1st cycle progress so far

[Micklos]

View attachment 557502

Here's my weight chart for my first cycle. . My diet ain't been great and there have been some unexpected glitches resulting in missed training, but it's going well. Over 20lb gained, 3 full weeks to go, plus the time it takes for my levels to drop after that, and I've lost a little fat, too. I took D-bol the first 5 weeks, so I'm guessing that explains the weight loss half way through. I kept the strength gains, but only just. Like it was hard work to match what I was doing on the D-bol and just maintain, but it's starting to go up again now.
I'm wondering when the best time is to take a break...I always respond well to a week or tow off training, but this is a pretty crucial time. I was planning on finishing PCT, waiting a few weeks to see how well I kept the strength gains, and then taking a break, but I heard some broscience making a convincing case for taking the break DURING PCT, stuffing my face and avoiding the gym and keeping cortisol levels low. I also heard less believable reasons to take a break between last pin and PCT. Not really an option in my case, as I'll be on holiday, and I love my holiday workouts for some reason. (Still, how on earth could it make sense to do that?)

By the way, I was weighing myself first thing on Monday mornings, so the weights shown are at the start of the week. Except the red one at the end where I weighed myself a few days early because I looked bigger in the mirror and wanted to see if I was right about that. I'll be swapping it for Monday's real weight on Monday

 

[jozifp103]

ya i really would never recommend not working out during pct. I would recommend lowering the volume. keep the weight heavy but don't do as many sets/reps per body part. this will maintain strength and keep the muscle atrophy low enough that you will be able to recover.

My experience, at the end of my 2nd cycle i was benching 255 till failure (roughly 12) on my last set. once i started pct i put on 275 and went for 5-8. I was able to complete this amount of reps throughout the entire pct without reaching failure, thus minimizing atrophy giving myself a better chance of recovery despite my low levels of test.

I use my second cycle as the example because my first cycle I tried the low weight high reps approach and lost a ton of strength and size during pct. 2nd cycle kept 80% of my gains through pct.

And most importantly don't forget to eat during pct of the muscle will disappear!

 

[Forged by Failure]

If you don't feel like you need a break then don't take one. On pct you will feel like you need a break, IDK but I won't take one. I kept training for a couple weeks after pct b4 deloading despite feeling overtrained.

Jozifp gave some great advice though, KEEP LIFTING HEAVY. I periodize my training and planned for the high rep shit to start right after pct, I feel like that was a mistake and wont do it again, I have lost a good amount of strength now that I'm getting back to the lower rep ranges, despite keeping that strength through pct

 

[Micklos]

Thanks guys. I already stay around 5 reps on deadlifts, but I seem to respond better to higher reps on squats, and on bench 12 or more seems to be the magic number, but I think I'll go down to 5 or 6 on my compound lifts during PCT. I guess I'll concentrate on getting through PCT, then just keep going as long as I feel I can. I'd wait for my levels to get back to normal, but I just can't find anywhere to get bloods done around here without taking time off work. I've yet to ask at the needle exchange, but I doubt it. They offer such odd combinations of pins in those little packs that I doubt they have steroid users in mind. Actually, the nurse at work might be able to arrange something, but I'm a sub-contractor, so I don't see the company letting her waste her time on it. The only chance I have of getting it done without taking time off work is if my local surgery can book me in on a Friday. I wouldn't even know where my nearest private hospital or surgery is.

 

[PrinceDianabol]

Yep training is absolutely necessary during PCT to help maintain gains. Diet is even more important though, even if you gain a little fat during PCT its always good to make sure you stay in a caloric surplus. The better you recover the more cycles you can do in the future..

 

[Micklos]

Yep training is absolutely necessary during PCT to help maintain gains. Diet is even more important though, even if you gain a little fat during PCT its always good to make sure you stay in a caloric surplus. The better you recover the more cycles you can do in the future..

Getting shredded has never been my intention. Certainly not the modern "contest ready" look where individual striations in muscles are visible. I prefer the look of Arnie. And not contest Arnie, but movie Arnie. Conan era before his lats disappeared! lol.
So, yeah. I'll just concentrate on big weights, low reps and eating a lot. I sure don't feel like taking a break right now. In fact, I'm thinking about working out twice a day and hitting every muscle twice a week. I'm getting no DOMS at all. Then again, caution might be wise. My lifts have all gone up quite a lot, so maybe I should let my tendons and skeleton catch up. Maybe I'll just maintain for a couple of months after PCT. Any thoughts on that? I haven't been in this position before, so it's all guessing. I know what fells right right now, but I have no idea what's a month down the road. I dunno how much my 1 rep max's have gone up, but, for example, my bench has gone up by 30KG (66lb) and I've been doing 4 sets of 12, shooting for failure on the last rep of the last set. (I used to train to failure on every set and it just wasn't for me. After one set to failure, I can't do more than a couple of reps next set unless I take breaks that are stupidly long. I dunno if that means I mostly have type I fibers, type II fibers, lack cardio fitness, or just am able to recruit a lot of muscle fibers and do a job on the muscle first time around)

 

[jozifp103]

yep you got the right idea on all this. just remember that you're not looking to progress during pct, just to maintain, so less is more to an extent. best of luck!

 

[Micklos]

yep you got the right idea on all this. just remember that you're not looking to progress during pct, just to maintain, so less is more to an extent. best of luck!

All too easy! lol. I think it was good that I started lifting thinking you have to go to muscular failure on every set. Everything has seemed pretty easy since I stopped doing that. Sometimes I leave the gym thinking, "Well, how the Hell am I supposed to grow from THAT? It doesn't even hurt to breathe!" lol. I wasted a lot of time that way, but it's good to do a normal workout and feel like I'm taking it easy and still gain. I never put on much weight at all back when I was overtraining all the time.

 

[jozifp103]

i did the same exact thing. read a ton of articles that says you HAVE to complete every set to failure to achieve muscle hypertrophy. it worked ok at first because when you start lifting you make gains no matter what you do lol. Took me a couple years to realize that there is no definite right or wrong way to lift. Different people respond to different types of lifting and that diet was the most important part. Now I just lift whatever way "feels" right and gives me the best pump.

 

[Forged by Failure]

I recently came to the conclusion that training till failure on every set isn't the best route either. Now I like to spend the first part of my workouts not training till failure, after something like 5 sets I hit failure and start training the rest of the sets till failure.

Its not bc my cns was getting fried, my body could handle it but much like the op my weights would go down significantly after the first set and I feel it was detrimental to the total amount of overall tension I could put on the muscle. After a handful of sets the weights start going down anyways so I feel like that is the right time to train till failure

 

[Micklos]

Oh...has anyone else had the same weight loss after ending an oral kickstarter?

And yeah..I generally aim to fail on the last rep of the second to last set on compounds, then grind out as many as possible for the last set, and then do all my isolation sets to failure without worrying about counting reps. Seems to work for me

 

[PrinceDianabol]

Oh...has anyone else had the same weight loss after ending an oral kickstarter?

And yeah..I generally aim to fail on the last rep of the second to last set on compounds, then grind out as many as possible for the last set, and then do all my isolation sets to failure without worrying about counting reps. Seems to work for me

Very common.. Especially so with dbol. It aromatises very fast and is known to cause the most water retention of all steroids. Don't worry you didn't lose any muscle, it was all just water weight.

 

[Micklos]

Well, looking at the graph, it looks like I gained a fair bit of muscle on it. I guess I may still be carrying some extra water, but it sure doesn't look like it. The D-bol also got me horny as Hell, and made me feel great. Something I expected from the test, but I'm on week 10 now and have experienced no such effects. I guess it doesn't do all that for everyone.
Well, I'm still making gains, so it's all good.