1st Anavar Cycle Log

[Tubesocks]

Hey all, I've decided to start logging my Anavar cycle on here. Any advice is always appreciated, and also hope this helps anyone looking for var cycle results. This is my first cycle. I started the cycle two weeks ago. Here is my background....

Female
5'7"
136 lbs
20% bf

I follow a low carb clean keto diet. My macros are 60 protein/30 fats/ 10 carbs. I have a refeed carb meal every Friday following my workout. A general day goes like this...
M1: 2 whole eggs 6 egg whites
M2: Hydrobolic FX protein 1 tblsp natty pb
M3: 6 oz chicken breast in olive oil with 25 almonds
M4: 6 oz red meat or salmon with green salad and olive oil dressing
M5: Hydrobolic FX protein 1 tblsp natty pb

I also take fiber supplements (to poop), omega 3, and acidophilus (to avoid yeast infection from var)

[Tubesocks]

My workout schedule runs like this...

Monday: chest/back/abs
Tuesday: arms/shoulders
Wednesday: legs/abs
Thursday: rest
Friday: fullbody workout before refeed
Saturday: lagging body parts
Sunday:rest

I do 20-30 minutes of cardio 4 days per week

[Tubesocks]

I began taking var 5 mg per day split into two doses in the am and pm. I remained at the 5 mg dose for the first week to check for sides. I didn't notice any sides the first week. I had very slight gains in my workouts toward the end of the first week. The second week I have upped my dose to 10 mg per day again split in the am and pm. My muscles have started to feel tighter and more of a pump while working out. I do not have any painful pumps I have read about on other threads as of yet... As far as sides go it seems my little man in the boat is slightly more sensitive. Not much. No other sides.

[Tubesocks]

IMAG0005.jpg

Here are some before pics.

?s... I'd like some opinions on cycle length for 1st cycle. I'm thinking about doing at least 8 weeksand maybe up to 10 depending on sides. I wasn't going to do any PCT, didn't think women needed to. Also should I taper down the end or just stop?

[sassy69]

Diet looks good (tho I didn't calculate the total cals, etc.) and looks like you've got a good plan. Frankly you can run it easily 10-12 weeks.

The only suggestion I have is split up your muscle groups so you' aren't doing all of your upper body on back to back days - I'd suggest splitting them up w/ the leg day between them.

Is there a particular goal for this cycle?

[Tubesocks]

My total calories are between 1600 and 1800 on my low carb days. My refeed day they are usually about 2500 but I'm still eating clean carbs on that day. Im looking to add more lean body mass. I will swap leg day with my arm shoulder day. Good call. My shoulders get sore from chest day sometimes. Overall, I have noticed I'm not getting very sore though. I lift until failure. Heavy weight 3 sets of 6-10 reps. Not sure why...I like being sore.

[sassy69]

My total calories are between 1600 and 1800 on my low carb days. My refeed day they are usually about 2500 but I'm still eating clean carbs on that day. Im looking to add more lean body mass. I will swap leg day with my arm shoulder day. Good call. My shoulders get sore from chest day sometimes. Overall, I have noticed I'm not getting very sore though. I lift until failure. Heavy weight 3 sets of 6-10 reps. Not sure why...I like being sore.

Speaking as a veteran of the gym (> 30 yrs), the repetitive motion damage & overtraining will fuck you up good in your smaller joints/ligaments/tendons as you get older, so its really important to pay attention to your recovery times. Just because you aren't sore doesn't mean its not working. The drugs can also make this dangerous because they improve recovery, but can also mask existing issues. Since you can't stay on drugs forever, you have to pay attention to the weakest links in the chain - not all soft tissue structures are going to be supported by the drugs but you are asking all of them to take the work load. I would also be careful about the 'lifting to failure" all the time. The whole thing is an effort to build over time and not beat the shit out of yourself every time because the body can't maintain that if you plan to lift for many years. You might explore a periodization approach,

[Tubesocks]

Starting my 3rd week on var this week. Scale hasbeen remaining about the same. My stomache looks to be getting a little leaner. Worked out this morn. Chest/back/abs. Started to be able to complete sets of 10 and still had more to go so I added 5-10 lbs to each excercise today. Nice strength increases. Not much of a pump today. Seems I mostly get a pump when doing bis and tris.

[Tubesocks]

I think I should clear up my lift to failure comment. I don't perform each excercise this way. I have been doing this recently with the larger lifts such as bench, inclined bench, and shoulder presses. I do not squat, deadlift, or do all of the accessory excercises to failure. Do you think I'm beating myself up and should not do any of these to the point of failure? I do not want to kill myself in anyway though, I'm 36 and have never had any body issues yet....Knock on wood I googled periodization. Is that kinda like adding variety as far as excercises, reps, and weight. This I do so I don't get used to a workout. I just started the routine I laid out on here about 4 weeks ago. I was doing 6 days a week onebody part a day, but it was wearing me down.

[sassy69]

Starting my 3rd week on var this week. Scale hasbeen remaining about the same. My stomache looks to be getting a little leaner. Worked out this morn. Chest/back/abs. Started to be able to complete sets of 10 and still had more to go so I added 5-10 lbs to each excercise today. Nice strength increases. Not much of a pump today. Seems I mostly get a pump when doing bis and tris.

I also get sick pumps on bi or tri day .. SICK pumps... Listen to your body in terms of each muscle's performance and treat each muscle group as its own - meaning don't expect the same reaction or seek to achieve the same reaction from every group as your goal. I know we all love that pump feeling, but per my previous note, when you're young and feeling indestructible it's hard to slow down when you feel great - Anyone who has been around the iron for a while can tell you particularly the smaller joints and insertions of your arms: wrists, forearms / elbows / shoulders-rotator and all the insertion points to them are all the first place where tendonitis shows up. These are the areas of the fun lifts where you get the easy pump and get to show off your peaks and horseshoe - however these are also the joints, ligaments and tendons that we use in everyday life (particularly things like being a computer jockey as so many of us are these days) as well as supporting structures to the larger muscle groups we use for even heavier lists --> overtraining, repetitive motion injury. Just something to keep in mind as over time you will start to see what I'm talking about. I started lifting in 1981 and got into it much more seriously in the late 80s, and experienced my first really bad round of tendonitiis in my right forearm in 1992. I've done a boatload of PT work over the years , but its just part of the game, particularly if you are doing many years of per-muscle group type traiining. These muscles will grow even if you just stuck to the main compound movements (push/pull/press) - you really don't need a lot of auxiilliary work on them to get results.

This whole item is just a note as you are building your overall splits and general approaches.

[sassy69]

I think I should clear up my lift to failure comment. I don't perform each excercise this way. I have been doing this recently with the larger lifts such as bench, inclined bench, and shoulder presses. I do not squat, deadlift, or do all of the accessory excercises to failure. Do you think I'm beating myself up and should not do any of these to the point of failure? I do not want to kill myself in anyway though, I'm 36 and have never had any body issues yet....Knock on wood I googled periodization. Is that kinda like adding variety as far as excercises, reps, and weight. This I do so I don't get used to a workout. I just started the routine I laid out on here about 4 weeks ago. I was doing 6 days a week onebody part a day, but it was wearing me down.

These are just guidance points as you start to develop your longer term approach. There are a million different ways to put together a training split. I like the idea of periodization because it makes you think in the long term when you look at what you are doing. If you've just been doing this split for the last 4 weeks, great - listening to your body, you might change up your program on a 6-8 week interval and switch up a la periodization. I personally like active recovery where if you're combining 2 muscle groups per day, on your repeat schedule, lift one muscle group heavy, the second light, and the next repeat of that day, do the second heavy and the first light. Again, many different ways to change up your split, but just wanted to call this out ahead of where you are going - both w/ the cycle and stacking up upper body days back to back - a long lifting life is about managing gains with sufficient intervals of recovery to allow your body to go longer w/ less injury or burnout.

[Tubesocks]

I've read through your posts a couple of times now. Thanks for all the insight. I've never read much or even thought much about things such as tendonitis. I'm glad to have these things brought to my attention earlier than too late. It's easy to want to push too much, especially on a cycle when you want to make the most of it. The whole goal here is to make my body better both now and in the long term. Work out smarter not necessarily harder. I am certainly going to do a lot more reading into periodization...

[sassy69]

I've read through your posts a couple of times now. Thanks for all the insight. I've never read much or even thought much about things such as tendonitis. I'm glad to have these things brought to my attention earlier than too late. It's easy to want to push too much, especially on a cycle when you want to make the most of it. The whole goal here is to make my body better both now and in the long term. Work out smarter not necessarily harder. I am certainly going to do a lot more reading into periodization...

These are ideas to incorporate over time - dont want to make it like you need alter everything you're doing - but the little supports you can incorporate into your overall program will lengthen your liftng career!

[Tubesocks]

Hungry today. Today is a low fat day in my diet. I do low days once or twice a week. Today the diet looks like this....
M1: 8 egg whites
M2: Hydobolic FX whey mixed with iced coffee (no pb)
M3: chicken breast with asparagus (no oil)
M4: Hydrobolic FX whey mixed with iced coffee (no pb)
M5: talapia with green salad and mustard

Leg workout today after work....

[Tubesocks]

I switched my leg workout to Tuesdays to split up upper body workouts. Leg workout went great. I did start to notice getting small muscle cramps in my hamstrings and even in my chest just from getting up off a machine. I've heard suplementing either taurine, potassium, or magnesium could help this. I drink about a gallon of water a day. I will def look into this before they get worse into the cycle.