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.

 

[adrenalytic]

The thing is, you can only grow so fast so why start at the top? At a certain point you just run out of ARs to accept the amount of androgens you're throwing at your body. Why not find that point before jumping half a gram at a time or whatever's trendy?

 

[Ron OG Mouse]

The thing is, you can only grow so fast so why start at the top? At a certain point you just run out of ARs to accept the amount of androgens you're throwing at your body. Why not find that point before jumping half a gram at a time or whatever's trendy?

Tell that to the huge Ronnie Coleman like monsters. They are on a few grams not to mention 15iu of HGH. Tell it to Arnold still on at his age. I typically take way less than a gram per week and I wasn't fucking with my natty test levels in my teens or even 20's. I'm pretty sure my receptors are in good shape.

 

[adrenalytic]

Tell that to the huge Ronnie Coleman like monsters. They are on a few grams not to mention 15iu of HGH. Tell it to Arnold still on at his age. I typically take way less than a gram per week and I wasn't fucking with my natty test levels in my teens or even 20's. I'm pretty sure my receptors are in good shape.

thought we were talking about new users. at least that's what your OP implied to me.

 

[bananafeet]

The thing is, you can only grow so fast so why start at the top? At a certain point you just run out of ARs to accept the amount of androgens you're throwing at your body. Why not find that point before jumping half a gram at a time or whatever's trendy?

There are a lot more factors in muscle growth than just the AR. That's why testosterone continues to gives gains after AR saturation and why other steroids can't be scaled like testosterone can.

I'm not smart enough to know all the details but there is more at play here.

 

[glpfun]

That's why testosterone continues to gives gains after AR saturation

No it doesn’t, chase irons is exhibit a for why this doesn’t work

 

[bananafeet]

No it doesn’t, chase irons is exhibit a for why this doesn’t work

Let's not use the guy who has no side effects to everything as an example of the norm.

 

[dinfaralt]

There are a lot more factors in muscle growth than just the AR. That's why testosterone continues to gives gains after AR saturation and why other steroids can't be scaled like testosterone can.

I'm not smart enough to know all the details but there is more at play here.

in the end all this crap about hitting other pathways than ar is stupid.

its adding 0.01kg muscle yearly.

all that matters is increased protein synthesis and really going at it in the gym being consistent. studies on steroids are shit and people have been doing this for decades so we know whats working.

more steroids = more growth but are you even stimulating enough muscle protein synthesis with your workouts? are you eating 3g+ protein ber kw of bw to ensure you're building as much muscle as you can? are you squeezing 20+ sets weekly on your muscles to make sure you're using every last bit of edge you can?

more steroids defiently lead to more growth. whether you like to run more steroids for your health or not.

 

[bananafeet]

in the end all this crap about hitting other pathways than ar is stupid.

its adding 0.01kg muscle yearly.

all that matters is increased protein synthesis and really going at it in the gym being consistent. studies on steroids are shit and people have been doing this for decades so we know whats working.

more steroids = more growth but are you even stimulating enough muscle protein synthesis with your workouts? are you eating 3g+ protein ber kw of bw to ensure you're building as much muscle as you can? are you squeezing 20+ sets weekly on your muscles to make sure you're using every last bit of edge you can?

more steroids defiently lead to more growth. whether you like to run more steroids for your health or not.

My original point was that testosterone while it doesn't as strongly activate the AR like tren it hits other pathways.

This was in relation to my argument that running a harsh compound at lower doses is not necessarily "safer" than just running more testosterone.

I mean you can hammer the AR all you want but there is other shit going on. I know this because I progressed my lifts when hypogonadal (4.7nmol) and with low igf1 (18 nmol).

I'm not suggesting to blast gear... Just saying 500 test and 300 tren is basically the same as 2 grams of testosterone.

 

[dinfaralt]

I'm not suggesting to blast gear... Just saying 500 test and 300 tren is basically the same as 2 grams of testosterone.

this i can agree with, but im saying increeased gene expression in muscles from ar = higher protein synthesis is everything in the long run. fuck those other receptors unless you unlock the forbidden gem myostatin inhibition.

protein synthesis reigns as king in the long run and truly its ever increasing with building more muscle.

 

[Eddie.]

Well, at least in your era when people took gear you could tell they're on. Nowadays there are such good natties and with all those silly cycles some guys do they just fool themselves because they all look mediocre at best.

There's no chance i'd take gear to look like a good natty, or just sus. I prefer to look enhanced. If i'd do that on 300mg then probably i'd do that, but apparently i need around 1000-1200 total to look more freakish.

There are many guys over 50 who take 500-1000 total and their health is at a quite good state.

We have to seperate those who take test for TRT and those who take gear for enhancement. If you're after the second one but you take 250 test and look like natty, then obviously you're doing something wrong.

 

[Juicedhead]

The 2 weeks is not an exaggeration, the looksmaxxing culture on TikTok combined with all the incel ideology is making these kids reach for steroids very young and with no research. They genuinely believe no woman is ever going to love them unless they take a bunch of growth and test. Just go take a look in the QSC discord if you want to see how fucked up the situation is right now. There are 14-15 year olds in there with their actual pictures in their PFP asking stuff like how can I buy bitcoin without my mom finding out. There are TikTok’s openly talking about sources here, posting packaging, vials, etc

come to think of it I have recently seen a young man maybe 15 or 16 taking grams of gear including tren. Kid doesnt even look like hes hit puberty, dumbass also posts himself giving injections to himself. Complete idiot. There are these influencers that are to blame if you ask me. Ill prolly get a lot of hate cuz everyone loves sam sulek but I bet you A LOT of young guys started taking gear because of him. Not hating on sam but its just the way it is when you have millions of young dudes follow you and want to be like you.