Goldie's Brief Foray Into Steroids

Did some soul-searching, boys; and I’m cutting my first cycle off at the legs - Cutting it short, one might say. I’m Napoleonizing my cycle. I hear he wasn’t even that short. Ain’t that some shit? I’m a month into 500mg test e, 25mg Anavar, 25mg Proviron, 4iu GH EOD. Gone from 210lb kinda lean to 215lb pretty lean (those are scientific terms btw). Only really started feeling the shit work about a week ago. Strength has gone up but not by some unnatural leaps and bounds. Deadlift is seeing the most drastic improvement. Having to really hold back from maxing out all the time right now because I feel stupid strong on the pull. What’s been the biggest change has been work capacity. I feel like I could just keep lifting forever and have to reign myself in. Where I normally would have hit a wall, there isn’t one. Instead, there’s like a spooky forest up ahead and it’s like, ‘Yo you wanna come see or what’s up?’ And I gotta keep reminding myself I’ll still need my tendons and CNS next week.

Muscular endurance seems to be affected disproportionately to CNS endurance. I can push way harder and longer in a workout, but the after effects are proportionate. I assumed steroids made you recover way quicker like Wolverine, but I didn’t factor in that you can also do an unnatural amount of taxing work. I’d have a great workout, PR everything, and then my bones would hurt the next day. I’d have soreness that goes beyond DOMS. It’s extreme stiffness and pain. Every step of my morning walk would hurt a little. Don’t get me wrong. It’s great to be able to do that. Your limiting factor becomes your CNS and your mind though. I’ll be mid-set like, ‘Oh my god can we please start approaching failure in some capacity already please?’

I was hoping testosterone would help more with CNS recovery. One of my justifications for getting on gear was that it would increase my stress tolerance and drive for everyday life and therefore make me a better husband, father, and business owner. Being a better athlete would be a really fun side-benefit. The thing is - we want two kids. We have a 9-month-old and I wanna knock up the misses in another 9 months (~18 months is what it takes a woman’s body to fully recover from pregnancy and childbirth).

The plan was to run a ~16 week cycle, then PCT for a month or two, and be good to go by that 9-month mark. Knock that out, then hop back on gear permanently. Every time you shut yourself down, there’s a chance you don’t recover. It’s a very remote chance if you’re young and healthy, but it’s there. And I only have this one body. Steroids alter your DNA expression permanently. We don’t know what we don’t know and I don’t want to pass any bullshit down to my kid genetically or epigenetically. I very much do want most of the changes in DNA expression for myself, but not for my unborn kid. Also, fuck feeling like shit for a month+ on PCT. That’s a long ass time. Fuck that.

You start to get shut down about a month in. I haven't experienced a single side effect (no AI either). I can stop now and be fine. So that's what I'm reluctantly doing.

I’m gonna stay on the GH until it runs out because GH is great and doesn’t affect any of the aforementioned afaik. After the misses is past the first trimester with kid #2, I’m gonna hop back on everything and become a lifer. I’m a simple man. I just want to drink 2 liters of Coke while doing snatches in my yard and listening to Russian hardstyle. This is when I’m truly happy. I'm starting coaching with Tom Sroka in the meantime. I’ll win some super heavyweight Master’s weightlifting comps later on. See you in two years, steroids.

 

Assuming this is a joke, but if on the off chance it's legit I'm curious about the following:

1) Does infertility run in your family / have you tried to have kids before and struggled? For the most part, testosterone usage can cause infertility, which seems to be the opposite of what you want.

2) I know you mentioned how you don't feel any side effects, but you also just started recently. The side effects are what come months / years later. If you look up most IFBB pros, you'll notice most have some sort of health conditions once they're over 50 (e.g. Ronnie Coleman, tom platz, etc.). While in the short term, you'll certainly put on lean muscle mass, you can lose most of it once you cycle off (generally will convert to fat). Are you ready for the consequences here?

On another note, if you're looking for general guidance on gear, I'd watch Greg doucette on youtube. He's openly admitted about his steroid use and speaks about the pros and cons (TLDR: he does not recommend it unless ur life is bodybuilding).

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Hymn

2) I know you mentioned how you don't feel any side effects, but you also just started recently. The side effects are what come months / years later. If you look up most IFBB pros, you'll notice most have some sort of health conditions once they're over 50 (e.g. Ronnie Coleman, tom platz, etc.). While in the short term, you'll certainly put on lean muscle mass, you can lose most of it once you cycle off (generally will convert to fat). Are you ready for the consequences here?

On another note, if you're looking for general guidance on gear, I'd watch Greg doucette on youtube. He's openly admitted about his steroid use and speaks about the pros and cons (TLDR: he does not recommend it unless ur life is bodybuilding).

Those guys also ran an unhealthy and unsustainable amount of gear for decades+. Most AAS users will not come close to using that amount; AAS are largely safe, even in the long term, when used at reasonable amounts. Most people who use AAS are not running the 3+ grams/week of gear that open class IFBB pros are running. I personally know for a fact some IFBB pros are running over 3g/week of just test, not inclusive of the orals, GH, insulin, etc. they are also running. The problem is IFBB pros abuse steroids for long periods of time to chase their dreams of a podium finish at the Olympia.

Your last comment in 2 is plain dumb and wrong and shows that you know little to nothing about how AAS affect the body. The muscle gained on AAS simply does not just "turn to fat" unless you completely stop training and dieting post-cycle and completely mismanage PCT. At worst if you stop using AAS but continue proper training and dieting you will revert down to your genetic limit of muscle mass.

Greg is also not someone I'd recommend for learning about AAS use. His message is okay for his general gym bro audience (especially since most of his audience are not competitive in bodybuilding/powerlifting/strongman), but for anyone seriously considering AAS/PED use there are better resources to listen to and learn from. Greg's info is too dumbed down for anyone seriously considering AAS use; people should actually educate themselves on the pharmacology behind these substances, how to interpret their own blood work, etc. If we're sticking to YouTube, I'd recommend MorePlatesMoreDates, Vigorous Steve, Ben Pollack, Pete Rubish, Anabolic Doc, and Leo Longevity.

 
Thomas Pynchon

Hymn

2) I know you mentioned how you don't feel any side effects, but you also just started recently. The side effects are what come months / years later. If you look up most IFBB pros, you'll notice most have some sort of health conditions once they're over 50 (e.g. Ronnie Coleman, tom platz, etc.). While in the short term, you'll certainly put on lean muscle mass, you can lose most of it once you cycle off (generally will convert to fat). Are you ready for the consequences here?

On another note, if you're looking for general guidance on gear, I'd watch Greg doucette on youtube. He's openly admitted about his steroid use and speaks about the pros and cons (TLDR: he does not recommend it unless ur life is bodybuilding).

Those guys also ran an unhealthy and unsustainable amount of gear for decades+. Most AAS users will not come close to using that amount; AAS are largely safe, even in the long term, when used at reasonable amounts. Most people who use AAS are not running the 3+ grams/week of gear that open class IFBB pros are running. I personally know for a fact some IFBB pros are running over 3g/week of just test, not inclusive of the orals, GH, insulin, etc. they are also running. The problem is IFBB pros abuse steroids for long periods of time to chase their dreams of a podium finish at the Olympia.

Your last comment in 2 is plain dumb and wrong and shows that you know little to nothing about how AAS affect the body. The muscle gained on AAS simply does not just "turn to fat" unless you completely stop training and dieting post-cycle and completely mismanage PCT. At worst if you stop using AAS but continue proper training and dieting you will revert down to your genetic limit of muscle mass.

Greg is also not someone I'd recommend for learning about AAS use. His message is okay for his general gym bro audience (especially since most of his audience are not competitive in bodybuilding/powerlifting/strongman), but for anyone seriously considering AAS/PED use there are better resources to listen to and learn from. Greg's info is too dumbed down for anyone seriously considering AAS use; people should actually educate themselves on the pharmacology behind these substances, how to interpret their own blood work, etc. If we're sticking to YouTube, I'd recommend MorePlatesMoreDates, Vigorous Steve, Ben Pollack, Pete Rubish, Anabolic Doc, and Leo Longevity.

You take and encourage others to take steroids, but you’re afraid to get the COVID vaccine because you don’t know what the long term effect will be?

 

Any favorite bodybuilders?

I follow Calum Von Moger and Chris Bumstead

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

Goddammit man lol. This is exactly what I was hoping WOULDN'T happen when we last interacted on this subject. Honestly, if you got HCG and/or HMG and ran it concurrently while on-cycle you'd retain testicular size and function. HMG (while tough to get and fairly expensive) is an actual replacement for FSH. You already knew you'd want kids before you started, so I'm confused as to why this became an even more serious concern a few weeks into your cycle. Also seems like you've decided to focus on Oly. If you want to compete in any IWF-affiliate federation, they are all WADA-compliant, so AAS use is out of the question. I'm glad you've found a good coach though (I know someone who has previously worked with Tom and people who have competed against him), so hopefully these types of rash decisions can be avoided in the future.

Think the takeaway here is that people need to think long and hard about the decision to use AAS and other PEDs and not blindly rush into it. I think most people who are considering should wait six months to a year after first thought to really think hard about the amount of commitment needed and to properly educate themselves on the pros, cons, risks, and safe use.

 

Yoo I was trying to find your name to thank you for the advice in this post but couldn't find it. Yeah I'm still gonna do everything I like but I want to focus on Oly I decided. It's a low sunk cost endeavor so far so no ragrats. What changed is I learned more shit and particularly Mike Isratel convinced me that cycling is pussyfooting around the issue and only really useful when trying to cheat at sport. I couldn't find hcg and even if I did, it's still a risk. Anything other than 100% natural conception is a risk imo the more I think about it, I just can't in good conscience risk any harm to my family for my own fun experimental purposes.

Gear feels great and I can't wait to go back on.

heister: Look at all these wannabe richies hating on an expensive salad. https://arthuxtable.com/
 

All good! You did run a bit more than I would have for a first cycle, but it wasn't totally stupid (600 test and 400 tren + insulin for example lol). And yeah I agree with Dr. Mike and everyone else who's in the camp of "if you're going on, stay on." Totally understand the desire to have a natural conception! All in all, this is why I firmly believe people should take a solid year to think critically and get educated about the choice to use before their first pin so as to not be rash. Circumstances can also change fast.

Good luck with Oly - it's by far the hardest strength sport to learn because the technical requirement to be good is so high. Hopefully, Tom has you drilling technique and movement pattern regressions for the next 3-6 months. 

 

I did a cycle of prohormones hard when I was in my wrestling days after the advice of 1 of my friends. I've kept most of my weight (went from 190ish to 215, was 230 while on it). Increased my strength tremendously. 

Yea GoldenCinderblock I remember working out and being like "Still?" as I just kept throwing weight on the bar. And I was on the prohormones could imagine how it would be on gas.

 
TheBusinessAdministrationMajor

Dude, post a before and after on your youtube channel and link it here.

He is banned

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

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