Hello all! Been a lurker for a bit and thought it was time to introduce myself. 40y/o male, 5’11" and currently 260lbs. I have been involved with physical culture of some sort most of my life, most notably martial arts (judo and BJJ mostly) for almost 30 years. During that time I mostly trained 100% focused on my sport, but spent about a year and a half or so training strong man (~2007-8) since the gym I trained at also had strongman and power lifting. I really enjoyed it although I went from about 210 to 275. I stopped training any martial arts around 2014 after taking time to recover from and ACL, MCL and meniscus tear, then a car crash that caused 2 herniated discs, then personal/professional commitments filled that time during recovery (including moving to another state and town with zero resources). So after a few years of not doing anything and dealing with chronic pain, I decided to try to use squats and deadlifts to heal my back (after coming across some very interesting research articles on a similar protocol) so between 2016 and 2018 I worked my way up to a 515 squat and a 570 deadlift at 215lbs. I moved across the country, took a crazy stressful job and basically quit working out for a year. My sleep, nutrition, and stress management has been shit and my weight has climbed back up to 260. I have cut weight before, when I got out of graduate school in 2010, I was my fattest at a little over 300lbs and I was able to go from 300 to 225 in between May and November, through diet and exercise alone. It was grueling, I was training/exercising around 20 hours a week, measuring every bit of food to the gram, time restricted eating (usually 16/8) and intermittent fasting (3 day and 7 day water fasts once a month) also using a modified keto (high protein low carb <20g/day). After I hit 225 I slowed down the crazy pace of weight loss and between November 2010 and May 2011 got back down to 215 and stayed there until the car wreck. So, I want to get back down to a decent weight and then maybe see what doing a bulk on AAS is like. So, I know how to loose weight and have proof of concept, but at 40 I dont have the time or inclination to do it like I did in my 30’s and would also like to see what AAS could do in the realm of helping me keep my muscle mass and possibly help with the preference for fat loss. Now that I am teleworking, I have started exercising again, but really only can afford to put in 3-4 days training each week and am now in week 7 of continuous exercise. I will not be going to a gym anytime soon with COVID, but I have a power rack, ~900lbs of plates, a pair selecttech dumbells that go from like 5-55 lbs and a single selectech that goes to 90lbs, an ez-curl bar, and a 25lb mace, at home, so can still get in some good training. From what I have seen it definitely looks like I should focus on a cut to (not sure exactly how low bf%) before I even consider a bulk. Looking forward to the support from this community.
New to form, new to AAS, and new to some aspects of body building
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Raphael3636
Well-known member
Welcome aboard brotha, great intro and very detailed!
If you have any specific questions bout cycles, AAS ,. GH or whatever it maybe don’t hesitate to contact me.
If you have any specific questions bout cycles, AAS ,. GH or whatever it maybe don’t hesitate to contact me.
McSwickles
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Welcome aboard!
Czworeczki
Well-known member
Bigmurph6
Banned
Welcome to ugmuscle brother glad to have you around sounds like you know that you need to knock off that weight and get back at it the stress and no sleep will honestly kill you so try to change that and you should be able to reach your goals no problem.
Good luck and good gains brother
Good luck and good gains brother
Okay, so I’m going to see how 150mg testC sat/wed will assist me in my cut. Will also be taking .5 anastrole on injection days (just got my blood work done and my estrogen is already high). Luckily, my doctor is willing to help me out with this and monitor my labs and make adjustment recommendations. She also prescribed hcg but I couldn’t afford it at $250 for the Rx. I plan on giving this a go for 8-12 weeks and see where I land bf wise and reassess what my next steps will be. In the aforementioned past, when I lost weight I lost absolute strength and my ability to recover was negativity impacted, aka always felt worn down and beat up. I’m going to try to do barbell training 3-4 days a week, basically every other day, with active recovery days on the non heavy training. Shooting for ~1800 calories a day and 250g protein. My resting metabolic rate is quite low for my size (last tested 1740 at 220lbs), likely due to eating a notified keto diet, on and off, for most of the last ten years. So, should I make any changes to my workout or cals in regards to using aas now? Or should I just monitor my routine and auto regulate? Any other feedback?
Goals are around 1800 and 250, not exact. but for example yesterday was 13.3oz grilled chicken breast, 2 whole eggs w/ 1.5Tbs Avocado oil, 1.5 slice bacon, protein shake w/ 2 scoops isopure dutch chocolate and 1 cup whole milk, protein shake with 2 scoops isopure dutch chocolate and 1 scoop espresso, 2 omega fish oil soft-gels, and daily multi vitamin. total calories 1697 w/ 290g protein. Yes, hitting that macro target and calorie goal is limiting, but it is what has worked for me in the past, so used that as my starting point.
Okay quick update, did 8 weeks. Wife insisted that I have the same dinner as the family, which bumped my calories up most days, but overall kept a caloric deficit. SW was 260, CW 245, I lost about 6 inches from my waist, so that was good. Been trying to figure out maintenance intake with current energy expenditure. Weight training was super inconsistent, with average workouts at 2.5 weight training days per week, but at least on non workout days, I still got in LISS with brisk walking 2-6 miles a day. Going to give it a few weeks at maintenance and dig in for another 8 weeks. Had a sleep study done last week and unsurprisingly its findings were severe sleep apnea. I am also getting fitted for a cpap tonight, so I am really hopeful that will help with this horrible fatigue I have been having; I cant remember the last time I woke up feeling rested. More later.
Getting used to it was brutal, like more than a month without being able to sleep with it on without a sleep aid. On the upside, I am now able to sleep with it on and get to sleep with it on without issue, as long as I keep the thermostat at 63 or below, not sure what that will mean for me in the summer time. I already run hot and even at 65 I wake up in a pool of sweat after 4 hours, with that conditioned air I just cant shed the heat off fast enough. For the first time in forever, there have been days that I woke up and actually felt like I had some rest!
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