Health and function over anything else brother.
Unless you are competing, then there is no need for all the bullshit.
There is NOTHING to gain from a 500lb squat other than a bragging right. If a bragging right means THAT much to you, then I can’t help you at all and you need to fucking GROW UP!!
I appreciate the recommendations fellas, but with my schedule, unfortunately @bkb333 @bmbrady77, the morning is the only time I can really work out. Usually don’t get home from work until 6:30ish, then it’s dinner, a little time with the kids, getting the kids to bed and about 1.5 hours of unwinding in the couch with my wife.
Interestingly enough, I thought my blood work in June of this year was an anomaly because I was inconsistent with my measurements. Since then, I’ve been very precise with taking 42mg EOD, even squirting some testosterone out if I over drew my dose. Just got partial numbers back and I’m kinda shocked. These were taken at 4:15pm, 6 hours before my shot last Wednesday - June is first, most recent is second. Top test number is FT, bottom is total. Shocking.
EDIT - when I started TRT, my total T averaged 260ish. No wonder why I feel this much better…haha
Totally get it on the timing. The morning crowd is typically the most dedicated! Makes sense to get it in before the day starts going (especially if you have kids). Do you lift fasted, just with the coffee in your system?
Shocked in a positive way, right? I’m no expert, but those numbers look great to me, brother! Awesome to see
Shocked in that I wasn’t expecting numbers that high when I thought I was lowering my dose by being more consistent with my measurements.
I drink black coffee first. Then mix raw powder of 4 grams beta alanine, 5 grams alcar and 5 grams citrulline malate as my pre-workout. I’ve moved back to 16:8 IF for the time being, so my first meal isn’t really until 12.
Still waiting on the E2, but these are the others I ran -
Never experimented with mixing my own pre — how does that work for you? I’ve been using a premixed one from Jacked Factory that I like, but getting too accustomed to it. And probably not the healthiest.
Keep an eye on that HCT, as I’m sure you know. Not too troubling at this point but kind of surprising it increased that much. I expect E2 will be relatively similar to your previous value given the SHBG and T numbers.
Good catch on the HTC. What’s interesting is I had a doctor’s appointment not long after those June numbers. TT came back at 1080 and HTC was 47 even in June through my doctor’s blood test.
He didn’t mind seeing TT 1080 or HTC if 47. He said as long as I was feeling good, we’d keep an eye on it. I feel like I have a good idea now what about 150mgs a week give me with those two tests 5 months apart.
The other variable here is Thyroid. Before I started taking Armour Thyroid, 130mg a week only had my TT at 600 and E2 at 25. Seems improving my thyroid has increased my ability to respond to the testosterone better…
I know there are some thoughts this isn’t good practice, but I just pre-filled 10 syringes with 22mg, so I have 10 days worth of syringes ready to go.
Thanks for letting me post in your thread, much appreciated.
Final results are in -
You are always welcome around here, brother. Really encouraging to hear about the thyroid! I’m hoping (based on labs, of course) to hop on that soon, too. Have you noticed feeling any different since you added that?
I don’t see any issue with prefilling syringes — certainly saves time! I counted this morning and it took me 20 seconds to get the needle in SQ. The drawing is the bigger time suck, for sure.
Nice. Still think everything looks solid. And not even concerned about HCT at this point. Any big takeaways for you?
Yeah, don’t be that guy. I have a buddy from school that went from like 150lb string bean to 300+lb body builder. He had trouble finding a car he could fit in at one point and even now has a hard time getting under 300lbs, it’s insane level to me. I just don’t see the appeal of being that size. I understand the being in shape, cut, etc. but not being the size of a literal gorilla.
Don’t get caught up in the always getting bigger, etc. thing
300 pounds! That’s absolutely asinine. IMO it’s probably nearly as unhealthy being 300 lbs of muscle as it is being an obese 300. And it’s still inconvenient as hell, like you noted — who wants to sit next to that guy on an airplane? And who (not a pro or aspiring pro) wants to spend that much time/energy on food and the gym?
Very interesting about the thyroid for sure. I always thought that with a normally working thyroid, I’d be clearing the testosterone and it’s downstream metabolites out faster than with a dysfunctional thyroid. A paper @johann77 posted had an interesting section that seems to dis-prove that assumption. The excerpt I read was -
"Thyroid gland disorders are associated with alterations in sex steroid metabolism. Early
studies observed that hypothyroidism was associated with an increased metabolic clearance rate of T and E2 "
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/01485010390204968
So - my untrained mind reads that and thinks - for the year and 3 months I was on TRT before taking thyroid meds - even at 130mg a week - my body was just clearing the testosterone out faster so that’s why my TT levels were 600 and E2 25…Yes, I did increase my dose from 130mg to 140mg to finally 147mg a week (42mg EOD)…but without the introduction of thyroid meds, I doubt my levels would have jumped from a TT of 600 to a TT of 1312 just on an additional 17mg a week.
2 thoughts I have now -
I’m still lacking a bit in the libido department - It comes and goes, which I think is normal…but I think it should be better than it is now. I wonder if my TT/E2 ratio is out of whack - If E2 is responsible for a good libido as @enackers has mentioned, I wonder if I need more E2 or less TT or a combo of both? I’ve ready IM produces higher spikes in E2, so I wonder if I need to go IM?
I’m wondering now with the introduction of thyroid meds and what looks like an increased sensitivity to testosterone if my dose actually needs to be at this level?
I’m going to stay the course on the 22mg ED for the next 8-10 weeks. I want to see if that provides full symptom relief…if it doesn’t, I think I’ll have a decision to make.
Did you pull thyroid numbers too in your most recent blood draw? I’m interested to see where those come back at. I read a lot of posts for a while about Thyroid testing, etc…and thought I was fine and I just needed testosterone…well, apparently I wasn’t fine.
Yes, I have noticed a difference. I am warmer than I’ve ever been. I never realized how cold I was until I started taking Armour. I also have more energy too, but nothing earth shattering. I still think I need a higher dose to see the full benefits of an optimized thyroid.
Sorry for the long post…haha
Wow, I’d never heard that about body temperature — fascinating. If I go on thyroid, I’ll definitely keep track of any changes there. The one significant body temp difference I’ve noticed is when I’m lean vs. heavier. Right now I don’t really get cold, but when I’m 3-4% leaner I get freezing all the time! One of those downsides of getting shredded, haha.
That study seems to support thyroid as a supplement to TRT in many cases. I wonder why it’s not a frontline consideration at most clinics. It’s never even been mentioned to me. It seems Dr. Nichols is ahead of the curve on that. I know optimizing thyroid has helped many other guys, too.
I do think libido largely depends on the T:E ratio. It seems to be largely individual, though, so very hard to make general rules. I bet @enackers has some valuable thoughts on that subject.
Good call on staying the course with your current approach 8-10 weeks! That’s some acquired TRT wisdom that I’m still working on obtaining. Patience is vital in this journey…but (as an unseasoned newbie and still-maturing young man) I like to see results. That said, if you feel like complete GARBAGE (like I did this fall), I don’t think you need to stick with that for a long time to know you might need to switch something up.
First real SQ injection issue — got a bump, swelling, sensitive spot where I injected the other night. Anyone else had this before? Planning on just avoiding that side of my stomach for the time being.
All this SQ injecting (T in AM, Ipamorelin in PM) is getting old! Might have to drop the Ipa.
I got small areas that look like that. Only do subs with small doses. It’s a deposit of the T and will shrink over time. Is it inflamed or whatever i don’t know.
Thyroid : I really am not sure about how libido and T are effected by thyroid and vice veraa.
All I can say is it seemed to be the key to my extreme libido lately. This is just observational and I could be totally wrong. It could of been the daily vitamins I added or the fact that I ran out of pregnalone and wasn’t taking it as frequent.
Simply take thyroid to resolve issues with fatigue, mood and metabolism if trt is not resolving issuss. Or if trt is hit or miss.
A well optimized body is needed in 2019 due to the chemicals and toxic exposure faced by humans. We are literally under attack by industry, food and etc
You should really go 8 weeks before a change so you know exactly how each dose works on you. How you feel at week 4 likely won’t be how you feel at week 8 (good or bad). I know you this already.
I used to get those from time to time. They go away fairly quickly.
So true… Thanks for the internet bitch slap @dextermorgan , much appreciated!
I guess I got a little spooked when I saw my numbers come back even higher than June while being very diligent to inject the same amount each time. I thought they would come back lower.
I’m sure they will be higher in 2 months, but we’ll see. Perpendicular rebar or bust!
I’m going to second that slap with a neck slap.
No just kidding.
But he’s right. Stick to the protocol As long as the dose is high enough and everything else is being resolved in labs.
I’ve generally felt decent on 42mg EOD… Feeling good about 60% of the time. My libido has been hit or miss recently. In June, it was crazy… Now, not so much.
Trying 22mg ED now to see if that gets me to feeling good every day. So far, so good. Feeling pretty good during the day and seeing those typical to me signs of a protocol change… Couple of pimples, a little difficult to pee (sounds strange, but I’ve recognizes this during protocol change, have had multiple doctor performed prostate checks in the past to check and all good). Pimples go away, peeing becomes easier as time passes… So, that’s all I can do.
Hoping that libido comes back and I get that perpendicular rebar…haha
