Hi all,
A bit late as I'm in week 8, but I figured my first cycle experience might be of interest to someone my age (52), who's considering a first cycle too. I apologise if it's not interesting to you guys, but I did get a lot of info from reading here, so I thought it would be fair to share some info in return. I'm Dutch, so there may be spelling mistakes.
Some background info first. 4 years ago at 48, I decided to start working out again (I did work out for several years when I was in my twenties). I was overweight. I've been on a strict diet (about 1600 kcal high protein low carb) for about 3 years, worked out 5 or 6 days a week and lost 21Kg. Despite my age I was getting reasonable results too. Not getting very big, but stronger (relatively speaking) and very vascular. Then last year, I torn my tricep tendon, and as a result I could only do legs for about 4 months. I lost a lot of my strength gains obviously.
After slowly building up my upper body workouts again, I decided to give it a go. I started thinking about doing a cycle about 2 years ago. I did my research (here and elsewhere) and I found someone who was willing to help and share his personal experience. His advise was 200mg deca and 250mg TestE once a week. The deca for the first 9 weeks and then continuing with the Test until week 12 or 14. He also gave me Dbol 30mg daily for the first 4 weeks. All gear is from Euro Pharmaceuticals. I decided not to take the Dbol, because I wanted to see how things would go with the Deca and Test only.
From day 1 I started taking multi vitamins, taurine, fish oil, vitamin D and C separately. Amino acid tabs from dymatize, 2 before and 2 after training. And liquid amino acids and maltodextrin in my water during workouts.
I'm on a triple split. 1) Abs, Quads, Hamstrings, Calves 2) Back, Biceps 3) Chest, Shoulders, Triceps. I usually workout two days in a row, then one day off. Sometimes it's 3 in a row and one off. It depends on my energy levels and other obligations of course.
I started my cycle on the 1st of March. The night after the first pin (in my quad), I slept maybe one hour. I was panicking all night, I had severe anxiety attacks. Even the next morning I almost passed out. No idea why, but it did happen.
The 2nd day my leg hurt so bad I could barely walk, but that pain went away after about 2 days. I didn't really notice anything the first week and slowly started to feel better. I did gain 0.5 Kg. I started eating a lot more than normal. About 2500Kcal (clean) which may not sound like that much - but to me it felt like an insane amount of food after dieting for years in a row.
After the 2nd pin (week 2) in my other leg the same thing happened. Serious pain in my quad, making it hard to walk for a about 2 days. My heart was continuously beating a lot faster than normal, and my body temperature was noticeably higher too. I had a lot more energy than I normally do, feeling pretty good. No noticeable strength gains but working out felt a lot easier than usual. I gained another 1.5Kg in week 2.
In week 3 I didn't have any serious injection pain anymore. And I wasn't so nervous about it all anymore either. Still not that much stronger, but feeling good. More libido than normal. I gained 1.5Kg again in week 3. I did start to feel a bit of a burning feeling in my nipples every now and then. Not too serious, but it did worry me a bit.
Week 4. My sex drive was insane. I was thinking about sex all day long. Something I haven't experienced for years. I was also getting stronger. For example, I could add 10 Kg's for sets to my squats. Used to end with 90Kg's for 6 reps. Now I could do 4 sets of 8 to 6 reps with 100Kg. Perhaps not that much for you guys, but I'm an old fart - so I was happy with that. I felt like I could use much more weight, but decided not to because I wanted to prevent any injuries. I just started doing more sets and reps instead. Results started to become very noticeable, bigger traps, much rounder shoulders, seriously bigger pecs and lats.
In week 4 I gained another 1.5Kg so that's 5 Kg's in 4 weeks. I was getting a lot fatter and bloated though. No more visible abs. I figured I just ate too much so I dropped my calories to about 2000. Still a bit of a strange feeling in my nipples but less than the week before. Also getting lower back pumps and shoulder pumps - when I wasn't doing back or shoulders. Annoying but doable.
Week 5. As crazy as week 4 was, in week 5 I felt like crap. Libido was still higher than what I'm used to, but not as much as in week 4. I was completely lethargic, didn't feel like doing anything. I had to drag myself to the gym, and couldn't really work out as hard as I wanted to. I didn't gain any weight at all. My testicles were definitely shrinking. I was prepared for that to happen so not too worried about it. No more nipple problems but starting to experience muscle cramps. I started to add magnesium daily to help control the cramps.
Week 6. Still problems with lethargy, yawning all day long. I also started to feel a bit depressed. I had a hard time to keep focus at work. I gained no weight in week 6 either. I talked to the guy who helped me with the gear and he said I should eat more again and not worry about getting fatter. Which I started doing. He also told me to up the test to 375mg which I also did.
In week 7, I started to feel a bit better, stronger and more energetic again. No more depressive feelings and an insane sex drive again (almost annoying really). I gained another 1.5Kg after not gaining anything the 3 weeks before. Still looking bloated and much fatter than I was before I started but oh well. We'll work on that later.
I'm currently in week 8 and feeling good, although a bit tired. I've done 375mg test and 200mg deca this week - like I did last week. When I pinned, I hit a nerve or something like that which caused me to retract in an uncontrolled manner. That was a weird experience. But I just did it again and no further problems. Muscle cramps have been pretty serious but doable this week. I'm eating about 2500 Kcals, and approx 250 gr of protein daily from mostly chicken, fish, dairy and whey shakes. My carbs are mostly from oatmeal, rice, vegetables and beans. I haven't been on the scale this week yet.
Next week will be the last week with deca in the mix, and after that it will be 375mg TestE only for a couple of weeks. I'm told to wait three weeks after that before starting PCT.
If anyone's interested, I'll update this post until the end of my cycle.
Cheers,
M
A bit late as I'm in week 8, but I figured my first cycle experience might be of interest to someone my age (52), who's considering a first cycle too. I apologise if it's not interesting to you guys, but I did get a lot of info from reading here, so I thought it would be fair to share some info in return. I'm Dutch, so there may be spelling mistakes.
Some background info first. 4 years ago at 48, I decided to start working out again (I did work out for several years when I was in my twenties). I was overweight. I've been on a strict diet (about 1600 kcal high protein low carb) for about 3 years, worked out 5 or 6 days a week and lost 21Kg. Despite my age I was getting reasonable results too. Not getting very big, but stronger (relatively speaking) and very vascular. Then last year, I torn my tricep tendon, and as a result I could only do legs for about 4 months. I lost a lot of my strength gains obviously.
After slowly building up my upper body workouts again, I decided to give it a go. I started thinking about doing a cycle about 2 years ago. I did my research (here and elsewhere) and I found someone who was willing to help and share his personal experience. His advise was 200mg deca and 250mg TestE once a week. The deca for the first 9 weeks and then continuing with the Test until week 12 or 14. He also gave me Dbol 30mg daily for the first 4 weeks. All gear is from Euro Pharmaceuticals. I decided not to take the Dbol, because I wanted to see how things would go with the Deca and Test only.
From day 1 I started taking multi vitamins, taurine, fish oil, vitamin D and C separately. Amino acid tabs from dymatize, 2 before and 2 after training. And liquid amino acids and maltodextrin in my water during workouts.
I'm on a triple split. 1) Abs, Quads, Hamstrings, Calves 2) Back, Biceps 3) Chest, Shoulders, Triceps. I usually workout two days in a row, then one day off. Sometimes it's 3 in a row and one off. It depends on my energy levels and other obligations of course.
I started my cycle on the 1st of March. The night after the first pin (in my quad), I slept maybe one hour. I was panicking all night, I had severe anxiety attacks. Even the next morning I almost passed out. No idea why, but it did happen.
The 2nd day my leg hurt so bad I could barely walk, but that pain went away after about 2 days. I didn't really notice anything the first week and slowly started to feel better. I did gain 0.5 Kg. I started eating a lot more than normal. About 2500Kcal (clean) which may not sound like that much - but to me it felt like an insane amount of food after dieting for years in a row.
After the 2nd pin (week 2) in my other leg the same thing happened. Serious pain in my quad, making it hard to walk for a about 2 days. My heart was continuously beating a lot faster than normal, and my body temperature was noticeably higher too. I had a lot more energy than I normally do, feeling pretty good. No noticeable strength gains but working out felt a lot easier than usual. I gained another 1.5Kg in week 2.
In week 3 I didn't have any serious injection pain anymore. And I wasn't so nervous about it all anymore either. Still not that much stronger, but feeling good. More libido than normal. I gained 1.5Kg again in week 3. I did start to feel a bit of a burning feeling in my nipples every now and then. Not too serious, but it did worry me a bit.
Week 4. My sex drive was insane. I was thinking about sex all day long. Something I haven't experienced for years. I was also getting stronger. For example, I could add 10 Kg's for sets to my squats. Used to end with 90Kg's for 6 reps. Now I could do 4 sets of 8 to 6 reps with 100Kg. Perhaps not that much for you guys, but I'm an old fart - so I was happy with that. I felt like I could use much more weight, but decided not to because I wanted to prevent any injuries. I just started doing more sets and reps instead. Results started to become very noticeable, bigger traps, much rounder shoulders, seriously bigger pecs and lats.
In week 4 I gained another 1.5Kg so that's 5 Kg's in 4 weeks. I was getting a lot fatter and bloated though. No more visible abs. I figured I just ate too much so I dropped my calories to about 2000. Still a bit of a strange feeling in my nipples but less than the week before. Also getting lower back pumps and shoulder pumps - when I wasn't doing back or shoulders. Annoying but doable.
Week 5. As crazy as week 4 was, in week 5 I felt like crap. Libido was still higher than what I'm used to, but not as much as in week 4. I was completely lethargic, didn't feel like doing anything. I had to drag myself to the gym, and couldn't really work out as hard as I wanted to. I didn't gain any weight at all. My testicles were definitely shrinking. I was prepared for that to happen so not too worried about it. No more nipple problems but starting to experience muscle cramps. I started to add magnesium daily to help control the cramps.
Week 6. Still problems with lethargy, yawning all day long. I also started to feel a bit depressed. I had a hard time to keep focus at work. I gained no weight in week 6 either. I talked to the guy who helped me with the gear and he said I should eat more again and not worry about getting fatter. Which I started doing. He also told me to up the test to 375mg which I also did.
In week 7, I started to feel a bit better, stronger and more energetic again. No more depressive feelings and an insane sex drive again (almost annoying really). I gained another 1.5Kg after not gaining anything the 3 weeks before. Still looking bloated and much fatter than I was before I started but oh well. We'll work on that later.
I'm currently in week 8 and feeling good, although a bit tired. I've done 375mg test and 200mg deca this week - like I did last week. When I pinned, I hit a nerve or something like that which caused me to retract in an uncontrolled manner. That was a weird experience. But I just did it again and no further problems. Muscle cramps have been pretty serious but doable this week. I'm eating about 2500 Kcals, and approx 250 gr of protein daily from mostly chicken, fish, dairy and whey shakes. My carbs are mostly from oatmeal, rice, vegetables and beans. I haven't been on the scale this week yet.
Next week will be the last week with deca in the mix, and after that it will be 375mg TestE only for a couple of weeks. I'm told to wait three weeks after that before starting PCT.
If anyone's interested, I'll update this post until the end of my cycle.
Cheers,
M
