Sparkss journey to recovery

BEAST73 said:
Sparkss, which side of your body, you are feeling the tweak?
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lower back, left side. But the shooting pains are mainly down the right leg (although I feel pressure/pain in the left too). I get this when I pinch a nerve due to throwing my back out. I would rate this about a 6, maybe even a 5 (scale from 1 to 10) from when I have thrown it out before. I expect to be down for 3 or so days. I have hit 10s before, and that is a week+ to recover. I? alternated ice and heat and just did a 15 minute session on my inversion table (teeter ups). I also have a topical analgesic that my wife brought back from Thailand that works pretty good. I also took 400 mg ibuprofen. I am debating taking a flexeril before bed. I am not sure if this warrants it, to be honest.
 
BEAST73 said:
Sounds like you have aggravated the sciatic nerve.
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yup, that is exactly what it is (from experience, unfortunately) :). the lower back pain is almost secondary to the shooting pains down the leg. But to treat the leg pains I need to treat the back "injury", which really just means rest and recuperation. I just called my doctor for a refill on two prescriptions, so hopefully those will help. It is good to have it all "pre-approved" and be able to just call in for a refill, but also sucks to have a chronic injury like this that actually requires having those on record for "speed dial refills".

I slept for almost 11 hours last night (and no, it was not the flexeril as it was expired when I went to take it, so I skipped it). For some reason when my back goes out it almost always fatigues me overall.

I am pretty sure it was the bent over rows too. As I thought through my workout I did notice a little twinge in my back and it started after the rows, then again everything started after the bent over rows since those were the first exercise I did :). This was the first time at the higher weight on that exercise. Next time I will use an incline bench to support my upper body for the heavier weights, until I feel like my back is fully healed, and even then probably for a while afterwards. I had done it before, where I lay facing the bench, with the bench on a 45 degree angle, and row the BB up from the ground with the bench supporting my weight and upper body. Looks like I need to go back to doing that again *sigh*. I probably should have thought of that before I got hurt and been doing it all along. I do know better, and need to stick to working around my physical limitations (and other chronic injuries), instead of trying to be "like a normal lifter". I guess you could say that I hurt myself doing an ego lift, alone, in my home (with no one to impress but myself). LOL
 
I injured/aggravated My Sciatic Nerve in 2012, and that was the worse pain I have ever endured! I was Hyperventilating the next morning after I injured My back, and it was hurting so bad I had to sleep on the floor.. But after researching on the Sciatic Nerve, applying heat and cold to the lower back, resting for months, and not doing Bent-Over Rows for years.. I have recovered at 90%, But this is a injury that will effect a Person through there normal activities, exercising, and after they have healed.. Now when I do bent-over rows, I go with a light weight 50-70Lbs..
 
BEAST73 said:
I injured/aggravated My Sciatic Nerve in 2012, and that was the worse pain I have ever endured! I was Hyperventilating the next morning after I injured My back, and it was hurting so bad I had to sleep on the floor.. But after researching on the Sciatic Nerve, applying heat and cold to the lower back, resting for months, and not doing Bent-Over Rows for years.. I have recovered at 90%, But this is a injury that will effect a Person through there normal activities, exercising, and after they have healed.. Now when I do bent-over rows, I go with a light weight 50-70Lbs..
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What I found helped was doing the lower back hyper extensions, with just body weight (why I bought a roman chair for my home gym). It helped to strengthen my lower back muscles which reduced the occurrence of sciatica pain. However 1. That is not a license to be stupid (like I was yesterday) and 2. I obviously got a little full of myself going up in the weights w/o focusing more on the proper form, or using the bench to support my body, as I have done in the past.

I am sorry to hear that you had lower back issues yourself. My doctor has prescribe Etodolac (I believe that is the generic name, I forget the trademark name). It is a pretty strong anti-inflammatory, without the sedating qualities of a typical muscle relaxant. It has all of the same restrictions that Ibuprofen has.. taken with food, no lying down for 15 minutes after taking, risk of stomach bleeding, etc. But it works pretty well. I have been taking it for a couple of years, on and off (as needed).

On a separate note, the one thing I had forgotten about, when my back is out, is how painful it is to sneeze, of which I was just reminded, very abruptly.
 
BEAST73 said:
I believe my Back injury was due to a Weak Core, big stomach, and going to heavy with bent-Over rows..
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I can trace mine back to a work injury when I was 19. Funny/sad how a single event like that, so many years ago, can still negatively impact my life through to now. *sigh*.
 
Infra red light is what I use often. This is what I bought:

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The heat goes deep into the tissue, hands down the best for treating back -or neck conditions.
I also use it for releasing sinusitis build up with great results, heating the sinuses right before a sinus rinse.
 
hairygrandpa said:
Infra red light is what I use often. This is what I bought:

Invalid Link Removed

The heat goes deep into the tissue, hands down the best for treating back -or neck conditions.
I also use it for releasing sinusitis build up with great results, heating the sinuses right before a sinus rinse.
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Thanks for the tip and link. I ordered it earlier today, it will be here Sunday. Although I am already feeling better (but not great). I can walk almost upright now, but still have pain and the wrong move makes me call out in pain. But the sciatic nerve pain appears to be mostly gone now. We will see how I feel tomorrow.
 
Back still out, but better than it was last week. I would feel OK going to bed, but would wake up worse than the night before. We put a piece of plywood between our mattress and box springs last yesterday and it appeared to help with my sleeping.

I have been hovering right around 190 lbs, between 190.0 and 190.6.

The bloat has been pretty much absent the last couple of days, although it appeared a little this morning. Then again yesterday was the first day I have had an appetite since I hurt my back. I also did not have a BM at all yesterday, which is very rare for me. I felt bloated this morning and about half way through my morning coffee it hit me. So I weighed this morning when I got up, half a cup of coffee and nothing else since then, after my BM I weight right at 190.0. So I was definitely over due. I am guessing the anti-inflammatory and muscle relaxant meds are playing a bit of havoc with my digestion. I know some opiods can cause constipation, so maybe these can too?

For now I am still staying the course on the LGD and MK (was planning to run the MK for a week or two after the LGD anyways). Next Saturday is the end of the 12th week. (12 days from today). If I can recover enough I might be able to get 1 more week of good exercise in on this run.
 
FireTitan said:
Hope it gets better soon brother, I know you're itching to get back to 100%
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And then some... thanks for the well wishes. I am itching to lift something to the point I am trying to think if ways to really isolate and eliminate any back engagement and try to workout. But I already know where that will lead, most likely more pain. If I had a ton of machines it might be possible. But as my weights and exercises are all free and body weights, it takes some back involvement just to get into position for most of the exercises. *sigh* :(. Plus, my daughter has a play her Girl Scout troop bought tickets for this Thursday evening, so I need to be as recovered as possible to be one of the chaperones for that. So no tempting fate with any lifting until at least Friday morning.
 
Sparkss said:
And then some... thanks for the well wishes. I am itching to lift something to the point I am trying to think if ways to really isolate and eliminate any back engagement and try to workout. But I already know where that will lead, most likely more pain. If I had a ton of machines it might be possible. But as my weights and exercises are all free and body weights, it takes some back involvement just to get into position for most of the exercises. *sigh* :(. Plus, my daughter has a play her Girl Scout troop bought tickets for this Thursday evening, so I need to be as recovered as possible to be one of the chaperones for that. So no tempting fate with any lifting until at least Friday morning.
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Well Im not sure exactly what the issue is, and I know this sounds ridiculously simple, but have you taken any hot baths and soaked in epsom salt? I know with different muscle aches Ive had throughout my many years of injuries, from football to fights and just flat out accidents and stupidity, epsom salt soaks have really helped with an uncountable number of injuries. Just a thought. Plus its really cheap. I really wish I could do more for you my man!
 
FireTitan said:
Well Im not sure exactly what the issue is, and I know this sounds ridiculously simple, but have you taken any hot baths and soaked in epsom salt? I know with different muscle aches Ive had throughout my many years of injuries, from football to fights and just flat out accidents and stupidity, epsom salt soaks have really helped with an uncountable number of injuries. Just a thought. Plus its really cheap. I really wish I could do more for you my man!
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I appreciate it, but nothing to be done but rest and recuperate. I just aggravated an old injury. I have chronic bulging discs between L4, L5, S1 and they are puttin pressure on my sciatic nerve. I have Flexeril, and Lodine prescriptions plus alternating heat and ice, along with an inversion table. This is unfortunately nothing new for me. I did pick up the infrared heat lamp that hairygrandpa suggested and use it along with a topic analgesic that we brought back from Southeast Asia.

EDIT: My original diagnosis was by an Orthopedic Surgeon who reviewed my MRI and referred me to a Spinal Specialist. My current treatment is by my GP, but is a mirror image/extension of the treatment plan laid out by the previous specialists. :)
 
I did my first set of exercises today, light to medium weight, 100% 0 lower back engagement. I stuck alot with body weights, or exercises where my upper body was 100% supported by the bench.

push ups
dips
pull ups
incline DB rows (lying face down on an incline bench, rowing the DBs).
seated bicep curls
close grip push ups
seated overhead DB presses

I managed to get 3 ~ 4 sets, 10 - 15 reps each for those exercises and also managed to work up a bit of a sweat. So far no lower back pain, which is good. But I did get a pretty sick pump going. Glad to know that my muscles still know how to do that :).
 
A couple of small updates.

Supplements

I started taking 2 Forslean (25mg F95 each) capsules pre-workout and one at bedtime. On non-workout days I take one in the morning, before breakfast and one at night, before bedtime. I started this a couple of weeks ago, but as I have been laid up the last week, it hasn't been consistent enough for me to notice a difference.

I bumped MK back up to 20mg last night. With my more or less controlled diet the last week (no appetite for the most part, from the lower back injury/pain) I have noticed that the bloat is more or less non-existent, which leads me to believe that I can control it through dietary intake control. So I bumped it back up to 20 to see how that treats me. I can always drop back to 10 if need be. but the 2 year study was at 25mg ed, so I am still below that, and don't plan to bump up to 30mg.

I have 1 week + 1 day left of LGD (to hit 12 weeks). I bumped it to 2 pills this morning (16mg) and intend to run it at that dose through to the end, unless something happens to change my mind. But as it is only 1 week, I doubt anything will crop up. Call it "going out with a bang" :). I think on the next LGD run I will ramp up to 16mg within the first 2 months through the 3rd (final) month.

Nutrition

As some of you may know I make up my protein shakes for the week ahead, as I like to use a good base commercial product and then add in compounds (that I buy in bulk) that were missing, or not at the dosage I wanted. I also buy my whey (90% Isolate, Casein and Hydro), BCAA and Carb powders in bulk and make my own pre and post "blends". So I know exactly how much of each that I have in them, no prop blends. I had been using the "estimates" on the labels for how much was in a TBS of each. I broke out the scale yesterday and checked those estimates. They were waaaay off. It turned out I was taking in almost 70g protein post and 35g+ pre, and the carbs were a little higher than expected/calculated. This was way more than I feel that I needed and I think contributed to excess weight gain and even bloat (from the excess protein in my intestines). I fine tuned it and now am getting 17g protein/19g carbs pre and 28g protein/29g carbs post. The carbs in the pre are a combination of a small amount of high and mostly low glycemic carbs (taken less than 15 mins before I start lifting). The ones in the post are mostly high with some low glycemic carbs. Just enough to trigger an insulin response w/o overloading the system.

Time will tell how this adjustment will work out for me.
 
Sparkss said:
A couple of small updates.

Supplements

I started taking 2 Forslean (25mg F95 each) capsules pre-workout and one at bedtime. On non-workout days I take one in the morning, before breakfast and one at night, before bedtime. I started this a couple of weeks ago, but as I have been laid up the last week, it hasn't been consistent enough for me to notice a difference.

I bumped MK back up to 20mg last night. With my more or less controlled diet the last week (no appetite for the most part, from the lower back injury/pain) I have noticed that the bloat is more or less non-existent, which leads me to believe that I can control it through dietary intake control. So I bumped it back up to 20 to see how that treats me. I can always drop back to 10 if need be. but the 2 year study was at 25mg ed, so I am still below that, and don't plan to bump up to 30mg.

I have 1 week + 1 day left of LGD (to hit 12 weeks). I bumped it to 2 pills this morning (16mg) and intend to run it at that dose through to the end, unless something happens to change my mind. But as it is only 1 week, I doubt anything will crop up. Call it "going out with a bang" :). I think on the next LGD run I will ramp up to 16mg within the first 2 months through the 3rd (final) month.

Nutrition

As some of you may know I make up my protein shakes for the week ahead, as I like to use a good base commercial product and then add in compounds (that I buy in bulk) that were missing, or not at the dosage I wanted. I also buy my whey (90% Isolate, Casein and Hydro), BCAA and Carb powders in bulk and make my own pre and post "blends". So I know exactly how much of each that I have in them, no prop blends. I had been using the "estimates" on the labels for how much was in a TBS of each. I broke out the scale yesterday and checked those estimates. They were waaaay off. It turned out I was taking in almost 70g protein post and 35g+ pre, and the carbs were a little higher than expected/calculated. This was way more than I feel that I needed and I think contributed to excess weight gain and even bloat (from the excess protein in my intestines). I fine tuned it and now am getting 17g protein/19g carbs pre and 28g protein/29g carbs post. The carbs in the pre are a combination of a small amount of high and mostly low glycemic carbs (taken less than 15 mins before I start lifting). The ones in the post are mostly high with some low glycemic carbs. Just enough to trigger an insulin response w/o overloading the system.

Time will tell how this adjustment will work out for me.
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Well thought out about the protein intake and insulin response!
Nowadays I'm trying to go without shakes and get the protein from food, not an easy feat.
 
Sparkss said:
Yea, I am too hooked on the convenience of the shakes, but from what I have read real food trumps the shakes, when possible.
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Can't beat real Food! It's hard for me to get 200g of protein a day stay at my cals without eating chicken all the time.
I'm too damn old and don't compete so i'm not going to kill myself. I consume 75-100g of protein a day from shakes and bars. If chicken is on the menu i will cut back or go over my protein target.
 
BEAST73 were you supplementing with Ostarine or Cardarine? I thought I recalled you mentioning having used one of those? I don't remember which thread you mentioned it in, so just trying to tag you in here. Thanks!
 
Sparkss said:
BEAST73 were you supplementing with Ostarine or Cardarine? I thought I recalled you mentioning having used one of those? I don't remember which thread you mentioned it in, so just trying to tag you in here. Thanks!
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I think it was low dose Ostarine like 10mg a day?
 
Studhorse said:
I think it was low dose Ostarine like 10mg a day?
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That's what I thought too. Thanks. I was just wondering how he liked it over all and if he did any blood labs and if so, how were his liver values.
 
Sparkss said:
That's what I thought too. Thanks. I was just wondering how he liked it over all and if he did any blood labs and if so, how were his liver values.
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its pretty easy on the liver. normal dose is 25mg a day. your on TRT so shut down won't be an issue.
just the normal NAC should be enough.
 
Studhorse said:
its pretty easy on the liver. normal dose is 25mg a day. your on TRT so shut down won't be an issue.
just the normal NAC should be enough.
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actually most reports are that it is one of the roughest SARMs on the liver, at least for some people.
 
Sparkss said:
actually most reports are that it is one of the roughest SARMs on the liver, at least for some people.
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When I did the T-bol cycle with 80mg/day, my liver values were out of whack using 1.6g NAC/day. T-bol is rather liver friendly in comparison to other AAS, my guess is, LGD is maybe half as bad as T-bol. You should also take 500mg Tudca/day to be sure.
 
hairygrandpa said:
When I did the T-bol cycle with 80mg/day, my liver values were out of whack using 1.6g NAC/day. T-bol is rather liver friendly in comparison to other AAS, my guess is, LGD is maybe half as bad as T-bol. You should also take 500mg Tudca/day to be sure.
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Already taking NAC. Going for blood work the week after next, after my last LGD dose. I am not taking tudca (yet), but may pick some up depending on the test results (for use now and definitely the next cycle).
 
Sparkss, if you thinking about running Osta, You need to run it with Epiandrosterone, and you will get great results!
I would do a 8-10 week cycle and followed by a PCT..
 
BEAST73 said:
Sparkss, if you thinking about running Osta, You need to run it with Epiandrosterone, and you will get great results!
I would do a 8-10 week cycle and followed by a PCT..
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I am on doc administered TRT, so no need for epiandro or a PCT, just a "cooling off" period between cycles, to let my lipids and liver levels recover (some more than the others, depending on the compound used for the cycle). I will go for blood work after next week to assess how out of whack mine are. I expect the lipids to be thrashed from the LGD, but the liver values to be within range. Mine were very low before I started (I did labs a week or so before I started this run).
 
did a back/shoulders workout today. I only went a little light on the weights for exercises I could not stabilize my lower back with the bench. Other than that, and completely skipping crunches and planks (just too much lower back engagement to risk it), my workout was more or less "normal"

Bent Over Row 95x15 3x175x8
Pullups 4x10
DB Rows 3x70x15
Shrugs 3x70x15
1 Arm Pulldowns 3x75x15
Seated DB Presses 3x45x12
Upright Rows 3x70x15
Side Lateral Raises 3x25x12


I also think that I am responding well to the doubled up LGD. I look leaner and more pumped. I should have bumped the dosage earlier. Then again I am not 100% sure it wasn't that forced de-condition week off I just took. but I do feel that I look bigger overall right now, after these last two workouts.
 
I slept badly Sunday night, so yesterday turned into a rest day. Today I slept better, but not great, but still good enough to be able to motivate myself to work out :)

Flat DB Press 40x15 3x70x12
Incline DB Hex Press 3x60x9
1 Arm Incline flies 3x20x15
DB Pullovers 3x50x12
Hammer Curls 3x30x15
Cross Bench Triceps Dips 3x15
Crunches 3x30

I was a little weaker on a couple of the presses today. maybe due to the sleep issues? I did wrap up with some crunches, which I was not sure if my lower back would handle or not, but I was able to finish them without any (lower back) pain.

Saturday wraps up my LGD run. I weighted in at 191.6 this morning and looking relatively lean. Even though I fell off the wagon last night and ate chips from a Tex-Mex restaurant while watching a movie with the family (and having a glass of wine). So not only eating the chips, but doing so later in the evening pretty close to bed. *sigh* :).

I scheduled a blood draw for next Wednesday morning, to take it fasted for the lipids. Then I can see how out of whack my numbers are, for liver, kidneys and lipids. (although I only expect to see the lipids out of whack, still checking all of the rest too).

I am already lining up some Cardarine to start after the blood draw, as it is reported to have lipid and other benefits. But that all depends on all of the results of the blood test.
 
Did legs today. I skipped lunges and crunches since my lower back was feeling a little "fatigued". I also only did 2 sets of light weights on the dead lifts. I "slipped" a little on my final set of squats and did not stabilize my back. That sort of set the tone for the rest of the workout *sigh*.

Squats 1x135x15 3x195x8
Stiff Legged Dead lifts 2x155x10
Kneeling Leg Extensions 3x10x10
1 Leg Standing Calf Raises 2x70x20 1x70x16
Leg Curls 3x40x12


I posted this in another thread and wanted to share it here (meant to post it here first, but ended up doing the opposite :)).

Sparkss said:
To start off I am on doctor administered/monitored TRT (currently using pellets, switching to shots at the end of this run of pellets, in 1 ~ 2 months). So I can't comment on suppression or suppression caused lethargy.

I have some GW (10mg), Osta (3mg) and Rad (8mg) on the way, to test/run over the next couple of months. All of those will include pre/intra/post bloods. I chose 3mg for the Osta as that is the dosage used in the clinical trials, and even at that dosage some liver toxicity was noted by the researchers. At the higher (bodybuilding) doses there are many anecdotal reports of liver toxicity, backed by blood work, not "feelz". I also went for the lowest "effective" dose of both GW and Rad, and can increase as needed, depending on what the mid-run labs say about the lower dosage impact on my health markers.

Here are the numbers from the start of my LGD/MK run.

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EDIT: the above SARMs I have on the way will be run separately, or at least in such a fashion as to be able to differentiate the cause, positive or negative, of any health marker changes.
 
I took yesterday off. My legs were sore AF last night (that is when the DOMS set in/hit me). Truth be told I wanted to take today off, but tomorrow is my last dose day for the LGD, so I pushed myself to workout this morning. My lower back was feeling a bit stressed (not really sure why, to be honest, maybe from the leg workout), so I switched up my workout a bit, focusing more on the shoulders and some back exercises that I have not done in a while. I was also a little pressed for time so I super-setted a couple of the exercises.

Incline DB Rows 40x15 3x60x8
Pullups 3x10
Incline DB Flyes/High Pulls (SS) 3x30x10
Shrugs 2x75x12
Seated DB Presses 3x45x12
Front/Side Raise (SS) 3x25x12
Crunches 2x50

I felt relatively strong, but fatigued overall, even after I got going. I have a ton to get done tomorrow around the house and am considering making it a rest day workout-wise and letting the LGD work on my recovery versus trying to get one more workout in. Per an online half-life calculator I will still be at 8mg saturation through Sunday (Which was the dosage for my first 11 weeks).

36 hours - 8 mg / 50%
72 hours - 4 mg / 25%
108 hours - 2 mg / 13%
144 hours - 1 mg / 6%
180 hours - 1 mg / 3%
216 hours - 0 mg / 1%
252 hours - 0 mg / 0%

One thing I will try to make happen is at least 1 workout between Saturday and Sunday this weekend, most likely on Sunday morning, and most likely another "changed up" workout. Then again I may be physically exhausted from working Saturday and just bag it. Time will tell :)
 
Yesterday was the last LGD dose. I miss it already LOL. I definitely think the partitioning affect was helping me. I weighed in this morning at 187 even. I also have been struggling with an impingement in my left shoulder (my non-surgery shoulder). It mainly flares up when I go to bed and I just can't get comfortable and end up waking up the next morning barely able to lift my arm w/o pain for the first 15 minutes or so. I also have a bunch of "life" happening (family and work) across the next couple of days and then through the holiday weekend, which I am taking a 4-day weekend off from work and tackling some of the larger of the honey-dos on my list. So I will be taking the next week off, through the 4th, making it an 11 day break. Hopefully by the end of it my shoulder will be "healed". That is the plan, but we will see how reality matches up against it :).

I also have my blood draw on Wednesday and expect to have the Cardarine and other SARMs by the end of the week. From what I read at least one of those may come in handy during my recovery and as a bridge while my lipids, etc, recover before my next run of something.
 
Sparkss said:
Yesterday was the last LGD dose. I miss it already LOL. I definitely think the partitioning affect was helping me. I weighed in this morning at 187 even. I also have been struggling with an impingement in my left shoulder (my non-surgery shoulder). It mainly flares up when I go to bed and I just can't get comfortable and end up waking up the next morning barely able to lift my arm w/o pain for the first 15 minutes or so. I also have a bunch of "life" happening (family and work) across the next couple of days and then through the holiday weekend, which I am taking a 4-day weekend off from work and tackling some of the larger of the honey-dos on my list. So I will be taking the next week off, through the 4th, making it an 11 day break. Hopefully by the end of it my shoulder will be "healed". That is the plan, but we will see how reality matches up against it :).

I also have my blood draw on Wednesday and expect to have the Cardarine and other SARMs by the end of the week. From what I read at least one of those may come in handy during my recovery and as a bridge while my lipids, etc, recover before my next run of something.
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Try not to sleep on that shoulder or put that arm behind your head.
 
Sparkss said:
Yesterday was the last LGD dose. I miss it already LOL. I definitely think the partitioning affect was helping me. I weighed in this morning at 187 even. I also have been struggling with an impingement in my left shoulder (my non-surgery shoulder). It mainly flares up when I go to bed and I just can't get comfortable and end up waking up the next morning barely able to lift my arm w/o pain for the first 15 minutes or so. I also have a bunch of "life" happening (family and work) across the next couple of days and then through the holiday weekend, which I am taking a 4-day weekend off from work and tackling some of the larger of the honey-dos on my list. So I will be taking the next week off, through the 4th, making it an 11 day break. Hopefully by the end of it my shoulder will be "healed". That is the plan, but we will see how reality matches up against it :).

I also have my blood draw on Wednesday and expect to have the Cardarine and other SARMs by the end of the week. From what I read at least one of those may come in handy during my recovery and as a bridge while my lipids, etc, recover before my next run of something.
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Nowadays I use Hydrolyzed Collagen Peptides Powder. It's mainly protein (97%) as my post workout shake, guessing it may be helpful for joint and tendon health -and for building muscles as well.
 
Studhorse said:
Try not to sleep on that shoulder or put that arm behind your head.
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It is definitely positional for me. and I do tend to like to put my arm up under my pillow, however if I do I wake up about an hour later in severe pain, shooting down my arm from my shoulder. Ironically at the moment I can tuck my surgery side arm under my pillow w/o issue, but my other one, not at all. After an hour or so after waking it feels "normal".

hairygrandpa said:
Nowadays I use Hydrolyzed Collagen Peptides Powder. It's mainly protein (97%) as my post workout shake, guessing it may be helpful for joint and tendon health -and for building muscles as well.
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I may look into that. For now I am just going to take it easy for the next couple of days. I say that, but if my shoulder progresses I may throw a light weight all-body workout in towards the end of the week. Thursday and possibly Friday are the only days I don't have anything going on, between now and next Wednesday.

I also started taking taurine this morning, 1g, 3x a day, to see if that helps with the minimal bloat I feel like I am seeing.
 
I ate relatively clean yesterday (no sugar, simple carbs, excessively fatty foods, etc. that is my definition of clean). But I ate a fair bit more than I would normally, which I could get away with when I was running something, but now that I am not (well, still MK, but nothing anabolic) I got a little worried that I would start putting the weight back on. I gain visceral fat super easy when I am on a surplus. I guess I had enough LGD floating around in me to dodge that. I was around 189 ~ 190 both yesterday and this morning, actually a little lower today, but I tend to discount smaller fluctuations day to day.

I also noticed my midsection a little leaner this morning. Maybe the taurine is helping, but I would be surprised (and doubtful) if it started making a difference this fast. I did start eating Goji Berries this past weekend. In reviewing my past blood labs I decided I needed to do something about my kidney #s and Goji Berries was on the rather short list of things that are purported to help with kidney function. Plus they have a host of other benefits, so I gave them a try. I must say I rather like them now, although it took a couple of days and a couple of servings to acquire a taste for them. They are a little tart with an odd after taste. but I found myself grazing on them yesterday while I was working, eating a fair bit more than I had planned. Since they are also high in fiber I did not want to eat too much in one sitting to avoid spending time sitting someplace else that day :), but despite eating a small bowl of them I didn't have any GI incidents. From a couple of web sites they claim, in addition to promoting liver and kidney health, that they lower blood sugar, lower blood pressure and boost immune system. There are some that claim testosterone and sperm count increases, insulin sensitivity improvements, including recovery for insulin producing cells and anti-inflammatory benefits. I mainly stuck to getting information from the web sites that were not also trying to sell the berries. I don't know about all of those claims, but if even half of them are true, it is a win. I am just after the kidney function improvements :).

Code: 
Goji berries are a good source of vitamins and minerals, including:

vitamin C
fiber
iron
vitamin A
zinc
antioxidants
These berries contain all 8 essential amino acids. A single 4 ounce serving provides nearly 10 percent of your daily value for protein. For fruit, this is a surprising amount of protein.

The carbohydrates in goji berries are also complex carbs. This means your blood sugar will raise slowly, reducing your risk of a sugar crash afterwards.
 
I have been taking the aforementioned break from lifting, but I have not been "relaxing". I have kept up a steady pace of work around the house, cleaning out the storage area, a project of which I am on day four. *ugghh*. I do plan to start back exercising tomorrow. However I also had to cut back on my stims as I was getting hypertension headaches and found that my BP was pretty high. It has affected my work output a little, not being able to stim myself up.

I would guess I am well past any effects from LGD, as per the half life calculator I should have less than 1mg in my system at this point. I did get my blood tests back and they were not what I expected. Although my TRT is still holding strong, at 602 for test, which is surprising considering some complications I have had with the pellets. I will be glad to be off of them and on to shots within the few months.

I am running around 186 right now, with a small variance, as low as 185 and as high as 187, day to day.

I am now running Taurine 1g 3x per day and it does appear to be helping with the bloat from MK (which I am also still running at 20mg at bedtime).

My pants fit looser but I still don't look super "lean" (to my eye). I also lost a little size in my upper body, likely just the glycogen stores "pump" I had going from the LGD.

My other supps have not shown up yet, but I may be starting the GW once they get here. I also have an appointment to donate blood this weekend, due to the hemocrit #s I just got back.
 
Here are my post LGD run blood work results.

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Not at all what I expected. My liver took a beating, my lipids actually improved (marginally, except for my HDL, which got worse) and my kidneys were relatively unchanged. and my hemocrit #s jumped, but that may have been the result of my TRT dosage being out of whack and it is now lowered and back in line. I have a blood donation scheduled for this weekend to hopefully take care of that.

I take NAC (600mg 2x a day) and Cholesterol support that includes Policosanol. Those are just part of my daily vitamin regime, along with fish oil and a multi. I am debating taking some TUDCA for a couple of weeks, or just let my liver recover normally (laying off of alcohol for a while).
 
Sparkss said:
Here are my post LGD run blood work results.

Invalid Link Removed

Not at all what I expected. My liver took a beating, my lipids actually improved (marginally, except for my HDL, which got worse) and my kidneys were relatively unchanged. and my hemocrit #s jumped, but that may have been the result of my TRT dosage being out of whack and it is now lowered and back in line. I have a blood donation scheduled for this weekend to hopefully take care of that.

I take NAC (600mg 2x a day) and Cholesterol support that includes Policosanol. Those are just part of my daily vitamin regime, along with fish oil and a multi. I am debating taking some TUDCA for a couple of weeks, or just let my liver recover normally (laying off of alcohol for a while).
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Numbers look good man, wouldn't stress at all about the ast and alt, deffinitely not the definition of your liver taking a beating.
 
NoAddedHmones said:
Numbers look good man, wouldn't stress at all about the ast and alt, deffinitely not the definition of your liver taking a beating.
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Thanks. Yes, the AST is only 1 point over the "good range", but the ALT is 4x the "good range" for it. So that sort of freaked me out a little, especially since the generally held consensus was that LGD did not negatively affect the liver, which, at least for me, I now know to be incorrect (any negative trend is an impact, although from what I have read still less than AAS). I think I read that AST is more closely watched than ALT, as ALT can be much more suceptible to transient impacts and fluctuates more than AST (if I recall what I read and am interpreting it correctly). I've got some Arm1care Pro that I picked up during that last sale. Should I run it for a week or two, even though it is more for on-cycle? Or should I save it for my next cycle that needs the on-cycle support?
 
Sparkss said:
Thanks. Yes, the AST is only 1 point over the "good range", but the ALT is 4x the "good range" for it. So that sort of freaked me out a little, especially since the generally held consensus was that LGD did not negatively affect the liver, which, at least for me, I now know to be incorrect (any negative trend is an impact, although from what I have read still less than AAS). I think I read that AST is more closely watched than ALT, as ALT can be much more suceptible to transient impacts and fluctuates more than AST (if I recall what I read and am interpreting it correctly). I've got some Arm1care Pro that I picked up during that last sale. Should I run it for a week or two, even though it is more for on-cycle? Or should I save it for my next cycle that needs the on-cycle support?
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Deffinitely save it for next run. You are right on the ALT, if I have a big legs hypertrophy session the night before blood work my alt and ast are nearly outside normal range. You should be very happy your support supps kept everything in a relatively good range while using LGD.

Now there is no longer the lgd variable in the equation there is no reason you levels shouldn't regress to its homeostatic levels.
 
I have been remiss in posting here. I worked out Wed (Back/Shoulders), Thur (Chest/Arms) and Fri (Legs). I was a little weaker on most of the lifts, usually 2 ~ 3 reps less than when I was on LGD. But otherwise decent workouts. I took Sat/Sun off due to my daughters and my own b'days. I worked out yesterday, upper body 'strength' (low reps, high weight). I am actually still sore from Friday's leg day, so taking another day off (plus I have work meetings this morning and tomorrow morning, so sort of a forced couple of days, but my body is telling me that it needs to rest, I ache all over at the moment).

I have more or less stabilized at 185 lbs (weighed first thing in the morning). I would say I gained 5 lb LBM on the LGD run, but I also leaned out a helluva lot. I am not sure how I feel about that run. I had great strength while on it, and I was up to 198 in the midst of the run, but it showed in my midsection and almost all of it was water weight that disappeared within a week or so of stopping the LGD, not to mention that while I looked good in a shirt, not so much without one.

I also think that the 8mg was too low of a dose for me. If I run it again I will make some changes. 1. Include at least a low dose of Tudca and 2. start at 8 mg but build up to 16 mg within the first 3 weeks.
 
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