First Cycle Log (test only)

[ColoMuscle]

If youve followed on some other topics over the past couple weeks you may have run across me talking about starting my first cycle. Well time to put my money where my mouth is! Order should be arriving in a few days so I’ll plan on starting the cycle next Sunday. In the mean time figured Id start logging my training and sharing some other stuff.

Goal

Get as strong/powerful as possible! I dont have super specific numbers in mind I just want to push a lot of my main lifts up as high as I can. Though I suppose if I had to get specific I’d like to do the following by the end of June…

Bench → 300 or more lbs (last time I tested I got 270lbs November 2019)
Squat → 450 more lbs (~2 years ago I got 415lbs)
Deadlift → 530+ (~2 years ago I got 440lbs, but recent in a workout I hit 440lbs for 6 so I think I can set more aggressive goals for Deadlift, plus I’m probably best built for it over the others).

Not too concerned about physique or other things, but I do incorporate a lot of other things in my training (speed/sprint training, bodybuilding accessories, little conditioning etc). I like to be well rounded with my training as much as I can, and in the process if my physique improves that will be a nice bonus.

Gear

Started TRT (100mg/week of cyp) Mid December 2019. Got bumped up to 150mg/week Mid Feb. I’m going to add on 200mg/week of Test PP (phenylproprionate) spead out of 3x per week. So total test dosage is 350mg/week. Plan is to run this for 10 weeks. I have aromasin and nolvadex on hand just in case.

Diet

Recently finished a RP Fat Loss phase where I lost 12 lbs. Finished that a month ago and moved into their recommended maintenance phase so I have slowly been adding calories back in each week. Protein is at about 1g/lbs bodyweight and carbs vary depending on what I’m doing (training days I’ll take in 250-300g, non-training days I only take in 100g), fats are steady at 100-110g per day from healthy sources).

Training

Monday - Upper Body (Heavy Bench + Accessories)
Tuesday - Sprint/Speed + Lower Body (Heavy Squat, Lighter Deadlift variation+ Accessories)
Wednesday - Some type of active recovery/cardio (I enjoy long bike rides)
Thursday - Upper Body (Volume Bench + Accessories)
Friday - Sprint/Speed + Lower Body (Heavy Deadlift, Lighter Squat variation+ Accessories)
Saturday - Upper Body (extra pump session… bis/tris/shoulder etc.)
Sunday - Active recovery/cardio or completely off

That’s all for now. I trained yesterday so I’ll push that up right now and we’ll go from there. Excited to share this journey with you guys.

 

[ColoMuscle]

4/20 Training

1. Paused Bench Press (1s hold at chest) - up o 215lbs x 6, 225 x6x3 sets
   *I actually tweaked my pec 3 weeks ago, this was my first full workout back, was a little hesitant but given that my best # of reps at 225 is 8 (without a pause) I’d say today was a positive.
2. Seated Barbell Overhead Press - up to 145lbs x5, 5, 7 (felt like hitting a few extras on the last one)
3. Pull Ups - 3x10
4. DB Curls, DB Skull Crushers, Band Pull Apart - 3x10ea (slow tempo on eccentric → 3-4s to lower)

 

[ColoMuscle]

4/21

TOUCDOWN! My order arrived today earlier then I expected. Four vials of 10ml Test PP (dosed 100mg/ml). I had intended to wait until Sunday but since it arrived today I got excited I decided to pin some right away (0.5ml in the right glute). Little bit more PIP than my pharmagrade test cyp but overall not bad either. I’ll pin again on Thursday and then my schedule will be Sunday/Tuesday/Thursday moving forward. I’ve read that the PP ester has a 4 day half-life so I figured 3x per week should give me relatively stable levels and avoid spikes that would cause excessive aromatization. We shall see though.

Training

1. Speed work - bunch of drills and then a bunch of 10, 20 and 30yd sprints.
2. Back Squat - worked up 335lbs x 6,6,8 (extra reps on last set)
   in addition to my pec tweak three weeks ago I also pulled my groin squatting the next day (it was a frustrating week), so today was my first day back performing regular squats. My all time best for 6 reps on squats is 355lbs (ironically enough that was the set before I hurt myself) so I should be able to hit that in two weeks time and then keep progressing from here.
3. Paused Deficit Deadlift - work up to 315lbs x4x3sets
   Nothing outstanding here. This is my lighter deadlift variation for the week, and I’ll do a regular heavy deadlift as my main movement on Friday. For the deficit I stand on a bumper plate about 3’’ thick and I’ll perform a 1s pause after I break the floor on every rep.
4. Ab Wheel Rollouts - 3x15
   I don’t do much besides squat and deadlift on lower body days right now. Between those two movements and the sprints I’m throughly worked by the end. So just some extra abs and I’m good

I’ll be interested to see how long it takes to notice the extra Test. I didn’t feel much on my TRT cyp until 6-8 weeks in. I’m sure it won’t be as fast as Prop but we’ll see what happens, maybe somewhere in the middle.

 

[Bigmurph6]

Everything looks good brother you are lifting good amount of weight. Your macros for your goals seem alright also but when I saw that you are using test pp I saw that you believe that you are going to be getting numbers like you would off other testosterone esters. Check out ester weights they actually take away from the amount of bio available testosterone and phenylpropionate is one of the heaviest esters that takes away from the actual amount of mgs you will get from your testosterone.
An example is I love testoviron 250mg/ml but you will only get 180mg/ml of actual bio available testosterone enanthate.
You can search here with the magnifying glass and search ester weights and you will find a good amount of information on all the different esters.

Im going to keep up with your log brother I really like the detail

 

[ColoMuscle]

Thanks @Bigmurph. I was absolutely killing it all the way up to three weeks ago and then I started getting dumb and got hurt. I’ve slowly worked back to feeling 100% so I’m excited to start making progress again.

As for the ester weights I remember running across something along those lines here recently. I think Test PP and Test Cyp are similar in how heavy the ester molecule is (mid to upper 60mg per 100mg while something like prop is on the 80s). Obviously that’s not exact but I know they’re within a couple mg of reach other, though I should go back and double check that. But you’re right saying that I’m getting 350mg of total test per week is incorrect, I’m getting 150mg of Test Cyp and 200mg of Test PP per week. I appreciate you looking out.

 

[ColoMuscle]

4/22

Rest Day

Man I’m feeling those sprints, squats and deadlifts today. Normally I like to go for a nice hard bike ride on off days, but I think some walking is good for today.

Nutrition wise I drop my carbs on these days and keep protein and fats the same. Instead of 250-300g of carbs I’ll drop it to 100-150g.

Tomorrow I’ll pin some more of my Test PP (0.5cc felt fine, so we’ll give 0.75cc a try) and it’ll be time to hammer on the upper body again.

 

[Bigmurph6]

No doubt brother that’s what this community is all about not what ive been seeing recently with these trolls that we have been dealing with im glad to have you around and you can hit me up anytime just @Bigmurph and I will get back to you soon.
I hope that injury isn’t that bad and it has really healed up because you don’t want to push through and just make it worse.
Wish you the best brother good luck and good gains brother

 

[McSwickles]

Your log, your cycle and your training look great bro. Excited to follow your log!

 

[Sig516]

Catching up on your log, solid work bro. Get dem gains

 

[ColoMuscle]

I appreciate the love fellas. It’s motivating to know I have some people watching and supporting!

4/23

Upper Body

1. 3 second paused Bench Press - up to 205lbs x4x6 sets
   this is my lighter higher volume bench workout for the week. Could definitely handle more than 205 for this movement but the goal is just to get some quality volume work in. The 3s pause helps with my positioning and technique in the Bench and keeps me honest load-wise. Really happy with how this felt today
2. Flat DB Press with extra band resistance - 3x8
   Don’t have the best DB selection in my garage (heaviest I have are 60s), so I hook a monster mini band around both hands and loop it around my back to make it a little harder
3. Incline Chest Supported DB Row with pauses - 3x 5s hold/5 full reps/5s hold/5 full reps/5s hold
   these burn like hell! Again I gotta make those 60s harder somehow, so adding in the 5s squeezes at the peak contraction are very good at accomplishing that.
4. EZ Bar Overhead Tricep Extension paired with EZ Bar Bicep Curl - 3x12 ea movement
5. 3 Way DB Shoulder Complex (Front Raises + Lateral Raises + Rear Delt Raises) - 3x12 ea movement

Great session today overall!

Pinned 0.75cc of the Test PP in the AM before this with no issues. Went in the right delt this time. I forgot to mention I went with for my Test. Obviously it’s too early to tell progress wise but what I can tell you his Test PP is smooth .

Got some work to do from home today, but the weather where I live is also starting to get really nice so I gotta make sure I get out with the wife to enjoy it!

 

[ColoMuscle]

4/24

Lower Body

1. Sprint drills and a bunch of max velocity sprint work
2. Deadlift - Up to 445lbs x1 then dropped down to 315lbs x6x2 sets Sumo Deadlift
   very disapointed with this, my original plan was to go 445lbs for a pretty easy set of 1 (within the last month I’ve pulled 440x6) then drop down to 415-425 for 2 sets of 6. For some reason I was getting some very deep hip/SI pain (pretty much right directly under my glutes) with every rep. The 445 was pretty painful, so I tried 405 for my down sets and the pain was too much to want to keep going. However I decided to experiment with some Sumo Deadlifts and luckily these were pain free, just a little awkward because I haven’t done them much before. I’ll reevaluate next week and see what I need to do. I do my sprints on pavement right now and I’m doing a lot of them so I may just need to cut back on that stuff. My primary goal is strength and if that is potentially affecting it then I need to take them out
3. 3s Paused Back Squat - Up to 245lbs x5x6 sets
   kept these light since I had pain with the Deadlifts. Could feel it a little but not nearly as bad.

So overall the week was going well but I felt like today was a bit of a set back. I may need to reevaluate how much running/sprinting I do before I lift on lower body days. When I sprint I do so with all out effort and this paired with heavy squatting/pulling immediately after may be more than my hips and back can handle at the moment. So I think next week i’ll dial that back, continue to focus on sumo pulls and maybe substitute front squat in for back squat to see if I can get things to calm down. In the end I still got to lift weights which isn’t something that everyone can do right now so I’m not gonna be too upset about a bad day. It’s still better than nothing!

 

[Bigmurph6]

You will see a huge difference running on grass rather than pavement. I get shin splints I believe that there called when I run the track but I just run the inside of the track on the grass and I can get a good run in and not have to deal with the pain. I also have bad knees so I try to use the elliptical or the bike in the gym to take the pressure off of them rather than using the treadmill.
Keep lifting brother just take it easy a bit we don’t want to hear that you got hurt so bad that you have to ride the bench for a bit.

Good luck and good gains brother

 

[ColoMuscle]

Thanks @Bigmurph. Just got a little ambitious the first week back I think. Need to take things back a little more and be patient. Probably putting extra pressure to get after it since this is my real first cycle beyond TRT. Gotta remember it will take a few weeks for the gear to kick in anyway and it won’t be any help unless I’m healthy enough to train!

 

[Bigmurph6]

That’s the truth right there brother

 

[ColoMuscle]

4/26

Off Day

Hips are feeling fine. All I did yesterday was go for a bike ride and I may go for another one today. Mostly posting today because I pinned 0.25cc of my Test C and 0.75cc of my Test PP and I want records of all of that if I ever want to look back. My pinning schedule will be as follows…

Sunday - 0.25cc Test C and 0.75cc Test PP
Tuesday - 0.25cc Test C and 0.75cc Test PP
Thursday - 0.25cc Test C and 0.5cc Test PP

Adds up to 150mg/week Test C and 200mg/week test PP.

I only have 1cc syringes and I want to spread the test PP as evenly as possible over so I settled on that. I’m gonna rotate pinning in my delts and ventroglutes. I will need some more 1" pins soon for my glute injections so I’m about to put an order in. I have 1" 22g which kinda feel like harpoons so I might go down to 1" 25g (if you have thoughts @Bigmurph let me know). I use 1/2" 27g for delta which seem to work fine.

 

[Ominous]

Definitely go with the 25g. And 27g.

 

[ColoMuscle]

4/27

NEW CYCLE
Decided to revamp what I was doing and found a good 9 week powerlifting cycle to follow. Today was the first day.

1. Sprint drills
   found a nice grass field close to the house to do my sprint drills. Just stuck to my form drills and didn’t hit any sprints today.
2. Squat - Up to 350lbs x3, then 305lbs x8x3sets
   absolutely crushed these, awesome bar speed. All my work sets felt like warm ups
3. Bench Press (with 1s comp pause) - Up to 190lbs x8x3 sets
   I’m benching 3x per week with this new program, so not surprising the program starts really light. These felt really good and like my squats felt more like warm up sets (first time in a month my pecs didn’t feel fatigued/sore during work sets)
4. Close Grip Bench Press - 175lbs x6x3 sets
   accessory work
5. Incline Chest Supported DB Row 4x12 and Band Pull Aparts 3x30
   accessory work

I was pretty grumpy the whole weekend with how terrible Friday felt and today really snapped me out of that. Everything felt light and fast and pain-free; exactly how the first week of a new training cycle should feel. Today restored my confidence and I’m really excited to slowly ramp things up. Reducing the sprint training and moving it to grass did wonders for my hips and I think splitting up the days I Squat and Deadlift will be beneficial as well.

Tomorrow is deadlifts and more bench training. Another pinning day as well

 

[Bigmurph6]

Im really glad to hear that you are doing better brother keep it going

 

[ColoMuscle]

4/28

1. Deadlift - Up to 375lbs x5x4 sets
   Felt great and zero hip/back pain. Moved really well (I’d say a 6/10 difficulty). I’ve decided to quit using straps cold turkey to make sure my grip isn’t an issue come meet/test day. I use a hook grip which I have some experience with but it’s been a while so the thumbs were pretty raw after. Need to invest in some stretch tape for my thumbs to help with that
2. Bench Press (with 1 sec competition pause) - Up to 200lbs x4x5 sets
   all reps were easy and smooth. Felt some fatigue from yesterday’s bench but it didn’t really affect anything today. 6/10 difficulty.
3. Accessories - Pendlay Row 205 x7x3 sets, Pull Ups x12,12,10

Pinned 0.25cc of Test C and 0.75cc of Test PP this AM in the left delt with no issue. Ordered some 1" 25g needles for my glute injections to replace my 22g ones (only have a few of them left anyway).

 

[ColoMuscle]

4/30

1. Squat - Up to 320lbs x6x4 sets
   Didn’t feel as fresh as Monday’s squats which is to be expected. Everything moved well though. I’d say 6-6.5/10 difficulty. Good quality work here.
2. Standing Overhead Press - 135lbs x8x3 sets (7/10 difficulty)
   paired with
3. Single Leg Pistol Squats - 3x8ea leg (standing on top of a bench)
4. Incline Chest Supported DB Row - 3x12
   paired with
5. Ab Wheel - 3x15

Probably my easiest day of the week because I only have to perform one main core lift instead of two. Its a good way to shake off the rust after the day off yesterday and still recovering a little from Monday and Tuesday. Pinned 0.25cc of Test C and and 0.5cc of Test PP before training. I’ve finally pinned each site with the Test PP once. After a few pins I’m realising the Test PP does sting a little more than my pharma Test C and the pain does hang around a few days longer. Could be caused by many factors though and I’m not too concerned as it’s very tolerable. I’ll be interested to see how things feel as I rotate through the sites again.