After roaming these forums and soaking up information for a long time, I'm going to repay some dues and tell you about my 1st cycle. Let me warn you, there's not much to rave about but I think the experience is important nonetheless.
Stats: 37 y/o, 5'8", 162 lbs, ~13% BF, 20 yrs training experience, no cycle experience.
First a little background....I've been training consistently w/o long layoffs for 20 years now with varying intensity. At times I would hit it hard for a couple of months, then maintain or pull back a little due to minor injuries or a drop in motivation (as any vet will tell you it's hard to sustain the highest intensity for long periods w/o physical and mental burnout). As of the last year or so, I started entertaining the idea of trying AAS so I started researching. My goal was to gain some mass and strength but stay lean. I didn't want to get HUGE and certainly wasn't up for the sides like bloating, acne, gyno, etc. After researching and occasionally posting some questions on the board, I realized one recurring theme that the vets here kept emphasizing (esp to the youngns) and that was to get as optimized as possible naturally (i.e. most size/strength with the lowest bf you could), THEN try your hand at AAS. And that's just what I did. I hooked up with an old training partner and trained HARD, I mean harder than I had since my early 20's. After about 2 months, I went from 158lbs to 164lbs and recorded several personal bests, including deadlifts (275 x 2 sets of 8reps). My BF stayed pretty much the same while eating about 500 calories above my TDEE and relatively clean. Of note, I was on creatine before I started this regimen and didn't increase the dose during, so the gain wasn't from that. So it's safe to say that I gained about 6 lbs of quality muscle in 2 months with good strength considering my body weight. The reason I went through all of that is because I feel it's something to compare to naturally when using AAS.
After that regimen, I got really sick for 3 weeks, stopped training (stopped creatine) and my weight plummeted to 152!! I was feeble to say the least. People thought i had a disease. Anyway, i recovered from the illness. Restarted training (and creatine) and after a couple of weeks i was at 157. That's when I started Anavar, initially at 40mg/day. After 2 weeks, I felt absolutely nothing different than when i was training naturally. I mean I was gaining, but at the same pace as when i was hitting it hard naturally. I was like, hmm? So i upped the dose to 60mg/day during the 3rd week and still nothing. No side effects like decreased libido, oily skin, painful pumps, etc. So I upped it to 80mg/day for the last couple of weeks and I still have yet to feel anything different!! I'm currently at 162 lbs. I know it's supposed to be a "mild" steroid but to feel absolutely nothing seems a bit baffling. I entertained the possibility of having gotten bunk pills but my source was referred by a friend who had used their products successfully and I checked the brand out (the pills say "BP" on them) on the forums and most said they're legit. So what gives?? Any ideas from you guys would be much appreciated. I realized I was messing with what's considered a "wimpy" substitute for the real thing and I'm heading towards just trying a test only cycle, but just wanted to share my experience with those that are contemplating the same cycle and also to get some feedback. Thanks fellas....
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