Hi! I have a feeling (maybe “bigorexia”) that my gains are not that great on my cycle compared to my training partner who is 18 years older.
My workout is much harsher and stronger diet and cycle.
For example he eats once a day, does 500mg test e and dbol at 30mg a day. He also works with lower weight than me.
I eat 4 to 6 times a day, drink about 5 liters of water and my cycle is:
1-4 weeks Dbol
1-6 weeks Test cyp at 400mg a week, increased from week 7 till the week 12 to 600mg a week.
I got to 230 lbs and now I’m back at 220 on week 10.
This week is his 2nd week and he already gained 5lbs.
Can it be that my body needs higher dosages as I already have been resistant to medications even as a kid?
I haven’t found any research on this so want to hear youur opinion.
Thanks!
Genetics… i know, this response sucks, but life is life
How large are you in comparison to each other? A beginner can develop more than an advanced lifter with PEDs.
I know guys with good genetics that were jacked before cycling. They say that 500 mg of test just made them feel good, helped recovery, and maybe added a few lbs. If they would have done the cycle when they were 30-40 lbs lighter, they would have gained 20 lbs IMO.
I’m 25 and he is 43. Similar build and this is his maybe 10th cycle or even more and 2nd for me. About same size with him being 15lbs heavier ATM. Few weeks back we were both at 230lbs and I dropped 10lbs for some reason.
I Have started using AI so maybe water retention? And I do HIIT multiple times a week and lost about 6cm on waist and fell from 18.5 to 18 inch arms.
My arms were bigger by 1cm few weeks back and yesterday he was 2cm bigger, although on pump, mine were not pumped either time.
Can it be my body needs higher dosages?
You have been cutting. He has been bulking. That likely accounts for a good deal of your different results. Losing 6 cm on the waist is significant.
Careful with the AI. It is easy to over do it.
If you are lean, replace the HIIT cardio with something easy to recover from like walking on an incline, and eat in a surplus for the rest of your cycle.
Losing arm size while cutting is not necessarily indicative of losing muscle or getting weaker. It could just be that you are losing visceral fat. I’m 250-ish right now and I’m the smallest I’ve ever been at 250, but also BY FAR the strongest I have ever been at 250. It’s because I am much more lean this time around. I’m probably 17% BF right now (with 18-18.5" arms) and any other time I have been 250 or above I was likely anywhere from 25-32% BF (with 19-19.5" arms).
Mine goal was to bulk but I have been following Kris Gethin 12 week muscle building trainer just to try something different than my usual 3-4 at 8 to 12 reps and sometimes incorporating drops, supers, negatives etc.
As for AI I do 1mg of anastrozole at mon, wed and fri. Hopefully it’s OK?
I’m not lean, I can see separations on muscle when training and a bit of biceps vein but i have a lot of fat on waist. Currently at about 105cm waist which is definitely not small unfortunately.
Too much IMO for bulking. I think contest prep for BBing it has it’s place at those doses. I would think .25 mg M,W,F would be sufficient (many don’t need any at your doses). I think your chances of having negative low E2 sides are relatively high at your dosage.
So you started with about a 111 cm waist? IMO, you losing 10 lbs was probably a good thing. I would just turn this into a cutting cycle. Your 18.5" arms were likely that size due to fat storage. You will probably see a bit more loss on the arms if you lose more weight, but they will look bigger if your waist shrinks.
IMO, you probably should not have started a cycle with a 111 cm (~44") waist. Don’t worry about your training partner. You will look better if you finish with a 90 cm (~35") waist at 200 lbs then he will at 240 lbs if you started at a similar size.
Seems like I’ve been researching at wrong places about AI. Can it be taken at 1mg once per week or need to be taken throughout the week? The pills are really small and hard to chop in 4 pieces, but if necessary i will do my best!
I was thinking doing clean bulk till next summer hoping for at least 240 and then cutting as much fat as possible. But if you think it would be better to cut now I shall do it!
Thanks for being so helpful!
I’m still stronger than him, I just feel bad for lost weight but as @mnben87 said it’s most probably just fat.
Also what you just described about you at same size weight but different physique is probably similar to me!
Yea that’s what I was alluding to as well, I probably should’ve said intramuscular fat instead. I wouldn’t worry about losing size on your arms or anywhere else for that matter… it is more important that you get your weight/diet under control, and it sounds like you’re well on your way to doing so. Keep up the hard work.
Definition give the illusion of size. The more lean you become, the bigger (more muscular) you will look.
Better to split it up. You could just split in half, and do 2X a week.
Maybe post a faceless picture. It is really tough to gauge where you are at. To me it sounds like you want to start a bulk when you are at 25% BF (just based on waist circumference). If that is the case, I would cut first.
Is it possible he’s doing more reps, and therefore more volume? He may be on a more hypertrophic program rather than a strength program, like it sounds like that’s how you’re tracking your lifting progress
If he is on his 10th cycle and you are on your 2nd this article could explain.
https://www.t-nation.com/pharma/tip-one-steroid-cycle-the-muscle-memory-effect
There are so many variables to this it would be impossible to pin point a legit answer. However I will tell you I hate starting a cycle with dbol. Its popular as a kick start but it blows you up quick. Each time I ran it I gained a bunch of size and strength and lost it mid cycle after stopping. I usually ended the cycle with less weight than when I was on the dbol.
@mnben87 made several good points about looking at the mirror and not the scale. I don’t know how tall you are but 230-240lbs is HEAVY in my book. Even at 6’+ heights you could be massive if body comp is in check. But it sounds like perhaps its not based on the waist measurement.
A faceless photo would help to assess your true status of improvement needs.
Is for example tue/fri okay?
Why do some websites say when I researched, to take 1mg eod? I’ve also seen 12.5mg for aromasin and most of them say arimidex and anastrozole are the same.
When I try to upload picture it says something like “Unable to complete operation due to low memory”. I am high on BF, I just thought to clean bulk as much as possible and cut down next summer to about 10 to 15%. Bad idea?
We do same program, same reps same sets, same technique but I’m just a tad stronger. Probably because he just started cycle and I’m done in 3 weeks with mine.
Well, believe it or not I haven’t even thought about muscle memory… And you are probably right!
I’ve heard few stories about replacing dbol with adrol. Your thoughts?
I’m 5’11. But yes I do have high BF, as I said I thought to do clean bulk (keeping BF in check while gaining size) but seems like it’s a bad idea!
My stomach is not mile in front of me, most problematic area of my waist are “love handles”.
Would it be good idea to get some winnie for these last 4 weeks of cycle? Maybe do the 14 week cycle instead of 12?
Thanks everyone!
I’ve never used it to compare. My experience with orals is limited to dbol, tbol, and var. All of them to some degree didn’t settle well with me so I’m not longer doing any oral AAS. I’m sticking to small blasts of test with maybe a little mast. Never had issues with either of those.
I’m not a fan of winstrol on paper. Too many people with joint issues. I had some at one point and threw it away due to all the anecdotal reports of people feeling like garbage on it.