Goodbye Cycling.

Hello everyone

I'm a 47 year old male. I started using in January last year after more than 10 years training. First cycle test only to see how it goes.
Yeah I was hooked! My body was responding, fat was being incinerated and I felt a new focus and fire for life.

I finished my 3rd cycle this year trying new compounds as i progressed.I went for my annual medical last week.
Total Test 18.4
SHBG 33.1
Free Testosterone 389
79kg


I've had it with cycling off and seeing all my hard work (lean muscle) fade/ shrink. I'm over-ka-dovers with pct. So I've decided it's time to stay on.
Between cycles I'll run 125mg of test e every 4 days til I ramp it up into the next blast.

Here's to finishing my 40s strong.

I appreciate the bottomless advice I've learnt on this forum. Thank you to the moderators.

Here's to the lifestyle

Those blood tests aren't abysmal, I had worse when I was 22 and I still wasn't put on TRT or any form of hormone replacement for a year until I decided to self administer testosterone.

At your age though, it's not abnormal to go on hormone replacement. All I can advise is to stay educated and stay diligent regarding your health.

Best of luck.

Gee wrote: Hello everyone

I'm a 47 year old male. I started using in January last year after more than 10 years training. First cycle test only to see how it goes.
Yeah I was hooked! My body was responding, fat was being incinerated and I felt a new focus and fire for life.

I finished my 3rd cycle this year trying new compounds as i progressed.I went for my annual medical last week.
Total Test 18.4
SHBG 33.1
Free Testosterone 389
79kg


I've had it with cycling off and seeing all my hard work (lean muscle) fade/ shrink. I'm over-ka-dovers with pct. So I've decided it's time to stay on.
Between cycles I'll run 125mg of test e every 4 days til I ramp it up into the next blast.

Here's to finishing my 40s strong.

I appreciate the bottomless advice I've learnt on this forum. Thank you to the moderators.

Here's to the lifestyle

your dosing of 125mg every 4 days is quite high if you are wanting to do TRT you need to bring that dosing down to a maximum of 70mg every 3.5days. and even then I would start at 60mg e3.5days.

you will feel great at that dosing and can make great progress too. 125mg is close to the 200mg/week mark which is actually a small cycle dosing.

Hi Empire. My "cruise" starts this week. Your recommendation of 70mgs every 3.5 days hardly seems worth the injection. Do u really think it'll be adequate?

Gee wrote: Hi Empire. My "cruise" starts this week. Your recommendation of 70mgs every 3.5 days hardly seems worth the injection. Do u really think it'll be adequate?

Blood work is a must. TRT dosing is very specific to the body of the individual and how you metabolise exogenous testosterone. But most guys on 'self-dosed' TRT take too much. 200mg/week will give most guys some issues with blood work. Usually E2 too high or haematocrit and elevated BP. Long term it will definitely add up but if you are young enough you can get away with it for a while. It all depends what risks you're willing to take for your health vs. the gains you want.

There is no one size fits all for TRT doses. Get bloodwork so you can establish a safe baseline to cruise on between blasts. Generally 120-150mg a week is enough to maintain a good amount of gains between blasts.

Gee wrote: Hi Empire. My "cruise" starts this week. Your recommendation of 70mgs every 3.5 days hardly seems worth the injection. Do u really think it'll be adequate?

Well are you wanting to do a health-based TRT or are you wanting to do a bodybuilding trt? cos bodybuilding trt are doses of 200-300mg per week, which is a small cycle.

you may feel is it work it, but you need to see this as HORMONE REPLACEMENT, emphasis on the REPLACEMENT. you trying to mimic your own natural test levels.

I don't wanna lose my gains quite frankly. Ok I'm gonna keep it to the 140 ish a week with a blood test in Dec to have a lookie loo. Thanks guys

Gee wrote: Hi Empire. My "cruise" starts this week. Your recommendation of 70mgs every 3.5 days hardly seems worth the injection. Do u really think it'll be adequate?

I believe on a great day you will produce around 14mg of test.
140mg is not cruising, its a low dosage cycle. If that is what you are after then cool, but it is not TRT dosing.
Everyone is different, but you might also find your free test is higher when pinning so even 100mg a week will work out higher than what you would produce if you were on your best days every day.

For what its worth I've started pinning daily Subq using insulin needles. So far very happy with this method and hoping I get less spikes and therefore less sides and instead just stay constant.

Gee wrote: I don't wanna lose my gains quite frankly. Ok I'm gonna keep it to the 140 ish a week with a blood test in Dec to have a lookie loo. Thanks guys

Wait 4 or 5 weeks before you do bloodwork if you aren't on any T now. There's a huge change in the serum blood levels of TT in the first month or so. As much as 25%-30% between weeks 2 and 4 as levels are building up. Otherwise when you go for bloodwork next time your numbers will be much higher using the same dose and you end up confused.

I've been on 500mg test e and 450 mg EQ for the past 15 weeks.

Gee wrote: I don't wanna lose my gains quite frankly. Ok I'm gonna keep it to the 140 ish a week with a blood test in Dec to have a lookie loo. Thanks guys

you are going to lose some gains coming off it is inevitable, after a couple of weeks your RBC should drop, and also any excess water you were holding making you strong will come off too, so you are set to loose 20% if you don't keep your training and dieting right.

Gee wrote: I've been on 500mg test e and 450 mg EQ for the past 15 weeks.

so you are going to go down from 950mg to 140mg, and hope to not loose any gains? sadly even on trt that is going to be a hard ask. This is why i dont like massive cycles any more, cos the hormone difference between big doses and trt for me is too vast. 500 to 600mg a week max for me, and then coming down to TRT levels is easy.

syntax wrote:

Gee wrote: Hi Empire. My "cruise" starts this week. Your recommendation of 70mgs every 3.5 days hardly seems worth the injection. Do u really think it'll be adequate?

I believe on a great day you will produce around 14mg of test.
140mg is not cruising, its a low dosage cycle. If that is what you are after then cool, but it is not TRT dosing.
Everyone is different, but you might also find your free test is higher when pinning so even 100mg a week will work out higher than what you would produce if you were on your best days every day.

For what its worth I've started pinning daily Subq using insulin needles. So far very happy with this method and hoping I get less spikes and therefore less sides and instead just stay constant.

average TRT dosing is 100mg every 5days, so that comes down to 20mg daily, lose the ester weight of the cyp ester, and you are at a roughly 14mg daily dose. so 140mg is a trt dosing, it should put you at the top end of the range. 200mg per week is a low cycle and some trt doctors like that dosing for people.


at 100mg a week or lower I feel crap, at 140mg per week I am golden. but also close on a 100kgs and 6ft and 35 years old...not as young as i used to be.

Muscleaddict wrote:

Gee wrote: I don't wanna lose my gains quite frankly. Ok I'm gonna keep it to the 140 ish a week with a blood test in Dec to have a lookie loo. Thanks guys

Wait 4 or 5 weeks before you do bloodwork if you aren't on any T now. There's a huge change in the serum blood levels of TT in the first month or so. As much as 25%-30% between weeks 2 and 4 as levels are building up. Otherwise when you go for bloodwork next time your numbers will be much higher using the same dose and you end up confused.

Best advice right here.

Empire wrote:

syntax wrote:

Gee wrote: Hi Empire. My "cruise" starts this week. Your recommendation of 70mgs every 3.5 days hardly seems worth the injection. Do u really think it'll be adequate?

I believe on a great day you will produce around 14mg of test.
140mg is not cruising, its a low dosage cycle. If that is what you are after then cool, but it is not TRT dosing.
Everyone is different, but you might also find your free test is higher when pinning so even 100mg a week will work out higher than what you would produce if you were on your best days every day.

For what its worth I've started pinning daily Subq using insulin needles. So far very happy with this method and hoping I get less spikes and therefore less sides and instead just stay constant.

average TRT dosing is 100mg every 5days, so that comes down to 20mg daily, lose the ester weight of the cyp ester, and you are at a roughly 14mg daily dose. so 140mg is a trt dosing, it should put you at the top end of the range. 200mg per week is a low cycle and some trt doctors like that dosing for people.


at 100mg a week or lower I feel crap, at 140mg per week I am golden. but also close on a 100kgs and 6ft and 35 years old...not as young as i used to be.

Ah I never took into the account of the ester.
I heard somewhere that if you introduce exogenous test more of it is made available as free test than when you produce it naturally. Will read up but do you know if this is true?

Hello all.

Just got my blood work back.
TT 46.5
SHBG 16.3
FREE TEST 1561.

Doc alost had a stroke at the FT numbers.
I've been cruising for 6 weeks at 140mg a week test cyp. (PGW product obviously well dosed).

Shall I reduce my dosage?

Best for 2021!

Gee wrote: Hello all.

Just got my blood work back.
TT 46.5
SHBG 16.3
FREE TEST 1561.

Doc alost had a stroke at the FT numbers.
I've been cruising for 6 weeks at 140mg a week test cyp. (PGW product obviously well dosed).

Shall I reduce my dosage?

Best for 2021!

PGW is not pharma grade so the dosing will not be consistent from batch to batch. This makes it hard to advise about dosing.

What is important to know, is if you're doing one single shot of 140mg per week your levels will rise and dip quite significantly in the space of a week, with your test levels peaking within a day after the shot and then decreasing until your next shot.

Basically if bloodwork was done the day after your shot then 46.5 TT is ok, but on the absolute higher end for cruising. If bloodwork was done more like 5-6 days after your shot, then those numbers are very high and it would best to use a bit less. For reference, on 200mg/week Test C or E the average TT levels at dips and peaks would be about 40 and 60nmol/L. Quite a range...

Hi...

I inject twice a week. The blood tests were run 4 days after my last injection

Am I able to chat directly privately to you on this site?

Gee wrote: Am I able to chat directly privately to you on this site?

No your not

Gee wrote: Am I able to chat directly privately to you on this site?

What do you need advice about?

It's difficult to advice on dose for TRT because everyone has different expectations on muscle gains vs health risks and what risks they're willing to take.

Empire champions low dose cycles and I was keen to understand and talk that opinion a bit more. Most advice on line is to run test at 500 (at least) and EQ just below that. I'm going on cycle soon and I'm considering giving the lower dose cycle a go. 400 mg test e (split into 2 weekly injections) and 1 injection of eq a week of 350mg. With correct eating and training can I expect to put on some size with these doses? I turn 48 in a few months. This is my 5th cycle.

With low doses muscle memory plays a big role with gains. Someone who has already has significant muscle mass before and then lost it will be able to put back on size MUCH easier on low doses of AAS than somebody who is trying to put on new gains that they have not had before. Seems like you've been training a long time so you should respond better than average on low doses.

It probably just won't happen at all with low doses if you were an older guy trying to get jacked delts and huge arms for the first time. Genetics play a huge role so it really differs person to person. By now you know how good your genetics are for gaining muscle so be realistic.

Side effects increase very quickly as you up doses and more so when you are older. I'm in my 40's and don't think it's worth it health wise when you are pushing 50. I would go somewhere in the mid range that you were suggesting around 400mg T and 350mg EQ. EQ just takes ages to see results. Also very important I would not blast or do a new cycle with body fat over around 15%.

Thanks so much for the time you've taken and the response. I'm probably at 8% body fat for what it's worth. Thanks again. Lower dosages incoming!