There are certain clichés and recurring themes in the world of bodybuilding and PEDs.
"I just ate chicken rice and broccoli to get big"
"First cycle should be 500mg of test, now shut the fuck up"
"Cardio kills gainz"
But one that always had me raising eyebrows was "newbies shouldn't run AAS at high bodyfat percentage" as well as "blasting on a cut is a waste".
Now for anyone who is remotely experienced and has a good underlying knowledge of AAS and their mechanism of action, this will be pointing out the obvious and claiming the sky is in fact, blue.
This is not directed at you. My regaling is directed towards the kid who is looking to dip their toes in the world of PEDs, specifically the stubborn ones who have been told to perform 10 sets of fork-put-downs before even thinking about AAS but wants to anyways. I'm going to delve into my experience doing the opposite of what conventional knowledge tells you to.
Background
I've been dabbling with PEDs on and off for close to 10 years, with a relatively long hiatus of 5 years due to an accident and life getting in the way. Prior to my accident I was sitting in at a reasonable 225lbs at 13% BF with intermediate level (by my standards) lifts
At the beginning of my experiment, I was a portly 25% bf sitting in at 245lbs. Gross.
Progress was tracked daily, with dietary, exercise, and weight journals being meticulously kept. A body fat caliper and several measurements in different areas were taken to verify and validate body fat.
Over the 6 months of this experiment, I would make changes in diet every 8 weeks. I began with 3000 calories, which was my calculated TDEE given the manual labor and being on my feet for 10 hours a day entrails. I would later drop down to 2500 cals after my 8 week block was up, to finally finish on 2k cals on the last stretch of my journey.
AAS followed the same suite.
I began with 500 of testosterone and 300mg of Masteron E for 8 weeks, to switch to 250 test e + 200 of tren e, to finish with 250 test and 200 primo.
Synopsis
The first 8 weeks were rather uneventful. In the time frame I adhered to a high protein, low carb diet, aiming for 225-250g of protein, sub 60g carb, and moderate amount of fats. I would also do intermittent fasting which made for meals to be rather... Voluminous.
I would perform 30-60 minutes of LISS, 4-6 times per week, followed by your typical PPL split.
Visual recomposition was starting to take place at week 6. Calipers confirmed 21-22% bf at the end of this stage at 243lbs. Heart rate and BP stayed in range of 125-130 over 75-80.
The tren debacle.
Hands down, there is nothing quite as potent, powerful, and frightening like tren. I've commented on my use here in another post and if you remember, my coming off of the compound was due to the health ramifications it brought on. I tapped out after 4 weeks, due to my blood pressure skyrocketing up to 150 over 100. If it wasn't for that factor, I would have endured the remaining 4 weeks.
In that short time frame, bodyweight was down 239lbs but more impressively, bodyfat was 17-18%. Workouts never stalled, the working volume kept increasing, and I felt g o o d.
Primobolan, blood work, cruise
With tren sides still in my system, I wanted to make sure the next compound I would play with would be more docile on my health and it's markers. What better than everyone's poster child for "healthy steroid" like primo? With 200mg weekly of primo plus 250 test, I would continue on the same program I have concocted with 2 modifications: switching to 3 full body workouts per week due to time constraints, and an additional 500 calorie restriction. Progress was less dramatic, but still apparent and weight was still coming off. At the end of this block, I dabbled with some anavar for 2 weeks to see what the hype was about, to settle on a cruising dosage of 150 test with 80mg of primobolan. Weight at the end of this block was 231 with a recorded BF of 15-16%.
Conclusion
My health markers came back in an unsurprising fashion. HDL and LDL were skewered, due to a 3 week block between orals and the blood test, but triglycerides were perfect, hemocrit, RBC were elevated but within range. I also discovered I have hypothyroidism which is hereditary in my case. Fun.
Today, I weigh 226lbs, and am continuing to cut and lose bodyfat, but on a much more reasonable doses.
Whether I was blasting or on a more reasonable cruising dosage, cutting progress was more or less the same and not AAS dependant. Diet, CICO, and cardio made much more of an impact than the hormones. This conclusion could have been easily reached without having to subject myself to it.
"Skarpyona, you fat fucking pinecone. If you knew this already, why put yourself through it?"
I am a stubborn ape and it's something I wanted to try for the sheer sake of finding out for myself and seeing what exactly would happen in my case.
So does AAS help? Yes, with an asterisk. If I had to make a recommendation based on what I learned, it's that a cruising dose is all you need to help maintain muscle mass on a cut. To a beginner, this would absolutely be wasted given the fact if you're new and overweight, you do not have any foundation or underlying knowledge of how to exercise, diet, and how to properly use and control the hormones you are injecting. I glossed over a fair amount of material, but controlling estrogen and the elevated levels of aromatisation high bodyfat brings on is just one of a multitude of health problems you can have.
Would I do this again? Absolutely not. It was interesting, but as stated before, by myself, or others, diet, cardio, and will power will take you further than drugs ever will.
"I just ate chicken rice and broccoli to get big"
"First cycle should be 500mg of test, now shut the fuck up"
"Cardio kills gainz"
But one that always had me raising eyebrows was "newbies shouldn't run AAS at high bodyfat percentage" as well as "blasting on a cut is a waste".
Now for anyone who is remotely experienced and has a good underlying knowledge of AAS and their mechanism of action, this will be pointing out the obvious and claiming the sky is in fact, blue.
This is not directed at you. My regaling is directed towards the kid who is looking to dip their toes in the world of PEDs, specifically the stubborn ones who have been told to perform 10 sets of fork-put-downs before even thinking about AAS but wants to anyways. I'm going to delve into my experience doing the opposite of what conventional knowledge tells you to.
Background
I've been dabbling with PEDs on and off for close to 10 years, with a relatively long hiatus of 5 years due to an accident and life getting in the way. Prior to my accident I was sitting in at a reasonable 225lbs at 13% BF with intermediate level (by my standards) lifts
At the beginning of my experiment, I was a portly 25% bf sitting in at 245lbs. Gross.
Progress was tracked daily, with dietary, exercise, and weight journals being meticulously kept. A body fat caliper and several measurements in different areas were taken to verify and validate body fat.
Over the 6 months of this experiment, I would make changes in diet every 8 weeks. I began with 3000 calories, which was my calculated TDEE given the manual labor and being on my feet for 10 hours a day entrails. I would later drop down to 2500 cals after my 8 week block was up, to finally finish on 2k cals on the last stretch of my journey.
AAS followed the same suite.
I began with 500 of testosterone and 300mg of Masteron E for 8 weeks, to switch to 250 test e + 200 of tren e, to finish with 250 test and 200 primo.
Synopsis
The first 8 weeks were rather uneventful. In the time frame I adhered to a high protein, low carb diet, aiming for 225-250g of protein, sub 60g carb, and moderate amount of fats. I would also do intermittent fasting which made for meals to be rather... Voluminous.
I would perform 30-60 minutes of LISS, 4-6 times per week, followed by your typical PPL split.
Visual recomposition was starting to take place at week 6. Calipers confirmed 21-22% bf at the end of this stage at 243lbs. Heart rate and BP stayed in range of 125-130 over 75-80.
The tren debacle.
Hands down, there is nothing quite as potent, powerful, and frightening like tren. I've commented on my use here in another post and if you remember, my coming off of the compound was due to the health ramifications it brought on. I tapped out after 4 weeks, due to my blood pressure skyrocketing up to 150 over 100. If it wasn't for that factor, I would have endured the remaining 4 weeks.
In that short time frame, bodyweight was down 239lbs but more impressively, bodyfat was 17-18%. Workouts never stalled, the working volume kept increasing, and I felt g o o d.
Primobolan, blood work, cruise
With tren sides still in my system, I wanted to make sure the next compound I would play with would be more docile on my health and it's markers. What better than everyone's poster child for "healthy steroid" like primo? With 200mg weekly of primo plus 250 test, I would continue on the same program I have concocted with 2 modifications: switching to 3 full body workouts per week due to time constraints, and an additional 500 calorie restriction. Progress was less dramatic, but still apparent and weight was still coming off. At the end of this block, I dabbled with some anavar for 2 weeks to see what the hype was about, to settle on a cruising dosage of 150 test with 80mg of primobolan. Weight at the end of this block was 231 with a recorded BF of 15-16%.
Conclusion
My health markers came back in an unsurprising fashion. HDL and LDL were skewered, due to a 3 week block between orals and the blood test, but triglycerides were perfect, hemocrit, RBC were elevated but within range. I also discovered I have hypothyroidism which is hereditary in my case. Fun.
Today, I weigh 226lbs, and am continuing to cut and lose bodyfat, but on a much more reasonable doses.
Whether I was blasting or on a more reasonable cruising dosage, cutting progress was more or less the same and not AAS dependant. Diet, CICO, and cardio made much more of an impact than the hormones. This conclusion could have been easily reached without having to subject myself to it.
"Skarpyona, you fat fucking pinecone. If you knew this already, why put yourself through it?"
I am a stubborn ape and it's something I wanted to try for the sheer sake of finding out for myself and seeing what exactly would happen in my case.
So does AAS help? Yes, with an asterisk. If I had to make a recommendation based on what I learned, it's that a cruising dose is all you need to help maintain muscle mass on a cut. To a beginner, this would absolutely be wasted given the fact if you're new and overweight, you do not have any foundation or underlying knowledge of how to exercise, diet, and how to properly use and control the hormones you are injecting. I glossed over a fair amount of material, but controlling estrogen and the elevated levels of aromatisation high bodyfat brings on is just one of a multitude of health problems you can have.
Would I do this again? Absolutely not. It was interesting, but as stated before, by myself, or others, diet, cardio, and will power will take you further than drugs ever will.
(jk)