First Post-Cycle later

[hawkflyer08]

Gents,

My story

35 yrs old
Lifting on and off for 10yrs, serious for last 2
Never cycled before
6'0"
190lbs-used to be 220 at 20% BF
14% BF now
32in waist, 17in arms, 17in neck
PR's are as follows
Bench-325
Squat-365
Dead- 405
Fairly clean diet
Protein, Creatine, PWO shakes and Casein at night, fish oil, BCAA's, Multi's Daily
Cardio 5 days a week for 30 min ea a.m.
Lift 6 days a week, have done numerous splits the last few yrs.

Looking towards AAS and have done a ton of reading on here and other sites. I will keep reading and posting, and then i'll read some more. Ill continue lifting but to be honest it doesnt seem that I have gotten a whole lot stronger the last yr or so. My bench, squat and dead have all pretty much stayed the same no matter what workout I do or diet I try. I think it's time for some help. Look forward to the mentoring from senior members here. Thanks in advance.

 

[ezred]

welcome man!

for starters i'd lift weights less often. instead of 6 days a week cut that back to 3. you might have hit a point where the training you were doing was actually overtraining for continued gains.

as you put on strength and muscle, you have to work out with a greater intensity in order to break it all down sufficiently to promote growth/strengthening. that means you have to rest more to make up for that. something's gotta give. the aas can speed up the recovery time, etc.

your testosterone production also tends to drop off slowly as you get older, and could've dropped just enough to no longer allow enough protein synthesis given your current workout schedule.

before you start your cycle, try dropping to 3 or 4 days per week and see if you can break that plateau.

and get a blood test done. if you're in the states you can get them for like 50 bucks if you follow the "get bloodwork done cheap" sticky. i think it is in there. i'll be REAL honest with you and tell you i've never read that sticky because i live overseas and most of the info will not apply to me at all, and i got my recommendations elsewhere for my specific situation. but yeah.... that's that.

my thoughts anyway.

again, welcome! read up, hang out, talk shit. have fun and learn something!

-ez

Gents,

My story

35 yrs old
Lifting on and off for 10yrs, serious for last 2
Never cycled before
6'0"
190lbs-used to be 220 at 20% BF
14% BF now
32in waist, 17in arms, 17in neck
PR's are as follows
Bench-325
Squat-365
Dead- 405
Fairly clean diet
Protein, Creatine, PWO shakes and Casein at night, fish oil, BCAA's, Multi's Daily
Cardio 5 days a week for 30 min ea a.m.
Lift 6 days a week, have done numerous splits the last few yrs.

Looking towards AAS and have done a ton of reading on here and other sites. I will keep reading and posting, and then i'll read some more. Ill continue lifting but to be honest it doesnt seem that I have gotten a whole lot stronger the last yr or so. My bench, squat and dead have all pretty much stayed the same no matter what workout I do or diet I try. I think it's time for some help. Look forward to the mentoring from senior members here. Thanks in advance.

 

[hawkflyer08]

Thanks EZ. I might have to try that and to be completely honest I might give a full body ie...Crossfit or Insanity a try for a few months just to give my joints a break and change up the routine. Maybe that will get me over the hump. There are a lot of guys in my unit that have started that type of workout and have had pretty good gains in strenght and size.

I see you are former military, I am current......you lucky bastard.

 

[ezred]

Thanks EZ. I might have to try that and to be completely honest I might give a full body ie...Crossfit or Insanity a try for a few months just to give my joints a break and change up the routine. Maybe that will get me over the hump. There are a lot of guys in my unit that have started that type of workout and have had pretty good gains in strenght and size.

I see you are former military, I am current......you lucky bastard.

insanity will give your joints a new kind of stress. lol. they do a lot of plyo in that.

some people think it is worthless.... a lot of bodybuilders seem to look down on anything that isn't pushing iron but i mean the idea of changing things up a bit, giving your body a break on some levels, might not be a bad thing. if you eat right while you do it i think you'd probably like it.

i have a history with bodyweight workouts and i've been doing plyomerics forever it seems. i play basketball, the two go well together.

i left the military to settle down into a family lifestyle that i couldn't get doing what i was doing.... and didn't really want to do anything else. enjoy our time while you're in though. there's not really anything else like it, so take advantage of the unique situations you get a chance to be in. if staying in ain't your thing, you'll be out before you know it anyway.

 

[zedhed]

Cant add anything to what these bros already said. I would stress getting a blood test tho. Get a full male panel and then post up your results on here. At your age prolly just about ready for TRT.
Good luck bro and kudo for an intelligent and well thought out post on cycling.

 

[hawkflyer08]

Thanks man, Ive been doing some reading on testosterone replacement therapy (TRT). Ill get a panel here in a few weeks and post it for some feedback. Thanks for the reply.