# The Old Man's Journey to the Stage



## stevenmd (Jul 14, 2018)

In a few weeks my journey to the stage begins.  This will be my first show and I will be 49 years old when I hit the stage in November (Classic Bodybuilding category).  I have always been what most would call a hard gainer.  I was 6’-1” and 115 pounds when I graduated from high school.  I am now close to 250 pounds after 30 years of HARD work.  Ok, ok, and a little bit of gear along the way.  I didn’t do my first cycle until I was well into my 40’s but have been on TRT since I was 31 years old, mainly because I believe the prohormones back in the 80’s/90’s messed up my natural production.  I have several different cycles under my belt: Test/Deca/Dbol, Test/NPP, Test/Var, Test/Tren, Test/Tren/EQ, etc.

My decision to hit the stage is two-fold: 1) to cross something off my bucket list, which I never thought I would really be able to do since, even with gear, I am a hard gainer.  I have literally fought with blood, sweat & tears for every pound I have gained over the years.  And 2) I have pretty severe body dysmorphia.  I think this is more prevalent in men than most people realize.  When I look in the mirror I still see that skinny high school kid.  But when I see pictures of myself next to someone, I have to do a double take bc I don’t believe that it is really me.  Reason #2 is going to make it pretty hard to stand up on stage in tiny posing briefs but nothing is going to stand in my way, not even myself.

As always, any thoughts and opinions are welcome and appreciated.  Thank you, my Iron Brothers and Sisters!

Here is what my cycle is going to be for the upcoming weeks.  I will post diet and workout routine stuff later as I develop it.  I’ll try to take some pics but my IG has a couple videos of me benching and doing barbell rows.  A lot of thought and scientific research has gone into this cycle.  It was also developed with input from my coach.

Weeks 1-4
Test E 400mg/week (divided into 2 doses)
EQ 600mg/week (divided into 3 doses)
Var @ 50mg/daily
.5 Arimidex if/as needed

Weeks 5-7
Test E 200mg/week
Tren E 400mg/week (divided into 2 doses)
EQ 600mg/week (divided into 3 doses)
.5 Arimidex if/as needed

Weeks 8-12
Test E 200mg/week
Tren E 400mg/week (divided into 2 doses)
EQ 600mg/week (divided into 3 doses)
Mast P 600mg/week (divided into 3 doses)
.5 Arimidex if/as needed
Clen 2 weeks on/ 2 weeks off

Weeks 13-14
Up in the air, what I take and dosage will determine how I look.
Might add T3 and Var again as I get closer to the show.  Definitely add the Arimidex even if not needed for estrogen since it will help limit water retention.


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## PillarofBalance (Jul 14, 2018)

Interesting cycle.  You dropping your test to 200 to keep water off? Surprised to see the eq in there at week 12 still. pics would be cool for this thread even if it's just one now and one from or right before the show. 

Nice job on gaining weight. I am always quick to say being a hard gainer is just a way of saying "I won't do what it takes" but you seem to be the exception to that rule. 115 to 250 over 30 years shows dedication. Hope your prep goes well.


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## Metalhead1 (Jul 14, 2018)

Yeah interesting cycle. Looks good, but can you explain the reasoning for lowering the test dose after 4 weeks? Pure curiosity.

Best of luck, and good job on the hard work!


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## stevenmd (Jul 14, 2018)

PillarofBalance said:


> Interesting cycle.  You dropping your test to 200 to keep water off? Surprised to see the eq in there at week 12 still. pics would be cool for this thread even if it's just one now and one from or right before the show.
> 
> Nice job on gaining weight. I am always quick to say being a hard gainer is just a way of saying "I won't do what it takes" but you seem to be the exception to that rule. 115 to 250 over 30 years shows dedication. Hope your prep goes well.


  Good point about the EQ.  I need to further explore that.  I'll take some pics as I get closer to my August 1st start date.  See my response below to Metalhead1 about the lowering of the Test.



Metalhead1 said:


> Yeah interesting cycle. Looks good, but can you explain the reasoning for lowering the test dose after 4 weeks? Pure curiosity.
> 
> Best of luck, and good job on the hard work!


  It is my understanding that Test and Tren both bind to the same molecule so the less Test you run, the more effective the Tren is going to be.  I have had great success with running my Test low with Tren vs running it higher with Tren.  So lowering it is based on science and my own experience to back up that science.

As I get older, I'm trying to go about doing these cycles as smart as possible, with each component & dosage based upon science and not just "whatever everyone always does".  I do throw in my own personal experience as well since everyone's body is different and responds differently to each component and dosage.


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## Hurt (Jul 14, 2018)

Watching this one! GL man


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## stevenmd (Jul 14, 2018)

Hurt said:


> Watching this one! GL man


Thanks man!


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## stevenmd (Jul 14, 2018)

It's not letting me upload pics for some reason...


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## snake (Jul 14, 2018)

Upload to imgur and post the link


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## stevenmd (Jul 14, 2018)

Not a workout pic but here I am sitting around 230 pounds from earlier this year.  I am sitting around 250 pounds right now after this latest Deca cycle.  Hopefully this link works!  (Thanks snake!)

https://imgur.com/a/Cyb3gCB


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## Jin (Jul 15, 2018)

stevenmd said:


> Not a workout pic but here I am sitting around 230 pounds from earlier this year.  I am sitting around 250 pounds right now after this latest Deca cycle.  Hopefully this link works!  (Thanks snake!)
> 
> https://imgur.com/a/Cyb3gCB



I love your red top.


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## stevenmd (Jul 15, 2018)

Jin said:


> I love your red top.


 Thanks.  50% off sale at Nordstrom Rack. :32 (20):


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## snake (Jul 16, 2018)

I saw your post but had a busy weekend and wanted to give it fair reply.

You got some solid work in so why not grab your balls and jump. It looks like you have some size and a good starting point. Now how all that plays out with a pair of grape smugglers on would be hard to tell at this point.

Your Dysmorphia is common among us who had a skinny teen age life. I'll give you some advice on this; take it for what it's worth. You should be using a tape and taking pics to see your progress. Now the tape is the tape but those pictures can be viewed differently by someone that does not have a proper prospective on the way they look, so do this; take your pics with the camera at a lower angle. Remember, this is the angle the judges will be viewing you. crop your head out of the pic and save it. Go a month or so and do the same thing under the same conditions. Now when you view the pic, you may be slightly more objective because you may not view it as you with the face cropped out. Doesn't always work but you can try it.

Cycle: this is just me but a recent run with EQ was less than desirable. In lieu of the EQ, would you consider running the mast weeks 1-12? Don't worry about the Tren/Test receptor thing; trust me. I do like the idea of dropping the Test out a few weeks before the comp. I dropped test C out completely and 3 weeks later looked noticeably dryer. Var makes for a good finisher but I'd forgo the Clen. I don't think Clen is worth the risk for what little you get from it in the state you will be in prior to the show.

Last useless words of advice; If you do this right, it will be the best you ever looked and the worst you ever felt.


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## stevenmd (Jul 16, 2018)

snake said:


> I saw your post but had a busy weekend and wanted to give it fair reply.
> 
> You got some solid work in so why not grab your balls and jump. It looks like you have some size and a good starting point. Now how all that plays out with a pair of grape smugglers on would be hard to tell at this point.
> 
> ...


  I appreciate the input snake!  I am not a huge fan of EQ either but am placing my body in the hands of my coach who has brought several people to the national level.  He has been very open about input from me since I have a really good understanding of how things affect my own body.  I'll chat with him about that.

In all honesty, I am a little concerned about dropping Test altogether towards the end.  I have been on TRT for the last 17 years so my body's ability to generate ANY natural Test is zero.  A little nervous about dropping it.

Great idea on the pics. Never occurred to me to try it that way!  Thanks man!


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## snake (Jul 17, 2018)

stevenmd said:


> I appreciate the input snake!  I am not a huge fan of EQ either but am placing my body in the hands of my coach who has brought several people to the national level.  He has been very open about input from me since I have a really good understanding of how things affect my own body.  I'll chat with him about that.
> 
> In all honesty, I am a little concerned about dropping Test altogether towards the end.  I have been on TRT for the last 17 years so my body's ability to generate ANY natural Test is zero.  A little nervous about dropping it.
> 
> Great idea on the pics. Never occurred to me to try it that way!  Thanks man!



Go with your coach on the EQ but I bet he has you drop the test and continue the AI to drop your E. Good luck on the pic idea and hit me up if you need any more useless advice; I got a ton of them.


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## stevenmd (Jul 20, 2018)

Here is a pic of my first cycle.  I just turned 43 at the time.  I was stuck at 200 pounds.  Ended up at 210 pounds with reduced bodyfat (don't remember the %).  Cycle was Test E 400mg/week and Var 50mg/daily.  It was only a 4 week cycle.  I think my body responded so well because, if I'm being honest with myself, I was probably not pushing myself hard enough the past few years before this.  I had gotten burned out trying to gain weight/muscle for my entire life.  I hit a plateau, both physically and psychologically.

https://imgur.com/a/QgNSa9u I know someone told me to do a different link but I can't remember what they said... so whomever said it, please repeat it.  Thanks!


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## stevenmd (Jul 25, 2018)

Here is my current workout schedule"
Day 1 - Legs
Usually leg press (With crushed discs, squats usually compress my back too much but sometimes I do squats for volume, which seems to not affect my discs)
Leg curls
Calves (yeah, I know, they're part of my legs)

Day 2 - Chest
Incline chest
flat chest
decline chest

Day 3 - Back
Bent over rows or close grip T-bar rows (non-chest supported)
Lat pull downs
Wide grip rows on machine
Rear delts on pec deck focusing on high volume for pump

Day 4 - Legs
Legs again, this time hack squat
Leg curls
Calves

Day 5 - Shoulders
Side delt raises with dumbbells
Rear delt raises with dumbbells
Front delt raises with dumbbells
Behind the back shoulder shrugs with barbell
Military Press using a machine - I do this last since my rear and side delts need to catch up with my front delts, plus I can go super heavy on this and I always end up hurting my elbow (tendonitis), hence I put it last and do less weight.

Day 6 - Gunz
I used to do skull crushers but they now tend to activate my elbow tendonitis.
Press downs - tris
Alternate weeks between single hand dumbbell curls and cable curls - just started doing this and really liking how the cable curls are stimulating growth
Rope extensions - tris
Hammer curls

Day 7 - Rest
This rest day might occur at another time during the schedule due to work or kid schedule.

Most of my sets are 2 warm up sets with 20-30 reps, depending on the exercise.  The remaining 4-6 sets are heavy and range between 8-12 reps, depending on the weight used.  Some exercises I do more warm up sets, increasing in weight until I get to the main weight(s) where I do the 4-6 sets.  So you don't really see a large variety of different exercises during my routine but you do see heavy volume.  Occasionally I will swap out a few different exercises if I see myself hitting a plateau but this is where I am at this week.

Feedback?


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## stevenmd (Aug 2, 2018)

Here is my meal plan for the first 30 days:

Meal 1
1 cup of oatmeal
 4 whole eggs
 1/2 cup of egg whites

Meal 2 
1/2 cup of rice
8 oz of lean cut steak or 93/7 ground beef
Spinach as much as you want

Meal 3
1/2 cup of rice
4 oz of 93/7 ground beef
1 cup of plain fat free yogurt
2 servings of bell peppers

Meal 4
1/2 cup of rice
6 of chicken breast 
2 oz of green beans or broccoli 
8 oz Orange juice

Meal 5
1 cup of rice
6 oz of chicken breast
2 oz of green beans or broccoli 
8 oz of cranberry juice


Post workout
2 scoop of whey protein with water - the next meal falls within 1 hour of this, whatever time of day I workout


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## motown1002 (Aug 2, 2018)

Good stuff.  Your meal plan looks almost like mine.  Good luck with the show.  I have 7 meals and cut the carbs down in the last two.  Workouts are similar too.  Maybe its an age thing.


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## stevenmd (Aug 2, 2018)

motown1002 said:


> Good stuff.  Your meal plan looks almost like mine.  Good luck with the show.  I have 7 meals and cut the carbs down in the last two.  Workouts are similar too.  Maybe its an age thing.


Man, I am really excited to see what I can do with my body at this age!  The only change I need to make to my meal plan is to change when I have the cranberry juice bc it's giving me heartburn at night.  I also just cut out the carbs in my last meal, forgot to make that change when I posted it.


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## Jin (Aug 3, 2018)

stevenmd said:


> Here is my meal plan for the first 30 days:
> 
> Meal 1
> 1 cup of oatmeal
> ...



You are [FONT=Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]250lbs? How big a deficit is this? I'm same weight and eating much more while cutting. But not going onstage[/FONT]


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## Metalhead1 (Aug 3, 2018)

No post workout carbs???


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## motown1002 (Aug 3, 2018)

I think he must be cutting down.  I am 220 and my meals are similar, just more.  I have 1 1/2 cups rice per meal, and my meats are all 7oz.


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## stevenmd (Aug 3, 2018)

Post workout shake is immediate with a meal following 45-60 minutes later - yeah, I questioned carb intake as well.  I am trusting my coach on this diet and cycle since he has brought a few people to the national level.  A lot of this goes against some of my traditional thinking when it comes to cycling, bodybuilding and nutrition but one thing you need to keep in mind that is that I am 48 years old.  My body responds to carbs differently than when I was 25, 35 or even a few years ago when I was 45.  I am also keeping a close eye on my kidney function with the gear and the amount of protein.  In the final analysis, I just have to trust my coach.


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## stevenmd (Aug 7, 2018)

Day 6 of cutting.  Down 12 pounds.  I have a little bit of stamina in the gym but not much, could also be attributed to adding 20 minutes of steady state cardio before my workout (I have not done cardio in YEARS).  I can visually see the fat loss and have not lost any inches except in my waist - where I tend to carry most of my fat - love handles are dwindling away.


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## stevenmd (Aug 9, 2018)

My thoughts one week in... sticking to the diet has been easy.  Seeing my weight go down on the scale - even though that is the goal - has been tough on my psychologically.  I am one of those legitimate hard gainers.  It took me 31 years to go from 115 pounds to 252 pounds.  I fought for every pound I put on... lots of sweat & tears, injuries, age.  Other than TRT starting at age 31, I never touched gear until I was 43.  It took 5 full years of carefully planned cycles to get to 252 pounds.  Yes, I fully understand in my brain that cutting for a show is all about losing weight and I love the fact that I am leaning out but dang, losing weight - even fat - is tougher on my psyche than I realized.  Weighed in at 237 this morning.  I probably need to step away from the scale for a bit and go by how I look.


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## Metalhead1 (Aug 9, 2018)

stevenmd said:


> Post workout shake is immediate with a meal following 45-60 minutes later - yeah, I questioned carb intake as well.  I am trusting my coach on this diet and cycle since he has brought a few people to the national level.  A lot of this goes against some of my traditional thinking when it comes to cycling, bodybuilding and nutrition but one thing you need to keep in mind that is that I am 48 years old.  My body responds to carbs differently than when I was 25, 35 or even a few years ago when I was 45.  I am also keeping a close eye on my kidney function with the gear and the amount of protein.  In the final analysis, I just have to trust my coach.



I only questioned it, because like you said, it goes against everything I've read also. 

Your points make sense.


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## stevenmd (Aug 12, 2018)

I am usually pretty prepared but had some good friends that I haven't seen in while come into town last night and they wanted to go out to dinner.  We went to Texas Roadhouse.  I was pretty proud of myself since I only ate meat and had a few bites of a sweet potato.  Drank water instead of a beer.  Yup, thought I did good... until I got home and googled my prime rib.  1180 calories in my prime rib with 94 grams of fat!!!!  At least my carbs were extremely low.  However, I had been eating super clean and on point with my diet for the last 11 days until last night.  I felt super bloated and still feel bloated this morning.  This little mix up has me even more determined to be even more prepared.  Got a 6-pack bag and no more dinners out until November 4th.


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## DevilDoc87 (Aug 13, 2018)

Awesome man, looking forward to following your progress! Keep up the hard work bro.


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## Hurt (Aug 15, 2018)

Stay focused bro! Can't wait to see where you end up.


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## stevenmd (Aug 15, 2018)

Yesterday marked 2 weeks into my cut.  I weighed in at 233 pounds.  Strength is mostly still there but the stamina is gone.


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## stevenmd (Aug 22, 2018)

Been stuck at 230 pounds for about 5 days.  Coach added in 15 minutes on the stairmaster after each workout a few days ago.  Whomever invented that dang thing should be shot... I've done very minimal cardio my whole life up until this cut because I was always trying to gain weight so the first time I did the Stairmaster was a freaking brutal shock to my body!  We also started the Tren and Mast earlier than planned.  My workouts have changed quite a bit.  Instead of doing 1 bodypart at a time/day, now starting to dropset and superset multiple bodyparts since we have a better idea where I am lacking now that the fat is coming off.  Physically, I can't lift as heavy but my stamina is coming back.  Emotionally, I am in a really good place.  Seeing my body change like this is pretty cool.


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## DevilDoc87 (Aug 23, 2018)

Nice dude. Hahaha... stairmaster kickin that ass huh?


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## stevenmd (Aug 23, 2018)

DevilDoc87 said:


> Nice dude. Hahaha... stairmaster kickin that ass huh?


You have no idea... :beaten:  but it also motivates me.  When I can't do something or it is really difficult, it pisses me off and drives me.  Plus, now I'm on Tren.  I'm always super happy and in a good mood when I'm "trenning".


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## DevilDoc87 (Aug 23, 2018)

Hell yeah man that’s the attitude to have. It’s taken me a long way as well. It’s a must have attitude for anyone who wants to really succeed in something.


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