I Love Steroids...

[Coolazice]

Poor guy doesn't even need to be around to get bagged on.
Ippy will live on forever!! Lol

Yeah, as a legend in his own mind.

[Scope75]

Yeah, as a legend in his own mind.

The kid who lives for roids!!!
I just stopped reading his shit on PP and I hardly ever visit AM and wouldn't read his log if I was there. Lol

Now I feel like running a 8 week SD LV and TZ cycle!! Lol
I'd only run the SD at 40 and the TZ at 4ml so no supports will be needed.

[Rulk]

This story should be mandatory reading for any 1st time aas users.

[burlyman30]

Part 8.

As I mentioned earlier, I was a little afraid of muscle loss after dropping Anadrol and the previous 3 weeks I had quartered the tablets and taken 25mg/day. Well, over the next three weeks, fearing size loss, rather than drop Anadrol completely, I halved the dosage for the next 3 weeks, to 12.5mg/day. Now, at this low dosage, it may not have been doing anything at all. But psychologically, it helped me feel better. My dosage of test would reduce each week, 200, 100, 50 in pyramiding fashion to end the last 3 weeks of the cycle.

Now, as I stated before, pyramiding up and down in a cycle was common practice in those times. It was thought that pyramiding down would help your body begin to recover. We now know this is incorrect, but if the guy who is bigger and stronger than you tells you to do it, you just do it. And I did. There are many guys from the "old days" that still believe this, actually. I was just correcting a friend of mine over the summer and telling him that things had changed since we first got involved with "the juice".

SERMs were just in their infancy back then. I remember hearing the word Nolvadex, but people didn't really know how to use it.

I finally ended my cycle after 12 weeks, and although things had not gone perfect, I was much stronger and larger than when I began. I viewed it as a raving success, in spite of the side effects I experienced. It gave me the boost I needed in building the additional tissue I would need to compete in the future, and I viewed it as a means to an end. And, foolishly, I somehow thought I could keep all of it except the 5 lbs of bloat...

Well, PCT barely existed back then. Compared to today's multi-compound PCTs, we truly were in the dark ages. I was given a couple bottles of HCG (and water) and was told to inject 1500-2000 mcg, 3x/week for 2 weeks or until I ran out of product. For those of you who do not know, this is about 6-8 times the normal amount that AAS users will generally use while on cycle.

I can tell you that at the end of my cycle, my testicles had not just shrunken... they had absolutely shriveled. I am not exaggerating in the least when I tell you that they were -- no joke -- the size of raisins. Not grapes. Raisins. But I can tell you that HCG brought them back to normal size within the first week of HCG. It was like watching a water balloon getting filled in slow motion. Pretty impressive to see that much change in that short of time, especially since it took so many more weeks for them to shrink up.

Here's the problem with HCG. It plumps up the testicles, but it really doesn't get the body's HTPA back online. In fact, the high dose HCG creates so much aromatization of estrogen when the testosterone is rising quickly, that the estrogen actually suppresses and delays recovery. These are things I didn't know then, of course.

How much estrogen can be aromatized from high dose HCG? How suppressed was my androgen level? I, unfortunately, was unlucky enough to find out...

During week two of my HCG usage, I began to feel some slight nipple tenderness. I incorrectly assumed that this would just go away once the HCG usage stopped. I was wrong. In fact, it got significantly worse. My pectorals began taking on a more cone shape at the nipple area. The nipple area was extremely tender to the touch. The swelling was noticeable. I didn't feel comfortable wearing tight shirts because of the additional protrusion. It was embarrassing. And I didn't know how to correct it. The powerlifters at the gym didn't seem to know what I was talking about. I got no indication from them that they did anything different with their post cycle protocol than I did.

So in the coming weeks, with androgen levels tanked and estrogen levels high, my size and strength plummeted. Strength eventually returned to just barely above pre-cycle levels, and seeing that strength loss was downright depressing. And if it was only strength I had lost, it wouldn't have been so upsetting.

Unfortunately, I did lose a lot of the muscle size I had gained. I had gained fat by eating extra calories during the cycle, and now I had the extra fat on me while I watched my muscles wither. Looking back, and realizing how off kilter my hormones were, it is no wonder I lost so much strength and size. But while I was in the middle of it, I was depressed. My joints hurt. I felt quite miserable. I felt weak not only physically, but also my immune system felt weak. Though hard to explain, I felt sort of thin or hollow. Quite frail.

During this period, I dropped down to between 172-178 lbs in bodyweight, with a bit more bodyfat than before (though not much). My appetite was low. I just couldn't be motivated to eat much. I drank a lot of protein shakes in order to get calories in me and maintain as much size as possible.

I still worked out as hard as I could, but nothing could stop the ravaging effects of cortisol from my hormone imbalance. It took a few months of this to feel somewhat normal again, and at that point I just expected that every cycle and post-cycle would be like this.

So I began my search to accumulate more compounds for my next cycle...

[Rulk]

Damn the ups and downs of this whole ordeal.

[Scope75]

Damn good story!!!

I agree with NOA that this should be manditory reading for all new aas users.

[burlyman30]

FYI, for your ease of reading, each installment I write I will also put in the first post of this thread, listed by number, for your reading convenience.

Be patient... more installments are coming.

[Scope75]

FYI, for your ease of reading, each installment I write I will also put in the first post of this thread, listed by number, for your reading convenience.

Be patient... more installments are coming.

Sweet!!
Even better is I have them all saved in order on my phone and ready to read whenever the times comes.

Can't wait to read the next part to this story.

[Sperwer]

After you finish the series, Burly, you really should think about working it up into a book. It would likely be better than any of the competition out there. Take a look at Fussell's "Muscle" as a benchmark of sorts - even if you don't care for his rather supercilious tone (the saving touch of which is that he doesn't spare himself from the satire - wearing his belt to let everyone on a plane ride know he's a bona fide body builder, indeed - hah!

[burlyman30]

After you finish the series, Burly, you really should think about working it up into a book. It would likely be better than any of the competition out there. Take a look at Fussell's "Muscle" as a benchmark of sorts - even if you don't care for his rather supercilious tone (the saving touch of which is that he doesn't spare himself from the satire - wearing his belt to let everyone on a plane ride know he's a bona fide body builder, indeed - hah!

Interesting idea... I have to say, I underestimated the interest in my experiences. This thread has been well supported by the members and lurkers here, for sure. So before I go further, let me just thank everyone for your continued interest. I hope there are some valuable and useful nuggets of information you will all be able to glean from my experiences and that this might help you all avoid some of the pitfalls I encountered.