Deca works

on a side note – you mentioned dropping the EQ cause you were worried about it "thickening your blood" and causing lethargy . keep in mind that Deca is generally a lot more efficient at raising RBC and Hematocrit and "thickening blood" then EQ is . thats why Deca became a human grade medical drug (and EQ was dropped) to treat anemia . and even though EQ is a veterinary drug, even in veterinary medicine Deca is used over EQ in animals that are anemic.

so you dropped the wrong drug if that was your purpose.

but the good news here is that . so what.. high RBC and hematocrit is not going to make you lethargic (otherwise endurance athletes wouldn’t be driving their hematocrit levels up way higher then TrueMaxders ever get to). theres no problem with high RBC and Hemo as long as your blood platelet count is in normal range.

if you get lethargic on cycle, its because of water retention and increase blood volume from water and nutrient retention (not RBC)

I wouldn’t go out of my way to donate blood unless I knew my blood platelet count was high . don’t really care if RBC and hematocrit is high, thats supposed to happen when you take AAS , its what you want to happen

Donating blood on cycle without a legit need (IE platelet count too high) is counterproductive. It just hinders performance. It’s no different than using an AI, or NSAIDs or skipping key elements like nutrient or sleep.

Originally Posted by Test Monsterone

Ah, it’s good to know that Deca can be worse than EQ. It’s strange, and it may be in my head, but I noticed that before I dropped the EQ, my arms were much veinier. EQ makes my arms look crazy. Deca has made me thick all over, but I’m not getting as veiny.

I’m still ok with my decision of dropping EQ, because, well, I didn’t want to start a fresh bottle this late into the cycle, and if I’m going to be raising my RBCs up anyway, I might as well get some size with it.

I may be donating on the 29th if I don’t get there too late again.

My veins pop out like road maps with EQ, but like you I have to be careful with dosages to avoid increasing RBC too high.

Originally Posted by nik 

Happy to hear this. I’m doing my 1st cycle now which is only 500mg of Test without AI. While I’m happy, it’s pretty mild. For my 2nd I was going to do 500/500 Test E/Deca. How come you bumped your Deca up over the weeks vs just starting out at 500? I was thinking about going with NPP instead of Deca, but I like the idea of less pinning, so I think Deca it’s going to be. How often are you pinning? I’m hoping after that 2nd cycle I’ll feel large enough to finally cut down a little bit.

Myself and a lot of members on here prefer to use NPP over Deca and I usually use it at 350mg a week when stacked with EQ and Test

(Meant to quote LUCKY PUNCH…)

Originally Posted by DeveL

Right on the money – Eq always causes my RBC to jump way up. If your hematocrit is too elevated, some blood donation center won’t even let you donate (sounds dumb but I’ve literally had them deny me).

I always find this a bit surprising and interesting . over all the years seeing blood work, I rarely see EQ raising RBC more then any other steroid (especially things like Deca or Anadrol ) .
I guess maybe 1 out 10 guys have this genetic pre-dispostition and EQ raises RBC more then other drugs (I don’t see it very often). I’m thinking it has to do with someones sensitivity to DHT (I’d have to look into what other mechanisms could be responsible for this).

again though its not that common (even though its listed as a side effect on the ‘bro steroid profiles) . IF Eq was really that consistently good at raising RBC , then it for sure would have lasted as a usable medical drug for humans, instead of being dropped and left only as a vet med drug.
any drug that is that damn good at raising RBC/Hematocrit would be extremely valuable in medicine for humans . but evidently this was not the case and EQ did not consistently raise RBC in most people , and so it was ditched and not used to treat Anemia or used for Post surgery to restore hemoglobin, and instead, things like Deca and Anadrol were used cause they were much more efficient at increasing blood volume compared to Eq in most people .

if your one of the few people that get elevated RBC from Eq . I’d consider that a benefit, lucky you. as long as your blood platelet count is in normal range, the elevation in RBC and Hematocrit is going to be a benefit for you, not a negative side effect (like most people online preach).
I wouldn’t donate blood unless your platelet count is high. you want RBC and hemo to be elevated while on cycle and trying to build muscle.

Originally Posted by OldBoy

side note – I’ve got a guy I’ve been helping for over a year . he consistently runs very LOW hemoglobin/hematorcrit . so low they do not let him donate (but he doesn’t need to donate anyhow) . even running Deca and Anadrol his hemo does not seem to elevate like it should .. coincidently , this same guy struggles big time to add any size , even a couple pounds. even running 2 grams of ‘bulking’ gear per week and 6000 cals a day he barely can put on any size (his training is on point).

if I was to guess. if he had the opposite effect and had too high of hemo, rather then too low , and the drugs worked like they were supposed to at increasing his RBC ,, then I bet he would be putting on size much more easily .

again, increasing RBC is NOT a negative side effect of AAS , its a positive side effect and what a lot of these drugs are designed/used for

I think the general public (and most gym rats) are conditioned to chase a number without taking a step back to look at the context. I have to get above 80% in school to get an "A" in order to be successful (most billionaires are B/C students). I have to get X bloodwork result within Y-Z range.

It doesn’t help that lab reference ranges have become more and more narrow as they slowly hack off each side of the bell curve. The more narrow a reference range is, the easier it is for a doctor to "diagnose" a condition and push the pharma agenda.