PolishHammer
New member
Low (side)effect medium term cycle; what should I research?
I live/breathed the gym from about 14-30. I read a metric shit ton. Never used anything anyone would consider a steroid, but overall made good progress. Had 4 rep maxes of about 525, 385, and 550 for squat, bench, and dead, and I looked pretty good.
That said, there were on and off times during that period. I don't think any of them lasted for over 6 months. My longest, and still running, break started when my wife died, shortly after I turned 30. It really kicked the crap out of me. I didn't try to get back into it for about 2 years. I'm 33 now. I've taken a few runs at starting again this year, but each time, by the second or third week, I've run out of fucks to give to the whole effort.
As far as I can tell, the problem is that there's nothing new/better to look forward to. I've been up the ladder enough times that I know how it goes and I know where it ends. I have a hard time getting pumped about going somewhere I've been to many times before. Moreover, the fact is, I'm older; the ability to even get to that place at a motivation-sustaining pace is less than guaranteed.
I've tried other ways to get the motivation I had before (different programs, changing my reference frame, etc.), but they haven't worked. The gym was always about doing something that I hadn't been able to do before. So long as it's true that I'm probably not going to be able to do anything new because of my effort there, I'm probably not going to go.
Planning to start, and then actually starting, some assistance sometime in the medium-term seems like the best way to fix the problem. I figure once I've got a cycle worked out, I'll use that plan as motivation to put in some time training au-naturel until I've made some reasonable progress and got my habits in order. Once I've done that, then I'll step it up.
For my first go, I'm looking just for what would probably put me just a notch over what my yearly strength/muscle gains were in my early-mid twenties. From what I know about myself, I'd probably do better on a longer, but less intense, cycle than I would on a more intense, but shorter one. The last, and most important, parameter I'm taking into consideration is sides. Getting older sucks enough. It doesn't need any extra help doing that. So I'm putting a lot of weight on minimizing sides. In particular, hair loss is a real risk. I've managed to hold the line with Avodart (dutasteride) for the last 2-3 yrs, but I figure anything DHT based is off the menu.
Bearing that last paragraph in mind, what kind of cycles (substances, approx. dosages, duration) should I be looking into? Specific advice is great, but even vague answers would get me looking in the right direction.
Thanks for the help.
I live/breathed the gym from about 14-30. I read a metric shit ton. Never used anything anyone would consider a steroid, but overall made good progress. Had 4 rep maxes of about 525, 385, and 550 for squat, bench, and dead, and I looked pretty good.
That said, there were on and off times during that period. I don't think any of them lasted for over 6 months. My longest, and still running, break started when my wife died, shortly after I turned 30. It really kicked the crap out of me. I didn't try to get back into it for about 2 years. I'm 33 now. I've taken a few runs at starting again this year, but each time, by the second or third week, I've run out of fucks to give to the whole effort.
As far as I can tell, the problem is that there's nothing new/better to look forward to. I've been up the ladder enough times that I know how it goes and I know where it ends. I have a hard time getting pumped about going somewhere I've been to many times before. Moreover, the fact is, I'm older; the ability to even get to that place at a motivation-sustaining pace is less than guaranteed.
I've tried other ways to get the motivation I had before (different programs, changing my reference frame, etc.), but they haven't worked. The gym was always about doing something that I hadn't been able to do before. So long as it's true that I'm probably not going to be able to do anything new because of my effort there, I'm probably not going to go.
Planning to start, and then actually starting, some assistance sometime in the medium-term seems like the best way to fix the problem. I figure once I've got a cycle worked out, I'll use that plan as motivation to put in some time training au-naturel until I've made some reasonable progress and got my habits in order. Once I've done that, then I'll step it up.
For my first go, I'm looking just for what would probably put me just a notch over what my yearly strength/muscle gains were in my early-mid twenties. From what I know about myself, I'd probably do better on a longer, but less intense, cycle than I would on a more intense, but shorter one. The last, and most important, parameter I'm taking into consideration is sides. Getting older sucks enough. It doesn't need any extra help doing that. So I'm putting a lot of weight on minimizing sides. In particular, hair loss is a real risk. I've managed to hold the line with Avodart (dutasteride) for the last 2-3 yrs, but I figure anything DHT based is off the menu.
Bearing that last paragraph in mind, what kind of cycles (substances, approx. dosages, duration) should I be looking into? Specific advice is great, but even vague answers would get me looking in the right direction.
Thanks for the help.
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