To go on cycle or not...

[ShortMonster]

Ok so here’s the deal. I’m limited on what exercises I can do because of my injuries. I have a c4,c5,c6 compression in my neck and a bulging disk on the other side of my neck. And my trap swells up when doing deadlifts. Maybe certain cycles can help alleviate pain? So like said pretty much limited on what I can do. I attached an example of a routine that I am currently doing at home, keep in mind I’m not training to heavy, 10-15 rep range. Just looking for opinions here.

 

[FrancisK]

Damn bro, I know we all love our AAS and advocate/defend it's use but shit I gotta say with those health issues putting your body through the stress that AAS does probably wouldn't be the best idea. Hard to tell someone that but let's be real you have some serious pre-existing conditions that AAS is only going to make it worse for a variety of reasons, there may be anecdotal evidence of a specific AAS being easier on certain things or maybe even helping with some conditions but it will pale in comparison to the negatives it will cause.

Maybe just use some GH instead, maybe MK677 if you want to look bigger? The water retention may help with those injuries but I'm not going to sit here and claim that it's going to be some miracle cure for all ailments like it gets tossed around as, it's not. But the mental aspect at least I think means something, you know you shouldn't be on AAS but with the GH at least in your head you'll be on something.....

 

[IronLion2]

Yeah increasing inflammatory markers is the last thing you should be doing

 

[pickapeck]

Well you can use some AAS to build the muscles around the injuries. That doesn't mean to blast away and load the bar. You will have to be careful and find the best way to add mass while keeping inflammation low. That's basically the game for 99% of BBers/lifters after age 50. Remember that AAS were used for recovery from injury/ tissue regeneration, recovery from surgery and so on. They build tissue. The therapeutic dose is not an abusive amount.

 

[bad rad]

I'm a mess structurally. I've had multiple tendon ruptures/repairs and broken both legs at least twice among many other bones. I broke my back years before they discovered it and almost all the discs are herniated. I'm coming off a shoulder repair. This lock down forced me to find alternate training methods. I bought a bunch of kettlebells and recommend you start with low weight. My first day was a 16kg 'bell. I can't do dips without pain yet so sticking to pushups. Stretch a lot too. It's healing my back and shoulders. It doesn't make any sense but stuff works better than it has in years and my back feels great 5 out of 7 days. I'm on 280mg Test for now and doing the below routine.

M- 1 arm swings 10+10 x5, Turkish Get Up 1+1 x5, KB squats 5x5
T- 1 arm swings 10+10 x5, Turkish Get Up 1+1 x5, KB shoulder press 5x5
W- 1 arm swings 10+10 x5, Turkish Get Up 1+1 x5, Chins 5x5
Th- 1 arm swings 10+10 x5, Turkish Get Up 1+1 x5, lighter KB squats 5x4
F- 1 arm swings 10+10 x5, Turkish Get Up 1+1 x5, Pushups varied reps/sets

 

[bad rad]

The swings and TGU are done for time and based on Pavel's Simple and Sinister routine.

 

[ShortMonster]

Does anyone know of any peptides i can use to gain muscle / lose fat? I know about AAS but i dont know much about peptides at all.

 

[Bio]

Ok so here’s the deal. I’m limited on what exercises I can do because of my injuries. I have a c4,c5,c6 compression in my neck and a bulging disk on the other side of my neck. And my trap swells up when doing deadlifts. Maybe certain cycles can help alleviate pain? So like said pretty much limited on what I can do. I attached an example of a routine that I am currently doing at home, keep in mind I’m not training to heavy, 10-15 rep range. Just looking for opinions here.

In short, no!

 

[Canuck54]

I feel you. I have a T7 wedge compression fracturea resulting in kyphosis, schmorles node, c5 c6 bugle with stenosis, and L4 L5 herniation with bulge. I am still lifting hard. Everything takes longer but check out Stu McGill and Brian Carroll. They have a protocol to get you pain free progressively. We are injured but not broken. That being said I do stick to just ramping up or down my test based on how pain free i am feeling so I tend to have more mini cycles and maintain in between.

 

[pickapeck]

Ok so here’s the deal. I’m limited on what exercises I can do because of my injuries. I have a c4,c5,c6 compression in my neck and a bulging disk on the other side of my neck. And my trap swells up when doing deadlifts. Maybe certain cycles can help alleviate pain? So like said pretty much limited on what I can do. I attached an example of a routine that I am currently doing at home, keep in mind I’m not training to heavy, 10-15 rep range. Just looking for opinions here.

You're going to have to reduce the load on your spine. I have similar degeneration throughout. Stretching and a few key yoga movements help. Beyond they I ditched the deadlifts a few years ago. Periodically I do rack pulls for 6-10 weeks and then drop them. Smith machine wide upright rows stay in and maintain trap/upper back. Squats are out part of the year and are replaced by biking in the hills. Squats when in are high reps and never over 225. Heavy presses get cycled in and out with replacement movements with more slow and controlled reps take priority. Stuff like that. One of the main things is to get your body inflammation down by clean diet and exercises that work the muscle without irritating the joints. That usually means lighter weight, more control and higher reps. Once the inflammation is down you might be able to slowly move to the compound movements with control and for planned periods.

 

[Bio]

You're going to have to do this process by feel. People are letting you know what they've done and that should be motivating for the fact that they can still train with an adjusted training approach. If something is causing you pain then try something else.

If you're not aware, here's my laundry list...

- L4-s1 Fused
- L2-3 Microdiscectomy
- C3-4 Foraminotomy/Laminectomy
- C3-T1 Fused - C3-4 Fused From Ankylosing Spondylitis and C4-T1 Mechanically Fused
- Fractured T6 Vertebrae
- Diagnosed with Ankylosing Spondylitis. Estimated that I've had it since I was 17. The AS affects the spine but also other joints of the body. My left elbow flares up..well, it's chronic these days, knees, hips, right hand and when my thoracic flares up it effects my neck and I get cervicogenic headaches. They're like migraines and last for days.

I don't squat. I do leg press and extensions. I don't deadlift or do rack deads. I don't do any shoulder presses over the head. Like others have stated, you'll probably need to look into exercises outside the gym like pilates, yoga, and regular stretching.

What is being done for your current issues? Are you doing any spinal decompression? Are you using an inversion table? I'm assuming you've had an MRI?

 

[grizzly978]

Hey bro, I don’t think you should go heavy on anything.
No cycle is going to fix that pain, you should look into strengthening your stabilization muscles in your back, shoulders, and neck. There are a lot of light weight rehab exercises that people do for this.

And you’re in a very very similar spot as my good friend, he broke both his neck and back Jan 2019 overseas with the military. He still is in pain but does a lot of stability training and a lot of mid to light weight exercises. He also does tons of body weight exercises as they don’t hurt his body, and he is ripped as hell.

 

[maldorf]

I use an inversion table for my lumbar, does it do much good for cervical? Its great for my low back!

 

[DrBeefcake777]

If you do decide to cycle just keep in mind that many have done so without blasting super heavy workloads. You can absolutely shape your body and get some size with less weight and more reps. You cant go too low, but you can be somewhat moderate with your weight and get great results.

Def look into some peptides. Learn everything you can about them.

But... doing an endo/exogenous hormone swap ie Test/HGH at a moderate dose wouldnt be terrible. What would be terrible is doing any exercise that causes any kind of swelling and/or noticeable damage. If it causes a flair-up, you dont need to do it.

Hormones can be taken to make the body more capable, not just to blow up and get huge