First Test E Cycle - Thorough Plan, Need Criticism

mike428

New member
Hey everyone, so after reading about this for years now, I've decided it's finally time to do this. Any comments, criticism, ideas, changes, anything is more than welcomed. I've spent a lot of time reading on this, and reading a bit more won't hurt.

First off, a little about me
-5'8" 165 lbs ~8% bf. (have been up to 175-180, carried a bit too much fat for my liking then)
-26 Years Old, Perfectly Healthy, Regular Physicals, Blood Tests done regularly - every things good to go.
-Former D1 Track and Field Athlete (short sprints and long jumper)
-Training since I was 15. Obviously training varies, from sports to track specific and the past few years more bodybuilding type.
-Science nerd, bachelors and masters in biochemistry, I've always had a very science based approach to training (even when I was younger, spent more time watching videos and reading books on form then most other kids) so if you would like to provide links to journals, studies, I would more than welcome it.

Game Plan
Alright game plan, until I get everything sorted out, everything in hand I plan on just bulking up and keep lifting heavy compounds, moving weight up as much as possible so I'm at a solid state to begin the cycle.

Here is what I've planned so far (you may have seen a similar excel spreadsheet online, I had to redo it just for my own ocd)

i.imgur.com/jqmWp.jpg

In case copy/pasting the link won't work, here is my cycle details.

Week 1 - 10: Test E, 500 mg/week (250 mg Mon. Morning and 250 mg Thurs. Night)
Week 1 - 10: Armidex .25 mg/ED
Week 1 - 10: hCG 500 IU/Week
Week 11 - 12: off
Week 13 - 14: Nolvadex 40mg/day
Week 15 - 16: Nolvadex 20mg/day

As you can see, pretty basic first cycle. I've seen hCG started the first/second week. As well as debate between small increments each week or use massive quantities in the end to kick start. I decided to go with the first week and small increments, any comments on that?

Also for the post cycle therapy (pct), there's a lot of debate between what to do, I went with the pretty normal route. Once again any comments? I'm debating between doing 20 mg each day through out the cycle...It was in the stickies, but kind of feel that it wouldn't be necessary. Maybe keep extra nolvadex on the side at all times?

As for other supplements, a very normal stack, multivitamin, fish oil and vitamin d3 (5000 IU/daily...yes vitamin d deficient). I've seen DAA thrown into the equation for this cycle, I'll throw it in if something goes wrong and it seems sufficient to use. It's easily accessible.

Injections, this is where I need the most advice. I'm doing these by my self and was thinking of doing front left thigh, front right thigh, left lateral thigh, right lateral thigh, repeat, and last two weeks do front left thigh and front right thigh (total of 10 weeks). These would be Monday morning 250 mg and Thursday night 250 mg (250 mg every 3.5 days). With 25 gauge x 1" length for test and 1 mL 29 gauge for the hCG.

Also as a note, I will have absolutely have all of this before starting. In case anything goes wrong, anything else I should obtain before starting?

As for training and diet, I'll post these in their respective sections to get better feedback but wanted to include this in here you guys can see the entire game plan.

Training

I've decided to go with Lyle McDonald generic bulking program, I've had absolutely great bulking results with it and want to try it out for this cycle. I am not as educated in training during cycles as much as I am with training off cycles. Any opinion on here would be nice, and I'm currently reading as much as I can on the training section down below. Here's what I have so far.

Monday: Lower
Squat 3x6 3'
Glute/Ham Raise 3x8 2'
Leg Press 3x12 2'
Leg Curl 3x12 2'
Standing Calf Raise 4x8 2'
Seated Calf Raise 3x12 2'
Core

Tuesday: Upper
Bench 3x6 3'
DB Row 3x8 2'
DB Shoulder Press 3x12 2'
Pull Ups (palms out) 3x12 2'
Tricep Ext. 2x12 1.5'
Preacher Curls 2x12 1.5'
Wrist Curls 2x12 1'

Thursday: Lower
Deadlifts 3x6 3'
Leg Press 3x8 2'
Leg Curl 3x12 2'
Standing Calf Raise 4x8 2'
Seated Calf Raise 3x12 2'
Core

Friday: Upper
Military Press 3x6 3'
Pull Ups (palms out) 3x8 2'
Flat DB Bench 3x12 2'
DB Rows 3x12 2'
Tricep Ext. 2x12 1.5'
Preacher Curls 2x12 1.5'
Wrist Curls 2x12 1'

I've always done 3x6-8, and lately have been forcing myself to get into the 10-12 rep range. I know it's more hyperthopy but the athlete in me always preferred lower reps and pumping out more weight. Does this seem sufficient? At first I had most of them at 3x10 instead of 3x12, so input on that would be great. I'll definitely take this down to the training section for more input.

Along with that, there will be a light jog warm up and dynamic stretches prior to working out and static stretches usually a few hours later or before bed. Along with foam rolling every night before bed.

Also being an avid runner, I just can't escape cardio. I will keep it a minimum, just to get my heart going and maybe throw in some short sprints or plyometrics on leg days (I'm very good and gauging my body and work outs, after more than a decade I can tell if my running is affecting my lifts). But once again, I have never tried a cycle before, so comments would be appreciated.

Nutrition
I've seen people start out low, then get higher as the cycle grows. I was thinking of starting at 3500, and judging from there. At about 50:30:20 (protein:carbs:fat). I've done a higher carb before but felt I grew the most with a high protein diet. Obviously, most of the calories if not all would come from eggs, oatmeal, protein shakes, fruits, nuts, chicken, steak, beef, greek yogurt, skim milk, brown rice. Along with my daily green tea and honey every morning :)

Well that's about it, every comment, criticism, advice, anything would be greatly appreciated.
 
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Cant open the spreadsheet. you should be 40:40:20 on your nutritional ratio, and dont waste your time with wrist curls or with seated calf raise. Waste of time, unless you absolutely need to build your soleus, in which case, keep the seated raise. Have a little more confidence in your exercise selection - youre really bouncing around. Moreover, what tempo will you be using while training? Post a set counter, organized by muscle group (more for yourself) to see which muscle groups youre prioritizing. just cut the wrist curls, for God's sake. lol
 
I just started my first cycle this monday.
Test E. 500mg/week
AI=Arimidex
PCT=nolva+clomid
pinns=23g x 1.5 x 3ml
I know how to diet for offseason training and for competition training
Workouts will vary but I'm going with my offseason workout=heavy mid/low reps to reap the benifits
Keep it simple..your post is too much for 1 question
 
Post your actual cycle details - cant see the spreadsheet

Cycle details posted up in the original post.

Also, I'm guessing you're referring to more of a body part split type approach over upper/lower. I've never been one for that, although I did get some decent results splitting chest/back, legs, arms/shoulders. After looking around, people seem to be doing well on cycles and body split regimes.

As for the 40:40:20, that was what I was debating about, probably the most I've debated among my self was how to split up the macros. I felt that the low carb in the 50:30:20 might not be sufficient. So what do you feel about the 3500 calories, it's an over estimate over every formula there is and as always, if I feel I did a lot in one day, (sprints, plyometrics) I will always bump up calories later in the day to sufficiently cover the excess burned. I have no problem burning off fat in case I over eat, better than under eating in this scenario.
 
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I just started my first cycle this monday.
Test E. 500mg/week
AI=Arimidex
PCT=nolva+clomid
pinns=23g x 1.5 x 3ml
I know how to diet for offseason training and for competition training
Workouts will vary but I'm going with my offseason workout=heavy mid/low reps to reap the benifits
Keep it simple..your post is too much for 1 question


Thanks for the reply, and yeah sorry the post got a bit long, I'm mainly looking for advice in the cycle part of it. Everything else was more of a idea of the whole thing.

Also, I've been planning on putting clomid in, it seems like a good call and highly recommended on a cycle like this around here. What are you dosing it at? I was thinking 50/50/50/50 if added.
 
Damn man good job laying this out... I read everything except the nutrition and training parts (very important as you know). Cycle looks great. It's nice to see someone invest the time in studying prior to asking. Props for that!

As for running nolva @20 /day during cycle... This is sort of old school and not usually done when an Aromatase inhibitor (AI) is used.

Good luck!
 
Damn man good job laying this out... I read everything except the nutrition and training parts (very important as you know). Cycle looks great. It's nice to see someone invest the time in studying prior to asking. Props for that!

As for running nolva @20 /day during cycle... This is sort of old school and not usually done when an Aromatase inhibitor (AI) is used.

Good luck!

Thanks bud! I've always been one for steroids, as long as you can educate your self as much as possible. Gotta know what is going to happen in your body when you inject something into it. But, now that I feel I got the science down, nothing is more revealing as personal experience - hence why I'm coming to you guys.

And 20 / day nolva I figured wouldn't be necessary because of the Aromatase inhibitor (AI) (hence it was in my original plan), but it never hurts to be too safe and get 2nd opinions.

From what I've gotten so far after reading tons of other logs with people running similar cycles, the cycle looks great but there so much variance in how people are injecting in terms of location. Anyone have an opinions on that? I didn't include glute injections just because of the sheer difficulty I've heard comes from performing them by your self.
 
Hey, I'm still in the process of researching and just had a few questions if you dont' mind.

Why two weeks off afterwards? Thanks, much appreciated.
 
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Hey, I'm still in the process of researching and just had a few questions if you dont' mind.

Why two weeks off afterwards? Thanks, much appreciated.

Gotta let the test clear out bud, because you have to remember..right when you inject, the test doesn't JUST get automatically start working. So if you're injecting Thursday night, a solid two weeks let's everything get settled you could say in layman terms (get in, clear out, etc).
 
Very impressive cycle layout for sure, looks good.

Thanks bud! As of now, I think that's going to be pretty much exactly how I will run the cycle (along with the addition of clomid for PCT). Currently right now I'm reading on prevention and treatment of possible sides (call me over prepared) but I wan't to know exactly what to do if certain sides come up, just so it can go down asap.

Also, I've been lurking multiple boards about gyno. I've had I guess you can say puberty gyno, if that. It's small, barely noticeable to any one but me, completely unnoticeable when my nipples get hard (graphic enough? lol) So I'm just kind of seeing and reading lately about people who have been in similar situations.

Besides that, once I feel like I have knowledge in everything, I guess it'll be time to go. I'll be getting a blood test first to get my starting values as well as to double check if everything is good. After that, hopefully start pinning and begin my log.
 
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