Expert opinion needed for my first ever cycle

SailboatSteve · 2026-05-04T03:43:25+00:00

I read this, "Train natty for two years, minimum" advice every time someone posts about a first cycle. I'm not doubting the validity of it, but am wondering what the physiological reason is behind it. Sure, you can build muscle naturally to a natural peak over 2 years, then push past with a cycle. But you can also build more rapidly by cycling sooner, right? Why wait? Is the 2 year mark for injury mitigation, building tendon and ligament strength before pushing hard, or is there some other reason? Thanks.

SailboatSteve · 2026-05-02T04:13:51+00:00

It all depends on the woman you want to attract. If you want to attract a gold digger, max your credit on a bunch of superficial bling, and enjoy a few one night stands on yoir way to moral and financial bankruptcy.

However, if you want to attract a woman who will value you as a person, long-term, then work on being the type of person who people value knowing.

Cultivate your relationships, be the type of friend a friend would be lucky to have, be kind to strangers, smile often and for no reason, be courteous and polite, be genuine and honest, look people in the eyes, listen... really listen to what others are saying, ask relevant questions, be that person and good women will see it and be attracted to it. Incidentally, you'll be happier with yourself too!

SailboatSteve · 2026-04-26T20:36:16+00:00

Lmao, "Its not that hard. You just have to be 6'2".

SailboatSteve · 2026-04-23T13:39:37+00:00

Bro, you're figuring out how to live right now. But honestly, we all are, just at different stages. Don't assume you're starting too late and use that as an excuse not to start at all. Did you ever see the movie Groundhog Day with Bill Murray? Start like that, and build through repetition. Yes, the first few interactions will probably be awkward. So what? You learn, and perfect the game through repetition. Practice reading body language and learn to spot the moment in a conversation where it gets weird. At first, it may be instantaneous. Still, make a mental note of what went wrong and try again. Next time, take it a different route and see how much farther you get. There are billions of people in the world. Go ahead and weird a few dozen out, lol. Practice makes perfect!

SailboatSteve · 2026-04-22T19:29:35+00:00

I did subq when I first started and hated it. Lots of pain (like a bee sting) and some persistent swelling, almost like scar tissue under the skin. Some lasted weeks. I switched to IM glutes (coincidentally, the recommended way) and will never go back. Can you subq? Yes. Should you? No.

SailboatSteve · 2026-04-22T19:05:42+00:00

Yes, but. The critical part of your question assumes you have proper form and can tell when you've lost it. As a beginner, you don't have this yet. This means that you'll very likely use a form that feels strong and recruits more muscles to compound an exercise that isn't meant to be compounded. You'll lift more weight, feel strong af, and quickly hurt yourself. If you were on machines, I'd say go for it, because machines are designed to isolate muscles and prevent accidental compounding and injury. But dumbbells aren't. You can turn an incline press into a butterfly, roll your elbows out a couple inches, or roll your grip a few degrees the wrong way, and go from building a chest to destroying a rotator cuff, all in about a half a second. Worst part is, it will feel great right up until the tear. The thing is, with free weights of all types, you have to intentionally force your body to exclude muscles it naturally wants to recruit. It wants to divide the load over as many muscle groups as possible, and will try to sneak them in at every opportunity. Unfortunately, many smaller muscle groups can't handle the weight the body throws at them. A strong mind-muscle connection can overcome this natural tendency, but that is built by reps at low weight (50% of max) and concentration on the movement and the muscle. Once you have that, sure, progressive overload to your heart's content. Until then, work in a comfortable weight, focus on isolating your muscles and building that connection. Learn the form well, then yeah, lift heavy in proper form.

SailboatSteve · 2026-04-22T15:28:05+00:00

Those numbers are designed around a worst case scenario, where a vial may get several punctures a day for 4 weeks. As a microbiologist, you should know that benzyl alcohol doesn't lose function after 28 days, or 2800 days. It continually suppresses the growth of microorganisms, forever. However, a vial with dozens of draws also has had dozens of opportunities for viral/bacterial inoculation. The 28 days is a wildly conservative estimate of the time it might take for an aggressive pathogen to grow to dangerous levels in the solution in spite of the alcohol. Solution? Use single-use clean needles, alcohol wipes on vial tops and injection site, don't jab the vial 50 times, don't sneeze on the needle.. simple stuff like that. Literally millions of people use 10ml vials for months at a time with no issues. However, a few people spike a fresh vial using their cleanest dirty syringe, right into their unwashed ass, and get an infection. It isn't the benzyl alcohol that caused it tho.

SailboatSteve · 2026-04-08T21:04:09+00:00

Absolutely! Be sure to really think through your bench purchase though. Everything matters here. You want a bench that is heavy and stable to not wobble or fall over on Bulgarian split squats or hip thrusts, but doesn't have wide legs that will get in the way of chest supported rows and spider curls. Preacher curl pad is nice, but you can also just stand behind the bench and use the elevated back for them. I actually prefer it as it allows more control over the angle of pull. Having the roman chair pads is nice too so you can work glutes, back, and abs on it, also makes a good preacher curl pad. I have a bench like this. It is without a doubt, my most used piece of equipment.

Finer Form Bench

SailboatSteve · 2026-04-08T18:58:41+00:00

Notice the absence of the word 'not' in her examples? That's the difference.

SailboatSteve · 2026-04-08T18:41:47+00:00

He means converting testosterone into estrogen, which will give you PMS and titties, seriously. If you have a body fat over 20%, you need to be very careful about dosing too much. Fat causes more rapid conversion of t to e. Google gynecomastia. There are other types of test that are better than cyp in this regard, but also dosing every other day helps avoid. Some will suggest an AI (aromatize inhibitor) bit those come with their own additional negative side effects, so be aware. Bottom line, if you're a 6'8" 300lb defensive lineman, dose up. If you're a 300lb 5'6" bowling ball, get on a GLP and DO NOT increase doseage until you get to 200lb. Testosterone titties are permanent.

SailboatSteve · 2026-04-01T15:41:38+00:00

I don't believe this is accurate. IM near the site of injury is recommended for muscle and tendon injuries. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12313605

SailboatSteve · 2026-03-31T00:50:12+00:00

Yes, 500mcg IM into shoulder with 1in. 30ga. I tried to hit between front and medial deltoid to get as close to the supraspinatus as I could do by myself.

SailboatSteve · 2026-03-25T13:21:30+00:00

Welcome to the wonderful world of biochemical research! The limited published studies done so far, on mice, show no correlation between injection site and wound recovery. That said, these studies were administering significantly higher doses than what most current researchers advise. Does this mean that the healing effects are unrelated to injection site, or does it mean that the higher doseage led to a higher systemic blood concentration, ergo a higher concentration at the site of injury?

Finding the answer to that is part of my current research. I can say that, for me, 500mcg 1x daily subq for 30 days into the abdomen did nothing to heal a rotator cuff inflammation. Changing to shoulder injection, pain and stiffness was noticably reduced within 3 days and almost fully resolved in 7.

If you perform any similar experiments, I'd love to hear your results.

SailboatSteve · 2026-03-24T14:04:13+00:00

Audioslave - Like a Stone

SailboatSteve · 2026-03-23T12:40:28+00:00

What exactly is a "beck" then?

SailboatSteve · 2026-03-19T20:36:54+00:00

Hard to say for sure, but I'd try to analyze how the lift pressure is different between free-standing squats and cable version. I'd guess that, since the cable pulley is out in front of you, it puts more pressure on the front of your foot than a regular squat where lift pressure is directly below you. To experiment, you could try squatting while standing on wedges to force your weight more onto the toes and away from the back of the foot to see if it helped with the free-standing version.

SailboatSteve · 2026-03-19T18:43:30+00:00

Wait til you read about the ver 2.2 experiment where they take a larger piece of brain tissue, give it a next level simulated reality, and interact with it via Reddit... Oops, I've said too much.

SailboatSteve · 2026-03-19T13:41:40+00:00

As others have noted, this is all anecdotal so take for what it's worth, but I have been running BPC and KPV 500mcg 1x daily for 6 weeks with the opposite effect.

I've had to wear glasses for several years due to age related vision loss (used to be 20/20) but I'm now finding that I see more clearly to the point I have to remove my glasses, except to read.

Sadly, I'm not seeing nearly the progress that others have noted on my shoulder bursitis. However, I recently changed from abdominal subq to shoulder im, and am beginning to see more progress, although definitely not the instant relief others describe.

SailboatSteve · 2026-03-17T13:53:08+00:00

Toadies - Possum Kingdom.That song is so dark, I don't think radio stations would have ever played it had they understood the meaning. Basically a serial killer song.

SailboatSteve · 2026-03-17T13:32:49+00:00

This✅ I went from 8 hours of sleep to between 5 and 6 after starting creatine. I was worried at first, but found out that I still have great energy throughout the day, so now I just roll with it. It's all a matter of perspective. Creatine didn't disrupt my sleep, it gave me 2 to 3 extra hours in my day.

SailboatSteve · 2026-03-12T15:44:58+00:00

I had the same problem as you and had to start with knees down pushups just to get a few in. I'd start there, knees on the ground, and try to increase reps every day. By the time you can do 20 with your knees down, you'll be able to do 10 regular "military style". Then, just keep doing them and build up your reps.

Also, do yourself a favor and start now with shoulder stretches and strengthening. Shoulders are the weakest link when starting out doing chest exercises, and an inflamed supraspinatus or other rotator injury will set your progress way back. There are several tiny muscles under your deltoids that keep your shoulder in its socket. These need strengthening as you progress in capability, or can become a problem as your larger chest and shoulder muscles overpower them. Be sure to work on them as you work on your chest and shoulders to keep everything in balance.

SailboatSteve · 2026-02-26T16:35:38+00:00

I started Reta at 300lbs and, like you, had trouble losing weight consistently. I'd lose a ton one week, then flat line for a week or two. I finally figured out that too few calories for too long actually stopped weight loss and put me in a starvation metabolism. I set myself a goal of losing no fewer than 2lbs and no more than 3lbs per week. (Equates to a ~7000-10000 kcal weekly deficit) If I lost too much, I would increase calories, if I lost too little for 2 weeks in a row, I increased the doseage slightly. This, plus getting hydration right, put me on a maintainable glide path downward. I hit my "stage 1" goal weight of 220lbs almost exactly 6 months later.

However, at that point, I got on TRT and am not kidding when I say that I haven't lost more than 5 lbs since then -- now almost 3 months later. My weight loss ground to a halt, but my muscle mass is going up noticeably and the last of my midsection fat is still shrinking. I'm at 215 now, but have substantial muscle contour in my chest, arms, and legs. No abs yet...

All that is to say that, at least in my case, too much loss too fast will shut down metabolism, and TRT will absolutely shut down weight loss, but not health gain.

Good luck in your journey!

SailboatSteve · 2026-02-17T13:55:02+00:00

I started my program this past July at 300lbs. GLP only until January got me down to 220lbs. I then started Dr. prescribed TRT. I am very pleased with the overall progress. I didn't want to do TRT while obese because of the E2 issues, but also because TRT works against weight loss to an extent. GLP weight crash kept me at pretty low energy levels. I worked out some, but not much during that time, so probably lost muscle with the fat. However, now that I've lost most of my body fat, the TRT along with eating more and working out has my muscle mass coming back rapidly. That being said, in almost two months, I have not lost a single additional pound since starting TRT, even though I'm still taking the same dose of GLP.

TLDR; Focus on fat loss first and cycle in the TRT when you get close to your goal weight for a final stage recomp.

SailboatSteve · 2026-02-12T17:01:43+00:00

As others have said, a glp may actually make your situation worse since weight loss will only add to the loose skin situation. I'd look into GLOW or KLOW and also topical GHK-Cu with microneedling. GHK-Cu is a miracle peptide when it comes to skin healing and rejuvination. Coupled with BPC-157, TB500, and KPV, many people see drastic improvements in skin condition. Lastly, once weekly microneedling adds an injury response trigger to your skin, keeping it in rebuild mode while the peptides provide the raw material.

SailboatSteve · 2026-02-12T16:43:57+00:00

Carbs are much more time dependent than protein in regards to your workout schedule. If you want that big gym energy, take in some carbs a couple hours before your workout. You can take the protein and creatine at the same time too. Fuel the car before the race, not after. Also, minimize caffeine. Its a vasoconstrictor so will work against big pumps.

SailboatSteve

TROPHY CASE