19NorFan
Registered
- Joined
- Sep 16, 2022
- Messages
- 311
- Reaction score
- 602
Personal Intro
Hello everyone, my name’s Benjamin aka 19norfan, I’ve been on the forum for a few years now but finally started make posts within the last 4 months or so here. The topic of nandrolone comes up quite often and having a good bit of experience with it, I thought to create a series of threads on here highlighting some of my experiences with it, managing sides, enhancing its use and any other topic that comes up along the way.
First, to give you some personal history - I got on TRT in the summer of 2020 at 30 years of age. Immediately, just training at home with dumbbells, I got a very quick growth response. This would spark my “fitness journey” that has led me to where I am today. Prior to TRT, I did go to the gym, still had a decent physique but those enhanced gains were something special and it’s been a life changer. Since then, I’ve quit all alcohol and any other habit that I felt detracted me from being 100% in life. My entire life is optimized for fitness and it would not be this way without gear. Despite what we are told about AAS, I am of the belief that I am in much better health now, 6 years later than I would have been had I stayed a natural.
I was on doses of test cypionate of between 150-200mg per week until the winter of 2021. That winter, I added nandrolone to my trt+ protocol and again, got a very noticeable growth spur just from adding 100mg/week. It really enhanced my mood too, mentally it just gave me very strong focus and confidence. Fast forward to the fall of 2023, I would start B&C’ing officially and here I am today, about 2 weeks out from my first NPC show, which I cover in my 2026 Contest Prep Log.
That’s my background with AAS use. The remainder of this post will be specific to my experience with nandrolone. Please note, none of this is advice to use nandrolone or to not use it; this is merely one anecdotal experience and you should treat these posts as primarily for entertainment purposes.
Dosing Protocols and Combinations
Nandrolone is best used as either a base with a secondary dht derivative anabolic or as an ancillary anabolic alongside a testosterone base. I am not a fan of using nandrolone as a secondary anabolic – example: 500mg test 500mg nandrolone – because it is very difficult to control side effects, particular those modulated by estrogen and prolactin, when it is run proportionate to testosterone. A couple of dosing protocols that I do like (weekly doses):
700mg NPP + 300mg Primobolan + 35mg Test Prop or Ace
This cycle has an NPP base, which provides fullness and anabolism and Primobolan as a secondary anabolic, to counter nandrolone’s water retentive properties. The test prop/ace is for estrogen. Note that this will not work for estrogen if you are an individual to whom Primobolan suppresses aromatase activity. This can also be run 700mg NPP + 300mg Masteron, which is my favorite summertime cycle. Great for mood and libido, and you don’t really feel the cycle considering it's 1 gram cycle. This has minimal impact on bloodwork in my experience. Nandrolone is in my experience the mildest steroid when it comes to impact on bloodwork, particularly lipids and even more specifically, HDL suppression (when compared to DHT derivatives).
1,250mg Nandrolone Decanoate + 262.5 IU HCG
This cycle has a nandrolone decanoate base with HCG taken at a dose of 75 IU EOD to provide estrogen. The 75 IU EOD is not set in stone. This is the dose that I need to take to keep my estrogen at 80 – 100 pg/ml range, alongside 1 – 1.5 grams of nandrolone decanoate per week. Although 80 – 100 pg/ml is “outside of the reference range,” this is done intentionally. The 10-40pg/ml reference range often used, is a population derived, laboratory reference interval; not necessarily a recommended therapeutic target. Additionally, it is based on individuals with natural androgen levels, not those enhanced. Therefore, I can conclude that E2 levels should be elevated relative to the natural reference range, if you are on AAS, to counteract the elevated androgenicity. For me personally, on 1g+/week of gear, I feel, perform and look better with slightly “elevated” e2, in that 80+ range. If you are not able to tune in your e2 on nandrolone with hcg, you may use test prop or ace instead. On a 1.25g/week nandrolone cycle, I am most likely running this for 16+ weeks, so I prefer HCG over test for the e2 because it is less impactful on blood work. Even 35-70mgs of test prop per week will suppress HDL and raise hematocrit. If I really want minimal impact on lipids and cbc panel, I’ll go with HCG instead. A secondary benefit to using HCG is that it preserves some testicular function, which can be especially important with a compound as suppressive as nandrolone. This is my favorite way to structure an off season nandrolone based cycle. I would describe it as all gains, no feels. You get a ton of anabolism and literally no feels. You don’t feel aggression – due to the lack of androgenicity – in the gym, and outside of the gym you will also feel a little bit blank but it’s more of an elevated confident blank than anhedonia blank. I’ll go further on this when we get into managing mental sides.
400mg Test D + 400mg Nandrolone D + 800mg Boldenone U
Although I said I’m not a fan of using it as a secondary anabolic, if I did use it that way, this is the way that I would use it. 800mg boldenone may seem aggressive for a 400mg test base and for you, it certainly may be. In my experience, nandrolone amplifies testosterone’s propensity towards aromatization. 400 test + 400 nandrolone can cause higher e2 than a >800 test dose alone. You may very well need a near gram dose of boldenone to keep E2 in range. But again, this is not set in stone, it’s just to provide a framework. You can trial/error it with E2 labs. Done correctly, this is a very capable growth phase cycle with good anabolism not a ton of androgenicity. I would be careful to track blood pressure, kidney health, Hematocrit/RBC… these are the areas where nandrolone + eq are most sensitive.
Dosing Protocol Reasons & Considerations
- To mitigate some of the long term health effects of AAS use, I prioritize using minimally androgenic compounds during growth phases. Growth phases are my longest periods of elevated AAS use and when the most damage may occur. So I want all of the gains from AAS, without the androgenicity. Androgenicity enlarges our prostate, gives us acne, causes our hair to shed, makes our skin look old and so on. A large set of side effects can be mitigated just by emphasizing less androgenic compounds. That's the main reason I like nandrolone, it is the least androgenic of the AAS and one of the most anabolic.
- To mitigate some of the short term side effects, particularly those e2 correlated, nandrolone is best run as the base with short ester test or HCG, in limited quantities, for e2 conversion. This does not mean that you can be on a 300mg/week test cycle today and just switch over to nandrolone tomorrow and expect not to have e2 sides. The long ester test must first clear your system and then nandrolone can be introduced. This is why I prefer short ester test when cruising or bridging; with test ace, I can just wait a few days for it to completely clear and not have to lose weeks in the transition.
- If exogenous testosterone is used for estrogen, it should be short ester, either prop or ace. If instead you use for example, 10mg/day of cypionate, your steady state accumulation will be about 90-95mgs. With 10mg/day of test ace, your steady state accumulation will be about 15-20mgs. The idea behind using short ester test is that the steady state accumulation is low and clearance time is high. This allows you to more predictably gauge your e2. Estradiol production tracks estrogen exposure x aromatase activity, so higher average concentrations generally create more e2 substrate. I find E2 to also be more consistent day over day with this method; there's a lower ceiling for it vs long ester.
I will stop there and continue this section tomorrow. And moving forward, I'll release these posts a few paragraphs at a time, to allow for conversation.
Hello everyone, my name’s Benjamin aka 19norfan, I’ve been on the forum for a few years now but finally started make posts within the last 4 months or so here. The topic of nandrolone comes up quite often and having a good bit of experience with it, I thought to create a series of threads on here highlighting some of my experiences with it, managing sides, enhancing its use and any other topic that comes up along the way.
First, to give you some personal history - I got on TRT in the summer of 2020 at 30 years of age. Immediately, just training at home with dumbbells, I got a very quick growth response. This would spark my “fitness journey” that has led me to where I am today. Prior to TRT, I did go to the gym, still had a decent physique but those enhanced gains were something special and it’s been a life changer. Since then, I’ve quit all alcohol and any other habit that I felt detracted me from being 100% in life. My entire life is optimized for fitness and it would not be this way without gear. Despite what we are told about AAS, I am of the belief that I am in much better health now, 6 years later than I would have been had I stayed a natural.
I was on doses of test cypionate of between 150-200mg per week until the winter of 2021. That winter, I added nandrolone to my trt+ protocol and again, got a very noticeable growth spur just from adding 100mg/week. It really enhanced my mood too, mentally it just gave me very strong focus and confidence. Fast forward to the fall of 2023, I would start B&C’ing officially and here I am today, about 2 weeks out from my first NPC show, which I cover in my 2026 Contest Prep Log.
That’s my background with AAS use. The remainder of this post will be specific to my experience with nandrolone. Please note, none of this is advice to use nandrolone or to not use it; this is merely one anecdotal experience and you should treat these posts as primarily for entertainment purposes.
Dosing Protocols and Combinations
Nandrolone is best used as either a base with a secondary dht derivative anabolic or as an ancillary anabolic alongside a testosterone base. I am not a fan of using nandrolone as a secondary anabolic – example: 500mg test 500mg nandrolone – because it is very difficult to control side effects, particular those modulated by estrogen and prolactin, when it is run proportionate to testosterone. A couple of dosing protocols that I do like (weekly doses):
700mg NPP + 300mg Primobolan + 35mg Test Prop or Ace
This cycle has an NPP base, which provides fullness and anabolism and Primobolan as a secondary anabolic, to counter nandrolone’s water retentive properties. The test prop/ace is for estrogen. Note that this will not work for estrogen if you are an individual to whom Primobolan suppresses aromatase activity. This can also be run 700mg NPP + 300mg Masteron, which is my favorite summertime cycle. Great for mood and libido, and you don’t really feel the cycle considering it's 1 gram cycle. This has minimal impact on bloodwork in my experience. Nandrolone is in my experience the mildest steroid when it comes to impact on bloodwork, particularly lipids and even more specifically, HDL suppression (when compared to DHT derivatives).
1,250mg Nandrolone Decanoate + 262.5 IU HCG
This cycle has a nandrolone decanoate base with HCG taken at a dose of 75 IU EOD to provide estrogen. The 75 IU EOD is not set in stone. This is the dose that I need to take to keep my estrogen at 80 – 100 pg/ml range, alongside 1 – 1.5 grams of nandrolone decanoate per week. Although 80 – 100 pg/ml is “outside of the reference range,” this is done intentionally. The 10-40pg/ml reference range often used, is a population derived, laboratory reference interval; not necessarily a recommended therapeutic target. Additionally, it is based on individuals with natural androgen levels, not those enhanced. Therefore, I can conclude that E2 levels should be elevated relative to the natural reference range, if you are on AAS, to counteract the elevated androgenicity. For me personally, on 1g+/week of gear, I feel, perform and look better with slightly “elevated” e2, in that 80+ range. If you are not able to tune in your e2 on nandrolone with hcg, you may use test prop or ace instead. On a 1.25g/week nandrolone cycle, I am most likely running this for 16+ weeks, so I prefer HCG over test for the e2 because it is less impactful on blood work. Even 35-70mgs of test prop per week will suppress HDL and raise hematocrit. If I really want minimal impact on lipids and cbc panel, I’ll go with HCG instead. A secondary benefit to using HCG is that it preserves some testicular function, which can be especially important with a compound as suppressive as nandrolone. This is my favorite way to structure an off season nandrolone based cycle. I would describe it as all gains, no feels. You get a ton of anabolism and literally no feels. You don’t feel aggression – due to the lack of androgenicity – in the gym, and outside of the gym you will also feel a little bit blank but it’s more of an elevated confident blank than anhedonia blank. I’ll go further on this when we get into managing mental sides.
400mg Test D + 400mg Nandrolone D + 800mg Boldenone U
Although I said I’m not a fan of using it as a secondary anabolic, if I did use it that way, this is the way that I would use it. 800mg boldenone may seem aggressive for a 400mg test base and for you, it certainly may be. In my experience, nandrolone amplifies testosterone’s propensity towards aromatization. 400 test + 400 nandrolone can cause higher e2 than a >800 test dose alone. You may very well need a near gram dose of boldenone to keep E2 in range. But again, this is not set in stone, it’s just to provide a framework. You can trial/error it with E2 labs. Done correctly, this is a very capable growth phase cycle with good anabolism not a ton of androgenicity. I would be careful to track blood pressure, kidney health, Hematocrit/RBC… these are the areas where nandrolone + eq are most sensitive.
Dosing Protocol Reasons & Considerations
- To mitigate some of the long term health effects of AAS use, I prioritize using minimally androgenic compounds during growth phases. Growth phases are my longest periods of elevated AAS use and when the most damage may occur. So I want all of the gains from AAS, without the androgenicity. Androgenicity enlarges our prostate, gives us acne, causes our hair to shed, makes our skin look old and so on. A large set of side effects can be mitigated just by emphasizing less androgenic compounds. That's the main reason I like nandrolone, it is the least androgenic of the AAS and one of the most anabolic.
- To mitigate some of the short term side effects, particularly those e2 correlated, nandrolone is best run as the base with short ester test or HCG, in limited quantities, for e2 conversion. This does not mean that you can be on a 300mg/week test cycle today and just switch over to nandrolone tomorrow and expect not to have e2 sides. The long ester test must first clear your system and then nandrolone can be introduced. This is why I prefer short ester test when cruising or bridging; with test ace, I can just wait a few days for it to completely clear and not have to lose weeks in the transition.
- If exogenous testosterone is used for estrogen, it should be short ester, either prop or ace. If instead you use for example, 10mg/day of cypionate, your steady state accumulation will be about 90-95mgs. With 10mg/day of test ace, your steady state accumulation will be about 15-20mgs. The idea behind using short ester test is that the steady state accumulation is low and clearance time is high. This allows you to more predictably gauge your e2. Estradiol production tracks estrogen exposure x aromatase activity, so higher average concentrations generally create more e2 substrate. I find E2 to also be more consistent day over day with this method; there's a lower ceiling for it vs long ester.
I will stop there and continue this section tomorrow. And moving forward, I'll release these posts a few paragraphs at a time, to allow for conversation.
