Chest done so time to let the neurons do some work now.
Currently i'm not using any Frontload protocol when starting my cycle, but i want to take time now to go deeper into this. Thx
@gondar1 to bring this up.
Reason is that i started Deca around septermber 10th (9 weeks into) and i only start to get the benefit in the last couple weeks. Bloods level should be near their max toward week 5-7.
A 14 weeks run at 420mg was planned. One thing i think about now is that i will only have weeks 7to week 14 with max concentration of Deca. Then it will slowly come down during 5-7 weeks.
Even if i would have done a 20 week cycle only around 13 weeks would be at max concentration.
Currently writing and asking myself why i didn't frontload, so time to see benefit vs disadvantage.
Frontloading really doesn't mean running higher levels of steroids in the earlier part of the cycle. It means using a dosing protocol where levels almost immediately reach what will be the later steady-state levels of the drug. When not frontloading, and simply using the drug at the same dosing as will be used throughout it takes several to many half-lives for levels to build up to where they will ultimately arrive.
This would not produce unusually high levels, but instead would promptly get levels to where they need to be.
From what i see, Frontloading doses are a standard medicinal practice, may have a reason for sure. (ok they don't really minds the sides you'll get)
Advantage
- Get your levels up faster and you see those gains earlier, Boosting levels in blood faster to promote better exploitation during an early first period of response, the period when your body is responsible for growing and will accept and respond to the hormonal signal to achieve better muscle build-up.
-You will apply this cycle for less time meaning that you will achieve the smaller effect on your hormonal system, particularly on hypothalamus and pituitary gland that will make recovery of your body hormonal status easier and faster, enabling sooner and easier restitution of usual androgen hormone production (
For those who do PCT)
-Opportunity of doind a short cycles of long ester
-Acquiring blood level concentration as if you'll be using fast ester AAS
Disadvantage
-The higher INITIAL doses required may lead to a brief period of increased side effects (you need to know your body well to counteract these with certain compound). Fluctuations in BP could be one more dangerous and harder to counteract maybe
-You body goes from near all time low of hormones coursing through your body to a serious influx of them.. Your body can see that as a threat and start attacking.. hence the feeling of being totally drained.. then sick.
-Could creat a growth plateaus sooner from the faster gain at the beginning,
probably by elevating myostatin levels, among other mechanisms.
I quoted a post from someone from another board at the end of my post
I think this could be benefical to do when using Deca or EQ and wanting to keep cycle in the 12 weeks mark, for those who want to avoid the 16-20 weeks cycle for whatever reasons.
From what i currently gathered, since i'm prone to side and can do long cycle, the pyramiding protocol seems more appropriate than frontloading, but i will eventually give it a try since i like to discover new things and have a point of view of both situation and then compare them back after experimentation.
A little post from Daz69 against frontload
To make this obvious, let's use an example:
Person A has been on a cycle of 1000mg test for a while and his growth has plateaued. So he increases the dose by 500mg for the next 10 weeks (it could just as easily be a different compound he's adding instead, btw). And suddenly, he experiences some new growth. Just what we want and what we would expect.
Person B has also been training for years and his growth is at a plateau. So he's just starting a cycle, which is 500mg test total for 10 weeks.
In other words, they are both doing exactly the same thing in adding 500mg testosterone to their bodies after hitting a plateau.
But all other things being equal, who is going to gain more from that 500mg over the next 10 weeks?
No prizes for guessing Person B.
Person B is experiencing a dramatic change in his testosterone levels of several multiples of what he produces naturally. Meanwhile Person A was only increasing his testosterone level by 50%. For Person A to even have a chance at a similar result, he'd probably need to take something like 3-4000mg, which would be a relatively similar increase.
Now if you take this pattern, and programme it into just a regular cycle, you can see that ultimately the most effective strategy for overcoming homeostasis on AAS is to continuously create as much relative change as you can. To be constantly tapering-up the dose from the lowest effective level.
Now I ask anyone, if you intend to frontload your cycle with 1000mg of testosterone for a few weeks (or an oral steroid or whatever), how the f*ck do you plan on creating much relative change after? You're starting out so high, the only way up is through the stratosphere. And since it's only a frontload, your serum levels may actually start to decline after peaking in the first month!
So fine, you'll bloat up quickly at first and it will look like an amazing idea because the changes come on fast and you'll leave Mr Tortoise behind. But good luck if you thought those bloated 10lbs were solid real muscle. And good luck maintaining that pace for a solid 12 weeks of continuous real growth while your testosterone levels flatten out or even decline. The body's homeostatic mechanisms kick in so quickly that you're fighting a losing battle from that point onwards.
Meanwhile Mr Tortoise, who started out low and slow but keeps upping the dose, soon overtakes you despite still being on less AAS, all the while staying harder and drier and never once resembling the bloated watery Pufferfish you became thanks to your frontload.
Which is why I say frontloading is one of the most retarded practices there is. By boosting AAS levels up to a peak within the first weeks, you are literally killing off your future growth potential. You're wasting your most effective tool for growth (relative change) by throwing it all in at the start. And you're deluding yourself that the rapid changes you saw were real keepable gains post-cycle.
The clever approach to cycling - and indeed bodybuilding in general, given our battle with homeostasis - is to always be 'confusing' the body (and overcoming myostatin) by upping whatever variable you're playing with (be it food intake, training intensity, supplements or AAS)
from a low starting point.
Thus I advise guys to do the complete opposite of frontloading. Start your cycle on a dose that's barely over natural levels, so you can then spend the next 12-15+ weeks gradually raising the dose, achieving the solid relative change we all want, while still staying at a sensible level and without experiencing all the negative side-effects that high doses entail.
This should be common sense, even on the most anecdotal level and to the most novice trainee - after all, we all know our bodies plateau sometime after we make a change. So to be constantly changing (periodising) and tapering up various compounds and strategies from their lowest effective level is self-evidently the most efficient way to build muscle.
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