Questions about Tribex-500.

Hi,

I’m planning on taking an eight week cycle of Tribex-500 and M, and I have a few questions before I start the cycle.

My first question is, how long should I take the Tribex, before I need to start taking the M? I know that when you are taking the Tribex for more then one month at a time, you are supposed to take it five days on, and two days off. Is the M also supposed to be takin five days on and two days off? Do I need to continue taking the M after I have stopped taking the Tribex? If so, how long after?

I have also noticed that some bottles of Tribex say to take three pills twice a day, and other bottles say to take four pills twice a day. Which would you guy’s recomend following?

Thanks! :slight_smile:

ttt

Why are you doing this cycle, and what do you hope to gain from it?

Not a slam, but it doesn’t sound like you’ve done much reading on the two supps.

Hey, there, American Muscle. I see you’re relatively new. Welcome the board!!!

Good questions. If I don’t answer them to your satisfaction, give Biotest Customer Service a call at 800-525-1940. They really know their products.

Tribex increases exogenous (made by the body) testosterone levels. M prevents T from converting to E (estrogen). M is an excellent supp, and a bit underappreciated and underutilized in my mind. I would recommend that you take M continuously even if you’re not taking Tribex on the weekends, as you still want to prevent the conversion of T to E even on the weekends. M can be taken by itself, but I would probably discontinue it when you finally discontinue taking Tribex.

I would also recommend that you make sure you’re taking in some olive oil on a regular basis. Olive oil is a monounsaturated fat. T is made from a combination of saturated (animal fat that is solid at room temp) and monounsaturated fat. Most people are getting some saturated fat. If you’re not getting your monos, be sure to add some in.

Re the dosing, I don’t know. It’s possible that the formula has been changed. I would just follow the dosing recommendations on the bottle.

[quote]
Tribex increases exogenous (made by the body) testosterone levels. [/quote]

Don’t you mean endogenous?

Sorry guy’s I should have included a little more information about myself and mentioned what my goals are. Basically, I’m 21 years old, and I have been very serious about bodybuilding since I was seventeen years old.

Right now, I’m in the middle of bulking. I started out in September weighing 178 lbs at 11% bodyfat. I’ve made great progress in the last three months, I’m up to 205 lbs at 15% bodyfat. The only supplements that I have takin are whey protein, and creatine. Along with flax and fish oils aswell.

My goals while on Tribex are to get up to 210 pounds while staying around 14-15% BF within the first four weeks and to stay around 208-210 pounds while dropping down to 12% BF during the last four weeks.

I’m only going to go into my nutrition briefly, because I don’t want to bore you guy’s to much. :slight_smile: I basically plan on eating around 3500 calories a day, 225 grams of protein, 500 grams of carbs, and 70 grams of fat while bulking the first four weeks. The following four weeks, I will cut calories to 3,000 a day, protein intake will stay at 225 grams, my carbs will be at 300 grams, and fat will stay around 70 grams per day.

I will also give you a general idea about what my workouts will be like aswell.

Monday, will be chest and triceps(Four exercises and three sets will be done for both chest and triceps.

Tuesday- Upper abs, and calves. Three exercises will be done for my upper abs along with three sets. For calves I will do three exercises, and six sets for each exercise.

Wedsday- Is back and biceps, same deal four exerises for each along with three sets.

Thursday- Upper ads, obliques, and forearms will be done. three by three will be done for each bodypart.

Friday- Shoulders, Deltoids, and traps. Same deal four and three.

Saturday- Quads, hamstrings, and calves. four by three will be done for these body parts aswell.

I will switch up which exercises I do on a two week basis, so that I avoid hitting plateau’s.

Despite popular opinion, I have researched Tribex-500 quite a bit. :slight_smile: I have used this sites search button, and read just about every post I could find about Tribex. Most of the post that I read talked about expected results, how it should be taking with MAG-10, weather to take the stuff on an empty stomach or not, etc. I’am new to posting here, but I have been lurking here for almost a year.

I would also like to thank Tampa-Terry for the very detailed response to my post. :slight_smile: I really appreciate you taking the time to help me out.

By the way, my stats are…

Height- 6’1"
Weight- 205 lbs
Chest- 46"
Arms- 16.75"
Waist- 33.5"
Quads- 25.5"
Calves 15.5"

21 years old? You don’t need either product in my opinion.

American Muscle, thanks for the kind words. And it is “endogenous,” not “exogenous.” Sometimes I reply late at night when my brain is fried.

Actually, I agree with ZEB (and Char-Dawg) on this one. At 21 your T levels should be high. The only reason to supplement would be if you tested on the low side of normal. It’s an awesome supplement, very good at what it does, but it’s most (or more) effectively used by men whose T levels are starting to drop a bit with age.

Your choice of supps is excellent and your progress in such a short period of time is impressive. You’ve obviously got your diet dialed in and are working hard and smart. I’d really like to see you save your money for something like Hot Rox when you start cutting.

Believe me, I wouldn’t try to hold you back from using something that would help you achieve your goals. I’m a huge fan of Biotest. But I would very much like to see you get the biggest bang for your financial buck.

Whatever you decide to do, keep up the good work!!! (grin)

TT- I agree.

Also, being a 20 year old male myself, I have done some reading. It appears as though tribex has a much lesser effect on us boys with raging T-levels. I think I read that the natural supplements (such as tribulus) can only raise T levels to around a little over 100%. Now, for those old duffers running around on like 15% T, Tribex is awesome. After all, a lot of them haven’t been aggressive or gotten a hard on in years. (just kidding) Anyway, I also read that for our age group, nor-andros are the way to go… Such as mag-10. But unless you have maximized your body’s potential, I would shy away from it.

Take the money you were going to waste on those two supplements and spend it on a large conatiner of Grow Protein powder!

Hey Terry there is that grin again-Dang your cute!

Once again, thank you very much for the response Tampa-Terry. :slight_smile:

I have already bought three bottles of Tribex-500, and two bottles of M, so I do have a few questions about what I should do with them. I wouldn’t feel right taking the bottles back, because I pretty much got them at cost from the manager at Vitamin World where my buddy use to work. The bottles don’t expire until August of 2005. Therefore one of my questions is at what age would you guy’s recomend taking the Tribex? By the way I will be 23 years old before those bottles expire.

I have read mixed opinions on when natural T-levels start lowering. Some say it starts at 22 years old for most men, and others say it doesn’t start until 28-30. What are your guy’s thoughts on that.

I defenitly agree with you Tampa-Terry about Tribex not being the best bang for the buck product for me at my age. Just out of curiousity though, would the Tribex not raise my T-levels at all at my age? Or would it just not raise them enough to see much of a gain in lean muscle mass?

I also have kind of a random question, that my cousin/workout partner wanted me to ask. He is 29 years old, and he started losing his hair over a year ago. He was wondering if the Tribex would cause an accelleration in hair loss, or raise DHT levels?

Thanks :slight_smile:

ttt, anyone have any suggestions.

If you don’t want those products, someone might buy them from you.

Tribex will raise T levels, and that may increase the DHT levels that contribute to hair loss.

DHT is responsible for hair loss, yes. And DHT is a metabolite of T. In other words when T is acted on by the enzyme 5 Alpha-Reductase (5AR), it is converted to DHT. So I understand your friend’s fears.

However, rather than trying to keep T levels low, he would do better to manage 5AR or the binding of DHT to hair follicle receptors. There are prescription drugs that can inhibit the binding of DHT to the receptors in the hair follicle or inhibit the production of 5AR (Finasteride being one). There are even natural/nutritional approaches that are fairly effective at inhibiting 5AR. Saw palmetto, gamma linoleic (GLA), which is an essential fatty acid, and the EGCGs found in green tea are all good inhibitors of 5 Alpha-Reductase.

It’s also worth checking progesterone levels to make sure they’re not too low. Progesterone is a potent inhibitor of 5AR, which is, once again, the enzyme that converts T to DHT. As men grow older, progesterone levels start to drop. As progesterone levels drop, 5AR levels start to rise and hair lines recede as a result.

Your friend should definitely do some research on the topic and talk with his doctor. And he should do so now, before it is too late. Once the hair follicle dies, hair cannot be regrown.

I don’t know the answers to your other questions. I have no idea when your T levels might start to drop. No matter what is generally true, we’re all biochemically unique and individual. You’re right that T levels tend to drop as you get older. Prolonged stress can also cause T levels to drop, as can other factors. I’d either sell the bottles that you have or save it for the recovery cycle if you decide to do Mag 10 in a few years.

Upper abs and calfs?

I disagree with all you guys/ gals. When I was 21 I tried Tribulus for the first time and got great gains off it. When you are working out natural I have to say these supplements like tribex, methoxy 7, Creatine, etc, can help you get to that next level of muscluar development. Gain all the muscle you possibly can now while you are young. Then later you can devote more time to sculpting it and then maybe you might decided to continue to build via the chemical route. There will come a time though, and I must warn you when no supplement in the world will help you gain another pound of muscle. And this will be because your body has its genetic limits. When that time comes, it will be your decision as to weather you are satisfied with what you have achieved or if you want to cross over to the dark side. If so I’ll see ya on the steroid forum. Untill then I advise if you can afford to, take the supplements, they do help speed things up. P-22

hey tampa-terry, thanks a lot your answers to the hair loss question. I was going to start a thread on that and now I don’t have to .
And american muscle, I am 21 also and a while ago before I started doing much research I bought tribex and M before finding out anything from the vets. So I can tell you first hand that the tribex does very little for me at all unless taken in larger dosses than recommended. On the other hand M works very well for me. I lost some fat and water wieght while on it in the first week and even had a little extra in the gym. But from your current results of what you have been doing I would have to tell you to go with their advise and keep with what you are doing and maybe add in some caffinee or ephedra products to your cutting phase.Keep up the good work
And for my own how much creatine do you take daily? I was thinking about trying it out.

To answer your question Darkangel, I took one heaping table spoon of Trac Creatine a day. Which is 4 grams of creatine, 4 grams of L-Arginine, 600mg of L-Lysine, 200mg of L-Phenylalanine, 2.5mg of NADH(nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide) Trac creatine has a time realesed delivery system, which has worked really well for me. I only took Trac for a little over a month, and I gained 10 pounds of lean mass, with little to no water retention. Trac creatine is by far the best creatine that I have used.

Prisoner#22, thanks for throwing your hat into the ring on this one. Good to see you on the T&N forum!

DarkAngel, you’re most welcome. Keep on researching the topic. I only scratched the surface.

To respond to various points made above:

AmericanMuscle, the reason that it sounded to me like you hadn’t done your homework was because of the way that you phrased your questions. I still have to say that it’s hard for me to believe that you really did a search and read all of the responses carefully. Nothing was in there about how Tribex works best for older guys…? [Skeptical look]

Nevertheless, here’s some information for you. First, you don’t have to “cycle” Tribex the same way you would a steroid or PH. In other words, you don’t go on for a month and then off for two months or anything like that. You take Tribex one of two ways, either on for three weeks, off for one (which is what was originally recommended), or on during the week (5 days), off during the weekend (2 days), which is what virtually everyone does now.

As long as you go five-on-two-off, there are no suppression issues at all. Many of us (myself included) have been using Tribex more or less non-stop in this manner for three or four years now, and there are no problems.

So the idea that you would have to take M to “recover” from a Tribex cycle is just wrong. M helps to prevent the convertion of T to E. If you want to do that, you take it. But it doesn’t have anything directly to do with Tribex. you can take either supp, or both together; one’s not going to have an effect on the other.

While it is an admittedly individual thing, and everyone’s response is different, the odds are pretty heavily against you, at your age, getting anything from Tribex. Usually you see guys who are 35+ (35 generally being about the age where you start to see a significant decline in hormone levels) really seeing good benefits from it. 21, 23…it’s probably not going to make any noticeable difference.

So my advice is to sell the stuff you’ve got and use the money to buy more Surge or something. That’s likely to do you far more good. Save Tribex for when you get older and really need it.

And to the guy who said that MAG-10 is a nor-andro? I, um, don’t think so. And even if it were, the nor-andros that Biotest has put out in the past have worked better with older guys anyway, rather than younger ones.