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Why do you use AAS?

Bolan said:
If your gonna be dumb, you gotta be tough..... When you get knocked down you gotta get back up....... I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but I know enough to know... If your gonna be dumb, you gotta be tough.


I know... I'll have a cardiac event eventually, a thickened and enlarged LSV
and an enlarged "athletes heart" gonna get me... Cardiologist wants to "scrape" my LSV to thin it out but I politely refused.

Will I whine and feel bad for myself if I live through a heart attack or stroke?

No, I did it to myself and there's no one to blame other than myself.

I know the consequences, most of us don't make it to old age.
Click to expand...

Got to agree with you on this one...
Even us guys that have been careful for the most part..keeping our compounds mild, watching the sides, knowing when to pull the plug and watching the "duration"....!!!
I don't think anyone would disagree, gear is Harmful..
No Matter what you do..!!

I'll say this..
Yes the Compounds have a huge factor..more harsh, more problems..
BUT..
I Honestly think it's the "Duration "
So..one can play it extremely safe, but the Duration will play a Huge role..

Being everyone is different..some may Never have an issue, while others may have many..
It's impossible to predict..
What really increases the risk..running unsafe compounds, at stupid doses in their latter yrs..
It's Obvious, older guys can't handle certain compounds..EQ..Drol..Halo..where younger guys, no problem..

So..Bolan is dead On...
We know it causes health issues, yet we kinda don't Care..
Z
 
Bolan said:
If your gonna be dumb, you gotta be tough..... When you get knocked down you gotta get back up....... I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but I know enough to know... If your gonna be dumb, you gotta be tough.


I know... I'll have a cardiac event eventually, a thickened and enlarged LSV
and an enlarged "athletes heart" gonna get me... Cardiologist wants to "scrape" my LSV to thin it out but I politely refused.

Will I whine and feel bad for myself if I live through a heart attack or stroke?

No, I did it to myself and there's no one to blame other than myself.

I know the consequences, most of us don't make it to old age.
Click to expand...

Got to agree with you on this one...
Even us guys that have been careful for the most part..keeping our compounds mild, watching the sides, knowing when to pull the plug and watching the "duration"....!!!
I don't think anyone would disagree, gear is Harmful..
No Matter what you do..!!

I'll say this..
Yes the Compounds have a huge factor..more harsh, more problems..
BUT..
I Honestly think it's the "Duration "
So..one can play it extremely safe, but the Duration will play a Huge role..

Being everyone is different..some may Never have an issue, while others may have many..
It's impossible to predict..
What really increases the risk..running unsafe compounds..
Genetics play a Massive role..
It's a crap shoot..but The Odds..
Are definitely against You..

Great point Bolan..
Z
 
After getting cheated on, I looked in the mirror at the fat ass she cheated on and thought oh, now I get it.
Went to the gym, liked it
Loss weight, loved it
Learned to love myself
Wanted more out this new lifestyle and here I am. And loving it.
 
Last edited:
honestly man i think a lot of us just got tired of hitting that wall where the scale stops moving no matter how perfect the diet or training is. for me it was definitely a bit of body dysmorphia early on - always wanting to look like the guys in the mags - but as i've gotten older it's more about just feeling "capable" and keeping that strength as i age.

it's cool to see the endurance background too. i bet coming from triathlon stuff that extra muscle feels like a tank compared to being a "weight weenie" on a bike lol. if you're only 5-10lbs away from your goal you're in a great spot, just dont be surprised if the goalposts move once you get there!
 
Astro95 said:
In my head if you don’t make money from diminishing your health, then it’s dumb. This could be competitors too because it doesn’t really make any money unless you’re at the top. I do this simply for me, so it’s dumb lol
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I think that's the best and only reason to do anything... do it for you.
 
koseven said:
honestly man i think a lot of us just got tired of hitting that wall where the scale stops moving no matter how perfect the diet or training is. for me it was definitely a bit of body dysmorphia early on - always wanting to look like the guys in the mags - but as i've gotten older it's more about just feeling "capable" and keeping that strength as i age.

it's cool to see the endurance background too. i bet coming from triathlon stuff that extra muscle feels like a tank compared to being a "weight weenie" on a bike lol. if you're only 5-10lbs away from your goal you're in a great spot, just dont be surprised if the goalposts move once you get there!
Click to expand...
Moving the goal posts is so true. You hit what you set was the original goal and realize you have further to go based on whatever criteria you initially set, or maybe your goal and/or criteria have changed, so... time to move those goal posts. Not a bad thing at all. You're either growing or you're dying, and I believe that principle applies to ALL aspects of our lives. Personal, physical, emotional, amd professional growth. Stagnation is the same as dying. As human beings, we should always be striving to be that BEST version of ourselves in every aspect of life.
 
McPriimate said:
Totally get the addiction thing. I’ve been called a “serial obessionist,” going from hockey to rugby to skiing to hunting to flying to triathlon (the biggest and longest one for me) to now enjoying quite a few of these at a lower intensity level - except that lifting is now that thing for me for several years now. This one has legs, and I’m more obsessed than addicted - but that might just be the choice of words lol


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I can totally get the serial addiction thing when it comes to skiing. I'm a HUGE skier. I get so much joy from it. Interesting though is that it isn't my priority anymore. That's been supplanted by lifting. I still love it, but I don't allow myself to hit the slopes if I haven't hit the gym first. The gym has become my new addiction. I ski when I can, but I never miss the gym unless I am gravely ill. Unfortunately, I also never get to hit a POW day at first bell either due to my unwillingness to sacrifice a gym day in order to get there before it's tracked out.
 
Captain_Furious said:
I can totally get the serial addiction thing when it comes to skiing. I'm a HUGE skier. I get so much joy from it. Interesting though is that it isn't my priority anymore. That's been supplanted by lifting. I still love it, but I don't allow myself to hit the slopes if I haven't hit the gym first. The gym has become my new addiction. I ski when I can, but I never miss the gym unless I am gravely ill. Unfortunately, I also never get to hit a POW day at first bell either due to my unwillingness to sacrifice a gym day in order to get there before it's tracked out.
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Totally get it. Having just retired, I am in the enviable position of being able to get first chair and still have the whole day to refuel and hit the gym. Not entirely how imagined retirement - way waaaaay better lol

Shooting for 50 days this year but we’ll see as I still work some - just board/advisory stuff so not full time

And same - the gym takes precedence if I have to choose

Biggest problem is skiing (more like surviving my friends antics on the slopes) the days after leg day


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McPriimate said:
Totally get it. Having just retired, I am in the enviable position of being able to get first chair and still have the whole day to refuel and hit the gym. Not entirely how imagined retirement - way waaaaay better lol

Shooting for 50 days this year but we’ll see as I still work some - just board/advisory stuff so not full time

And same - the gym takes precedence if I have to choose

Biggest problem is skiing (more like surviving my friends antics on the slopes) the days after leg day


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
When my son was still in HS I used to get 50 days in a year. Now he's out west in college and I'm lucky to get 25 in. It's also a function of building my biz, which continues to grow and take more and more time. That's the tradeoff for success. Eventually, I can have more balance (and more skiing), but that's not for a while.
 
Captain_Furious said:
When my son was still in HS I used to get 50 days in a year. Now he's out west in college and I'm lucky to get 25 in. It's also a function of building my biz, which continues to grow and take more and more time. That's the tradeoff for success. Eventually, I can have more balance (and more skiing), but that's not for a while.
Click to expand...

25 is still a great season, especially if you’re building a business (which is a 24/7 thing usually) and staying consistent in the gym!

Balance is tough - and very very difficult to achieve while also really excelling in something. I also think people get balance wrong. It’s not (for ME anyway) a little bit of a lot of things every day/week. It’s picking the things that matter at the time and crushing them. So, my balance has been a balance to my life over a long time. The only non-negotiable has been time with and for my family - everything else has been an internal negotiation about what matters

We moved every few years for school or work, and I spent a lot of years building a couple different businesses. I always said I could handle a max three things in my life and be good at them. I chose family, then business, then one of my obsessions (I don’t half ass things when I’m learning them).

Time is and always has been, again for me, the most important commodity in my life and having more of it now is the biggest luxury I’ve ever experienced. Just trying to still use the time well, given how little of it I might have left lol

How do AAS fit into that? I dunno - who doesn’t want to look good naked even when they’re old?? Gonna be the jacked grandpa if our kids ever have kids


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Because I wanted to enjoy the gym more and see noticeable gains month to month. I have poor muscle building genetics, lifted for 2 years and still looked like dyel. Blast and cruise for 6 months, changed nothing about my training (except for obviously training more frequently and harder due to the gear) and Now I look and feel great.

As I'm just a hobbyist prob wont ever touch insulin or a BB show. But otherwise pinning is a 5 minute process a week and with HCG my gonads are still walnut sized. No issues...
 
I've always been physically skinny on top of having a small frame. Never really lifted weights but would play tennis, so great for cardio but not great for building muscle. Combine all of that with being 5'10", and you have the recipe for being a spooky skeleton, albeit one that may have better than average cardio health. At this point in my life (late 30s), I figure it's now or never to try AAS even if it's in a limited capacity. If I'm going to gain weight in my old age, I want it to be skewed more towards the muscle side of the equation instead of the fat side.
 
I’ve got severe childhood trauma and PTSD from my time in service. My endocrine system was wrecked by medications I was given while trying to survive a short career as a Marine grunt, which eventually led to me changing my MOS to 0111/admin clerk—and that killed my morale. What followed were years of post service misdiagnosis and drug cocktails that only made things worse. I've been hospitalized numerous, almost died, and came damn close to killing myself.

Healthcare—especially around hormones—is outdated as hell. Testosterone gets treated like it’s dangerous or optional, which is insane. Taking control of my hormones changed everything. Testosterone balanced me, kept me from being bedridden, and kept me from wanting to kill myself. That’s not hype—that’s survival.

My body’s been emaciated, fat, broken, and rebuilt. I’m solid where I’m at now. My BJJ and training have been phenomenal, and I’ve stayed consistent for nine years. I’m still not fully out of the woods, but I’m strong as hell so thank God for that. I wouldn’t mind looking like a bodybuilder, but when I look at how far I’ve come in grappling, teaching, and leading by example, I’m content.

I’m kind of obsessed with AAS, peptides, and supplements and whole pharmacology of it all. I spend a lot of time going down rabbit holes reading studies, articles, and PubMed

I’m an pretty good-looking guy, I look younger than my age, so I’ll take the win and I’ve been bald for years and don’t lose sleep over it (and I also thank god for being over 6ft) I can be a prick sometimes—I own that—but everyone here is here for a reason. The communal support has been real, solid, and good to fucking go.
 
Cypher said:
I’ve got severe childhood trauma and PTSD from my time in service. My endocrine system was wrecked by medications I was given while trying to survive a short career as a Marine grunt, which eventually led to me changing my MOS to 0111/admin clerk—and that killed my morale. What followed were years of post service misdiagnosis and drug cocktails that only made things worse. I've been hospitalized numerous, almost died, and came damn close to killing myself.

Healthcare—especially around hormones—is outdated as hell. Testosterone gets treated like it’s dangerous or optional, which is insane. Taking control of my hormones changed everything. Testosterone balanced me, kept me from being bedridden, and kept me from wanting to kill myself. That’s not hype—that’s survival.

My body’s been emaciated, fat, broken, and rebuilt. I’m solid where I’m at now. My BJJ and training have been phenomenal, and I’ve stayed consistent for nine years. I’m still not fully out of the woods, but I’m strong as hell so thank God for that. I wouldn’t mind looking like a bodybuilder, but when I look at how far I’ve come in grappling, teaching, and leading by example, I’m content.

I’m kind of obsessed with AAS, peptides, and supplements and whole pharmacology of it all. I spend a lot of time going down rabbit holes reading studies, articles, and PubMed

I’m an pretty good-looking guy, I look younger than my age, so I’ll take the win and I’ve been bald for years and don’t lose sleep over it (and I also thank god for being over 6ft) I can be a prick sometimes—I own that—but everyone here is here for a reason. The communal support has been real, solid, and good to fucking go.
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Thanks for sharing all of that. It sounds familiar and I was somewhat hesitant about posting, but this is why I started and why I continue using AAS.



When I first started, it was just because I wanted to be muscular. I remember one of the first magazines I had in high school had Mike Matarazzo on the cover. I remember how in awe I was of the physiques. I was running cycles in my early 20s until my early 30s. Then I was off for another 13 years or so. I started TRT in 2018 and that just opened the flood gates to blasting and cruising.


Based on my health history, I'm the last person that should be using these drugs. Most would say I'm dumb, but after getting a disease that I spent 8 months getting treatment for, almost dying during treatment, having the meds that were "treating" me fuck with my head so much that I came out of it not really caring as much about life anymore. I'm not going to do things like heroin, crack, meth, etc, but I'm going to do the one thing that still gives me joy.

My health history has been just a lot of bad luck. Getting a viral infection that led to heart failure, my numbers are all back to normal, but I'll be on the meds for life. Skin cancer on my face 5 times, all cut out, 1 requiring an extensive 5-6 hour surgery with plastics. Barretts esophagus, 3 hiatal hernia repairs, 3 nissen fundoplications, gall bladder removed, UPPP with septoplasty, stage 3 lymphoma, rotator cuff repair, bicep tear repair, 2 GI bleeds requiring intubation and emergent IR trips to embolize arteries.

Steroids and training at this point are what I get joy and pleasure out of, yes, this is a mental illness at this point, but I'm not going to live the rest of my life not doing what makes me happy. If my life is cut short, so be it, I'll be dead and won't know the difference anyway.



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My primary motivation was increasing sex drive, which had dropped precipitously after years of heavy boozing.

I got sick of the alcohol but the sex drive hadn’t recovered, so I figured this was the only option.

Unfortunately, it hasn’t been a fountain of youth in the sex drive department, though better than it was.

However, I have found that test cyp is like a miracle drug for my shoulder impingement. Never even realized that was a possibility, but now that my shoulders aren’t killing me anymore, I have stuck with the test cyp because I dread that pain coming back.

Weirdly, I was actually a lot stronger and bigger in my 30s without gear. I haven’t been able to get back to that point with gear — however, I am now more defined when I lift weights, so I am not quite as Shrek-like — though still Shrek-like overall, just not as bad…
 
I decided to start lifting for the first time in 2010. I was 30 and had never really been interested in or cared about gaining muscle.

About 6 months in I was discouraged, I had saw zero to no change and was about to say fuck it and move in. About the time I was about to throw in the towel, the biggest fucker in there who I had heard was training to become a professional body builder came up to me and was like “I’ve saw you in here working your ass off, want me to give you a few pointers?!” He had always kind of kept to himself so it was surprising, not to mention he was quite a bit younger than me but I was all about it.

He showed me that with most stuff, I was going about it all wrong and I noticed some difference but still not great progress. We had become pretty good friends and we continued to meet up and work out together. I mentioned that I was having a little trouble in the bedroom, which shouldn’t be happening at 30. He suggested I go to the dr and get some blood work and sure enough, my t levels were way low.

At that point he introduced me to testosterone and had me do a test only 500mg cycle and I put on an inch everywhere in 8 weeks. From that point, I wanted more but he would tell me you don’t need to get on all of that other shit. With a little talking, he did hook me up with some test and deca for my next cycle and I really blew up(for me).

At this point his body building career was taking off and he wasn’t around as much. He got his pro card in 2012 and was on track to be the next big thing…..We stayed in contact and when he was back in town, we would meet up but those times slowly faded away.

I got married in 2013 and slowly started going to the gym less and less. Got a new job, life happened and all of the other excuses. I put together a home gym but just couldn’t get motivated at home.

In January of 25, exactly a year ago, I decide to renew my gym membership at 44. My goal was to at least get as big as I was at the end of 2012 but it’s been slow going. I’ve only managed to put an inch on everywhere which is discouraging and likely muscle memory but I haven’t been as consistent as I need to be either do to life popping up. Hopefully 2026 is smoother and yields better results.
 
DadBod45 said:
I decided to start lifting for the first time in 2010. I was 30 and had never really been interested in or cared about gaining muscle.

About 6 months in I was discouraged, I had saw zero to no change and was about to say fuck it and move in. About the time I was about to throw in the towel, the biggest fucker in there who I had heard was training to become a professional body builder came up to me and was like “I’ve saw you in here working your ass off, want me to give you a few pointers?!” He had always kind of kept to himself so it was surprising, not to mention he was quite a bit younger than me but I was all about it.

He showed me that with most stuff, I was going about it all wrong and I noticed some difference but still not great progress. We had become pretty good friends and we continued to meet up and work out together. I mentioned that I was having a little trouble in the bedroom, which shouldn’t be happening at 30. He suggested I go to the dr and get some blood work and sure enough, my t levels were way low.

At that point he introduced me to testosterone and had me do a test only 500mg cycle and I put on an inch everywhere in 8 weeks. From that point, I wanted more but he would tell me you don’t need to get on all of that other shit. With a little talking, he did hook me up with some test and deca for my next cycle and I really blew up(for me).

At this point his body building career was taking off and he wasn’t around as much. He got his pro card in 2012 and was on track to be the next big thing…..We stayed in contact and when he was back in town, we would meet up but those times slowly faded away.

I got married in 2013 and slowly started going to the gym less and less. Got a new job, life happened and all of the other excuses. I put together a home gym but just couldn’t get motivated at home.

In January of 25, exactly a year ago, I decide to renew my gym membership at 44. My goal was to at least get as big as I was at the end of 2012 but it’s been slow going. I’ve only managed to put an inch on everywhere which is discouraging and likely muscle memory but I haven’t been as consistent as I need to be either do to life popping up. Hopefully 2026 is smoother and yields better results.
Click to expand...
Best time to plant a tree? 20 years ago.
Second best time? Today.

It's never too late to get back after it. Hope you get that 2012 size back!

But even if you don't, there's got to be some satisfaction in winning the "best avatar" on the board lol. Eat healthy :ROFLMAO:
 

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