jefferson
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Your first cycle should be a bulk using 500mg of testosterone weekly. This cycle should last between 12 and 15 weeks, although if you buy 3 vials you'll have enough for 15 weeks so you may as well use it all.
This cycle is recommended because the side effects are mild and most can easily be avoided, plus this is enough to make great gains on as a beginner. Some beginners try to be extra precautious and run less than 500mg their first cycle but this is a mistake because there really isn't a significant increase in side effects from 250mg/week and 500mg/week but 500mg will give you much better gains. Plus at 250mg/week dosing your aromatase inhibitor can be more complicated because it's easier to crash your estrogen levels.
What you will need:
For your cycle
Explaining each part of the cycle:
Testosterone
This will be the basis of your cycle and is probably the most well tolerated and versatile steroid in existence, along with being the cheapest. Testosterone comes in many different esters with different half-lives. The half-life is how long it takes the substance to get released into your blood. For example, if you inject 500mg of testosterone with a 5 day half life then after 5 days only 250mgs of the substance will remain in your blood. After another 5 days only 125mgs will remain in your blood. So on and so forth until the amount in your blood is insignificant. The ester also carries a weight on the substance. For example in 100mg of testosterone enanthate only gives 70mg of actual testosterone because 30% of the substance is taken up by the enanthate ester. In general the longer the half-life of the ester, the higher the ester weight is.
The recommended ester for beginners is enanthate because it is a good middle ground when it comes to half-life. With testosterone enanthate, you must inject twice per week to keep stable blood levels of the substance. This means injecting every 3.5 days - Monday morning and Thursday afternoon are the most common injection times to do it every 3.5 days. When you are injecting every 3.5 days you will be injecting 250mg (1ml) each time to reach a total of 500mg per week.
Why do you need an aromatase inhibitor (AI)?
Your body as a man needs estrogen to function. Your body makes estrogen by converting testosterone via the aromatase enzyme. When you start taking excess testosterone, your body starts creating more estrogen via aromatizing to reach homeostasis. Excess estrogen can result in gyno, extreme bloat, being highly emotional and other unpleasant side effects. For this reason, we take an aromatase inhibitor to keep estrogen levels lower. However, it is important not to take to much AI because low estrogen also has bad side effects and inhibits your ability to build muscle.
Arimidex and Aromasin are the two best choices for aromatase inhibitors for most people. 1mg of Arimidex has similar anti-estrogen effects as 25mg of Aromasin.
Arimidex
Controls estrogen but is not a suicide inhibitor so if you stop taking it cold turkey you can get an estrogen rebound as a whole bunch or aromatase gets released. Thus it is important to taper off your dosage over the course of two weeks when you are done using it. Arimidex is a little hard on your lipids, but generally not something you need to worry about unless taking it at high doses for an extended period of time.
Aromasin
Overall, Aromasin is a better drug then Arimidex but is more expensive. Aromasin is a suicide inhibitor and you will not get an estrogen rebound when you stop taking it. It can also have a positive effect on your liver and cholesterol. The only real downside is that it's hard on some people's hairlines unlike arimidex. The most likely reason of this is that it metabolizes into a superpowered androgen much stronger than normal dht.
Aromatase inhibitor dosage.
On week 2-3 of your cycle start taking 0.25 of Arimidex or 6.25 mgs of Aromasin on pin days (every 3.5 days). You want to start off low and increase the dosage as needed so you don't crash your estrogen levels. If you start getting itchy/sensitive nipples before week 2-3 of your cycle then you may start taking AI sooner.
Below I have laid out how to increase the dosage. If the first one isn't enough to stop estrogen sides and make your nipples stop itching, move up one level. Eod stands for "Every other day" and ed stands for "Every day". The dosages below assume you use arimidex.
Level 1, start here: 0.25mg e3.5d = 0.5mg weekly
Level 2: 0.25mg eod = 0.875mg weekly
Level 3: 0.5mg e3.5d = 1mg weekly
Level 4: 0.5mg eod = 1.75mg weekly
Level 5: 0.5mg ed = 3.5 mg weekly.
Controlling estrogen:
This will be the hardest part of this cycle.
You can look up high and low estrogen symptoms on various forums but the truth is most estrogen side effects are very individual dependant and it can take time to figure out how high and low estrogen feels for you. The best way is to get bloodwork at week 5-6 of the cycle and adjust your AI dose based on your estrogen levels. If your estrogen is a bit above the normal range but you feel great then leave it as is. If you aren't getting side effects then keeping your estrogen on the higher side can be good for gains.
When it comes to libido high and low estrogen affects everyone completely differently so it's not a good measure of your estrogen levels unless you've cycled before and known how high or low estrogen affects your specific libido. However, if your sex drive drops to below what it was naturally or your dick stops working as well you can be pretty sure your estrogen isn't in a happy place but can't assume whether it's too high or too low.
When it comes to mood, sleep and energy changes the same thing is true. People just respond too differently for you to know if you have high or low estrogen as a first time user off those side effects. Also gyno isn't even a sure way to tell because not everyone gets that side effect.
So how can you even tell?:
The one universal effect of high and low estrogen is holding or excreting water. On high estrogen you will bloat and your bp will probably spike. On low estrogen you will dry out: your lips will feel dry, your joints will ache, your physique will look dry, you may get constipated due to the dryness. If your mood and libido are feeling off then notice whether you're retaining or losing water to see if your estrogen is high or low. When your estrogen is at a good place while on 500mg/wk test you should feel amazing.
Optional oral kickstart:
Testosterone enanthate takes about 4 weeks to fully saturate in your blood and 5-6 weeks before you really start seeing rapid changes to your body. Many people take an oral steroid to start their cycle for extra gains and so they don't have to wait 4 weeks. These will give you extra gains but come with added risk because they are liver toxic and most will increase your blood pressure. Go with tbol or anavar for an oral as those two will not complicate estrogen management or affect your blood pressure too badly and there's no chance of getting "mystery gyno" like with superdrol or anadrol.
Liver Support:
Herbal remedies and liver supports do fuck all, don't bother with them. A high doseage of milk thistle can have some small positive effects on the liver but is not enough to be worth the money and not enough to save your liver from toxic oral steroids. For most people who have average liver genetics no liver support will be needed for a 6-8 week run of tbol or anavar at modest doses.
Nac:
Nac works a bit differently to tudca and both should be taken for the most complete liver protection. Overall, tudca is a more potent liver protector. Nac increases glutathione, a powerful antioxidant that binds to toxins and protects liver cells. The oral bioavility of NAC is below 10%, so take at least 1g per day when on orals.
Tudca:
Tudca is essentially liver bile that balances the liver enzymes and flushes your liver of toxins. Take this 3 hours after your last oral dose. Take at least 250mg per day, and go up to 1.5 g daily if running a harsh superdol/tren combo or high dosages of anadrol.
HCG:
This tells your testicles to start producing testosterone, even if you are on steroids. Use it in the last 3-5 weeks of a cycle at 1000-2000ius weekly to enlarge your testicles and get them used to producing testosterone. Alternatively, you can run it at 1000ius per week the entire cycle to keep your balls from shrinking in the first place but that, of course, costs more and is unnecessary for most people. Split the dose at least 2x per week. Example: 500iu monday, 500iu thursday.
Now there is alot of misinformation going around when it comes to this stuff. It artificially gets your balls to start making testosterone, it does not restart your whole complex natural system of different glands and hormones communicating with each other to make your balls produce testosterone (it is known as the HTPA or hypothalamic–pituitary–gonadal axis). That is why it should not be used during PCT. People who use this as their PCT feel great while they are using it but as soon as they come off will have low T because they never restarted HTPA.
A potential danger of this stuff is that is you blast too high of dosages for too long you can desensitize the Leydig cells in your testicles making it hard/impossible for you to ever get back your natural testosterone production. That is not something you need to worry about if you follow the protocol I laid out above.
Needles & syringes:
Too thick of a needle can hurt and cause you to lose gear when injecting, do not use a needle below 25ga for injecting. Needles should be 1" long for glute injection and 0.5" for quads. If you're fat or jacked then add an extra half inch to each. For this cycle a 1 cc syringe is enough.
Injecting:
I found my quads to be the quickest and most painless way to inject. Sterilize the top of the vial and side of your quad then draw 1 ml (1ml = 1cc) of testosterone. Inject sitting down in the middle outer part of your quad and DO NOT flex your quads when injecting. After injecting smoothly remove the needle and discard it, don't try to reuse needles.
PCT:
On testosterone enanthate, you want to wait 2 weeks after your last injection to let the drug clear before you start your PCT. For a 12-15 week cycle, the standard is a 6 week PCT taking 20mg of nolvadex daily. Personally nolvadex completely breaks my dick so I use clomid at 25mg instead, but that's rare and most people get less side effects from nolvadex then they do from clomid.
This cycle is recommended because the side effects are mild and most can easily be avoided, plus this is enough to make great gains on as a beginner. Some beginners try to be extra precautious and run less than 500mg their first cycle but this is a mistake because there really isn't a significant increase in side effects from 250mg/week and 500mg/week but 500mg will give you much better gains. Plus at 250mg/week dosing your aromatase inhibitor can be more complicated because it's easier to crash your estrogen levels.
What you will need:
For your cycle
- 3x 10ml vials of testosterone enanthate dosed at 250mg/ml
- 1 packet of Arimidex or Aromasin to control your estrogen levels.
- 30 syringes with needles gauge 25 or 27, must be at least 1 cc. Needles should be 1" long for glute injection and 0.5" for quads. If you are fat then add an extra half inch to each.
- alcohol wipes.
- OPTIONAL:18-23 gauge drawing needles, this allows you to draw faster and keep the tip of your injecting needle sharp which can lead to less pain when injecting.
- OPTIONAL: an oral steroid to kickstart your cycle, this will be explained later.
- OPTIONAL: Liver support of TUDCA or NAC, only needed if you choose to kickstart with an oral steroid.
- OPTIONAL: 5000ius of HCG. This will be run over the last 4-5 weeks of your cycle and will make pct easier, this will be explained later. I highly recommend getting this although it is optional.
- Nolvadex, 1 gram total. (a packet of 20mg x 50)
Explaining each part of the cycle:
Testosterone
This will be the basis of your cycle and is probably the most well tolerated and versatile steroid in existence, along with being the cheapest. Testosterone comes in many different esters with different half-lives. The half-life is how long it takes the substance to get released into your blood. For example, if you inject 500mg of testosterone with a 5 day half life then after 5 days only 250mgs of the substance will remain in your blood. After another 5 days only 125mgs will remain in your blood. So on and so forth until the amount in your blood is insignificant. The ester also carries a weight on the substance. For example in 100mg of testosterone enanthate only gives 70mg of actual testosterone because 30% of the substance is taken up by the enanthate ester. In general the longer the half-life of the ester, the higher the ester weight is.
The recommended ester for beginners is enanthate because it is a good middle ground when it comes to half-life. With testosterone enanthate, you must inject twice per week to keep stable blood levels of the substance. This means injecting every 3.5 days - Monday morning and Thursday afternoon are the most common injection times to do it every 3.5 days. When you are injecting every 3.5 days you will be injecting 250mg (1ml) each time to reach a total of 500mg per week.
Why do you need an aromatase inhibitor (AI)?
Your body as a man needs estrogen to function. Your body makes estrogen by converting testosterone via the aromatase enzyme. When you start taking excess testosterone, your body starts creating more estrogen via aromatizing to reach homeostasis. Excess estrogen can result in gyno, extreme bloat, being highly emotional and other unpleasant side effects. For this reason, we take an aromatase inhibitor to keep estrogen levels lower. However, it is important not to take to much AI because low estrogen also has bad side effects and inhibits your ability to build muscle.
Arimidex and Aromasin are the two best choices for aromatase inhibitors for most people. 1mg of Arimidex has similar anti-estrogen effects as 25mg of Aromasin.
Arimidex
Controls estrogen but is not a suicide inhibitor so if you stop taking it cold turkey you can get an estrogen rebound as a whole bunch or aromatase gets released. Thus it is important to taper off your dosage over the course of two weeks when you are done using it. Arimidex is a little hard on your lipids, but generally not something you need to worry about unless taking it at high doses for an extended period of time.
Aromasin
Overall, Aromasin is a better drug then Arimidex but is more expensive. Aromasin is a suicide inhibitor and you will not get an estrogen rebound when you stop taking it. It can also have a positive effect on your liver and cholesterol. The only real downside is that it's hard on some people's hairlines unlike arimidex. The most likely reason of this is that it metabolizes into a superpowered androgen much stronger than normal dht.
Aromatase inhibitor dosage.
On week 2-3 of your cycle start taking 0.25 of Arimidex or 6.25 mgs of Aromasin on pin days (every 3.5 days). You want to start off low and increase the dosage as needed so you don't crash your estrogen levels. If you start getting itchy/sensitive nipples before week 2-3 of your cycle then you may start taking AI sooner.
Below I have laid out how to increase the dosage. If the first one isn't enough to stop estrogen sides and make your nipples stop itching, move up one level. Eod stands for "Every other day" and ed stands for "Every day". The dosages below assume you use arimidex.
Level 1, start here: 0.25mg e3.5d = 0.5mg weekly
Level 2: 0.25mg eod = 0.875mg weekly
Level 3: 0.5mg e3.5d = 1mg weekly
Level 4: 0.5mg eod = 1.75mg weekly
Level 5: 0.5mg ed = 3.5 mg weekly.
Controlling estrogen:
This will be the hardest part of this cycle.
You can look up high and low estrogen symptoms on various forums but the truth is most estrogen side effects are very individual dependant and it can take time to figure out how high and low estrogen feels for you. The best way is to get bloodwork at week 5-6 of the cycle and adjust your AI dose based on your estrogen levels. If your estrogen is a bit above the normal range but you feel great then leave it as is. If you aren't getting side effects then keeping your estrogen on the higher side can be good for gains.
When it comes to libido high and low estrogen affects everyone completely differently so it's not a good measure of your estrogen levels unless you've cycled before and known how high or low estrogen affects your specific libido. However, if your sex drive drops to below what it was naturally or your dick stops working as well you can be pretty sure your estrogen isn't in a happy place but can't assume whether it's too high or too low.
When it comes to mood, sleep and energy changes the same thing is true. People just respond too differently for you to know if you have high or low estrogen as a first time user off those side effects. Also gyno isn't even a sure way to tell because not everyone gets that side effect.
So how can you even tell?:
The one universal effect of high and low estrogen is holding or excreting water. On high estrogen you will bloat and your bp will probably spike. On low estrogen you will dry out: your lips will feel dry, your joints will ache, your physique will look dry, you may get constipated due to the dryness. If your mood and libido are feeling off then notice whether you're retaining or losing water to see if your estrogen is high or low. When your estrogen is at a good place while on 500mg/wk test you should feel amazing.
Optional oral kickstart:
Testosterone enanthate takes about 4 weeks to fully saturate in your blood and 5-6 weeks before you really start seeing rapid changes to your body. Many people take an oral steroid to start their cycle for extra gains and so they don't have to wait 4 weeks. These will give you extra gains but come with added risk because they are liver toxic and most will increase your blood pressure. Go with tbol or anavar for an oral as those two will not complicate estrogen management or affect your blood pressure too badly and there's no chance of getting "mystery gyno" like with superdrol or anadrol.
Liver Support:
Herbal remedies and liver supports do fuck all, don't bother with them. A high doseage of milk thistle can have some small positive effects on the liver but is not enough to be worth the money and not enough to save your liver from toxic oral steroids. For most people who have average liver genetics no liver support will be needed for a 6-8 week run of tbol or anavar at modest doses.
Nac:
Nac works a bit differently to tudca and both should be taken for the most complete liver protection. Overall, tudca is a more potent liver protector. Nac increases glutathione, a powerful antioxidant that binds to toxins and protects liver cells. The oral bioavility of NAC is below 10%, so take at least 1g per day when on orals.
Tudca:
Tudca is essentially liver bile that balances the liver enzymes and flushes your liver of toxins. Take this 3 hours after your last oral dose. Take at least 250mg per day, and go up to 1.5 g daily if running a harsh superdol/tren combo or high dosages of anadrol.
HCG:
This tells your testicles to start producing testosterone, even if you are on steroids. Use it in the last 3-5 weeks of a cycle at 1000-2000ius weekly to enlarge your testicles and get them used to producing testosterone. Alternatively, you can run it at 1000ius per week the entire cycle to keep your balls from shrinking in the first place but that, of course, costs more and is unnecessary for most people. Split the dose at least 2x per week. Example: 500iu monday, 500iu thursday.
Now there is alot of misinformation going around when it comes to this stuff. It artificially gets your balls to start making testosterone, it does not restart your whole complex natural system of different glands and hormones communicating with each other to make your balls produce testosterone (it is known as the HTPA or hypothalamic–pituitary–gonadal axis). That is why it should not be used during PCT. People who use this as their PCT feel great while they are using it but as soon as they come off will have low T because they never restarted HTPA.
A potential danger of this stuff is that is you blast too high of dosages for too long you can desensitize the Leydig cells in your testicles making it hard/impossible for you to ever get back your natural testosterone production. That is not something you need to worry about if you follow the protocol I laid out above.
Needles & syringes:
Too thick of a needle can hurt and cause you to lose gear when injecting, do not use a needle below 25ga for injecting. Needles should be 1" long for glute injection and 0.5" for quads. If you're fat or jacked then add an extra half inch to each. For this cycle a 1 cc syringe is enough.
Injecting:
I found my quads to be the quickest and most painless way to inject. Sterilize the top of the vial and side of your quad then draw 1 ml (1ml = 1cc) of testosterone. Inject sitting down in the middle outer part of your quad and DO NOT flex your quads when injecting. After injecting smoothly remove the needle and discard it, don't try to reuse needles.
PCT:
On testosterone enanthate, you want to wait 2 weeks after your last injection to let the drug clear before you start your PCT. For a 12-15 week cycle, the standard is a 6 week PCT taking 20mg of nolvadex daily. Personally nolvadex completely breaks my dick so I use clomid at 25mg instead, but that's rare and most people get less side effects from nolvadex then they do from clomid.
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