So im an intermediate strongman, qualified for uss nationals 3 times this past year. And im looking to seriously add some size in the remainder of this year and beginning of next. Im sitting at about 275-280 and about 15%bf.
Ive had all the stuff for this cycle for a while and i want to pull the trigger and see if anyone can help with ancillaries that will reduce the sides of this “Michelin man” cycle.
So,
500 test a week x 10 weeks
300 deca a week x 10 weeks
40mgs dbol a day x 6 weeks
With arimidex .5mgs per day
Im currently on trt and have done up to 300 deca before with zero sides. Im mainly worried about blood pressure and liver health with the dbol. Id appreciate any advice anyone has. Thanks!
That’s a pretty classic mass stack. It’s moderate in size so I don’t see anything real bad unless you’re very side effect prone. My major concern would be the amount of Arimidex you are proposing. That’s a ton and IMO overkill. I ran almost the same stack 20 years ago with no AI. Yes we are all different and younger folks, as I was then, seem to handle side effects better. Just my thoughts.
For you goal, I’d run the cycle longer. 20 weeks if you are a serious competitor. I’d also just skip the dbol. It will fill you up with water and you will be stronger, but it will go away once you stop.
I’d also advise to only use adex like that if you know you need it. Blood work and symptoms are required IMO.
Get yourself a good BP monitor. I’d assume for strongman that your conditioning is pretty good? If not, improving that will help with BP. I’d recommend you research BP meds and have those on hand. I like telmisartan. I can’t tell I am taking anything unless I use my BP monitor. Start low (look up starting doses for whatever you choose to use if you choose to use a BP med). Don’t get too crazy with it, as you are doing it without a doctor. If your BP is quite high, just try to get it to acceptable while on cycle. You don’t need to necessarily get down to 120/80, but don’t let yourself sit at 150/100 kind of thing.
If you drop the Dbol, you won’t have to worry about liver. If you don’t look into Tudca.
For strongman, I’d consider running more Test and Test only. You don’t need to have BBer roundness or anything. 20 weeks at a gram or a 1.5g of Test I think will be just as good as your stack in the long run. You may not look as full / round on cycle, but 10 weeks post cycle, I bet there won’t be a difference.
Of course, this is just my opinion (some idiot on the internet). It is not medical advice.
This was my experience as well but damn, it felt good while on. I agree with this but then others such as @RT_Nomad had good experiences cycling it frequently so there that too.
If you dropped the Dianabol, your AAS weekly total exceeded what I took (way back in my competitive days.)
I will say that I never did a cycle that didn’t include orals everyday. But the protocol today seems to have changed, both in the use of orals and the weekly AAS totals.
I thought I was a serious competitor. I ran 8 week cycles, and a 12 week cycle for the contest that I chose to be most important that year. I usually did 3 contests per year. I was “on cycle” more than I was “off cycle.”
You should know that the most Dianabol I took was 20mg/day (also for Anavar and Winstrol.) I did a few cycIes that included 50mg of Anadrol for 3 weeks. I competed in the '70’s, '80’s, and '90’s. And for what it’s worth, I am still alive at 74 years of age, and not on life support. But no one is assured tomorrow.
The last part here is what is important IMO. You can do long or short cycles, but the total amount of time on vs time off in a year is probably what matters the most.
I got the sense reading the post that this cycle was to build some serious size in one go, then take a break from the AAS. That may be a wrong take?
I really don’t care for this generalization. For 6 years during the 1970’s I took Dianabol ONLY at no more than 15mg/day, usually 8 weeks on and 6 weeks off, competing in both bodybuilding and powerlifting. After every cycle I lost a little strength. But in every cycle I was stronger at the start of that cycle than I was at the start of the previous cycle.
Also, to the water retention, I never experienced any “wet” look at any bodybuilding contest that I did, but I could get a drier look on Anavar or Winstrol. You must know that I limited my sodium intake. I never ate “junk food.”
Maybe my lower doses accounted for my somewhat dry experiences, but I have no experience taking large doses of Dianabol.
I don’t think Dianabol is useless. It has pros and cons. It is harder on the liver, and likely lipid profile than oil based AAS (in general, exceptions like Tren exist).
My point was more that in the context of taking it along with 500 mg of Test and 300 mg of Deca that it doesn’t add much IMO. The injectable AAS should provide enough anabolism.
I am perhaps not very open to multiple compound drugs. I will likely stick to only Test and non AAS supporting drugs going forward. I’ve only really messed with Tbol and Anavar outside of Test (I did do Anadrol for a few days, but dropped it due to brutal acid reflux). My approach will likely not match what others want to do. My goals are likely different too.