Never made an intro

[Clyde]

I was a typical gym rat back in the 1990's, and lifted for years before doing a series of short 8-10 week long, mild cycles, and then PCT after. Made some good gains from the gear usage in both strength and size. Doing gear entirely changed my outlook on lifting, took it to another level and re-motivated me to get serious (more like obsessive) with the workouts, nutrition, rest, and pharmacology.

Had a lifting partner who competed in BB naturally for years until we both started dabbling in the gear about the same time. He made made some tremendous gains, but couldn't seem keep it dieting down. Even with that, he placed second in a national qualifier show. A few years after I called it quits with lifting and the lifestyle, another friend ended up doing prison time over gear.

So life goes on, new women, new jobs, new interests, got older, and way out of shape in the process. Currently, I'm a 60yo stage 4 throat cancer survivor that was tired of feeling like one foot in the grave, years after going through the cancer treatment. My thoughts at the lowest point were, "I've never felt as good both physically and mentally as I did back when I lifted", so I started making changes and researching. I'm about 8 months into self treatment for TRT, T4, telmisartan, and amlodipine to correct what I saw from my blood work I had taken back in April. I have a home BP monitor, a good body weight scale, motivation to eat right, and I'm back to a low volume lifting routine at home, 3 times per week split push, pull legs.

I've lost a bunch of weight, BF, ~25 lbs overall and I literally feel like I've found the fountain of youth, both mentally and physically.

My thought process going into reintroducing myself to lifting, dieting, gear + ancillary compounds, etc is, I'd rather die feeling good, than die a slow death, feeling like obsolete shit. I have easy access to all the gear I read about back in the day, but could never source! Think kid in a candy shop. Of course I'm too fucking old to be doing all the shit I'm dabbling in beyond the meds for treatment listed above. Fuck it, I'm not going out as an old, broken down man, plus I'm feeling too damn good to lay my head down and give up now!

 

[narta]

Never give up. Never surrender!

I too have the same mentality, I am going to die standing on my feet. Fuck living like a frail dead man walking.

 

[Jin23]

Never give up. Never surrender!

I too have the same mentality, I am going to die standing on my feet. Fuck living like a frail dead man walking.

Doing cycles you wont die standing on your feet. Trt is a different story. But doing aas, as the op mentioned, will break you down.

 

[narta]

Doing cycles you wont die standing on your feet. Trt is a different story. But doing aas, as the op mentioned, will break you down.

I disagree. Cycling with reasonable dosages and being on top of your health will definitely lead you to dying in your feet.

On the other hand, being a reckless asshole with the choice of compounds and dosages will break you down

 

[Jin23]

I disagree. Cycling with reasonable dosages and being on top of your health will definitely lead you to dying in your feet.

On the other hand, being a reckless asshole with the choice of compounds and dosages will break you down

I'd say it depends on a lot of factors, especially knowing when to quit, example; old age, as is the case in OP's story.

However, there are so many factors to which you are clueless, as you are only a hobbyist, at best. In best case scenario, you have no underlying issues and all that you are doing is increasing your biological age (arterial wall stiffness) and changing your brain genetics a bit. But even this things can lead to you ending up in crutches eventually or demented. But the chances of you not having any underlying issues are small and everything being alright is also small. Another note might be not knowing when to stop, as frequently the bb community tends to push to far, either not knowingly or just pure hubris and stupidity.

The illusion that there is a safe way of doing aas is a myth perpetuated by the layman bb'er. There is a "safe-er" way, yes, but you are still doing harm that has a good chance of making you end up "in crutches" or if nothing else, needlessly deteriorating your quality of life in the long run.

TL DR: Agree to disagree.

 

[Rido]

Never give up. Never surrender!

I too have the same mentality, I am going to die standing on my feet. Fuck living like a frail dead man walking.

id rather die at 80 on top of my game than die at 90-95 falling apart.

 

[narta]

I'd say it depends on a lot of factors, especially knowing when to quit, example; old age, as is the case in OP's story.

However, there are so many factors to which you are clueless, as you are only a hobbyist, at best. In best case scenario, you have no underlying issues and all that you are doing is increasing your biological age (arterial wall stiffness) and changing your brain genetics a bit. But even this things can lead to you ending up in crutches eventually or demented. But the chances of you not having any underlying issues are small and everything being alright is also small. Another note might be not knowing when to stop, as frequently the bb community tends to push to far, either not knowingly or just pure hubris and stupidity.

The illusion that there is a safe way of doing aas is a myth perpetuated by the layman bb'er. There is a "safe-er" way, yes, but you are still doing harm that has a good chance of making you end up "in crutches" or if nothing else, needlessly deteriorating your quality of life in the long run.

TL DR: Agree to disagree.

Of course you do. You ALWAYS know better.