seasoned weightlifter contemplating use of AAS (long post)

[psillyness]

Hi,

I guess I should start by giving a brief background of myself. I'm 23 years old, I'm a full-time student - one semester away from receiving my BS in biochemistry. I've been training for 5 years, and bodybuilding for the latter 3. I have never done a show or anything like that (I've always thought I was too short for that), but i use the term bodybuilder because I have catered my workouts, impeccable diet and good sleep hygiene in the past with the general goal of maximizing muscle hypertrophy while at the same time maintaining very good overall athleticism/physical performance. And it has worked out very well for me in the past - I got exactly what I wanted - an excellent physique and very conditioned in the process. You might be wondering why I would be even considering the use of steroids at this point (being as I do not play sports - though I would like to take up fighting)

About 1 year ago, my doctor prescribed me a drug commonly used to treat ADD, called strattera (yes I know stimulants are bad, but at the time I was taking a very hard grad-level course and went to the doctor inquiring about adderall). Strattera is what he gave me. To this day I have no fucking clue why I decided to take this drug (as it is very uncharacteristic of me to do something like this), but I did. At the time I knew that the use of certain drugs like this (which can be broadly classified as stimulants) upregulate beta-oxidation (fatty-acid breakdown), so I knew going in that there was going to be an issue with weightloss - during the 4 week time period that I was taking this drug, I upped my unsaturated fat intake by (I think) 3-4X, as I feared I may end up burning some muscle if I did not replace the defeceit. I had no idea what I was in for. During the last week of taking the drug, I lost 14lbs - mind you, at the time I was about 177lbs (5'6") with very little bodyfat (maybe 7%). As soon as I had realized what happened I immediately stopped. This drug brought on a whole slew of various side effects (which I don't even care to get into right now), some of which disappeared upon discontinuing usage, some did not.

For the past year I have fruitlessly tried to gain back what I lost, but it has not been going very well. I would go through bouts of overtraining, with the onset of some of the most horrible symptoms I have ever experienced. Because of certain changes in my metabolism that I feel that this drug induced, I was more prone to overtraining, and injury as well. On two separate occasions I had injured both of my wrists (pretty bad), and experienced a lot of joint issues (knee, wrists). I feel as though I had lost mass in my joints, as they are significantly weaker. I basically lost mass everywhere - even my face looks different due to losing musculature in the jaw area. Strattera pretty much all-around fucked me over, and reset me back to day 1 of my training. For the past year, in addition to eating very well, resting very well, I've basically been trying to convince myself that everything i've experienced is mental, because i feel it is unhealthy to dwell on stuff like this (even though i can see plain as day that I was significantly effected in a variety of [physical] ways by this drug)

1 year later, I am starting to feel as though the affects are disappearing, I am able to perform exercises normally without experiencing severe effects of overtraining. Everything else is about the same, but overtraining has been the limiting step in my training for the past year, so I'm pretty much thrilled to be back in the gym for the most part (i took 3 months off completely). I've been training for a few months now without any problems, gains are steady, but I can tell from progression that it's going to take me at least another year or two to get to where I was. I'd like to speed this process up a bit.

I was consdering running a 10-12 week cycle of equipose (boldenone) w/ test enanthate. I'd like to run a lower dosage i.e. 200mgs EQ + 250mgs Test E.....

things that have scared me away from using gear in the past: side effects obviously - I cant deal with hair loss or excessive acne and scarring. I have also heard from a few that the natural gains they experience post steroid use are significantly less than what was accomplished pre steroid. Also obviously the decrease in natural endogenous testosterone post steroid use.

^ this is why I would run equipoise before any other AAS...as much as I would like to run it solo, it seems like from what I have read about the pharmacology that it would be pretty pointless to run it without some kind of test. Has anyone ever ran EQ solo? I'd just really like to take advantage of it's low androgenic activity

any comments? thoughts at all? Would be much appreciated. (sorry about the longass post)

 

[Machine5150]

i believe that running EQ solo will dry you out a bit, and therefore is not recomended. It sucks that your meds screwed you over so much, but all those drugs are basically meth, and could have screwed up (permanently raised) your metabolism, this would make it even more difficult to eat more food to get the same results that you would be getting with less food before, because your metabolism is sitting so high now.. that is my guess on what happened. I would recommend doing a test only cycle, and with a proper post cycle therapy (pct) you will keep 80% of your gains and your test levels should end up just where you started, get blood work down before and efter every cycle to monitor this.. it only costs 50 bucks in most countries... See how your body reacts to the Test.. st say 400-500mg a week.. run it for ten weeks, then after the esther (whichever one you chose to use, i recommend Enanthate) start post cycle therapy (pct) and you should be fine.. save the EQ for your next cycle.. and stack it with the Test. as a rule of thumb, Test is used in every cycle, as it burns fat and builds muscle... the others do them in different ways at different ratios, but test is the best.

 

[Machine5150]

P.S. 175lbs at 5'6" is a decent size.. i had a buddy who was that height and weight in high school and benched 405lbs naturally.. he was a maniac.. ended up going to Annapolis and now he is a Navy Seal..

 

[psillyness]

Thanks. It is hard to conclude exactly what the drug did to me, but that is obviously one logical possibility - one that I had considered too. I feel that the long lasting effects that the drug had on me are hormonal and neurological...and complex at that. and yeah, most ADD drugs work just like speed (adderall...), strattera is a bit more complex though, i'm sure even the pharmaceutical engineers who designed it couldnt come up with a logical hypothesis as to all the possible side effects it could induce. why would they want to do that anyways? their main goal is to get clinical trials and FDA approval so they can start making money (fucking bastards)

 

[psillyness]

I would recommend doing a test only cycle, and with a proper post cycle therapy (pct) you will keep 80% of your gains and your test levels should end up just where you started, get blood work down before and efter every cycle to monitor this.. it only costs 50 bucks in most countries... See how your body reacts to the Test.. st say 400-500mg a week.. run it for ten weeks, then after the esther (whichever one you chose to use, i recommend Enanthate) start post cycle therapy (pct) and you should be fine.. save the EQ for your next cycle.. and stack it with the Test. as a rule of thumb, Test is used in every cycle, as it burns fat and builds muscle... the others do them in different ways at different ratios, but test is the best.

I would like to incorporate EQ in the cycle...and hopefully less than the 400mg of test you mentioned. I feel like i could still gain from smaller dosages, being as i have been training for awhile (used to have incredible muscle memory...seems to be gone now), and because of my smaller size/bodyweight. Also the fact that i'm not really looking to "go all out" here. "less is more" has always been my motto - though I cannot vouch for it in this regard, as i've never taken roids. i've read that smaller dosages won't even promote the slightlest growth (under 200mgs of equipose for instance)