Here goes.. My before pics (current as of 1/7)

[GearHeaded]

well your clearly putting the hours in the gym as the muscle fullness and size is progressing well. IMO, size and fullness is really what you should be after at this stage. I understand your recomping right now which is fine. BUT don't get tempted into wanting to get super lean and shredded yet, you'll just end up taking 1 step forward and 2 steps back. you need a solid large chunk of clay in which to sculpt from.
and your not quite there imo. to be blunt, if you got off cycle and you shredded down to say 8% body fat, when you wear a T-shirt no one is going to think your a body builder. sure when you take the shirt off and your shredded everyone will know you work out BUT, I'm guessing your overall goal is more size and muscle mass then then that.

So having said that. my thoughts are this. Spend a solid 12 months trying to add more muscle and more overall size. Do maybe 3 mini cuts along the way just to improve insulin sensitivity (but make them short 4 week is all). Do not worry about being super lean during this phase and trying to have a 6 pack. in fact you'll want to spend this whole year developing your abs as well, that way when you go to shred down reveal your abs they will be fully developed and really pop (right now they are under developed).
its good that your on TRT. you can spend the whole year doing compound rotation and really push for growth. basically you'll run AAS 8 or so weeks on, then 4 weeks on TRT, then 8 weeks on, then 4 weeks on TRT. Rotating different compounds in through out the year. This will keep you 'sensitized', basically as you desensitize to say Nandro after about 8 weeks, you'll drop it and rotate in say Ment for example.
you'll stack multiple compounds from class 1 and class 2 steriods,, inter changing them out along this whole process.

^ you can PM me for more details as to how to do this, what compounds, dosages, etc.. as this is a more advanced protocol and way of doing things and may not be best laid out in detail on a public forum

for this one year spent on gaining size I'd highly recommend running HGH and Insulin. you'll build a lot of new tissue over the year and then when you go to cut this 'new tissue' will be there ready to pop.. when you go to cut, and you run a heavy cycle of AAS on a cut, with say a high carb, med protein low fat deficit diet, this new tissue will respond to the AAS and really fill out and as the fat falls off you'll look even bigger and fuller. you'll have more tissue to fill out.

Training , I'd focus on growth orientated training and use progressive overload through out the year. I'd schedule out several different periodized training blocks with different phases. you'll want some phases focused on mechanical tension, other phases focuses on volume and metabolite, and an occasion short training phase focused on strength,.. then you'll want phases where you really focus on frequency and volume and drop the intensity.. deload, then do a phase where you focus on intensity and load and not as much frequency.
you can actually lay this all out in a year long Macro cycle, that consists of say four 3 month long meso cycles, with several micro cycles using the different 'phases' like I describe above.

Diet is going to depend on what phase of training your in. If your in a phase where your doing a lot of metabolite and volume training then your carb intake is going to be super high.. if your in a strength phase or mechanical tension phase then protein will need to be higher.
you can "periodize" your diet along with your training. but for growth you'll want to be in a surplus all year other then those short mini cuts.

I'd recommend using Metformin and GDAs during this whole process.


ABS- thats your weakest body part. I would do cell swelling work for abs at the end of every workout (on top of your normal ab training).
how you do this is pick an exercise and a weight that you can maybe do 30 reps with (eg., cable rope crunches) and do 100 reps. sure you may fail at rep 30 or so, but just rest 5 seconds and keep going, rest, keep going, rest keep going, until you hit 100 reps.
you will have a ton of blood and severe pump in your abs.

V-taper - you'll look leaner and thinner with a more pronounced v taper. start implementing some heavy compound lifts for the upper body. work up to 225lbs for 5 reps of strict seated over head press. Work on some heavy incline bench press, say 315 for 5. Power shrugs in a rack, super heavy, say 5+ plates per side for 5 reps. snatch grip Rack pulls, same thing heavy for 5 reps. heavy bent over rows for 5.

the theme here is adding in some heavy upper body compounds will help develop overall thickness in your upper body.. use those along with a shit ton of different side lateral raises and lat work. and your V taper will start to come together.

arms - sorry bro your never going to have great biceps because your insertion point is so high. work that outer head to develop the appearance of height (so a lot of hammer curls) , but most your arm size is going to be coming from your triceps as they are a stronger body part for you. heavy JM presses and close grip bench press if your elbows can handle it will put size on your tris


anyhow those are some of my thoughts. keep getting after it , from the pics is clearly apparent your putting the work in

[AlphaMindz]

well your clearly putting the hours in the gym as the muscle fullness and size is progressing well. IMO, size and fullness is really what you should be after at this stage.For sure I understand your recomping right now which is fine. Exactly glad you remembered that. I was trying to get a decent base and composition to build from. Certainly don't consider myself big lol. This time has been spent just laying the ground work. BUT don't get tempted into wanting to get super lean and shredded yet, you'll just end up taking 1 step forward and 2 steps back.See this is clearly where your experience shines. I've almost fallen victim to this several times when I've gotten frustrated.. Feeling like I wasn't progressing fast enough either in size gain or fat loss..So I had to have discipline and STICK to the recomp.. ( you need a solid large chunk of clay in which to sculpt from.
and your not quite there imo.No worries I'm under no illusions lol to be blunt, if you got off cycle No why would I even wanna do that lmao!?and you shredded down to say 8% body fat, when you wear a T-shirt no one is going to think your a body builder. sure when you take the shirt off and your shredded everyone will know you work out BUT, I'm guessing your overall goal is more size and muscle mass then then that.Absolutely

So having said that. my thoughts are this. Spend a solid 12 months trying to add more muscle and more overall size.I'm actually finishing up my recomp in a few weeks.. I was gonna try to get leaner so my abs show more before bulking but if they're underdeveloped then there's no point in leaning out.. I'm just going to roll right into a bulking phase with some "wet" compounds and still eat clean so my BF doesn't go up too much but build some real size....abs included lol Do maybe 3 mini cuts along the way just to improve insulin sensitivity (but make them short 4 week is all). Ok Do not worry about being super lean during this phase and trying to have a 6 pack. in fact you'll want to spend this whole year developing your abs as well, that way when you go to shred down reveal your abs they will be fully developed and really pop (right now they are under developed).Goctha. Thanks for the truth and yes it is tempting to go for aesthetics right away but great point in really building the mass before worrying about being lean.
its good that your on TRT. you can spend the whole year doing compound rotation and really push for growth. basically you'll run AAS 8 or so weeks on, then 4 weeks on TRT, then 8 weeks on, then 4 weeks on TRT.I was honestly planning on basically staying on sh*t steady but rotating compounds. Wasn't gonna just ride on just TRT test for a while... At least until I've accomplished my initial goal and then maybe pulling it back a bit, giving my body a break, and then going in hard again.. (Even now though my doses aren't even high.. I'm on 4 compounds but super low doses.. You think I shouldn't do that for more than 8 weeks at a time? Rotating different compounds in through out the year. This will keep you 'sensitized', basically as you desensitize to say Nandro after about 8 weeks, you'll drop it and rotate in say Ment for example. Is this true for all compounds? We desensitize after approx 8 weeks...?
you'll stack multiple compounds from class 1 and class 2 steriods,, inter changing them out along this whole process. Class 1 and class 2..? I'll do some research on this. I'm familiar with the different types like 19 nor, dht and progestin and how they interact but honestly don't know much about the classes...

^ you can PM me for more details as to how to do this, what compounds, dosages, etc.. as this is a more advanced protocol and way of doing things and may not be best laid out in detail on a public forum You got it bro. Thank you. You've been solid af to have in my corner

for this one year spent on gaining size I'd highly recommend running HGH and Insulin. you'll build a lot of new tissue over the year and then when you go to cut this 'new tissue' will be there ready to pop.. when you go to cut, and you run a heavy cycle of AAS on a cut, with say a high carb, med protein low fat deficit diet, this new tissue will respond to the AAS and really fill out and as the fat falls off you'll look even bigger and fuller. you'll have more tissue to fill out. Hell yeah you make that sound awesome dude lol. I actually just ordered 400ius of growth to get that started. The insulin I'm still a little nervous about I really need to integrate the protocols you've shown me because that's something I can't afford to f*ck up.

Training , I'd focus on growth orientated training and use progressive overload through out the year. I'd schedule out several different periodized training blocks with different phases. you'll want some phases focused on mechanical tension, other phases focuses on volume and metabolite, and an occasion short training phase focused on strength,.. then you'll want phases where you really focus on frequency and volume and drop the intensity.. deload, then do a phase where you focus on intensity and load and not as much frequency.
you can actually lay this all out in a year long Macro cycle, that consists of say four 3 month long meso cycles, with several micro cycles using the different 'phases' like I describe above. Great info man

Diet is going to depend on what phase of training your in. If your in a phase where your doing a lot of metabolite Need to research metabolite training... Currently do a lot of volume training.and volume training then your carb intake is going to be super high.. if your in a strength phase or mechanical tension Is this going really heavy...Like doing negatives..?phase then protein will need to be higher.
you can "periodize" your diet along with your training. but for growth you'll want to be in a surplus all year other then those short mini cuts.

I'd recommend using Metformin and GDAs during this whole process. I can get metformin no prob...what's GDAs?


ABS- thats your weakest body part. I would do cell swelling work for abs at the end of every workout (on top of your normal ab training).
how you do this is pick an exercise and a weight that you can maybe do 30 reps with (eg., cable rope crunches) and do 100 reps. sure you may fail at rep 30 or so, but just rest 5 seconds and keep going, rest, keep going, rest keep going, until you hit 100 reps.
you will have a ton of blood and severe pump in your abs. Beautiful. I started a thread for ideas to build up abs. This is great thanks bro going to destroy abs tonight lol...Oh btw,
I do abs usually every time I hit the gym which is usaully 4 times a week. Do you think that's too much? I'm trying to really push growth there. I notice for myself I grow more when I hit a muscle more times per week so applied same concept to abs...

V-taper - you'll look leaner and thinner with a more pronounced v taper. start implementing some heavy compound lifts for the upper body. work up to 225lbs for 5 reps of strict seated over head press. Work on some heavy incline bench press, say 315 for 5. Power shrugs in a rack, super heavy, say 5+ plates per side for 5 reps. snatch grip Rack pulls, same thing heavy for 5 reps. heavy bent over rows for 5.

the theme here is adding in some heavy upper body compounds will help develop overall thickness in your upper body.. use those along with a shit ton of different side lateral raises and lat work. and your V taper will start to come together. Got it

arms - sorry bro your never going to have great biceps because your insertion point is so high. work that outer head to develop the appearance of height (so a lot of hammer curls) , but most your arm size is going to be coming from your triceps as they are a stronger body part for you. heavy JM presses and close grip bench press if your elbows can handle it will put size on your tris Not gonna lie this one hurt a little lol. Yeah guess bi's are never gonna be a strong point but I'm just gonna hammer curl the sh*t out of them and just keep em growing. You're 100% right about my Tris they're one of my strongest muscle group I've really had to prioritize bi's to get them up to par but genetically I guess tris will always be better... However, with some growth factors maybe I can get those bi's to peak nicely!


anyhow those are some of my thoughts. keep getting after it , from the pics is clearly apparent your putting the work in

[B]Thank you my dude I appreciate you acknowledging that. That;s the beauty in this life style, if you're jacked then everyone knows you had to get there through blood sweat and tears... No short cuts. Yeah, people may say steroids are a shortcut but what we're building can't be reached naturally anyway so we're maybe streamlining the approach and being more efficient but the hard work still has to be put in! It's cool that you know that cause clearly you've had to put in the work to get to where you're at so you've already been where I'm at and I'm blessed to have your experience available to me as I progress along the way!.

Well first off, thank you for solid feedback man you gave me a lot to think about there. Hearing this stuff from a dude with your knowledge is invaluable and I don't take it for granted. Please refer to your post as I commented or questioned parts of it....

[GearHeaded]

so the 8 week blast plan is NOT that we completely 'de-sensitize' to a compound after 8 weeks , its just that we want to move on to a 'new' mechanism of action from the steroid to keep pushing gains.. just like in training, after 8 weeks or so we may want to up the poundage or introduce a new exercise to keep the body having to adapt.

if compound A is working on the androgen receptors for 8 weeks , we can then rotate a new compound in like a class 2 that works outside the androgen receptor and simply increases protein synthesis and nitrogen retention. its a way of adding a new stimulus , and to keep from de-sensitizing

[AlphaMindz]

So based on my knowledge of steroids.... this is the stack I was planning on jumping on to go into the bulking phase of my journey. Now that recomp is coming to an end, I was planning on running some "wet" compounds as you had suggested...

Maybe you can give me some insight into if these compounds are appropriate to run together based on their class...

Nandolone 600mg/week, Test is coming up to 750mg/week, keeping Winny in to maintain separation at just 25mg/day, and dropping Tren and Mast....Although I really feel like I'm giving up a piece of my heart by letting the Tren go lol. I'm thinking if I drop it for a couple months and then jump back on I'll be more "sensitized" to it like you mentioned and I'll respond better to it cause I feel like gains from Tren have plateaued... Also thinking that since Tren is a form of Nandrolone, if I switch to another Nandrolone then I'll won't lose any of the gains I've made on Tren.. (Although I'm guessing I'll lose some strength..) What do you think about this man?

[GearHeaded]

So based on my knowledge of steroids.... this is the stack I was planning on jumping on to go into the bulking phase of my journey. Now that recomp is coming to an end, I was planning on running some "wet" compounds as you had suggested...

Maybe you can give me some insight into if these compounds are appropriate to run together based on their class...

Nandolone 600mg/week, Test is coming up to 750mg/week, keeping Winny in to maintain separation at just 25mg/day, and dropping Tren and Mast....Although I really feel like I'm giving up a piece of my heart by letting the Tren go lol. I'm thinking if I drop it for a couple months and then jump back on I'll be more "sensitized" to it like you mentioned and I'll respond better to it cause I feel like gains from Tren have plateaued... Also thinking that since Tren is a form of Nandrolone, if I switch to another Nandrolone then I'll won't lose any of the gains I've made on Tren.. (Although I'm guessing I'll lose some strength..) What do you think about this man?

I absolutely agree with going from a recomp into a 'wet' bulk.

Deca or NPP (or preferably both, I always use NPP to front load any deca cycle I do) at the 600+ range with high dose of Test is a good start.
I'd do something like run NPP for the first 5 weeks at 100mg EOD then run Deca at 500mg per week for weeks 1-10 (or just run NPP at 600 with no deca . . . depends on what your doing with the deca, sometimes guys are cruising with it)
Running winny with this is not a bad idea, as it has a strong affinity to SHBG and will thus free up more test and make the deca and test both work better. HOWEVER , you can accomplish this with a lot less toxic compound then winny , you can use Proviron or a small dose of Mast, AND then you can add something like Dbol to your Test/Deca cycle. I don't advise Dbol and Winny together. but proviron or mast with Dbol is fine. Run the Dbol the whole 8-10 weeks of your blast. start at a high dose and taper down. you'll have a new found appreciation for Dbol if you run it properly . these short 4 weeks runs of Dbol are bullshit and the gains are pissed away. dbol can really help add size but you have to give it a chance to do its thing over time. its a great nutrient partitioner and its 'wet' in more then the estrogenic sense, it really helps fill out inter cellular water retention (which is a good thing for growth because when more glycogen and water are being forced into the muscle cells then so is more amino acids and nutrients)

Thats going to be a good 'wet' clean bulk and you'll put on lots of size.. when done with that take some time off and go to your cruise (pm me for cruise recommendations, as I don't like giving that out in public view)

yes take a break and get off the Tren train for just a short time. BUT , when your done with your short cruise, you'll jump right back on Tren, only this time you'll stack Tren with some bulkers instead of the cutters you been running it with. Tren stacked with bulkers is going to open up a whole new love affair for you with Tren, its a whole different animal. Stack Tren with some Anadrol and perhaps a low dose of Ment. keep your AI's limited, but run some Nolva and Caber if need be. Up your calories big time on this bulk. the Tren with bulkers like that and a higher amount of estrogen in the body is going to illicit a ton of natty IGF production and a ton of new growth.
taking HGH and some Slin at the same time of this, and you will blow up!! keep your diet clean and it will be good quality size.

take another break when your done with that cycle and cruise..

next round, its time to keep things clean for awhile and put on some size with some quality anabolics. low dose test with high doses of EQ, Primobolan, and a little more nandrolone, perhaps VAR as your oral. giving yourself a break from the harsher compounds and the more estrogenic compounds . may be a good time to run some peptides and some IGF during this phase as well. you won't have to worry about any estrogen sides during this time. your just going to keep it really clean and not blow up, but keep getting lean quality gains during this phase.

anyhow, now I'm just rambling on. just trying to paint a picture for you sort of speak of what things may look like and ideas to go about it

[AlphaMindz]

I absolutely agree with going from a recomp into a 'wet' bulk.

Deca or NPP (or preferably both, I always use NPP to front load any deca cycle I do) at the 600+ range with high dose of Test is a good start.
I'd do something like run NPP for the first 5 weeks at 100mg EOD then run Deca at 500mg per week for weeks 1-10 (or just run NPP at 600 with no deca . . . depends on what your doing with the deca, sometimes guys are cruising with it)
Running winny with this is not a bad idea, as it has a strong affinity to SHBG and will thus free up more test and make the deca and test both work better. HOWEVER , you can accomplish this with a lot less toxic compound then winny , you can use Proviron or a small dose of Mast, AND then you can add something like Dbol to your Test/Deca cycle. I don't advise Dbol and Winny together. but proviron or mast with Dbol is fine. Run the Dbol the whole 8-10 weeks of your blast. start at a high dose and taper down. you'll have a new found appreciation for Dbol if you run it properly . these short 4 weeks runs of Dbol are bullshit and the gains are pissed away. dbol can really help add size but you have to give it a chance to do its thing over time. its a great nutrient partitioner and its 'wet' in more then the estrogenic sense, it really helps fill out inter cellular water retention (which is a good thing for growth because when more glycogen and water are being forced into the muscle cells then so is more amino acids and nutrients)

Thats going to be a good 'wet' clean bulk and you'll put on lots of size.. when done with that take some time off and go to your cruise (pm me for cruise recommendations, as I don't like giving that out in public view)

yes take a break and get off the Tren train for just a short time. BUT , when your done with your short cruise, you'll jump right back on Tren, only this time you'll stack Tren with some bulkers instead of the cutters you been running it with. Tren stacked with bulkers is going to open up a whole new love affair for you with Tren, its a whole different animal. Stack Tren with some Anadrol and perhaps a low dose of Ment. keep your AI's limited, but run some Nolva and Caber if need be. Up your calories big time on this bulk. the Tren with bulkers like that and a higher amount of estrogen in the body is going to illicit a ton of natty IGF production and a ton of new growth.
taking HGH and some Slin at the same time of this, and you will blow up!! keep your diet clean and it will be good quality size.

take another break when your done with that cycle and cruise..

next round, its time to keep things clean for awhile and put on some size with some quality anabolics. low dose test with high doses of EQ, Primobolan, and a little more nandrolone, perhaps VAR as your oral. giving yourself a break from the harsher compounds and the more estrogenic compounds . may be a good time to run some peptides and some IGF during this phase as well. you won't have to worry about any estrogen sides during this time. your just going to keep it really clean and not blow up, but keep getting lean quality gains during this phase.

anyhow, now I'm just rambling on. just trying to paint a picture for you sort of speak of what things may look like and ideas to go about it

You painted one hell of a picture man. What your saying makes perfect sense to me. I can't wait to see how Tren works with some wet compounds cause I've only ever run it for recomp or cutting. Also very excited to see how I respond to the Nandrolone.

I feel like this is the exciting part cause I'm literally building this from scratch, and as badly as I wanna be huge, I also wanna enjoy the journey!

So you've been at it hard for about 6 years now? Can you remember when you made the most notable gains in terms of overall composition...?

Your advice has been so valuable bro I really appreciate how freely you give this info. I feel like it's worth so much! This has taught me that I need a coach if I wanna do this for real. Having someone like you in my corner is critical cause I would waste so much time not doing shit perfectly and if I just listen to you I feel like I'd be far more efficient.

Do you coach at all? How would that work? If we don't live close enough then would you have someone you could possibly refer me to or could we just do it via internet..? This is something I'm seriously considering.

[GearHeaded]

You painted one hell of a picture man. What your saying makes perfect sense to me. I can't wait to see how Tren works with some wet compounds cause I've only ever run it for recomp or cutting. Also very excited to see how I respond to the Nandrolone.

I feel like this is the exciting part cause I'm literally building this from scratch, and as badly as I wanna be huge, I also wanna enjoy the journey!

So you've been at it hard for about 6 years now? Can you remember when you made the most notable gains in terms of overall composition...?

Your advice has been so valuable bro I really appreciate how freely you give this info. I feel like it's worth so much! This has taught me that I need a coach if I wanna do this for real. Having someone like you in my corner is critical cause I would waste so much time not doing shit perfectly and if I just listen to you I feel like I'd be far more efficient.

Do you coach at all? How would that work? If we don't live close enough then would you have someone you could possibly refer me to or could we just do it via internet..? This is something I'm seriously considering.

whats in bold is the exact reason why people hire coaches. its a small cost for time saving efficiency and reaching goals. lots of guys spend years and years spinning their wheels and not getting much of anywhere.

YES I do online coaching as well as in person coaching and personal training. I even currently have veteran members of this forum whom I'm coaching.
full service online coaching consists of me designing training programs and protocols (using some advanced methods where needed), the diet in complete detail, supplementation, AAS protocols, "how to" coaching in regards to things like insulin timing and use,, and direct access to me 24/7 via phone and email to instruct, teach and coach.
I currently have about 30 clients. But coaching, training, and running my gym are my full time job , NOT a side gig, so I take the time needed with clients. PM me and I'll send you my email if you want to discuss details further

So you've been at it hard for about 6 years now? Can you remember when you made the most notable gains in terms of overall composition...?

I'm 40 years old. I took my first steroid injection at 17 years old (which was a mistake btw). my intrigue to study steroids goes back 23 years.. So yeah I've been involved in fitness in one way or another for a long time. not always bodybuilding though. I've spent a lot of years learning from people way smarter then myself. I've interacted with and learned from guys at a high level in the body building industry as well. I've paid guys to mentor me and teach me. Instead of paying thousands of dollars for a master or phd degree, waste a ton of that $ and only learn about 10% of what I need to know, , I simply pay people with those degrees to teach me the 'golden nuggets' of what they learned (they paid for the degree, and I'm just taking what I can from them

the most noticeable gains came a few years back when the synergy between diet, training, AND drug use came together for me and really clicked. lots of guys think of training as one thing, diet as another, and AAS as another ,, BUT when you sync these three things together and make one work for the other and vice a versa everything comes together.
I don't just have a fixed diet, a fixed training program, and then throw 12 week AAS cycles at it. I pick my food, I pick my training program, and I pick my drugs with a purpose to all work together.
when that clicked for me and I started periodizing my training, diet, and drug use, my body comp really started to change and take off.

now of course, life happens, and after that all came together for me I end up with major health issues and had 3 surgeries , was in a wheel chair and bed ridden for months . lost about 40 pounds of that hard earned muscle. but I'm recovering and its coming back I still have all the experience and all I learned in my head so it will all come back I'm sure. Though I don't have plans on getting too big with my blood pressure and heart issues, 5'9", 220, 10% is all I'm looking for (I'm really small boned, so thats fairly big for me). I got about 15 more pounds to go to get it back. but its not my main purpose, training and coaching clients and friends of mine at my gym is my main passion