Life Cycles

I didn't want to comment in your thread being it is going to be a log but I did want to comment. I know exactly what you mean. As the years have gone by my goals have changed several times. I was much like you when I was young and couldn't seem to buy a couple pounds of weight. At 5'9" I always wanted to get to a solid 200 pounds. That would have been easily obtained with steroids but I have always been in a position where I couldn't afford it to be obvious I was on. So it was a long term venture for me. I got real close but in 2003 I got really sick and lost 30 pounds of muscle and was out of the gym for about 5 years. Needless to say by the time I got back in I was in the worst shape of my life. I was up to about 185 pounds with at least 20 percent body fat. After dealing with being sick and finally getting my health back I discovered my natural test levels were in the low 200's. No real good for building muscle. I did my first cycle in several years in 2007 after joining this site. Again, still not wanting to bring to much attention to myself it was a slow process to get back to where I wanted to be. I eventually hit 205 pounds at around 10-12 percent body fat. I maintained around 200 for a while but the funny thing is I didn't feel right at that weight. I fellt more comfortable at 185-190 so that has been where I stay most of the time. At this point in my life my main goal is to stay healthy while maintaining a lean musclular body. I''l do an occasional big cycle once a year then cost on my TRT but my getting huge goals are long gone.

My suggestion to you Hard2 is to not sacrifice to much of the muscle you worked so hard to get. You can certainly obtain your NEW goal of 5% body fat but unless you are carfeful about how you do it you may find you lost a lot of muscle along the way. I can see where a light cycle could benefit you in your process simply to spare muscle. You are doing a lot of training and it will take a toll on your body at some point. Eating properly can help some but it still takes time to recover. The advantage of steroids is it helps with recovery by helping the body better process protein. This lets you take better advantage of what you eat.

It is hard to enjoy certain sports and acrivities, especially if you want to accel at them, and maintain a body builder physique. The two lifestyles are so different in many ways. Training is different, eating habits are different and body type is different. Whatever your goals are I hope you meet them and stay healthy. Enjoying life, more importantly being able to enjoy life, is the best gift you could ever receive. Our friend Smiley knew that all to well.