Thread: my first 1ad/4ad cycle!

here's my pic for the beginning of my 2nd week. since day 1, i've gone from 128 to 134, and my bf actually went down about .1%! obviously it's mainly water weight, and i'm not too sure i've got the callipers down yet, but i think that's still impressive.

Welcome to IM
1 comment that I have your protein might be a little too high.. maybe you could go down 1.5 grams per lbs/ body weight instead of 2??

Not bad a week and you put on 6 pounds ... Just make sure you do a good pct , Im assuming with 6-oxo ?

Anyways , good luck , and Ill be watching this as I plan to do a 1-ad 4 week cycle myself just after the holidays .

The only problem is your too young to do a 1ad/4ad cycle.

Originally Posted by I'm Trying

The only problem is your too young to do a 1ad/4ad cycle.

That and he hasnt even touched his natural potential at that size.

Goodluck buddy Just make sure you follow a proper PCT like simbh suggested.

Not to sound negative but at 19 and at 128 lb., there is no way you need 1-test and 4-ad! Eat and sleep and get big.

Originally Posted by PreMier

That and he hasnt even touched his natural potential at that size.

Which is what I was getting at I guess in a round about way. I'm 28 and haven't even done any type of cycle.

Originally Posted by dg806

Not to sound negative but at 19 and at 128 lb., there is no way you need 1-test and 4-ad! Eat and sleep and get big.

I agree with DG. You should be eating like a MOFO and lifting like a MOFO.

I luv 1-ad Im going try to buy 11 bottles before the banned.. Because of 1-ad and all the hard work I'm up to 170 lbs were last year I was your size.

yeah, for pct i have some 6-oxo, but lately i've been considering some nolva ... which would you guys recommend?

ok, i'm on the 12th day of my cycle, and i've been feeling pretty tired all day today, despite a full nights rest last night, which by the way seemed to be one of the deepest sleeps i've had in a long time. not too sure if it's the 1ad causing the lethargy, or the fact that i've just come straight off an ecy stack. but other than that, and the occasional burning when i piss, i haven't experienced any other side effects.
on another note, my weight is still at 134, but my bf actually went down another tenth of a percent since sunday, even though i'm eating about 500 cals over my mainenance!
but about the lethargy, what are some ways of combating it? i'm thinking of taking some ec whenever i feel it coming on, but i don't want to get hooked back on. are there any other ways to boost my energy?
and again, thanks to everyone for being so helpful.

today's the beginning of the 3rd week of my cycle, and allready i'm at 136 lbs! That's 8 lbs. in 2 weeks, and on top of all that, my bf has gone down to 7.6%. I've been keepin pretty strict on my diet, and i've upped to carbs to about 270, and lowered the protein to about 230. I did however slip up just a bit on the weekend with my diet and sleep... so far, no real side effects, besides weight gain , have occured, and i must say, things are looking pretty good. i haven't really noticed any dramatic strength increases either, but i had allready been plateaued for a while coming into the cycle. here are my pics.

hey everybody, so far i've been stacking 1ad/4ad for 25 days, and the results have still been amazing me. i've been pretty stressed the last couple weeks with finals and all, but i still haven't missed a workout, or a meal. last time i weight myself i was up at 139 lbs! that's allready been 10 lbs in about 3 weeks. best of all, my bf has remained stable at about 8%. my calories vary around 2600-2800 on off days, 2800-3000 on lifting days. still no serious side effects. i am a born endomorph, so for me to be able to gain 10 lbs with minimal fat gain has really been amazing. i usually put on fat very easily, which is why i have kept myself at a low bodyweight by doing tons of cardio. the only other time i tried to really bulk was when i first started lifting, where i got myself up to 140 lbs. towards the end of my first year, but also added about 3 pant sizes with not much muscle. that is when i took up daily cardio, and eventually got around to doing 2 hiit sessions a day, one of them being on an empty stomach, 3 or 4 times a week, with ! this lasted for about 4 months. looking at my first pics, it goes without saying that i lost a tremendous deal of muscle. oh well, live and learn. now, i've got a much better sense of nutrition, i'm well aware of my recovery abilities, and this cycle, though probably started prematurely, has really rekindled my love for lifting! with the holidays coming up, i'm gonna be pretty busy, so this will probably be my last update until my cycle is over, which will be on Jan 8th. by then, i hope to be at a solid 145 lbs! i'm confident in myself that i can do it, so until then...

here are some of my progress pics

hey, to anybody that's been keeping up with my journal, i hit 145 lbs and still 8% bf! that's a 16 lb gain in lbm! since i hit my goal a week and a half earlier, i was considering dropping calories back down to maintainance and doing some hiit in order to harden up during my last week, as well as adding creatine to help maintain my size. then when the cycle is over, i'll bump up the calories by 500, and begin pct. the thing is, i'm concerned with losing muscle, so my question is, would it be better to continue with my increased calories up until the end, and keep them during pct, or should i lower them until pct, then increase them when pct begins? what i'm more concerned with is minimizing fat gain, any suggestions?

keep your cals up. Unless minimizing fat is more important than gaining/keeping LBM and strength to you

Wait till PCT is over and then lower cals and worry about cutting

thanks. right now i'm at 22x my bw, which is around 3100-3200 calories. now i know the only reason i'm getting away with this is the ph's, and once the cycle is over, at that amount of calories and the inevitable hormonal imbalance that's going to follow, i'm sure to gain some fat, which i now accept. should i keep my calories at 22x my bw, or should i lower it standard bulking calories like 18 or 20x my bw?

Hi, I just stopped by your Journal for the first time. Keep eating and take the creatine. It should help you when you are off cycle.

well, my 6 week cycle is coming to an end this saturday... i'm really going to miss ph's, because to be honest i had amazing results. i'm up at 146 right now, and my bf% is somewhere between 8-9%. i gained 3/4" on my arms, 1 inch on my quads, my bench went from 165 max to 190!, deadlifts from 225x6 to 250x8!, barbell rows went from 135x8 for 2 sets to 135x12 for 3 sets. my pants still fit loose at the waist, but are much more tighter now around my thighs, and all the sleeves on my shirts are stretched. DAMN I LOVED MY CYCLE!!!! but all good things must come to an end, and now, i'm getting ready for pct... i plan on using metacort, and nolva, and i've also begun loading some good ol' micronized creatine. now i have some questions regarding the metacort. i read on a couple of posts that it is a good idea to start taking the aromatise inhibitor a few days early, to help with the allready present estrogen. is there really any reasoning behind this, or is it more of a "just in case" kind of thing? i was also wondering if there were certain times in the day to take the metacort and the nolva, like first thing in the morning for instance, or right before bed? i've searched around, but there are way too many different ideas and theories thrown around on the "proper" way to take them.

Originally Posted by stoned_free

barbell rows went from 135x8 for 2 sets to 135x12 for 3 sets.

Progressive resistance. Increase the weight to 155, see how many reps you can do and then work that up to 12???

another question i have is regarding pct training. on cycle, volume was extremely high, and i'm just starting to taper down my sets. i've done some searching on various training protocols, and i'm going to go with a low rep (5-8)/ low volume (4 sets for delts/bi's/tri's 6 sets for back/chest, 9 sets for legs) in order to keep strength high. my question is, should i do a 4 day mon,tues, thurs,fri split hitting chest/bi's, quads/hams, delts/traps/tri's, back. my other option is a 3 day HST style split, doing total body workouts mon, wed, fri, using compound movements, heavy weights, low reps. i know i've allready asked a ton of questions, but this is my first cycle, and i'm trying to do all i can to make sure i do everything right.

I don't vary my routines from on cycle to off, except I may make some minor adjustments in the weights as sometimes I am not as strong or have as much muscular endurance off cycle as I reach the third and fourth week.

ok, i'm going to keep the same routine i have now, but i am going to lower my volume and up my intensity in order to get shorter workouts. as for the metacort, has anyone tried applying it early in order to deal with the allready present estrogen? it sounds like an interesting theory, just not sure if it is enough to make a difference

hey everybody, today is the 6 week mark of my cycle, and i must say, i am more than pleased with my results! so much so that i decided to extend my cycle to 8 weeks. the reason for this is because i got some s1+ from a friend, and it's just enough for a 2 week supply, so i decided to add it onto my current cycle, seeing as how it's probably going to be my last, and a 2 week cycle of s1+ is probably not going to do much if i take it in the future. i allready surpassed my target bw on this cycle by 2 lbs at 147, and now, i'm aiming for 150! again, i know i was too young to begin with, and i could have easily gained naturally with hard work and patience, but nevertheless, i'm glad i went ahead with it. besides, it's not like i didn't put any hardwork into this either. i did plenty of research, kept a clean diet that i followed day by day, and worked my ass off in the gym. anyway, here are my progress pics after 6 weeks

You look bigger than in the first set of pictures, but pro steriod or not pro steroid, you need to work on developing an 'x" frame. Your physique is very "up and down", or rectangular.

"X" frame means wide shoulders and back, flaring ( "sweeping")quads and a smaller in comparison waist. Your legs are not visible in the pictures, but your torso again is very rectangular and not a "x" frame.

ego, i've definitely noticed that problem. i'm also stumped on how i can correct it. i remember reading in the weider system of bodybuilding about expanding the ribcage with breathing squats and breathing pullovers, where you perform 15-20 reps with moderate weight of each exercise, supersetted back to back, only you pause at the top of each rep and perform a certain breathing pattern. apparently this forces the cartilage of your ribcage to expand, making your upper torso wider and thicker. i'm a little skeptical whether or not this is possible, so i'm not sure if it would be worth a try, if you or anyone else has any experience with it. also, besides pullups/downs, what other good exercises are there for lat width?

Originally Posted by stoned_free

ego, i've definitely noticed that problem. i'm also stumped on how i can correct it. i remember reading in the weider system of bodybuilding about expanding the ribcage with breathing squats and breathing pullovers, where you perform 15-20 reps with moderate weight of each exercise, supersetted back to back, only you pause at the top of each rep and perform a certain breathing pattern. apparently this forces the cartilage of your ribcage to expand, making your upper torso wider and thicker. i'm a little skeptical whether or not this is possible, so i'm not sure if it would be worth a try,

I'm skeptical too.

if you or anyone else has any experience with it. also, besides pullups/downs, what other good exercises are there for lat width?

Don't make the problem too complicated. So you need to widen the back and shoulders. OK, focus your workouts on doing that. I had a similar issue a year ago, not so much that I was "up and down", but that my lat and shoulder width were not enough to counteract very large quads. What I have been doing for nine months on the advice of a very good trainer is:
1) Weighted chins or pullups at least two out of every three back workouts. ( Do not worry if you can only do a few, the most I can do right now with a 25 lb plate is 7 or 8. The point is to do them and over time as your strength increases, so will the reps.)
2) Wide Grip ( shoulder width) Bent Over Barbell Rows with an underhand grip. Do these with the back at a 45 degree angle. I do these for two workouts, then do regular bent over rows for one. The underhand wide grip and the 45 degree angle brings more of the outer and lower lats into the movement.
3) Do side laterals every shoulder workout to widen the shoulders. I have also been adding Wide Grip Upright Rows too, focusing on using the side delts ( which means using less weight) and not the traps to raise the bar.
4) Mixing in close grip underhand pulldowns with the normal wide grip overhand pulldowns. This will hit the lower lats.

This has really increased the width of my entire upper body and the problem has been solved, so now I have been able to go back to training legs hard.

I have a Journal here also, so check out some of my workouts in there.

One other piece of advice. If you are not doing them, add deadlifts to your routine. This is in my opinion the second best overall exercise. It will build muscle throughout your body, including the back, traps and shoulders.

thanks for all the great suggestions. i've been working out in my home gym currently since school has been off for the holidays, and thus, my school's weight room as well. i've been weighted chins for about 3 weeks so far, but seeing as i don't have a dipping belt, i've been improvising with a backpack .
it did help me get through a plateau. today i will begin a 4 day mon, tue, thurs, fri split, higher frequency split, mainly because my recovery has vastly improved, and i haven't been capitalizing on this as much as i should. so this is what i was planning for my back and shoulder routines:
tues: 2 sets weighted chins, 1 set underhand barbell rows. 6-8 reps
2 sets overhead dumbell press, 1 set side laterals. 6/10 reps respectively
fri: 2 sets underhand barbell rows, 1 set weighted chins
2 sets widegrip upright rows, 1 set side laterals.
how does my shoulder routine look? for the side laterals, i was considering throwing a static hold at the end of each set. and should i include deadlifts with my back or leg workout? i worked them in with back at the start of my cycle, but i ended up taking them out because i felt like i was overtraining my back, but i was also doing 12 sets for my back, besides the deads, so that could have been it...