posted Sun, 08/09/2026 - 13:39
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Your go to growth cycle
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So we’ve made it through summer, hopefully all peeled as can be. Now it’s time to grow, right? The logical side of me says stick to the basics. Test, mast, gh, food and progressive overload are more than enough. But at the same time there’s the greedy side saying a little nandrolone might be nice. I’m a few months out from a blast but I’m planning and I want to hear everyone’s go to bulk cycles.
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20 weeks at 400 mg per week test c
First 14 of those weeks 50 mg mesterolone per day (I have very high SHBG)
Last 6 of those weeks 25 mg mesterolone and 50 mg oxandrolone per day
300 to 500 calories per day surplus. 50% carbs, 30% protein, and 20% fats
Open to straying from this in the future but this has predictable results and blood work that I'm very happy with.
You got your Test, your Mast, your NPP.... You know, just the basics. Just basic stuff. Maybe sprinkle a little Anadrol in there. The Basics
Bro, this is how I was. Sticking to test primo and mast but always that itch for nandrolone or just something spicy. But as I’ve learned the juice is not worth the squeeze. The extra water retention making it difficult to see where body comp is heading, and just adding another variable, at 19 nor at that, when you could have just pushed your “safe” milligrams up and knowing exactly what will happen. Remember this is the long game and muscle is built over time and the body can only accrue so many proteins in a given time frame. No matter how anabolic the compound I don’t think it’s worth running say 16 weeks of npp or tren as you can’t run that shit forever, rather than a very tolerable test primo and mast for most with the correct ratios for a long 25 weeks where your body has TIME to accrue proteins and you have more chances to progressively overload which we know is king for hypertrophy. All in all, we want to take the milligrams we can tolerate with the least stress on the body for a long time as a healthy body will always outperform a stressed/unhealthy body. Also, you can get back to blasting quicker if you remain healthier in your growth phase. So long term, you’ll probably end up gaining more sticking with the basics.
And gh
Big bro…for me, a real growth phase is much more about food, training and time than trying to build the fanciest drug stack.
I like keeping toxicity and overall stress as low as reasonably possible because I want to be able to sustain a productive phase for 16–24 weeks, not feel amazing for six weeks and then have everything go sideways.
Test + GH is obviously a basic foundation. From there I’ve seen guys do well adding nandrolone, Primo, Mast, DHB, etc. Even Tren E works extremely well for some guys who genuinely tolerate 19-nors, although personally I think tolerance becomes especially important when you’re talking about a long growth phase.
We already know a lot about the pharmacology of these compounds. The wildcard is bio-individual response. Two guys can run the same thing and have completely different experiences with BP, lipids, hematocrit, estrogen/prolactin issues, appetite, sleep, mood, digestion and ultimately their ability to keep progressing.
That’s why I don’t get too attached to the compound selection itself. I prefer starting conservatively, evaluating performance, recovery, appetite, how I actually feel and bloodwork along the way, then adjusting only when there’s a reason to.
People sometimes spend more time debating Deca vs Primo vs Mast than they spend making sure they’re eating enough and adding weight or reps to the logbook.
IMHO, pick what you already know you tolerate well and can run consistently. Food and progressive overload are still doing most of the heavy lifting. The PEDs are there to support the environment, not replace it.
BTW, your Test + Mast + GH + food approach is absolutely fine for a growth phase IMO. If you tolerate it well, bloodwork stays reasonable, appetite is good and you’re progressing in the gym, I honestly don’t see anything that needs to be changed. Sometimes the boring protocol that keeps working is exactly the right protocol.
I’m an extremely easy gainer. My appetite is always high. I actually think about 75% of compounds are really useless in a growth phase and shine best
In leaner phases. I agree with you. Don’t overthink it. Lock into a LONG growth phase I prefer 20-28 weeks eat big lift big! Test GH and personally Decca because it agrees with me well.
Sometimes I’ll add some DBOL in the beginning just to help get a good full look going early on and crush my hopes of maintaining any good muscle definition. LOL
Fuck @Pandateston I was really thinking hard just like @rooster. Especially since I'm a Test Mast guy myself. Should I add something to add size. But this write up is what i needed.....and my wife telling me the same thing. Stay the course. Eat a little more, sleep a lot more, work harder. Thanks for that. Good luck @rooster! Pulling for you Buddy.
I don't know how to truly add you guys to the reply.
Test/mast/npp is a staple for me. I picked up some primo recently so im gonna try test/primo/npp on my next push.
Test, Decca, Dbol30mg (1st 3weeks).4iusHGH.
Test, deca, and mast with a Dbol kickstarter and an Anavar finisher.
I also like to start with Nolt (NPP and Deca mix) or mix the NPP and Deca myself. With nandrolone being the star of that cycle, using the fast acting ester gets the nandrolone levels higher quicker.
However, so many people like tren as the builder that I’m experimenting with the tren/deca synergy. I can’t recommend it until the experiment is complete but I am taking detailed notes. So far it’s been really fun tho.
I’ve always read that Tren for a bulk is terrible because it crushes appetite. But I tried a run with it earlier this year in a deficit and my hunger was through the roof, even with Reta in the mix.
It’s def case by case. It does affect my appetite. I’m bulking now on just test tren and gh. If I push the tren too high it kills appetite. But if you can find a happy medium and are able to get your food in tren can get you big as shit. Test DECA EQ and Tren are about the real options for bulking. I like keeping things simple. Just my opinion
Tren made my appetite double. I was ALWAYS hungry. I could have been a competitive eater. Everyone is very individualized.
Read my “Baby’s First Tren Cycle” post I made recently. It details the ratios and what worked for me. It was an experiment to prep myself for next time. You should probably do experiments like that as well to evaluate your individualized response to compounds.
However, as so many have stated, consistency, progressive overload, rest and recovery, food and nutrition, stress management, and a mastery of the basic fundamentals are the best building blocks for a growth/strength phase or any phase really.
Compounds are just the cherry on top but I’m sure you understand that. I just feel obligated to parrot that sentiment again for some reason.
It's like a completely different experience for some ppl every time they run Tren. I know it is for me. I've run enanthate @ 350/week with no issues except sleep and maybe some sweating. I've run ace @ 350/week and didn't even lose any sleep. I've ran enanthate @ 100/week and it was like living hell. My mental state was so bad, I thought I was losing my mind!
Same goes with appetite,. I've only had appetite issues once and that was after about 16 weeks of it. Could've been different had I ran it again? I know of a lot of guys that are like me, they get a different experience every time.
Do you use mast to keep bloating down?
I’ve never noticed much bloating personally. I use the mast to help control e2 related sides and to also help the other compounds shine. Plus it just kinda feels good and it compliments the minor aggression I get with 19 Nors so my aggression is focused on weights and not things that breathe. My aggression becomes a tool I control instead of something that makes me irritable all the time.
Mast helps control your anger? I also have fast response habits
Mast just puts me in a good mood. Lots of other guys report the same feeling. Same with Dbol. Those two compounds are just feel-good compounds for lots of guys, myself included.
I have one friend who was running mast and he gave me all his mast because it was making him super irritable and he said he didn’t want to go to jail over something stupid that might push him over the edge.
Far as I know he was just running test and mast. I was running the same stuff and felt great. Even the feel-good aspects of compounds are highly individualized.
On one hand I was stoked to get so much free mast. On the other hand I felt bad for my buddy going through that.
I have to give him mad respect for noticing that anger getting out of hand, being honest with himself, saying something about it, and doing something about it as well. That’s not always easy.
Lol I'm always the one giving my shit away
I’ve read so many opposing theories of 2 nor-19’s “fighting” over the same receptor. What’s your view /data with this? Thanks in advance.
I think the theory that some compounds fight over the same receptors might have some merit to it. The only reason being that certain test:tren ratios had me feeling great, and others had me feeling far too pissy. I’m not a hard-and-fast fight-to-the-death over this topic believer but my personal anecdotal experience makes me believe this could be a biological theory with solid logic.
The ratio that had me pissy the most was 2:1 test:tren ratio and my theory is that, since Tren binds to androgen receptors 5x easier than test, I had a lot of test floating in my system with nowhere to go and nothing to do except get aromatized because the tren was filling all my receptors.
However, with a 1:2 test:tren ratio I was loving it. So perhaps compounds competing for receptors has merit, but it could have been something else entirely that made me pissy on that ratio.
As far as two 19 Nors competing, just like the test:tren androgen receptor competition, I would hypothesize it is very dosage dependent. As of now I’m running a much higher tren dose and a pretty low nandrolone dose. The nandrolone was added with the intent of lubricating my joints and helping with collagen synthesis. It seems to be working. Last time I ran Deca heavy lifts felt oddly comfortable and this time around is no different so it’s doing all I wanted it to do.
I’m sure I could find a dose or ratio that would cause all sorts of havoc and I also believed that two 19 nors should never be ran together but so many sources have blends with both tren and nandrolone that I figured I’d give it a try. So far it’s been awesome.