19 years old - considering a cycle

This was me in 1970. It was in November 1970, near my birth date when I would turn 22 years old. I entered my first Bodybuilding contest before I ever took any AAS. It was early in 1971 that I started taking low doses of AAS. By 1977 I won two contests, and in 1979 I won my class in the Jr Mr USA. It just takes consistency and patience, if you have the genetics, and IMO, you do.

Don’t fear losing. I came in dead last in my first Bodybuilding contest, but I knew that day, that what I wanted to do is compete.

Patience Grasshopper. IMO, no AAS yet. Time is on your side. Competitive Bodybuilding is long term. I did it competitively for 3 decades, and had won 70 trophies through those years. (back then some contests awarded best body parts and Most Muscular, which I won a few of those)

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First, well done in the timeframe you’ve mentioned. Tell me about your leg routine. You appear upper body dominant. Nothing worked better at increasing overall body mass than squatting heavy and often.

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Missed this before posting my last one. Are these ass to grass squats? I doubt it with your height, but I may be wrong. So many men say they can squat heavy but they’re doing half reps. I’d like to see you build a good double BW squat. It will reap a ton of benefits to your overall body as well as prime your nervous system to handle heavy weight.

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At 6’4”, I would never recommend someone that tall do “ass to grass” squats. Being that tall it is a big enough challenge to perform a heavy “three white light” Powerlifting squat efficiently.

Obviously, it would be beneficial if OP posted a video of the squat that he can do 340lbs for 10 reps. Then we could properly guide him to find his most efficient form and necessary depth to best build his thighs.

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Not worth it. You are making great gains naturally. You start on TRT and your body stops producing it. 150mg may only replace what you get naturally, 300mg may be slightly more. So, maybe a little bump. But what are you risking?

Small balls, infertility, gyno, heart issues, BP issues, acne, drug charges, roid rage. It’s not guaranteed you will have those sides (well, the balls are guaranteed unless you want to fuck around with HCG and then you have to throw darts to control your estrogen), but when you have good genetics, why take such a huge risk for so little gain?

In a few years, things might be different - you may have reached your potential, have a chance to compete, the risk versus reward might be different.

So, you should be a hard pass on juicing for now - maybe later.

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I would disagree. The form should be learned this way before adding heavy weight to develop proper hip and ankle mobility. Breaking parallel is fine after form is developed for heavier weight. Most people that throw up squat measurements have a 6” ROM with improper depth or are counting them on smith machines.

ass to fucking grass. I don’t count reps that aren’t full rom. I only count reps where I extend to the full stretch and control the stretch. I also like to utilize the hack squat machine for that peace of mind/safety- much easier to overload without the need of a spot/or like I said before risk.

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Will post a video later today. Today’s my leg day

You’re right honestly and I get what you’re saying. I’m not in a rush to hop on anything. I’m making good progress naturally and I know I’m nowhere near my full potential yet. Doesn’t make sense to mess with my hormones and risk long term issues for small short term gains. I’d rather keep pushing naturally and see where I can get on my own. Maybe later down the line when I’ve actually maxed out my genetics and my goals change then it’s a different conversation. For now I’m staying patient and trusting the process.

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As some have said, your arms/delts look really good. Although, not to take away from that, but most young men focus primarily on the “see” muscles (the muscles you can see in the mirror). Not to mention, getting these to grow doesn’t involve a ton of effort/weight. Nonetheless, you do have very good development there. What you want to really avoid though is continuing to focus on these muscles while neglecting your weak points. In fact, in the immediate future you should completely shift your focus to your weaknesses so that the divide doesn’t grow larger. Hence, your back and legs. And, as some have noted, getting big legs while being so tall is difficult but can be done. I’d actually recommend you focus more on leg presses and the hack squat machine, with heavy stiff leg deadlifts for your legs. Now, on the leg press, what I found very effective for growth was sets of 20 reps aka high volume! Yes, 20…however, you can, and will need to, do these rest pause to get to 20. So, you don’t back off the weight you use to get 10 reps, but instead you do as many as you can do, then keep your legs locked out while letting the burning subside, then do a few more, rest, then more until you reach 20 reps. Do that for 5 sets, while adding a bit more weight each set, and afterwards your legs will be not only pumped but like rubber! But you’re not done, you need to do some hack squats too, but stick to sets of 10 there. Also, be sure you are changing your foot position on the leg press machine each workout: close and lower target quads, high and spread targets more hams and glutes. You need to hit all areas.

And man, while your upper back/traps/delts look good in your pose, tough love, your lats and mid/lower back are not very developed at all. You need to be doing some heavy deadlifts (or, with your height, rackpulls might be better), barbell/dumbbell rowing, t-bar rows, seated rows, hyperextensions with a weight held to your chest. But for back, you need to go HEAVY but not so heavy that you are just jerking the weight, you need to “feel” your lats engaging. Obviously keep lat pulldowns in there, but vary your grip from wide to close to underhand. I’d advise investing in some lifting straps so that on your heavy sets for back you can wrap the bar, taking your biceps/arms out of it and ensuring only the back is pulling the weights. But I’d advise doing 2 back workouts each week, maybe break it up one for width training, one for thickness. ALso, I’d advise training legs twice a week also, maybe one for quads/inner thighs and one for hams/glutes. But you need to get your focus on hitting your back/legs right now. your arms/shoulders can be trained once per week and youj’ll be fine. Your biceps will still get a workout during back days.

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Oh, and I really do hope you take @s.gentz @blshaw @RT_Nomad these guys’ advice, I compeltely agree with them. Don’t jump on the juice man, you are so young and your hormones are still very very high right now and getting on now will really mess up your natural hormonal production. I can hear it in your texts…I know you deep down really want to get on, to get that size, to make those gains, but please, keep training hard and heavy, eating well, getting in enough protein (1G per lb of bodyweight minimum, if you can do a bit more even better), taking creatine, and just give it time. If you really, honestly stick to what I and others have told you, in another 2 years time your physique will look so much better and developed. When someone said to get a strong base, that means that you just really cannot add more weight, sets, reps to your lifting routine, and THAT is when you have really reached yuour natural “peak”, but that is a few years away. If you jump on now, sure, yhou’ll get bigger, feel awesome, but then when you get off, yuou’ll shrink way back down because all that weight was just water, increased muscle glycogen, increased blood volume. You’ll get off and be very down, defeated when you see your gains disappear. Then you want to get right back on, and then the cycle will repeat, repeat, repeat and then you’ll do like a lot of guys, get on and not get off for a long time, if ever. meanwhile, bye bye kids, bye bye hair, bye bye normal hormones.
Once you put that needle in dude, you are heading down a potentially harmful path….

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Honestly I really appreciate you taking the time to write all that. Means a lot fr. And yeah you’re completely right, it’s easy to get caught up training the mirror muscles lol that’s happened to me, and I don’t wanna build some unbalanced physique. My back and legs are definitely my weak points,especially my traps and with being tall, so I’m gonna start putting way more focus into them. Gonna run legs and back twice a week like you said and actually prioritize bringing them up instead of just maintaining. The leg press and hack squat advice makes a lot of sense too, I’m definitely gonna try that high volume approach. Same with back, going heavier but actually controlling the weight and feeling it instead of just moving it. Appreciate the honest feedback and tough love, it helps a lot.

Also I linked a post to a photo of my traps. Could you check it out and let me know what you think? Thanks boss.

I appreciate the reality check. And yea I won’t lie the idea of that quick progress is tempting but like you said is the trade off really worth it? You’re completely right man I’ve got way more to gain by staying natural and actually building something solid instead of chasing shortcuts.

You’re welcome, and I’m glad you are open to advice/constructive criticism, that shows a lot of maturity, unlike many young guys who come on here only wanting to hear that they look great or only wanting to immediately get on steroids, like that will be the remedy for their physique and they will just magically grow IFBB pro-level muscles in not time.

Yeah, your traps could use some work, but I’d advise 2 great trap builders: upright rows using either a barbell with weights OR using a curved bar attachment hooked to a lower cable machine stack. Use a more narrow grip, pull to your upper chest/below your chin, and use a weight that is challenging BUT that you do NOT have to jerk your body to get it up. Keep your head level and look straight ahead during the movement, if you turn your neck, look down/left/right you have a good chance of cricking your neck, so be cautious. But that’s a great trap, and delt, builder. Second, you will get big, thick traps from doing deadlifts/rack pulls. If you don’t know what rack pulls are, get in a squat rack, set the bars/pins to about an inch below your knees, take a barbell with weights added , grab the bar with an overhand grip (I’m not a fan of mixed grip for these or deadlifts, too much chance to injure a bicep [biceps are a small muscle and NOT built for lifting heavy heavy weight])bend your butt down while keeping your back straight and then stand up as your push your butt in, keeping your arms locked/back straight. GO HEAVY on these, you can do sets of 6-8 reps. I don’t like higher reps on these simply because, just like in the deadlift, as you do more reps, your form tends to break down and the likelihood of you rounding your back increases with each rep. Hell, if you want, throw in some dumbbell/barbell shrugs at the END of your back days. again, go heavy and use straps, no, you need straps, as your traps are very strong, much stronger than your grip, so you will need straps. just shrug your shoulders up and as high as possible, do NOT roll your traps, no need to and it’s dangerous. just hold the weight, keep your arms STRAIGHT, and shrug as high as you can.

Bro before you do anything if you do decide to make the move (which I highly recommend you DO NOT) be sure to get all labs done and even a semen analysis to see how you are NOW. Take this from a guy with experience

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Are you from Canada by any chance?

Way to young kid wait

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Just my 2 cents

Wait until you’re done growing around 24-26. I started using gear in my teens and really messed up my body. Get the gyno under control!! Surgery may be necessary.

I’m gonna be 55 in two months and been on trt for 8 years. It was an absolute necessity. I truly believe I stunted my growth by starting so young. This is a lifestyle not a sprint. Looks like you got pretty good genetics and growing pretty solid as you are right now it’s only been a year and a half. I’ve had injuries that took more than a year and a half to come back from. Remember you’re 19. Enjoy the ride my friend.

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1.5 yrs ?? I was natty for 20 and made amazing gains . You are not near your natty potential . And gyno doesn’t go away on its own . Google stuff … everything is beneficial doing research .And “his “ sleep , diet And training are on point ??? If you’re on here asking questions then you don’t know what “on point “ is regarding anything . Especially at your age . Genetics play a role but I guarantee you don’t know how to train chest or anything . All I see is young kids maxing out bench every day and failing and look like idiots . To grow a chest weight selection matters . Failing reps that fall between a rep range for hypertrophy … super sets drop sets like I hate explaining how shit is so easy with experimentation. Obviously I’m thinking weight is too heavy or too light . Incorporate flyes. No steroids for you. You don’t even know how to train so how you going to regulate steroid side effects ? Stupid teens watching YouTube vids and copying others

Dude for 54 you look fucking incredible man. Thanks for your comment.

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