I am 34, 5’11 175, 13-14% BF. I have been lifting for 15 years and feel as if this is it as far as my natural gains go. I have been on TRT (doc prescribed) for 4 years injecting 2x a week 120mg. I have been able to accumulate extra T and want to do my first cycle. Was planning on running 160mg 2x a week (320mg total) for the first month an see how things are going and bump up if needed for the next 8 weeks. I tend to convert to estrogen easily so I currently take .25mg of Arimidex 2 a week.
My questions are:
Should i bulk while on this cycle and if so how long after my cycle should I cut? Keeping in mind i will be back on my normal TRT dose. My main goal is to put on as much muscle as i can while on this cycle then cut, then hopefully just maintain my new physic while on TRT from here on out.
How much will i need to increase my Arimidex dose on this increased T dose?
What expectations should i have with this type of cycle? Anything im missing or could plan out better?
I don’t think you will get much from going from 240 mg to 320 mg/wk. It just isn’t a big enough change to really notice much IMO. If you were to go from 240, to 750 mg, I think that would actually produce some results. If you were to do 320 mg/wk for a 6-8 months, I think you’d see some gains.
What does your training and diet look like? What are your rep or single maxes on lifts like squat, bench, OHP, deadlift, row…?
Your goal says you should bulk.
You should hold that weight for a few months after gaining it, then cut if you want to hold more of the gains.
Increase if you get negative side effects, and only by a tiny amount. There isn’t really a way to know the answer than to this without experience.
I went from 150 mg to 325 mg/wk for 13 weeks for my first blast. I probably gained 1-3 lbs of muscle, and added like 30-40 lbs to my squat, bench, and deadlift total. I wouldn’t expect miracles especially since you are already taking 240 mg/wk. If you were natty, you would gain more.
One of the reasons I gave up on this game is I could go from 140mg/wk (my TRT dose) to 600mg a week and barely notice. I know that sounds crazy, but it seems like once your body is used to pinning Test the receptors don’t react as much anymore. I would agree since you are on TRT already that you need to make a decent jump. Now did you mean your TRT is 120mg/wk in total but you pin 60mg twice? That seems more reasonable as a 240mg TRT dose is YUGE.
Sorry all, I am taking a total of 120 a week. This is split into 2 doses of 60mg. I have read that you should not jump right into say 500mg to see if you benefit from less and avoid side effects if possible. So the jump would be from 120 to 320 to start.
No expectations. When running only test, there wont be much difference even if your doses would have been much higher.
I have seen people go as high as 1000mgs a week and still dont really feel like its doing much.
For someone who has been going hard for years, test dose of 500-750mgs would be the lowest start and for them, most they would get is - feel a bit fuller, rounder, maybe a tad stronger. Nothing really noticable.
There are more people on steroids than people who look like they are. The reason is this “300mgs a week of this and that” BS that has been cultivated online.
And steroids are not magic - most people dont get what they hoped for even when running 2-5 grams total.
What in the fuck is this???
Your arms are like the size of your damn waist. It legit looks like you photoshopped the picture, but I don’t see any photoshop lines.
Kinda hard to believe that this is 5’11" 175 though. Them legs must be lagging. Not throwing shade here. I just think if the legs matched, at that height, he would weigh 200ish lbs.
I absolutely do have chicken legs but I have literally no reason to lie about my height on a forum asking for cycle help or photoshop…seems like adding extra test is useless?
I wouldn’t say useless. It won’t bulk you or give you roundness like Deca, but those Deca gains don’t seem to stay well for most people.
What I like about Test is that the side effects are easy to manage. I can run it high and get very few side effects. I use Finasteride to basically eliminate hair loss, acne, and body hair. I use an AI to keep E2 sides down. I need very little AI for this (0.25 mg EOD of Adex was plenty for 875 mg/wk Test). I believe a lot of people hate AI because they have used it improperly. One should figure out how much they need based on how they feel and blood work. Some may not need any.
That being said, I notice a huge impact from adding in something that improves gym performance. I really like Tbol for this. 40 mg/day enhanced strength, and especially shined in being able to continue to keep adding reps to my sets over the weeks I took it. It had a visual effect as well.
It felt like adding the 40 mg/day of Tbol was like doubling the Test dose as far as gym performance.
So I wouldn’t say I am a Test only advocate, but for me, high Test, with something to enhance gym performance I really like. I like Tbol for that because it is fairly mild for an oral. The downside is it is an oral. Not great to take for long periods.
Your best gains during this cycle will occur if you prioritize legs then. Squat and deadlift a bunch, and I bet you get good gainz. You could get those likely without a blast since they are lagging, but they will come even faster if you train legs a lot.
If I was to run test only and did make gains. How much of those are maintained? Like do people have to keep running cycle after cycle to keep those gains or once you come off and continue to train you sustain them.
Depending on your cruise dose / TRT dose, you will have a certain genetic potential. Once you pass that, it’s really hard to maintain those gains from blasting. The big guys that look like they are juiced usually cruise on a lot, and when they blast thru use grams. I know a few of them.
IMO, your blast and cruise doses should be related. It doesn’t make sense to blast high amounts or compounds like tren unless you are willing to cruise with a high dose.
It does take significantly more than cruising to make quick gains though. I’d say 3x the cruise is a good spot to start.
Once you get where you can’t hold the blast muscle, to me it doesn’t make sense to keep blasting. It’s basically renting muscle. It makes sense to stop, or make the decision to up the cruise.
I have no idea why you insist of doing something so inferior. Either do it right or dont do it.
If you are not willing to put in the effort and do things the way it will produce results, why even bother half assing everything?
In the long term - none. If this is how you look on a certain dose, this is how you will look on this dose. The bigger you get after the blast, the longer it will take to degrade back to this, but it will happen. Look at Dorian Yates, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Kevin Levrone, Flex Wheeler - all have elite genetics, all had elite mass. All look like they never did anything nowdays.
