STRAIGHT FROM THE UNDERGROUND BY JOHN DOE BODYBUILDING SUPERDRIVE PUBLISHING MEDICAL DISCLAIMER The information in this book is for research and educational purposes only. The author and owner of this book hold no responsibility, nor liability, for any such action taken from the information provided in this guide. The author and owner of this book will not be responsible for any medical related incident that was a result of following information in this guide. Before beginning any exercise regimen or performance enhancement cycle, it’s strongly advised that you consult with your doctor first. There are dangers and side effects of using anabolic steroids and other performance enhancing compounds such as, but not limited to: performance enhancing peptides, human growth hormone, androgenic steroids, stimulants, fat burners, erectile dysfunction drugs, female hormones used for testicular recovery, nootropics, anti-estrogens, fatty acid based oils, and unsafe injection practices. Neither the author of this guide, nor owner of JohnDoeBodyBuilding.com, will hold any liability of any outcome, positive or negative, that comes from following the information in this guide. This book is strictly for entertainment and research purposes only! LEGAL DISCLAIMER The possession of anabolic and androgenic steroids is illegal without a prescription in most countries. Furthermore, the possession of human growth hormone and other performance enhancing peptides is illegal in most countries. Please check with local and state laws before ever attempting to purchase, sell, or possess anything discussed in this guide. This guide is strictly for entertainment and research purposes only. Neither the author of this guide, nor the owner of JohnDoeBodyBuilding.com, will be held liable for any legal consequence or outcome concerning information provided within this book. Again, this book is strictly for entertainment and research purposes only! Text copyright © 2015 John Doe Bodybuilding, Superdrive Publishing Limited All rights reserved. This book is licensed for your personal use only and may not be re-sold or given away. No part of this book may be reproduced by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the express written permission of the publisher. Published by Superdrive Publishing Limited superdrivepublishing.com ISBN-13: 9780996467018 STRAIGHT FROM THE UNDERGROUND John Doe Bodybuilding TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter One My Journey into Performance Enhancement............................................................1 Chapter Two Three Basic Beginner Cycles........................................................................................4 Chapter Three Injection Techniques......................................................................................................8 Chapter Four Injection Complications...............................................................................................10 Chapter Five Intermediate Cycles.....................................................................................................12 Chapter Six Cutting Cycles and Diet...............................................................................................20 Chapter Seven Cutting Agents..............................................................................................................24 Chapter Eight Peptides.........................................................................................................................28 Chapter Nine Insulin 101.....................................................................................................................35 Chapter Ten Human Growth Hormone..........................................................................................37 Chapter Eleven Advanced Building Cycles............................................................................................42 Chapter Twelve Synthol...........................................................................................................................45 Chapter Thirteen Hormone Replacement Therapy................................................................................47 Chapter Fourteen Low Dose Compounds that Work Well with HRT.....................................................53 Chapter Fifteen Overcompensation Effect............................................................................................56 Chapter Sixteen Without Health, there is No Physique.......................................................................58 IV STRAIGHT FROM THE UNDERGROUND John Doe Bodybuilding CHAPTER ONE MY JOURNEY INTO PERFORMANCE ENHANCEMENT I am not a doctor nor am I a scientist. I am a muscular guy who has gotten a lot of attention and recognition for my physique. I started with very little and I always put 110% into the gym and I worked hard to get to where I’m at. There are thousands of articles and studies out there that talk about the same things that I talk about in this guide. The difference is I’ve done them and I can relate. I’m not some armchair theorist who merely sites references and studies. Everything I talk about in this book is something I’ve done. From anabolic steroids to peptides, to HGH, insulin, and synthol, I’ve done it at some point in time. What I do not talk about in this book are things I haven’t done. A great physique can be built with everything I talk about here. Staying healthy and safe can be done with my advice. I don’t claim to know everything, but I can help you build one hell of a body!! I was a 19 year old teenager back when I took my first cycle of steroids. I had already put in an honest few years of hard work and was dedicated to eating as much as I could in order to grow. My motto was if I didn’t puke, I continued to eat. I wasn’t going to stop until I was a very large guy with slabs of muscle on my frame and everyone knew who I was. Maybe you didn’t like me, maybe you didn’t know me personally, but you were going to know who that big motherfucker was that just walked through the door. I was pretty naïve at the time. I assumed the bigger guys took something I wasn’t using, but I still didn’t want to believe it. I still wanted to believe that the guy in the muscle magazine was taking over the counter supplements and special powdered mixes he would drink in order to achieve his impressive physique. I still wanted to believe that JUST MAYBE Arnold Schwarzenegger was all natural and just had this crazy work ethic in the gym. But I had a gut feeling that I could have been wrong. As I got further along into the game of bodybuilding, I eventually realized that I couldn’t have been any more wrong about it!! EVERYONE and I mean EVERYONE…was using something!! Don’t let people fool you, if they look beyond what is natural then chances are they’re not natural. 90% of guys over 200 lbs that are single digit body fat and not over 6’ tall are not natural. Many self-proclaimed natural bodybuilders are not natural. They are simply using compounds that they know will clear their systems before any sort of drug testing. Steroids are everywhere and more popular today than they’ve ever been!! Steroids today are stronger than before and we have compounds now that didn’t exist before. Chemists are always one step ahead of the game, and as long as professional sports and competitive nature exists, performance enhancers will always be there. Steroids are not limited to just bodybuilders. There are guys on Wall Street using them simply for the fact they help them make more aggressive decisions with the stock market. Doctors are using them, school teachers are using them, lawyers are using them, and practically anybody else in any profession is using performance enhancement drugs!! Put it this way: there are more people using steroids that don’t look the part than people who do. Steroids are everywhere, and they will never go away. I saved my money from mowing lawns and stocking groceries and purchased my first vial of testosterone from a guy in my gym. He was a couple years older than I was, but he knew a lot of prison guards who worked out at the gym I used to train at. I’m pretty sure to this day that the bottle of gear came from a prison guard, but it really didn’t matter. All I knew was I had gotten in good enough with him to have him trust me and hook me up. I paid $200 USD 1 STRAIGHT FROM THE UNDERGROUND John Doe Bodybuilding for a single bottle of testosterone cypionate, and then I paid an additional $50 for 8 syringes. This was over 15 years ago. Sources were not easy to find in the beginning, and the internet bodybuilding forums were pretty much unheard of. So I had no idea of whether or not I was getting a good deal or getting ripped off. I just forked over the hard earned cash and got the goods. I went home like a kid who knew Christmas morning was almost here. I looked at the bottle for a while: just amazed that one tiny little bottle of liquid could possibly do so much for my body. I pulled out a needle and loaded oil into it, to the “½cc” mark. I dropped one pant leg to expose my upper glute and with shaking hands I plunged the needle all the way into my ass cheek and injected the oil. I can remember how I started to laugh because I was so worked up over nothing. The needle hardly hurt at all and the process really seemed as if it was no big deal. But that was it, I was no longer natural. “I’m no longer natural, I have taken the plunge!!” Yes, no longer natural. But let’s be honest here, was I ever really natural? What is natural anyway? We drink fake tit milk from birth, eat processed foods all our lives, take mystery supplements without knowing their long-term effects, pop a pill for every cough and sneeze, and the list goes on and on. But when it comes to performance enhancement there is always this huge stigma. As I got older I started to realize that it’s really just not a big deal unless you make it one. Yes, steroids are illegal in most countries. Yes, in dangerously high amounts steroids can potentially hurt you, and when abused they can shutdown natural hormone production for good. But in all honesty, I just don’t think steroids are really that bad. I get my blood work done religiously and my last blood draw showed ABSOLUTELY NOTHING out of range. Issues such as out of whack cholesterol, elevated liver values, elevated red blood cell count, and other tell-tale signs of steroid abuse are just not there. Now with that being said, sometimes if I’m on cycle and get a blood lab done, I will have a couple things slightly off. But even then it’s just SLIGHTLY OFF, and this is a false reading because I’m on cycle at the time of the blood work. If I come off everything besides my normal 200mg/wk of test, the numbers go right back to normal very quickly. I have never had blood pressure issues in all my 15 years of running anabolic steroids, and my normal blood pressure is excellent (100/60 normally). I have run so many cycles that I couldn’t tell you how many, and for the past 5 years straight I’ve been on cycle about 90% of the time. I have always used low to moderate amounts of steroids. My first cycle was nothing but a single vial of testosterone, and I wouldn’t have had it any other way if I could change things. I had to bust my ass just as hard on steroids (if not harder) to get anything out of them. I do not believe in using steroids as a quick fix, nor do I believe in using them until you’ve climbed to the top of what you could most likely achieve naturally. I’m not someone who places as much emphasis on the age of a user as I do on development and work ethic. If a guy is 20 years old and he comes to me at a lean 200 lbs and asks me about how to run a cycle, I’ll tell him what to use and how to use it. If a guy who is 140 lbs and has been in the gym 2 months was to ask me, I’d tell him to leave them alone. Some of the best bodies I’ve seen have come out of guys who knew how it was to work hard. These may have been guys who had experience in landscaping, tree removal, mechanics, bricklayers, construction workers, or any other kind of physical labor. These guys know how it is to work hard, and when that transferred into work ethic in the gym, those types usually got pretty impressive from working out. I’m not condoning a lifestyle of breaking your back to make a few bucks, I’m just stating fact. Some kid who has been handed everything and has never had to work hard is most likely someone who won’t go very far development wise. 2 STRAIGHT FROM THE UNDERGROUND John Doe Bodybuilding I wanted to be big at any cost. I was not your typical teenager who was out partying and only trying to get a piece of ass. I was sleeping, eating my ass off, and training hard!! Every time I would hit a wall in the gym, I’d find a way over it. I still do to this day, and those walls are getting much higher to climb at my level of development. You take your body with you every place you go and a good body cannot be bought. I don’t care what resources you have or how much money you have, you have to earn this through hard work and discipline. My advice to you is to make the best out of whatever you have available. If all you have is a bottle of Deca and 100 Dbol tabs, then train your ass off and get the most out of it!! I see far too many guys racking their brains over what they want to use for their next cycle. They overcomplicate the process and drive themselves absolutely nuts over something that is such a small part of the equation. I would say that taking steroids probably gives you an extra 5-8% in gym performance and development. I get a lot of questions on whether or not I regret using steroids, and on why I decided to use steroids. I never did this solely for female attention, and it wasn’t because I was bullied as a child. I’ll admit that my confidence as a kid wasn’t very good, but that wasn’t my sole reason for using steroids. Back when I took that first shot I probably couldn’t give you one legitimate reason why I decided to use steroids. But after almost 20 years in the gym, and 15 years of steroid use under my belt, I can give you a reason now. I take steroids because I’m a machine. I am programmed differently than other people and I always have been. There is a part of me that gets great satisfaction out of pushing myself beyond what I think can be achieved. I’m the most comfortable when I’m in the trenches going through pain. I perform my best when the odds are stacked against me, and I have to give it every fucking thing I have to climb to the top. With greater size and strength, come greater odds to defeat. Walking up to a bar on the floor and pulling it with 600 lbs on it gets me a lot more excited than 300 lbs. Steroids help me journey deeper into a world I find most comfortable to the type of person I am. I knew I’d never be a guy who walked away from the gym, therefore having to be on testosterone replacement therapy never bothered me. I never thought during my years of using steroids: “Oh my God, what if I have to take this stuff forever?” I was more fearful of not having them and losing that edge in life that made me feel so comfortable. If you bought this book then chances are you’re planning on using steroids. I’m not here to give you a lesson on choices and personal dilemmas. I’m just telling you what steroids have done for me and my life. They’ve helped transform me into a fucking machine, and I wouldn’t have it any other way, PERIOD!! - John 3 STRAIGHT FROM THE UNDERGROUND John Doe Bodybuilding CHAPTER TWO THREE BASIC BEGINNER CYCLES Testosterone My first cycle was a single bottle of testosterone done in pyramid fashion. Pyramiding a cycle is a pretty old school way of cycling, and many advise against the pyramid cycle nowadays. For a first cycle I think it’s a good way of running testosterone because it allows you to make the most gains on as little as possible, and it allows the user to slowly adjust to the changes from the compound. Long acting testosterone is the best first cycle in my opinion. It’s what the mainframe control center of the male body consists of, and side effects are more limited with a low to moderate dose of testosterone than many other compounds. Side effects like aromatization and decreased sex drive just aren’t present with testosterone. Aromatization is the increase in estrogen levels in the male body. This can occur with increased levels of testosterone, but with a moderate dose things will be kept minimal. I have talked about this cycle on my blog a lot and it’s the thread that gets hit on the most, by far. The cycle is an 8 week cycle of a single 10ml vial of testosterone pyramided up and then back down. You will inject once/wk, and I’d start with your glutes and just rotate sides each week. You won’t need to inject into any other sites besides glutes for your first cycle, unless you choose to. Week 1 - 0.5cc Week 2 - 1cc Week 3 - 1.5cc Week 4 - 2cc Week 5 - 2cc Week 6 - 1.5cc Week 7 - 1cc Week 8 - 0.5cc For post cycle therapy (PCT) you will be using Clomid. Clomid is a compound that comes in tabs or you can order a liquid version from a peptide research website. It’s easy enough to find, just type in “liquid Clomid” or “peptides” in the search bar and you’ll find it. For the liquid version you just measure in a syringe and squirt it into your mouth. Most Clomid is dosed at 50mg per pill, or 50mg per ml in the liquid version. You are to take 50mg/day for 20 days as post cycle therapy, starting 2 weeks after your last shot. You want to start 2 weeks post shot because you want to give the testosterone enough time to unwind and clear your body in order to take full advantage of your post cycle therapy. Clomid is a female hormone and what it does is it sends a signal to your body to produce more testosterone naturally. Because your body has been getting synthetic testosterone during your cycle, your testes will stop producing their own testosterone. Since you have such an abundance of testosterone, they don’t think they need to make their own anymore. Clomid does the opposite of this by sending a signal to produce more to counterbalance the female hormone you’re now taking. Side effects of Clomid can include lethargy and a general feeling of depression. Honestly the stuff makes me feel like shit. But it’s a necessary evil in order to get your own test firing again. Just know it’s going to be short lived. Side effects from this cycle include a huge increase in sex drive, possible acne, increased 4 STRAIGHT FROM THE UNDERGROUND John Doe Bodybuilding aggression, and a huge increase in your sense of well-being. I felt like Superman on my first cycle, and nothing could bring me down. I gained a solid 23 lbs on this cycle, but I ate like crazy, slept a lot, and trained my ass off. Without those factors in the equation you will get nothing!! Steroids do not make you grow; they simply put your body in the right environment to grow if everything else is in the mix!! You still have to bust your ass with training and nutrition, it’s not magic. You will not keep all of your gains from your cycles. I think I lost at least 50% of my gains after coming off my first cycle. The type of testosterone you want for this cycle is either testosterone enanthate or testosterone cypionate. These are both long acting testosterones and I really place no emphasis on one over the other. They are both very similar. I would stay away from the blends for your first cycle, unless that is all that you can get your hands on. But just know that any type of test with a shorter chain ester will need to be injected more than once a week. Dianabol My second cycle was a Dbol only cycle. I did my second cycle about 12 weeks after my first cycle of testosterone. Again, you will hear many people advise against a Dbol only cycle. However I’m all for a Dbol only cycle for a beginner. I gained a solid 20 lbs off Dbol only. Plenty of old school guys ran Dbol by itself, and recovery will always be an issue whether testosterone is in the mix or not. I’m not saying not to use testosterone with it if you have it, but not having it wouldn’t keep me from using Dbol as a beginner. There are several different brands of Dbol out there today, but the best one I’ve ever used were these giant white tabs from Russia called Naposims. I’m pretty sure these are almost non-existent now, but if you can find them then grab them!! Another kind that is good are the pink Thai tabs. Most Dbol comes in 5mg tabs, but several labs produce 10mg, 20mg, and even 50mg tabs now. A good dose for a first time Dbol user is 25mg/day for 6 weeks. I always felt stronger when I dosed throughout the day evenly, rather than taking it all at once. So if your tabs are higher mg, you may want to get a pill cutter and split them up. Strength gains from Dbol are nothing short of insane. I got extremely strong on Dbol only, and I believe at the time I was benching 335 lbs for 10 reps. This was my second cycle and about 14-15 years ago. Side effects of Dbol can include: increase or decrease in appetite, bloating, acne, gynecomastia, lethargy, increased sense of well-being in some users, a decrease in others, and possible decrease in sex drive (this is more prevalent with higher doses). But one thing’s for sure: the stuff can make you strong. It generally took about a good 5-7 days for me to really start feeling the strength from Dbol. You’ll know you’re on legit Dbol because the weights just feel easier. Weights you used to tap out with can become weights that feel like warm-up weights. But if there is one problem with Dbol it’s the fact that increases in size and strength go away almost as fast as they came on once you stop using it. I never had issues with gynecomastia (development of female breast tissue) in all my years of steroids but I’m just not prone to gyno. However, you don’t want to find out the hard way that you are prone to that, so using some Nolvadex wouldn’t be a bad idea (or at least having it on hand just in case). Again, Nolvadex comes in tabs and also as a liquid research product. It’s almost always dosed at 20mg a tab or per ml in a liquid version. 20mg/day of Nolvadex should be more than enough if you’re using 50mg/day or less of Dbol. 10mg/day should be enough to suffice for most users. For your post cycle recovery you will be using Clomid and Nolvadex together. The Nolvadex keeps estrogen from binding to receptors, which has a greater possibility of occurring as 5 STRAIGHT FROM THE UNDERGROUND John Doe Bodybuilding testosterone levels drop. Many users do not experience estrogen buildup until recovery, so taking the Nolvadex for the next month after discontinuing this cycle is a good idea. Again, 10-20mg/day should suffice during recovery. Unlike your testosterone cycle, this recovery will start right away after the cycle is over with, since Dbol is out of your system much faster than a long acting testosterone. I’d go 20 days on the Clomid (starting the day after you stop taking your Dbol) and 30 days on the Nolvadex. IF YOU DO HAVE SYMPTOMS OF GYNO WITH ANY OF THESE CYCLES THEN BEGIN NOLVADEX RIGHT AWAY, AND THEN ORDER SOME LETROZOLE. Letrozole is about the strongest thing out there to try to actually reverse new fibrous gyno, but I don’t think with most dosages I suggest it would be an issue for anyone who wasn’t severely prone to gyno. If you need something more aggressive to suppress the tissue formation, then go with letrozole at 2.5mg/day until lump subsides. Again, you can order liquid letrozole (Femara) from research chemical sites online, if you have no other source and need it fast. Trenbolone Acetate/Testosterone Propionate After my Dbol only cycle I moved away from New York. For the next few years I was back to training natural, and couldn’t find a source for steroids to save my life. You have to keep in mind that this was before the days of internet sources and easy access. I had a friend who moved about 4 hours away from me, and I drove 4 hours each way to go get my next cycle. This cycle would consist of trenbolone acetate and testosterone propionate, and would prove to be a great cycle to get shredded on without breaking the bank. I had 2 bottles of each, and the cycle lasted 10 weeks. Like a dumbass, I didn’t inject frequently enough. I only injected twice a week and I got acne that was so terrible I had to go to a dermatologist and get three different medications to clear up my back. My back is still scarred like crazy from not knowing what I was doing at the time. If you’re using this cycle, you need to inject at least Mon/Wed/Fri!! Most guys go every other day with these compounds, but I learned to get away with Mon/Wed/Fri without the side effect of acne. The acne is caused from hormone levels jumping all over the map, and you may also find your acne getting worse when you’re coming off cycle than when you’re on it. Now 2 bottles of each will only get you about 6-7 weeks, because you will be using 3cc’s/ wk of each. Therefore, I would get 3 vials of each and run it out for 9-10 weeks. You can still get away with a 6 week cycle of this and get great results but I just don’t see the point in only using compounds for 6 weeks and discontinuing right when things start looking good. Weeks 1-10: 300mg/wk prop, 300mg/wk tren (injected Mon/Wed/Fri), and load both compounds in the same syringe, it’s fine. I would start going into another site besides your glutes since you’re injecting more frequently. I would do this: Mon - left glute, Wed - right glute, Fri - left shoulder (deltoid), next Mon - right shoulder (deltoid), then repeat. This cycle will provide the user with some good, clean gains, or good definition and muscle retention, if you’re dieting. I used this cycle to cut up myself, and I looked pretty damn good when it was done with (minus my acne from being a moron). During this time I also hooked up with an extremely hot stripper which ended up being a benchmark in my status of banging super hot chicks!! I’m going to first talk about the side effects of trenbolone. Tren can be nasty: I’m not going to lie. For the money I don’t believe there is a better compound than what trenbolone can do for you. You’ll get rock hard muscles and extremely good strength. But you may not be very pleasant to be around. Tren can make you meaner than a snake. You just don’t put up with 6 STRAIGHT FROM THE UNDERGROUND John Doe Bodybuilding any bullshit on tren. It’s a constant feeling of tension and aggression that at first can be kind of cool, but eventually gets old. Tren is not something I’d recommend using more than once a year. With tren you just know you’re on something, it’s very powerful. Another side effect from tren is getting night sweats. You may wake up with your sheets soaked in sweat, or even have to shower halfway through the night and change your sheets. I always got insomnia on it too; sleep frequently went from 7-8 hours a night down to 3-4 hours a night. This wasn’t every night, but it was a lot of them!! Tren also seemed to always make me look older and tired in the face. Sometimes it would affect my prostate also. I would frequently feel as if I had to piss, and then stand over the toilet and just have trouble going. My sex drive on tren was through the roof. I’m not talking about just wanting to have sex with a girl: I’m talking about wanting to punish her with your dick!! But I definitely would not use tren without testosterone in the mix. This is not one you want to fly solo on. It’s harsh enough while using testosterone alongside it, without test it would be a nightmare!! Trenbolone is just something you’ll have to try. You may not get side effects as bad as another user would. As harsh as tren can be, I probably wouldn’t prepare for a bodybuilding competition without it, because I know what it does for my muscles. Another side effect you may find when using tren is it can hamper your cardio. You may feel short winded easier when you’re on tren. I never really experienced this one though. Tren can also give the user a constant cough known as “tren cough”. It’s nothing unusual for many users, although this was another side effect I just never got (at least I don’t remember). There is another type of tren called “tren enanthate”. This is just a different ester attached to the compound and it allows the user to go with only 2 injections per week instead of 3. You may also hear of a compound called “Parabolan” which some guys will try telling you is superior to tren. Don’t be fooled, it’s nothing more than an extremely expensive version of trenbolone. It’s almost no different, and won’t get you shit that tren can’t do for you. Don’t waste your money on Parabolan, trust me. The side effects from test prop will be pretty much the same as your long chain tests. Increased sex drive, possible acne, but water retention will be almost non-existent on 300mg/ wk of test prop. The combination of test prop and tren is potent, and the cycle is simple. As for dosages, I’d stick to no more than 300mg/wk of tren. I have been as high as 600mg/wk on it, and the benefits didn’t outweigh the side effects. I got almost nothing more on 600mg/wk of tren than what I got on 300mg/wk of it. 7 STRAIGHT FROM THE UNDERGROUND John Doe Bodybuilding CHAPTER THREE INJECTION TECHNIQUES Let’s first begin by talking about injections. For starters, you want to definitely use a new needle for every injection. It’s not worth risking an infection because you failed to get enough needles or were too cheap to spend the money on enough of them. Now, how do you acquire syringes? You could try a local pharmacy, but state laws differ in each state. In some areas you can buy them, and in others you cannot. Some pharmacies have what is called “at the pharmacist’s discretion”, where they are considered over the counter. But if the pharmacist thinks you’re some juice-head, he can deny you the right to buy them. My advice is to not go in there in a tank top looking the part. If you cannot buy them in the pharmacy then you can order them online. The ideal size syringe barrel you want is 3cc’s (or 3ml, a cc is the same as a ml), and ideal needle size is a 23 gauge, 1 inch. So if you’re trying to walk into the pharmacy to buy them you want to say, “Yes, I need some 23 gauge, 1 inch syringes that are 3ml’s”. Now a 25 gauge needle will also work, and is slightly smaller. The advantage of this is a smaller needle means less scar tissue. The disadvantage is it takes forever to load the oil into this, and it will take longer to inject due to pushing the oil through a smaller needle. Now here is what I do: I use an 18 gauge needle to draw up the oil, then I unscrew the needle tip and switch to a 23 gauge, 1 inch tip. The oil pretty much falls into the barrel when using an 18 gauge needle, and the tips are universal so unscrewing one and screwing on another is no big deal. So you have your syringes and you’re ready to inject. It’s a good idea to wipe off the top of the vial each time with an alcohol wipe, and then clean the area you will be injecting with an alcohol wipe. Tip your vial upside down and insert the syringe. Make sure the plunger is all the way forward. Next, start pulling the plunger back and fill the oil to the desired mark. You can pull it back further to create a stronger vacuum and load your syringe faster, then just push the oil back up to the desired mark. Next, you want to try and get any air bubbles out of the syringe so it’s just oil in the barrel and not air. You simply wait a second for the air bubbles to go back through the oil to the top and push the air out slowly by pushing the plunger forward a little. It’s also a good idea to flick the barrel a few times in order to export any air bubbles. Now it’s time to inject. The best place to go for a beginner is your glute (butt cheek). You want to inject in the outer part of your glute and more towards the top of the glute. It’s a large area and it’s difficult to screw this up. But mainly you want to stay away from the inner part near your tailbone because you have a sciatic nerve that runs down there. The first time I injected myself I almost started laughing, because what you think is going to hurt like hell, isn’t shit. Push the needle in all the way, don’t half ass it (no pun intended). Next, you will want to aspirate the needle. “Aspirating the needle” means you pull back on the plunger slightly to make sure no blood comes up into barrel. If there is blood, then you are in a vein, and you don’t want to inject into a vein. Simply pull it out and go into another site or move over an inch from where you went before. When you use steroids long enough this is bound to happen. Sometimes you will pull your syringe out after injecting and a small stream of blood will shoot out and scare the shit out of you. Do not be alarmed, this just means you went through a vein but didn’t inject into one and the bleeding stops after a couple seconds. So you’ve stuck yourself and you’ve pulled back to aspirate your needle, no blood, all is clear. Slowly push your plunger forward and inject the oil. Injecting too quickly can often cause 8 STRAIGHT FROM THE UNDERGROUND John Doe Bodybuilding more post injection soreness so try to slow it down just a tad. Pull your needle out and wipe the area for any possible bleeding from the shot, then massage the site for a couple minutes to help disperse the oil. Again, this will also help lessen any potential soreness from the shot. You will be sore from the shot for a few days, it’s perfectly natural. Once you get used to the shots, it gets a lot better. I would try to only hit a site once/wk if you can help it, and this means often rotating injection sites or sides. If you injected your right glute this week, go ahead and inject your left glute next week. If you’re injecting something twice a week, then go with your right cheek on Monday, and left cheek on Thursday. Once you get into a steroid stack or start using compounds that require more frequent injections, then you will need to use other sites. Steroids require intramuscular injections, and these injections are not only limited to your glutes. There are several muscular sites on the body that can be used. Now with that being said, some muscles can hurt more than others, and some muscles are near more veins. Other sites I have injected include deltoids, lats, pecs, quads, biceps, triceps, calves, and I did traps once. Now, here is my take on other sites: I will never fucking inject a calf or a trap again, those sites crippled me with post injection pain!!! Pecs I’ll do if I have to, and arms would require a smaller needle than a 23 gauge. Deltoids are good, but they can knot up with scar tissue easier and it doesn’t look good when your delts become a giant ball of scar tissue and not muscle. But this takes many shots and years to start happening so right now it’s not a big deal. My delts would be the next choice after glutes. Pec shots are a little rough because it takes more pressure than you think to bust through the pec muscle. You have to stab the shit out of it!! But don’t worry about your heart, a 1” or even 1.5” syringe won’t go nearly deep enough to get near your heart or lungs, and even then you’d hit a sheath you probably couldn’t penetrate through. Quad shots I don’t favor much either. I learned this from competing in bodybuilding. The shots in my quads blurred the separation in my legs a bit from swelling, and limping around isn’t much fun anyway. Honestly, my main sites at this point are glutes and lats. Lat shots aren’t as bad as you may think. It’s a huge muscle and there is plenty of room to go up and down it. Gear that hurts other places isn’t as bad in the lats, especially if you inject them and then go train your back. I have found this to help disperse the oil and get blood moving in the area, and keep post injection pain to a minimum. My main area is about 3” below my armpit, and although you’d think there are a lot of veins in the area, I have NEVER hit a vein in my lats, and I’ve shot my lats probably hundreds of times by now. A beginner would not need to be concerned about having more than a couple different injection areas. As I said, focus on glutes and possibly deltoids at first. It takes a while for scar tissue to form, and just remember: it builds quicker when you continuously hit the same area over and over. 9 STRAIGHT FROM THE UNDERGROUND John Doe Bodybuilding CHAPTER FOUR INJECTION COMPLICATIONS Sooner or later you will run into problems when taking steroids, if you use them enough. There is a difference between post injection pain and an infection, and knowing the difference can mean the difference between healing yourself quickly, or having to go to the emergency room because you’re at the point you need your leg amputated (yes, this can happen). Infections are usually caused by dirty gear or gear that wasn’t put together properly. In most cases it’s because some dumb fuck got the ratio of benzyl alcohol to benzyl benzoate wrong, or he tried to put too much hormone into the concentration. I will tell you this much: the cheapest price isn’t usually the best gear!! You get what you pay for!! I hear all of these guys rant and rave over different labs and comment on their extremely low prices. And then a few weeks later, one guy tells people he has a basketball sized knot coming out of his ass!! This is all too common nowadays with underground labs popping up left and right. But let’s just say you do get an infection. An infection will be hot to the touch and the area will be swollen and inflamed. If this is the case then USUALLY it goes away on its own within a week. But it’s better to be proactive than reactive in this event, so what you’ll need to do is get some form of antibiotic such as doxycycline, tetracycline, amoxicillin, or penicillin. Now obviously going to a family care physician is the best choice, but some people don’t have the insurance or financial means to do so. In this case there are internet sites you can buy these antibiotics from, and some are even found at local pet stores. I have used tetracycline from the fish aquarium store on more than one occasion to clear my infections. It never hurt me a bit and it cleared up the infection fast. I cannot comment on other forms of antibiotics, but for tetracycline my recommendation is 1,000mg/day for the first few days. If the infection does not subside, bump up the dosage to 1,500mg/day. If it doesn’t subside within 2 days, at that point then you need to go to a doctor. DO NOT IGNORE A BAD INFECTION! Infections of any sort can turn to gangrene and at that point you may be looking at having a chunk of your ass surgically removed, or an amputated limb. This isn’t worth trying to get muscles, so be smart about it!!! In my 15 years of using steroids I’ve had probably less than 5 infections. And guess what? 4 out of the 5 infections probably came from the same source!! But I’ve never had an issue when I’ve used quality compounds from reputable places. I have been to the emergency room a total of one time in 15 years of anabolic usage. I cannot tell you exactly what happened here or why it happened. All I know is I injected some Sustanon and shortly after injecting the bottoms of my feet began hurting so bad that I could hardly walk. I was crawling around my apartment on my hands and knees. The next day the pain in my feet got slightly better, but my neck started to get stiffer and stiffer as the day went on. By the time I drove home from work, my neck was so stiff I couldn’t turn my head enough to look into my rear view mirror when driving. I had my father drive me to the emergency room, and they couldn’t figure it out. They asked me about anabolic steroids and I told them I have never used them, for fear insurance wouldn’t cover the problem. I went home that night and took some ibuprofen and put some icy hot gel on my neck and went to bed. I woke up and felt fine. I couldn’t tell you what the hell happened, but the vial was thrown in the garbage and discontinued immediately. 10 STRAIGHT FROM THE UNDERGROUND John Doe Bodybuilding Hitting a Vein So I’m sure one of your questions is: “What would happen if I did hit a vein?” Well, this is most likely what would happen with an oil based steroid. You may feel dizzy or light headed and have to sit down. Your chest may feel tight, and you may start coughing uncontrollably for a few minutes. In 95% of cases it will stop after a few minutes and you’ll feel fine again. It’s not going to kill you if it’s just anabolics. Now, hit a vein with something like Synthol, and it may be nighty night time, based on the chemical makeup of Synthol. Which for the record, Synthol is a stupid thing to use, and yes I have used it. But we’ll get to that later. Coughing and Tasting Compounds There are certain steroids that will just make you cough when you inject them. Trenbolone can do this to a lot of guys, and Winstrol has done it to me before as well. Sometimes you can taste the stuff after you inject it, it’s pretty normal with certain compounds for this to happen. It does not mean anything is wrong or you injected wrong, it’s just what happens when it goes into your body. It’s not uncommon, so don’t be alarmed if it happens to you. As I said, usually tren and Winny can cause this. Poor Injection Techniques Poor injection techniques can also be a cause for concern. Usually it’s just an increase in post injection pain, but if you live in a dirty place full of bacteria, that can definitely be the case as well. Injecting too quickly can cause more pain, and obviously injecting bacteria can cause infection. If your bottle of steroids fell into the dog cage and you caught your dog carrying around your vial in his mouth, don’t just grab the vial and draw up some oil to inject with. If you’re locked up in prison, I probably wouldn’t go sticking a needle in the vial after your significant other suit-cased it up their ass through security. You get the idea, right? Good!! Testosterone Flu Sometimes you can experience flu-like symptoms when you first start cycling testosterone. This is not uncommon, and these symptoms will usually subside after a few days into the cycle. Symptoms of “test flu” include headache, achiness, extreme lethargy, and loss of appetite. Do not be alarmed if you get test flu. It has been my experience that it normally goes away pretty quickly, and the more you become used to the added hormone in your system, the less likely this will happen. 11 STRAIGHT FROM THE UNDERGROUND John Doe Bodybuilding CHAPTER FIVE INTERMEDIATE CYCLES EQ/Test Kicker About 4-5 years into my steroid cycling I met up with a guy who turned me on to Equipoise. Equipoise or “EQ” would turn out to be one of my favorite compounds. EQ is probably one of the most versatile steroids there is, and it proves great for mass building or cutting. Another benefit of EQ is how affordable it is. I have found it to be a better compound for holding gains after discontinuing the cycle than a lot of other compounds. I tried to grab 2 bottles and the guy who hooked me up told me: “I don’t even want to give it to you unless you run 3 vials of it.” So I got 3 bottles of EQ and I ran it as he told me to use it. I front-loaded the first 2 weeks at 800mg/wk and then dropped to 400mg/wk for the remainder of the cycle. He told me that front-loading it would help it “bang harder” when it got in me. I felt as if it took a good few weeks for it to kick in, but when it did I got crazy vascularity and good strength. I think all in all, it was about a 12 week cycle. I split the injections up to 3 times/ wk, and I suggest you do the same with EQ. I ran testosterone alongside it at 500mg/wk of test enanthate. Week 1-2: 800mg/wk EQ, split into Mon/Wed/Fri shots of about 260mg/shot (1.3cc’s/shot since EQ is typically 200mg/ml), you will then drop to 400mg/wk for the next 10 weeks (roughly 0.7ml/shot 3x/wk). These shots may not come out to EXACTLY 800mg/wk or 400mg/wk due to 3 shots/wk divided up, but it’s close enough and just run the vials out until you’re done. Weeks 3-12: 400 - 500mg/wk test enanthate or cyp injected once/wk at 2cc’s or 2.5cc’s/ shot (depending on whether your test is 200mg/ml or 250mg/ml). Post Cycle Therapy On this cycle, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to up your Clomid dose a bit. I’d go 100mg/day on days 1-10, then drop to 50mg/day on days 11-20. I’d also include Nolvadex in your recovery, and go with 10mg every day for a month straight, but started right after your last injection before your Clomid therapy begins. If any sort of water issues are a concern then you could also use Nolvadex during the cycle at 10 mg/day. EQ typically doesn’t hold much water, but you may notice a little from taking that test to 500mg/wk. Side effects of EQ can include oily skin, increased aggression, and possible hair-loss. I have found EQ to also give me a mild case of paranoia if I go over 400mg’s/wk, but it’s nothing crazy that I can’t handle. EQ has about half the rate of water gain than testosterone, so any sort of water issues most likely will be due to testosterone over the EQ. Testosterone/Test Suspension Cycle Testosterone suspension is basically testosterone with no ester attached to it. It gets in your system fast, and gives excellent strength gains for a workout. While shots can typically be more painful, the boost testosterone suspension can give a workout is incredible!! The downside of this is you need to inject frequently since there is no carrier to the hormone and it’s in and out of you quick. Now, most guys suggest injecting this one every day or even 12 STRAIGHT FROM THE UNDERGROUND John Doe Bodybuilding twice/day, but I never used it this way. From my experience with suspension, as long as I was running a long chain test behind it, I could just use it on training days and I’d inject it an hour before the workout. For best results, test suspension should be run for at least 6 weeks. The good part about suspension is if you inject 100mg’s you can bet your system is getting all 100mg’s, since there is no ester or conversion process with it. The bad side is water retention and estrogen related side effects such as gyno can be much more likely. You want to use something a little more powerful than Nolvadex with this one. I would use Arimidex with it, and I’d go 1mg/day of Arimidex just to be on the safe side. Suspension comes in a water based version as well as oil based. I would get oil based if at all possible because shots seem to hurt less with it. If you have water based, then I’d suggest cutting it with oil, such as B-12. The syringe will look a little strange with the water and oil separation, but it’s perfectly fine to inject with this. As stated above, you’re going to want to run a long acting test behind this. 500mg/wk of testosterone cypionate or enanthate would be a good choice. I would run this cycle for 10 weeks while using the test suspension for the first 6 weeks during the cycle. Test suspension is a common compound used by MMA fighters for the rapid onset of aggression and intensity, and you should notice a damn good kick in your workouts with it as well. I would not use suspension if you’re cutting up, it’s better for rapid mass/strength cycles. Side effects of testosterone suspension include: huge increase in aggression, oily skin, acne, major water retention, and possible gynecomastia. You DEFINITELY want to include Arimidex with this one. Nolvadex isn’t strong enough here, go with A-dex. Weeks 1-6: 100mg test suspension an hour pre-workout on training days. Weeks 1-10: 500mg/wk testosterone cypionate or test enanthate Post Cycle Therapy 100mg/day of Clomid days 1-10 (started 2 weeks post last test shot), ½mg Arimidex per day for 4 weeks, started day after last shot and continued 2 weeks into Clomid therapy. If you choose to, you can continue on with Arimidex at ½mg/day throughout all of Clomid usage (you can do this with any cycle). While certainly not necessary, this would be a fail-safe method of preventing any possible estrogen rebound that could occur following the 2 weeks into Clomid use. While not being necessary for some, others may find this beneficial. Deca Durabolin/Dbol/Test Cycle Unlike a lot of users who use Deca early on, I didn’t try Deca for a long time. Then about 5 or 6 years into my cycling I decided to give it a shot (no pun intended). Deca would prove to be a compound that I reacted to extremely well. The nitrogen retention and pump my muscles got from Deca was incredible. It also seemed to be a compound that I got improved results with the longer I was on it. You see, many steroids start to fizzle out after about 5 or 6 weeks of being on them, but Deca was always one that just banged harder and harder for me until the end of the cycle. It does take a little while to get into the system, so this is one I’d suggest going at least 12 weeks on, and 15 weeks is probably even better. I was using this cycle sometime around 2004 when I was trying to just gain rapid size and didn’t care much about fat gain. No, I didn’t have visible abs during this time, but I was very large and as strong as an ox. I ran 35mg/day of Dbol for 6 13 STRAIGHT FROM THE UNDERGROUND John Doe Bodybuilding weeks, 500mg/wk of test cypionate for 12 weeks, and Deca for 12 weeks respectively. Most guys will tell you to run your test at least 1 week past the end of your Deca, but I never had any issues stopping both at the same time. Much of the time I only had so many vials on hand, and trying to run certain compounds at different lengths just seemed to complicate things more. Now, I don’t remember a solid gain of 20 lbs on this, but also keep in mind that at this point I had some cycles under my belt, and those days of 20 lb gains were coming to an end. For someone less experienced, AN EASY 20 lbs off this cycle is attainable, maybe even 25-30 lbs if you’re eating enough. Weeks 1-6: 25-35mg’s/day Dbol Weeks 1-12: 300mg/wk Deca, 500mg/wk test On using Deca I have never found much benefit to going over 300mg’s/wk. I got everything I needed out of 300mg’s/wk and always have. I’m old school all the way, and I usually live by the rule of under a gram/wk of total steroids (that’s under 1000mg/wk total). I don’t venture outside of that range much at all, and I’m a pretty damn large individual. Deca needs to be injected at least once/wk. Twice/wk injections may be necessary if dosing higher. Post Cycle Therapy Continue on with ½mg per day of Arimidex for 1 month post last injection. Begin Clomid at 2 weeks post last injection so esters are cleared before beginning Clomid. Take your Clomid at 100mg/day for days 1-10, then 50mg/day days 11-20. Side effects of Deca: the most common side effect is “Deca dick”. This is obviously where your penis has difficulty getting erect or staying erect. Now, I have experienced this a couple times and this is what I found with it: if I kept my Deca at 300mg/wk or less it usually never happened. Also, if my test was at least close to the same dose of Deca, it usually never happened. If I took that Deca to 400mg’s/wk or beyond, it would happen to me. The good news is: if this happens to you it’s usually not until a ways into your cycle. It’s probably not something you’ll have happen until you get about 6-7 weeks in, and at least then it’s shorter lived. Another side effect more common with Deca than some other steroids can be elevated blood pressure. If you’re on BP meds, I’d steer clear of using Deca altogether, and even if you don’t have a history of elevated blood pressure, definitely keep an eye on it during your cycle. You should do this with any cycle, but definitely with Deca. Other side effects can include elevated cholesterol, hair-loss, oily skin, gynecomastia, and obviously, natural testosterone suppression. Deca Durabolin is a progesterone based compound. For this reason you would want to use Arimidex during cycles over Nolvadex. Arimidex is a far better choice with a progesterone over Nolvadex, and ½mg per day should suffice during this cycle. If any symptoms of gyno appear, discontinue the cycle and bump your Arimidex to 1mg/day until symptoms subside. Use this rule with any cycle if you get symptoms of gyno. Early symptoms of gyno will be sensitive or itchy nipples, or a small lump under the nipple. Sometimes you can also notice a slight discharge from your nipples if you pinch them. I have had this happen before, and despite having, this I never had any pain or lumps near my nipples. I kept on with the cycle, and kept up with my Arimidex, and nothing else ever happened. It only happened one time. 14 STRAIGHT FROM THE UNDERGROUND John Doe Bodybuilding While almost any results as far as gaining body fat or water retention are MOSTLY diet related, this is a cycle I probably would not use if the goal was to get into single digit body fat for a competition. But much of this also depends on your genetic makeup. A naturally very lean guy (ectomorph) can get away with using this stuff and look phenomenal!! But a naturally bigger guy with more body fat (endomorph) would not want to use this to try to win a bodybuilding contest. You could run it up until a few weeks out from a competition, and 30 years ago it would have been a competitive cycle. But nowadays there are different compounds that would promote a leaner and harder look when you’re gunning for single digit body fat. Dbol/Tren/Test: Super Mass Builder I was around 24 years old when I did this cycle, and it packed on a ton of strength and mass. I believe I ended up around 245 lbs after this one, and I started around 225 lbs. I’m sure this isn’t the most pleasant cycle on the liver, but it’s not as if I never recovered from it. I had enough Dbol to run 6 weeks worth, enough tren to run 6 weeks worth, and enough test enanthate to run 500mg/wk for 12 weeks. So what I did was I split the Dbol and tren up, using 35mg/day of Dbol the first 6 weeks, and then switching to 300mg/wk of tren the next 6 weeks. Obviously testosterone was run the entire 12 week duration of the cycle. My strength was through the roof on this cycle, and for the cost it proved to be a great cycle for growing. I had no anti-estrogen during this cycle, but if I could go back in time, then I would have used it to keep water weight down. Like I said before, I’m not gyno prone, but I pack on water weight like anyone else. The water started falling off some when I switched over to the tren, but I could have looked a lot better had I had Arimidex in the mix. So I would be using ½mg every day of A-Dex if you can. Weeks 1-6: 30-40mg/day Dbol (split throughout day), 500mg/wk test cyp or test enanthate (shot at 250mg, 2 times/wk) Weeks 7-12: 100mg 3 times/wk tren, 500mg/wk test (shot 250mg 2 times/wk) Post Cycle Therapy Again, I’d go 100mg/day Clomid days 1-10, then 50mg/day Clomid on days 11-20. I would use ½mg every day of Arimidex for 4-6 weeks post cycle, and start it the day after your last shot. Again, it’s probably better if you can use Arimidex throughout the entire cycle, you’ll just look much better. Taking ancillary agents is highly underrated during cycle, and I have noticed I look much, much better if I have them in the entire cycle. Again, I understand cost can be an issue with some of this. Is it the end of the world if you don’t use it the entire cycle? It’s probably not. I have done tons of cycles without Nolvadex or Arimidex and I was fine. But this is going to be person specific, and until you know your own body and how it reacts to steroids, I’d assume it’s better to be safe and use them. If anything it’s better to be safe than sorry sometimes, and you never know if you’re gyno prone or prone to a progesterone based drug until it actually happens. Spring Break “Pussy Slayer” Cycle (Anavar/Winny) I got this one from a good friend of mine who used to make these “win/var” capsules. Everyone loved the fucking things, and they were dosed JUST RIGHT. They consisted of 30mg of Anavar and 30mg of Winstrol and the synergy was incredible from those two right there. This cycle was mild and hella effective!! All I needed was an injectable test to use with it and 15 STRAIGHT FROM THE UNDERGROUND John Doe Bodybuilding I was good to go. For the guys who don’t mind injecting, I would go with test prop at 300mg/ wk. For the guys who hate shots, go with low dose testosterone enanthate once/wk at 200mg. We just want enough test to stay on the up and up here. This is a very effective 8 week cycle guaranteed to make the panties drop, if your diet is on track of course. Week 1-8: 30mg/day Winny tabs, 30mg/day Anavar, 200mg/wk test enanthate (or 300mg/ wk prop). Wait 14 days post cycle to begin recovery if using test enanthate or cypionate (long chain test) and wait 10 days post cycle if using test prop. For recovery you will use: Clomid at 50mg/day for 20 days, ½mg per day of Arimidex alongside it. Anavar breakdown: Anavar is probably the most mild steroid there is next to Primobolan. Anavar will not hurt you; you seriously have to abuse this stuff to get side effects from it. Any dosage of 100mg/ day or less is probably not going to do jack shit other than slightly elevate liver enzymes, which quickly return to normal after you stop cycling. Anavar should be run at least 30mg/ day to see any benefit from it, but can be taken as high as 100mg/day to see more dramatic results. The two side effects I noticed with taking Anavar was that it often killed my appetite (which wasn’t a bad thing for cutting up) and it sometimes made my stomach upset, but nothing I couldn’t deal with. Other than that it’s great. I never got any bad skin from it, no insomnia, and no depression. It’s also a very easy steroid to recover from. You typically don’t get the “crash” when you discontinue Anavar as you do with testosterone. Winny breakdown: Every place you look now these guys are talking about using 50mg/day of Winny everyday. While that is the most common dosage, I’m here to tell you it can be used at 20-30mg everyday and still with great results. The biggest thing about Winny is its diuretic effect. This is something that is going to dry you out and it could potentially cause injury or joint pain if you’re training too heavy on it. In the above cycle the dosage is JUST RIGHT when run alongside the Anavar. It’s conservative enough to be mild, but the synergistic effect alongside Anavar is incredible. More experienced individuals who want a stronger effect can double the dosages and run it 60mg/60mg with Anavar and Winny, but it’s not necessary. For the guy with just a few hundred bucks who wants a great cycle, I strongly suggest the spring break “Pussy Slayer Cycle”. Could I use this cycle with no test? Yes you could. At only 8 weeks and as mild of dosages as we are using here, you will not be shut down that bad if using 30mg/30mg. Also, let’s face it: test itself will still shut down natural production anyway. If you don’t want to use needles yet, then I would run this solo, but don’t go any longer than 8 weeks and keep the tabs at 30mg/30mg. Primobolan/Anavar/Deca/Test I put Primobolan in the intermediate cycle category, because Primo is a different animal than other types of steroids. Primo is more of a recompositioning drug than a fast mass builder, but everything gained from Primo is quality. It’s one of those compounds that you could run for a few months and discontinue and have a permanently changed look. But this isn’t something you’re going to gain a bunch of mass on, and as a newer user I don’t think I’d dabble with Primo just yet. For one, it costs too much for any gains you’re going to get. Secondly, if you’re still trying to put on size then I’d use something a little more potent. But if you’re happy with the size you have and want to refine it, then Primo can be a great drug to use!! 16 STRAIGHT FROM THE UNDERGROUND John Doe Bodybuilding When combined with Anavar and a low dose of Deca, this cycle just kicks ass!! I got some damn good results on this cycle right here and it’s one of my favorites to this day. The low dose Deca is just enough to provide joint healing properties and increased nitrogen retention. The Anavar provides more bang to the Primo to help you get absolutely diced!! I found that I could even be a little loose on the diet and still get harder and more defined on this one. Primo is a very good steroid to use when dieting, and one of its traits is how muscle sparing it is. Drop the calories low while on Primo, and you may hold more muscle than using another compound. This cycle is certainly not cheap, but it’s effective and you’ll keep a lot from it. I myself like to pyramid Primo for cost’s sake. Week 1-12: 200mg test enanthate Week 1-4: 400mg/wk Primo, 200mg/wk Deca, 40-60mg/day Anavar Week 5-8: 600mg/wk Primo, 200mg/wk Deca, 40-60mg/day Anavar Week 9-12: 700mg/wk Primo, 200mg/wk Deca, 40-60mg/day Anavar Injection schedule: Take 200mg per shot of Primo twice per week the first 4 weeks, hit Deca once/wk, and test once/wk. I would do a Mon/Wed/Fri injection schedule and do Primo on Monday and Friday, and do the test combined with Deca every Wednesday. That’s right: load the test and Deca in the same needle and poke on Wednesday. That is how I’d do it anyway. Now, the Anavar is mild enough to be run the entire 12 weeks, but realistically I usually only do it for 8 weeks due to cost. This cycle right here can get expensive, but you get what you pay for right? When you get to weeks 5-8 you can still do the Primo twice/wk, but you’ll be loading a 3cc needle up all the way and doing two shots per week (i.e. every 3-4 days). Now, you may be able to get away with this and you may not. Primo can sometimes hurt a little bit, and 3cc’s at a time may be too much in one shot. It really depends on the brand and what you can handle. If it becomes too painful, then I’d break the injection schedule down more, and start dividing up equally and doing 3 times/wk shots. When you get to the last 4 weeks you will need to do every other day shots. 200mg every other day will put you right at 700mg/wk on Primo. Some guys do Primo every single day at 100mg/shot, and there is no problem with that either, if you don’t mind being a walking pin cushion for this duration of your cycle. Primo is good once you get to 400mg/wk. It proves to be much weaker on anything less, but I have run it lower when combined with equal dosages of Masteron. Again, two of the right compounds stacked together can sometimes provide better synergistic results than one of them run solo SOMETIMES. Post Cycle Therapy Wait 2 weeks post last shot, then begin Clomid therapy at 100mg/day on days 1-10, then 50mg/day on days 11-20. It would also be a wise idea to use HCG starting directly after the cycle. I like to start HCG a little early to get it in my system. I would go 2,500iu/wk HCG split up into 2 shots of 1,250mg spread evenly during the week. HCG (human chorionic gonadotropin) is a luteinizing hormone that is naturally produced in the pituitary gland of males and females. This hormone is naturally shut down when testosterone or a testosterone derivative 17 STRAIGHT FROM THE UNDERGROUND John Doe Bodybuilding is introduced into the body. Luteinizing hormones are what signal the gonads to produce their own testosterone. When natural production stops, essentially this is what causes your nuts to shrink. HCG usage can help prevent this or “blow them back up” but most importantly, it returns you to normal faster by including it in your post cycle therapy. You could also add Arimidex to the cycle recovery, but it probably wouldn’t be necessary because Primobolan doesn’t cause aromatization, and your Deca and test were pretty low anyway. But as a failsafe you could use ½mg Arimidex every other day for a few weeks post cycle. A lot of post cycle therapy is so individual specific that you have to figure out what works for you. You’re going to read about different ways of doing post cycle therapy everywhere you look. But as far as I’m concerned, a lot of guys are going way too overboard with post cycle therapy now, and they’re running things they don’t need and throwing their estrogen and estradiol levels way too far the other direction. Sometimes they are causing more damage trying to be proactive than they would be using nothing. So I just wanted to explain that to you, you’ll see different post cycle therapy protocols in this book, but really you need to find what you do well with. Use my layouts as templates, but if you need to tweak a little bit, then by all means go ahead. Sustanon/Tren/Anadrol Mass Stack This stack right here is going to throw on some major mass. This isn’t the most moderate cycle by nature, but it’s going to be super effective. While I personally don’t use trenbolone or Anadrol anymore, I did a few years back and let me tell you, the results are quick!! This cycle needs an aromatase inhibitor throughout since aromatization is very possible. Week 1-10: 750mg/wk Sustanon, 300mg/wk tren, 100mg/day Anadrol FIRST 3 WEEKS ONLY!! Injection schedule: The injection schedule for this one is simple; just load 1cc of Sustanon with 1cc of tren in the same syringe and hit Mon/Wed/Fri. That puts you right at 750mg/wk Sustanon and 300mg/ wk tren. Definitely don’t use the Anadrol longer than the first 3 weeks, it can be very harsh on your liver!! As for your aromatase inhibitor, you will be using 1mg/day of Arimidex the first 4 weeks. After you drop the Anadrol you could step down to ½mg per day Arimidex for the remainder of the cycle. You could also use Aromasin instead of Arimidex if you wanted to. With Aromasin you want to run 20mg/day the first 4 weeks, and then you could drop to 10mg/day throughout the remainder of the cycle. I use one or the other, depending on what I can get. Aromasin vs. Arimidex is pretty much like test cyp vs. test enanthate to me, I could take one or the other. Post Cycle Therapy Follow the same protocol as other cycles in this section. Winstrol/Deca/Test Stack Winstrol is a good complement to Deca because it helps keep any water issues down that you may acquire from Deca use. With a clean diet, water should be minimal on almost any cycle, but you can hold a little more with certain compounds. Whether you’re building, cutting, 18 STRAIGHT FROM THE UNDERGROUND John Doe Bodybuilding or doing a lean mass cycle, you can’t go wrong with this combo right here. Winny can also commonly cause joint pain while on it, and the Deca helps combat this. The two complement one another very well here. I talk about Winstrol more in cutting cycles, but for the cycle mentioned here I will lay out the basics of Winny. Winstrol comes most commonly as tabs or a water based injectable. There are oil based Winstrol preparations out there and I’d highly suggest them. I personally do not like water based Winny because the solution gets stuck easier in muscle tissue and can cause infections. I’d go tabs or oil based, or bust. Remember, Deca can be shot once/wk. We will shoot test 2 times/wk for this cycle, to get to 500mg/wk. Weeks 1-15: 500mg/wk test (shot twice/wk at 250mg), 300mg/wk Deca (shot once/ wk), and 40-50mg/day Winstrol (taken every day). You will only be running the Winstrol the first 8 weeks and then dropping it. If you choose to, you can throw it in for the last 8 weeks instead. ½mg of Arimidex or Aromasin 3 times/wk should be enough just as a precautionary measure for any possible aromatization from the test and Deca. Post Cycle Therapy Wait 2 weeks post last shot of test/Deca to start Clomid at 100mg/day the first 10 days, then dropping to 50mg/day the next 10 days. Continue on with Arimidex from the end of the cycle to the end of Clomid therapy. HCG would be a good addition as well to keep your nuts full or swell them back up when cycle is complete. You can use it during the cycle at 250iu 2 times/wk throughout, or if you do not use it during the cycle, then use 2500iu/wk the 2 weeks following your last test/Deca shot (split into 2 separate 1250iu dosages per week, i.e. Mon/ Thurs). 19 STRAIGHT FROM THE UNDERGROUND John Doe Bodybuilding CHAPTER SIX CUTTING CYCLES AND DIET Before I get into some cutting cycles, let me just explain something real quick. Steroids do not make you cut, it’s almost all diet!! There are certain steroids that promote different properties, but without a good diet you’re pissing in the wind. You’ll never get shredded if you cannot develop the discipline to go days at a time without eating junk. I wouldn’t even waste my money if you can’t commit to the diet. Now, let’s take a look at all of these bodybuilders from the “golden era of bodybuilding”. These guys didn’t have half of the drugs available now, and yet they looked incredible!! Yes, these guys were cutting on test, Dbol, and Deca. A few had access to Primobolan and Anavar, but that was pretty much it. I’d say most guys were using Deca and Dbol, and if they were lucky they had testosterone, but it really depended on which doctor you went to back then. There were two main docs who prescribed this stuff out in California, and a couple of the luckier guys were bringing in steroids from out of country that many others couldn’t get (specifically one from France and another from Austria). But the point is that dosages weren’t nearly as high, diets were tighter, and work ethic was never lacking. That is what built those bodies back then, not the different drugs. Steroids during a diet do nothing but preserve muscle while in caloric deficit. Yes, there are a few steroids that can promote a harder look than what you could achieve naturally, but the major difference between a steroid user and a natural trainer is the level of muscle retention during dieting. This is perfectly evident by comparing a natural competitor with an enhanced competitor. There really isn’t a big difference in the level of body fat between the two, but there is when it comes to the level of development there is. The steroid user is far more likely to retain more muscle during a diet phase. By the way, the fact they have the same body fat level is perfect evidence that steroids do not outwork a shitty diet. I did a competition back in 2005 where I was using approximately 2,500-3,000mg per week of steroids. I placed in the top 5, but not nearly as well as I had thought I was going to. Fast forward to 2009, I looked better than I ever have in my life (to this day) and I was using 900mg/wk total!! ***Post Cycle Therapy protocol for cutting cycles listed below: wait 10 days after your last shot and use 50mg/day of Clomid for 20 days, along with ½mg per day of Arimidex alongside Clomid and extended 1 week out past Clomid. ***Post Cycle Therapy protocol here applies to all short cycles below in this chapter These cycles I’ve laid out are some basic cutting cycles that can yield almost anyone some pretty damn impressive results for not a ton of money. For more on cutting cycles, read ahead to competition cycles!! My Best Cutting Cycle Ever!! (Prop/Tren/Winstrol) This is hands down the best I have ever looked. I started my cycle at 230 lbs, and I had dropped down to 207 lbs on weigh-in day. But the thing about the diet was I stayed close to 230 lbs for a long time while getting leaner and leaner. I was a very large 207 lbs when it was said and done. The cycle was the most basic thing ever, and effective as hell!! Now, you probably won’t believe me when I tell you this, but I didn’t start using this cycle until 8 weeks away from the competition. I dieted for 14 weeks, and the first 6 weeks I was using nothing!! 20 STRAIGHT FROM THE UNDERGROUND John Doe Bodybuilding At the 8 week out mark, I used 300mg/wk of tren, 300mg/wk of oil based Winstrol, and 300mg/wk of testosterone propionate. Now, one thing that I think made a huge difference was the fact I was using a liquid exemestane the entire time I was running the cycle. I was probably overboard on this, but I was using 20mg/day of exemestane each day. Between that and the Winstrol I was dry as hell looking. Honestly I was ready for the stage at 2 weeks out. The combination of these three compounds gave me a nasty shredded and hard look!! Even though I was running low dosages of each, it was the synergistic combination of these compounds that gave me such great results. I placed second in that show, and to this day I feel as if I was robbed. The guy who won had peanuts for biceps and terrible shape. But this is all a subjective game when it comes to judging, and definitely one of politics too. Anyway I looked amazing off those three things and if I ever get on the stage again, I’d run the same damn cycle all over again!! Winstrol OK, so let me break down one of the components of my cutting cycle I’ve talked about. Let’s talk about Winstrol, or “Winny” as it’s commonly called. I like Winstrol, but it has to be either oil based or oral Winny. I am not a fan of water based Winstrol, and I’d dare to say this compound is the culprit of about 75% of infections that come from steroid shots. If water based is all you can get, my advice is to measure in the syringe and drink it. It’s OK to drink since it’s a 17-alkyloid, but it would be harsh on the liver this way. A 17-alkyloid compound means that the drug can be processed through ingestion. Winstrol needs to be taken at least every other day, or at a minimum Mon/Wed/Fri. Some guys use it every day, I never did. I always went every other day with it, because sticking yourself each day is a pain in the ass. When you’re training on Winstrol, it’s a good idea to lighten the workload. Winstrol can cause joint pain, and it’s much worse if you’re training too heavy. You shouldn’t need to train as heavy anyway if you’re cutting, so be smart about it and lighten the load. Winstrol is a “risk vs. reward” steroid. If you’re training wisely and getting adequate rest, it’s a great thing!! But if you train too heavy, it can cause injuries and joint pain that could ruin a competition prep, or even worse, a joint or tendon. Side effects of Winny: • • • • • Accelerated hair-loss (if you’re prone to it) Joint pain Liver damage Diuretic effect with increased urination Mood swings Winstrol can make you mean and I’m always as mean as a snake when I’m using it. But I’m an asshole anyway so it’s fine. Winstrol/Deca/Test Another cycle I did once was Winny with Deca and a little test. I didn’t want to run anything crazy, but I wanted to get leaner with a low dose cycle. So I used 200mg/wk of Deca, 50mg/ day 3x/wk of Winny, and 200mg/wk of test cypionate. This cycle was after I got on hormone replacement therapy and I was always using 200mg/wk of test cypionate anyway. So all I really needed was a bottle of Deca and some Winny tabs (I used tabs for this one). I found the Winstrol complemented Deca very well, and joint pain wasn’t an issue since the Deca has joint 21 STRAIGHT FROM THE UNDERGROUND John Doe Bodybuilding lubricating properties. I ran this for 10 weeks and I looked pretty good. I wasn’t competition looking or anything, but I wasn’t eating as tight as when I’m show prepping either. Masteron Masteron is another good compound for cutting up with. Masteron is a DHT derivative so accelerated hair-loss can definitely be an issue if you’re prone to it. I was shedding pretty badly about 4-5 weeks into it, but it stopped after I quit using it. It’s a good idea to use some finasteride if you’re worried about hair-loss, or avoid using this one if you’re that worried about it. Masteron is commonly dosed at 100mg/ml, so you would need a few vials of it. Most sources will say at least 500mg/wk on this compound, but I always got good results on 300mg/wk. The thing with Masteron is it does very little if you’re not already extremely lean. This compound does nothing more than provide a hardening effect to the muscles when you’re already lean. It’s not something you would take to try to get bigger and stronger. Now, another plus side to this drug is it’s not that harsh on your system. While it’s typically only run the last 6-8 weeks before a contest, I have used it longer than that alongside my test replacement dosage of 200mg/wk. You could go 200-300mg/wk for a period of 12-15 weeks if you were trying to get a little edge alongside TRT, and I have done this before with good results. But I usually stay very lean all year and if I wasn’t lean then I wouldn’t do it. If there is any other positive with Masteron, it acts as an anti-estrogen in itself. Anti-estrogens aren’t as necessary (or maybe not necessary at all) if you’re using Masteron. This can be a compound that can be a little painful to inject sometimes, so my advice is to try a 100mg/shot first and see how you handle it before trying to take more in one shot. Masteron stacks very well with almost anything, but keep in mind it’s a DHT derivative, so if using it with another DHT drug you’d want to keep one of them on the lower side. For example, let’s say you were running Primobolan or Winstrol. You would want to keep those either lower and Masteron higher, or Masteron lower and one of those higher. We will talk about Primobolan more in intermediate cycles. Masteron/Test Prop Run 8 week cycle consisting of 300mg/wk Masteron (shot Mon/Wed/Fri) and 300mg/wk test prop (load into same syringe as Masteron and Mon/Wed/Fri as well) Masteron/Test Prop/Anavar Cycle 8 week cycle consisting of 300mg/wk test prop, 300mg-500mg/wk Masteron, and 50-100mg/ wk Anavar (again, go Mon/Wed/Fri at 100mg each, loaded into same syringe), and take Anavar daily, and split your dosage up throughout the day (i.e. breakfast, lunch, and dinner) Masteron/Test Prop/Winstrol 8 week cycle consisting of 300mg/wk of Masteron, 300mg/wk of test prop, 300mg/wk of Winstrol. Now, if you can get oil based Winstrol you shouldn’t have an issue shooting 100mg at a time. If it’s water based, I would personally drink it, but that is just me. It’s OK to swallow water based Winny, it won’t hurt you. Like I said, I don’t do water based Winstrol, and if I couldn’t get oil, then I’d get tabs. 22 STRAIGHT FROM THE UNDERGROUND John Doe Bodybuilding Any of those three Masteron cycles I’ve laid out would be a great 8 week run to get in great condition. Even if you’re not competing, those cycles would benefit you greatly if you can get lean enough on your own first. Tren/Test Prop/Halotestin/Anavar This is a simple cycle that consists of just tren, Anavar, and test prop until the last 3 weeks. The last 3 weeks you will be adding in Halotestin tabs at 30mg/day. Halo is a hardening steroid that is extremely liver toxic and harsh on the body, which is why we are only running it for 3 weeks. I wouldn’t use more than 30mg/day for 3 weeks. Halo is mostly used during competition prep, and only for 3-4 weeks max. It’s a very popular drug in the powerlifting community because it promotes crazy strength without weight gain, so powerlifters who are trying to stay in a certain weight class while getting stronger like to use this one. Taking halo while dieting makes for a very hard look, similar to Masteron but cheaper since it’s only run a few weeks. Weeks 1-8: 300mg/wk tren, 300mg/wk test prop, 50mg/day Anavar (load 100mg tren and 100mg test prop in same needle, and go Mon/Wed/Fri) Weeks 6,7, & 8: 30mg/day of halo (taken at 10mg 3 times/day) ***You can take ½mg every other day Arimidex throughout the cycle if you want, although I’ve personally run cycles such as this several times without using it. 23 STRAIGHT FROM THE UNDERGROUND John Doe Bodybuilding CHAPTER SEVEN CUTTING AGENTS Clenbuterol Clenbuterol is a very strong thermogenic used to shed body fat by acting on the beta-2 receptors and increasing heart rate and releasing heat. Clen will slightly raise your core temperature and elevate the heart rate, more so the first few hours after ingestion than anything. Clenbuterol is dosed in micrograms and it’s common to use anything from 50mcg/ day to 200mcg/day. I usually never went above 100mcg/day with it. There comes a point when things can become overkill and the risks don’t outweigh the benefits. As effective as clen can be, it’s not something I would recommend using for very long periods of time and I would suggest other means of fat loss before turning to clen. I’ve just seen too many people get bone dry and shredded without it. It’s often claimed that Clen has mild anabolic properties, but I do not believe that. In my opinion it is strictly a thermogenic. There is nothing about clen that promotes growth, but fat loss effects can be more pronounced when using it in combination with anabolic steroids since the nature of many steroids will enhance metabolic function. Clen is sold in pills and also liquid concentrations that are sold as a “research product”. These research chemicals are sold online legally but “not for human consumption”. I always preferred the liquid versions better and found them to get in my system faster. Like I said, keep it around 100mcg and you should be fine. Clen is also not effective after 2 weeks on it. The receptors stop responding to clen very quickly and it’s suggested to use it in a 2 weeks on/2 weeks off fashion. Now, there is a lot of talk about taking Benadryl after the initial 2 weeks to down-regulate the receptors and allow you to stay on clen straight through. I’ve done this before myself, and it just wasn’t very effective for me. You can also go 2 days on/2 days off with it and run it like that straight through. Very effective ways to use it also includes 2 days on clen, 2 days off, and use ephedrine instead on your 2 days off. Likewise, you can go 2 weeks on/2 weeks off, and use ephedrine on your 2 weeks off. Or even more effective, go with the “ACE” stack in your off time (aspirin, caffeine, ephedrine). One way to use clenbuterol that I’ve found extremely effective in the past was to use it right before going to bed. Now, I’m not talking about using it an hour before bed, or even 20 minutes before bed; I’m talking right before your head hits the pillow you pop some clen. This will ensure that your body is working overtime in your sleep and in a fasted state, which yields excellent results very quickly. I did this when prepping for my last competition and I got extremely lean. I should probably mention that this isn’t healthy. There is nothing healthy about fucking around with your body’s natural sleep state, but sometimes we bend the rules for short periods of time when we are trying to kick everyone’s ass onstage. This shouldn’t be regular practice, but if you have something you want to get shredded for in a short amount of time, then I’m not going to tell you not to do it. All I’m saying is it’s not healthy, but neither is being a fat fucker either. Whether you die from clen or a Big Mac with cheese, I guess everyone has to go at some point right? 24 STRAIGHT FROM THE UNDERGROUND John Doe Bodybuilding Ephedrine Originally marketed as a bronchodilator, ephedrine acts in a similar nature to clenbuterol. Although the effects aren’t quite as extreme as clen, it’s a very effective fat loss agent. Now, we’ve heard a lot of horror stories about ephedrine within the past 10 years or so. Just know that a lot of these horror stories came from people taking way too much, taking it as a rave party drug while drinking and doing recreational drugs with it, or just out of shape fat fucks who were probably ready to check out of life anyway. I believe in dosages of 50mg/day or less, ephedrine is a relatively safe compound to use on occasion. Again, I wouldn’t live on it, but I don’t see any harm with using this a couple times per year if your heart is healthy. If you have any pre-existing heart conditions, I do not suggest you use any thermogenics that act on increasing heart rate, breathing rate, or body temperature. There are other fat loss products that work on other mechanisms of shuttling fat, and I would suggest you look into those instead of thermogenics/stimulants. Back in the day everyone wanted the ephedrine that was in the weight loss products. I found out by being a cheap fucker that the ephedrine hydrochloride worked even better. I was buying small bottles of ephedrine HCL from a local gas station for under $10 a bottle, while everyone else was shelling out $50 a pop on sports supplements. Then I found sites online that sold it even cheaper but that eventually got shut down as well. However, there are still SOME online nutrition stores that sell fat loss products that contain ephedrine. A good one to use is called “Tri-Matrix” and they are green capsules I believe. It’s a tri-stack of ephedrine, green tea, and possibly Yohimbine, but don’t quote me on that. It’s been awhile since I’ve used it, but I have used it several times while competition dieting with much success. “Black Mamba” is another good one. It’s a little stronger but it works wonders!! Again, do an online search for these if you fail to come up with any ephedrine hydrochloride or just straight ephedrine. Ephedrine is a product that I would use only when dieting for durations of no more than 10-12 weeks. But typically I don’t begin any thermogenics until I’m a very good ways into a diet anyway, because they do have catabolic properties to them. I try to hold onto as much muscle as possible until I get right down to the wire. The fat burners don’t come in until I’m trying to shed away that last little bit or look “dry”. ACE Stack The “ACE stack” stands for aspirin, caffeine, and ephedrine. These three things are taken together because they are synergistic in nature and provide some great fat loss effects. You take aspirin each day combined with some sort of caffeine, and then the ephedrine HCL, or ephedrine that is sold in the form of a sports supplement. I used to use 500mg of Bayer Back & Body Pain Reliever for aspirin and I took one per day. For my caffeine, I would buy packets of green tea (real green tea!!). I would take 4-5 bags of green tea and throw them in a 2 quart container of cold water and ice. Each day I would drink the 2 quarts of water/green tea mixture before 12 noon. For the ephedrine I used 50mg/day of ephedrine HCL. I lost a lot of body fat doing this. Nowadays, there are supplements that are sold with a synergistic combination of a “proprietary blend” already in them. But the ACE stack may be more affordable and just as effective if you can get your hands on ephedrine. T-3 (Cytomel) Cytomel, more commonly known as T-3, is a thyroid hormone that is taken to increase 25 STRAIGHT FROM THE UNDERGROUND John Doe Bodybuilding metabolic rate. It’s most commonly dosed at 50mcg-200mcg per day and shouldn’t be used for periods exceeding 6 week durations. Now, here is my stand on T-3: I do not like it unless I was running higher amounts of human growth hormone (HGH). Growth hormone can slow the thyroid down over time, so bodybuilders will take some thyroid hormone to keep everything in check, especially when using higher amounts of HGH (4-6 iu’s/day or more). Side effects of taking Cytomel may include: • • • • • • High blood pressure Fatigue Headaches Rapid heart rate Appetite suppression Diarrhea Cytomel sort of falls into the same category as insulin does: short durations of usage are best. You don’t want to take anything long enough that it can cause side effects or prolonged effects that become irreversible. I have only taken this during periods where I was dieting for a competition, but my personal experiences with it led me to the realization that it RIPPED MUSCLE OFF ME…FAST!! I am not a fan of Cytomel at all unless using small amounts when blasting HGH. I personally would stick to 50mcg/day with this stuff in any event!! When I took it to 150+mcg/day it stripped muscle off me even though I was using a host of anabolic steroids. Hell, I think it took muscle from me even at 100mcg/day. Now with that being said, the experience on it during HGH usage was better. It allowed me to go a little higher with my HGH and not feel the extreme lethargy that can come on when taking higher amounts of HGH. A lot of people swear by using this thyroid hormone when dieting and it’s commonly used with clenbuterol, but I’m sure many of the results are really person specific. My advice is to avoid this one unless you’re using HGH. HGH/Testosterone/Insulin/T-3 Run Weeks 1-4: 2-3iu/day HGH, 500mg/wk test, 10iu fast acting insulin (done post-workout on training days, before breakfast on non-training days) Weeks 5-8: 4-5iu/day HGH (split into 2 shots, 1 post-workout and 1 before bed), 500mg/ wk test, 20iu/day insulin (10iu before breakfast, 10iu post-workout, or 10iu before dinner on non-training days), 50mcg daily T-3, taken before breakfast Weeks 9-12: 4iu/day of HGH (split into 2 shots, 1 post-workout and 1 before bed), 750mg/ wk test, no insulin, no T-3 Weeks 13-16: 6-8iu/day HGH (split into 2 shots, 1 post-workout and 1 before bed), 1,000mg/wk test, 75mcg daily T-3, 20iu/day insulin (dosed at 10iu before breakfast, 10iu post-workout) Weeks 17-20: 4iu/day HGH (split into 2 shots, 1 post-workout and 1 before bed), 500mg/ wk test, no T-3, no insulin ***Experienced insulin users - For a more anabolic effect you can run your insulin at 10iu pre-workout instead of post-workout, then take HGH after you train. Be sure to 26 STRAIGHT FROM THE UNDERGROUND John Doe Bodybuilding consume insulin 1 hour pre-workout followed immediately by 100 grams of carbs from simple sugars and 40-60 grams of protein powder, then during your training sip on something like Gatorade between sets. ***Non-experienced insulin users - Take insulin post-workout, followed by adequate simple sugar intake and protein immediately after, then take HGH 1 hour after insulin shot to take advantage of peak insulin levels with HGH conversion to IGF-1 production. DO NOT DO THIS IF YOU AREN’T POSITIVE ON HOW TO PROPERLY RUN INSULIN!!! T-4 Through a scientific explanation that is far too complicated for me to explain here, T-4 is basically useless on its own. T-4 works by activating the thyroid gland to actually produce the T-3. Taking T-3 bypasses the production phase of T-4 into T-3 by actually taking the hormone needed for increased metabolism in itself. I stupidly ran T-4 once before on its own, thinking that: “Well maybe I need more T-4 rather than T-3 and I would get better results!!” I failed to educate myself enough on thyroid hormones, and the results were worthless. It proved to be nothing but a waste of money and I would not suggest using T-4. Just take small amounts of T-3 and you will be far better off. Again, I’m a fan of neither one except when using with HGH. As stated above, your results and metabolic function will be far superior when combining T-3 with HGH dosages upwards of 4iu plus per day. But we don’t want to stay on this stuff forever which is why I advocate running it in phases. 27 STRAIGHT FROM THE UNDERGROUND John Doe Bodybuilding CHAPTER EIGHT PEPTIDES CJC-1295, CJC-1293, GHRP’s CJC-1295 and CJC-1293 are what are referred to as growth hormone releasing hormones. What that means is they are peptides that stimulate our own pituitary gland in the brain to release an abundance of our own growth hormone. I personally like this concept for one major reason: there aren’t some of the same side effects as taking human growth hormone (HGH). The issue with HGH is it binds to any and every receptor available, and affects every living tissue in the human body. The CJC’s solely go to the muscle cells because the production of HGH was stemmed from brain stimulation, not synthetic introduction. Now, a few things you need to know about the CJC family: the biggest difference in the peptides is going to be the rate of release after injection. CJC-1295 comes “without DAC” or “with DAC”. The modified GRF-129 (CJC-1295 without DAC) has a half-life of about 30 minutes post injection. The CJC-1295 with DAC has a half-life of approximately 8 days. Now, besides for frequency of injections, what does this really mean? Well, that all depends on who you ask. Some guys would rather run the CJC without DAC because they want a quicker synthesizing of the product since HGH works in our body by frequent pulses. Others prefer the convenience of only injecting once/wk and prefer the CJC-1295 with DAC. Now, where do I stand on this? I have only taken the CJC without DAC because it causes a higher release of natural HGH when it stimulates the pituitary gland. After this high release, the HGH clears out from your system. This more closely mimics the way our bodies release our own HGH. Most guys are pairing these products up with GHRP’s (growth hormone releasing peptides) and are using GHRP-6, GHRP-2, or ipamorelin. Think of CJC as your machine gun, and GHRP as your grenade launcher. The addition of the GHRP’s causes more pulses of HGH and allows for faster results. Now, I’m not saying the CJC-1295 with DAC won’t work. The convenience of only injecting once per week would be nice, and certainly there would still be pulses stimulated from the addition of GHRP-6 or GHRP-2 on a daily basis, but what I’d be worried about here is what is termed as “GH bleed”. GH bleed is when there are high levels of growth hormone releasing hormone in our body, but low levels of actual HGH release. This does not mimic the way the body naturally produces HGH. So my stance on this is basically such: if I were to do a lower amount of CJC-1295 for a maintenance dose then I myself would go with 1,000mcg/wk and use the CJC-1295 with DAC and hit it once-twice/wk. I would hit all 1,000mcg in one shot, using an insulin syringe. However, if I was using a standard amount of 2,000-3,000 mcg/wk then I would definitely go with CJC-1295 without DAC. Now, what is CJC-1293? I’m going to make this really easy for you guys. CJC-1293 is the same thing as CJC-1295 without DAC. To avoid confusion these labs started terming the CJC-1295 without DAC, CJC-1293. So just know that if you’re using the 1293 then you have the same peptide as the 1295 without DAC. Remember: without DAC is what we want to use when using 2,000 mcg/wk and beyond. You can inject it intramuscularly or subcutaneously (pinch of stomach fat), but I always went subcutaneously with it. Now, I injected it once per day at 300 mcg every day for about 10 weeks. Actually, I’d go 300 mcg/day the first 6 days, and then 200 28 STRAIGHT FROM THE UNDERGROUND John Doe Bodybuilding mcg the 7th day, then start over with a new vial. I’m not going to inject myself 3-4 times/day with it, on top of using GHRP-6 or GHRP-2 multiple times per day as well. After doing much research, I decided to add a supplement to the CJC-1295 without DAC called “Huperzine-A”. Basically, the addition of Huperzine-A was thought to block the somatostatin production which competes with HGH release in your brain. This was phrased as “walking around with an I.V. bag of HGH strapped to you all day”. I don’t know about that claim, but I do know that the addition of this supplement made the effects much stronger with the CJC. Personally speaking, I felt the best way to go was more CJC-1295 with Huperzine-A (can be purchased at supplement stores or online) and to drop the GHRP’s. Actually I did just that. I sent my buddy the rest of the GHRP-2 I had and just stuck with the CJC and Huperzine supplement. I honestly felt like GHRP made me waterlogged as hell and did nothing but make me hungry. I looked much, much sharper with just the CJC-1295 and Huperzine-A. For the best results and cost effectiveness, in the future I would use a higher amount of CJC with Huperzine-A, and ditch the GHRP’s. The Huperzine dose I was using was 200mcg/day and common dosage protocol calls for 200-300mcg/day. I have yet to use sermorelin or hexarelin. The peptide world is taking the bodybuilding market by storm lately, and it’s difficult to keep up with everything that is hitting the market. I’m sharing everything I’ve personally used with you guys, but I don’t want to talk about anything I have no personal experience with. But the common denominator in all of this is these peptides are all growth hormone releasing hormones or growth hormone releasing peptides. This means that they all pretty much work on the same mechanism with very little differences. Now, at what point does the market go from EFFECTIVENESS to simply EFFECTIVE MARKETING? This would be my biggest argument in the world of peptides. I have yet to see anyone who looks noticeably distinct from using ipamorelin over GHRP, or Hexarilin instead of CJC-1295. So am I familiar with SOME PEPTIDES? Yes I am. Do I dabble in them as much as other people? Not really. Why would I want to use CJC instead of HGH? The biggest reason someone would opt for CJC over HGH is legitimacy. With HGH it’s hard to know what you’re really getting nowadays, so many guys would rather just go the peptide route instead. I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt CJC-1295 works well, and it can be manufactured at a cheaper cost than HGH. How do I know it works? Well, aside from actually seeing the results in my appearance (not so much strength gains, but a sharper and denser look) I have a friend who took the exact same thing. Now, remember me telling you earlier that HGH can make you sick feeling? Well, my friend is extremely sensitive to increases with HGH or switching brands. He switched to CJC-1295 from HGH and low and behold he had the same effects from it!! So yes, a fake product would not cause the same effects. Another reason someone would want to go the CJC route over HGH is a more natural look. Yes, you’d get enhanced results, but you probably wouldn’t look like some mutant with a high dosage of CJC versus a high dosage of HGH. Yet another reason to go the CJC route is it’s much more effective, much faster. Where HGH takes several months to see anything from, CJC takes a few weeks at its worst. It’s much quicker, and this can also make it financially easier as well. I could run CJC-1295 for a decent 10-12 week block and then be done with it for a while. With HGH I need to commit for several months on end. Basically 4-5 kits of HGH or bust, and 4-5 kits of REAL, QUALITY HGH and I’m 29 STRAIGHT FROM THE UNDERGROUND John Doe Bodybuilding set back at least $1200-$1500. That is a lot of gear, groceries, and CJC-1295!! But just like HGH, there are fake peptides as well. If a price seems too good to be true, it usually is. I recently saw a site that had “Buy One Get One Free” on CJC-1295 and the cost was somewhere around $12.95. I wouldn’t even waste my time with this kind of place. Remember, the cheapest guy is never the best!! GHRP Dosage If you choose to run GHRP-6 or GHRP-2 on their own, or with CJC, then it’s best to do 2-3 injections per day of 100-200mcg per shot. Most guys use 200-300mcg/day total, and this is definitely enough to stimulate appetite!! The biggest difference in these two peptides is strength results, water weight, and appetite stimulation. Now, if you’re looking to increase appetite, then GHRP-6 is the better route to go. However, there is some fat storing properties associated with it. GHRP-2 won’t increase appetite as much, and won’t store as much fat, but is most likely the weaker of the 2 GHRP’s. Taking GHRP’s on their own are claimed to have the same anti-aging properties as taking HGH, but I’d take that with a grain of salt. The addition of CJC-1295 or 1293 would definitely make the role of anti-aging much more effective. One thing to note with GHRP-6 is the slight chance of excessive fat storage associated with its use. The best way to avoid this is to wait 30-45 minutes after taking it to eat. You want the peptide to be processed by the time you sit down for a meal. This should combat this effect. GHRP for Tissue Regeneration and Healing One of the biggest benefits of GHRP-2 or GHRP-6 is collagen production and injury healing. If you are facing shoulder issues, impingements, or any other joint/tendon/ligament issues, then GHRP-6 or GHRP-2 may not be a bad idea to try!! Ipamorelin Ipamorelin is a growth hormone releasing peptide. Dosing is typically 300-600mcg/day and it can be either dosed throughout the day for more natural HGH pulses, or once/day before bedtime for anti-aging and rejuvenation. There is another way guys are running this peptide and it’s called “boom dosing”. Boom dosing is hitting a peptide in a larger amount at one time, while frequently running another peptide at smaller dosages throughout the day. For example, you could hit 500mcg of ipamorelin at one time before bed, and 100mcg of CJC-1293 three times daily to promote multiple HGH pulses, while the giant dose of ipamorelin before bed pretty much dumps all of the available HGH in the pituitary at one time. Growth hormone releasing hormones are commonly run with growth hormone releasing peptides. So the GHRP’s are usually run with this peptide. The downside of GHRP’s for some people is they promote hunger. Ipamorelin does not have the hunger effects that GHRP’s do, nor does CJC-1293 or CJC-1295. Ipamorelin (as well as sermorelin from what I understand) is a much “cleaner” peptide to run. This is much better if your goal was to build quality muscle mass without any fat gain, or to throw alongside a cutting cycle. 30 STRAIGHT FROM THE UNDERGROUND John Doe Bodybuilding Another advantage ipamorelin has is it doesn’t raise cortisol levels. Cortisol is the catabolic byproduct of stress and muscle exertion, and while some peptides that jack up cortisol levels will work for a little while, there comes a point where they’re just not beneficial anymore. Since I’ve been running ipamorelin, there are a few things I’ve noticed. For starters, my sleep drastically improved and I sleep deeper and more soundly throughout the night. Second off, my skin seems to look better and I do seem to look a little younger than I usually do. I don’t look as stressed out and as tired as I normally do. For the record, I’m doing it at 300mcg/day before bed, and I’m stacking it with CJC-1295 without DAC. I take the CJC-1295 three times throughout the day. I use it before breakfast, 30 min before lunch, and at night with my ipamorelin dose (yes, I load them in the same insulin syringe). Measuring and Dosing Peptides OK, so you’ve decided that you want to try peptides out. You’ve done your research and you’ve ordered them through an online “research peptide site”. You get the vials in the mail, you’re looking at them, and you’re wondering to yourself: “How the fuck do I mix it?” Easy enough, allow me to explain. The beauty of most growth hormone releasing peptides and hormones is most of them come in 2,000mcg vials. They are dosed in “mcg’s” so basically 2,000mcg x 1ml of added bacteriostatic water would mean that every 10 mark on a 1ml insulin pin would equal 200mcg’s. The easiest way is to use a 1ml insulin syringe (same measurement as 1cc) and drop exactly 1ml of bacteriostatic water into your growth hormone releasing peptides (or GHRH). Let the water go into the vial slow, the powder in the vials is very sensitive. Allow it to dissolve for a few minutes. Now, on a 1ml insulin pin there are numbers. They start at 10 then go to 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, and 100. So if I were to fill to the 10, that would be 200 mcg of peptide. 200 x 10 is 2000 right? So filling to the “10” is 200 mcg, and if you were to dose at 100 mcg 3 times daily, then you’re only filling to the 5 mark for each dose. But there is no 5 mark, so you’re going to fill halfway to the 10 mark. On a 1ml insulin syringe, each click is 2 units. There are clicks between the numbers, and they go by 2’s. It’s not going to look as if there’s much in the syringe at all. Just keep it simple, fill it halfway to the “10” mark and inject to the schedule that suits your needs. IGF-1 LR3 IGF-1 is the hormone that is the byproduct of HGH conversion produced in the liver. Guys taking HGH often think that HGH is responsible for their results, when in reality it’s the IGF-1 conversion that is producing the results. IGF-1 promotes many muscle building properties which include increased nitrogen retention and increased protein synthesis. It’s also very similar in structure to insulin, and between the nutrient shuttling and nitrogen retention, IGF1 LR3 can give you one hell of a pump in the gym!!! You do risk going a little hypoglycemic with IGF-1 LR3 and I have found that I usually had to have a few more cheat meals when I was using it. Same thing goes for HGH, it’s harder to diet as strict with these, but the rate of nutrient uptake becomes so fast that metabolism and thermogenesis are usually increased despite eating a little dirtier. How do you think bodybuilders are getting so much bigger today? They are using products that allow them to eat thousands more calories per day and burn fat at the same rate as if they were dieting!!! Just don’t be one of those guys who uses it as an excuse to eat whatever he wants. You’ll never look your best doing that, but it’s my opinion that yes, you do need to loosen the diet just a hair when you’re running IGF-1 LR3 or HGH. 31 STRAIGHT FROM THE UNDERGROUND John Doe Bodybuilding Why would you want to use IGF-1 LR3 instead of HGH? Well, for starters it’s faster acting. You could run IGF-1 LR3 in 4-6 week blasts and see a lot of results, whereas HGH takes months. But you need to know your IGF-1 LR3 is real. Let me tell you: there are plenty of fake vials of IGF-1 LR3 floating around. I would research different sources and see what others have to say about them before ordering it. Some guys say that real IGF-1 LR3 is impossible to find, but I disagree. The cost of production for this peptide is far cheaper than HGH and I know it must do something because my pump is insane when I’m on it, and I do get hypoglycemic effects. Unless it’s some sort of insulin powder, I’m going to place my bet that it has some legitimacy to it. Another thing to ponder on is this: usually when a source has legitimate products they don’t just sell one product that is fake. Why would they carry everything else that can suppress gyno, cause erections, make you tan, cure acne, induce sleep and hunger, but then sell fake IGF-1? I just don’t buy half the shit these guys say. I think their diet is what is holding them back, not the products. There are two different types of IGF-1. There is regular IGF-1, which has a half-life of about 15-20 minutes after injection, and then you have IGF-1 LR3. The “LR-3” is a chemically modified version of IGF-1 that extends the half-life to about 20 hours. This is the IGF-1 you want to use!! Measuring And Dosing IGF-1 LR3 IGF-1 LR3 typically comes in 1,000mcg vials. Therefore if you add 1cc of bacteriostatic water to that vial, every “10” on your 1ml insulin syringe is 100mcg. I have found that 50mcg each day is a good dosage of IGF-1 LR3, without too many side effects. The one thing we don’t want is that god awful HGH gut. Therefore, if you keep it at 50mcg post-workout and limit cycles of IGF-1 LR3 to 4-6 weeks, followed by 4-6 weeks off, you’ll be in the clear. There are a lot of mixed reviews on whether or not to shoot into the muscles or shoot it subcutaneously, but I would shoot it intramuscularly myself. I don’t know the exact science behind all of it, but I’ve read enough to know that there are some site enhancement claims while using IGF-1 LR3 (although I’m not sure if there’s any definite consensus on these claims). You can either shoot it subcutaneously or intramuscularly. If you’re going to shoot it intramuscularly, then the best thing to do is to shoot it bilaterally after a workout. So let’s say you train biceps that day: you would put 25mcg into each bicep post-workout. It’s perfectly fine to keep in a gym bag as it won’t go bad just being left out for an hour or two. A lot of guys claim it’s better to mix IGF-1 LR3 with acetic acid. I’m here to tell you right now that bacteriostatic water is perfectly fine, and furthermore I’ve had IGF-1 LR3 mixed with acetic acid fuck my arms up before. I’ve had shots leave knots on me and almost morph the shape of my bicep temporarily. It actually took a few weeks to go back to normal looking. I do not have this issue with bacteriostatic water. By the way, you can order bacteriostatic water online for a few dollars. It’s going to look as if there’s very little in your syringe after you draw it up. 25mcg’s in a 1ml insulin pin is nothing, couple tiny clicks and that’s all. You may choose to get the 0.33ml pins so measuring is a tad easier. Because the insulin pin is smaller, it’s easier to see a more accurate measurement without the presence of as much air. The difficult part about only measuring out that much in a 1ml pin is if there is any small amount of air at the top (which there usually is), it’s extremely hard to tell whether it’s 25mcg’s, or 30 mcg’s, or only 10 mcg’s. What some people do is backload the pins with bacteriostatic water as well, just to have more substance to inject in there. Backloading means to pull the plunger out of the insulin pin and fill the insulin pin with some extra bacteriostatic water from the back of the pin. 32 STRAIGHT FROM THE UNDERGROUND John Doe Bodybuilding Reconstitution and Shelf Life It’s safe to say that IGF-1 LR3 has a shelf life of about 1 month after it’s mixed. Therefore, if you were to do 50mcg per day, then 1 vial would last you 20 days. HOWEVER, if you just use it on training days, then a vial of it should get you right around 1 month. Typical prices for a vial range between $60-$130, depending on where you go. I wouldn’t worry so much about whether the cycle is a perfect 30 days, or only 27 days, or if you run out at 28 days, or whatever. Just hit a vial of it and then take a month - six weeks off and repeat if you wish. You will see some sources that sell IGF-1 LR3 kits for about the same cost as HGH kits, and they come in 10 separate vials like HGH does. I’m sure these sources of IGF-1 LR3 are more potent, but I wouldn’t just chalk up research chemical sites who sell it as all fake. I know what it does for me when I’m on it and it’s no placebo effect. MGF (Mechanic Growth Factor) I ran this product years and years ago, and to be honest I didn’t get a fucking thing out of it. I think word has gotten around that this stuff is pretty bunk because when it first hit the scene it was about as much $$ as IGF-1, and now it’s cheaper than dirt. It’s supposedly a peptide that is geared more toward site growth and repair, but I didn’t get a damn thing out of it and I wouldn’t waste my money on it. I’d be buying more IGF-1 LR3 before I ever attempted to use this shit again. Nobody is using this anymore; it’s pretty much unheard of now. The science behind this is it’s basically a spliced version of IGF-1, reacting at the muscle cell sites longer than IGF-1, through a chemically altered process called “pegylation”. The halflife of this shit is literally minutes without pegylation, and I’d dare to say that most forms of MGF sold as pegylated is a blatant lie. The problem with MGF (even if it’s legit PEG) is that if it does sit in the muscle cells for an extended period of time, the very thing that is supposed to grow new cells and repair damaged cells, actually damages the cells!! There are enzymes in the body that attack the very cells you’re trying to build since a chemically altered, foreign substance is basically stuck in them. I have seen this first hand. My friend had a great pair of biceps, some of the best I’ve ever seen. He started using this shit and it morphed one of his biceps to almost a point. It became beyond a peak and clearly looked damaged. This is a peptide I would stay away from. The science behind it is just not all there, and results are pretty much based on pure speculation. Save your money for something better than MGF. PGCL Now here is a funny product right here. PGCL is a drug that was intended to induce labor in cattle. Bodybuilders began taking this product for enhanced fat loss effects and supposed “site specific growth”. The claims were incredible on what PGCL could do for someone within a couple short weeks. Some guys were claiming to have dropped 10-15 lbs in only a couple short weeks while “adding size” to their arms, chest, legs, and pretty much wherever they shot it. I personally think the claim of losing that much weight that quickly and increasing arms up to an inch or two at the same time is a bit ridiculous. Well, about six or seven years ago my stupid ass tried this product. Here is what it did for me: after I injected it I shit about seven times within the next couple hours. I had explosive diarrhea and terrible stomach pains. For Christ’s sake, I thought I was going into labor myself like one of the cattle!! I got hotter than hell and sick feeling for the next couple hours. I didn’t notice anything great about this stuff, I didn’t lose that much body fat, and anything I did lose 33 STRAIGHT FROM THE UNDERGROUND John Doe Bodybuilding was shit out of me!! I probably would have had the same effects taking ex-lax for a hell of a lot cheaper!! This stuff is pretty dangerous and considered one of the most hardcore chemicals you could put into your body. Stay far away from PGCL, it isn’t worth it!!! That’s as far into that one as I’m going. DNP I’ve never tried it and never will try it. DNP is self-administered poison that will raise your body temperature and induce thermogenesis. I like to feel good and be healthy, so poisoning myself to lose body fat is pretty much out of the question. It’s also not healthy to lose weight that quickly and it’s catabolic in nature. I’ve seen more people look like total shit from running DNP than not using anything at all. If you ask me, DNP is for lazy asses who cannot dedicate enough to dieting to get in top shape. All you need to know is this stuff is poison and it can kill you. Stay far away!! That’s my two cents on DNP. Conclusion Peptides on their own are not as strong as steroids are, but they don’t have the same negative effects either. Peptides won’t knock your natural production of anything down, and there aren’t recovery issues as there are with anabolic steroids. For someone who is trying to gain an edge but doesn’t want the recovery issues of steroid off-cycling, peptides may be the way to go. 34 STRAIGHT FROM THE UNDERGROUND John Doe Bodybuilding CHAPTER NINE INSULIN 101 OK, I want to talk about insulin here. I’m going to talk about how to use it properly, the different types, and what to expect from it. But first and foremost I’m going to talk about safety. Insulin is nothing to fuck around with. If you’re fairly new to the world of performance enhancement and/or nutrition and training, don’t even consider doing something like insulin!! Insulin can kill you quick. I’m talking about a dirt nap within a couple hours if you’re not careful. HOWEVER, there are really only a couple ways you can fuck it up. The biggest way to fuck up insulin is incorrect measurement. If I tell you to take 5 units of insulin and you load up 5cc’s as you would a steroid shot, or even load up 5 units as you would a HGH shot, you are probably going to die. 5 units of insulin means 5 tiny little lines or “clicks” on an insulin syringe. It will look like hardly anything in the needle, this is powerful shit and it doesn’t take much at all to do its job. The second biggest way to fuck up insulin is to not eat properly after administering it. As a general rule, for every 1 unit of insulin you inject, you need to take 10 grams of carbohydrates with it. This needs to be done within 15 minutes of injecting insulin. Depending on what type of insulin you use, you will want another meal within 60-90 minutes after that, and that will be a solid meal including fats, proteins, and carbs. After getting familiar with insulin and how your body reacts to it, you may find you can change the ratio to 7 grams carbs/unit of insulin, or may need to raise it slightly, but for a first time insulin user, 10 grams/unit minimum, and err on the side of overkill at first!!! OK, now let’s get into the different types of insulin and what to expect. The first time I used insulin was 13 years ago, I’m kind of experienced here, so listen up dammit!! The first type of insulin, and the one most commonly used is Humulin-R. Humulin-R can be purchased from a pharmacy without a prescription for around $20-30 a vial. That’s right, anyone off the street can walk into a Walmart pharmacy and buy Humulin-R. This is an insulin with a 30 minute-1 hour onset, a 2-5 hour peak, and a 5-8 hour duration. This makes it a little more unpredictable than a faster insulin because there is a much larger gap as to when it can peak. You could eat a meal with adequate carbs and then 3 hours later you’re feeling hypoglycemic (dangerously low blood sugar) and you better get more in you. But for purchasing/legality issues, this is what most guys use. This is an insulin I would not recommend using more than 1 time/day. I’d use it post-workout and make damn good and sure you’re not using it within 4-5 hours of bedtime. You want to be awake with this stuff so you can deal with any issues that are coming on from it. The next type of insulin we will talk about is Humalog/Novolog. Humalog and Novolog are the same type of insulin, just different brand names. It’s just like Sony and Panasonic. This is a faster acting insulin with a 15 minute onset, 30-90 minute peak, and 3-5 hour duration. This is an insulin that you can shoot more than once/day, 2-3 times/day injections are fine, but you need to be cautious of insulin stacking. “Stacking” is when you take an injection, then take another injection say 3-4 hours later, and even though you measured out x amount of units, it was really like x+3 units because there was some residual left from your last shot. What can happen is you misjudge carb intake and you think you had adequate carbs, but you really fell short and can start getting hypo. I would recommend using Humalog or Novolog over Humulin-R, it’s a faster onset, peak, and a shorter duration. You can know what to expect from it a little easier than Humulin-R. Also, being able to use it 2-3 times/day will keep you more anabolic and provide better gains. 35 STRAIGHT FROM THE UNDERGROUND John Doe Bodybuilding Lantus/Levemir Next we get into our long acting insulins, or 24 hour insulins. Lantus/Levemir - these are the mack fucking daddys of insulins. You want some huge gains? Then run a slower acting basal insulin behind a faster one such as Novolog or Humalog. There is no peak with Lantus, its release is slow enough that your body adjusts to it before any side effects. It’s the safest insulin you could use. Levemir is similar, but has a slight peak at 6-8 hours, though it’s nothing noticeable in most cases. These insulins are usually shot before bedtime, with a 1.5 hour onset, no peak (slight with Levemir, but not Lantus) and a 20-24 hour duration. This means you’re anabolic all the time!! So this is like your basal anabolic machine gun, and adding a faster acting insulin such as Humalog or Novolog is your grenade launcher. I’ve recently packed on 16 quality pounds in only 4 weeks with this, and that is ONLY USING insulin and my 150-200mg/wk testosterone replacement dosage!!! And to think if I was on cycle too? Jesus Christ, what kind of gains would that yield? Eating on Insulin First off, I would highly advise against using insulin while strictly dieting. You just put yourself in a very dangerous state with lower nutrients and calories on insulin. Not to mention, it is easier to put on body fat with insulin if you’re not careful. I just don’t see the benefit of using it while cutting body fat. While using insulin, every few hours you should have a protein/carb source. We are not doing anything like intermittent fasting, or carb backloading here. You will feed your body on a regular basis throughout the day!!! Post injection of insulin should be 10 grams of carbs per every unit of insulin!!! WITHIN 15 MINUTES OF A SHOT!!! And remember, with Humulin-R, another meal with 40-60 grams of carbs, 40-60 grams of protein, and SOME healthy fats should be eaten 60-90 minutes from that!!! ALWAYS BE NEAR SUGAR AND FOOD. Actually, make sure it’s on you!! If you start feeling sweaty, irritable, dizzy, shaky, hungry, thirsty, or getting cold sweats just know you’re probably going hypoglycemic and you better eat some simple sugars pretty fucking fast!!! BUY A GLUCOMETER!! These are fairly easy to use and it’s good to know what your glucose levels are anyway, but even more so when using insulin. The electronic strips that you use with the meters are a one time deal, they usually come in bottles of 50 strips. I’m not exactly sure if you need a doctor’s script to get the strips or not, but I’d suggest going to your doctor and asking him to write you a script for the diabetic test strips. Just tell your doctor that you would like to start monitoring your glucose levels on a regular basis. Any doctor should write a script for that. NO MORE THAN 4-6 WEEKS ON INSULIN!!! You do not want to turn yourself into a diabetic, therefore 4-6 weeks max!! It’s also difficult not to accumulate SOME body fat on insulin. I’d follow it up with at least 12 weeks off. Humulin-R, Novolog, and Humalog can be used only on days you train if you prefer, this would probably be better so your body does not get too accustomed to it. Now with the 24 hour insulins like Lantus and Levemir, those you will need to take every day. Anyway, I’m not condoning using this stuff, and how you acquire it is up to you. I’m just telling you how to use the shit safely and what to expect from it. But I’m not going to lie, when it comes to gains in the gym this is some powerful shit!!! Insulin is the most anabolic thing you can use. 36 STRAIGHT FROM THE UNDERGROUND John Doe Bodybuilding CHAPTER TEN HUMAN GROWTH HORMONE Human Growth Hormone (HGH) has gained much more popularity in the past 10 years than ever before. I can remember a time when everyone chalked up HGH as a waste of money, and something that should only be used by top ranked bodybuilders. Nowadays, everyone hypes HGH as if it was the holy grail of muscle building compounds. I’m here to tell you that what you get out of HGH depends on three major factors. The three factors are the legitimacy and quality, duration of use, and dosage amount. Let’s first talk about the legitimacy of HGH. There is much more fake HGH floating around than real HGH. There are only a couple manufacturers of HGH in the world, and they sell their products to the different labs for resale. HGH costs a lot of money to manufacture, so usually even black market kits of HGH go for at least a few hundred dollars per kit. Pharmaceutical grade kits such as Norditropin or Humatropin will sell for more, at $600-$800 per kit. Now, let me share this much with you: the largest individuals I’ve ever met who were running HGH had no issues paying $600-$800 per kit of high quality HGH such as Humatrope or Norditropin. They understood the price was for the legitimacy of the product and it got them results. I would be very skeptical of the underground kits floating around these days. Right now the Riptropins are coming in as the highest ranked HGH as far as generics go. Rips are good to go, but definitely do your research on other brands of generic HGH. And remember: if the price seems too good to be true, it usually is. The second factor that determines results with HGH is the duration of use. HGH takes a long time to see results from, usually a minimum of 12 weeks before seeing anything, and cycles should be no less than 20 weeks. This is one of those deals where the longer you’re on HGH, the better. This is due to short exposure times of HGH processing and IGF-1 exposure. HGH causes the liver to produce IGF-1, which is ultimately responsible for the effects from HGH. Well, the issue here is HGH works in pulses rather than a constant and steady release. This is why HGH takes so long to see anything from, it’s those repeated pulses that are necessary to see results. This is why splitting up your shots throughout the day is a wise idea, because more pulses mean better results. Splitting shots up can also alleviate side effects that HGH can cause. The third factor that comes into play with results would be dosage. I’m going to tell you right now that unless you are using 4-6iu’s/day you won’t grow much from HGH. Anything under 4iu’s per day is more in the fat loss zone and anti-aging range, and then 4iu’s and beyond seems to be the range to use for growing. Also keep in mind that with most generic HGH’s, under dosed vials are pretty normal now. So what you think is 4iu’s per day may only be 2-3iu’s per day. It can definitely be a crap shoot with HGH these days. Now pay close attention here to what I’m going to tell you. DO NOT GO TOO HIGH ON DOSAGE RIGHT AWAY!!! It takes time for your body to adjust to HGH and levels increased too quickly can cause side effects that you don’t want. I decided to jump from 4-5iu’s one week to 8iu’s the following week and I got sicker than a dog from it. I’m talking projectile vomiting, loss of appetite, and felt sicker than I’ve ever been in my life for about three or four days, and there is NOTHING YOU CAN DO to feel better when this happens. It just needs to run its course and those levels need time to drop back down to a point that your body can handle. With HGH you want to start at about 2iu’s a day for a few weeks, then go to 3-4iu’s/day for another month, then maybe increase another iu per day the following couple weeks, etc. 37 STRAIGHT FROM THE UNDERGROUND John Doe Bodybuilding Another thing about HGH that you need to know is it can knock your thyroid function down over time, and it can also cause hyperglycemia (high blood sugar). It’s a very good idea to start including small amounts of T-3 (thyroid hormone) in the equation once you get to 4iu’s/ day and beyond. 50mcg/day of T-3 is a good place to start. It’s also a good idea to include insulin when you start going beyond 3-4 months with HGH. The insulin will help counter the hyperglycemia HGH can cause, and including insulin can actually REDUCE the odds of becoming diabetic from prolonged HGH usage. Many think insulin use will make them diabetic, but it’s actually the opposite when on HGH. The best way to run HGH is to blast and cruise as you would anabolic steroids. You dedicate a 12 week time frame to different goals, and you base your goals around your dosages. For example, let’s say you go 12 weeks at 6iu’s/day with 10iu’s/day of Novolog insulin and 50mcg/ day of T-3: the following 12 weeks you would be smart to back down to 2-3iu’s/day and cut out the insulin and T-3. Remember, we want to counter some of the negative effects here, but at the same time we don’t want our bodies totally reliant for good on the addition of these chemicals. HGH loves testosterone!! HGH by itself is basically very weak in producing gains and even weaker in terms of strength gains, but with testosterone it works fantastically!! If you want to know what most professional bodybuilders are doing nowadays to get the massive growth they are getting, it’s high amounts of testosterone with HGH. Now, with that being said, the addition of HGH can also get you better results on lesser amounts as well. What I mean by that is you could take 500mg/wk of testosterone and look very good and defined while using HGH, much more so than just test alone. But one thing about HGH you need to understand is you will most likely get some water retention when you first begin HGH. But this subsides pretty quick, and in due time, fat starts melting off since HGH increases your metabolic rate, allowing you to eat more while losing fat as if you were dieting harder than you actually are. HGH is great for anti-aging and feeling young again. The improved sleep is noticeable almost right away, and it improves the elasticity of the skin and helps wrinkles go away. I remember seeing a photo of myself one Xmas when I was on HGH, and I looked much younger in the face than I usually do. For myself, I would have to say 2iu’s per day of pharmaceutical grade HGH would be where it was at. This is simply because I’m pleased with my size already, and I’d be looking for more anti-aging and fat loss benefits from it than anything else. I’m not going to sugar coat this one. Side effects from HGH can be downright nasty. You will notice that on some days you take off from HGH injections you’ll start to feel a lot better. I’m not speaking in terms of a fat loss or anti-aging dosage but the amount of HGH you’d need to inject to try and grow from. Side effects of HGH may include: • • • • • • • • • • EXTREME lethargy (to the point of not being able to safely drive a car sometimes) Vomiting Uncontrollable burping Farts that would make a dog leave the room Sulfur taste in your throat from time to time Distended abdomen from intestinal growth Acromology (growth of skull and facial bones) Foot growth (it’s not uncommon to increase one shoe size) Hand growth and finger swelling Massive water retention (initially) 38 STRAIGHT FROM THE UNDERGROUND John Doe Bodybuilding • • • • Increased risk of muscle tearing/joint issues Organ growth Thicker skin Increased rate of tumor growth or cancer cell manifestation (if you have pre-cancer cells to begin with) • General feeling of brain fog I’m sure I’ve left a few of them out somewhere in there. Some people can handle HGH better than others. My best advice is to increase the amount VERY SLOWLY. HGH Cycles HGH/Test/Insulin/Arimidex Weeks 1-4: 2iu/day HGH (taken in late evening), 500mg test (test enanthate, cyp, Sustanon, or blend), ½mg/day Arimidex Weeks 5-8: 4iu/day HGH (split shots up, 2iu earlier in day, 2iu before bedtime), 500mg test, ½mg/day Arimidex Weeks 9-12: 6iu/day HGH (split into 2 shots of 3iu, morning and night), 750mg test, ½mg/ day Arimidex, 5-10 iu/day Humalog, Humulin-R, or Novolog Weeks 13-16: 8iu/day HGH, 5 days on/2 days off (split into 3 separate shots of 2iu, 3iu, 3iu, morning + afternoon + before bed), 1000mg/wk test, ½mg day Arimidex, 10-15 iu/day Humalog, Humulin-R, or Novolog Weeks 17-20: 8iu/day HGH, 5 days on/2 days off (split into 3 separate shots of 2iu, 3iu, and 3iu, morning + afternoon + before bed), 1000mg/wk test, ½mg Arimidex daily, 1015iu/day Humalog, Humulin-R, or Novolog When you take your insulin with this cycle you will take it just once post-workout in weeks 9-12, and then you’ll use it twice/day in weeks 13-16 and again in weeks 17-20. I recommend before breakfast and then again post-workout, or if you aren’t training that day then before dinner time. HGH/Test/Deca/Insulin/Arimidex (use at least 50mcg/day of T-3 when going over 4iu’s HGH Per Day) Weeks 1-4: 2iu/day HGH, 200mg/wk Deca, 500mg/wk test (shot twice/wk), ½mg Arimidex 3 times/wk (Mon/Wed/Fri) Weeks 5-8: 4iu/day HGH, 200mg/wk Deca, 750mg/wk test (shot twice/wk), ½mg Arimidex every day ***split HGH into 2 shots Weeks 9-12: 6iu/day HGH, 200mg/wk Deca, 1000mg/wk test (shot 3 times/wk), ½mg every day Arimidex, 5-10iu/day of insulin taken post-workout or before dinner on non-training days, 50mcg/day T-3 ***split HGH into 2 shots 39 STRAIGHT FROM THE UNDERGROUND John Doe Bodybuilding Weeks 13-16: 8iu/day HGH, 200mg/wk Deca, 1500mg/wk test (shot Mon-Fri at 300mg/ day), 1mg every day Arimidex, 10-15 iu/day insulin taken twice/day (i.e. 7iu before breakfast, 8iu post-workout), 75mcg/day T-3 ***split HGH into 3 separate shots of 2iu, 3iu, and 3iu, breakfast, lunch, dinner. Weeks 17-20: 10iu/day HGH, 200mg/wk Deca, 1500mg/wk test (shot Mon-Fri at 300mg/ day), 1mg every day Arimidex, 20iu insulin per day (split into 2 separate shots of 10iu pre breakfast, and either post-workout or before dinner), 100mcg/day T-3 Weeks 21-22: 2500 iu/wk HCG, 1mg/day Arimidex Weeks 23-25: 150mg/day Clomid days 1-3, 100mg/day Clomid days 4-10, 50mg/day Clomid days 11-20, drop to ½mg/day Arimidex during this time Know your stuff about insulin before doing this!!! Insulin can kill you fast if you don’t know about it!!! ***You can follow this cycle protocol with HGH to grow with it. Other compounds can fill in for the Deca if you wish. I would run compounds that are safer to use long term, such as EQ, Primo, or Masteron. If you use something harsher such as tren, I’d just limit it to the first or second 10 weeks of the cycle, but not the entire time!!! It’s not necessary to use any more compounds here; keep it simple and effective!! Test is really what HGH wants here and there is no reason to be using a ton of other products. HGH/Tren/Test/Winstrol/Masteron/Arimidex In this cycle you will be using HGH to cut with and therefore you want to lose the insulin (insulin promotes more fat gain). This would be a cutting cycle as if you were preparing for a bodybuilding competition. You want to drop your HGH about 4 weeks out from the show, as it does hold some degree of water. 24 weeks out from competition to 20 weeks out: 2iu/day HGH (5 days on/2 off), 500mg/wk test enanthate, ½mg every day Arimidex 19 weeks out to 16 weeks out: 2iu/day HGH (5 days on/2 off), 500 mg/wk test enanthate, ½mg every day Arimidex 15 weeks out to 12 weeks out: 4iu/day HGH (5 days on/2 off), 500mg/wk test enanthate, ½mg every day Arimidex 11 weeks out to 8 weeks out: 4iu/day HGH (5 on/2 off), 500mg/wk test enanthate, 300mg/wk tren, ½mg every day Arimidex 7 weeks out to 4 weeks out: 4iu/day HGH (5 on/2 off), 500mg/wk test prop, 300mg/wk tren, 300-500mg/wk Masteron, 300mg/wk Winstrol, ½mg every day Arimidex 3 weeks out to showtime: drop the HGH, run your test prop at 500mg/wk and drop at 10-14 days out, continue to use Masteron at 500mg/wk straight to showtime, bump Arimidex to 1mg every day, continue on Winstrol at 300mg/wk right into show ***Take note that at the 7-8 week out mark we will be switching to test prop and beginning Masteron and Winstrol!! 40 STRAIGHT FROM THE UNDERGROUND John Doe Bodybuilding So do I think that taking HGH is worth it? Well, it all depends on who you are and what you’re using it for. For someone who is financially set and over the age of 40 years old, if it’s legitimate HGH that is taken at a fat loss/anti-aging dosage,then yes, I think HGH is well worth it. For a kid in his 20’s who’s trying to grow with HGH by dumping all of his money into it and taking amounts that cause gut distension and acromology? Nah, I don’t think it’s worth it at all. HGH can ruin a really nice body if you’re not careful. Some of the effects of HGH aren’t exactly reversible, and you don’t want a nice, tight waist, to go to hell in a hand basket just because you wanted another 20 lbs of muscle mass. If you take too much HGH it can make you appear blocky and really take away from your aesthetics. Does HGH work well? Yes it does, if it’s real!! But HGH, in my own personal opinion, is certainly not the holy grail of bodybuilding or the end-all-be-all of performance enhancement. 41 STRAIGHT FROM THE UNDERGROUND John Doe Bodybuilding CHAPTER ELEVEN ADVANCED BUILDING CYCLES The cycles in this chapter are strictly for experienced users who respond well to higher dosages of steroids and peptides. Admittedly, these are not dosages I myself use, due to the fact that I don’t believe that more is always better, I’m not trying to become a professional bodybuilder, and I cannot spend the money needed to run these types of cycles, even if I wanted to. You’ll see that ancillary compounds are at higher dosages for added safety. If you’re reading this chapter then you should know by now what cycles to put together on your own. You should know how to tweak something to fit your individual needs as well. These cycles are layouts and to be used as templates. There is no perfect cycle. If you want to follow these advanced cycles exactly as laid out, then be my guest. If you need to tweak them a bit, feel free. Maybe you need to use 1 ampoule/day rather than 1500mg/wk out of a vial? Then go with 1 amp/day instead. You get the idea right? These cycles are geared more towards building size. There is no reason to use 1500mg/wk of Winstrol, or 2000mg/wk of Masteron. These cycles are built upon more basic building blocks of raw size: testosterone, HGH, and insulin. A guy using one of these cycles is probably already on hormone replacement, and if he’s not, he’s cruising in that direction when these cycles are done with. Be smart…be safe!!! ***NOTE An ampoule is a sealed glass vial usually containing the premeasured amount equivalent of one dose of a steroid injection. ***OPENING AMPOULES It’s easiest to open an ampoule by purchasing either an ampoule opener or scoring the top of the amp with a kitchen knife and then quickly snapping off the top. Just take a few swipes with a kitchen knife and then grab the very top and snap it off quickly. Oftentimes there are small colored dots near the top of the ampoule, and that is where you want to make your scour. Sustanon/EQ/HGH/Insulin Weeks 1-12: 250mg/day Sustanon, 1000mg/wk EQ, 1mg/day Arimidex Weeks 1-4: 3-4iu/day HGH, 20iu/day insulin (split up into twice/day shots: morning and post-workout or pre-dinner on off days) Weeks 5-8: 4-6iu/day HGH, discontinue insulin, use 2500iu/week HCG (split twice per week at 1250 iu/shot) for weeks 7-8 (so total for the two weeks 5000iu HCG) Weeks 9-12: 8-10iu/day HGH, 20iu/day insulin (same protocol as above or if you’re experienced you can use pre-workout instead of post-workout) After 12 weeks you will cut back to a bridge cycle of some sort and drop to 4-6iu/day of HGH until week 20. I would possibly use insulin again on weeks 17-20, but something lower dosed such as 10iu/day post-workout, or pre-workout for the experienced. During this time you will use HCG at 500iu/week (dosed twice per week at 250iu/shot) for the remainder of the cycle. Examples of a good bridge: 250mg/wk test, 50-75mg/day Proviron OR 250mg/wk test, 200mg/ wk of Nandrolone Phenylpropionate (otherwise called NPP or “fast acting Deca”) OR 250mg/ wk of test, 300mg/wk Equipoise (boldenone undecylenate) 42 STRAIGHT FROM THE UNDERGROUND John Doe Bodybuilding Test Enanthate/Tren/IGF-1 LR3/Anadrol Weeks 1-12: 1500mg/wk test enanthate Weeks 1-3: 100mg/day Anadrol Weeks 1-10: 600mg/wk trenbolone acetate ***IGF-1 LR3 is to be used at 100mcg/day on training days only weeks 1-8 ***Arimidex is to be used at 1mg/day throughout cycle!!! ***HCG is used at 250iu 3 times/wk throughout cycle 20 Week Primobolan Run This is something I would definitely do if I had the extra cash. You run Primobolan Depot at 1000mg/wk for 20 weeks straight, and keep your test on the lower side (around 200-300mg/ wk). Although not necessary for 90% of guys, you can add Arimidex in at ½mg 3 times/wk if you wish. You may want to add it in just in case your Primo was faked with EQ. I would only suggest a legitimate Primo source. No other compounds needed here, a gram/wk of Primo should build nothing but quality results over the course of 20 weeks!!!! HGH/Lantus/Novolog/Test/Tren/T-3 Weeks 1-6: 4iu/day HGH, 20iu/day Lantus, 20iu/day Novolog, 1500mg/wk test enanthate, 600mg/wk tren, 1mg/day Arimidex Weeks 7-12: drop insulin, continue on trenbolone and test, 1mg/day Arimidex, take HGH to 4-6iu/day, 1mg/day Arimidex, start T-3 at 50mcg/day Weeks 13-17: 30iu/day Lantus, 20iu/day Novolog, drop test to 750mg/wk, HGH is at 8-10iu/day, drop tren, drop Arimidex to ½ mg day, increase T-3 to 75-100mcg/day Weeks 18-20: back HGH down to 3-4iu/day, test dropped to 500mg/wk, drop insulin, Arimidex continued at ½mg everyday, drop T-3 ***HCG is used at 250iu 3 times/wk throughout cycle CJC-1293(or 1295 without DAC)/GHRP-2/Test/Tren Weeks 1-12: 300mcg/day CJC + 300mcg/day GHRP-2, 1500mg/wk test enanthate Weeks 1-10: 600mg/wk tren ***Arimidex used at 1mg/day throughout ***HCG used at 250iu 3x/wk throughout HGH/IGF-1 LR3/Novolog/Test/NPP Weeks 1-6: 3-4iu/day HGH, 50mcg/day IGF-1 LR3 (training days only), 1500mg/wk test enanthate, 4-600mg/wk NPP, 1mg/day Arimidex 43 STRAIGHT FROM THE UNDERGROUND John Doe Bodybuilding Weeks 7-12: 4-6iu/day HGH, drop IGF-1 LR3, continue on 4-600mg/wk NPP + 1500mg/wk test, begin using T-3 at 50mcg/day, begin Novolog at 20iu/day (taken twice/day at 10iu/ each, morning and post-workout), stay on 1mg/day Arimidex Weeks 13-16: Begin IGF-1 LR3 again at 100mcg/day on training days only, HGH at 4-6iu/day, drop T-3, drop NPP, lower test to 750mg/wk, lower Arimidex to ½ mg/day, discontinue insulin Weeks 17-20: Increase HGH to 8-10iu/day, begin T-3 again at 100mcg/day, continue on test at 750mg/wk, begin Novolog again at 30iu/day (10iu per shot taken 3 times/day), drop IGF-1 LR3 ***HCG used at 250iu 3 times/wk throughout HGH/Anadrol/Test/Tren/Novolog Weeks 1-12: 1500mg/wk test Weeks 1-3: 100mg/day Anadrol Weeks 1-6: 600mg/wk tren Weeks 1-6: 4iu/day HGH, no insulin yet Weeks 7-12: 6-8iu/day HGH, 20-30iu/day Novolog or Humalog, 75mcg/day T-3 Weeks 9-11: begin Anadrol again at 100mg/day for 3 weeks Weeks 12-18: start tren again at 600mg/wk, increase HGH to 12-15iu/day, increase T-3 to 100-150mcg/day, lower test to 750mg/wk, stay on insulin at 20-30iu/day Weeks 18-20: Anadrol is started again at 100mg/day for remaining 3 weeks of the cycle Weeks 19-20: test stays at 750mg/wk ***Arimidex is 1mg/day throughout ***HCG is 100iu 3x/wk throughout I know that is a hell of a layout, but to sum it up: the Anadrol is used at three separate 3 week intervals throughout. The tren is used at two separate intervals during the cycle. The addition of T-3 is used when the HGH dosage is increased beyond 4iu’s/day to keep thyroid function under control. The use of insulin is necessary when HGH is taken higher, and although I don’t normally recommend insulin for more than a 4-6 week interval, it’s necessary with the amount of HGH in this cycle. The T-3 is also necessary with the amount of HGH in the cycle. The test is cut in half from week 12-20 simply for the fact that I don’t need anyone to be reliant on more test as even maintenance, so we don’t want to get too used to 1500mg/wk forever, not to mention potential water weight. I could see gains of up to 40 lbs on this cycle. FOR ADVANCED USERS ONLY!!! 44 STRAIGHT FROM THE UNDERGROUND John Doe Bodybuilding CHAPTER TWELVE SYNTHOL I’ve used Synthol on two separate occasions and got nothing out of it as far as permanent growth goes. There is all of this talk about Synthol stretching the muscle fascia and allowing for more potential permanent growth, but I believe that is total bullshit. There is nothing about the product that has any growth properties to it, and all it does is swell the muscle up and put you in a decent amount of pain the entire time you’re using it. The only purpose this product has is to swell up a muscle and bring up a lagging body part for a competition on a higher level than what most people would even compete in. The bottles are these huge 100cc bottles of oil and I ran through 2-3 of them the last time I used it, and it yielded NOTHING permanent. The thing about Synthol is if you space out your shots evenly and know what you’re doing with it, you can use it without your arm looking fake...to a point!! My arm still appeared hard and large until I got to putting 3cc’s in each site. At that point the arm looked so swollen you could tell something was in there. Then it just became a maintenance deal where I’d drop a couple cc’s into my biceps and triceps a couple times per week. I had my wife inject my triceps for me in two different sites, and every time we would do the injections I’d make sure she aspirated the needle about three times before putting anything into my arm. If you inject this shit into a vein or artery you could die. The product is either going to be silica based or collagen based, and having this travel to your heart, lungs, or brain can kill you. The best case scenario is a stroke, pulmonary embolism, or heart attack that you eventually recover from. But death is very possible!! Synthol in my opinion is not worth it. It’s a dangerous foreign substance that you don’t need to be putting in your body. I listened to all the hype about the muscle fascia stretching and permanent growth, and I knew not everyone who used Synthol looked like the few clowns online with 28 inch biceps. If I felt like it yielded anything permanent then I’d tell you guys, but unfortunately it doesn’t. I would go for trying to have a rock hard 17-18 inch arm over a soft 21 inch arm any day. Just to put things into perspective, in my 20 years of bodybuilding there has maybe been a FEW times I’ve seen someone in the gym with a hard bicep over 20 inches!!! Most guys with an arm this size have a soft arm. Even some professional bodybuilders have an arm that looks soft to me. It’s not worth using Synthol to have a larger arm, and you won’t just use 1 bottle of it to try to accomplish this task. It’s going to take bottle upon bottle upon bottle of those 100cc bottles. That means your body is full of that dangerous substance and what’s even worse is trying to process it!! Your body is trying to rid itself of silica or collagen that is trapped in your muscles, NOT HEALTHY!! I will not even share with you how to “properly use Synthol” in this chapter. If you’d like to use it then the best advice I could give you is to look up Synthol use online and follow the protocol showing you all the different injection sites you need to use on your biceps and the few sites to your triceps. This will only help you to the point of hopefully not having a morphed looking arm from not injecting all required sites. I will not promote people destroying a good physique, or using oil with no muscle building properties or hormone to it. I’m not going to have you kill yourself for an extra 1 inch on your arms that will soon go away when you stop using the stuff. 45 STRAIGHT FROM THE UNDERGROUND John Doe Bodybuilding Synthol GETS YOU NOTHING PERMANENT!! Stay the hell away from it, and take it from someone who has been there and done it!! There are so many other good compounds or products you can take without wasting your money on Synthol. 46 STRAIGHT FROM THE UNDERGROUND John Doe Bodybuilding CHAPTER THIRTEEN HORMONE REPLACEMENT THERAPY Why hormone replacement therapy? No man was ever made to live a life that lacked greatness. No man was truly ever satisfied with being mediocre and just scraping by. Even if mediocrity felt comfortable, man wasn’t made to live in a comfort zone that would soon turn into his own self-destruction. We get one shot at life and it goes by pretty fast! I want you to think about the happiest times in your life: not the events, but the feelings you had when the events unfolded and you put forth some real effort to make something happen. Now I want you to ask yourself one simple question: are those feelings the same now as they were back then? Do you get out of bed pumped up and ready to start your day? Or is it just another day of a living hell? What I have found is that sometimes life isn’t as bad as we make it out to be. We mentally turn small things into a major crisis, and it’s easier to do this as we age and our natural testosterone production gets lower. Things like bills, money, that small dent in your car door, or that annoying tree limb that needs to be cut down in your yard, none of these things are really that bad!! But we mentally transform everything in our lives into some sort of damn crisis because we become accustomed to a life of shit, because we constantly feel like shit!! Nobody ever wanted to be the guy who sat on the sidelines and watched his kids play baseball, or lacked the energy to chase them around the yard. It’s pretty easy to see that the majority of men turn into programmed drones as they age, with every last bit of life and enthusiasm sucked out of their bodies!! It’s easy to chalk it up as “just getting older” and accepting boring everyday existence as normalcy. Sure, you may look forward to an annual vacation, taking the boat out once a month, or your company Christmas party, but what is in between all of that? I want to know why it’s not OK to feel like fucking Superman on a day to day basis!! I’m here to tell you, YOU CAN, and life is passing you by faster than you think, so you better pay attention to what I’m about to share with you. There is a way to get your old self back. There is a way to become better than your old self, if your old self totally sucked. It’s called testosterone replacement therapy. I want you to clear your mind for a moment and forget about all of this natural versus unnatural bullshit. You aren’t natural and you’ve never been. There isn’t anything natural about taking headache medication, laying in a tanning bed, drinking soda’s and eating French fries, or putting on the deodorant you wear every day before going to work. You think because someone does a two week detox they erase damage they’ve done over the past 3040 years or so? Nah, it doesn’t quite work that way. Society and media have done a great job at putting it in everyone’s head that if you take a hormone through a needle then you’re in the same category as a heroin addict, and that is total bullshit!! But I’m here to fill you in on a little something: replicating hormone levels from when you were 18 years old is a hell of a lot closer to natural than all of the antidepressants doctors want to prescribe people now, since they think that is the real solution to feeling like shit all the time. I get a lot of guys who come to me and tell me, “I don’t want to have to take this stuff forever.” Well what the hell kind of sense does that make? So they’d prefer to feel like shit forever? There is such a stigma when it comes to taking a medication through a needle. 47 STRAIGHT FROM THE UNDERGROUND John Doe Bodybuilding I’m a firm believer in that the medical community would prefer you to be sick all the time so they don’t lose your business. Think about it for a second: if people got healthier and stronger, they wouldn’t spend as much time at the doctor’s office. I believe that this is the biggest reason that the medical board is cracking down on doctors who prescribe HGH, HCG, Arimidex, and testosterone to men and women. Every year millions and millions of dollars gets spent on clinical research for every other known disease, but yet they still think hormone replacement is dangerous!! The ironic part is what they prescribe a lot of patients with weakness, wasting syndrome, growth disorders, muscular dystrophy, and other life threatening diseases. They prescribe steroids!! So what the fuck sense does this make? I can take a steroid if I’m dying, but I can’t take one if I just want to be healthier and get my energy and libido back. God forbid someone takes something to feel better and potentially save their sex life, marriage, and overall sense of well-being!! I’m here to tell you how the other side lives. I take prescribed hormone replacement through my doctor and I feel incredible. I have been on testosterone replacement for the past 3-4 years now. I needed to go on testosterone because I had used anabolic steroids since I was about 19 years old and my natural production was pretty much gone. I knew this was the road I was going down, and truthfully I didn’t mind it. I was fortunate enough to have friends who were much older than I was and were a great example of what testosterone replacement could do for someone. These guys didn’t act like they were older and they outperformed guys in the gym half their age!! I never looked at these guys as if I was hanging out with someone my father’s age because they didn’t act the same. Age was just a number to these guys and it’s as if their life never missed a beat from when they were 20 years old. So no, it never bothered me when I got on hormone replacement. I think I probably celebrated with a few drinks and said cheers to a new me forever. What I’m going to give you in the next section of my book is all of the information you should know about hormone replacement and how to do it safely. Who knows, maybe what you’ll read here will help change your life forever. How do I know if my testosterone is low? Sometimes you may not think your testosterone levels are low. Your body is so adapted to functioning on below average test levels that you have no idea. But as a general rule, you will be experiencing extreme fatigue all the time, possibly a lack of sex drive, trouble burning body fat, weakness, anxiety, and depression. You may have all of those symptoms or you may just have a couple. When I was off testosterone for about 8 weeks prior to getting a script, my anxiety was absolutely terrible!! It was the worst anxiety I’ve ever experienced in my life and nothing in my life felt right. But I knew what I was going through, that is the difference between other men and me. I knew I just had to wait long enough for those levels to drop enough to get a prescription. When I had my hormone levels checked my total testosterone count was only 89. Now, there are a few different reference tables that are out there now, but generally anything that comes in at 350ng/dl – 1100ng/dl is considered normal. But you have to go by the symptoms as well. For example, I would probably feel like total shit with a test level of 450ng/dl while someone else might feel fine. It’s very person specific. 48 STRAIGHT FROM THE UNDERGROUND John Doe Bodybuilding Also, your estrogen levels have a lot to do with how you feel as well. Your testosterone may be normal, but your estrogen levels may be elevated. So something like an anti-estrogen may be all you need to take. But the first step in the process is getting to a doctor and talking to him about getting your hormone panel tested. A good doc will check for your total testosterone, your level of free testosterone (which is the actual testosterone your body can use that is available at the time), your estradiol and estrogen levels, and your IGF-1 levels. It’s also a good idea to have your thyroid checked, and before writing a prescription most doctors will want to do a prostate check. I highly recommend searching in your area for a doctor who specializes in anti-aging and hormone replacement. You may find that an endocrinologist is the best option in your place of residence. I would do my research first. You’d be shocked at how many general practitioners know absolutely nothing about this topic!! They are afraid of prescribing something they know nothing about and view it as a liability. Types of Testosterone Replacement To my knowledge there are three different types of testosterone replacement. You have “AndroGel” which is a cream and sometimes comes in a patch. There are testosterone pellets that you can have implanted every few months, and there is good old fashioned injectable test!! I have never messed with creams, patches, or pellets. I think a bottle of straight testosterone is the best possible option, because it’s a steadier release and won’t have the constant elevation and drop of test levels. Not to mention I do not like the idea of walking around with pellets in my ass or having to rub cream on my skin every day that could potentially damage my skin or rub against someone and possibly cause them adverse effects. I would opt for good old fashioned injectable testosterone!! Now, a lot of doctors will want you to come into their office once every 2 weeks for a shot. This is not optimal for me, because by day 9-10 after my shot I’m starting to drop lower. I think 2 weeks is just too damn long to go between shots. Also, it’s more expensive since you have to pay for every visit (or at least a copay) which is another reason why they want you in there every 2 weeks. There is absolutely no reason you cannot do shots yourself in the comfort of your own home. Once per week shots will make you feel much better than once every couple weeks, trust me on that!! The standard protocol for 90% of men is 100mg of testosterone cypionate every week or 200 mg every 2 weeks. This may not be enough to get you to an optimal level. I don’t want to be average; I want to be at the high end of hormone replacement. I take 200mg each week and that is enough to put me right around 1200ng/dl the day after my shot and about 6-700ng/dl by around day 7 after the shot. The lowest I want to be at is 6-700ng/dl. So for me, 100mg each week would not be enough. But for someone else it may be enough to feel good and perform better. I don’t think I’ve been outside of that range now for the past few years, and this is even when I use other steroids alongside my hormone replacement. What to Look for in your Blood Work and Precautionary Measures I do not suggest hormone replacement for anybody who isn’t going to go into a doctor’s office for regular blood work and checkups. When you simply “self-supplement” for an indefinite length of time, you are playing with fire without knowing how your blood work looks on a regular basis. Blood work is most commonly required once every 12 weeks, and your doctor 49 STRAIGHT FROM THE UNDERGROUND John Doe Bodybuilding will make you come in to have it done in order to renew the prescription and continue on with testosterone injections. The insurance company may also require it, but just know that most insurance companies will only cover labs that are performed 12 weeks apart from each other. So the dilemma can often lay in a small gap of 2 weeks between your last shot and when you’re eligible for another blood draw. Allow me to explain more here: I get 200mg/wk of testosterone for 10 weeks, but I cannot do my blood work until week 12, therefore I have a 2 week lapse. So with my regimen, usually by about week 8-9 I am lowering my testosterone dosages so I can hit another shot between the end of week 10 and week 11. This isn’t a bad thing, because the last thing you need is to go in for your blood draw with higher levels than average. When your blood is drawn and your test level is 600, then you’re fine, but if it’s 1200-1300ng/dl, then it may throw up a flag to insurance providers, or even the doctor. With that being said, we want to ride on the higher side of hormone replacement, so I strongly suggest making your last shot about 1 week before the lab work or even cutting the shot to 100mg rather than 200mg. Cholesterol Levels Now, understand that I’m certainly no doctor here, but this is what I normally check for in my blood work. Cholesterol levels are going to be a big one to look out for, and over time testosterone replacement can increase bad cholesterol and decrease good cholesterol. Your (LDL) is going to be your bad cholesterol and your (HDL) is your good cholesterol. I always come in a bit lower on my good cholesterol and on the high end of average on my bad cholesterol. But the biggest factor to look for is a total number which is basically a ratio for future “risk of cardiovascular event” (AKA a heart attack). The ratio number on the chart for this corresponds to a list of odds for “risk of cardiovascular event” and the odds are normally listed as “½ average risk, average risk, 1.5 times higher than average risk, 2 times higher than average risk, and 3 times higher than average risk.” So keep an eye out on your cholesterol levels during hormone replacement. The first few years on testosterone you may be fine, but things may start creeping up on you down the road. Your blood work chart will have a reference range next to your number and if anything is too high or low it will usually be highlighted. Hematocrit Levels The next thing on my blood work that I look for is my hematocrit levels. Hematocrit is the measure of the percentage of red blood cells in your body. It does become easier to have elevated hematocrit levels while on testosterone replacement therapy. When hematocrit becomes too high, you are at a possible increased risk for a stroke. Dehydration can also elevate hematocrit levels so make sure you’re drinking plenty of water on hormone replacement, which you should be doing anyway. An elevation in red blood cells can enhance performance to a major degree, which is the primary reason why endurance athletes do blood doping (withdrawing blood for several weeks leading up to an event, and then pumping it back into the body before the event). But prolonged elevation/too high of elevation can be very dangerous and should be avoided. It’s best to keep your hematocrit and red blood cell count in normal range. Honestly I float at the upper end of normal range, but if I hydrate myself enough I can drop down into average range. 50 STRAIGHT FROM THE UNDERGROUND John Doe Bodybuilding Liver Values The liver is one of the most important organs in the entire body. It’s responsible for hundreds of chemical reactions in the body and used to detoxify the blood. Without a healthy liver, you’re no good. The liver also plays a major part in protein synthesis, the production of bile to break down foods, breaking down insulin as well as glucose production, and clotting factors. The liver stores chemicals and other vitamins that are used by the body on a daily basis, and stores iron that is used for the production of new red blood cells. Liver values are expressed on a lab chart as 2 main values called “AST” and “ALT”. To simplify what these values mean, they’re basically measures of liver damage or possibly tissue damage from other places in the body such as your heart or kidneys (since elevated liver values can also indicate damage in other organs in the body). One thing to note here is if you work out on a regular basis these levels can simply be elevated due to muscle damage. My liver values are always a little high and they’ve stayed around the same markers for a number of years now. Each value is usually about 20 points higher than normal. This doesn’t mean that my liver is unhealthy and not functioning properly. There is a lot of mixed information on what unhealthy liver values are, despite a common reference range on lab charts. When there is damage to the liver or signs of organ damage somewhere else, these numbers may be elevated by a lot, or elevated by just a little. Just know that if you lift weights a lot, it will almost always cause these two numbers to be at the top end of normal range or slightly above normal range. In some individuals these numbers can even double the top end of the normal range just from lifting weights!! Nonetheless, it’s a good idea to keep close watch on them. Triglycerides Triglycerides are the measure of fat content in your blood. You need some triglycerides to be healthy, but too many triglycerides can lead to heart disease and metabolic syndrome. The biggest factors that contribute to high triglycerides with most people are being overweight and consuming alcohol. Other contributing factors include poorly controlled diabetes, an underactive thyroid, and kidney disease. Triglycerides usually aren’t as big of an issue with people who eat healthy and exercise, but it’s always a good idea to keep an eye on them. The Benefits of Donating Blood Your doctor may want you to start donating blood if you’re on testosterone replacement. But even if he doesn’t mention it, it’s never a bad idea to start donating blood to keep your organs healthier and your lab numbers in check. Donating blood makes a huge difference in your lab results and it’s a healthy practice to get into. It’s believed that women statistically outlive men because they have a menstrual cycle each month for over half of their lives, and in this process new blood is made as old blood is being flushed out. This pulls toxins out of the organs of the body and is sort of like a detox for your body. Think of this as giving your body an oil change!! To donate blood you need to first find a donor center such as Red Cross or the organization that handles blood donation where you’re located. You will have to fill out some paperwork and/or an electronic questionnaire before you’re allowed to donate. This questionnaire asks you all sorts of things about your health, sexual practices, tattoos, and travel in places outside of your country. It usually takes about 15-20 minutes to fill this out and you will be required to do it each time you donate. 51 STRAIGHT FROM THE UNDERGROUND John Doe Bodybuilding DO NOT TELL THEM YOU ARE DONATING FOR HORMONE REPLACEMENT OR FOR THERAPEUTIC REASONS!!! They aren’t supposed to take blood from people doing it for therapeutic reasons. All they need to know is that you’re a good citizen and doing your part to help out!! Now, in many donor centers you have the option of donating “whole blood” or what is called “double reds.” I always donate double reds. Donating double reds is only allowed every 120 days or so, and this process involves taking twice as many red blood cells as whole blood, and pumping your plasma and platelets back into you. It’s pretty neat actually: during the donation you can see the different parts of the blood getting separated into a few different bags and then your arm gets a little cold feeling as the components of the blood get put back into your body. I was a little squeamish the first time I did this, but after a few minutes it was no big deal!! Donating double reds usually takes me about 20-25 minutes or so, and I usually sit there on my phone checking emails and doing whatever to kill the time. Donating whole blood only takes about 10 minutes. With whole blood you’re allowed to donate every 2 months. A lot of guys opt for donating whole blood, but I always just go with double reds. And in all honesty, it does feel good knowing that my steroid tainted blood is helping to save lives!! I wonder who out there is walking around with my blood in them? After the donation they encourage you to have a snack before leaving. Sometimes I’ll hang out and have some popcorn and a drink and talk to someone else there at the snack table. All joking aside, it’s a very nice feeling when I donate, and the people there are very friendly to me. It’s an even better feeling when I raid the snacks and drinks and bring home stuff for the kids’ school lunches too. They haven’t complained yet, and a few times I’ve even gotten T-shirts, bowling tickets, and coupons for free ice cream. Once you get over feeling like a junkie with a needle in your vein, it’s actually a pretty decent experience!! 52 STRAIGHT FROM THE UNDERGROUND John Doe Bodybuilding CHAPTER FOURTEEN LOW DOSE COMPOUNDS THAT WORK WELL WITH HRT There are certain steroids that work well alongside HRT. These steroids can be run for longer runs in lower dosages and can provide the user with a smooth and steady increase in lean body mass. These aren’t going to be big bang cycles such as your typical 8-12 week cycles, but they provide quality and can be run safely for longer durations. Cycling in this manner may appeal to a guy who doesn’t want increased side effects with higher dosages. Middle aged men who aren’t looking to pack on a lot more mass but would rather be lean and healthy, may opt for cycling in this manner as well. Veteran steroid users who have gained all of the size they’re going to get in their earlier years may also choose to run some of these longer, low dosed cycles. The first compound I will talk about is Primobolan Depot. If you do your research on Primobolan online, you’re going to notice that most people say anything less than 400mg/ wk is basically a waste. This isn’t true if you’re running a longer cycle alongside testosterone replacement therapy. A cruising dosage of 200mg/wk alongside 200mg/wk of testosterone for a time frame of 20-25 weeks can yield excellent results with nothing but quality!! Side effects are basically non-existent and your routine blood work should not change to any significant degree, and this includes your hormone panel as well. 20 Week Primo/Test/Cialis Cruise Weeks 1-20: standard 100-200mg/wk test replacement therapy, 200mg/wk Primobolan, ½mg Arimidex 3 times per week, HCG at 250iu 2 times/wk, Cialis at 5-10mg/day Another compound that works well alongside TRT is Deca-Durabolin or the shorter version of Deca, Nandrolone Phenylpropionate (NPP). Dosing for Deca or NPP for a cruise cycle alongside TRT will be 100mg-200mg/wk. Honestly, even at 100mg/wk you will experience the joint improvement properties of Nandrolone and an increased sense of well-being. Believe it or not the standard dose for a lot of old time bodybuilders was nothing more than a 200mg shot of Deca once every 2 weeks!! Remember, with Deca you’ll only need to inject once/wk but with NPP you’ll need to go twice/ wk. At this level of dosing, I don’t think I’d place any value on one over the other. NPP holds a little less water when dosing gets higher, but at something such as 100-200mg/wk, you can stay looking lean with a healthy diet and I wouldn’t even worry about this. Remember that Nandrolone has a tendency to elevate blood pressure, so those with BP issues may want to go with Primo instead of this one. But at only 100-200mg/wk of Deca, I still think 90% of men could control their blood pressure with this compound. 20 Week Deca/Test/Cialis Cruise Weeks 1-20: standard 100-200mg/wk test replacement therapy, 100-200mg/wk DecaDurabolin, ½mg Arimidex 3 times/wk, HCG at 250iu 2 times/wk, Cialis at 5-10mg/day Another compound that works well for longer runs is Equipoise. Equipoise (or EQ) can be run for longer durations just like Deca and Primo. EQ even at lower dosages can help with vascularity and pump and may cause an increase in appetite, which depending on who you are could be good or bad. I personally find EQ to be beneficial around 300mg/wk. It’s a 53 STRAIGHT FROM THE UNDERGROUND John Doe Bodybuilding slightly weaker compound than Deca is, and 300mg/wk is where I’d run it at alongside TRT. EQ can also elevate blood pressure so again, keep an eye on that and if you have issues or are already on BP meds, then I would steer clear of this altogether. EQ is also a bigger one for elevating red blood cell count, so if you’re going to use this then it’s a good idea to make sure you have your RBC’s in check. If you are regularly donating blood or are planning to donate blood as talked about earlier, just know that if your hemoglobin is too high, they won’t let you donate. 20 Week EQ/Test/Cialis Cruise Weeks 1-20: standard 100-200mg/wk test replacement therapy, 300mg/wk EQ, ½mg Arimidex 3 times/wk, HCG at 250iu 2 times/wk, Cialis at 5-10mg/day. Let’s talk about another compound here that is an interesting one to run for a longer cycle, and that is Masteron. This one is interesting in that it’s most commonly only run the last 6-8 weeks before a bodybuilding competition to bring about an increased level of hardness to the muscles, but it’s mild enough to run much longer if you are already lean!! Masteron is a great compound to run alongside TRT if you’re already very lean. I would not use this if you are not single digit body fat already, but if you’re looking to make some dramatic changes on very little, then 300mg/wk of Masteron alongside test replacement just may be the answer. This would be something I would do for the summer time. A good 20 week run of Masteron with a good diet and only 200mg/wk of testosterone can have you looking pretty damn good!! The downside to this would be cost, as Masteron is going to be more money since it’s usually only dosed at 100mg/ml and you’d be taking 3cc’s per week. Also, injection frequency goes to 3 times/wk with Masteron. Some go every other day with it, but I have always gotten away with 3 times/wk. There also may be some shedding issues with the hairline, as Masteron is highly known for this. Usually I lose a little hair when I run Masteron, but it’s not until I get a good ways into the cycle. 20 Week Masteron/Test/Cialis Cruise Weeks 1-20: standard 100-200mg/wk test replacement therapy, 300mg/wk Masteron (injected at 100mg/shot Mon/Wed/Fri), HCG at 250iu 2 times/wk, Cialis at 5-10mg/day Optional - Arimidex at ½mg 3 times/wk (Masteron acts as its own anti-estrogen and the chances of estrogen related side effects are slim to none with this, but ½mg 3 times/wk won’t hurt anything). If hair-loss is a concern then look into running some finasteride with this cycle. I can’t comment much on this because I’ve never used it, but I do know research chem sites sell this online (liquid version) and it’s easily available. The Perfect Oral to Run with HRT...Anavar!!! Anavar just kicks ass, plain and simple. I’ve run Anavar more times than I could shake a stick at, and it’s a fantastic oral compound with minimal side effects. The only side effect I ever got from Anavar was a slightly upset stomach and it occasionally killed my appetite a bit. But this was on higher dosages in the 80-100mg/day range. Anavar is just about the only oral other than Proviron that I’d recommend using for longer durations than 4-6 weeks. A very safe dosage of Anavar for men would be right at 30-50mg/day if using for longer periods of time. I would throw Anavar into any one of those cycles I’ve listed above at 30mg-50mg per day 54 STRAIGHT FROM THE UNDERGROUND John Doe Bodybuilding for up to 12 weeks, no questions asked. Anavar can be pricey, but it’s a great addition to any cycle!! I don’t think I’d go as long as 20 weeks with it, but I would have no issues going 12 weeks with it. It shouldn’t throw liver values off too much at 30-50mg/day. You may notice slight elevations, but it’s nothing that you can’t improve once you come off and give it a month. You could even run only Anavar alongside your test replacement dosage and get some fantastic results. Proviron Proviron is an excellent oral compound to run, but not very cost effective. The benefits of Proviron are an increased level of muscular hardness, increased level of libido, and overall it is a very mild oral compound that provides an excellent sense of well-being. The issue I’ve always had with using Proviron is that the cosmetic results didn’t become very noticeable until I got to 100mg/day. Commonly referred to as “the oral Masteron”, Proviron is just too expensive of a compound for me to run very often. The increased level of libido and muscle hardening effects are nice, but honestly nothing I couldn’t get with a little Cialis and a different hardening agent such as Anavar tabs or Masteron. If you’re going to use Proviron, 50mg/day is the minimum amount I’d suggest, while 75mg-100mg/day is much more efficient. For cosmetic purposes, you should use 75-100mg/day. Now where Proviron beats out other compounds is the overall sense of well-being when you’re on it. I never felt that great on Anavar. I didn’t feel that bad, but I didn’t feel like superman either. Proviron gives you that “high on life” feeling. If you can afford it, try it out!! This is another oral compound that can be run out longer than the harsher compounds such as Anadrol, Dbol, or Halotestin. Cycles of 12 weeks are not uncommon with Proviron. Every 4th Day Dosing Another way I occasionally dose compounds is to go once every 4th day. I take a slightly higher amount than I’d use if going the standard 2 days per week injection schedule and I hit it every 4th day. So for example, if I was to inject on Monday then my next injection day would be Friday. It’s the day you inject, 3 days off in between, and injecting again the following day. So next week it would be Tuesday and Saturday, so on and so forth. I might do something like 150mg of Primo every 4th day, or 125mg of Deca. I will load up my test in the same syringe as another compound and I will inject them every 4th day. When you’re on hormone replacement and you’re sticking yourself all the time on a regular basis, this is a nice way to find a happy medium between using just a little bang with your test, and not feeling like a pin cushion. This just allows you to go a little longer between injections while still getting the added benefit of another compound used in a moderate amount safely. I know guys who do this with other compounds that are recommended at “a minimum of twice/wk”. They get away with it and have no issues, but these are older and very experienced individuals. I would never go every 4th day dosing if you’re new to a steroid that is recommended at 2-3 times/wk. It all depends on how you react to it. I can now run shit that is supposed to be taken every other day and hit it twice/wk and be fine. Yes, I still get great results. I believe the reason side effects are not as prevalent for me as many other guys is because I’m always running a long chain test and usually an aromatase inhibitor such as Arimidex or Aromasin, so sides such as estrogen fluctuation or the rise and fall of testosterone are pretty much kept at bay. I would only suggest every 4th day dosing if you’re more experienced. 55 STRAIGHT FROM THE UNDERGROUND John Doe Bodybuilding CHAPTER FIFTEEN THE OVERCOMPENSATING EFFECT (HORMONE REPLACEMENT) OK, now what I want to talk about here is something that I like to call “the overcompensating effect”. The overcompensating effect is everything you need to do on hormone replacement to outweigh any potential risks involved with testosterone replacement. Remember how I talked about being on testosterone replacement for a few years and having no health related issues? Well what I’m talking about here is how to take care of you for the long haul. I believe that under proper medical supervision, with regular blood work, testosterone replacement is relatively safe IF YOU LIVE A HEALTHY AND ACTIVE LIFESTYLE!! But just know that eating clean, keeping up on your cardio training, and avoiding certain addictions and vices in life becomes even more important when you’re on TRT. Things such as donating blood, cardio training, and clean eating are what will outweigh any potential risks that would be involved down the road if you were at risk for any negative outcome under testosterone replacement. I believe risks to be very minimal if everything is intact, and I also believe the health consequences of low testosterone far outweigh any risks involved with replacement therapy. But with that being said, if you’re using testosterone as a quick fix for a lazy lifestyle, if you are an alcoholic, constantly eating junk food, smoking cigarettes, or anything else that can negatively impact your health, then you may have worse health effects by adding in hormone replacement or running any type of testosterone derivative for any prolonged period of time. Cardio I’ve talked about donating blood on the regular, but what else can you do to stay as healthy as possible while walking around beyond what nature had intended your hormone levels to be at your age? Well, I would keep up with the cardio on a regular basis for starters. This doesn’t have to be a cardio machine either; short rest periods between sets at the gym are very beneficial for elevating your heart rate as well. Your heart is the most important muscle in your body and chances are if you have been using steroids for a long time, then your heart is already enlarged to some degree. A slight enlargement of the heart isn’t a big issue, but a significant enlargement of the heart can be. Eat Less I would strongly suggest a diet that is lower in calories than what you are eating now or may have eaten 10 or 20 years ago. It’s been statistically proven that people who eat lower calorie diets live longer. You don’t need to starve yourself here, but very few men beyond the age of 35 years old should be eating more than 3,000 calories a day on a regular basis. I have been living off a diet that is less than 3,000 calories a day for the past 3-4 years now and it hasn’t had much of an effect on my muscular development. I still walk around at a lean 220+ lbs and if you ask me, even that is too much weight for someone of my height to carry beyond 35 years old (I’m 5’9” and single digit body fat). Whether it’s fat weight or muscle weight, it’s not good for your heart to have to work that hard throughout the majority of your 56 STRAIGHT FROM THE UNDERGROUND John Doe Bodybuilding life. As you get older and walk around heavier for a long period of time, it certainly doesn’t get any easier to lose the weight. If you’re overweight, I would strongly suggest working on this right now. It may be difficult at first, but our bodies are pretty good at adapting to change. I’m willing to bet if you could get those calories down for a month or so you would get used to it. Relax I have found that as I’ve aged it just gets harder to relax sometimes. I suggest finding an activity that helps you relax and practicing this on a regular basis. Whether it’s a breathing technique, a yoga class, relaxing in the sauna or jacuzzi, or sitting on a park bench enjoying some scenery, just get into something on a regular basis that will help wind you down and relax. Maybe a new bed would help you relax more at night so you could fall asleep easier, or a routine massage every couple weeks. How about an oxygen bar or one of these new hyperbaric oxygen chambers that are springing up? I’ve had people tell me these places have improved their sleep a lot. You may also want to get a sleep study done, and if you have sleep apnea, then focus on losing weight or wearing a CPAP mask at night so you’re better rested the next day. Relaxing and proper rest plays a vital role in heart health, and personally speaking it’s one of my biggest downfalls. 57 STRAIGHT FROM THE UNDERGROUND John Doe Bodybuilding CHAPTER SIXTEEN WITHOUT HEALTH, THERE IS NO PHYSIQUE!! I thought that this would be a good way to wrap this book up. I want everyone reading this to remember that without your health, there is no physique!! When a guy tells me that he is planning some crazy ass cycle, my question to him is, “And then what?” That is the thing about steroid usage: the cycle will eventually end and then you need to come up with another game plan. For me, the game plan is back to hormone replacement therapy until the next cycle. But for the bulk of beginner to intermediate users, they will need to take enough time off between cycles, or they’ll need to be on hormone replacement if they ever want to have a normal life and function properly. It helps to look at the big picture sometimes and a lot of guys just live for today and never plan on tomorrow. Another point I want to mention is that statistically most big guys are more likely to have heart complications and strokes. Getting up to a shredded 250 lbs is impressive, and even though it’s muscle, it’s more body mass that your heart has to pump blood to and carry around. Sure it may be fine to carry around for a little while, but as you get older you need to strongly evaluate what you’re doing if you want to live a long life. I stay around 220-230 lbs in single digit body fat about 80-90% of the time. I’m at the point in my life where I wouldn’t care if I only walked around at a quality 200-210 lbs, but I’m carrying too much muscle to lose that kind of weight easily. I would almost have to stop working out altogether for a while to lose that size and that isn’t going to happen because I’d go crazy. I have been as heavy as 260 lbs before at 5’9” and I wasn’t what most people would consider “fat” at this size. So even walking around now at 220 lbs is on the lower end of the spectrum for what my body is used to. Think about that as you’re building yourself bigger and bigger. You may want to find a happy medium that looks great and is also healthy. Walking around at 250+ lbs may be fine for a few years, but when you start carrying that kind of size around half of your life or more, then you may be looking at health problems down the road. When you listen to me talk about donating blood, getting regular labs drawn, doing cardio, maintaining a diet of 3,000 calories a day or less on most days, this isn’t because I’m not hungry or I enjoy getting blood drawn from me like a guinea pig. It’s because I know what kind of lifestyle I chose and all of these things have become necessary to live a decent quality of life. I love bodybuilding and almost everything I’ve done in over half of my life has been focused on building the best body I can. But I also love waking up every day and going outside. I love throwing a football in the yard with my son or having a drink on the beach and watching the waves crash. I don’t want to die young because I have other things in my life to live for besides just going to the gym. It’s not steroids that are dangerous when used wisely and in moderate dosages. Rather, it can be factors that stem from prolonged or abused steroid usage that contribute towards health issues down the road. Things like elevated hematocrit, high blood pressure, elevated cortisol levels, decreased insulin sensitivity or production, liver and kidney failure, enlarged prostate, and a host of other health effects can come from steroid abuse over the years. Most very large individuals in this game just don’t live as long. We are just beginning to see this because the guys prior to around 1985-1990 didn’t have the type of mass that the guys carry around today. There are a few retired Olympia contenders from the early 1990’s that have gotten smart and trimmed down or totally revamped their lifestyle. You don’t see Lee Haney or Dorian Yates still walking around with the size they had in their competitive days 58 STRAIGHT FROM THE UNDERGROUND John Doe Bodybuilding now do you? Kevin Levrone is a great example of someone who walked away from it all and changed his training regimen/lifestyle to put health before looks. He looks like a normal/inshape guy now. There are a couple others who tried to hold the same level of size throughout retirement, and they recently dropped dead just before 50 years old. Now, I’m not saying that those people wouldn’t have had health issues anyway, but I firmly believe your odds increase as you walk around at a larger body mass throughout the bulk of your life. Guys are going to do what they want and there is nothing wrong with that. I have friends right now that probably won’t see another 10 years out of life. They don’t go into the doctor for checkups, they have no idea how their blood work looks. They just keep using more and more gear. What’s even worse is they’ve accepted the fact they may die young, and they don’t care. They have gotten so deep into this lifestyle that the fear of death is non-existent. But what if it doesn’t come in their sleep? What if it comes at the expense of being bed ridden for years or suffering through something terrible before they finally keel over? I’m sure by then the hardass attitude would change. Nobody gets softer and realistic until shit starts happening. If you’re a beginner and you’re reading this I’m going to give it to you straight. You aren’t going to just run one or two cycles of steroids and look like some superhero. You will keep very little, if any of those gains. With all the recovery in the world, and dosages taken as high as you wish, when you discontinue steroids you will go back to normal. I’ve talked about the physiological changes and how they correlate to retainable size gains before. Basically you need to walk around at a certain size for so long before your body gets accustomed to it and it becomes the new norm. You don’t use steroids just one, two, or even three times and change permanently. You have to use them again and again. What I want you guys to think about is how you’re going to go about doing that if you need to. If you eventually get to a point where you need to be on hormone replacement, are you going to have the health insurance to cover it? What if ordering steroids becomes so dangerous and risky that people start getting caught left and right? Are you going to have the legal means to get testosterone and everything you need along with it to live a decent quality of life? Listen, I understand that bodybuilding is one of the biggest joys in the world for a lot of guys and is one of their greatest accomplishments. To take your own two hands and build your body as if it was a skyscraper is an endeavor and accomplishment that very few will ever know, or accomplish. But there are things in your life that shouldn’t get put on hold for it. If you truly love this lifestyle, then you’ll do what it takes to be smart and look for longevity in it!! Don’t push away people who care about you for bodybuilding and steroids. The biggest piece of advice that I could give anyone reading this right now is to find a way to work bodybuilding and steroid use into life, not work life into bodybuilding and steroid use. Look back on your life and accomplishments and be proud; do not look back with regret about what you never had because you tossed it all away for syringes and muscles. If I found a way to make this lifestyle work for me, I’m sure others can too. Be smart, be safe, and give this life every fucking thing you can bleed out!! Over and out. -John 59 ABOUT THE AUTHOR John Doe has decades of experience in the world of bodybuilding. His frank and candid approach to sharing his wealth of information has made johndoebodybuilding.com a popular spot for those interested in building a better physique. BECOMING THE BULL This book isn’t just about the weight room, it’s a book that provides the reader with the outlook and mindset of a warrior. Becoming the Bull follows a once shy teenage kid through the hurdles of life, while laying out workout plans and phases of development that brought the man behind John Doe Bodybuilding to where he is today. Here are just a few things covered in this book: • The truth about supplements and steroids • Taking natural training further than you thought possible • Bouncing back from set-backs • High intensity principles that work! • Taking what you want in life • Muscle building and nutrition that makes sense and realistic plans that are sustainable! Visit becomingthebull.com for more information JOHN DOE BODYBUILDING Johndoebodybuilding.com has amassed more than 140 posts on subjects related to the life of a bodybuilder. If you are interested in more information outside of the pages of his books or want to contact him, this is the place to do it. Visit johndoebodybuilding.com JOHN DOE ON SOCIAL MEDIA facebook YouTube twitter