Cutting/bulking with PH's + ephedrine

[shiftless]

Hey guys I was going to post this in another thread but it started getting long and I didn't want to hijack. I thought I would contribute my recent experience to the collective knowledge of the board. I found a really good combination for cutting. I just recently came off a cutting cycle and was preparing to start bulking. On the cutting cycle, I was taking only an EC stack--24 mg ephedrine HCL, 200 mg caffeine, 3 times a day, plus running on the treadmill for ~30 minutes a day. This worked really well. I went from probably 16-17% body fat to 10.5% in 6 weeks. Then I took a week off, and after that I started my new bulking cycle. Here's where things get interesting.

For this bulk cycle I started off with 3AD + Hemadrol (Halodrol-50 clone) at low (label recommended) doses to get things rolling, plus started back with the EC stack with the theory that it would help keep the bloat off while bulking. The same day I started the stack, I got orders to fly out to a couple sites and fix some problems, so my routine got all interrupted.

So for 6 days I was not able to work out, but was running around being more physically active than usual, dragging bags and boxes and **** around, climbing on top off stuff, not working REALLY hard but being pretty active for like 2-3 days out of the 6. I dropped over 5 POUNDS that week, and it was all fat, no muscle lost, in fact I'm pretty sure I gained some. I mean it was unreal, it was one of those things where I was busy all day, then went and looked in the mirror that evening and said "HOLY ****" because of how much I had visibly lost just that day. I am sure starting a fresh cycle of ephedrine had a lot to do with it, but I never got results like this the first time around, so I think either the 3AD or the Hemadrol (or both) is what really kicked things into gear. Maybe someone else could give this a try and see how well it works for them. I think this could be a great cutting combo, but I'm trying to bulk this time so continuing on with the cycle:

That was last week, and as of two days ago I started the second leg which is CEL P-Plex stacked on top of the other stuff. (The other PH's are mainly to aid in keeping the gains lean as I've heard those two help with fat loss and strength gains whereas P-Plex is a wet bulker.) No bloating so far but I think it's too early to tell since the P-Plex hasn't really kicked in yet. As I get more into the cycle the Hemadrol and 3AD will run out in turn, then shortly afterwards I will transition over to Methyl-Vol (SD clone) to finish out the cycle with some leaning up and clean gains, followed by proper PCT with Nolvadex of course.

Yeah, I know, it's a pretty busy stack. I'm not too big on the whole "only bulking for 3-4 weeks" thing so that's why I'm bridging the pplex and SD to stretch things out a bit. A lot of emphasis has been put on clean gains since I don't want to reverse all the work I did in the last cutting cycle. Diet is good, sleep is good, routine is good, I'm squared away. Ought to be a great cycle.

BTW, the 3AD and HD alone (plus EC) are great. I managed to get my first real workout in yesterday. First one since the "initial" workout I did to start the bulking cycle, and it was an excellent workout. Lots of energy and sizeable gains in strength from last time.

I'll keep you guys updated on how things go!

 

[shiftless]

Hi guys, I have been on the P-plex for a week now so time for an update.

I noticed around day 2 or 3 some very minor lethargy. If I laid around and didn't do much I would start getting a bit sleepy, but not too bad. If I got up and moved around at all I would be just fine. This is similar to the lethargy I previously experienced in the first week of SD cycles, but to a much lesser degree. I am wondering if the EC stack is helping out here? Haven't run P-plex before, so I'm not really sure. I'll report, you decide. This side effect went away after a couple days, but last night I went ahead and bumped the PP up to 30 mg, and the lethargy came back today to a minor degree. I think it will end up going away again after my body adjusts, but it's too early to tell.

Also around day 3 or 4 I saw the beginnings of the typical steroid carb bloat. At first I thought, well I guess I'm just going to bloat and the ephedrine must not be helping much. But actually, I was only bloating since I was sitting around not doing much. When I got called in to the office to fix a problem, after about 30 minutes of just pacing around talking on the phone and other very light physical activity I noticed my bloat was GONE. It seems that the roids are causing an increase in my rate of building up bloat, as expected, but the ephedrine is also doing a great job of stripping it back off when I'm even the least bit physically active.

Here it is the beginning day 7 and the P-plex is definitely starting to kick in, slowly but surely. No crazy pumps yet or retarded strength increases (as of the end of day 5 when I last worked out) but I'm looking more swole every day, workouts are going great, and I am making nice gains in lean mass. Every day I look in the mirror and see clear gains in the muscles I worked the previous day. Weight is going up consistent with typical glycogen/water storage and beginnings of lean mass gains. After a week bloat is still not a problem at all, and BF% is staying steady at about 10%.

One thing I really like about this cycle so far is the overall lack of side effects. I liked SD but it would occasionally give me headaches and have negative effects on mood. On the PP I feel great, perfectly normal, just swole and having great workouts.

Oh, and I just found out about dymethazine. Don't know why I didn't hear about this roid before, but I've seen some great logs on it so I want to give it a try. I snagged a bunch of bottles of Dymethazine and D-Zine while I still could since they are both discontinued, and when the P-plex cycle is up I'll be bridging into this instead of SD as I had originally planned.

Well, I guess that's all for now. I'll have another update in a week or so.

 

[Psychabinol]

i dont think p-plex is that wet, but if your eating a lot of carbs, ur gonna get bloaty.

 

[shiftless]

I don't eat a lot of carbs for that very reason.

 

[texastweeter]

p-plex is pretty wet for me. I always take in higher amouts of carbs than most. its what works for my body.

 

[shiftless]

Yeah, I'm kinda the opposite actually. If I tried some of the bulking diets I read about on here, I would become a fat ass in short order. I really don't have to eat a lot of carbs. My (consistently successful) bulking diet probably contains fewer calories than most people's regular diet.

 

[shiftless]

Alright guys time for another update. Right after my last post the PPlex starting kicking in noticeably. The very next workout was great and they have been awesome ever since. It's definitely kicked in pretty hard by now and still seems to be getting stronger. So far no negative sides to report other than I am starting to break out a bit, but not too bad. All day long I'm looking swole and I feel ready at any hour to walk in and destroy the gym. It's tempting to work out too much, but I have been keeping to a good schedule and diet and am seeing nice gains. Most gains seem to be in muscle mass, not so much in strength so far, but today's workout seemed to indicate that the strength gains are starting to kick in.

Earlier this week I stopped ephedrine to judge the effects. Immediately I started putting on what was quickly turning into a ridiculous amount of bloat. I did increase my food intake a bit, but not enough to account for how much and how rapidly I was putting on fat. I had planned to stay off a week to give my body a chance to recoup, but due to the bloat I elected to go back on after four days. Immediately I started shedding. I am seeing measurable decreases in bloat/fat from day to day with no apparent negative effect on my workout. The EC stack is really having a great cutting effect.

Since I gave ephedrine a break my mood got a lot better. Before I was feeling kinda strung out, on edge, I guess due to the ephedrine overdriving my adrenaline glands 24/7. Taking a break for a few days seems to have helped a lot. I had been taking the stuff for like 3 weeks so I'm thinking 1-2 weeks is a good interval to cycle it, at least for me.

I went ahead and kicked in the Dymethazine early, about 3-4 days ago, at 20 mg/day. I am trying to finish this cycle by a certain date and I realized I needed to go ahead and bridge into this stuff now if I want to finish in time. I stopped taking the 3AD and my Hemadrol just ran out, leaving me with just PPlex @ 30mg, DMZ @ 20mg, and various support supplements including creatine. I can't wait to see what happens when the DMZ kicks in. I think these two will stack well together, and the DMZ should give a nice dry finish to the cycle.

 

[texastweeter]

you have b4 and after pics?

 

[shiftless]

I sure don't, sorry. I'm overseas right now with no privacy and unfortunately don't really have a good place to set up to take pics. I know a lot of people have run PP before so most folks are pretty familiar with what it is and what it generally does. So far it has affected me pretty much the way I was expecting based on what I read. My main purpose of this thread though was to log the effects of ephedrine on this stack since I couldn't really find any hard info out there when I was searching. Plus I thought PP/DMZ might be a good stack/bridge so I'm gonna report on that as well. I am leaving out a lot of the details and basically just trying to give a bird's eye view of how things are playing out from week to week. I think a lot of logs get too deep into the nitty gritty and make it hard to see the bigger picture.

By the way, I forgot to mention that as of the last post I was up approx 8 lbs from where I started. This is just over the 2 week mark on PPlex. The thing that struck me about this is normally these fast acting oral PHs tend to pile on weight for me. For example I probably shot up 10 lbs in a week when I first did SD. Again, I think this is due to ephedrine keeping the bloat off. Gains so far seem to be pretty lean.

Libido is holding steady around "normal" after skyrocketing in the first week. No shrinkage to report. Mood is excellent, not overly aggressive or irritable. Haven't checked blood pressure but when it's high I can usually tell by the way it makes me feel, and it seems normal.

 

[texastweeter]

I Love phera. i react to it pretty close to the same way I do D-Bol.

 

[neverstop]

going from cutting to bulking will usually result in big gains in the beginning, that sounds awesome, would be interesting to see before and after pics for sure. I've got one more bulking cycle then I'll move onto a Anavar/Test/ECA and maybe low dose tren cutting cycle.

that is a lot of methyl orals to buddy, be sure to get your bloodwork done.

 

[shiftless]

I'll definitely post up some "after" pics during or after PCT. I might be able to come up with some good "before" pics for comparison too, we'll see.

 

[Link24]

So what is the total time on Cycle and what does everything look like mapped out?? Keep a close Eye on Bp with all these supps man

 

[shiftless]

God damn it, I had a long ass reply typed out then my computer crashed right as I finished. OK, I'll make this short:

cycle summary:

Pheraplex (30mg), bridged/stacked into Dymethazine (30mg), total 8 weeks but shortened to 6 weeks due to time crunch. Ephedrine + caffeine (72 mg/600 mg daily) stacked in to keep bloat in check, with frequent 2-3 tolerance breaks to keep it working at maximum effectiveness. Theory is the PP will pack on the mass then DMZ will continue lean gains while gaining strength, hardening, and helping to cut. Major support supplements include a multivitamin, fish oil, creatine (Kre-Alkalyn), and taurine.

Well things were already going well on the PP, great pumps and workouts, but then the DMZ kicked in about 4-5 days ago. Carb requirements went through the roof and fat started shedding off left and right. I could work out and gain mass simply by flexing muscles in the mirror with no weight. Today I hit the gym after a few days absence, and the first time after the DMZ kicked in and the workout was insane. Pumps were insane. Energy was insane. The size of how big every single one of my muscles was swole up was insane. I was blasting through the routine and felt like a monster. It was plainly obvious to anyone with a pair of eyes that I was on steroids. My buddy who hasn't seen me in a week saw me in there and was like holy **** at how big I was and the number of veins popping out of my arms and ****. Even now as I'm typing this it's over 45 mins since the workout and I'm still swole up big, not as monstrous as I was but big.

Oh, all this... and NO side effects, other than increased acne which I have problems with anyway. No back pumps, no nothing. I'm up 12 lbs in 3 1/2 weeks and very little if any of that is fat. Lean mass is piling on and fat is burning off fast. This is the best cycle I've been on so far and my history includes both oral and injectables. To me this feels like being on a strong injectable, not like you would expect an oral like SD to feel like (i.e. feeling ****ty, headaches, blood pressure, etc.)

 

[texastweeter]

lol sounds like it is having an effect on your self image as well, a boos in confidence maybe. good job, keep it up and keep us posted.

 

[JudoJosh]

Ur not concerned with blood pressure with all the caffeine and on cycle?

 

[texastweeter]

the onlything that concerns me with bp is when it gets high lol. I check mine daily while oncycle and weekly when off. if It gets a bit high i take an asprin and some celery seed extract, if that doesnt fix the problem, i take perscription bp meds to keep it in check untill i adjust my aas dosage to get it down to where I feel comfortable.

 

[shiftless]

As mentioned before, I can usually tell when my blood pressure gets high due to how it makes me feel. I remember SD used to give me high BP and headaches sometimes. I am experiencing none of that on this cycle. Plus, I am a slow caffeine metabolizer so it doesn't really effect my BP, heart rate, etc as much as it would most people.

The only time I have felt my BP seem to increase is the last time I worked out I had just taken all my pills 30-45 mins before and they were all kickin in, plus had just smoked a bowl of hash, and cannabis tends to speed up my heart rate and stuff much more than caffeine does in most people. So yeah, my blood was pumping and I felt a bit hot and "rushed." Let me tell you though, throwing up weights while on steroids and high is a fantastic feeling.

I am not worried if my BP occasionally gets out of spec while on cycle since I am a very healthy young man whose heart rate, BP, etc is normally perfect, and I just don't think a few minor incidents of high blood pressure during a 6-8 week time frame is going to really cause any problems.

 

[texastweeter]

I am amazed at the number of people here that smoke weed/hash and use aas and BB. I just dont see that much in my area. but to each his own.

 

[JudoJosh]

Yea hasn't there been studies done that links recreational drugs to lower test levels.. Kinda counters the cycle but yea to each his own right

 

[texastweeter]

I believe i even saw a few studies once that said that thc raised estro levels. Not claimg it to be true, but something to think about.

 

[shiftless]

Interesting, it's possible, though I doubt THC would change test/estro levels enough to worry about. Either way, I decided to avoid getting high before working out since it does seem to have negative effects on the routine, blood pressure, heart rate, state of mind, etc.

I worked out again yesterday and had the best workout yet. Strength is off the charts. When I first started the cycle I was doing 8 reps on dips (a bit low cause I had lost some muscle etc while cutting.) After the PP kicked in a couple workouts later I hit 15 reps easy. I thought I was on fire then but that was nothing. Yesterday I blasted out 25 reps in perfect form and up until the last 1-2 reps didn't feel challenged. Every exercise was like that, just felt like a monster. The strength gains on this **** and the pumps I get are unbelievable.

Weight is up another .75 lb from two days prior (up 13 1/4 lbs total) and body fat seems to still be on the decrease. I had a good number of veins popping out of my forearms before but now they are starting to pop up all over the place, arms, shoulders, etc. Plus I got a big ass stretch mark under my arm pit from a prior cycle that is only getting worse, lol.

 

[texastweeter]

have you pulled a lipid or liver panel yet? what is your doseage at now?

 

[shiftless]

Nope. I'm overseas at the moment so can't really get any of that checked. I plan to get some blood work done when I come off cycle though. In the mean time I am keeping an eye out for any symptoms or anything that might indicate a problem.

Dosage is at 30 mg PP, 30 mg DMZ. Basically a full "normal" dose for each, split twice a day. Ephedrine is 72 mg, caffeine 600 mg, split three times a day, with frequent 2-3 day tolerance breaks--which does seem to help.

 

[SS29KO]

I believe i even saw a few studies once that said that thc raised estro levels. Not claimg it to be true, but something to think about.

Would be interesting to look into that

 

[jbryand101b]

you do know that dymethazine is just two sd molecules bonded together with an azine molecule, that once in the body, is quickly broken apart to allow free flowing sd. just double the amount.

so in a sense, 30mg of dymeth is equal in the body to 60mg. I used dymeth, and got super sick post cycle, as i know alot of others did too, hope this doesn't happen to you. i may give it another shot someday.

 

[shiftless]

Actually it's not quite like that bro. DMZ is two molecules bonded together with an azine bond as you stated, but the azine bond causes it to be metabolized differently. While there may be some similarities in how the two act (and there are), they are two different compounds. I have noticed big differences between how I react to this and SD so that just confirms it. It's much less harsh on the body than SD is too.

 

[citystreets]

I cant even imagine the load on your heart with this cycle. Goodluck none the less

 

[texastweeter]

SD/Phera is my one and only OTC bulking cycle.

 

[jbryand101b]

Taken from: William Llewellyn's ANABOLICS, 9th ed

Actually it's not quite like that bro. DMZ is two molecules bonded together with an azine bond as you stated, but the azine bond causes it to be metabolized differently. While there may be some similarities in how the two act (and there are), they are two different compounds. I have noticed big differences between how I react to this and SD so that just confirms it. It's much less harsh on the body than SD is too.

im not saying youre wrong, but here is what is stated on this in anabolic '09:

Roxilon (dimethazine)

Description:
Dimethazine, also known as mebolazine, is a potent oral anabolic steroid derived from dihydrotestosterone. The dimethazine molecule is fairly unique in structure, being made from two methyldrostanolone molecules bonded together with an azine bridge. The body breaks this bond, however, so that the drug actually provides free methyldrostanolone (Superdrol) to the user.
[...]
Qualitatively, the drug behaves in a very similar manner to drostanolone propionate (Masteron), although as an oral c17alpha
alkylated steroid it presents considerably more toxicity.
[...]

Side Effects (Hepatotoxicity):
Note that in studies administering 20 mg per day to patients for 45-95 days, dimethazine was shown to induce modest to moderate bilirubinemia (excess bilirubin in the blood, indicative of hepatic stress) in close to 50% of patients.16
Approximately 25% of the patients noticed substantial increases in serum transaminases. These results suggest this steroid has a significant level of hepatotoxicity
---------------------

again, im not saying your wrong, just your feeling could be a placebo effect due to you believing the marketing hype, and thinking it is somehow different.

but who knows, maybe william Llewellyn is wrong, and the studies and research he put in his 9th edition of his book are all flawed.???onder:

 

[shiftless]

LOL. So you don't even understand any of the chemistry involved, you just quote some expert (who makes some statements that don't disagree in any way with what I said) and that proves I'm wrong? Actually what happened here is you misinterpreted what you read. SD is methylated masteron. The methylation allows SD to pass unmolested through the liver, but at great cost (hepatoxicity.) DMZ is two SD molecules bonded together with an azine bond, which is a different way of getting this substance through the liver while causing much less damage in the process. It also causes the steroid to have different effects due to the different way in which it's metabolized.

That's funny how you highlighted the statement saying this stuff is liver toxic, while skipping right over the key phrase saying the "modest to moderate" liver toxicity was in half of patients who had run DMZ for 45-60 days. When was the last time you saw somebody run SD for 60 days who didn't promptly die of liver failure?

Placebo effect? Marketing hype? LOL. I've done two SD cycles before. I know what effect it has on my body. DMZ is nothing like it. For me, SD kicked in on day two, on 20 mg. I was plagued with mild to moderate headaches, muscle cramps, high blood pressure, etc. DMZ at 30 mg didn't kick in until the second week. No side effects, just a big bump in metabolism and carb usage, unbelievable strength, and incredible pumps. All it takes is 2-3 good sets on a muscle group with medium weights, which I blast through, and my muscles are so swole up and pumped that they ache from it. Then the next day I'm sore all over, then the day after that I've doubled in size.

The mirror doesn't lie. The looks I get from other people and from hot girls in the gym when I blast through sets looking like He-man don't lie either. The **** works, and it works damn good, there is no doubt about it. I am putting on lean mass like crazy and getting leaner, bigger, and stronger every day. As of today, starting 5th week into PP and in the middle of the 3rd week of DMZ, I am up over 15 lbs so far and gaining 1/3 to 1/2 lb of lean mass every day.

 

[shiftless]

OK guys time for another update! The "ready to go in the gym and rip it in half" feeling slowly faded out after the initial DMZ kick in, but gym performance has not decreased. The strength increases I'm seeing now are comparable to if I were on late 2nd/early 3rd week of SD. That is, the strength increases are every bit as good as SD at its peak.

In the same vein, it's clear that DMZ has a nice slimming/drying out effect, similar to SD, and it stacks great with the PP. I have found an optimum amount of carb intake so that I am not really losing any fat, but I'm not gaining any either, and seeing minimal carb bloat, yet have plenty of energy in the gym.

I have confirmed that ephedrine has a negative effect on mood that is not present at first, but slowly grows stronger the longer you take it. It makes me jittery and nervous and self conscious. I am sure the ****ty Mexican weed I have been smoking doesn't help, but without the ephedrine the problem goes away pretty quickly. Just before Thanksgiving I stopped EC again for another tolerance break. I was pleased to see that I did not immediately start piling on bloat like last time I was off this long, back when the DMZ had not kicked in yet. I do note that I did see a *little* extra bloat, but again, DMZ seems to work well to help combat that.

I also noted that despite its drawbacks, the ephedrine is definitely "worth it." It gives a nice energy boost in the gym, even when weight lifting, but especially while boxing or running, and is a powerful tool in anybody's fat burning arsenal.

Today I am into the 6th week of PP and I decided to go ahead and stop it. The mass gains seem to be tapering off a bit, and I figure I have put on enough mass for this cycle anyhow. For the next two weeks I will concentrate mainly on strength increases, bulking select muscles, and shedding fat. So to that end I stopped the PP and started back on the ephedrine again, while continuing to run the DMZ.

I was actually putting on so much mass on my upper body that it was starting to **** up my posture since I was getting top heavy. I just felt so weird walking around, like something wasn't right. Then it dawned on me what was up so I started hitting the legs and back hard with deadlifts, squats, running, cable kicks, etc. That was a week ago. As of today things have improved considerably and my problem is just about cured. My legs are exploding and I can tell I am gaining a lot of strength in the legs and lower back. And NO back pumps at all. My back does get pumped during back exercises but a normal amount, not excessive or painful. I guess the taurine is probably doing what it's supposed to.

As of two days ago I was up 17 lbs over baseline, with a steady increase of around .5 lbs/day, but today I mysteriously dropped to 15 lbs. Not sure what happened here as there have been several variables such as Thanksgiving dinner (which, strangely, I did not gain any fat/bloat from despite eating heavily), etc at play. Regardless of the actual number of pounds gained, it is clear that the majority of that is lean mass and very little if any is fat or bloat, and that I am continuing to make gains.

And let's be real, 15 lbs is a lot of lean mass. Even if I only ended up only keeping 10-12, that's still excellent for a 6 week cycle IMO. I found some good "before" pictures that I will post up for comparison after PCT. My routine and diet has been spot on. I have been hitting a lot of muscles groups that had been previously neglected and am filling out nicely. If I look anything like I do now after PCT, then I will be very pleased.

This next week it should be interesting to see what happens with the PP out of the picture. and DMZ/EC in full force. Stay tuned.....

 

[jbryand101b]

:34:
metabolized differently? it's a methylated steroid. it passes through the liver. once in the blood, azine bond is broken, leaving two methylated steroid molecules to do all the same damage done that methylated steroids do on the cardiovascular system. the azine bond only allows you to get double in there. maybe for the price of one in the liver, but thats only a small portion. the first pass is only the first pass, it will pass through more times. and as two sd molecules. you still have same amount of sd in your blood. a methylated steroid to be removed from the body. it isn't metabolized differently.
just have to agree to disagree. to each their own.

 

[shiftless]

The DMZ molecule has two metabolites: metylmasteron (i.e. superdrol) and methylmasteronazine (a totally different steroid molecule with its own effects.) So you get effects from the superdrol molecule, and you get effects from the other steroid too. The end result is, it's similar to superdrol but with less liver toxicity and less sides, which is exactly what the marketing literature and other sources said it was supposed to be.

EDIT: I just looked it up and the info is right here on this forum in an old DMZ thread. Superdrol has an A/A rating of 800:20. Methylmasteronazine (aka superdrol azine) is 210:97. For reference, testosterone is 100:100. Therefore this new steroid is twice as anabolic as test while being roughly as androgenic. So it's not a bad steroid at all, and apparently it "stacks" great with the SD.

 

[shiftless]

An interesting addendum. While I was cutting I got into the habit of taking pictures of my face at certain angles every few days and saving them to my computer. I crop them to roughly the same size so that I could easily compare two pictures side by side and look at my jaw line, cheeks, etc and see how I was doing on fat loss. The face seems to be a good indicator of overall fat loss, and its easy to take pictures of to compare.

One thing I noticed is that fat looks different from carb bloat. It's easy to tell the difference when you have looked at so many of these pictures and scrutinized for changes. Some days you will be bloated and others not, due to various factors which is why weight fluctuates, but when you stay bloated that is when the fat starts to deposit and the overall look starts to change. Conversely, when you're cutting you can tell you start to look better as fat gets stripped off.

I just took another one of those pictures and compared it to the last pic I took about 6 weeks ago. I noticed that in the pic I had a noticeable amount of carb bloat, which is expected and attributable to being off ephedrine the past few days (that's when it started), but had little to NO apparent fat gain from the old pic. This is what I had been thinking, but wasn't sure of until I saw the pics side by side. (No I won't post them here for personal reasons.)

Then, I checked my body fat percentage using the caliper method. (I am pretty certain I do this the right way, but even if I'm off a little, I'm at least consistent from one measurement to the next.) At the end of cutting I was down to 160 lbs, 9.5% body fat from 183 or so and probably around 14-15% body fat. Now I'm at 175 and at 9% body fat!

According to my calculations using the figures above, I have gained around a half pound of fat on this cycle. Even if my measurements are off and I gained a full pound, wow! That is damn low. And that means the rest (14.5+ lbs) is glycogen and lean mass. It's got to be over 10 lbs in lean mass gained so far. And I still have two weeks to go on cycle.

 

[shiftless]

OK guys this was meant to be a weekly log but damn you aren't gonna believe how great this cycle is going now. The transition of stopping the PP and restarting the ephedrine/creatine stack after a 4 day break was like flipping a light switch.

PP had been doing its damnedest to bloat me up while I was off the EC stack and was slowly making progress on that front day by day. DMZ by itself just wasn't enough to hold it back.

So I stop the PP, it seems to clear out of the system in less than a day, and then the ephedrine immediately starts bustin ass and burning calories like it was 50 cents/gal gasoline. It became quickly apparent that 4 days is enough of a break to reset ephedrine back to "factory defaults", or at least not far from it. I bet you I didn't get but maybe 3 hours of solid sleep last night. Just laid there and tossed and turned and drifted off for maybe 20-30 minutes before waking up again and repeat. I finally had to call it quits and get up early.

You remember that bloat? Gone. Not a trace of it anywhere to be found. Skin is tight to the (reasonably thin) fat layer underneath. Jawline is lookin cut in the mirror. Fantastic. So I head to the gym. Weigh in and I lost a pound overnight. Keep in mind, I'm still bulking like a madman here. I probably gained an honest half pound of lean mass last night while I was shedding. I had a kick ass leg/back workout yesterday, took in plenty of protein, and as usual I'd expect the scale to move up a half pound. Nope, it dropped by a pound. So I just lost around 1.5 lb of carbs + fat!

By no accounts should I have been capable of doing more than a half ass routine in the gym today on account of how little sleep I got last night and how tired I should have been. But I wasn't. I didn't feel like I was in 100% ass kicking mode again. I could vaguely feel I was kinda tired. And in fact, my workout probably did suffer in some ways, but you'd be hard pressed to measure where or how. All in all it was a fantastic workout, one of my best ones even.

Once I got in there and started doing stuff I got plenty fired up and blasted through everything with basically the same strength and energy as I had before. No worse for the wear from losing PP it seems. Due to my tiredness I was a little less motivated to push it out and throw in that extra set, but I don't go to failure or anything anyway. I find that when you're on a strong steroid it's best to just stick with medium weights, ones you can control real well, and do higher reps like 10-15, or even up to 25 in some cases (endurance is important too.) Once you get pretty tired and form starts breaking down, quit. That's the method I have been using consistently on this cycle and I have found it works excellent for both mass and strength gains.

I didn't even eat a whole lot of food before this workout. I figure the ephedrine was like damn, not too many carbs today. f--k it let's just burn a s--tload of fat, and while we're at it, scrape around in every crack and crevice in the body looking for any trace of carb bloat that we can find and burn it off too. Came out of the gym looking chiseled, or at least as chiseled as someone with 9% body fat (8.5% now?) can look, lol, and skin feelin all saggy and loose as hell around the abs, pants fallin off again, etc. Guys at this rate I'm gonna be looking like the Bowflex man before the next two weeks are out, haha probably not but I ought to lookin fantastic for sure.

Tomorrow's my rest day so I'm going to catch up on some Z's. One thing I noticed is after the ephedrine side effects "peak" on that first day it gets easier to sleep each day. I might go running on the treadmill or something and give that a try, then I'll report back with my weight often if it continues to drop like I think it will. I think these next two weeks would be a fantastic time to implement a bit of cardio and maybe some extra boxing, etc.

 

[shiftless]

OK guys as of day 4 on ephedrine + DMZ alone I am 2.25 lbs down on the scale. Body fat has decreased down to 8% (carefully measured with calipers, and consistent with mirror appearance) which based on my calculations yields just under 2 lbs of fat lost since I started back on ephedrine. I estimate I lost a good 1.5 lb of glycogen on day 2-3 as the PP got fully out of my system, as my muscles did go down in size a little bit, but have since recovered most of that in lean mass gains. The lean mass is still coming steadily, though gains in that area have probably halved since the PP cleared out of me. Strength and energy are still fantastic and the gains keep on coming in the gym. Libido is still fantastic and minimal shrinkage (perhaps 15-20% max) is evident. I counted my pills and found out I only have like 5-6 days left of ephedrine left, so I'm gonna go ahead and start PCT when it runs out.

The only negative side effect I have really found is that, due to ephedrine's appetite suppressant effect, it's not quite as easy to eat as much as I should to make the highest muscle gains. But then again I've already put on plenty. Today I'm still up over 14 lbs of lean mass despite having lost all that glycogen when I came off PP, and I'm still gaining muscle every day, so I'm cool with focusing on fat loss at this point.

 

[shiftless]

Day 5, been doing some various punching exercises for upper chest development which had been lacking. Still needs work but looking better every day. My legs are starting to look like tree trunks. They are really gaining a lot of size since I been hittin em with deadlifts and various other exercises. I have been setting personal records on everything and seeing huge gains in strength as well. Today I'm down another .75 lbs on the scale putting me at 3 lbs lost over the past 5 days. Counted the ephedrine tablets and I only have 5 days worth left unfortunately, but if things continue at this rate that should be sufficient to get me where I want to be. I am really impressed, this cycle just keeps on delivering.

 

[shiftless]

Day 6, down another pound for a total of 4 lost so far. Ran yesterday and today on the treadmill for 10-12 mins at 8.5 mph. I am not really getting shin splints any more but oxygen intake is the limiting factor. I have good lungs but am used to sea level and the elevation here is 9000 ft, plus the recent pot smoking does not help. (Need to switch to a vaporizer when I get home.) Other than that, running feels effortless (8.5 mph feels like a light jog), and in sprints I am incredibly fast, faster than I have ever been. Every day the fat layer gets noticeably thinner and at this rate I will be in 6 pack territory soon.

 

[texastweeter]

9%bf is six pack territory...if you dont have abbs at 9% your not 9%...

 

[shiftless]

Well, that may be the case, but bear in mind the percentage quoted is what I measured with the calipers and IIRC it's +/- 3% or so. The important thing here IMO is the repeatability from test to test. And I've also heard 7% quoted in other places as being when you see a six pack, so I guess possibly the percentage is not exact or it may vary from person to person. Bottom line is the fat loss here is real and substantial. My muscles are looking pretty defined, pretty much a "4 pak" at the moment, fat layer is gettin pretty thin. Its lookin like 1 or 2 more lbs and I'm gonna start seeing some lines. It really has been dramatic seeing the changes day by day in the mirror!