Place to share first cycle stories. Its never quite as good as that first cycle!
My first was 200 mg Deca (1x per week) and 20 mg Var daily for 8 weeks. Incredible. 20 years old. Bodyweight went from 215 to 245. Bench went from 275 to 340. I remember adding plates EVERY workout and thinking towards the end that people were playing tricks on me by loading hollow plates on the bar! No sides other than I did get a single nosebleed about 6 weeks in AND I had the opinion throughout that every other male on the planet was a deuchebag hahaha
My first cycle was about 20 years ago. You had to western union your cash to China and hope your gear would arrive past customs. I swear the gear back then was way higher quality than it is now even though it was still UGL. My cycle consisted of 500mg Test E and 30mg/day of Dbol for the first 6 weeks. I gained 15-20lbs and my lifts just exploded every workout. I felt like a god on the dbol. Youāre right, I never got that same feeling ever again. The first time was magical.
My first wasnāt my favorite TBH. I wasnāt lean enough, and because of that was too afraid of gaining significant weight.
I think I was also too far into my training to get a lot out of the dose I took, and had already made gains with almost a year of TRT (my cycle was about double my TRT dose of 150 mg/wk). I think had I done the same cycle 10 years earlier, I would have made better gains though.
I understand your question here haha. It is a consistent thing Iāve noticed at my gym that the guys that make claims of 20+ lbs gained with a beginner cycle have gained a lot more fat and water than they think.
I may have high standards for physique, but the only guys at my gym that really have the big and jacked physiques are blast and cruise guys, or just do perma blast.
Iāve yet to see someone that had a developed good natty physique make significant (over 10 lbs) quality gains (80% muscle) with a beginner test only cycle. I havenāt seen anyone with really good lifting numbers improve them significantly with one cycle either. A buddy did take his deadlift from low 700s to 800, but it took a solid year of use, and more than test to do it.
It seems to me gear is a lot more efficient with less developed people (makes sense). The issue is they usually canāt keep the gains because they lack in training and nutrition.
I didnāt gain a lot of fat but certainly a lot was from water retention.
This was my experience. I trained āOkā. Certainly not with the same knowledge and program efficacy that I have now. Yet, I was a PCT guy back then. We ususally ran clomid for a month and didnāt wait the proper timeframe to start. I really struggled with each PCT and lost most of what I gained. I ran 2-3 cycles about 20 years ago and then stopped until I started TRT. TRT got me itching for more again from which I ran probably 8-10 cycles before giving up and deciding to stay legit scripted only.
What would you estimate you gained from the 8-10 cycles on top of TRT vs just staying on TRT?
Even on TRT, I have trouble holding onto gains (some of that could be injuries that have limited training after the cycle). Some of it could be my very infrequent blasts (less than one a year). Some of it is likely not having my cruise and blasts match. By that I mean my cruise would be considered responsible TRT by most, but my last blast was 875 mg/wk Test with the last 6 weeks having 40 mg/day of Tbol. Total 16 weeks. I think Iāll just try 400 mg/wk next blast and see if I can hold onto it after.
With TRT I went from a softer 175 lbs to about 185 lbs with a much better body composition. I didnāt take measurements but if I were guessing I would say I lost 5% BF during that weight gain period. All my lifts went up about 15-20% too. I started lifting 4-5 days week in 1998 so I was already an avid lifter when I started TRT about 8 years ago. Also, remember Iām only 5ā7" so even a low T 175 lbs I was pretty strong from years of lifting.
After running the various light-moderate cycles as I call them, I was able to get up to 205-215lbs depending on the cycle. Once back to TRT it was a 2 step forward one step back process where I usually fell back to 195-200lbs. So I would say the cycles resulted in a permanent gain of 10-15lbs.
I am now on TRT (140mg/wk Test C) and HGH (2iu/night). Honestly, Iām happier with my physique than ever. HGH has been a game changer for me even in this low dose. My IGF-1 is was abysmal before the HGH and now that I am optimized in range its so much easier to stay relatively lean. I weigh 197-202 depending on the day and what I eat. Iām probably 13-14% BF if I were guessing. Iām content for a change.
I am guessing you would have made some gains on just TRT had you gone that route, no? Iād guess with 8 years of TRT, you would have gained half of that?
I am not saying it isnāt or wasnāt worth it. I am in the same boat, and have been thinking strongly about a blast after I get back from Key West in about 2 weeks.
Same boat again as we have discussed before. I have been between 2 and 10 points above the lower cut-off for IGF-1 on the last 3 tests (IIRC, the range went from 100-265ish).
The staying leaner is super under rated IMO. If it results in being able to be gaining for twice as long (because you donāt have to cut), that is a huge thing in the long run.
Maybe HGH is just undervalued because it needs to be run long term to really shine?
I am really tempted by the HGH mistress haha. She is an expensive bitch though.
Maybe maybe not. I only gave TRT a year though before trying a blast.
Not sure. I believe its not worth it at this point over TRT optimization. Part of the reason I have given it up is the new found love for HGH and the diminished returns from cycling.
The first two-three months were underwhelming but now its awesome.
IDK if that is actually something I want more of haha. I already get people who want to poke at them. Might be kinda fun for a freak factor thing.
Staying leaner would be badass though. Especially if it helped my stomach area. I just have to get so lean to have good abs. I think my limbs have to be at like 5% BF to have a good six pack. My abs arenāt as lean as Iād like, but I have lots of veins popping even in my upper legs, lats, traps and delts. Forearms and calves are more vascular than those other mentioned areas.
Thats were I noticed it most. Iāve never been real vascular even now. My stomach is holding less fat while my arms, chest, and shoulders are still pretty big. I actually carry more fat in my chest than stomach. I took the photos down but you could see that especially in my outer chest.
I think there is something with HGH, IGF-1, and Insulin (IDK which one or combo of them) that influences how body fat is stored. Maybe @readalot has some info?
At least for me, my waist (where my pants sits) going up an inch means that my waist at the navel went up at least 2". At my fattest (~25-30%), I was wearing 33s, now I wear a 30 or 31 (depending on brand). I think I am sub 15% now.
I donāt think pants going from loose to kinda tight is much of an indication that only minimal body fat was gained.
500mg of Sustanon weekly with 50mg Anadrol daily the first 30 days. Felt like shit the first 3-4 days but after that felt amazing. 187lbs ā 232lbs in 10 weeks. No AI or PCT. Went back to 210-217lbs after cycle and stayed there for a while
Lol, I think Iāve told the story on here, but I had been lifting for 6 years with zero, literally zero results. My lifting buddy thought there was something wrong with me, so I hired a trainer and like 6 or 8 weeks after working with me he said āI know what you needā and he came back inside with that. I didnāt ask questions lol.
Itās more dramatic than it sounds I think. And it certainly wasnāt all muscle. I was a small-framed guy and if this forum had been around (or if I had known about it) everyone here would have said to not start AAS until I had made it farther naturally. But I had been down that road and was pretty frustrated.
I suspected I had low T in my early 20ās but a doctor just said I was fine and didnāt have a tumor, so I let it go. I should have dug into that more.
Anyway, no cycle has ever been as good as that one, but I also never went balls-out bulk cycle again either.
18 years ago. 1 amp sustanon Monday, and 1 amp Thursday for 8 weeks (i think, couldve been 10). Probably put on 15-16 lbs with minimal fat gain, but definitely some water/glycogen weight. Kept about 8-9 lbs after pct with clomid. Far from the best i ever ran.