one-time-cycle
Hi everyone, I have a question. (25 y.o)
I used to train very actively in bodybuilding and had reached some decent personal milestones. However, for the past three years, I haven’t gone to the gym at all due to moving, studies, and a busy schedule.
Now I’m back in the gym and have been training for a while, but my progress feels like I’m starting from scratch. I don’t feel that “muscle memory” effect that people who have been consistently training experience. I’ve gotten pretty out of shape, and I’m wondering: if I were to do a one-time steroid cycle (just test-E for 10-12 weeks) (yes, I know that once you take steroids, psychologically you may want more because of the feelings it gives), could I recover my previous form and reach my genetic limits much faster?
Specifically, if this is my first cycle, will I experience a major drop back to my current levels afterwards? In other words, if I reach my genetic limit during the cycle and then follow a proper PCT (post-cycle therapy) with a correct exit, will I be able to maintain my genetic potential, or will I lose it?
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Lol my friend and I had this same idea. Just 1 cycle to gain some solid mass and then quit. It’s been over 2 years and honestly I dont know how the fuck I can stop. Honestly scares me to think about.
Getting to the point where I want children but my balls are the size of peanuts so I doubt I’d be able to. Should’ve waited until I had a few kids.. seriously starting to regret my decision. Not saying this to convince you to stay natty, but to let you know that this could and likely would be a serious mistake.
If you come off for 6 months there’s 99.9% chance you’ll be able to conceive. Possibly even sooner than that but definitely by 6 months. I’ve never met anyone who ran gear and then couldn’t get their wife pregnant, despite it being a potential side effect of steroid use. Many guys even can conceive on cycle. I was off for about a year and a half and had no problem knocking my wife up. That was after 6-7 years on.
Brother… I’ve seen ex-alcoholics, ex-coke heads, ex-meth warriors, even guys who went full ‘ex-gay and found Jesus’… but I’ve never … and I mean NEVER … seen an ex-steroid user.
You’re talking about ‘just one little test cycle’ like it’s a weekend fling, but the truth is… once you taste the dark side and see your veins popping like Google Maps, the ‘one-time’ plan usually turns into ‘okay, maybe one more.
Muscle memory? Yeah, it’s real. But the memory of being big, dry, and pumped on 500mg Test-E or maybe a gram or so… who knows ? That one’s permanent, brother.
Good luck… and remember my words: - “PCT is a fraud !”
I forget his name but there's a fitness youtuber who quit steroids but he keeps trying to desperately get his natty card back by claiming that A. There's absolutely 0 permanent size gain cycling off after blasting and cruising for years and that B. He's actually physically weaker now because of it. Really wish I saved some vids because the cope was off the charts hilarious.
That’s total bullshit lol. You don’t remember who it is? There’s been a number of studies on this and you’ll always be able to carry more muscle after using gear. I know this from personal experience.
I REALLY wish I could remember, I can't get any results from chatgpt. He had this cheesy bit where he was injecting b12 and was like "look its like I'm doing steroids". I think someone made fun of him for using gear and it really hurt his feelings enough to stop.
Man I can't wait to tell all the guys I know at the gym who did one cycle and then stopped.
Good luck with that buddy.
You'll be on for the rest of your life. Lmao
Once you open up the flood gates that steroids are there’s no going back. There won’t be just 1 cycle. The next one will be just 1 more cycle to cut the fat you gained on the bulk. and once you shed that fat you’ll be at your ideal physique and just work on maintaining that naturally and won’t do another. Then you’ll just want to get a little bit bigger and the gains aren’t coming fast enough naturally and now you know what steroids are capable of so it’ll just be 1 more. After that you’ll probably stop saying 1 more and just accept that youre going to continue using gear. Then there’s the feeling you have on gear that goes beyond any of the actual physical results.
If you don’t have aspirations of being huge, like beyond what’s attainable naturally then the smartest and healthiest thing you can do is avoid gear. So the decision you have to make is not if you’re going to do 1 cycle, cause youre not. But if you’re going to cycle on and off for the next few decades. The health implications can be significant.
Easy come easy go. And there’s no such thing as just this one. I mean that beyond steroids. Anytime in life you find yourself saying “just this one time” “just one” “last one/time”, you are lying to yourself. Keeping that in mind can keep you out of a lot of trouble and sticky situations.
bro i understand your message, but its not about “just this one time”, I’m not afraid of being natty or not. Its about can the cycle bring me back my form that i build years ago, with no “extra” mass, that my “natty” test can’t hold and then just train and keep in shape.
At 25 you should have no problem making gains natty. If you do a 10 or 12 week cycle you might gain 2x what you would natty. But then on PCT you will loose all the extra and get back to baseline by the time your natty levels recover. To PCT you are going to drop down below baseline for a time for the feedback mechanism to work. Just skip all this and get back on track naturally, then in a couple years you can consider gear. They way I think about it you need to "earn" going on cycle. Get your training, recovery, diet, and health to a great spot, then you start sprinkling in the PEDs.
Ranger3252We’ve been trying to explain to this kid what the deal is. Just let him screw himself up at this point. Anytime someone gives him solid advice he gets defensive and tries to explain some sort of explanation that leaves your head spinning like the exorcist.
The only once magic pill proposal.
the only i swear! XD
Ranger3252Man you’re 25 years old and out of shape. Steroids at any dose is not a solution or a viable option for you. There are no excuses to not workout. I have a family, full time job (over 60 hours a week) coach three different sports teams and always going places with the family on the weekends. Even vacations I find a local gym and join for 7 days. Same went when I was in the military, some places we had no access to a gym so we used tires, cinder blocks and anything heavy. I also went to college and still worked out.
You’re a kid and please take this as motivation not a dig at you. You got lazy and out of shape, it happens to people. Now what I need you to do is stop looking for a short cut, get off the couch and start working out, eating healthy and watch that natural transformation happen. After about a year and you’ve transformed your body then let’s discuss a small test cycle after you get bloods.
To answer your last question, you will loose 80-90% of your gains.
Most cruise after a blast to maintain/gain muscle alongside a clean structured diet.
Yes, you will lose most of the size / genetic potential coming off.
But why would I lose most of it if I only put on like 5–7 kg, which is pretty normal for my body? After PCT my natural test levels should be enough to hold that. Back when I trained naturally, I was able to maintain that amount of muscle just fine.
Ranger3252Because your natural test levels are not the test levels you have when you’re taking IM injections of synthetic testosterone. So when your off you will lose most if not all of any gains you made.
I understand that my testosterone levels will rise several times, but let’s say that before I was training naturally, and at my peak I weighed around 90 kg while staying fairly lean. On a steroid cycle, I would also reach 90 kg, finish the cycle, and do PCT. If my body was able to maintain that amount of muscle before, wouldn’t it be able to do the same now, or not?
You won’t lose much of any weight below your genetic potential. If you can hold say 190s lean naturally and you’re 175 now and you run a cycle and get to 190 lean and come off you won’t lose muscle, unless your test levels are very slow to rebound, then you may lose some. Now if you blasted past that up to 200 and came off you would likely slowly drop back down to 190.
You will loose some on PCT when your levels dip back down to hypogonadal ranges during the PCT.
Ranger3252If you can get to 90 kilos on your own why would you want to use steroids to get to the same weight? You’re making zero sense. You do not need steroids period. It’s not a magic bullet and yes you will lose all your gains. Take it from the dudes like myself that have ran dozens and dozens of cycles and came off with a proper PCT, you lose your gains it’s that simple.PCT is to keep your natty T from crashing for the rest of your life not to keep “gains” Thats why most of us that have been running gear for decades never really come off.
Do it ! Try and keep it all, why not? More the better
Here is the issue man, you are out of shape you need to change your diet and be consistent at the gym. When you go to the gym you should have dedicated days for instance one day chest and Tri's, next day Back and Bi's, Next day Legs, next day, cardio and shoulders. You should be there at least 2 hours each day doing multiple workouts for each group of muscle.
Now to answer your roid question, Testosterone will help but first you need to get some blood work done, find out what your testosterone level is. You may already have high T since you are only 25yrs. The other part of this is that you can't just jump on roids without researching them. If you take Testosterone you will need an anti estrogen like anastrozole and you will need clomid or HCG to keep your balls from shrinking and working right. So first get bloods done and do some research, meanwhile eat a clean diet and hit the gym everyday. Creatine and Protein will do a lot for you by themselves.
I understand what you’re saying. I’ve already studied quite a lot of information about anabolic steroid cycles. I know which compounds exist, about PCT, about anastrozole, hCG, when and how it should be taken, what side effects can occur, and how to deal with them. I get all of that — I also work in the medical field and studied at med uni and have a decent understanding of human physiology.
But when it comes to practical experience with steroids, unfortunately I don’t have any. That’s why I wanted to ask here on the forum how it actually is in practice.
Also my natty lvl is 16.6 nmol/l
ODDATKeep the life you have
You’ve researched and what you’ve came up with is anastrozole and HcG for pct? It’s crazy to me that you could do any amount of research and completely miss the standard pct protocol that’s been pretty much the same for 20 years and is plastered all over this site. And does not include adex or hcg during it. So then you have to wonder, if I completely missed PCT, how much am I missing on the actual steroid cycle part?
There are many beginner cycle stickies and threads in the forums As well as PCT stickies. Keep reading.
Bro, don’t jump to conclusions. I just replied to another guy in the chat saying I know my way around the compounds, but I wasn’t describing PCT with stuff like Arimidex or HCG. Anyone who spends even 1 hour reading will figure out that Clomid/Tamox is the base — from there you go by bloodwork and adjust accordingly. PCT is a broad topic.
What do you mean in practice? When used properly gear is fucking amazing! It changed my life and it also changed my friends life from depression to confidence to feeling normal again. So everyone is different on gear it's all up to your body. Start out on some low dose T for a few weeks and see how you do. I also have a medical background.
by low dose u mean like TRT doses? like 100-200/week?