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Introduction – Lifting, Peps & Steroids – My story

JJ234

New member
Hey guys,

This is a bit of an introduction & a bit about my journey.
For the stats peeps, I’m 5.7", 86kg at around 12% bf.

I like to lift heavy shit. It’s something I’ve always done & always will.

So when did it all start? My lifting story started over 30 yrs ago & my steroid story started about 10yrs ago.

I’ve been lifting since I was a pup. No matter where you are there’s always a gym so it has been my go to & my zen place.

Like many, it starts with a few bro’s and you just want to get fit & strong. After a while, you just want to get bigger, fitter & stronger until you have exhausted all your knowledge, so you go seeking more. These days there’s plenty of info on the net, back in my day it was magazines like IronMan, Flex, Muscle & fitness, all pages full of Pro Body Builders & supplements to get you jacked.

Basically I was programmed from a young age to be jacked and massive as these were the only things to read & gain knowledge. But when the internet came round, it was bro-science central & a lot of it. Everyone had an opinion due to the free speech of the net.

But as the years went on, I knew a few things about my body so I started documenting what I ate and training logs so I could make changes, to just be better. To this day, I have written literally 100’s of training programs and many more diets. I’ve tried bulking, dieting, high rep, low rep, HIT, sweating, basically I’ve starved myself, almost ate myself to death & trained my ass off over many, many years. And the key thing is even after all these years, I never stopped learning.

My latest learning curve was a couple years back now & is what got me into powerlifting. I’ve always lifted heavy, never competed but I just like to lift heavy. But after many years of poor form, it all caught up with me around 2.5yrs ago. I ended up with a 6mm tear in my Supraspinatus. In simple terms a torn, almost semi-detached, tendon in my shoulder.

At that time I was doing a mix of high rep / low rep, huge volume training. 6 days a week with little rest.

This put me completely out of action, but it gave me time to think while healing. I wasn’t exactly sure what I did, but I knew it had to be from the lack of rest with higher rep / multiple sets I was doing. After doing a lot of rehab, speaking to my physio it was obvious I had some lacking stabiliser muscles which needed to be strengthened to assist in the rehab. What was also obvious was the delt heads were all really strong but they were compensating for the smaller stabilisers.

Yes I did say Rehab & physio, the specialist surgeon and 2 GP’s told me the only way to fix this was to put me under the knife to stitch it back on & they all agreed I would never lift again after it. One Dr basically said get used to it as the other one usually happens not long after it. Hell no I said! There has to be another way. All roads lead me to the peps, BCP157 & TMB500. I ordered 3 months supply & dosed myself up multiple times a day

So after many months of rehab & peps, I finally got back in the gym. Yes it appeared that my tendon had reattached by itself. So baby steps for sure as I still had that Dr in my head saying the other one will happen! If you don’t know what an injury like this feels like, an explanation is like having a 100kg strapped to your arm so it’s extremely difficult to raise it and obviously very painful when bursa is hanging out of the joint.

But this got me thinking, I need to do things smarter. I didn’t want this to happen again and I didn’t want the other one to happen. So, many banded exercises to help the smaller muscles build up & support the shoulder but I knew I would be back lifting again in the months to come and didn’t want to be in the same place.

So how do I lift heavy & do it smarter? Get a PT that trains powerlifters. This was approx. 12 months post injury, I was back, lifting in the early 600’s. But what an experience learning from someone who actually knows how to lift & to lift heavy consistently. Apart from the technique, it’s all in the breathing, learning how to control my diaphragm. So good, feels great being able to lift smarter.

But to be honest, I lift in the 500’s now due to a persisting hip issue, bloody sciatica! Anyway that’s life and lifting.

So how does the sauce fit into all this? Well the journey for me started over 10yrs ago & I blasted & cruised a couple of times before deciding to stay on. (I was around 83kg when I started & 13-15%bf). I didn’t initially decide to stay on when I was blasting, the gains were good & I just wanted to stay up. After speaking to my blood guru, yes I did regular bloods, we saw LDL rising to a point where we needed to consider taking other things to try to reduce it or adjust diet and reduce total amount to get it back to a safe level. At this stage I was blasting over 1000, around 1200mg’s/wk & was using a couple GHRP’s. There was a few compounds in this stack, but mostly Test, Deca & EQ. Yeah this was really stupid, now looking back on it. I wish I had better advice at the time. I’m so lucky I didn’t suffer any serious health issues because of it. (At this point I was lifting in the mid 600’s but BB high rep style)

But after about 6 months of this, (my heaviest was 103kg, but cut down to 93kg @ 5%bf) I was at the point where I either needed serious PCT or just taper down & stay on. My normal production of test at this stage had completely shut down so it would be a long road & a bloody hard one losing all the gains to go back to normal levels of natural test.

So I made the decision to taper off and get down to TRT levels. The thing for me, one of the biggest was the possibility of facing all the side effects like depression, loss of libido & so on. Basically everything that makes you function as a man could be gone. So this is where I’ve ended up 10yrs on, using UGL gear which is hit & miss.

I’m greatful I have a good GP, he can’t or wont get me on a program, if you don’t know this is stupidly difficult in Aus, but he monitors my health with regular bloods. My total T is still elevated but not stupidly high & the old ticker is in great nick. He wishes he had more patients as healthy as me at this age. So what I take these days is more for man functions & recovery than serious gains. I like to lift & I wouldn’t be able to lift as heavy or as often if I came completely off. Not to mention all the other scary sides. So nope, I’ll stay on.

I’ve rambled on a bit so looking back, what have I learned, what could someone take away from my experience?

  • Short cycles are ok for temporary gains, less risk on health.
  • Long term decision to stay on is not a bad one, just means regular bloods / health check. Supply is an issue.
  • Taking multiple ml’s of gear can be dangerous.
  • Having a PT with experience in the style of lifting you want to do is worth its weight in gold & will make the most of your enhanced body.
  • Documenting your journey is a good thing to do to look back on & to make changes to suit your goals. This includes dietary needs.
  • Consistent lifting is where the real gains are.
  • Always do your own research, for other options than surgery, to fix an injury
  • Get a good GP. One that will look after your health without judgement.
  • Stay true to yourself. If you enjoy lifting, make it part of your life.
If any of you newer guys have any questions or would like to know more for like sharps safety or injection safety, just DM me am happy to shed some light on some things. But by no means do i think I'm the next Derek from more plates more dates, i'm just a regular guy that's been around the traps for awhile & happy to help where i can.
Cheers
 
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