Halfway through first cycle - joint and ligament pain

[NightBeast666]

So I'm 8 weeks into my first cycle - Test C 500mg/week and HGH 4u/day. I've had really solid results: I've added about 12 pounds of mass since I started, seems to be in all the right places, really happy so far. However, I'm running into a problem I was a little concerned might happen. I seem to be adding mass faster than my body is prepared to handle it. I've been experiencing increased joint and tendon pain, particularly in my shoulders and biceps, and have had an ongoing bicep tendonitis in my left arm. I had to take a week off from upper body training and it's still giving me some trouble. My typical routine, which I ramped up to over about six months before my first cycle, is lifting 5-6 days per week, rotating push, pull, and lower body workouts with core integrated into each day. It took me time to get used to this routine after my long term weight loss, but I had no problem with it after about a month and a half, and was not having any joint or ligament issues. I can definitely rule out it being caused by AI's as I just started taking those in the last week, and this has been ongoing for a number of weeks.

I'm not really sure how to proceed. I guess I can ramp down and take it easier the rest of the way, that's just kind of a shitty outcome being only halfway through. I do have Deca on hand that I could add in, but I'm hesitant to add in another compound on my first cycle, especially when I only have another 8 weeks to go. I don't have any other peptides on hand so that's not an option at the moment (going to fix that to have things for injury recovery on hand for the future). If anyone has any suggestions for things I can add to my supplement stack to help with joint and tendon support, I'm definitely open to suggestions. Or should I just pull the trigger and just add low dose Deca the rest of the way?

Things to look out for-
1. Are you sufficiently hydrated?
2. Are you sleeping well?
3. Try training every other day rather than 5 days a week.
4. Are you having the full range of motion while lifting?
5. Try lowering your GH dosage to 2 IUs.
6. Take a test for serum potassium.
7. If the problem still persists after ensuring the above aspects are fine, go see a doctor.

This is everything that you can sensibly do before consulting a doctor and not look like a fool who either screws up his body beyond any reasonable medical intervention, or look like a lamb that any doctor would sacrifice on the altar of big pharma by putting you on harsh stuff like opiods.

 

[AlbanVautier]

Probably if you used a AI

 

[ackmack78]

If you're having bicep tendonitis or tendonitis anywhere you can't just take a week or 2 off from the gym. Regular joint pain/wear and tear is different. Tendons need to be stressed to heal. You do need to back off but keep the pain level between a 2 and a 4. You need to get blood to the tendons which is what rehabbing them does.
Worst thing I ever did with bicep tendonitis was take 2 weeks off. The pain came back way worse immediately. What Ive found now is that even during a deload week I go to the gym 3-4x a week and just rehab the tendonitis, takes all of 20 minutes. Also don't know how old you are but it doesn't matter if I'm on cycle I'm still taking a deload week every 6th week. So week 6,12 and 18 are a deload and I plan my cycles accordingly. Really helps with my older joints.

 

[fw190jd]

That happened to me when I first started. 6 months of tendonitis was cured with 2 weeks of Deca @ 200mg .
YOu can also use tb-500 , it will clear up minor pain OVERNIGHT ..I will use 5mg at a time of that stuff

hmm...been thinking about adding tb500, really that good say you

 

[sneak007]

hmm...been thinking about adding tb500, really that good say you

Yep. It's the bees knees. Bpc-157 is hit or miss. For me it does zilch

 

[Slowww]

12 lbs in 8 weeks isnt crazy man, shouldn’t cause pain. I think it’s probably some aspect of overuse with some movements, and load that your joints can’t tolerate. (Adding to what others already speculated)

Probably can be easily fixed by changing order of exercises, and exercise selection

 

[Slowww]

When on a cycle it's necessary to really program rep and weight progression and hold back. It sounds backwards to train much easier on cycle but I think thats that gives better results because you don't have to stop because of injury.

Man this couldnt be further from the truth lmao

 

[wells14]

Man this couldnt be further from the truth lmao

It's not too bad advice for completely new PED users who can often get ahead of themselves trying to add 50kg to their bench in a week. But with a bit of experience you know how far you can push your self without getting injured.

 

[Slowww]

It's not too bad advice for completely new PED users who can often get ahead of themselves trying to add 50kg to their bench in a week. But with a bit of experience you know how far you can push your self without getting injured.

Tbh if they’ve been lifting and able to make stable progress enough to take PEDS it means they should understand very basic concepts like progressive overload this kind of path to injury is totally avoidable.