Shadow Pro Q&A 4.0

Pharma
603

Shadow, thanks for making your expertise available to the community. I have two questions for you regarding ancillaries:

  1. What are your thoughts on using Aromasin instead of Adex while on cycle? It seems to me that Aromasin would be preferred given that as a “suicide” inhibitor it prevents rebound as well as promotes higher natural test production post-cycle, but Arimidex still seems to be the much more popular choice for some reason.

  2. A couple of your recommendations lead one to believe that you recommend running Nolva on cycle instead of an AI like the ones mentioned above. Is this true, and if so what are the benefits of doing so?

Thanks again, your opinion is highly appreciated.

604

I had never heard of it before so figured I may as well ask. Thanks for the feedback

605

Hey shadow! Im currently wrapping up my PCT from my last cycle of just Test SUST 12 weeks. Im finishing up my clomid and HCG this week and want to start prepping for my next cycle. I want to give Tren another try now that i have the right knowledge on keeping the sides at bay. Im thinking a stack of test/tren/androl. What stack dosage do you recommend?? AI throughout??

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Thank you in advance you’ve always been so much help

606

its hard to say because its individual. Letro isn’t going to get rid of existing gyno but it will make it better. If you took 500mg of test per week with 20mg of nolva then it tells me you are very sensitive because most people would experience something like this with such a low dose combine with the nolva.

607

  1. They’re both going to work, it’s a matter of personal preference.

  2. Yes I prefer nolva. This same question has been repeated over and over here, take a read back and see what you can find.

608

You’re welcome and i’m happy to help!!

609

You’re in decent condition to give this a try. I would switch the anadrol for dbol for the first 6 weeks, it seems to have a better synergy with tren. As for dosages start moderate - something like 600-750mg of test per week and 400-600mg of tren per week. Depending on the ester you will either be doing injections every other day or twice a week. Add the dbol at 50mg/day for the first 6 weeks. I would add powerdrive and brain candy daily to keep your mood and mental energy high.
I would run nolva at 20mg/day throughout the entire cycle and have caber in hand incase you need it. Add hcg at 250iu 2x/week.

1 Like
610

Hey Pro,

It’s been a while since i posted here. Since i’ve gained 22lbs naturally with some fat gain while following your diet advice. (According to a caliper bodyfat test i went from 8 to 12% BF). Diet is still a weakness but it’s getting better everyday.

I’ve been thinking alot about going on and i did come to the conclusion that if i go on i don’t want to go through the stress of pct multiple times a year. I’m familiar with the effects of staying on for longer and i’m fine with them. But at the same time i don’t want to stay on year round.

Since you come off for 2-3 months of the year i wanted to ask you if you think it is worth it to do so?

Important note: I’m turning 20 in 2 months and not planning to take anything anytime soon. It’s purely for informative purposes at this point before i make any big decision (which i might never make at all).

611

Can you post a current picture? I wouldn’t recommend staying on so long. I want to see your current condition and muscle mass to decide whether it’s even worth considering. Either way since you are just turning 20 I don’t think that being on a long cycle is a good idea, if kids are something you might want in the future then you might be risking it.

What I do is not something I would recommend to the recreational juice user. I’m planning my off times around my competitions and its not necessarily a healthy way to do things. For most people I would recommend doing relatively short cycles and do proper pct’s after each one with supps like alphamale, hcg and alphamale. The side effects from the pct wont be so bad and it will be beneficial to your health long term.

612

As i mentioned, im not going to decide anything for now and i might never get on at all. I’m still young and unmature to make such a decision. I won’t be getting on anything for at least another 3 years (Not avoiding the question, if i do post something here you wouldnt think its worth it). I’m not interested in having kids at this point in my life.

If i were to, i’m not looking to replicate what you do since my goal isnt to compete in bodybuilding or get to a similar level of muscularity.

The reason i asked about staying on for longer is because if i hypotetically start doing 1-2 cycles a year starting at age 25, the cumulative effect of getting on and off that many times would probably cause lowered natural testosterone eventually anyway

613

i’m currently running
test c - 630mg
tren a - 420mg

i’m trying to stack in some orals (anavar and proviron) but i cant stomach them. for anavar to produce noticeable results for me i end up needing 75+mg per day and this is my 1st time trying proviron and it seems 100mg per day is needed for it as well. i’ve seen this in the past that about 10-15mg of any oral is as much as i can take without feeling nauseas. spacing them out far enough to not get sick is tough when a 100mg total is wanted.

are there any tricks to help this situtation? i may just have to lay off the orals since they tend to ruin my day and appetite.

thanks,

Tyler

614

Any kind of steroid use will have some sort of effect on your natural production. It really depends if and what kind of cycle and dosage you will use. If you decide that kids aren’t an option then cruising is not necessarily a bad idea but as a rule of thumb in most cases I would’t recommend staying on year round as you want to give your body a break to at least minimize how much it effects your natural production.

615

Are you taking any liver support right now? If so, what are you taking? If you’re taking the right supplements it should help you absorb the orals better and you’ll experience less issues. Look into udca, it seems to have positive effects for people who tend to have issues with orals.
Spacing the dosages apart can help a lot with absorption, even 10-15m per meal instead of taking the whole dose at once and obviously staying hydrated can help.

In the end of the day some people are just sensitive to orals. If you aren’t planning on going on stage then you can probably save the trouble and go with injectables instead.

616

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Hello Shadow Pro ! It is an honour to speak with you directly on this forum, I have created my account here specifically for your thread.

  I’ve been reading T-Nation and following articles for over a year but I’ve come across your threads in the past couple of months, I have literally read every question and response from you in all your Q&A threads and I must say that I have learned a LOT of new information regarding exercising, proper nutrition/supplementation and gear, I’ve actually took lots of notes from all your threads on different subjects for me to use in the future.

Huge “THANK YOU” for your time and patience to share all this knowledge here for the past few years !
As I was reading through your threads I actually thought you have stopped the topics since you first started, it was a delightful surprise to see you’re still here after all this time and I decided to address my concern and ask for your opinion (apologies for long intro):

 I am a 26 years old amateur athlete and licensed fitness & bb’ing coach from Romania (you have a fan here now too). 
 I now stand at 94kg(200lbs) with aprox 12-13% bf at a height of 176cm(5’ 9”). I am currently in a maintenance state, since I’m working abroad in Australia and don't have time for myself to keep track of my nutrition, sleep adequately or train constantly. 
I’ve done sports all my life but got into bodybuilding and weightlifting at the age of 17, it developed into a passion and never stopped since, constantly training. I’ve done my research over the years about exercise science and nutrition through the studies I did, I also embarked in the world of PED’s, taking in info from wherever I can find it since I am fascinated by this subject, read through forums and internet articles all the way to books (ex. William Llewellyn’s Anabolics).

Cycle history:
Started playing with AAS since the age of 21 (I still regret it since I’ve done some stupid cycles with minimum knowledge and didn’t exploit my natural potential beforehand, which was still growing, got some nasty acne and stretch marks because of it). I can still remember my first one, it was 325mg sustanon and 200mg deca per week for 8 weeks (at least I did hcg in PCT and had no problems with deca) I gained 12kg during that time but half of it was water.
Since that age I cycled on and off, 1 or 2 cycles per year, average duration 8-12 weeks with low to moderate dosages. I have tried most of the substances and by now I know how my body responds to each of them and what dosages I find most effective with minimal sides (experience through trial and error).

My question:
I only dreamed about stepping on a stage and compete, I always thought of myself inferior with mediocre genes to think of competing and because of that I have chosen the coaching side of bodybuilding. But the past couple of years I’ve seen great improvements and potential as I kept pushing hard, eating better and cycle smarter so I have made the decision to get into competing, this is my question to you Shadow:

Do you think I have appropriate potential to compete with decent results (I don’t plan on being a champion) or it would be a waste of time and should just stick with coaching others. What category would I best fit in ? Classic bb(mens physique without the shorts) or open bodybuilding. I don’t think we have Classic Physique yet in my country, we have classic bb.
My plan is to start competitions from the spring or summer of 2017. I will arrive home this July and can get started on my prep only then.

In case you give me the green light, how do you suggest I get started ? Is hiring an IFBB pro from my country to coach me through recommended ? I would only hire someone for the pre-contest prep so I will have to do my “off-season” by myself.

I’m guessing I should first get fixed with a proper diet and exercise when I start and begin cutting my bodyfat down to 9-10% for about 4-5 weeks, is clen and/or T3 recommended during this cut to make it faster and more effective ? Or dieting and training is enough ?
Afterwards I will get started on my gaining season by early September, my cycle planned would look like this, please critique or add changes:
Week 1-12 - Test E/Cyp – 500mg/wk (maybe bump up to 625mg in week 7?)
Week 1-12 - Equipoise – 600mg/wk (maybe bump up to 700mg in week 7?)
Week 1-12 - Tren E – 400mg/wk (maybe bump up to 500mg in week 7?)
Week 1-6 - Tbol/dbol – 30mg/ED bump up 10mg/wk up to 80mg/ED (I prefer tbol cause I tend to get water retention pretty easily with dbol, but I might give it another try if you say so)
Week 3-15 – Either arimidex @0,5mg eod or tamoxifen @ 10mg ED.
Week 13 – Test E/cyp 250mg
Week 14 – Test E/cyp 125mg
Week 15 – Test E/cyp 60mg (do you recommend doing this tapering or just stop test at week 12 and begin PCT on week 15? first time I would try tapering)

Week 3-12 – HCG - 250ui x2/wk
Week 13-15 – HCG – 500ui x2/wk

PCT week 16-19 (maybe wait one more week for test to completely clear?)
Clomid 50/50/50/25
Tamoxifen 40/40/20/20
Throughout cycle I’ll use plenty of omega-3’s, liver support (NAC, milk thistle, Liv.52) and Lipid Stabil + all your other supplements that you use on-cycle. Post cycle I will use natural test boosters like Alpha Male.
I don’t have caber and I have never used it even though I’ve used Deca in the past and plenty of Tren A cycles with no prolactin sides. Tren A, though, gave me some anger control issues, night sweats, trouble falling asleep, aggressiveness and generally made me feel like superman just walking on the street or in the gym, but these sides are all normal I guess…

The pictures I have posted are from July 2015, right after I have finished my last cycle I’ve done last June, I was 95kg at 9% bf roughly, I used as follows:
Week 1-8 – Test P – 50-75mg/ED (bumped it up after week 4)
Week 1-8 – Tren A – 50-75mg/ED
Week 3-8 – Mast P – 75mg/ED
Week 4-8 – Winstrol Oral – 50mg/ED
Week 3-8 – arimidex @ 0.5mg/eod
Week 7-8 – hcg – 500ui x2
Week 9 – hcg – 1000ui x2
PCT week 9-12
Clomid 100/50/50/25
Tamox 40/40/20/20
Arimidex 0.25mg eod
After I finish my gaining season and PCT, I’ll take some time off and start the contest prep.
My apologies again Shadow for this very large post, I know its consuming reading everyone’s question and personal info but I tried to be specific so I can receive your most accurate response.
I look forward to your advice for me and I plan on sticking around and maybe give you some assistance with “police work” here, like yogi used to do . I will be a lot more active after I return home this summer.

Big thanks and great respect for you Shadow Pro!

617

Hi There,

Thanks for the long and informative post. If competing is your passion then I don’t see any reason why you shouldn’t give it a shot. Maybe try classic bodybuilding at the start and see how you like it. If you’re passionate about bodybuilding you can try one of the lighter classes and try to come in as shredded as possible. Hiring a coach is always a good idea especially if he’s a pro himself and comes along with good recommendation. I think for the first phase of dieting to lower your bodyfat to 9-10% you don’t clen or t3, just clean up your diet and do your cardio.

The cycle you’re suggesting looks okay. It’s nothing crazy and it will give you decent gains. The clomid in the PCT is optional, you don’t necessarily need to use it.

I can see you’ve done your research and spent time reading through the threads so I appreciate that.

I hear you about the tren side effects - you really need to be aware of the mental side effects of it and keep it under control. You can get caber on most peptide sites so it’s not a bad idea to have on hand just incase.

From what I can see you have been putting in the work and learning the appropriate knowledge so you should enjoy your first experience to the stage.

1 Like
618

Thank you for your prompt response. I am highly motivated to get into competing, yes, bodybuilding has been my passion for the past 9 years, I just never considered competing due to inferior genetics, but found out that smart, hard work can payoff over genetics, so I will give it try. I will keep you updated when I start my gaining season after achieving my 9% bf this summer, perhaps post some pics before I start.
Dropping bf was never an issue for me, just implementing some HIIT here and there and cleaning up the crap from the diet does the trick, perhaps I will only try some otc supp like Hot-Rox or an ECA stack (never tried it). Just some quick follow-ups and I will not bother you again (till summer if you’re still here :stuck_out_tongue: )

  1. Do you think caber can relieve the mental sides of tren ? It gave me some mood swings and anger issues at 75mg ED of tren ace. Or I could be this arrogant prick one day and go all sentimental the next day, weird, but I learned to tell myself it’s just the tren.
  2. Never tried that tapering before, do you think it’s preferred over the classical, drop gear->wait for the half-life->start pct ?
  3. Should I go directly for the higher-end dosages I listed after the 7-week mark and build up on that ? Considering I’ve been using for some years now, although I am 1 year off from gear at the moment which makes my receptors more responsive.
  4. I have never used GH as I don’t have access to legitimate source to fit my funds nor did I tried insulin. Would I benefit on insulin use in my gain season without GH or underground GH at least ? Or just keep things simple for now.
Thank you for your encouraging words that will no doubt motivate me even further. My guess is I can never be a complete bb coach if I have never competed a few couple of times, I will give it my best.
619

  1. if it does it’s very mild but anything counts if you’re sensitive to the side effects. What you’re describing is not uncommon. Supplements like brain candy, sam-e, powerdrive and 5htp are all helpful in stabilizing the mental side effects of tren.

  2. I always found tapering down gradually is much easier on the body in terms of side effects. The body doesn’t like drastic changes. The more tapering you do down and up is usually a good idea.

  3. probably take 2-3 weeks to build to those dosages.

  4. In your case I wouldn’t use insulin alone, just keep it simple.
    Just save up for GH and when you are able to use both then you can reconsider.

620

This is probably too general of a question but if someone has access or the funds to add 4 iu’s of GH a day to a simple 12 week cycle of 600-700 mgs test per week how much more size or strength can they expect to gain as opposed to just doing the test alone. Over 40 yrs of steady training, 6’0 200lbs roughly 10% body fat. Just trying to decide if cost is worth the gains. Have enough GH for 6 months worth.

621

Thank you Shadow Pro ! I will post updates as soon as I get started with my progress, hope you’ll still stick around in the near future. I have learned so much from you !

622

It’s completely individual and at this dose it will mostly help with fat loss, not strength or size.