Hello first poster here. I wanted to get some feedback on my situation on what you guys think I should do.
I’m 36 years old and have been lifting since middle school. Mostly upper body and bro lifting to look good. I played college football but never did squats or deadlifts because my legs were always so sore from hitting the sleds and running gassers. My health started going to shit (lack of exercise and poor diet) and when I was 33 I was diagnosed with genetically high triglycerides (700+) with high blood pressure and I was considered pre-diabetic (I am married and have 5 kids so diet and exercise stopping being a priority.) I was 285lbs and 25% BF. I’m 6’1" tall
I decided that I didn’t need to take drugs to control my triglycerides I would try exercise and better diet and fish oil. I started hitting the gym and cleaned up my diet. Within 8 months I dropped to 17% BF at 275lbs. I started doing powerlifting because I felt like I neglected the big lifts in my youth and I fell in love with deadlifts (and I tolerate squats) All my blood work came back nearly normal (slightly high on some things but well within anything to worry about my doc said)
As far as strength goes, I was a natural bench presser. My lifetime bench progression goes like this:
Start working out on mom’s universal machine in 5th grade
175lbs in 7th grade (first time doing a full size olympic bar)
235lbs in 8th grade
315lbs in 9th grade
365lbs in 10th grade
405lbs in 11th grade
440lbs in 12 grade
465lbs when I was 21 and stopped lifting regularly
When I first started training full powerlifting, my lifts were 515/460/600/245 Squat/Bench/Deadlift and OHP added in. I started doing the Wendler 5/3/1 program and in one year got to 635/485/640/285 on my lifts. I did my first competition about 10 months in and did a 1681 total at 275 lbs and I’m about 15-17% BF still. I was a bit conservative with my lifts being my first meet and not being able to hold my deadlifts very well. Most of my progress on squat and deads have been with form and being comfortable with the weight. Bench has been kind of stagnant.
One year ago, my doctor said ran some blood work and said I had low test levels (250) and I was below the threshold and could get on TRT if I wanted to. I did and he prescribed 100mg of Test-Cyp a week.
After being on it for 6 months I was rechecked with normal test levels of about 500. Not really any appreciable strength gains. I train now at a hardcore powerlifting gym and talked with some guys there that I know have experience with gear and they said 100mg is one tenth what a guy my size would normally be taking for strength gain.
I want to be cautious because of side effects but I compete in untested federations against guys that are pretty open about their use and with my age I’m a bit handicapped plus being pretty much natty. I can’t compete in tested feds because I’m on TRT and would flag as taking gear anyway plus the guys in tested feds are just skating around getting caught. I was thinking of just upping my Test-Cyp to 350mg a week and seeing how that goes and have been doing so for about 2 months.
I also started a new program as the Wendler 5/3/1 is more a beginner to novice program so I’m doing the Juggernaut 2.0 that has a lot more volume in it. I think my strength is starting to go up but I haven’t tested it yet.
Should I just continue with these conservative doses and see how it goes? I hear Tren gives massive strength gains but also the worst side effects. I don’t want to really gain more mass I want to stay in the 275lbs weight class.
What do you guys think?
