Hi, long time reader, first time poster. Yesterday, I went out and bought all the necessary components to start an ECA cycle, and I want to make sure I'm doing everything I can to optimize my gains (or rather, my losses). I've been training for five years, am currently 19, 5'11" 200lbs with about a 14% body fat percentage looking to get it lower. I apologize beforehand for the massive post and the enormous amount of questions within.
First off, from everything I've read, this is a fairly safe stack as long as you keep your water intake up and listen to your body when increasing doses. Are there any particular telltale signs I should be looking for, other than chest pains, if something is wrong (aside from incredibly obvious things, vomiting, light headedness etc etc)?
Secondly, I purchased Bronkaid as my Ephedrine source. The ideal ratio for the caffeine:ephedrine intake is 10:1 (or so I've read in this thread, willing to listen to any and all who have a reasonable contesting ratio), although with the serving sizes of my products (NoDoz @200mg/cap, Bronkaid @25mg/cap), the ratio isn't all perfect. I can't imagine that the ratio being off as little as it is would be too much of a problem, but I just want to make sure there's no problem with this. Keeping that in mind, the variance of the ratio will get slightly worse as I increase dosage (400:50, 600:75 [maybe]). At that point, should I cut a NoDoz pill in half to even out the ratio, or should I just let it be?
Third, I've never done a serious cutting cycle before, and just want to make sure I've got the diet and training regimen proper. My plan is to:
-Wake up, take ECA (One aspirin every other day @81mg/cap). Go straight to the gym (takes 5-10 minutes to get there at most). Should I allow more time for the ECA to get in my system, or is it almost an instantaneous response?
-Low intensity cardio for 30-45 minutes. Stairmaster, stationary bike, or incline walk on the treadmill. Any other suggestions here? I've read about the benefits of fasted cardio, but I would like to take a BCAA so I'm preserving as much muscle mass as possible. I have Muscle Milk, which contains BCAAs, but it also contains a small amount of carbs and a somewhat significant amount of calories when considering a cutting diet's caloric intake for the day (I use 2 scoops per shake, so 300 calories, 16g carbs, 32g protein, not to mention the fairly unattractive 12g fat/6g saturated fat). Anyone have a particular supplement that they like to take before their morning workout, or should I just stick with what I've got? The same situation applies for post-workout. Should I get a whey protein shake, as opposed to a shake like Muscle Milk with carbs/BCAAs/etc, to take after my workout? Or should I just forget about the post-workout shake entirely and stick with a clean meal?
-Eat every 2-3 hours. Keep carbohydrates low, protein clean and high, only intake carbohydrates before my afternoon workout. Have a refeed day every 5 days where I intake "normal" amounts of carbohydrates. Anything I am missing as far as this goes?
-Afternoon workout 7-8 hours after my previous one. I am planning on doing my morning cardio at around 6-7am before my classes, so this shouldn't be too late in the day. From what I've read, working out on a cutting cycle shouldn't be fundamentally different from when you're bulking, but I've heard many arguments for both sides of the "post workout cardio" debate. I think I am going to forego post workout cardio, but if anyone has something they would like to add I am all ears.
I plan to do a fairly standard split (Chest/Tri, Back/Bi/Forearm, Legs/Abs, Shoulders/Traps, off day, repeat), 3-4 sets of 8-12 reps, 3-4 exercises per body part. Should I in/decrease my number of off days? An off day will mean completely off, although if doing the AM cardio 7 days a week would really benefit me, again, I'm willing to listen to any reasonable explanations people have.
-Post workout high protein meal. Should I throw carbs in here as well? And does cholesterol play any significant role in cutting? I know testosterone is synthesized from cholesterol which is very useful while bulking, but most foods with good cholesterol are also somewhat high in calories (such as whole eggs or cheese). Is it worth that sacrifice in calories to increase test levels? The same goes for healthy fats such as EVOO/peanut butter. I can't imagine it's beneficial to be eating only protein for 4 out of 5-6 meals a day, but I haven't seen the subject brought up too often. An alternative would be taking a fish oil supplement if indeed fats are important while cutting, in which case, thoughts on that option?
That's it as far as basic questions go. As for increasing dosages, I was going to do an 8 week cycle of 1/2/2/3/3/2/1 doses a day with the taper to prevent withdrawals/sides. When I up my E/C, I would think it is necessary to up the A. Since A is handled oddly to begin with, I'm sort of confused as to how to up it when my E/C are upped. Should I do something like this?
Week 1 - E/C morning, A with it every other day.
Week 2/3 - E/C morning, A with it every other day. E/C afternoon (30 minutes before afternoon workout), A with it every other day (same day as the morning A, so I am having 2 A every other day).
Week 4 - E/C morning, A with it every other day. E/C afternoon, A with it every other day. E/C 4 hours after second dose, A with it every other day.
etc etc etc.
I trust my dose timings are appropriate, although I am curious if maybe there would be too much time between the first and second doses, or too little between the second and third. My initial reaction is that there is not a problem, but I'm sure it will be moreso something I learn as I go and increase my dosages, and if that is the case then I will just have to do that.
Thanks for taking the time to read that post for those of you who do, and I hope I can learn as much from you about cutting as I have since I started bulking. Again, sorry for all the questions, I'm just trying to be 100% certain I am doing things right when it comes to this, and want to check what I know against what you guys know.
