2nd Cycle Test/Deca coming off Cruise

[USVet81]

Day 2
Weight 192
Yesterday pinned 600mg test cyp 80/20 cyp/eth. Pinned 300 mg Deca.

It's been about 6-7 months since I finished my last thread about my first cycle.

History is:

35 year old male.
Test measured 1 year ago at 352 ng/dl

First cycle was 500 mg test/wk for 12 weeks with 250 iu HCG per week. Started out the first month also pinning Sermorelin Forte Plus but stopped because it was absolutely driving my appetite through the roof too much. I couldn't sleep because I felt like I was starving to death. Gained a ton of strength during that cycle. Can't recall where I started without looking at that thread but finished with maxes of 370 bench, 470ish squat, 510ish dead lift, 240ish shoulder press. Benched 225x23 times last July during PCT. I'm also an OCR competitor and saw my mile time at that time at 6:35/mile and a 10k time of 46 min. These probably don't exactly match my last post from July but it's in the ballpark for what I remember. Coming out of PCT I weighed just about 217. Had a bit more body fat then, then I would have liked.

Coming out of this I did a clomid/nolva/HCG PCT and recovered test levels to 295 ng/dl. After feeling great on cycle and settling back at my "normal" test levels I felt like a big sack of ass and decided to spend 6 months at 200 mg/wk cyp. Felt really good during that period. Truly I'm going to stay at least on TRT levels forever. My natural test is crap already so I flipped that switch.

So, couple of injuries this past 6 months. After being a runner for 20+ years I suddenly have recurring tendinitis in my right ankle. Weirdest damn thing. I've tried rehabbing it but it keeps popping back up.

Also, in October tore my left rotator cuff. Miraculously that's healed without surgery. I'm now to the point where I am putting a lot of weight on it and have no pain or swelling and have full range of motion.

I only mention these because they're really the first injuries I've ever had. Don't know if they're related to age, or the testosterone I've taken, or just bad luck.

So...

Photo from July 2016 nearing the end of my 500mg/wk cycle:


And photo now after 6 months at 200mg/wk and a 4 month cut. My cut was basically just burning 1000 calories a day, everyday, on a elliptical on top of my normal lifting routines. I would lift at 5am and do cardio at 5 pm. Went from 217 to 192 now (5'9").


Now that all of that boring junk is out of the way... To my next non-cruise cycle. I'm on day 2. Doing a low dose test lowish deca. I've never run deca so going to see how it play out at a 1:1 ratio. If my dong doesn't become crippled I will up the deca a bit more. Can't run more test because I only get x amount per 6 month period. Have to make it work. Also, front loaded test to reach a 300 mg/wk level off by wk 2 instead of dragging that out for a month+.

Cycle 2:

Wk 1: Test 600 mg./wk Deca 300mg/wk (day 1) then 150mg every 3rd to 4th day. 250 iu HCG/wk .25 mg Arimidex eod.
Wk 2-4 (deca dick test period): Test 300mg/wk Deca 300 mg/wk 250 iu HCG/wk .25 mg Arimidex eod.
Wk 5-16: Test 300 mg/wk Deca 400 mg/wk 250 iu HCG/wk .25 mg Arimidex eod.
Wk 17-19: Test 300 mg/wk 500 iu HCG/wk 25 mg arimidex eod.
Wk 20-24: Test 200 mg/wk HCG 1250 iu/wk .25 mg Arimidex eod.

I've got clomid and nolva although I understand nolva is a no no with Deca so if something goes south and I need to bail I have clomid and HCG. Also taking daily B vitamin complex, Amino Acid Supplements, and drinking a ton of water.

So there we have it. Please feel free to let me know if you believe I'm doing something too far out of the realm of sanity. I think I'm pretty ok here. I know that 3:2 is the bro science ratio for test-deca but I can't get more test. Can ironically get more Deca but that's how it goes... Goals here are to maintain top side strength (I don't need to really lift or squat a lot more than I do now) but to also add a significant amount of muscular endurance. I will post my workouts but you'll see the goals here are more towards 20 sets of 20 pull-ups or 25 sets of 25 push ups than adding weight. This cycle is intended to add long range capability to my base. Workouts will include heavy lifting in the AM on M,T, Th, Sa, cardio M,W,F, swimming M-F, endurance strength training M,W,F.

First observation... Deca is making me insanely hungry. Damn... I ate 2lbs of roast for dinner and I'm still starving.

[USVet81]

Day 3
Weight 192.4

6 a.m. : Ran 3 miles (24:07)
9 a.m. : Heavy shoulder/Triceps workout
6 pm : 25x4 push-ups, 25x4 sit-ups, 25x4 alternating lunges, 4x4 strict pull ups
7 pm: Swim laps continuously for 15 min

[USVet81]

Day 4
Weight 195
Pinned 2nd shots of 150mg test and 150mg deca. Took .25mg arimidex.

5 am: Heavy Chest and Biceps. 2 hour workout.
7 pm: More chest and biceps followed by a 15 min swim.

The appetite boost with Deca is really insane. Yesterday I ate 5 lbs of fish, chicken, and beef... 6 eggs, potatoes, rice, 5 pancakes (sue me... I was starving), a couple bananas, a few protein shakes... and I kid you not I went to bed hungry. I've only pinned 450 mg of Deca total thus far and it's barely been a week since I started this. I'm so so hungry....

[USVet81]

Day 7
Weight 193.4

Pinned 3rd shot of test: 150mg
Pinned 3rd shot of Deca: 150mg

Workout today: Squats and deadlifts
Ran 3 miles later... 9 minutes slower on the run today as a result of killing legs.

This week have hit all major muscle groups. Little bit of cardio, nothing crazy.

Quick question: Anybody ever add GHRP6 and GHRH8 to a test/Deca cycle? Any benefit to this?

[kelkel]

Why not go to a doc for TRT and get things nailed down with BW, etc., then blast when needed?
What is OCR?
Keep an eye on your E2 as you may need a bit more.

[USVet81]

Why not go to a doc for TRT and get things nailed down with BW, etc., then blast when needed?
What is OCR?
Keep an eye on your E2 as you may need a bit more.

Hey Kel.

TRT is my primary source for test. Thus the reason I can only get X quantity per 6 months.

I run bw before, mid, and post cycles and send the post cycle info in. Was a little different after staying at 200 mg for almost 6 months but still came off for the whole month of December before starting this up.

OCRs are "Obstacle Course Races". They're 7-13 mile off-road runs, for time, with 15-30 "obstacles" thrown in along the way (like tough mudder, spartan races, bone frog, etc). I've always had a decent combo of speed and strength and nearly qualified for the world championships last year. That's why I stayed at 200mg for nearly half a year and cut back to right about 190lbs. I can move 190 pretty well over that distance but 220 is a totally different animal.

Just to be clear. Are you saying AI may need to be increased above .25 mg Arimidex eod?

Thanks greatly for your reply.

[LaloJR]

bro, could I ask you what sides did you get form deca?

[kelkel]

Vet, sorry I misunderstood about the TRT. Wasn't clear to me.
Well, your OCR's would kill me. I'd cheer you on from the sidelines! Otherwise, I'd have a coronary.
Yes, I am saying your AI may need to go up a bit. Remember, deca aromatizes too, not as much as test but it still does. I'd be sure to pull some BW around week 6 to see how you're holding up. When E rises it can open the door (not all the time) for prolactin to rise as well.

[USVet81]

bro, could I ask you what sides did you get form deca?

Hey Lalo.

So far I'm really early into my experience with Deca. At this point I'm 8 days in and have pinned 600mg of it. With a half life of 15 days for the decanoate ester I wouldn't expect to see sides until probably week 3 or 4 if I see them at all.

Like all AAS our experiences will usually fall into one of several camps. Some who use Deca report using upwards of 650mg a week of Deca with as little as 200mg of test or even no test at all and are completely fine. Others have reported becoming impotent running 400 mg/wk of Deca with less than 600 mg test. In my case I am probably pushing the boundary a bit for what it seems most people do. The reason being is I have 6,800 mg test and 6,600 mg Deca. My cycle will get my test up to 300 mg per week for about 19 weeks before backing down to TRT levels of 200 mg per week. At the same time I will be pinning 300mg Deca for a couple of weeks while watching for sides. If I see none then I will increase to 400 mg of Deca per week with 300 mg test for a few months.

The biggest concern, always, I think with Deca is impotence. Even at 100mg one time it's shown to totally suppress 100% of your bodies natural testosterone production. At this point I should naturally not be producing any testosterone at all, in theory, based on this. Charts I've seen show that shutdown to occur within about 4-5 days of first injection and my first was 300mg. That's part of the reason I pinned 600mg test on the same day. The ether is shorter and I want to get my artificial testosterone levels up high enough to, ideally, counter any possible sides. There just doesn't seem to be a lot of discussion from people about using more Deca than test although it seems in my mind that this should be ok. At 300mg/wk of pharma grade test I would think my test level should be 2000 ng/dl+. Deca can't suppress that and I can't think of a way that I should develop any sort of erectile dysfunction at that level. Other things I'm mindful of are gyno, of course, as Deca induced gyno is a result of Decas conversion to a progesterone derivative with an affinity for progesterone receptors instead of directly to estrogen like test. Thus kelkels advice is well received and on point. In a couple of weeks I need to run labs and see where my E2 is. If it's too high I run the risk of sides and need to increase AI. If it's too low I will limit gains. In my experience with test at 500mg/wk I had a lot of water weight gain. I'm keeping a much closer eye on that now. It's a good gauge that estrogen is higher than it should be. So far though, no problemo.

One thing I noticed by day 2-3 was an immediate increase in appetite. Fortunately for me I raise cows... I have a rather endless supply of beef as a source of protein as I have half a cow in my freezer. Right now I am putting 3-5 lbs of roast in a crock pot every night and it's gone by early lunch. I have always had a problem keeping my appetite up but right now I can mow through 48oz of beef in one sitting and I'm hungry 20 min later. With testosterone alone this doesn't happen. A few days ago I ate 5 lbs of meat in one day on top of carbs... I was starving. It's just something I haven't encountered before.

[USVet81]

Day 8
Weight 197

Saturday but did 35 min of cardio on an elliptical. Burned 500 calories. That's all for today.

Show a scale increase of 5 lbs but I'm sure most of that is food. I've been eating like crazy this past week...

[USVet81]

Day 9
Weight 202lbs (+10 lbs)
Took .5mg Arimidex

Didn't exercise today, and it's probably the first day in a month or two where I didn't do "something". I feel good but haven't slept the best in the last few nights. This evening I took .5 mg Arimidex vs the planned .25 mg. The reason is the scale weight increase of 10lbs in 9 days. I'm eating but not that much over maintenance so I conclude I'm retaining water. The first 8 days of the cycle I pinned a total of 900mg test and 600mg anastrozole. With peak serum levels for both occurring after about 2 days I assume that conversion to estrogen is underway. Simply as an early precaution I upped Arimidex by .25 mg to bring it down if that's the case. I will go back to .25 mg in 2 days.

I have noticed visible reduction in tone but that's expected. I may up cardio a bit this next week to decrease water retention. Will see...

[USVet81]

Day 10
Weight 203.4
Pinned 150mg cyp/eth and 150mg Deca

Spent 2 hours in shoulders and triceps today. I felt it when I stopped exercising but I'm recovering really quick. I'm also noticing more fullness to my arms than pre cycle. Really good workout today.

Will do volume body weight sets of push-ups, sit-ups, and pull ups later.

[USVet81]

Day 15
Weight 198 (+6 lbs)
Pinned test and Deca 2 days ago. 150mg ea and 5th injection of each this cycle.

Weight gain has come back down as I identified water retention and have taken steps to counter. Strength is up. Pumps are getting better. There's definitely a physiological effect happening already. Prior to the cycle I had come off of a cruise dose about 6 weeks prior. During that time libido decreased as did all experiences waking up with the guy downstairs standing at attention. Such is life in your late 30s. 15 days in and libido is way up and increasing. Although my scale weight is only 6lbs higher so far I can no longer fit into form fitting shirts I was wearing 2 weeks ago. Between increases in arm, chest, and back size it's simply made them too tight. My objective here is 1-2lbs per week of lean gains for 16 weeks. During my first cycle I ate like a maniac, Drank weight gainer, drank a ton of protein, and my body fat exploded. Lesson learned... First cycle I gained 30+ lbs in 3 months... Sounds great but I'm trying to keep gains more lean this time so my calories are only 1000-1500 over maintenance each day. If I notice obvious fat increase I increase cardio for a bit to counter.

So anyway... Other things I've noticed. I'm getting annoyed more easily. Usually I'm very calm but I feel like a 16 year old kid who just got his phone taken away by mom and dad. Not angry... Just feeling annoyed. I'm still feeling tired following that 6 weeks off. Honestly I was hoping that would have resolved by now. Maybe I'm just working out hard or not getting enough sleep (have a 1 year old kid who maintains some crazy hours).

If improvements so far are simply a result of me working out harder then I really can't wait for 2-3 more weeks to go by.

Workouts this week have stuck to my initial post pretty well... I've hit every major muscle group from my neck to my ankles... I'm adding high rep body weight training in after some heavy weight lower rep workouts. Recovery seems better between sets and between days.

That's all for now.

[USVet81]

Day20
Weight 205 (+13)
Today pinned 150mg Test and 200mg Deca

This morning I went from a 1:1 Deca:Test ratio to a 4:3 ratio.

Thus far I've had no significant sides. This is as much as I will be pinning per week though for the remainder of the cycle (13 more weeks).

I've been hugging 4,000 calories a day and I believe that's too high. I'm definitely gaining muscle but it's also not as lean as I would like.

I've noticed size changes in my shoulders and arms, and have started getting random comments from people about it. Good to know I'm making progress visibly...

Today did stead state cardio for 65 minutes. Kept my heart rate elevated to about 160 bpm through that period and burned 1003 calories.

Also hit legs pretty well later in the day. Back squats, front squats, and dead lifts.

Recovered over a few hours enough that I wanted to go back to the gym. Spent an hour working through 40-50 reps of medium weight on delts, bis, tris, traps, and forearms. Was a little random but it's just how it went.

[LeeSin1]

inspiring! keep posting pics man, i like the results. nipples of power haha - i want my pecs to look like yours. i can't wait to do my own deca cycle, and your post really has inspired me. i added you as a friend. keep up the good work!

[USVet81]

Day 23
Weight 206.5 (+14.5)
Took .5 mg Arimidex today

Today wasn't a scheduled lifting day but I spent an hour working through delts and tris. I did feel weak for some reason. Normally I will warm up with 65lb dumbbells for shoulder press and work to 95s right now. Today I really had to push out the 65s. Just off today a little.

Photos today below. Getting ready for everything to actually start kicking in soon...

[USVet81]

Day 24
Weight: ? (I'm in bed already and don't feel like going to check)
Today pinned 150mg test/200mg Deca/500 iu HCG
Also taking 1.25 mg finasteride and rogain each day... But have been doing that for years. Keeping up with the B-complex vitamins, multi vitamins, and amino supplements even though I should be fine with those from meat.

Workout today lasted 2 hours. I would have gone longer but my wife started texting asking where I was (said I needed an oil change) so I headed home.

5x25 push-ups, 5x25 sit-ups, 5x5 pull-ups, 250 air squats (about 10 minutes to get through this).

Once all of that was done I took a 15 min breather and jumped into a chest, bis, forearms, and traps day. I honestly don't know how many sets I did. I started with a weight I can rep 10 times, then gradually increased weight until I could only rep 6... Took a few minutes to recover then did drop sets on flat bench from 315 down to 135 in 20lb increments, on preacher curls from 175 to 70 in 20 lb increments, and traps from 90lb dumbbells down to 40s in 5lb increments.

So, recovery is happening way faster. I feel fatigued when I finish a hard set but within a few minutes I feel 100%.

No negative effects yet with 300mg test and 400mg deca. Everything is working properly.

Acne is popping up more. This happens... Not terrible but seeing one or two on my shoulders and back.

Coming into my 4th week now I am really focusing on how I can maximize my diet and workouts... I've been thinking about it a lot and trying to figure out where I can work harder or eat better.

[USVet81]

Day 25
Weight 204 (+12)

Really good workout today. 3 hours of back, tris, and abs. I need to up my calories though. Looking at calorie burn during these workouts there's no way I'm getting enough. I'm just not getting tired once I get going now. Going to spend some time later this week dialing down different plans for days like this. I should probably be at 5,000 calories for the day but I'm nowhere near that right now.

[USVet81]

Day 26
Weight 206 (+14)

Rest day... Off schedule but didn't make it to the gym. Going to do legs tomorrow. Really need a good leg day.

[Kyle1337]

Sup Vet, making good progress it seems. I'm doing a similar cycle to this but a bit more advanced. This will be my 3rd cycle, I'm kinda moving quick on them as I'm recovering quickly haha. Gonna do prop/npp for 8 weeks and backload winny for 4 weeks to dry me out. Looking to put on 20+!! my last cycle was cyp/var and it helped me cut off some fat while maintaining my muscles.

[USVet81]

Hey dude. Doing good here. Sorry for the delay. I flew my son up north to visit family and we all wound up getting the flu. It's been a rough week. Ironically I got sick during my first cycle as well so I suppose this is par for the course. I'm sitting up 9 lbs now. It's obvious where it's at and I have the same level of definition I had to start now. Because of being sick I wound up doing, basically, a really intense cut for a week and a half at the 5 week point of my cycle. Hit it hard today and no loss of strength. I'm happy with that. Now hopefully the next 11 weeks are solid!!! Your source is better than mine. Lmao. Test and Deca are all I'm going to get going the route I am on right now. Hopefully I make enough progress by May that one of the other dudes at one of the gyms I goes too extends an olive branch and provides another avenue for sourcing gear. We can always dream...

[Grappler13]

Great log. Keep it up. Would love to see some bloods. This looks like my next cycle.


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[USVet81]

April 2nd Day 79
Weight 215 (+23 lbs)

Dropped off here for about 7 weeks... All has been going well. I've been constantly adjusting diet based on bf% increase or decrease. My goal here has been for leaner gains compared to my previous cycle where I put on way too much bf. So far so good. Started the cycle wearing 34" jeans... Still in them loosely. Weights distributed in my upper and lower body.

Through this point I've been pinning 300mg test (150mg every Monday and Thursday), 400mg Deca (every Monday) and 500iu HCG (250 iu M and Th). I'm taking .5 mg Anastrozole E3D and have had zero issues with water retention or puffy face.

My initial concerns were around libido and "function" based on horror stories of Deca but I haven't had any problems whatsoever. Photo below today. I will get blood drawn tomorrow or Tuesday.

Vascularity has been good and still getting better. Blood pressure has been high for a few weeks ranging from 145/80 to 161/95 with a resting pulse rate of 53-59. I do have a genetic predisposition to male pattern baldness but take finasteride and use rogain and have noticed no unusual hair loss.

It's a good cycle all in all. No crazy gains in strength but good gains in mass.

[USVet81]

Just a note... And I should have known better based on the length of the decanoate esther on the nandrolone side of my cycle... Coming into week 13 I lowered my testosterone dose to 200mg from 300mg. Seems the Deca level reached that magical threashold in relation to my lower test level and whala. Limp noodle. My wife and I actually chuckled about it as I've kept her up to speed on possibilities so she didn't blame herself if this happened. I went in and pinned 300mg test and we went to sleep. Yesterday was better. Today seems normal again.

So, make sure before you lower your testosterone intake that you drop the Deca totally a few weeks before. I had read this lots of times but had had such a good experience that I blew it off.

Just a note...

[Myers]

Just a note... And I should have known better based on the length of the decanoate esther on the nandrolone side of my cycle... Coming into week 13 I lowered my testosterone dose to 200mg from 300mg. Seems the Deca level reached that magical threashold in relation to my lower test level and whala. Limp noodle. My wife and I actually chuckled about it as I've kept her up to speed on possibilities so she didn't blame herself if this happened. I went in and pinned 300mg test and we went to sleep. Yesterday was better. Today seems normal again.

So, make sure before you lower your testosterone intake that you drop the Deca totally a few weeks before. I had read this lots of times but had had such a good experience that I blew it off.

Just a note...

Read most of your log , are you satisfied with the gains? How's BF%?

[USVet81]

I'm about as confused as I can be... Labs came back.

Keep in mind here that in the last 3 months I've not pinned more than 300mg test in any week. I've also taken 400mg Deca but that should not have impacted this...

How in the hell is my testosterone 4718? Free test is 158.44. E2 was also high at 62. FSH and LH are 0. Thus I am lead to believe the Deca was Deca. I'm totally shut down as would be expected. Based on previous experience I laid off AI because I'm at 60% of my first cycle. I figured I was in the clear. On my previous cycle my E2 never went above normal at 500mg/wk.

Next, with rediculous levels would gains be inhibited in any way? I mentioned a week or two ago that ED popped up breifly. Now I don't know how that's possible unless I was just very tired.

Hemocrit level is 54.3. Again... How?

Oddly, potassium level is 200% of normal. That one throws me for a loop. I'm looking into my supplements to see what could cause this.

I've only been doing this for 18 months so my experience is minimal. Anyone ever had a situation like this? 300 mg/wk with a test level of DAMN NEAR 5000?!?!