recovery.
What’s your logic behind limiting Dbol to 20 mg on non training days? Is it for economy reasons or do your muscles not use steroids on rest days?
[quote]Game Changer wrote:
What’s your logic behind limiting Dbol to 20 mg on non training days? Is it for economy reasons or do your muscles not use steroids on rest days? [/quote]
I’d use the same dbol dosage every day of the week, also on non-training days.
To OP: increase aggression is overrated. I’m on 750mg Test E/week and 60mg dbol ED and I’m mostly feeling happy. The only thing I notice is that I’m more assertive and sometimes a little irritated, but nothing you can manage. Roid rage is a myth.
Hi Game Changer, the logic behind reducing the dose on non training days was that the key metabolic times are before and after training so I figured take more on training days. I notice when pulsing that people tend to only take their dose before and after training on training days so I borrowed that idea. Taking slightly less will also put less stress on my liver. If this is a bad idea I can easily up the dose to 3 every day though.
Dahallow I tend to agree with you on the roid rage. It seems to be the increase in estrogen if anything that may cause the irritability. But less face it, people are jealous of bigger guys and they will take a normal incidence of irritability and make it seem far worse than it is.
Whether it is through fear or jealousy it is certainly a myth that is widespread in our society as people are uneducated and ignorant about steroids in general. A quick look at steroid videos on youtube is evidence of this ignorance as the comments are the usual rubbish about small dick, roid rage and that steroids give you muscle without even having to work hard.
I just wanted to elaborate on the training split.
For vertical push pull I would be doing shoulder presses and pull down or chin ups. I will be switching between different exercises to keep the muscles guessing to a degree but not changing too much about the workouts so that I cannot monitor progress.
I decided to throw some chest flyes in on this day and it is going to be 3 full days away from the main chest workout and it means I can train with good form without taking away from my heavy day. Flyes also work as I am doing tris this day so they are not going to be still fresh enough to blast after only using them for a low amount of shoulder pressing sets due to the lats being trained this day also.
For horizontal push pull its much the same as above. So horizontal rows for the back and all the standard chest presses being mixed up fairly regularly. Personal favourite of mine here is the reverse grip incline smith machine press for targetting upper chest.
Shoulders can be worked for a second time during the week here in much the same way as chest gets worked twice and of course back. Again it doesnt take away too much from bis which will get hit at the end nicely warmed up and still fresh enough from a lowish amount of sets on back.
For legs it seems to make sense to have 2 workouts for them as they are such a large part of the body and everything else is getting worked twice. For the quad dominant day the main exercise is legg press with the feet at the bottom of the plate and the stance width can be altered.
For hamstrings and glutes I will be concentrating on low back squats and deadlifts - sometimes on the same day as they are similar in the muscles involved. I like to alternate between the exercises while warming up and increasing the weight steadily. Abs and calves will get worked on legs days.
So there is a little more detail about what I will be following. Fot some of you it may seem a bit weird but I tried this before for a few months and was able to gain significant muscle mass during that time so I thought I would save it for when starting my cycle after a break from it. No training split really covers everything 100% and this is no exception. Shrugs can be added in depending on what workout is next or previous on deadlift day, vertical day or horizontal day really depending on what else is planned and if the routine has been rejigged. I don’t usually miss training days but there is freedom to change the order if needed.
I will try and provide weight updates and a breakdown of fat, muscle and water etc using my electronic scales. They are not amazing but may show an insight into how my body is changing.
[quote]ballbagbaggins wrote:
Hi Game Changer, the logic behind reducing the dose on non training days was that the key metabolic times are before and after training so I figured take more on training days. I notice when pulsing that people tend to only take their dose before and after training on training days so I borrowed that idea. Taking slightly less will also put less stress on my liver. If this is a bad idea I can easily up the dose to 3 every day though.[/quote]
No offense at all but you borrowed a dumb idea.
Pulsing is retarded. The AM forum (I think that’s where pulsing started) is one of the worst resources for PED use on the web.
Not using the drug on your off days wont give your liver time to heal. A highly anabolic environment is very valuable on non training days. Dont skip days.
Thanks for your input Bonez, you advice is duly noted.
The reason they gave from a pulsing point of view was that it is better to bonge and recover than to have no breaks and thus not recover. They likened it to drinking alcohol and binging at the weekend. They said the liver was better off binging then recovering than perhaps what an alcoholic would do and drink a steady amount every day.
This being said I am going to up the dose to 3 every day which isn’t much more but as Bonez says its good to have a full dose on non training days.
I did read that it is better to take the majority if not all of the dbol before training time but I did not like the sound of this approach. The reason being that when you train intensely, your testosterone levels drop to zero for some reason and if you have the test from another source then your recover will be so much better. There are obvious downsides to this but I can understand taking maybe a little more at this time as you also have the window of opportunity afterwards.
Thanks again for the advice and comments from all. As I said before it is my first go at AAS and I don’t pretend to know everything but I would not let myself down and start without knowing enough.
I used my electronic scales to give you some figures before I started. They are as follows but I don’t know what is up with the fat % cos its clearly wrong:
Weight - 105.9kg
Fat - 27.4%
Water - 55.9%
Muscle - 40.8%
Like I say the fat looks totally wrong but at least if I use this to compare with I can still see the differences. Maybe it is including fat we normally measure plus something else? I am able to see my abs so I’d like to think its 10% lower than that. I am about 185cm tall.
That whole thing about your test “dropping to zero” is inaccurate. However, even if it was correct, it wouldn’t matter because when you’re “on” your natural test production is going to be suppressed anyway.
Many people recommend taking the dbol pre-workout because it will increase aggression significantly. That’s a matter of preference though, so you can just figure that out for yourself.
Hi Squat junky thanks for your comment. Yes this is very true that you are not worried about your natural testosterone production in terms of added performance while on steroids but I think what it means is that you are not supposed to have the effects of high testosterone at this particular time when training intensely so the steroids are an even bigger bonus at this key time.
The body reduces natural production to that of a castrated man and produces glucocorticoids which break down muscle tissue. Both these effects are not ideal and natural bodybuilders have to deal with them. I think one of the reasons steroids work so well (and why I had decided it might be a good idea to take slightly more on training days) was that first of all you are getting the effect of a lot of testosterone when you shouldn’t really be getting it as far as your body is concerned and secondly the steroids block the effects of the glucocorticoids meaning you are not going to lose as much from an intense session.
Now I am by no means an expert but this is what I learned from a documentary. I will get you the link if interested.
Ok first training session over, I injected this morning and have taken my 3 dbols x10mg (it is evening time here) and I have to say I feel absolutely fantastic. Real sense of wellbeing. The injection did not go to plan despite hours of research; I guess you are never fully prepared until you try it out but I will get used to it I’m sure.
Basically what happened was I was injecting into my outer thigh and wanted to get a better look at what I was doing and moved my leg a tiny bit. Of course the muscles in my leg contracted and gave me a nasty sensation that put me into shock as I poured with sweat and lost my vision for a minute for two.
I just tried to be calm and then finished the injection. The only other problem was the needle was halfway out when I had finished as I was too busy making sure I was holding it steady and injecting slowly. I checked with a friend who is a long term steroid user and he said don’t worry if the needle was only half way in when you were injecting because they were fairly long needles.
Perhaps someone can reassure me. Anyway apart from that the workout went well and all my weights were up and now I will go and eat like a horse. Just a quick update for u guys. Cheers!
Cool, man. I would appreciate that, sounds like an interesting watch. Thanks.
Here is the link. I’m not saying its the best documentary ever or anything but I found it fairly interesting in places. I was trying to learn as much as possible before starting out myself. The part that talks about the effects during training was right at the end 13-14 mins in. This is only part 1 of 4 so if you like this part you may like the others. The information may not even be up to date or fully accurate but I can only go by what I have learned so far. Of course if anyone wants to chime in with better more up to date knowledge then thats ideal.
Hope you enjoy 
OK time for first week update.
No real noticable increases in strength as yet but I suppose that is to be expected in the first week and the gains will be more noticable in week 2 when the exercises from week 1 are revisited.
Bodyweight is up 3.4 kilos
Bodyfat is up 1.6%
Water is down 1.3%
Muscle is down 0.7%
I don’t know how much its worth reading into this as initial impressions would be that I have just got fat but I haven’t gone over the top with my food intake but I am glad it has been enough to gain this amount of weight. I do not look fatter and my friend who I used to train with commented and said I actually look more defined and cut. Perhaps this is due to the increased blood flow to the muscles.
Todays injection went a lot more smoothly than last weeks but I did end u getting a little anxiety after what happened last time but apart from breaking out in a sweat it was fine.
It is not a big increase but I have decided to inject 330mg every 6 days now instead of 300 every 7. I should get a solid 8 weeks out of this. From reading a lot of posts I see many people recommending 8 weeks over 10 purely because it is easier to recover and keep gains then go on the next cycle a little sooner. I will not be rushing into the next cycle but will also be looking ahead to it.