Steve's Bodybuilding/Competition Log

[Trenbolonetax]

Looking forward to following. I know this one is going to be good.

To be transparent, I dont really “cycle” or even blast and cruise, at least not in the way ppl think when you use those terms. Dont get me wrong my dosages will ramp up and down depending but if you were to average out my weekly milligram amount over the past 1.5 years it would be over 1g. My philosophy is to keep bloodwork, bp, rhr, fasting glucose etc all in healthy ranges by avoiding orals/tren, any applicable meds, year round cardio to maintain health year-round. As opposed to running a 16 week cycle with tren and kick start with an oral to immediately trash lipids right off the rip lol, only to cruise/pct to barely recover bloodwork for the tail end of the cruise before repeating process. I think my sweet spot is somewhere in the 1.4-2.2ish gram range.

I have a similar philosophy and I appreciate your transparency and honesty in sharing yours.

 

[Steve0691]

Thanks for the detail. I like the approach, as it's all about the long-game for growth anyway, as you've mentioned.

Whenever I run cycles, I feel like the downtime Tren causes (or other aggressive compounds) is unproductive in the long run. Growth takes so long anyway that had I been able to continue that period without skewed health markers, I'd have gotten better results. It takes looking at the big picture to see it outside of just 16-20wk cycles.

It also makes total sense that if their is a period in your life of stability or downtime in other areas, e.g career is stable, and few stressors, then if you have the ability to focus on the gym, you can utilise that period carefully and go harder during it - rather than stick to a typical cycle template. We're of similar age (i'm 33 later this year) and I'm in a position atm where I can visit the gym during work-hours and it gives me immense flexibility, so I've opted to keep pushing, outside of standard 16-20 wk templates (safely) to make the most of it.

I absolutely agree, health side effects aside, we need to consider physical side effects that will hinder training, eating ect. If i cant sleep on tren and now Im half awake when Im at the gym trying to train thats gonna set us back. Again, if I can barely eat on anadrol, who cares if I get an artificial temporary strength boost, you need food to build muscle.
I think if there's one single message I can spread its that outside of prep for a contest or powerlifting meet, do not use orals or tren. Test+moderate amount of anabolic(deca,eq,primo,mast) will build just as much muscle and you will be healthier because of it.

Just to drive home this message, consider this.
Cycle A
A common cycle is Test, Tren and anadrol. Lets say we run it at 350 test, 300 tren and 50 anadrol/day. Less than a gram.

Cycle B
Now another guy runs 1.5g test and 500 eq. Those people running the first cycle will say thats too much, youre gonna die etc.

Just looking at these two cycles I can tell you who will be healthier according to every single health marker we have available to assess health. Hell, even give Cycle A a statin and telmisartan and at best their bp will likely only match Cycle B and their lipids will still be worse due to hdl being tanked

And just to note, Im not saying that because Cycle B is better for health markers so just run a boatload. Im just using double the dosage in Cycle B vs Cycle A to drive home a point. The dose you take still depends on goals and your level of development. I just had a convo with a personal friend telling me he just finished running anadrol for about 8 months and is straight into Halo, I gave my advice but its in one ear and out the other. This type of behavior is not as rare as we'd like to believe and while running gear has risks regardless of compound or dosage, we can take such simple steps to reduce damaging effects

 

[Steve0691]

Looking forward to following. I know this one is going to be good.

I have a similar philosophy and I appreciate your transparency and honesty in sharing yours.

I, as Im sure you have as well, was so misled by people lying about their dosages and what is involved in the sport. Its gotten more open in the past few years or so but coming up from 2014 when i first started, pros either had no comment or just flat out lied about dosages. I dont blame them and I understand why they would but it caused me to spin my wheels for so many wasted years that I swore to be more realistic with people. Now if a 16yo comes up to me at the gym I wont be recommending them take steroids in the first place but here on meso, people have at least taken the time to register and try to learn so they can excel at this endeavour so I will speak openly and try my best to impart what I have learned

 

[vapor77]

Following. I like your approach to drug usage and monitoring your health.

When I first glanced at your profile pic, I thought it was PALifter.

 

[Anat]

Looking solid, man. Definitely gonna keep an eye on your progress - always inspiring to see someone fully committed to their goal.

And yeah, this section of the forum is basically a showcase of lab-grown superhumans. Just another day of scrolling and wondering where I went wrong.

 

[Steve0691]

Following. I like your approach to drug usage and monitoring your health.

When I first glanced at your profile pic, I thought it was PALifter.

Looking solid, man. Definitely gonna keep an eye on your progress - always inspiring to see someone fully committed to their goal.

And yeah, this section of the forum is basically a showcase of lab-grown superhumans. Just another day of scrolling and wondering where I went wrong.

Thank you both, any questions, Ill be as transparent as anyone can be. And thanks! Im nowhere close to Palifter in size but the comparison means im on the right track!

 

[Trenbolonetax]

When I first glanced at your profile pic, I thought it was PALifter.

BRO! Same. I was like damn this dude snagged his pic! Lol.

But PALifter has a sick physique. So hell of a complement to @Steve0691

 

[Steve0691]

BRO! Same. I was like damn this dude snagged his pic! Lol.

But PALifter has a sick physique. So hell of a complement to @Steve0691

Ive followed along Palifter's progress for a while, last I saw he was working with luki modzelewski(sp?) not sure hes a member here but he goes by luki7788 on other boards. I follow much a luki's advice on diet for the past nearly 2 years which is also where I've made significant progress. For those interested its carb cycling and I highly recommend finding and reading his threads as well as listening to justin harris on podcasts as they follow similar diet approach.

 

[Trenbolonetax]

I, as Im sure you have as well, was so misled by people lying about their dosages and what is involved in the sport. Its gotten more open in the past few years or so but coming up from 2014 when i first started, pros either had no comment or just flat out lied about dosages. I dont blame them and I understand why they would but it caused me to spin my wheels for so many wasted years that I swore to be more realistic with people. Now if a 16yo comes up to me at the gym I wont be recommending them take steroids in the first place but here on meso, people have at least taken the time to register and try to learn so they can excel at this endeavour so I will speak openly and try my best to impart what I have learned

Yeah, I definitely got some of the same "advice" you did on doses, compounds, etc, given we are of similar age (I just turned 31). I imagine the bro-lore was similar across boards / forums / reddit / whatever.

The recommendation to run tren at a minimum of 350mg per week...but 700mg per week was totally normal lol. Interesting times.

I hear you on the selective information sharing. Don't want to encourage kids or really anyone to pursue this lifestyle, but if they are going to do it anyways, then hopefully they end up here getting some good advice.

 

[Trenbolonetax]

Ive followed along Palifter's progress for a while, last I saw he was working with luki modzelewski(sp?) not sure hes a member here but he goes by luki7788 on other boards. I follow much a luki's advice on diet for the past nearly 2 years which is also where I've made significant progress. For those interested its carb cycling and I highly recommend finding and reading his threads as well as listening to justin harris on podcasts as they follow similar diet approach.

Yeah Luki is a monster lol. Such a regimented and disciplined guy too.

Good to know about your success following that plan. I love Justin Harris approach to pretty much everything.

I do have a couple questions:

1) What do you do for ab work?
2) How much insulin are you using on your high days to process 1000g of carbs? Short + Long or a la Justin Harris humalog with each meal that day?
3) What is your dietary fat at across the low med high days?
4) How are you able to function on 1000g carb days? Like seriously. That doesn't just put you into a food coma?

For context, I've always wanted to do a true carb cycling approach to give it a shot, but that many carbs would wreck my day. If I start my day with a bowl of oatmeal and protein, it's a much different feeling than say a 6 egg omolette with sausage, in terms of post meal feelz. One energizes me the other puts me to sleep.

 

[Steve0691]

Yeah, I definitely got some of the same "advice" you did on doses, compounds, etc, given we are of similar age (I just turned 31). I imagine the bro-lore was similar across boards / forums / reddit / whatever.

The recommendation to run tren at a minimum of 350mg per week...but 700mg per week was totally normal lol. Interesting times.

I hear you on the selective information sharing. Don't want to encourage kids or really anyone to pursue this lifestyle, but if they are going to do it anyways, then hopefully they end up here getting some good advice.

Yup I remember it was pretty standard advice to do 12 week cycle 500 test with a 4-6 week oral as a "kickstarter" Lol and time on=time off. I thought I was doing things right when im sure my blood work was pretty trash from the oral and I eventually began to spun my wheels taking one step forward on cycle and then 1 step back off cycle.

Im a nobody so I can be more transparent but I can see why someone like lundsford or samson dont say anything. If they claim super low doses half the internet is shitting on them and if they are honest, half the internet tears them apart for giving horrible advice thatll get someone killed lol, they cant win

 

[Steve0691]

Yeah Luki is a monster lol. Such a regimented and disciplined guy too.

Good to know about your success following that plan. I love Justin Harris approach to pretty much everything.

I do have a couple questions:

1) What do you do for ab work?
2) How much insulin are you using on your high days to process 1000g of carbs? Short + Long or a la Justin Harris humalog with each meal that day?
3) What is your dietary fat at across the low med high days?
4) How are you able to function on 1000g carb days? Like seriously. That doesn't just put you into a food coma?

For context, I've always wanted to do a true carb cycling approach to give it a shot, but that many carbs would wreck my day. If I start my day with a bowl of oatmeal and protein, it's a much different feeling than say a 6 egg omolette with sausage, in terms of post meal feelz. One energizes me the other puts me to sleep.

1. For the longest time I did mostly bodyweight exercises with a decent amount of volume. A typical workout would be something like 4-5 sets bicycle crunches, 4-5 sets machine or rope crunches and 1-2 sets of hanging leg raises and a set of side bends. Higher reps and nothing to failure.
I want to see if I can get a bit more depth to my ab separation by developing them more so Im going a bit heavier and closer to failure. My current routine has been 3 sets of heavy rope or machine crunches, 4 sets of hanging leg raises, 2 sets of machine or standing cable oblique twists and just 1 set of side bends on the hyperextension.
2. From August of '23 until ~March of '24 I really hit a stride in muscle growth and size gain. For that entire period I ate approx 1000g carbs 2x a week and I used between 5-10iu short acting pre and post(it slowly titrated up over the months) and Lantus I initially started at 25iu and ramped up 5iu/week until I hit 60iu and stayed there as I felt I didnt need more.
Currently on this diet Im just using 8iu short acting pre, post and with 4th(of 6 meals) I was using 5iu as well pre/post on all training days up until recently but I was starting to feel a bit hypo if my workouts ran long so i dropped it.
3. High days is essentially as close to zero as possible so I even skip my tbsp of fish oil that day to really keep low.
Medium days Im at about 55g
Low days-I try to keep it about 80g on low days, however, I adjusted my diet recently and actually cut fats down to 40g here to see how a bit higher carb would do for me during the dieting.
4. Honestly? No not at all I feel fine the whole day, I do think the insulin helps with that to a degree as well as having a low day prior to the high day but for me I feel like shit if I eat a true cheat meal like a burger with fries, pizza etc. All those carbs combined with a huge amount of fat and sodium is just a terrible combo for me, my heart rate is even higher when I eat that. I suppose when you eat clean most of the time, those meals are just such a shock to the body. I dont eat like that in dieting phase and rarely do even offseason anymore

 

[Trenbolonetax]

1. For the longest time I did mostly bodyweight exercises with a decent amount of volume. A typical workout would be something like 4-5 sets bicycle crunches, 4-5 sets machine or rope crunches and 1-2 sets of hanging leg raises and a set of side bends. Higher reps and nothing to failure.
I want to see if I can get a bit more depth to my ab separation by developing them more so Im going a bit heavier and closer to failure. My current routine has been 3 sets of heavy rope or machine crunches, 4 sets of hanging leg raises, 2 sets of machine or standing cable oblique twists and just 1 set of side bends on the hyperextension.
2. From August of '23 until ~March of '24 I really hit a stride in muscle growth and size gain. For that entire period I ate approx 1000g carbs 2x a week and I used between 5-10iu short acting pre and post(it slowly titrated up over the months) and Lantus I initially started at 25iu and ramped up 5iu/week until I hit 60iu and stayed there as I felt I didnt need more.
Currently on this diet Im just using 8iu short acting pre, post and with 4th(of 6 meals) I was using 5iu as well pre/post on all training days up until recently but I was starting to feel a bit hypo if my workouts ran long so i dropped it.
3. High days is essentially as close to zero as possible so I even skip my tbsp of fish oil that day to really keep low.
Medium days Im at about 55g
Low days-I try to keep it about 80g on low days, however, I adjusted my diet recently and actually cut fats down to 40g here to see how a bit higher carb would do for me during the dieting.
4. Honestly? No not at all I feel fine the whole day, I do think the insulin helps with that to a degree as well as having a low day prior to the high day but for me I feel like shit if I eat a true cheat meal like a burger with fries, pizza etc. All those carbs combined with a huge amount of fat and sodium is just a terrible combo for me, my heart rate is even higher when I eat that. I suppose when you eat clean most of the time, those meals are just such a shock to the body. I dont eat like that in dieting phase and rarely do even offseason anymore

Very much appreciate the elaboration. If I'm being honest, I think I've directly trained abs like 60 days total in my lifting career, lol. I am going to change that, so was curious.

I suppose I have gotten accustomed to a lower carb diet and that makes switching a bit tough. I'll have to give it a real shot at some point to see how I fair.

Thanks again for answering with the detail you did.

 

[Steve0691]

Very much appreciate the elaboration. If I'm being honest, I think I've directly trained abs like 60 days total in my lifting career, lol. I am going to change that, so was curious.

I suppose I have gotten accustomed to a lower carb diet and that makes switching a bit tough. I'll have to give it a real shot at some point to see how I fair.

Thanks again for answering with the detail you did.

I usually superset my ab training with either delts or chest depending on my workout split, makes it much easier to get them in that way. I dont know how consistent I would be if I didnt do it that way lol

 

[Trenbolonetax]

I usually superset my ab training with either delts or chest depending on my workout split, makes it much easier to get them in that way. I dont know how consistent I would be if I didnt do it that way lol

Great idea. I'm gonna implement that. I have to do a set of abs to do a set of push, lol.

 

[vapor77]

BRO! Same. I was like damn this dude snagged his pic! Lol.

But PALifter has a sick physique. So hell of a complement to @Steve0691

I actually went to PALifters profile to compare them. Lmao.

1. For the longest time I did mostly bodyweight exercises with a decent amount of volume. A typical workout would be something like 4-5 sets bicycle crunches, 4-5 sets machine or rope crunches and 1-2 sets of hanging leg raises and a set of side bends. Higher reps and nothing to failure.
I want to see if I can get a bit more depth to my ab separation by developing them more so Im going a bit heavier and closer to failure. My current routine has been 3 sets of heavy rope or machine crunches, 4 sets of hanging leg raises, 2 sets of machine or standing cable oblique twists and just 1 set of side bends on the hyperextension.
2. From August of '23 until ~March of '24 I really hit a stride in muscle growth and size gain. For that entire period I ate approx 1000g carbs 2x a week and I used between 5-10iu short acting pre and post(it slowly titrated up over the months) and Lantus I initially started at 25iu and ramped up 5iu/week until I hit 60iu and stayed there as I felt I didnt need more.
Currently on this diet Im just using 8iu short acting pre, post and with 4th(of 6 meals) I was using 5iu as well pre/post on all training days up until recently but I was starting to feel a bit hypo if my workouts ran long so i dropped it.
3. High days is essentially as close to zero as possible so I even skip my tbsp of fish oil that day to really keep low.
Medium days Im at about 55g
Low days-I try to keep it about 80g on low days, however, I adjusted my diet recently and actually cut fats down to 40g here to see how a bit higher carb would do for me during the dieting.
4. Honestly? No not at all I feel fine the whole day, I do think the insulin helps with that to a degree as well as having a low day prior to the high day but for me I feel like shit if I eat a true cheat meal like a burger with fries, pizza etc. All those carbs combined with a huge amount of fat and sodium is just a terrible combo for me, my heart rate is even higher when I eat that. I suppose when you eat clean most of the time, those meals are just such a shock to the body. I dont eat like that in dieting phase and rarely do even offseason anymore

I really need to take my ab training more seriously. Even when I'm very lean my abs dont have as much pop because there is not enough depth to them. I'll give the heavy training a shot this next growth phase.

When you say short acting, are you talking rapid like humalog/novorapid or short like novolin R/humalin r? I'm assuming log since you do pre and post.

 

[Steve0691]

I actually went to PALifters profile to compare them. Lmao.

I really need to take my ab training more seriously. Even when I'm very lean my abs dont have as much pop because there is not enough depth to them. I'll give the heavy training a shot this next growth phase.

When you say short acting, are you talking rapid like humalog/novorapid or short like novolin R/humalin r? I'm assuming log since you do pre and post.

Yes rapid like humalog, right now specifically im using apidra, not for any reason other than that was the brand in stock at the time