Our Personal Gear History

[marssel]

So I often ask dudes when and why they got on, especially competitors to include SM and PLs. So when did you get on (age and how long in the gym), why, and any thoughts as to good or bad.

I got on after my time in the USMC and 3 years after my first show which put me at 4 years of serious lifting, I did my first show at 20 (21 3 weeks later) 3rd as a LW in open at 154 lbs 5’7, one year of training in gym. Actually was in the pharma crowd learning and assimilating all I could and got on at 23 years old to do a big Nat qual which I got 2nd, deserved 2nd the class winner was better but it was my second show and we had 27 guys in our MW class so I’m still happy with that show. 176.25 lbs here but diced to ribbons, the 154 was just very lean. The guy who beat me was also in his mid 30s so no shame. So far my health has been good no major events or injuries and I think cycling on after 21 was a good thing. I still compete, in my early 40s most the guys I started with were on shit in HS for football and have all burned out not just of gear but of the gym in general even guys who are trainers don’t lift anymore, which I don’t get but fuck it, it’s not me. I firmly believe the guys who get on early have more issues BUUUUT Jay Cutler and Branch Warren…..Lee Priest, too so it’s definitely not blanket. Of my 20 years of gear about half that and some change I’ve been on the other half off. I do long cycles and long breaks. Which from now on off will be trt.

 

[TrippplePPP]

I started using at 19 and had been training non-stop since 14. First cycle was Gelenka Enanthate 250mg amps with a vial of deca every 4 days. I held so much damn water and looked like a buffalo. I recall taking a clen/antihistamine pill accidentally thinking it was nolvadex prior to being a date to a prom, I was so tired from it. I still have the prom pic and I look hilarious.

I did numerous cycles then from 20-24yo and one last cycle at 31yo. I wish I could coach myself in my 20s but really wish I had a mentor or coach when I was young. I was very passionate about bodybuilding but never had a guide or knew anyone to introduce me to the stage. I did a couple cycles after college and decided to take my foot off the gas and went through a vegetarian phase and did intermittent fasting before the recent craze now a days. I did one last cycle at 30yo pondering getting back into the AAS lifestyle but ultimately decided I did not want the stress of it all and I really was satisfied with what I had without it. I never stopped training though out my life with a few exceptions for injuries and mental breaks and I still workout regularly at age 39. My passion never wained from bodybuilding over the years and it never will despite using or not using.

I have always been able to look at AAS like the Corvette in the garage. I know I can take it out and race anyone on the road but I don't mind driving my Camry during the regular commute. I still have a couple cycles worth of gear sitting around. Trt and low dose GH is tempting but I really don't want to inject myself and have to worry about it when life it good now in too many ways.

 

[Pusher]

did my first shot on my 17th birthday.

1 amp of Sten that i smuggled from mexico 2 months prior. smuggled 6 boxes of Sten and a 100ct bottle of those little pink skittles-looking Clomid. was 16 at the time. got a lot of my research from Musclemag and Flex. actually found out what was available in mexico from articles in FLEX and their general prices. this was before i had internet at home.

when i got them over, i totally forgot to get syringes and thought i could buy them at Walgreens or Rite-AID or something. opps...... so a few weeks later (finally got a PC and internet) went back down to get syringes and another bottle of clomid, since i'd learned online (was a member of VariX, animal's site.. and 'bolex and UG) that those pink Clomid skittles were pretty rare and valuable.
stuffed the clomid in my underware and syringes in the back pockets of my jeans thinking my button up shirt would hide them. lol.

needless to say i got caught.ithey found the syringes pretty easy and were convinced i had a vial on me. held me in total for about 8hrs, patting me down at least every 30mins until one Supercop fella does the pat down. touches my ankle and straight to my nuts/bottle... pulled it out and asked what it was. told'em i dunno, found it on the street and was gonna look it up at home, and they had no idea what it was... i was damned if i was gonna give them my dad's phone number or where he worked. i was prepared to spend weeks locked up and just tell my dad i got kidnapped in mexico haha... they finally found out what clomid was and asked if i was trying to get pregnant or get my gf pregnant lol. they'd found my dads phone number in my wallet, along with Troy Zuccolotto's business card from his original anti-aging clinic in AZ, along with some clinics' cards that says GH right on'em, and some other pharmacy biz cards haha.. plus i was already a big kid, so they knew exactly why i was there. they had me sign a "Failure to declare" form (my first of MANY) and seized my stuff. went home with no syringes.

didn't get syringes till i flew to a small midwest town over christmas, went to a mom n pop pharmacy and got 12 21ga 3cc pins. got home the day before my bday and shot my first amp of Sten the next day. it was a mix of 75mg cyp, 25mg prop, and 20mg DHEA. after a few weeks i added insulin to the mix.

about 4wks into the 'cycle' (whopping 100mg total/wk) i finally felt what a back-pump felt like lol

 

[goback2013]

did my first shot on my 17th birthday.

1 amp of Sten that i smuggled from mexico 2 months prior. smuggled 6 boxes of Sten and a 100ct bottle of those little pink skittles-looking Clomid. was 16 at the time. got a lot of my research from Musclemag and Flex. actually found out what was available in mexico from articles in FLEX and their general prices. this was before i had internet at home.

when i got them over, i totally forgot to get syringes and thought i could buy them at Walgreens or Rite-AID or something. opps...... so a few weeks later (finally got a PC and internet) went back down to get syringes and another bottle of clomid, since i'd learned online (was a member of VariX, animal's site.. and 'bolex and UG) that those pink Clomid skittles were pretty rare and valuable.
stuffed the clomid in my underware and syringes in the back pockets of my jeans thinking my button up shirt would hide them. lol.

needless to say i got caught.ithey found the syringes pretty easy and were convinced i had a vial on me. held me in total for about 8hrs, patting me down at least every 30mins until one Supercop fella does the pat down. touches my ankle and straight to my nuts/bottle... pulled it out and asked what it was. told'em i dunno, found it on the street and was gonna look it up at home, and they had no idea what it was... i was damned if i was gonna give them my dad's phone number or where he worked. i was prepared to spend weeks locked up and just tell my dad i got kidnapped in mexico haha... they finally found out what clomid was and asked if i was trying to get pregnant or get my gf pregnant lol. they'd found my dads phone number in my wallet, along with Troy Zuccolotto's business card from his original anti-aging clinic in AZ, along with some clinics' cards that says GH right on'em, and some other pharmacy biz cards haha.. plus i was already a big kid, so they knew exactly why i was there. they had me sign a "Failure to declare" form (my first of MANY) and seized my stuff. went home with no syringes.

didn't get syringes till i flew to a small midwest town over christmas, went to a mom n pop pharmacy and got 12 21ga 3cc pins. got home the day before my bday and shot my first amp of Sten the next day. it was a mix of 75mg cyp, 25mg prop, and 20mg DHEA. after a few weeks i added insulin to the mix.

about 4wks into the 'cycle' (whopping 100mg total/wk) i finally felt what a back-pump felt like lol

Guess you didn't know about the vet store trick. It's where I bought pinz preGPZ.
I also bought at Walmart circa 1998. No problems.
I only got stopped crossing TJ when carrying some HCG. Came in a green box and the puck was reddish pink. Think it was called gonakor. 1500 or 2500 iu

I left the whole mexi scene around 2001 2004. 2001 for obvious reasons.
2004 is when the UGL and raw thing took the world by storm.

 

[Nike22]

My first cycle was 32 years ago. Test, Deca and winstrol. Gym buddy gave it to me for free. Thankx dude!
I was so dumb about injecting that I actually hit my hip bone!
I don't recommend this as it is quite painful.
After that used lots of the pre-filled sustanon from Mexico.
Moved to Japan in 2001 and then the happy times began, Japan's AAS laws are like living in Moldova.
Can't get it at the pharmacy but you can order anything you want.

 

[The Big MC]

First 2 cycles at 20-21 years old. Deca/sustanon/dbol. Joined USMC at 22 so no gear for a few years. A couple of years after discharge started back. I've still been cycling off but those days are numbered.

 

[Creep]

I did 100 Russian dbol in the foil packs when I was 15-16 years old, that was 1996, lol. Long time ago. That was the first anabolic experience.

 

[marssel]

First 2 cycles at 20-21 years old. Deca/sustanon/dbol. Joined USMC at 22 so no gear for a few years. A couple of years after discharge started back. I've still been cycling off but those days are numbered.

Why are they numbered, for me they r too but I’m only competing a few more years and I just had my son so jic there is a significant correlation I wanna be around as long as I can. Funny thing is while I was in I started lifting, in Okinawa as a part of a high speed unit, and all my SNCOs were on shit, I was scared of it lol, just took muscletech pro hormones like crazy though at 19/20 they prolly were useless. I actually believed guys like Dorian and Ronnie were natural my first year or two of lifting. Lmafo FLEX did a good job of hiding it all to the untrained eye.

 

[marssel]

Guess you didn't know about the vet store trick. It's where I bought pinz preGPZ.
I also bought at Walmart circa 1998. No problems.
I only got stopped crossing TJ when carrying some HCG. Came in a green box and the puck was reddish pink. Think it was called gonakor. 1500 or 2500 iu

I left the whole mexi scene around 2001 2004. 2001 for obvious reasons.
2004 is when the UGL and raw thing took the world by storm.

Shit you can get them on Amazon now and from like 2003-2019 a lot of online pharmacies would sell them for the $25 a box price. Once they started asking for a script I got a B-12 script then found some on Amazon while looking for big syringes to feed baby animals lol

 

[iron lifter]

when i was 22 lol i remember how scared i was of the needle ahhhh good times.

 

[J.DREDD]

Ran some of the old prohormones after high school. A couple were actually pretty damn effective tbh.

I talked to a guy at the first legitimate strength/bb’ing gym I went to and he asked if I was dabbling in any extracurriculars lol. I told him and he was like dude there’s a reason none of those compounds made it past clinical trials, just sack up and take something we understand.

At about 23, I ran 10 weeks of test e, 250 per weeks split Monday/Thursday and was like hoooooollly smokes this is a different ballgame. Mind-muscle connection and pumps were unreal.

Didn’t dabble again until maybe 25, against gym vets advice, ran test p. Did a quad shot and literally felt like I was crippled for what seemed like forever!

Ran a couple ph and Sarm cycles before just going with normal supplements for several years. Now with a TRT clinic and feeling great.

Maybe I’m a nerd, but I love hearing the old school stories of when guys got all pharma stuff, everything was clean and real lol, and precontest dudes used two or three parabolan amps!!!! Now it seems like every beach muscle kid is living off a gram of tren!

 

[Flex500]

Sophomore in college, 19 years old. I was a sprinter and the school I went to cut mens track and field so I was super bummed. I was always really into training was sort of the super muscular kid in high school and college (even pre ped’s).

After my track career was over I hit the weights harder than ever and my first cycle was 2 shots of sust 250 a week. I was so scared of the needle. My buddy and I both did the same cycle and it was both our first.

From there I did about two cycles a year for 10 weeks and did that pretty much for the next 5 years. Most of my cycles after that were something like 400 test / 400 eq. I turned more into a strength athlete and even got invited to train at WBB. That was cool but competitive powerlifting was not for me so gravitated more towards bodybuilding from ages 26-30. I never really found my passion there although always places well I just loved to train.

Had first kid at 30 and pretty much dialed it back to trt “plus” between age 30 and now (currently 39).

Heaviest cycle was T400, 3x a week. That didn’t last more than 6 weeks and then dropped to 800mgs/week.

Man…I remember using all that “quality vet” gear from Mexican back in my early 20’s lol. I paid like $110 a bottle!!!

I also remember the Australian stuff with the jacked kangaroo lol.

 

[The Big MC]

Why are they numbered, for me they r too but I’m only competing a few more years and I just had my son so jic there is a significant correlation I wanna be around as long as I can. Funny thing is while I was in I started lifting, in Okinawa as a part of a high speed unit, and all my SNCOs were on shit, I was scared of it lol, just took muscletech pro hormones like crazy though at 19/20 they prolly were useless. I actually believed guys like Dorian and Ronnie were natural my first year or two of lifting. Lmafo FLEX did a good job of hiding it all to the untrained eye.

I meant as far as cycling off. I'll probably be on TRT after this run. I just had my last child this past year. There were SNCOs that had to be on gear in my unit but they were able to live off base. Living in the barracks we had random health and comfort checks, mailbox on base etc. so life was a little different.

 

[goback2013]

Shit you can get them on Amazon now and from like 2003-2019 a lot of online pharmacies would sell them for the $25 a box price. Once they started asking for a script I got a B-12 script then found some on Amazon while looking for big syringes to feed baby animals lol

right its all about amazon these days for pins.
but with regards to 1995-2002, vet store or walmart was the goto..
at the time i'd walk into the vet shop right off the 94(college/94) lemon grove san diego..
pick up a bag of harpoons(22-23g) and be on my way.

 

[Alan1]

My first experiences with PED's were back in the late 90's as a senior in high school/freshman in college. I began with a number of the prohormones and designer steroids of the day and discovered, like @J.DREDD said, that some were quite effective which piqued the interest to keep experimenting.

From there my first partial foray into "real" AAS was making Finasol - a combo of the old Biotest Androsol and Nandrosol topical products and dissolving Finaplix into them. It's funny, I still remember how nervous I felt buying the Finaplix from whatever rando vet supply website I had found, haha.

First injectable cycle was test only; made some great gains and learned some good initial lessons on what and what not do do during future cycles. I've been on TRT now about 11 years collectively (did come totally off for a period of time), with a moderate blast thrown in here and there.

 

[Reload]

Stole human grade (Searl Anavar, Syntex Anadrol, Organon Deca Durabolin & Upjohn Test Cyp) from a pharmacy in high school...not gonna go into details. At 19 started working at World Gym here in Honolulu. Was the Mecca of BBing at the time. Everybody had access and you could buy almost anything you wanted from the gym pharmacist (AAS weren't controlled until 1990). Then Mexico. Then DDR stuff. Real GH. Then Thailand. Then the pellet craze. Then peps. Then Chinese. Then DIY with powders. Now I just go pick up my script Perrigo Test Cyp from the pharmacy for the most part.lol

Memories...

 

[Neurophoenix]

I did 100 Russian dbol in the foil packs when I was 15-16 years old, that was 1996, lol. Long time ago. That was the first anabolic experience.

These were my first, absolutely loved them.

 

[Pusher]

Guess you didn't know about the vet store trick. It's where I bought pinz preGPZ.
I also bought at Walmart circa 1998. No problems.
I only got stopped crossing TJ when carrying some HCG. Came in a green box and the puck was reddish pink. Think it was called gonakor. 1500 or 2500 iu

I left the whole mexi scene around 2001 2004. 2001 for obvious reasons.
2004 is when the UGL and raw thing took the world by storm.

not when i was 16 lol.. i figured it out pretty quick though.

that was 23-24yrs ago.

 

[Kr0m]

First anabolic was Epistane that was legal at the time. First cycle i purchased off here probably in 2008 was test and dbol. Both felt so good

 

[Muay Thai]

Guess you didn't know about the vet store trick. It's where I bought pinz preGPZ.
I also bought at Walmart circa 1998. No problems.
I only got stopped crossing TJ when carrying some HCG. Came in a green box and the puck was reddish pink. Think it was called gonakor. 1500 or 2500 iu

I left the whole mexi scene around 2001 2004. 2001 for obvious reasons.
2004 is when the UGL and raw thing took the world by storm.

I got hit when i WAs 18 by a fed crossing some stallion and ttokyo at san ysidro border in SD
got locked up
i watched 2 homeys cross 50 yards in front of me loaded with gear too unscathed