What are your test levels on blast and any crazy side effects?
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Those are some strong deadlifts Ben!
@supercardrives dude…
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I usually do blood work on cruise. I do have some ordered that I need to go in for. If I was going to guess, my total T on 875 would be about 5300 ng/dL. I just am extrapolating from my cruise blood work. No crazy sides. Horny all the time, and a bit of water weight, but right now I am only on Test.
I’ll tell you now though that the sauce isn’t as magical as many believe. I had done like a 460 lb squat, a 340 lb bench, and a 550 lb deadlift (the deadlift was on TRT, but had done like 515 natty) before touching the stuff. I am also guessing my numbers would have improved some from there had I stayed natty, or improved a bit faster than natty had I just stayed on TRT.
I think most guys need to use a lot if they want the incredible results (look super saucy, and lift huge weights). There are exceptions to the rule, but moderate use hasn’t had the effects I had hoped for.
Thank you! I am not lifting the whole 90 lbs in chains though. Some of it remains on the floor.
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Holy crap, thats like 5x what the normal maximum range should be 
must be a superman feeling
It’s much less than you think, or at least it is for me. Most of these compounds, you can’t tell your on them (Tren and Halo being exceptions). I notice more subtle things like water weight, sleeping better (some people get the opposite), sex drive. It is in no way like being on a stimulate. I feel a red bull a lot more than a full syringe of Test.
I think the feeling like superman thing is way over played. Maybe in the gym, but it isn’t like I can shoot some Test, and gain 50 lbs on my bench in 2 weeks. It’s more like I can get that rep extra each time I come in, or I can add the 5s on the side and still get my reps. In the gym it feels more like I am a beginner, and less like an intermediate lifter. That is true with all of the impressive enhanced lifters I know too. They were impressive before the gear, and they didn’t get some insane amount of strength or muscle with the gear. Maybe in some cases 25 lbs of muscle over a long period. One guy went from a 700 lb deadlift to 800 lbs in a year on gear. Pretty good, but he didn’t go from 400 to 800, he already had insane strength.
My perception of what steroids do and how you feel on them has changed a lot since using them.
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Been thinking about training. I think I have been to aggressive with my weights not allowing progression. Additionally, I think picking 2-3 lifts per session to focus on works best for me. When I try to progress more, I just get burnt out. So I am thinking smaller jumps per week, on specific lifts, and on the other lifts I can progress if I am feeling it that day, or just get a check mark on the lift. I am also just burnt out on squatting. I am still going to do legs, but I don’t think I’ll squat for 6-8 weeks.
So my focus lifts are going to be
Leg day:
Belt Squat
Walking lunges
Chin up with weight
Other exercises
Reverse Hyper
Biceps
OHP day:
Log Push Press
Log Strict Press
Incline Press
Other exercises
Belt Squat
Chin tempo (slow eccentric)
TRX row or cable row
Deadlift day
Deadlift with chains
Narrow grip bench with shoulder saver
Chins for volume
Other exercises
TRX row
Dips
Biceps
Bench day
Comp Bench
Narrow Grip Bench
Leg Press for volume (maybe lunges?)
Other exercises
Chins
TRX Rows or cable row
Biceps
Triceps
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Thats cool, I didn’t know gear boosts testosterone that much, I thought it would just place you on the higher end of normal (1200 ng/dl) but that just shows how little I know about it.
Did you require the initial TRT just as a side effect of declining test with aging?
Your levels will depend on how much you take. I target about 1000 ng/dL when cruising. When blasting much higher (I guess Dallas McCarver had a Total Testosterone of 55,000 ng/dL when they did his autopsy). Other compounds won’t impact your Testosterone directly. They can impact it indirectly though. If you only took another steroid, and didn’t take Test, your Test would eventually drop very low. There are other indirect ways other compounds impact Test levels, but that is a rabbit hole.
I don’t really mess with much other than Testosterone. I have tried Anavar and Tbol (and Anadrol for like 2 days). A lot of the other stuff I just don’t like the potential for negative sides much. Primo doesn’t have many sides other than to the lipids and hair line, but I care a lot about hair, so I don’t really use it. Test can impact hair too, but it is possible to mitigate it with Finasteride (Finasteride works really well for Test, but doesn’t do anything for any of the other compound, I guess it might do something for Halo, but that is an advanced compound I probably won’t take).
There is a lot of knowledge about this stuff that is important to know before using it. I also think one should be fairly developed too. Some of that is knowing how to eat, how to train and progress. But some is just the fact that being fairly developed means you have years of training under your belt and are probably in it for the long haul. Lots of guys use gear, and a year later don’t even go to the gym or lift anymore.
That is wild indeed, I just looked up that person and saw his story, he had a lot of f’d up stuff going on thats for sure.
55,000 ng/dl test is definitely crazy lol, that is 58x higher than my level, must have felt bonkers day-to-day.
Somehow he kept his hair
He was 23 when he died. Pro bodybuilding has a lot of dudes with shaved heads. Genetics plays a role, but if you would have gone bald at 70, pro bodybuilding will make that 35 haha.
Hard to know. I haven’t gotten even close to approaching it. Estrogen would be hard to manage I would think.
Great insights as always, man! That’s definitely one of the things that makes me hesitant to do an actual cycle. With my age, the window is probably not going to be open for a huge amount of time anyway.
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How old are you?
I wouldn’t do a cycle. Cycle being that you use, then do a PCT. I see it as an all or nothing thing. Most guys lose nearly all their gains during PCT, and the time after. It has worked for some though. Most of the impressive guys are blasting and cruising, not cycling. There is also the benefit of not having the downs when recovering.
I just see it as if you’re going to do it, do it and blast and cruise. It is a lot easier to hold your gains on TRT consistent levels. I wouldn’t have done it if I was not on TRT.
I think for the really impressive guys, they are in general using more than they say (in most cases), they are cruising on higher amounts, and they have crazy genetics. The difference in genetics between above average and elite is vast. No amount of drugs could get me to Ronnie Coleman. Maybe if I went balls to the wall, I could be that lean and 50 lbs lighter (we are about the same height), but his muscle shape and such is much better than mine. Same for strength. I would have to blast my ass off to get to the same strength my buddy had natty (and he didn’t even max out his natty strength, he hopped on at like 21). I believe I have a bit above average genetics, his are close to elite (He was deadlifting like 700 lbs natty at 20, at about 6’ and 190 lbs).
Woah, did he come from a family of strongmen or something
His family has really good genetics for strength. His little brother has started coming to the gym. He is also around 6’, but 165 lbs, and looks like a stick figure. He just turned 16, has been in the gym casually for about a year. He just did a 550 lb deadlift, and I think 315 for 8 reps on squat. I think he has benched 265 or 275 for one rep.
They have very good if not elite genetics for strength. It is rare to see stuff like that, and difficult not to be disheartened a little bit. It’s better just to focus on improving. I consider myself to have above average genetics, but the difference between above average and elite is huge.
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Bruh cries in South Indian genetics.
That is quite mind boggling, if he isn’t following a proper routine but still getting these results meanwhile I’m happy if I can get 155 up for 5 without having to cheat
Insane.
Thanks for the response! I’m in my early 40s. To clarify, on TRT for about 18 months now so it would be more the blast and cruise approach for me if I wanted to go down that route. I think for the most part (and especially over a short-term time horizon) regular blasts would mainly be just accelerating what I could do on TRT, and then at some point it would actually take me beyond that (though of course not getting me to pro or elite level). Simply put, overall goal would be to maximize progress in the safest manner possible. I think I’m very similar to you in that if I hadn’t started TRT, I wouldn’t think about dabbling in juicing either.
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I think there are some pretty good Indian BBers. Nasser El Somboty (spelled wrong most likely) was fantastic.
Don’t get to down about it. I know I won’t be the the best lifter ever, or have a physique that is worthy of being on a high level BBing stage. I do it, cause I enjoy it. I can still be pretty good, and amazing compared to almost everyone else. Yeah, I am not going to deadlift 800 lbs or bench 600. I might deadlift 650-700, and bench 450 though. You might not get there with the same effort. Maybe you get to a deadlift of 500 and a bench of 315. Almost everyone who gets those lifts is muscular. If they cut down on fat, almost everyone will be jacked.
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I would be ecstatic if this happened (bench) but yeah I know I won’t make it to pro BB or powerlifting
For the record Sonbaty was middle eastern, I think those guys (middle eastern) also have crazy good genetics in general (Sonbaty, Big Ramy, Fouad Abiad and a bunch of others).
It is starting to pick up in India now (tons of steroid abuse in every gym basically )
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I agree with that approach. I don’t see a point in blasting once I can’t hold the gains on TRT. Then I am just sacrificing health for temporary gains. Maybe for a powerlifting meet, or to reach some goal I have, but it just doesn’t seem worth it to go up and down in weight just to return to cruise weight.
If you do a blast, be moderate, but understand that you likely do need a decent amount above your TRT to really have noticeable difference in progress. I think 3X your TRT dose is a pretty good spot. So if you’re taking 150 mg/wk, then about 450 or round up to 500 mg/wk is pretty good. I didn’t notice much at all going from 150 to 325 mg/wk on my first blast.
I wouldn’t mess with much other than Testosterone in my 40s (I don’t now at 34). Maybe mild orals. I’ve used Var and Tbol, but much prefer Tbol. Don’t even think about 19-nors IMO.
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I don’t think one can really summarize a large population of people’s genetics based on a few monsters produced by that same gene pool.
Survivorship Bias
“During World War II, the statistician [Abraham Wald] took survivorship bias into his calculations when considering how to minimize bomber losses to enemy fire. The Statistical Research Group (SRG) at [Columbia University], which Wald was a part of, examined the damage done to aircraft that had returned from missions and recommended adding armor to the areas that showed the least damage. This contradicted the US military’s conclusion that the most-hit areas of the plane needed additional armor. Wald noted that the military only considered the aircraft that had survived their missions – ignoring any bombers that had been shot down or otherwise lost, and thus also been rendered unavailable for assessment. The bullet holes in the returning aircraft represented areas where a bomber could take damage and still fly well enough to return safely to base.”
I only know a few middle-eastern people, and they are all ~6ft tall and lanky/skinny fat. I dont know if one can fairly group Big Ramy with the average middle-easterner, no different than one grouping Ronnie Coleman with the average American.
Unless they are Samoan. They’re all build like brick shit-houses (no flame).