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8 Week Androseries V3 log (Mass w/a bit of Bulk and Hard)

Week 5 Update:


Sorry, didn't get a chance to update over the weekend, but here we go.

Overall, I just have more of the same to report from previous weeks. Strength gains for my workouts this week haven't been quite as crazy, so I've just been taking the time to focus on getting quality reps/sets rather than just beating my log book at all costs. My weight seems to fluctuate quite a bit from day-to-day, so I would hesitate to guess at a solid number as far as weight gain so far. I'm thinking maybe I've gained a good 8 lbs or so, but again it's hard to really pinpoint an exact figure when my weight bounces around >5lbs some days. I do have to say that I'm having to increase calories a lot more than I expected to get the scale moving up. It seems like these Andros have my metabolism running so hot, it's difficult to out-fuel them. In retrospect, my eating style is probably not the best suited to a steroid cycle, but it has worked quite well for me as far as ensuring that my gains are lean so I'm going to stick with it.

As far as side effects, libido is down a bit. But, at least it's there when I need it, unlike when I was on epistane and it just got destroyed.

That about sums up the highlights.
 
Week 6 Update:

Seems like things are really coming together here towards the latter half of the cycle. When I look in the mirror now it's like my body has that dense sort of "on" look (even with the bloating). I've been trying to put my finger on what has been missing, and I feel like that's it. My weight has been pretty consistently just a bit under 170 this week, and considering I was just under 160 when I started that makes about a 10 pound gain. I don't know that I'm going to hit that 175 goal, but I think I'm going to switch things up a bit and plan to end this at a slightly leaner 170.

In side effect news libido is good, but bloating is still there. :/

Other bad news, I appear to have caught a cold. Hasn't been too bad so far, a mild cough and congestion, some sluggishness. Felt pretty sluggish yesterday, but still was able to kill it in the gym. Supposed to do legs today, but I'm thinking I should just take the day off to hopefully recover a bit more. This cold has been sort of slowly creeping up on me for weeks, so I'm hoping it just peters out.

I also wanted to mention that I've decided to extend the cycle by one week with sort of a 'bridge' of just Androhard at 6/day. I think I mentioned earlier that I will be going on vacation at the end of the 8 weeks, and I don't want to come completely off the cycle on a week that I won't be in the gym. Not that my muscles are going to fall off in one week away from the gym of course, and if anything I plan to push myself these last couple weeks so that I need that recovery, but this will give me a bit of peace of mind, and hopefully get me unbloated and lean for the beach. :)
 
So 9 weeks total now? I think you may just hit that 175, perhaps bump those cals a bit and during that last week on AH tighten it up.
 
ryansm said:
So 9 weeks total now? I think you may just hit that 175, perhaps bump those cals a bit and during that last week on AH tighten it up.
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Yeah, it will be 9 weeks total with the extra week of AH. The main reason I want to end the cycle a little leaner is that I will want to bump the calories up a bit post-cycle to help keep my gains. Ending leaner will give ma a little bit of a 'buffer zone' for that. But, I agree I may be able to hit 175. I seem to be gaining well on my current cals, so I think I'll mostly keep them steady these last couple weeks and see what happens.
 
Scuba Steveo said:
Yeah, it will be 9 weeks total with the extra week of AH. The main reason I want to end the cycle a little leaner is that I will want to bump the calories up a bit post-cycle to help keep my gains. Ending leaner will give ma a little bit of a 'buffer zone' for that. But, I agree I may be able to hit 175. I seem to be gaining well on my current cals, so I think I'll mostly keep them steady these last couple weeks and see what happens.
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Smart man, too many guys like to drop calories into PCT and end up losing most their work.
 
HereToStudy said:
Smart man, too many guys like to drop calories into PCT and end up losing most their work.
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Along those lines, I'm curious about something, and I would appreciate anyone's input on this:

At what point after a cycle is it 'safe' (i.e. relatively minimal risk of losing the newly-added muscle) to begin cutting?

Obviously what we normally refer to as "PCT", the four weeks immediately following the cycle, would be a horrible time to cut. But, would it be a good idea immediately after PCT? One month after? Two months? I'm guessing the longer the better, but at what point will there be diminishing returns so to speak? Being new to cycling, I'm just interested in what peoples' opinions/experiences are.
 
I do 4weeks Pct-3 weeks off ( all supps) but keep the basic Mulit Vit fish oil BCAA Etc..... then do a cut...
 
Scuba Steveo said:
Along those lines, I'm curious about something, and I would appreciate anyone's input on this:

At what point after a cycle is it 'safe' (i.e. relatively minimal risk of losing the newly-added muscle) to begin cutting?

Obviously what we normally refer to as "PCT", the four weeks immediately following the cycle, would be a horrible time to cut. But, would it be a good idea immediately after PCT? One month after? Two months? I'm guessing the longer the better, but at what point will there be diminishing returns so to speak? Being new to cycling, I'm just interested in what peoples' opinions/experiences are.
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There is no answer for this. Some guys can do it quicker then others, some guys have trouble carrying weight and must wait months. The best way to know is to prove you have fully recovered with bloodwork. At least then you know a lack of natural hormone production won't worsen the problem.
 
Not much new to report, so I'm just going to do a joint Week 7 and 8 update later this week. I will also take 'after' pics on Friday morning (I'm staying on the AH for one week after this of course, but since I will be on vacation, conditions won't be well-controlled.), and hopefully get them up that night. When I get back the following week I will write up a final review and what not.

Quick question for anyone in the know. I'm wanting to try Androdrive at some point, and I'm just wondering at what point after this cycle it would be safe. I understand it is not very suppressive, so is it something you could feasibly run between cycles? Could it potentially be a lead-in to a cycle? I was thinking of doing another cycle of something around August, so just wondering what my options are, if there are any. :)
 
Scuba Steveo said:
Not much new to report, so I'm just going to do a joint Week 7 and 8 update later this week. I will also take 'after' pics on Friday morning (I'm staying on the AH for one week after this of course, but since I will be on vacation, conditions won't be well-controlled.), and hopefully get them up that night. When I get back the following week I will write up a final review and what not.

Quick question for anyone in the know. I'm wanting to try Androdrive at some point, and I'm just wondering at what point after this cycle it would be safe. I understand it is not very suppressive, so is it something you could feasibly run between cycles? Could it potentially be a lead-in to a cycle? I was thinking of doing another cycle of something around August, so just wondering what my options are, if there are any. :)
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I would wait at least 4 weeks, even though it is mild you want the fastest recovery possible in PCT. So 4 weeks after I think you should be good to go and if you respond well you could run AD up until your next cycle.
 
Week 7 & 8 Update:

I will write a more detailed final review when I return next week, but I just wanted to give a quick update. Everything has still been going well. Strength has continued to go up well, particularly on lower body exercises. Body weight has stayed pretty consistent. Interestingly, despite dropping calories a fair amount, my weight has stayed the same all week. I seem to be stable still at right under 170 lbs, while I started at just under 160, so all told a 10 lb gain for this cycle. And, if anything I feel like I'm a bit leaner after this week. I didn't have time to get pics this morning as my photographers (i.e. wife) had to leave early. But, I will be sure to take pics tomorrow morning and get them up when I'm back next week.

No real sides to report. Libido is good to go. Even the bloat seems to have gone down this week.

At any rate, more to come next week. And, I will continue logging through PCT if people are interested.
 
Scuba Steveo said:
Final Review/Thoughts:

First, I should post some metrics for the cycle. The first measurements were taken one week into the cycle on 1-21, and the second were taken this morning, 3-12, a few days after the last dose of AH:

Arms (flexed): 15.25" -> 15.5"
Things (middle, between knees and hips): 22.5" -> 24"
Calves: 14.5" -> 15" (this one actually surprised me most)
Stomach (at belly button, relaxed): 32" -> 32"
Chest: 40.5" -> 41"

These were with a total 10 pound weight gain, from ~160 to 170.

And a sampling of some lift changes from week 1 to 8:

Romanian Deadlifts: 275x4 -> 315x6
Squats: 225x5 -> 245x6 (with better [i.e. deeper] form)
Incline Bench: 165x6 -> 185x8
Plate-loaded Machine Row: 230x10 -> 260x10

Rather than do the arbitrary 10 point scale I thought I would post my thoughts on each individual cycle and how I feel it contributed to the cycle. Due to the somewhat staggered method of my dosing I feel I gained a decent idea of the effects of each of the products used.

Androhard: This one actually surprised me the most from the cycle. It was somewhat of a last minute add-in that really I just wanted to try out. I could very quickly (within a few days) feel the increased aggression, sense of well-being, and most of all strength. I could definitely feel the difference in strength the week I dropped the dose from 6/day down to 2/day. If someone were looking to the Andro series for strength increases, this is definitely the one I would recommend.

Andromass: In some ways I feel like the AM was sort of a jack-of-all-trades, master of none. Don't get me wrong, I think it is a good product, but it was not quite the mass monster I was hoping for. I did gain a good amount of lean mass on the cycle, but holy hell did I have to eat a lot to get there. And this is from someone who normally can gain weight just by looking at food. I found myself having to throw in a few "dirtier" (pizza, dessert, etc.) to get the scale moving. I'm sure the half dose of AH contributed a good deal to strength gains, but if some strength were my main goal I would just go straight to the AH. Overall, I would recommend AM to someone looking to do a recomp. I should qualify that the extra AH in the cycle may have contributed to the increased metabolism, and thus hindered the gains a bit. So, really it may be that 9 AM/day and 3 AH/day would be the 'perfect' recomp cycle.

Androbulk: I feel like it was after the addition of the AB that I started to see the most mass gains. Unfortunately, this also brought on a bit of bloating with the extra Super-4-DHEA. But, if your goal is pure mass this is the Andro series product I would recommend.

To summarize:
AH: strength, possibly fat loss
AM: recomp with some strength gains
AB: pure mass

Side Effects: This was probably one of the biggest draws to the Andro series as they are marketed, and I found them to be, relatively side effect free. When I ran a cycle of epistane in the past my libido was shot to hell. Everything was good to go on this cycle. The only really annoying side effect was the bloating. The grapefruit burps were actually kind of a nice "side". :)

I think it would also be interesting to see somewhat longer cycles than the typically recommended 8 weeks. Something like a 10 or even 12 week cycle could be good. It took a few weeks for me to really feel like things were coming together, and I think most of my gains were towards the end of the cycle. As these are supposed to be relatively shut-down safe (I feel great at the end of my cycle), theoretically it should be fine.

Personally, my next plan will be to probably either stack or bridge AB with a light methyl cycle. I'd also like to give AndroDrive a go, so I may give that a try as a lead-in to a more harsh cycle. At any rate, I have plenty of time to plan as this would not be for several months.

Overall I'm happy with this cycle, but the true test is now whether I keep the gains I've made in PCT and beyond.
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Great review bud, I am very interested to hear how PCT goes for you since that 10 pounds I can guarantee will stay on. That's the beauty with these products, long cycles with gains that last.
 
HereToStudy said:
I agree with Ryan here, great review. Thank you for taking the time.
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No problem. Thank you both for following along, and especially thanks for the advice along the way.

Sorry I keep forgetting to post the after pics, but I keep getting distracted when I get home. I will try to remember tonight. :)
 
Scuba Steveo said:
No problem. Thank you both for following along, and especially thanks for the advice along the way.

Sorry I keep forgetting to post the after pics, but I keep getting distracted when I get home. I will try to remember tonight. :)
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No worries:)
 
There seems to be a lot of variation of how people respond to the Androseries. Great log tho, thanks for being so detailed.
 
SinisterNix said:
Great log tho, thanks for being so detailed.
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Thanks, and no prob.

Ok, I updated Invalid Link Removed. I think before/afters for cutting phases usually have a better contrast than mass building phases (unless we're talking like a 20 lb lean mass gain), but I can definitely see some differences. Unfortunately, one of the biggest changes didn't show up well in the pictures I took, but on vacation I noticed that my back had a very nice "Christmas tree" going. I've never really seen that pop on my back before (obviously I don't see my back much, but the room had these two mirrors that had a great angle). I feel there is also a very nice difference in the before/afters for my legs (supported by the 1 and 1/2" measurement increase), despite the slight difference in posing and lighting.
 
Sorry for the lack of updates through PCT. I just finished up PCT about a week and a half ago, ran Nolva at 20/10/10/5, plus the test boosters and what not mentioned in the OP. I dropped about a couple of pounds or so of water weight pretty quickly from the last of the bloat going in to PCT, and actually a few pounds of fat just switching up my food choices to a more 'paleo' style. Strength at the gym has maintained or risen slightly throughout, and I feel that I've kept most if not all of the lean mass gains I made during the cycle. Overall, I would estimate that from the cycle I gained about 6-8 lbs of sustainable lean mass. This might not sound like a lot when you hear about 15-20 lbs on say a SD cycle (most of which is just water anyways), but on my short frame that amount of weight is nothing to scoff at. I'm gonna call this cycle a win.

Thanks to everybody that's followed along and given advice along the way. Cheers.
 
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