Long time lurker (probably close to 2 years) first time posting.
A little about me:
Aspiring pro-strongman (hence the username)
6’ 1"
32 yrs old
240ish lbs
15-16% BF
Currently on TRT (Test C 180mg/wk, HCG 500 IU/wk, anastrazole .25 mg/wk)
Just got done with a weight cut from 265 at the beginning of February and hit 240 May 8. My first competition in a specific weight class is coming in a couple of weeks.
Looking to run a cycle for strength (don’t care about looks, but I am a weight classed athlete). I got a recommendation from a buddy to run test 500mg/wk, Deca 300-400 mg/wk and anadrol or anavar at 50 mg/day. My goal is to build strength, speed, and endurance. This will be after my competition, I don’t want to change anything this close to comp.
I like the idea of 500 mg/wk of test (I have run 3 test only cycles at that level which I really liked), But the Deca has me a little worried after reading all the Deca dick threads. Maybe NPP would be better? and as far as Anadrol vs Anavar, I’m leaning towards Anavar even though it is more expensive, but just from the anecdotal data I have been reading through and some research documents, it seems that Anavar has less total and less severe sides than Anadrol.
My cycle would look like this for 6-8 weeks (still undecided on exact duration, could I go longer than 8 wks?):
500 mg Test C/wk (2 pins/wk)
300 mg NPP/wk (how many pins/wk???)
50 mg Anavar/day (split 25 mg 2/day if possible)
500 IU HCG/wk (2 pins/wk)
.25mg anastrazole/wk
I’ve seen that some people add masteron to combat NPP sides? is that recommended? I have done TONS of reading on here and other places, but for some reason I am having a hard time putting it together in my head and just want a fresh eyes review.
8 weeks is way too short. Minimum 12 weeks, the test cyp will take 4 weeks to reach full saturation so 8 just isn’t worth it.
NPP should be pinned EOD. I’m not a fan of 19-nors given the potential sexual and mental side effects, but they are good mass builders. Don’t bother with the Mast if this is a cycle for strength and your bf isn’t very low, Mast is mostly cosmetic in my experience. Just make sure your estrogen is dialed in.
AI dose looks wrong. If your current AI dose is .25 anastrazole per week on 180mg/wk Test, why is this the same dose in the cycle you laid out? It should be higher, and you should know how to dial this in from your prior cycle experience.
I’m a fan of Anavar, you’ll for sure see some nice strength gains on that dose. It’s a mild oral on the liver so you can run it the entire cycle. 50mg/day is a good dose, I wouldn’t go much higher than that.
I ran NPP for 6 weeks at 300mg/week. It was awesome and a very good strength/mass builder but I’ll never touch 19 Nors again, the mental effects are not worth it IMO. Some guys can run it no problem, I guess there’s only one way to find out which you are. I’ve also run Anavar quite a few times as well as Masteron. I’d run a test/Var cycle. I like masteron at around 300-400mg/week. It cuts me up but can make me short tempered. Personally I’d leave out the nandrolone.
Thanks for the replies, and good point on the AI dosage.
I think I’m going to hold off on the NPP and do just test and anavar cycle for 12 weeks. Doing more reading it sounds like those 2 things should be a good cycle (especially since I feel like I respond so well to test only cycles). I’d rather use the least amount of compounds possible and add things slowly to see how it affects me instead of adding tons of compounds and getting tons of sides.
I don’t quite get this argument as well as with EQ. The serum concentrations on beginning of a drug are only defined by the volume of distribution which means you can circumvent this whole “waiting till you reach adequate levels” with a loading dose. It is relatively simple to do the maths for it too.
What I get though is, if you take a huge loading dose, the body jumps up a ton very rapidly, which brings with it more side effects. The body would need less time to adjust though since the serum concentrations are stable from the second injection on.
This would be a cycle with 1000 mg EQ per week with a loading dose of 6g (I know unrealistic but it illustrates the point). Therefore no 20 week cycle necessary.
Would be cool if some could give their opinion on this.
I think the potential sides from a 6g shot might be pretty undesirable.
Additionally, for someone who cycles, the wait for PCT is going to be pretty long. Half life is about 2 weeks. How many half life cycles you wait for PCT depends on the dose. But with 1000 mg/wk, 4 half life wait time is advisable IMO. That is 8 weeks. You could run prop during that time I suppose, but even with the front load it is going to be a long cycle if we are including PCT.
Front loading is unhealthy and causes side effects. Try front loading 6g of EQ without crashing your E2 to zero. Long cycle lengths are always more desirable anyway since they provide a much longer runway for gains, and the gains are more keepable when you come off because they’ve been given more time to solidify.
One could spread it out over a day or 2. 6 g is extreme, id go with 3 g and just shorten the time span til steady state.
Are sides from longer use better than from higher jumps? You could shorten the cycle by 4 weeks that way.
There are ways to front load that are not all at once. You could take 50% more for 2 or 3 weeks for example. I’ll probably avoid it as I am on TRT and can take my time.
Front loading still doesn’t help you with the clearance time for PCT. At those higher doses, you are waiting 2 months to have androgens to be low enough for PCT. So even if you run 12 weeks with a front load, you are at 20 weeks before PCT.
Yes I agree. This could be 24 weeks though if you don’t front load. I’d be interested in some practical experience because I’m a fan of tapering down because of less side effects. So I see where front loading does damage. With something like EQ I’d probably do it though
I think var could be run for 12 weeks if you lower to like 25 or 30 mg a day. Can be run higher too. Just depends on your risk tolerance. I wouldn’t suggest it with other orals other than proviron.
So I got my new stuff in yesterday, plan looks like this:
500 mg/wk Test C wk 1-15
50 mg/day Anavar weeks 8-15 (they are capsules not tabs, so 50 mg 1/day)
500 IU HCG/wk 1-15
.25 mg anastrazole/wk 1-15
After 15 weeks drop back down to cruise dose (180 mg/wk).
I decided to wait on the NPP/Deca. Depending on how the cycle goes I may throw it in around week 4-5 at 200 mg/wk (is that even worth it?). I am trying to stay around 240-242 because I’ll have to cut back down to 231.4 for nationals in October. Maybe this can help with body recomp and get me closer to 12% BF? I know that the Test C will cause me told hold more water and I think the anavar can help with that, making the weight cut easier.
So I know I had some back and forth on choosing my compounds for this cycle but here it is:
525 mg test C per week, wk 1-15 (.6 mL @ 250mg/mL pin EOD)
245 mg NPP per week, wk 1-15 (.7 mL @ 100 mg/mL pin EOD)
500 IU HCG per week, wk 1-15 pinned EOD
.25 Adex 2 times per week, wk 1-15
50 mg anavar ED, wk 8-15 (these are in 50 mg capsules so I can’t split)
I’m choosing to pin the test EOD because I am going to put both the test and NPP in the same barrel to reduce the total number of pins required, and I’m doing the HCG that way simply so I do not have a different pinning schedule, because I will screw it up and forget.
2400 mg omega 3 per day
250 mg TUDCA per day
1200 mg NAC daily
100 mg P5P daily
Hopefully this helps prevent any prolactin, lipid, and hepatotoxicity. I know the NPP dose is low, but having never used any form of Nandrolone, I wanted to start conservative to monitor sides and I’m hoping I’ll have a decent response to such a low dose since I have no “resistance” to it yet. I will start this cycle on Saturday the 4th.
I’m currently taking .25 2 times per week on my TRT dose. This keep my E2 mid range (25.6 on a range from 7.6-42.6), which is a little low ratio wise, but my sides creep up if I back down to .25 one time per week. I seem to do best at that dose. If anything I may need to increase it once I go on my blast.
So far I have pinned this blast twice (70mg NPP and 150mg Test C each pin, pinning EOD).
The small amount of sides I did have from the test C, a little excess acne, seems to have dissipated. It’s probably too early to make anything of it, but maybe because I have more stable test levels in my blood?
Either way, it’s now day 4 of this cycle and I think the NPP is already kicking in. According to the steroid plotter, by day 2 I should be at about 85% max blood concentration. I don’t feel anything outrageous, but I feel like warming up is easier and moving the same amount of weight around just doesn’t feel as heavy (I blasted through my front pause squats today with ease). I do not feel any of the Nandrolone sides that I have heard of, but again, it is still early. If anything I feel like my erection quality is even better (and it was already pretty good before). I also started P5P a couple of days before the NPP.
I wanted to keep the dosing of the NPP to a minimum (245 mg/wk right now) but if I still react well by week 5 or 6 (out of 15 total weeks) I may bump it up to 350-400 mg/wk.
