Ask Sam1976

[sam1976 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close sam1976]

I've got a question on if I should take hgh or igf-1 I'm a young guy and have the money for either one or I can run both. Looking to start running it in 9 weeks. I currently have 2 kits of hyges. Any info would really help

are you running any aas? without steroids, gh will not be of any huge benefit. even with aas, gh doesn't yield much in the way of gains. how old are you and do you have experience with aas?

[sam1976 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close sam1976]

Thanks Sam , i think i'll keep the GH all the way to the show as i'm not doin' much . 2 years ago i kept all the way and didn't make hold water....for the orals i'll foollow your advice with winny and halo....maybe winny 4weeks out from first show then add halo for the second show . i may add halo 1-2 weeks out from first show too , we'll see . thanks mate , great advice as usual !

best of luck. keep the board posted. everyone here is interested in competitors and how we do things. i know you'd get good positive responses to any threads you post up about your experience

[sam1976 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close sam1976]

hey bro, let me start out by saying, it is very very rare that anyone ever does one cycle. once people get a taste for the gains that come from gear, its hard to go back. i dont know if i have ever met anyone who has just done one. i myself said i'd only do one cycle and here i am. its never about the one cycle. its an entire lifestyle. if you truly only want to do one and be done, i would suggest not getting started at all. i mean that in the most honest way i can. the gains you make from one cycle may take longer to get naturally, but you will be able to make them with time. so pls, think about this long and hard and ask yourself if you are ready to come to the dark side.

that being said, lets talk about your cycle. it looks good. some guys need more or less adex. it will all depend on how you respond. you may find you need a little more while on the dbol as it is notorious for causing gyno. so .25mg ED or .5mg EOD may be good for wk 1-4 or 5. then you may be able to back it off a touch. just watch yourself and see how you respond. if gyno signs start up, take 1mg that day and then .5mg ED till they clear. dbol is very strong. you honestly would do fine on even a little less. 20-25mg would be enough to do the job on a first cycle. i had used 25-30 mg for yrs, until i just recently experimented with a little more. for the finastride, 1mg ED is good.

ideally, you should get your test levels taken before your cycle and then again a few wks after pct to make sure you are on the road to returning to what your test levels were. if you dont get blood owrk done beforehand, you'll never know what your normal test was

Hello,
I wanted to introduce myself and say that this is a great and very informative board. I posted this in the main forum and got no response so I'm hoping I can get some help here. Sam, thank you for the wonderful and informative thread. I read the whole thing.

Ok, let me get down to business. I'm 37, 6' 200lbs. I've been working out for years (mainly running and isolation lifting) but finally changed over to compund lifts last year. My squat is 315, my deadlift is 415 for reps and my bench is 215. I want to do just ONE cycle. Mainly for safety but also because I don't want ot get ridicuouly huge. I still want to be able to run, jump, swim, etc. I'm looking for strength and overall fitness. My diet is good and I get 2600 cals a day with 200g of protein. I'm 17% bodyfat.

Why do I want to cycle and why do I only want one cycle. I'm looking to jump start. It took me a year to get from the 200's in deadlifting to 415. Also took a year to get from a 115 squat and a 95lbs bench. At 37 I realize that I won't gain as fast as if I was 17. Tha's why I want to get one and only one cycle in. I slowly gained weight. I was 155lbs from high school until around 26. From 26 to about 32 I was 175 and in went to around 200 in the past 5 years.

Here's what I would like to try:
Week 1-4: DBOL, 10mg, 3 times a day
LIV 52 while I'm taking the DBOL (How much should I take?)
Week 1-12: Test E, 250mg on Monday and Thursday
Week 1-14 Adex 0.25mg every day (taper in last 2 weeks to every other day)
Week 3-14 HcG 250iu every Monday and Thursday (I would run the HcG all the way up until 5 days before PCT)
Finasteride (How much should I take?)

For the PCT
Week 15-18 Clomid 50mg once a day
Week 15-16 Nolva 40mg once a day
Week 17-18 Nolva 20mg once a day

During this cycle, I'll add in 1000 more calories and up my protein to 250-300 to help with the muscle and strength gain. I've never taken any steriods in the past and I'm in great health. I eat right and take vitamins and drink at least 10 glasses of water a day.

My question is, how does this cycle look? I'm trying to play it safe. Is my PCT too much? What about my AI? Is there something that I can do better?

Any help and advice would be greatly appreciated.


Thanks
James.

[sam1976 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close sam1976]

at your age, there is a very good chance your body is no longer producing optimal levels of test. i would suggest going to your dr and getting blood work done before you do anything. there is a very good chance you qualify for HRT. what you want to find, is a good progressive endo who will restore you to YOUTHFUL LEVELS. some md's will restore you to that of a 55 yr old man. thats not what we're looking for. youthful levels will be around 800-1200 ng/dl. i have a very good feeling that this, in itself, will make a huge impact on your life. if this is the case, there is no need for pct, as it is a medication you will use for the rest of your life. a good md will be interested in controlling estrogen and possibly giving you hcg to maintain teste size.

keep in mind, if you do go the aas cycle route, the older guys seem to have a harder time recovering. deca is especially hard to recover from. if you were on hrt, you could cycle in deca for periods of time, around 200mg is great for the joints and gives me an overall sense of well being. for a small, easy to manage cycle, 250mg test cyp or test e, along with 200mg deca per wk would give you some good results. i would also use adex around .25mg to .5mg EOD.

i can be almost certain you'll really like using test or test/deca. my main concern is your recovery.

Hi Sam,
I am new to aas and have a ton of ?'s I found this site and all your info is great. I really appreciate you helping all of us on so many levels. After reading and researching and more reading I would like to take the next step to try aas.

I am 55yrs old and in fairly decent shape. I have soreness in my elbows from weight training and soreness in my knees from running when I was younger. I have been going to the gym about 3/4 days week. Still running on a tread mil though and lifting light weights to try and stay cut but high reps. A friend of mine is doing test c 250mg and deca 200 mg 2 x a week and mentioned to me about considering doing the same. He is 45 yrs old and is looking pretty buff. His cycle is 5 weeks on and 5 weeks off. I don't believe he does any pct.

My ?'s if you would be so kind is a person my age ok to use his cycle? If not would you have any recommendations? He has told me about his renewed energy in the gym and in the bedroom and quite frankly it would be great to be able to get these results with some supplements if possible. I realize everyone is different and I am older but I have read where men my age are being seen by their personnel physician and getting aas shots with great end results. Do you think if I added these supplements with the right kind of diet and exercise I could add muscle and libido at the same time? How about a post cycle pct? Any suggestions? I'm really trying not to over think all of this but I want to be sure that's all.

Any help with this would be greatly appreciated by not only me but my girl also. Thanks for all your insight and wisdom on these and other matters dealing with aas.

[Bigs251 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Bigs251]

Yes I've ran around 8 cycles I'm 20 years old. Currently 7 weeks out from a competition. My growth plates were fully shut by the age of 16 which is why I'm gonna go ahead and try growth hormones. Money isn't a problem and so far I've got 6 kits stocked up

[mdavid82 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close mdavid82]

hello sam first i will state that i have done a few cycles in the past. mainly test, d-bol and deca. mixed it up and switched deca for eq once and have added winny to the mix near the end to harden up. i usually take 50mg d-bol for the first 4 weeks and test at 750mg per week. i have had gyno once and had surgery to remove it. my last cycle was d-bol 50mg per day and test cyp for 12 weeks at 750 per week. this cycle i will be doing 750mg sustanon for 12 weeks along with d-bol again for the first 4 weeks at 50mg. i used arimidex last time but didnt like how my joints felt and was going to use nolvadex for any gyno issues i might get. is this ok since i dont mind any water bloat since i dont really get it. sorry and thanks again

[05mako Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close 05mako]

More from older newbie

at your age, there is a very good chance your body is no longer producing optimal levels of test. i would suggest going to your dr and getting blood work done before you do anything. there is a very good chance you qualify for HRT. what you want to find, is a good progressive endo who will restore you to YOUTHFUL LEVELS. some md's will restore you to that of a 55 yr old man. thats not what we're looking for. youthful levels will be around 800-1200 ng/dl. i have a very good feeling that this, in itself, will make a huge impact on your life. if this is the case, there is no need for pct, as it is a medication you will use for the rest of your life. a good md will be interested in controlling estrogen and possibly giving you hcg to maintain teste size.

keep in mind, if you do go the aas cycle route, the older guys seem to have a harder time recovering. deca is especially hard to recover from. if you were on hrt, you could cycle in deca for periods of time, around 200mg is great for the joints and gives me an overall sense of well being. for a small, easy to manage cycle, 250mg test cyp or test e, along with 200mg deca per wk would give you some good results. i would also use adex around .25mg to .5mg EOD.

i can be almost certain you'll really like using test or test/deca. my main concern is your recovery.

Thanks for info Sam. I went to my md about a year ago and he checked my test and it was on the low end of normal according to him. He said nothing to worry about. But after a year I'm feeling tired and lethargic with diminished libido even more now than then. I did ask him about test and he said it was not needed at that time. I feel like he probably wouldn't give me any anyways. With that I have heard about the deca being hard to recover from and maybe I don't need it.

What are your thoughts about the hgh 191 do you think with some test c or e and some hgh I could increase my libido and lose the few pounds I've got around my mid section? Like I was saying I still hit the gym but really haven't seen any improvement when it comes to def. strength wise yes but little in the way of def. I realize I'm an older cat but really don't feel it mentally. It would be nice to have more energy not only in the gym but also in the rack. I'm not looking to go back to 20yrs old but 30 or 40 would be nice. Thanks for your advice in advance again and any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated.

[rmcgraw1014 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close rmcgraw1014]

second cycle

hey sam you post some great stuff im working on my second cycle now ive trained for about 3 years im 24 6' 195 first cycle was simple just sus 270 and nolva im looking to step it up a little my diet is pretty good eat 5 times a day fist of protein chicken steak etc with rice or sweet pot with green veggies all day what kinda cycle should i run next i want to get bigger but focus on getting ripped i broke my back in the marine corps so had to take it easy. thinking about test e 500mg a week dbol to 30mg to kick start maybe some tren or deca with adex ed and then nolva 2 weeks after thanks ahead of time

[kjtex Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close kjtex]

getting ready for new cycle

Hey Sam! Been a while since i posted, hope all is well. I'm getting ready to start cycle and just wanted to run it by you and ask a few questions since there seems to be conflicting comments by different people. So far this is what I have come up with. As a reminder, I am 5'7 190 lbs 12-13% bf.
1-17 sust @ 600 mg
1-17eq @ 540 mg
1-5 or 6 dbol @ 20-30 mg/day (do you suggest taking 10 mg 2 or 3x a day? I have never taken dbol so I was thinking about starting with 20 mg/day for 2 weeks then going up to 30mg/day for 3.5 weeks. Sound reasonable?)
20th week start clomid = 100 first day/50 everyday for 3 weeks
AI: I've always taken aromasin but you seem to favor adex so was thinking of trying it instead.
Do you see anything that needs to be changed or that is missing?
at week 13 or 14 i was thinking of adding 50 mg winny for remainder of cycle depending on my BF% at the time. I have some and honestly just wanted to try it and see if I even like it enough to do in future cycles. If I decide to add winny, do you see anything for cycle support that i should change?

I read debate on milk thistle for liver support etc., so do you have suggestions on this or what would be best for me.

[sam1976 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close sam1976]

Yes I've ran around 8 cycles I'm 20 years old. Currently 7 weeks out from a competition. My growth plates were fully shut by the age of 16 which is why I'm gonna go ahead and try growth hormones. Money isn't a problem and so far I've got 6 kits stocked up

out of curiosity, how do you know that your plates closed at 16? right on. what dose are you planning to do? gh has helped my look but for the most part, as far as supps go, it's been gear thats made the biggest difference....well getting my diet right and learning to train the way my body responds has made the biggest differecne, but you get what i mean

[sam1976 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close sam1976]

hello sam first i will state that i have done a few cycles in the past. mainly test, d-bol and deca. mixed it up and switched deca for eq once and have added winny to the mix near the end to harden up. i usually take 50mg d-bol for the first 4 weeks and test at 750mg per week. i have had gyno once and had surgery to remove it. my last cycle was d-bol 50mg per day and test cyp for 12 weeks at 750 per week. this cycle i will be doing 750mg sustanon for 12 weeks along with d-bol again for the first 4 weeks at 50mg. i used arimidex last time but didnt like how my joints felt and was going to use nolvadex for any gyno issues i might get. is this ok since i dont mind any water bloat since i dont really get it. sorry and thanks again

sounds like you were using too much adex if your joints were getting painful. everyone's needs are different. maybe try backing it off. personally, i dont like the idea of nlova for estrogen control. it wont stop the conversion of test to estrogen, like adex, which in turn will help your test a little higher since less is converting.

[sam1976 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close sam1976]

Thanks for info Sam. I went to my md about a year ago and he checked my test and it was on the low end of normal according to him. He said nothing to worry about. But after a year I'm feeling tired and lethargic with diminished libido even more now than then. I did ask him about test and he said it was not needed at that time. I feel like he probably wouldn't give me any anyways. With that I have heard about the deca being hard to recover from and maybe I don't need it.

What are your thoughts about the hgh 191 do you think with some test c or e and some hgh I could increase my libido and lose the few pounds I've got around my mid section? Like I was saying I still hit the gym but really haven't seen any improvement when it comes to def. strength wise yes but little in the way of def. I realize I'm an older cat but really don't feel it mentally. It would be nice to have more energy not only in the gym but also in the rack. I'm not looking to go back to 20yrs old but 30 or 40 would be nice. Thanks for your advice in advance again and any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated.

sounds like you need a new dr if he isnt willing to check it again. there are progressive minded MDs out there who will be willing to help you get in the most optimal state. IMO, as far as running a cycle goes, its probably going to be hard to recover from any gear you use, given your age and how low your levels already were last year. just keep that in mind. i would consider using some hcg 250iu 2x a wk through the cycle. if you ran a low dose test cycle, around 250mg EW, i bet you would do very very well. i'd throw in a little adex, somwhere around .25mg to .5mg EOD should be plenty for a low dose like this.

[sam1976 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close sam1976]

hey sam you post some great stuff im working on my second cycle now ive trained for about 3 years im 24 6' 195 first cycle was simple just sus 270 and nolva im looking to step it up a little my diet is pretty good eat 5 times a day fist of protein chicken steak etc with rice or sweet pot with green veggies all day what kinda cycle should i run next i want to get bigger but focus on getting ripped i broke my back in the marine corps so had to take it easy. thinking about test e 500mg a week dbol to 30mg to kick start maybe some tren or deca with adex ed and then nolva 2 weeks after thanks ahead of time

i would leave the tren or deca out for now and go with the 500 test 30 dbol. that would be a lot more gear than before! the dbol will add weight fast and you'll be strong as an ox. then yea, pct starts 2 wks after last inject of test e or cyp. closer to 3 wks after sust

[sam1976 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close sam1976]

your cycle looks good to me. i think a conservative dose of dbol is very wise. see how you feel and then if you want, add 10 mg. i think that whatever AI you want to use and know how to use, is the best one. i've just had a lot of expereince with adex and can predict fairly well how it will work for someone. thats why i suggest it. as fat as liver support. sure. i use milk thistle, i'll run it a couple wks before the cycle, all the way through pct and then sometimes continue on. i take 1000mg day.

Hey Sam! Been a while since i posted, hope all is well. I'm getting ready to start cycle and just wanted to run it by you and ask a few questions since there seems to be conflicting comments by different people. So far this is what I have come up with. As a reminder, I am 5'7 190 lbs 12-13% bf.
1-17 sust @ 600 mg
1-17eq @ 540 mg
1-5 or 6 dbol @ 20-30 mg/day (do you suggest taking 10 mg 2 or 3x a day? I have never taken dbol so I was thinking about starting with 20 mg/day for 2 weeks then going up to 30mg/day for 3.5 weeks. Sound reasonable?)
20th week start clomid = 100 first day/50 everyday for 3 weeks
AI: I've always taken aromasin but you seem to favor adex so was thinking of trying it instead.
Do you see anything that needs to be changed or that is missing?
at week 13 or 14 i was thinking of adding 50 mg winny for remainder of cycle depending on my BF% at the time. I have some and honestly just wanted to try it and see if I even like it enough to do in future cycles. If I decide to add winny, do you see anything for cycle support that i should change?

I read debate on milk thistle for liver support etc., so do you have suggestions on this or what would be best for me.

[Bigs251 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Bigs251]

The doctor had to X-ray my knees for a surgery and told me they were already closed. I'm only 5"7 but oh well. I plan on running 5ius a day 5 on 2 off. My diet right now is 100% in check for this contest haven't cheated once. So what's your suggestion? Thanks