Just some thoughts. Feel free to chime in on what you plan to do after you finish cycling. Do you plan on being on HRT for the next 20-60 years? Are you hopeful that you will fully recover when you decide that cycling is no longer for you? How do you want to feel, and live, many years after your cycling days are over? Are you cognisant of how your current cycling will affect your health going forward? Do you get bloodwork? Do you really believe that cycling 2 or 3 times per year is "safe"? Would you be okay with self-perscribed or doctor-monitored HRT for decades to come? In the end, will it be worth it to you, all for just a few years of enhanced physicality........and personality?
In recent times I've been a proponent of "time on + PCT = time off" as a minimum amount of time off. In reality it's an arbitrary statement that sounds nice but is irrelevant as far as guaranteeing recovery. It guarantees you nothing and really only serves as a way of helping to mitigate or temporarily stave off some of the compounded damage that takes place from continual cycling. It does this by keeping you off-cycle longer than most people want. The feeling of being "on" is a drug in and of itself. I'd be thrilled if the new "saying" going forward was "time on + PCT x 2 = time off". It's not just important enough to recover your baselines values, it is more important to maintain those values again for extended peiods of time. The body is incredibly adept at learning what we teach it. When we constantly tell it to shut-down it's own production of hormones, eventully it will listen to this "advice". Off-season is better than on-season! Try promoting that statement on AM! :]
I hope people understand that hormone manipulation goes so incredibly far beyond just muscle growth/loss and HPTA suppression and recovery. I know a few OGs who, after many years of steroid use/abuse, realize that they are a completely different person than they could ever have imagined they would become. All of them that I've spoken to on this topic attribute these personality changes to many years of androgen abuse. Certainly exogenous hormones will affect everyone to a different degree but these hormones absolutely do activate cellular changes far beyond just muscle/bone growth. Eventually we all become what we live...
I realize that as time goes on I have become far more conservative in my approach to hormone manipulation. This philosophy comes from years of experimenting and seeing the results of those experiments. As time marches on, my health is becoming far more important than the feeling of being "on" at the expense of other areas of my life. This rationality and ultimate reality will vary greatly from person to person, and for many reasons. Some people use cycling as an adjunct to their life while others use it as a crutch to overcome those negative perceptions that they choose to allow to define them.
For those that are building towards something, like competing in various bodybuilding or strength competitions, there are real reasons to observe the risks of continual cycling. For those that make a living off of their physique, there is an easy justification that can be made for that as well. For those who just use anabolics solely as a way of "looking better", I hope health always outweighs the feeling of being "on". For me, as my goals have changed, so to now will my methodology for reaching those goals. Constant adjustment from gained knowledge means continuous improvement in areas beyond the "total number".
If there's one thing I know it's that people will ultimately cycle as they please, almost inspite of recommenations from more experienced users. Grown folks need to decide for themselves how they wish to live their life. Hopefully they do that with the foresight of how they wish to live their life after they decide to stop cycling, assuming they don't get stuck cycling TRT for many years to come. If you are one of those people who only desires to use steroids for occassional recreational pruposes, keep it that way. Try and keep cycling to once per year as a way of enhancing what you have been maintaining or modifying all year long. Hopefully that serves as a healthier way of messing with mother nature.
So, what are you plans going forward? How do you wish to live in your eldery years? Some guys are "balls to the walls" and "live life now and worry about it later", and that's okay! There is no judgement here! Other guys/gals are more conservative and really do worry about how these hormones will affect their long-term health and the lifestyle they wish to have later in life. Where do you fit in?
Feel free to discuss. No judgement here. We are all different and that's what makes a discussion like this possible.
In recent times I've been a proponent of "time on + PCT = time off" as a minimum amount of time off. In reality it's an arbitrary statement that sounds nice but is irrelevant as far as guaranteeing recovery. It guarantees you nothing and really only serves as a way of helping to mitigate or temporarily stave off some of the compounded damage that takes place from continual cycling. It does this by keeping you off-cycle longer than most people want. The feeling of being "on" is a drug in and of itself. I'd be thrilled if the new "saying" going forward was "time on + PCT x 2 = time off". It's not just important enough to recover your baselines values, it is more important to maintain those values again for extended peiods of time. The body is incredibly adept at learning what we teach it. When we constantly tell it to shut-down it's own production of hormones, eventully it will listen to this "advice". Off-season is better than on-season! Try promoting that statement on AM! :]
I hope people understand that hormone manipulation goes so incredibly far beyond just muscle growth/loss and HPTA suppression and recovery. I know a few OGs who, after many years of steroid use/abuse, realize that they are a completely different person than they could ever have imagined they would become. All of them that I've spoken to on this topic attribute these personality changes to many years of androgen abuse. Certainly exogenous hormones will affect everyone to a different degree but these hormones absolutely do activate cellular changes far beyond just muscle/bone growth. Eventually we all become what we live...
I realize that as time goes on I have become far more conservative in my approach to hormone manipulation. This philosophy comes from years of experimenting and seeing the results of those experiments. As time marches on, my health is becoming far more important than the feeling of being "on" at the expense of other areas of my life. This rationality and ultimate reality will vary greatly from person to person, and for many reasons. Some people use cycling as an adjunct to their life while others use it as a crutch to overcome those negative perceptions that they choose to allow to define them.
For those that are building towards something, like competing in various bodybuilding or strength competitions, there are real reasons to observe the risks of continual cycling. For those that make a living off of their physique, there is an easy justification that can be made for that as well. For those who just use anabolics solely as a way of "looking better", I hope health always outweighs the feeling of being "on". For me, as my goals have changed, so to now will my methodology for reaching those goals. Constant adjustment from gained knowledge means continuous improvement in areas beyond the "total number".
If there's one thing I know it's that people will ultimately cycle as they please, almost inspite of recommenations from more experienced users. Grown folks need to decide for themselves how they wish to live their life. Hopefully they do that with the foresight of how they wish to live their life after they decide to stop cycling, assuming they don't get stuck cycling TRT for many years to come. If you are one of those people who only desires to use steroids for occassional recreational pruposes, keep it that way. Try and keep cycling to once per year as a way of enhancing what you have been maintaining or modifying all year long. Hopefully that serves as a healthier way of messing with mother nature.
So, what are you plans going forward? How do you wish to live in your eldery years? Some guys are "balls to the walls" and "live life now and worry about it later", and that's okay! There is no judgement here! Other guys/gals are more conservative and really do worry about how these hormones will affect their long-term health and the lifestyle they wish to have later in life. Where do you fit in?
Feel free to discuss. No judgement here. We are all different and that's what makes a discussion like this possible.