Which steroid is right for me?

[tredburn08]

Hey guys, new here to the forums and just looking for some advice. Ill get my stats out of the way first. 21 yrs old, 6'1", 175 lbs @ approx 9% BF.

I am aware I am still young, but please hear me out. I have been lifting for about 4-5 years now being very serious about getting bigger the past 2-3 of those years. I made solid progress through the first year and a half when i got serious, but the latter half has slowed to almost a complete stop now. I am friends with a couple body builders and seems like they have tried to help me do everything under the sun to get past this slump. I have one more method im going to try before I turn to steroids, and if it does not work, I believe I will have hit my genetic wall.

Saying that, this thread is simply a safety net if I cannot get past my plateau. I have researched several steroids but it seems there are so many out there I cant put my finger on what I want. my requests are as follows: DO NOT want extreme water retention or fat gain, I'd like to stay somewhat cut but I want the muscle I gain to be mostly permanent, not lose 90% of what I gain when I come off of it. Someone said anavar would be good because even though it would yeild low gains in muscle due to it being a cutting agent, all gains would be nearly permanent. Anyone else have suggestions?

[marcus300]

AGE
In humans your Endocrine system is not fully functional until an average age of 25yrs, although the main development is up to around 21yrs it still fluctuates a little bit up to its fully functional age. There is a risk of permanently damaging your HPTA if you take AAS to young and you could end up with symptoms of andropause and HRT for life. Symptoms could be Limp dick, low libido, depression, low energy, low endurance, erection problems and many more but.......are these the types of symptoms you want to have in your 20's?. Believe me its hard to cope with these in your 40's yet alone in your prime of your life.

Around this age your Testosterone levels are the highest they going to be in your life naturally, so use what you have and don't take the risk of damage, I am passionate about this because ive seen it many times with young kids wanting to looking like their heroes and they think the answer is in an injection/tablet.

Taking AAS to young can also cause problems with development, one other main problem is premature sealing of your epiphyeal bone and the consequences mean that you wont grow as big as your genetics could allow you to, there is a test which can be done to see if your growth plates have sealed yet but the average age is around 21yrs old.



TRAINING
You need a few years of hard training under your belt before even considering taking any kind of anabolic support, people who jump on a cycle to soon without having some quality years under their belt usually results in injuries, it takes time to develop your connective tissue, tendons and nervous system to heavy overload training. Slowly getting your own system use to these kinds of extreme's will only help in muscle growth later on when you do decide to start taking AAS.

Build a solid foundation for muscle tissue to grow and maintaining and development will be far greater than without it. Many younger guys will start cycling before they have reached their genetic potential which is crazy when a good solid diet and training program will be far beneficial and productive to muscle building.

Workouts should be mainly focused on basic movements with a priority of over loading the muscle each and ever time you train, increasing your strength and ability to lift in proper form will help with building the foundation for future development


DIET
A lot of younger bodybuilders don't know how to eat. Researching and understanding how your own body responds will help you get to your natural limit, the right food at the right time and a full understanding of proteins,carbs, and fats will only help you succeed in achieving your natural goals. Keeping a diet diary will also help you understand the importance of macro, nutrients, calories and should help you see in which areas you could be going wrong in adding lean muscle tissue.

No matter how much anabolic support you have it will be worthless without proper nutrition, food will help build and maintain your valued muscle weather its natural, cycling or in PCT. Adjusting your food intake and consuming muscle building foods coupled with a solid training program will help you achieve your natural limit and foundation before you start AAS use.

This area is a huge problem with the younger guys and I can't express enough how important diet/food is when first starting out, post and pre training nutrition are very important and understanding how to load and feed the body will help push growth and create a very natural anabolic environment.

[tredburn08]

P.S. as far as when I say permanent muscle gain, if I can retain a half pound to full pound a week, im completely happy with that. my ultimate goal is 205 lbs at 6-7% BF

[Pac Man]

It's your diet and your age. I was a 'hard gainer' until 22, than I suddenly started packing on weight, it was ridiculous. If you want to bulk you're going to have to sacrifice your lean composition. 9% is a good place to be, bulk up naturally and try to hit 210 at 13%bf than cut back down to 9%. You don't need the juice yet. Just work hard, eat and everything will fall into place.
In a few years when you hit a real plateau come back and give aas a try.
For now stay, read, learn, lift, eat, grow

[tredburn08]

Hey Marcus, yes I have seen the age thing many times and I am well aware of risks associated with it. I am however goal driven at the same time. As far as experience, like I said i have 5 years of lifting experience and am friends with a few body builders. My diet is pretty solid, and helped me greatly until now. Ive tried adding calories as well as swapping out certain foods for others, trying new supplements, ect. but still nothing has worked for the past year. I got to 185 lbs at about 12% bf and thats about as far as ive been in a year

[tredburn08]

So what would you guys recommend for now? my plan is to get back to about 7% and then take another run up the mountain. The wrkout plan this time around will be alternating weeks of drop sets/pyramid. drop sets will be 12 rep and pyramid will be 2-4-6-8-10-12 and back down. ill most likely switch back to something more standard after about 8 weeks of this. Any other suggestions?

[marcus300]

The correct advice for someone with your stats is not to cycle, you diet is not sold otherwise you wouldnt be 178lbs and if you cycle you increase the risk of damage to your natural testosterone and that would give you sides you wished you never had oin your 20's.

I will leave your thread seeing that you wont take my advice and i will let another 20 yr old who doesnt know nothing tell you how to cycle, best of luck.

[Pac Man]

assuming your diet is solid, increase that by 1.5x. Now lift heavy, change your whole routine up. You can only do the same thing so long before it becomes ineffective.
Minimize isolation exercises and work on heavy compound movements. Squats and deads are great mass builders, don't neglect them.

[tredburn08]

Does your body respond to different workouts over time? When I first started serious I tried lifting heavy and my body didnt respond well at all...thats kinda why I started hanging around the body builders. They got me into doing high volume workouts and my body blew up. I would change cycles every 6 weeks between 12-15 rep, then to 8-10 rep, then a 4 week of 3-6 rep with a 2 week break. Is there a chance my body will respond better to heavy lifting now, or will I always be a high volume person?

[Eazy20]

First thing is first...Are you working your legs? I know plenty of people who claim to hit a plateau very early that never work their legs...Not only does working your legs release a ton of natty test, but your body also wants to grow proportionately and will resist growth if your legs are toothpicks and you're banging out your upper body. Not to mention it just looks dumb.

[tredburn08]

The correct advice for someone with your stats is not to cycle, you diet is not sold otherwise you wouldnt be 178lbs and if you cycle you increase the risk of damage to your natural testosterone and that would give you sides you wished you never had oin your 20's.

I will leave your thread seeing that you wont take my advice and i will let another 20 yr old who doesnt know nothing tell you how to cycle, best of luck.

And Marcus I never said I didnt want to take your advice. You dont know me, you dont know my diet, you dont know my workout. No offense but as far as I know you are another guy who gets on her to try to flaunt to people. Instead of being mr. badass because I said I am knowledgable about the risks at my age, why not put that aside and talk to me about how to break my plateau naturally?

[tredburn08]

First thing is first...Are you working your legs? I know plenty of people who claim to hit a plateau very early that never work their legs...Not only does working your legs release a ton of natty test, but your body also wants to grow proportionately and will resist growth if your legs are toothpicks and you're banging out your upper body. Not to mention it just looks dumb.

Like i said man, I hang around body builders. I basically follow their workouts.

[Tigershark]

Another young guy who doesn't want to listen to someone like Marcus who knows what they are talking about. Such is life on this board.

[Panamera]

OP Listen to the vets. Don't become a statistic.

[Hazard]

To the OP.....

I had your EXACT stats years ago..... I too was a "hard gainer" - you eventually will break through that plateau. I did and got to 200lbs naturally. I was a friggin bean pole lmfao! Try heading to the diet and training forums..... give those guys a chance to evaluate what you are doing before you jump into steroids. I'm telling you..... if you can break this plateau and hit 200lbs before you turn to the dark side - you'll be much happier. Whats going to happen when you hit a plateau at 225lbs while on aas? What do you do then? Increase the dosage?

This is the perfect learning experience for you..... and if you take advantage of it..... you'll be more successful down the road.

Good luck brotha,
~Haz~

[tredburn08]

Thanks guys, is there like a training type area within the site I can visit to talk to people about breaking my plateau and what not?

[lovbyts]

Reading between the lines it sounds like you are doing to much cardio to try to get your body fat down and you are starving your muscles hence not gaining weight. A lot of us do little to no cardio when trying to gain weight and use it only to cut.

If you are doing over 30 minutes of cardio you are probably doing this and your muscles will not gain/grow like you want.

[tredburn08]

Got up to about 13-14 percent body fat and thats my limit. I build til I hit that point then enter the cut phase. About 5 weeks out from being able to start a bulk phase again

[lovbyts]

Then it's still diet. Go visit the diet section. Everyone thinks their diet is in check or pretty good. Those of us who have been around a while learned quickly NO it's not and made changes to get to where we want to be.

If you cant gain then you arent eating enough of the right things at the right times. If you cant gain size naturally anything thing you gain with AAS you will loose as soon as you stop.

[cyounger100]

And Marcus I never said I didnt want to take your advice. You dont know me, you dont know my diet, you dont know my workout. No offense but as far as I know you are another guy who gets on her to try to flaunt to people. Instead of being mr. badass because I said I am knowledgable about the risks at my age, why not put that aside and talk to me about how to break my plateau naturally?

cause the bottom line is since u already knowned the risk s at your age and your are still stupid enough too cycle or even consider he knows you want listen anyway good luck fckin your self up

[fender99]

rather than cycling... just get married! that'll really make you pack on the poundage.. trust me :P

[songdog]

Right now you are to young bro.Proper diet rest and a good routine is all you need.See you in a couple of years.Good luck.