superfluous
New Member
I'm 41M - currently living in the EU (on a Mediterranean island!)
I'm currently weighing in about 76kg/170lbs at 175cm height. I've been working out consistently for around 3 years now - almost all resistance training. At the start of my (most recent) fitness journey I weighed about 114kg/250lbs - mostly because of getting fat during covid. I managed to natty diet myself down to about 100kg in the first 18 months of training, but for the last 18 months I've been on a mixture of Tirz and Reta shedding the last 20kg+.
One of the issues I've faced is that my strength peaked when I weighed around 100kg - I was able to bench 100kg for a couple of reps. Now I've got proper skinny I'm struggling to bench 80kg - I'm mostly doing 70kg for reps now. I'm thinking the GLP1s and calorie deficits have killed muscle - this annoys me greatly as I used to do 70kg x 15 reps as a warm up...
So while I'm looking good in the mirror I'm a bit demotivated by the strength losses. I know I could try going off the GLP1s and do a proper clean bulk to try gain strength (I've never done one) but one of my worries is my lifestyle can be messy. I have a very active social life - I'm constantly flying around Europe for work and I really enjoy a beer (I live close to a party area in a major holiday destination...) I like the discipline that the GLP1s give me - they make me want to go home after a couple of beers instead of going on a bender.
So this brings me to researching my first cycle and introducing myself to the forum. My goal is not to look like a beast, but to regain intermediate level strength in a shorter period of time. I don't want to look like I take gear to others - and want to try avoid long term shut down of natural test production.
I was thinking of starting in January as every year I do a 'dry January' period where I stay off alcohol for the month, and try not to do business travel. I am still worried about mixing alcohol in during the cycle (likely to be about 15 weeks) after January - and obviously I'm still researching what my first cycle should look like (thinking Test C 500mg per week + HCG). I haven't got bloods done yet, will do it in the next month - hoping that my liver function report is good, but in general being able to read and react to these reports is something I need to learn too.
Any tips or hints welcome (albeit just reading the forum already has been a huge help).
I'm currently weighing in about 76kg/170lbs at 175cm height. I've been working out consistently for around 3 years now - almost all resistance training. At the start of my (most recent) fitness journey I weighed about 114kg/250lbs - mostly because of getting fat during covid. I managed to natty diet myself down to about 100kg in the first 18 months of training, but for the last 18 months I've been on a mixture of Tirz and Reta shedding the last 20kg+.
One of the issues I've faced is that my strength peaked when I weighed around 100kg - I was able to bench 100kg for a couple of reps. Now I've got proper skinny I'm struggling to bench 80kg - I'm mostly doing 70kg for reps now. I'm thinking the GLP1s and calorie deficits have killed muscle - this annoys me greatly as I used to do 70kg x 15 reps as a warm up...
So while I'm looking good in the mirror I'm a bit demotivated by the strength losses. I know I could try going off the GLP1s and do a proper clean bulk to try gain strength (I've never done one) but one of my worries is my lifestyle can be messy. I have a very active social life - I'm constantly flying around Europe for work and I really enjoy a beer (I live close to a party area in a major holiday destination...) I like the discipline that the GLP1s give me - they make me want to go home after a couple of beers instead of going on a bender.
So this brings me to researching my first cycle and introducing myself to the forum. My goal is not to look like a beast, but to regain intermediate level strength in a shorter period of time. I don't want to look like I take gear to others - and want to try avoid long term shut down of natural test production.
I was thinking of starting in January as every year I do a 'dry January' period where I stay off alcohol for the month, and try not to do business travel. I am still worried about mixing alcohol in during the cycle (likely to be about 15 weeks) after January - and obviously I'm still researching what my first cycle should look like (thinking Test C 500mg per week + HCG). I haven't got bloods done yet, will do it in the next month - hoping that my liver function report is good, but in general being able to read and react to these reports is something I need to learn too.
Any tips or hints welcome (albeit just reading the forum already has been a huge help).
