Cycling for the Average Gym Rat

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So everyone (whos smart) starts out with a test cycle, and then sees all the other various compounds and gets curious and wants to experiment,  myself included. The wise ones are the dudes who are on they're 5th cycle and are still running just test because they realized that it still works, but these people are few and far in between. I'm not one of them either, but I might have been if I started using when I was 30 or older as the older I get the smarter and more health conscious i get. This post is not for the guys who are trying to go far in competition, well it is at the early stages but there comes a point where what I'm about to post wont cut it anymore. And this isnt for the mass monsters, they probably wont see much growth with this concept, but i do know a few who use pretty low doses and are up in the 250s at 5'9 lean. This is for the average gym rat, the guys who just want to look good, get bigger than their genetics will allow, get shredded etc, goal weights of approx 6ft 240-250, and adjust accordingly if your shorter or taller. You can attain this type of size with what im gonna lay out.

After you run a basic test cycle or two, you dont need to start adding other drugs, you dont need to add deca, you dont need to add eq, you dont need to add tren etc. I hate that we call it "test only" as if raising your test levels 10 times what they are naturally is something to be taken lightly. You can reach a phenominal level of physique development with just a few basic drugs, really just 3. Hell you can build a crazy physique naturally if you have your diet down to a science and have some patience, so you dont need alot of gear to build a crazy physique. If you look around in the gym theres some straight monsters who are natty. Yes they probably have great genetics and thats why they are able to reach such a high level of development, but we have this thing called testosterone, and it basically evens the playing field. im 5'11, id like to be around 240-250 at 10% bf at some point in my life, hopefully in the next 2-3 years or so. Thats a pretty big dude by most peoples standards. After running test only cycles, and then getting curious and trying out the other compounds available to us and finding what works best for me, running some very complicated cycles ive decided to go back to the basics, For bulks all i need is some test e, or sust and some dbol as a kicker. At the end of the day its all diet, we all know this but how many people spend as much time reading and learning about dieting as they do about drugs? I love to read and learn so its not an issue for me, but if your the kinda person that likes to send me a pm and wait hours or a day for a question that can be easily answered in 3 seconds via a google search (meaning you dread reading and reasearching) , hire a good coach, then all you need to do is follow his directions, he will lay out your diet and training program for you so you dont need to spend the hours and hours each week reading and learning whens the best time to eat low glycemic carbs, when to spike your blood sugar to create an insulin response, when not to, when to eat faster digesting protein when to eat slower digesting protein etc etc etc, diet is a science, it can be made basic, (eat 6-8 balanced meals each day) or it can become very complex and thats how you squeeze the most out of each cycle. You can learn this yourself, or pay someone to do it for you. I suggest learning yourself, but the money your gonna save not having to buy deca, tren, eq, mast, and the ancillaries that you need with 19-nors and such you can use to hire a coach, or buy pharm grade gear, or both. All the drugs you need are offered pharm grade.

So anyways for the average gym rat like myself and the majority of others for bulks I think the only drugs necessary are some form of long estered test, and an oral, my pick is dbol. With a good diet and training program you will grow like a weed running that cycle. If you kept the same diet and ran two cycles, first is test and dbol, the second is test deca dbol, or test eq dbol, the net gains in muscle would be very similar, youd probably gain a few more pounds with the extra anabolic. But is a few extra pounds of muscle worth the money, potential side effects and extra stress on the body? I dont think so. Obviously you can take precautions to limit the impact on your body and side effects, but still, for the average gym rat who isnt trying to compete i think its best to avoid it all together.

So first, perfect diet
second consistent great training regime
third gear.

If your goal is to bulk this is my plan,
12-16 weeks of either test e or sust at 500-750mgs ew
30mgs of dbol the first 4-5 weeks, and probably the last 4 weeks
Optional 50mgs of proviron ed, I don't aromatize at a high rate and I like to keep my estro a little high when im trying to add muscle and proviron keeps my e2 pretty much right where i like it. When im on the dbol I will add .25mgs of adex 2-3 times ew to compensate for the large increase in estrogen from the dbol. And It increases free test, libido, keeps me harder and more vascular looking even when my cals an carbs are very high. Its a staple for me, but not necessary, some adex or aromasin will work just fine controlling your e2. But remember, estrogen is very anabolic, limiting it will limit muscle growth, the bit of extra water will make you stronger which can lead to more muscle, the water will comfort your joints letting you push harder leading to more muscle, and like i said estrogen in general is essential for muscle growth, dont short change yourself keeping it at 20, unless it causes you BP problems keep it a little higher when your bulking. Id rather use provi and nolva to keep gyno away then use a ton of adex and have to drop my estrogen really low.

And that's it, you eat correctly and train correctly this cycle will work time and time again, 2 drugs, test and dbol, if you prefer tbol then go for that. And optional proviron. And the best part about this is you can get pharm grade versions of all these drugs, test e, sust, dbol and proviron and if you know the right sources the test is basically the same price as ugl, the dbol is actually cheaper, the provi can be a little pricey but grab it when its on promo, youll be saving money not buying 3 vials of deca or eq or tren so you can use that to buy the best of the best. No guessing or worrying if your gear is accurately dosed, sterile etc, its pharm grade. I bet If your used to running 750mgs of ugl test, 500mgs of pharm grade will have feeling the same, and dbol, i know for a fact 20-30mgs of the two brands of pharm grade dbol available will blow the doors off 50mgs of ugl dbol.

Now if its time to get shredded obviously the most important thing and whats going to determine your results is your diet. Now two basic drugs will help you retain all the muscle you have, and if you really know how to eat you can even build some muscle in the process and leave you with a hard dry vascular polished look without using tren, mast, halo and other harsher drugs. Id even say this stack would be sufficient for local shows. I think the typical bodybuilding stack, tren test mast winny var halo is absurd for a low level show. If you ever see true naturals they manage to come in in great condition, obviously not as lean or big as the guys on gear, but they look pretty fucking good. So If its summer time, or its just time to strip the bodyfat and uncover the muscle youve worked so hard to build or like i said even for low level show these 2 drugs will aid in your quest and will be all you ever need to retain muscle and end with a shredded dry hard vascular polished look.

I prefer prop, but honestly test e will work just as well. youll hold a tiny bit more water but with an ai and the right diet you should be able to be just as dry as you would with prop. And then the last 6 weeks 30-40mgs of anavar. A few years ago real var was basically impossible to get. The standard recommened dose was 80-100mgs ed. With real var 100mgs ed would probably kill you, not really but idk what would happen. Talk to any of the guys who ran it when it first became available in the 80s and it came in 2.5mg tabs and they would take 15mgs, 20 max and it was so strong it would give them nose bleeds. These 100mg ed doses were due to severely underdosed var at best, but most likely tbol labled as var. In the last 2 years or so labs have upped their game and are putting out real, accurately dosed anavar. 10mg tabs are actually 10mgs, you can see who's putting out good var on anaboliclab.com. Its not that expensive when you only need to run 30mgs, but if that's to much for your budget winny is another option, its cheaper, less likely to be faked, but drys out your joints bad and also does a number on your cholesterol, as does var but there are some otc supps you can take to help with this, and for 6 weeks out of the year its not the end of the world. Ive been able to keep my cholesterol in check on orals using a combo of red yeast rice, policansol, extra strength fish oil, and sometimes ill add some garlic seed extract and coQ10. Ive given this protocol to alot of people over the years whos lipids were trashed and withing a month using this combo they were back to normal. And lastly again optional is proviron. I think this is great when cutting, i feel like its a mild oral version of mast, but it works at higher bodyfat levefs. When you're lean it will really help give you that dry hard dense look, couple that with the effects of anavar and you're set. My cycle would look something like this.

weeks 1-12 100-150mgs prop eod,
weeks 1-12 50mgs proviron ed split 25am 25pm
weeks 6-12 30mgs anavar ed split

So thats it, basically 3 drugs, 4 if you like proviron like I do. These 4 drugs are all at the very least 90% of us need. Again assuming you have a good diet the test and dbol will build all the muscle youll ever want, and the prop and var will produce that hard vascular dense look were all after. By keeping it simple like this you dont think about the gear as much and your main focus is on the things that actually determine your success or failure, diet and training. These two cycles are also less stressful on the body, especially the cutter using just prop and var instead of tren and mast and all the other shit we experiment with. And These are feel good cycles, you feel great on a good dose of test and dbol, theres minimal sides to counter compared to if you had deca in the mix. Personally I dont have issues with nandrolone but some people do and they end up with a no sex drive, a limp dick and leaky nipples. And again with prop and var the biggest problems youre gonna have is painful pumps from the anavar. No trensomnia, night sweats, the mind fuck tren can give you, the lethargy due to the fact tren will crash t3 levels in many users. And recovery will be so much easier after a test dbol or prop var cycle then after a 19-nor cycle. And its always nice to save money, that test dbol cycle not including pct i can buy right now for 100 dollars using pharm grade test and dbol, deca and caber would run me another 150 bucks easy. Prop and var is definitely the more expensive of the two but still reasonable compared to if i was buying tren and mast also, lets say 4 vials of tren a and 4 vials of mast p, that can be as much as 400 dollars more.

So thats my thoughts for us gym rats who just love to lift and get bigger and stronger and stay as healthy as possilble in the process. I started with the basics back when i first started cycling, and now im going back to them. I like to feel good on cycle and have fun, its not fun when I forget that I needed to increase my ai dose when I added dbol and the estro increase spiked my prolactin and killed my sex drive. No prolactin problems when the only drugs you run are test, dbol and anavar. When you start cycling the number of compounds available to us is overwhelming and its hard not to want to experiment. But my advice to new users is stick with the basics. Thats all the majority of us need to build the physique of our dreams. And there is no upregulation to the androgen receptor so test doesnt just stop working or require you to increase your dose every cycle to achieve the same results. What you do need to do every cycle and during every cycle is contunue to increase your calories, thats how you get big.

to recap, all the drugs youll ever need, so stock up during promos
Test (sust or e or c for bulks, prop for cuts if you want)
dbol (or tbol if thats your thing)
anavar (or winny if moneys tight or you just prefer it)
Proviron (optional but i highly recommend) Use some good prostate protection while on it


And everyone knows I love HGH. It didnt make the list because the results you get from it running it by itself, even with test does not justify the price. If you can afford it then go ahead, it will keep you a little leaner during times when calories and carbs are high, and it will help with fat burning when you cut, help you sleep better etc etc. Luckily good quality gh is pretty affordable right now and I have a little extra cash so i can afford to run it, but if money was tight it would be the first thing to go, hundreds of dollars a month to stay a little leaner during bulks, id rather do 30mins of cardio a few times ew and some extra fat burning during cuts, again id rather do extra cardio.  But If I could my dream cycle would be 5-6ius of pharm grade gh and 500mgs of pharm grade test, run that for say 12-16 weeks then drop down to 2ius of gh and 200mgs of test and rise and repeat until I die. I have a friend whos an ifbb pro, probably not the best genetics in the world but he built his physique on cycles like 200mgs of test 200mgs of deca, and later on 400mgs of test 400mgs eq and a little gh, and hes 250lbs at 3% bf, at 10% bf hed be around 275lbs. So with just that moderate amount of gear, or small amount by todays standards and a few decades you can build a pro level physique. Hes 60 and still competing on the pro stage. Or you can take the other route, 2000+mgs of test, deca eq tren orals, 20ius gh, tons of slin and build that size in maybe 5-10 years but theres a good chance you dont see 60 years old, let alone still stepping on the ifbb pro stage huge and shredded winning shows. We wanna do this forever, not cut our lives short, so be smart.

And remember, you have to be patient. Building a great physique takes time even on gear. Most people are not gonna reach their goals in 1-3 cycles. Once in a great while you will see a one cycle transformation that will absolutely blow your mind, a guy goes from average joe to bodybuilder in 16 weeks with just test but those are few and far in between and it comes down to great genetics along with great diet and training, but mostly genetics. Most of us are going to spend probably 5-10 years getting close to where we want.  The guys with great genetics will max out naturally in 3 years sometimes less, already look great, then cycle for 2 years and become monsters. Its going to take a bit longer then that for the majority of us who weren't blessed with great genetics. But the journey is fun. What do you do when youre 6ft 250 lean? at that point a heavy cycle will net you maybe 3lbs of muscle. Sure youll look like a beast but improvements will be so small, i love adding 10-20lbs during the offseason, adding an inch to my arms etc. When you reach that type of size your looking at adding cms to your bodyparts. A friend of mine whos there says he doesnt look for gains in pounds but ounces. It definitely pisses me off a bit when i see someone whos trained half as long as me and looks way better then me, but then I remember that I started out at 125lbs at 5'11 21 years old fully grown. So being at 210 means i've added almost 100lbs to my frame. Most guys at 5'11 have a normal starting weight of 160-180lbs. Of course they're gonna reach 230 alot faster starting at 180 vs someone whos starting at 120lbs. So always remember where you started and how far you came, and never quit. If you quit youll never make it there. Slow progress is better then no progress.