AITA for thinking today’s “cycles” are basically homeopathic?

[Ron OG Mouse]

I never considered doing steroids until the past few years in my mid 40s. TRT totally changed my life- everything is better, including diet, training motivation, and especially results.

There is the problem right there. I was 30 and back then my goal was competition.I had been dieting and training since I was 15 so I had decent base. Now I'm 53 and I don't plan on competing but I want more that what my body can achieve naturally. For guys our age these small does are therapeutically. If we want to get extra we do these cycles am bump it up.

What really is weird is the low doses for these kids hardly increases the test levels above their crazy high natural levels (that most of us would kill for). They are willing to mess up that natural level for that small a bump. If they are doing it as a shortcut to the ripped body diet and exercise could give them that is a sad reason to mess up your natty test levels.

Now I'm not going to tell anyone not to do what they want. On the advice of some of the guys I have met on another board I am gonna run my Tren dose at 200mg to see the results. I would normally run at least 2x that. I have been out of the game a long time and I am trying to learn the new trends not make fun of it. These micro doses just seem weird though.

 

[bananafeet]

There is the problem right there. I was 30 and back then my goal was competition.I had been dieting and training since I was 15 so I had decent base. Now I'm 53 and I don't plan on competing but I want more that what my body can achieve naturally. For guys our age these small does are therapeutically. If we want to get extra we do these cycles am bump it up.

What really is weird is the low doses for these kids hardly increases the test levels above their crazy high natural levels (that most of us would kill for). They are willing to mess up that natural level for that small a bump. If they are doing it as a shortcut to the ripped body diet and exercise could give them that is a sad reason to mess up your natty test levels.

Now I'm not going to tell anyone not to do what they want. On the advice of some of the guys I have met on another board I am gonna run my Tren dose at 200mg to see the results. I would normally run at least 2x that. I have been out of the game a long time and I am trying to learn the new trends not make fun of it. These micro doses just seem weird though.

TRT is a socially acceptable way to dable in steroids. It's actually how I started... I'd never touched them in my life and suddenly my nuts stopped working.

Because people downplay their doses the lay person thinks that there isn't much different between TRT and "being on steroids".

I guarantee if they knew what was involved they wouldn't bother. I know I probably wouldn't have.

 

[glpfun]

Bodybuilding pushed the normal dosing threshold a lot via this line of reasoning.

The optimal amount of steroids for me to win is unknown
Therefore I will err on the side of high doses to remain competitive.
Then they sample information from other bodybuilders they know or online and base their notion of a high dose around the information they got.
Then they increase their dose above that notion of a high dose inferred from the samples.
Then someone else does the same thing and when they ask this bodybuilder about their dose it’s now raising the average.

This has snowballed for decades

 

[Jankauskas]

Alright, I’m ready to be judged by the jury of bros. Am I the asshole here, or am I just old?

For context: when I first came up, my first cycle was 500mg of test and 400mg of EQ. That was considered… normal. Conservative even. Nobody threw a parade, nobody clutched pearls. It was just, “Cool, eat more and train harder.”

Later on? I’d often run 750mg of test with 500mg of tren. Again—pretty standard for the era. Not saying it was smart, not saying it was healthy, not saying anyone should do that now. Just saying that’s what the landscape looked like back then.

Fast-forward to today and I read cycle logs that look like this:

• “Thinking about 120mg test”
• “Might add 50mg of something if sides are okay”
• “Basically TRT+ but I call it a blast”

And everyone’s shredded, tracking biomarkers, wearing CGMs, quoting PubMed, and talking about longevity. Meanwhile I’m sitting here thinking, “Is this a cycle… or a multivitamin?”

Don’t get me wrong—I actually respect a lot of it. Lower doses, better drugs, better food, better knowledge, fewer people wrecking themselves just to gain 8 lbs of water and ego. That’s objectively a good thing.

But part of my brain still does a double-take when I see numbers that wouldn’t have moved the needle back in the day. It’s like showing up to a barbell club and everyone’s maxing out with pink plates… perfectly executed, pristine form, bloodwork on point… and I’m the dinosaur in the corner muttering, “Back in my day…”

So yeah—AITA for laughing a little when I see these minute doses compared to what we ran? Or is this just the natural evolution of the game, and I’m officially the old guy yelling at clouds?

Fire away.

Lies for virtue signaling.

“You don’t need to take a lot of drugs, I know the secret so buy my program/coaching”.

 

[readalot]

Why are you taking AS if you stepped into the gym 2 weeks ago?

Good question.