I’m 37 and my ability to burn fat and build muscle…not to mention my libido…have diminished. I have been training for 3 years (running and weights) and have come to know what style of training and eating works and doesnt work for me. Actually I find alot desnt work. I overtrain easily and decided that I needed steroid help. After some reserch I chose deca because it seems to have the least side effects and will apparently help prevent overtraining not to mention sooth my injured connective tissue. I have found it to be a universal axiom that everything with a front has a back. So if the front of all this is taking a cycle of deca and experiencing good results i.e. a restoration of energy, ability to train longer and harder with greater zeal leading to better gains and reduced body fat and a better libido- whats the down side? Will the gains stay with me? I’m 6 feet at 200 lbs. and will doing an 8 week cycle at maybe 400 mg a week. Should I start with less? Maybe 200 mg?
do more research. Deca is not the best for libido. In fact, many people find that deca kills their libido. If you want all the benefits you are describing, look into testosterone. I say go see a doc first and see where your test levels are at. You may qualify for hormone replacement therapy.
Ummm, if you’ve done your research you would have decided that a straight deca cycle is not the best plan. It will definetly not help with your libido and will likely only make things worse in that department. Deca is highly supressive to your own natural test production. You will need to supplement therefore with a depot testosterone running at least as much or more of this than you are deca, or administer HCG throughout your cycle. While deca is a very safe and nontoxic steroid with definite benefits for your joints, it is not a fantastic steroid on its own. If you are looking for a steroid which works similar to deca, minus the side effects i mentioned, consider primobolan depot, or equipoise. Neither are as strong as deca, so you will need a bit more of them, but they are far less difficult to recover from.
Don’t do just straight deca. Either stack with testosterone or consider a different drug.
The biggest downside to deca that you will find from members of this board is that it takes a very long time to recover from. Post cycle therapy or not, deca is very suppressive of your HPTA production. On an eight week cycle, you could push your already low T levels even lower in the long run. Most people suggest cycling test with deca in order to keep your T levels more stable and also retain libido.
That being said, maybe you should consider using testosterone if you are going to consider any steroid. But have you had your test levels checked by a physician? Maybe you might need HRT or something of that nature. I have read that your body’s HGH production decreases almost 2-5 % every decade after your twenties, and your overall phsyiological performance decreases by 1% every year that you age over 30 or so. Maybe you are suffering from stress related low Test levels. Also, you have only been training for three years. I am only 23, but I have been training for almost eight years. It is probably taking longer because you don’t really have a solid foundation to start with. Good luck, hopefully some of the vets on the board can give you a little more info than I can…
Deca is effectively very HPTA suppressive therefor i would recommend you take some kind of potent Trebulus product with some creatine post cycle. And DO NOT take under 400 mg a week, doing so will only suppress HPTA without the anabolic effects. Optimum dosage is 600mg.
I recommend the book: Chemical Muscle Enhancement as it is a great source for beginning, intermediate, and even some advanced (so-called) AAS users. Hope this helps, plus his book has been more helpful to me than anything else I’ve come across, and my first cycle was 300mg of Deca alone for 4 weeks then discontinued with nolvadex, clenbuterol(one week on/one off) and bromocriptine with no problems of HPTA recovery, actually had little shutdown with that low dosage, and have just kept on growing ever since then. I gained around 6-7lbs from that short cycle, but have to say that I became leaner and gained more after I discontinued it. I am now up around 9-10lbs and seem to still be growing, so I believe it added quite nicely to my own test levels for the time I was on without shutting me down, as most longer cycles of just Deca would have done, and allowed a nice little anabolic environment to be set up for me to grow from. I do not agree with what the majority of what other members will tell you about cycle length and total dosages that you will need. If you read the book, for sure you’ll see why and what I’m talking about. It’s not expensive for the book but will be definitely be worth the time and money to acquire it. Also check out Bill Roberts articles on short cycles and the 2 on 4 off protocols that he likes to employ. All are great suggestions that you’ll hopefully benefit from while keeping more of your gains and making progress from cycle to cycle without affecting your health and wallet from dosages of drugs that may not be required to get the job done. Remember all you need to do is get above what the body is used to having for a few short weeks and you will grow while not shutting yourself down too much, which will just add to the amount of muscle you’ll acquire in a shorter, and hopefully safer, amount of time. Let me know if you found those articles helpful and also if you get the book.