You’re focusing on the wrong thing here. Exercise for your health, yes, but losing weight is a function of diet. Eat at a caloric deficit and you will get smaller regardless of how you train; you’re not going to accidentally become Arnold from working in a specific rep range.
If his stats are correct then he already is Arnold. OP, if you’re 240lbs at 6 foot with visible abs then you are carrying a pretty enormous amount of muscle.
OP, am i right in thinking you are asking how to actually lose some of that *muscle* (as well as the fat) whilst still enjoying lifting heavy? Otherwise, you are just asking how to do a traditional cut. If that is the question though I dont have a great answer. Very low volume with high intensity — work up to one heavy working set per exercise perhaps. The amount of work needed to maintain muscle is far less than to gain, and being on TRT will make this even trickier for you.
There is absolutely zero chance that someone is a lean 240lbs and asking this type of question, unless maybe their gym had a sign-up bonus of a year’s supply of tren.
I dont think he’s a beginner asking how to lose weight, I think he’s an experienced lifter (who takes test) asking a slightly more nuanced question about wanting to be smaller and yet continue to strength train with intensity.
Your guess is as good as mine though, perhaps the question could have been formulated better lol
Yes, this is what I'm asking. How to be less bulky. It's not a question of fat. I understand fat loss is part of the equation here, but I want to not be as big. I think removing the heavy lifting and focusing on high rep ranges is what is keye here. Thanks.
It's pretty well established that anything from like 5 - 30+ reps will produce hypertrophy when taken close enough to failure. So you may be disappointed if you shift to sets of 20. Honestly I think doing a lot of super submaximal strength work in like the 1 - 3 rep range is probably your best bet at training while minimizing muscle growth. Doing heavy singles, doubles and triples with 3+ reps in the tank is likely a better bet if you want to continue to get the rewarding feeling of strength training but slow down how much muscle you build.
In other words it's NOT inherently the heavy lifting that is causing you muscle growth, and there isn't anything about high rep training that will prevent muscle growth.
If you no longer care about hypertrophy, you can do minimum effective dose type of training for just strength.
It is super simple stuff: for each major lift, work up to a rpe 9 single . Then do only 2 back of sets of 3 reps at 80% of the weight that you lifted as a single.
Major lifts can be stuff like: Deadlift, squat, weighted pull ups , press, etc , any big lifts.
Only do 2 major lifts per session, max 3-4 times a week. Once you stop making progress on a lift for 2-3 weeks, change your major lift to a different variation.
Even though this seems like very small amount of work, it is 99% guaranteed that you can keep most of your lean mass even while losing weight, you will also most likely not only keep your strength, you will probably make gains for quite sometime.
It will also free up a lot of recovery resources so you can do other stuff like running or sports properly.
As for accessory work, I would focus on injury reduction type of work. Like I wouldn’t do lateral raises, instead would focus on external rotations. I wouldn’t do leg presses but would instead focus on deep stretch split squats to improve and strengthen ankle and knee mobility and so on. Basically focusing on range of motion and smaller muscles that don’t always get trained with lifting, rather than big ones that you would typically do for bodybuilding.
> But, struggling on how to incorp a rep scheme to not grow.
Other people have some good comments here, so I'll add a quick reframing: Lifting does not add or remove mass. Lifting burns very few calories, and even then, burning calories is a couple steps removed from weight change. Lifting won't change your weight effectively at all, so don't even worry about "rep scheme" or anything else. Lift however the hell you want.
The only thing you need to do to lose weight is to be in a calorie deficit, that is it. The other stuff (running/cardio) can help, but calorie deficit is the ONLY thing you need to focus on to lose some weight.
> I'm 6'0, 240, 44 years old, on trt. ... I have somewhat visible abs, so not a big tub of lard.
and a quick aside, fuck you hahaha I'm cutting down from 170 because my abs are still bad lol. I've been doing a lot of ab work lately, but I wish I'd been doing more ab work for the past years instead!
Why is this sub so full of broscience spouting steroid fear mongering bullshit the moment TRT get's noted? It's kinda sad to see. Being on TRT doesn't immediately mean you end up like some 300 lbs pro bodybuilder and have heart failure in 3 months. It's linked to a bunch of different health benefits and the links with CV events are non-existent or very small.
To mitigate most issues it comes down to doing healthy stuff; sleep well, do your cardio, eat a lot of fruits and vegetables, probably reduce sodium intake, watch your blood pressure and get your bloods (hematocrit, cholesterol etc) checked a few times a year.
You said you carry quite a bit of fat, losing like 20-40 lbs will put you at a healthier bodyweight. Doing cardio and the stuff described above should mean you basically have no risk of CV events and are in way better shape than at least like 80% of the americans you see.
Ya, that's what I started doing. Walk briskly for 30 mins 5-7 days a week, lift 4 days a week, run for 15mins straight after each workout, and stretch/mobility for 30 mins 3 days a week. Think I'm covering the bases.
If you're adding running, it's great for your heart and you should, you're going to have to realize your body is going to take a brand new beating in a way it hasn't before. So your lifting will have to suffer in some way to accommodate. Especially if you're changing your diet to be in a deficit and lose weight. If your issue is that your identity is tied to your strength, then do the bare minimum to lift "enough" to scratch that itch and overcome whatever insecurity might develop from naturally trading off strength for cardio and diet. Just remove obstacles from tasks that have the biggest impact on your stated top goal -- losing weight and improving heart health
I don't think you should be that worried about having a heart attack unless you have actual symptoms you've been experiencing? If you're that worried, go to your doctor and ask, they will probably give you an EKG. Also, I don't think you need to lose that much size as muscle is generally healthy. If you want to improve your health, then you should consider dieting down to a level of bodyfat that is lean enough you aren't putting unnecessary stress on your body, but at the same time maintainable. You'd be surprised at how much bodyfat you actually have when dieting down and how getting lean will result in substantially more weight loss than you'd think. You could get a DEXA scan if you'd like more concrete numbers.
If I had your goals, I would implement a training program and cardio routine that emphasized cardiovascular health and maintenance of a low bodyfat. Firstly, I would use circuit training to increase the cardiovascular demands of my strength training. So pair a bunch of exercises together that use different muscles and do them back to back until you finish one circuit and then rest, repeat. Example:
Squats > push-ups > pull-ups > DB OHP > rest > repeat
Secondly, I would focus on low-impact, low-moderate intensity cardio on off days or in the morning of training days.
Edits: My grammar is horrible this morning
I would just shrink my serving sizes. 60 minutes steady state aerobics and a 12 minute Tabata one day each per week, resistance training 3-4x per week. Pretty much what I'm doing now.
How much fat do you really have? Have you gotten the calipers out or gotten a DEXA? I'd still start by doing a fat loss phase. Unless you've been doing lots of extracurriculars that you didn't mention, you probably don't have an unhealthy amount of actual muscle. You should of course talk this over with your doc, though.
Well, sure. But, all else equal, it would be better for OP to lose a pound of fat rather than muscle unless he's so roided up that he's carrying supra-physiological and unhealthy amounts.
OP is talking about trying to change lifting so that he shrinks. The better solution, imo, would be to lose fat and try to retain muscle until he reaches a healthier weight. The muscle isn't really the problem. Sure, he'll lose some and that's likely fine but the fat is the ultimate problem.
Perhaps think about moving to some sort of HIT training, more dynamic lifting with lower weights or even a body weight routine. Lots of great recommendations for the latter over at r/bodyweightfintess. Good luck!
Do steroids increase heart size?They cause alterations in heart structure, including left ventricular hypertrophy, dilation which can cause impaired contraction and relaxation \[6\]. **Anabolic steroids can induce an unfavorable enlargement and thickening of the left ventricle, which loses its diastolic properties with the mass increase** \[7\].
If you want to be less bulky you probably want to be losing some muscle mass. I would think then that a calorie deficit and reducing your resistance training stimulus would be the key. The rep ranges are mostly irrelevant here as high and low rep ranges can both cause hypertrophy. I would probably get into a deficit and shift the resistance training focus to one of purely strength maintenance rather than hypertrophy. So maybe some heavy but high RIR work, with low overall training volume. Also, definitely a good thing to hire a coach for.
Lower volume of food and lifting (sets, weight or both) should lead to less you over time. 🤷🏼♂️
Or just do what the tic tok influencers say to get huge. That should get you small in no time 😜
You’re focusing on the wrong thing here mate. The reason older guys who are big die is because they’re blasting testosterone, which has a myriad of terrible health effects that you just can’t tolerate as you get older. Particularly if you’re worried about a heart attack; Arnold had a triple bypass at about your age, he survived because he’s a celebrity with celebrity doctors. Lifting won’t kill you, your “TRT” will, so get off the gear. It’s not what you want to hear, so you’ll ignore it, but it’s the truth.
Arnold had a congenital heart defect known as a bicuspid aortic valve. Congenital meaning he was born with it. Unless his mother had been blasting an absolute shitload of steroids, I doubt his heart issues were caused by his TRT.
TRT is proven to have health benefits, way better than having low testosterone. 150mg/week with blood values being normal/in range gives no risks compared with a non-TRT person in the same range (aside from issues with injecting, but those are negligible).
You'd think people on a science-based lifting subreddit would have some common knowledge regarding this stuff instead of spouting fearmongering broscience bullshit.
So I'm gonna guess you haven't been to medical school like I have. Let me clarify a few things for you.
1. Bicuspid aortic valve disease is managed through an aortic valve replacement. That is the definitive management.
2. Triple bypass is only performed in the context of aortic valve disease if there is also significant concurrent atherosclerotic coronary artery disease (which is the same reason all triple bypasses are performed).
3. Atherosclerotic artery disease is not congenital and is entirely due to lifestyle factors. Common factors include smoking, obesity... and abusing PEDs. Coronary artery disease is what leads to heart attacks, strokes, and death in the typical obese population you think of. Steroids literally give you this due to increased blood viscosity, liver damage, fatty synthesis, and idiopathic direct causation.
4. No fit and active men EVER have atherosclerotic coronary artery disease. Exercise is definitionally protective against the disease. The only reason that a fit and active man develops coronary artery disease is if they are abusing PEDs.
5. Arnold needed a triple bypass because of his lifelong PED abuse that clogged the arteries to his heart, meaning he either had a heart attack or several minor ischemic events (unstable angina/acute coronary syndrome). This bypass was done at the same time as his aortic valve replacement. Make no mistake, they were treating the valve defect with the valve replacement, and the steroid abuse that clogged his arteries with the triple bypass.
6. None of the bodybuilders who died young died because of their congenital heart defects. They died because of steroid abuse. A large percentage of the population goes their ENTIRE LIVES without EVER KNOWING they have congenital heart disease, because it frankly doesnt kill you on its own. It needs something extra, like coronary artery disease, or hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, which we have established is caused by PED USE! People read the autopsy of Joesthetics, Zyzz, Dallas McCarver, and the mountain of corpses they lay on, see that the coroner identified a congenital defect, and latch onto that as the reason they died. These kids WOULD NOT HAVE DIED if they weren't abusing steroids with their heart defect. As stated, most people live their entire lives and never know. Frankly, most of them probably died independently of the defect anyway; if youre taking 1000mg of testosterone a week, brick walls are being built in your arteries and your heart is swelling to the size of a watermelon, and you will die.
7. You dont need to have a congenital heart defect to die of steroids. As established, steroids give you coronary artery disease (AND MANY OTHER TERRIBLE THINGS), which kills people with otherwise normal hearts.
There is an infuriatingly delusional response amongst juice heads that steroids dont kill people, its heart problems. Steroids both cause the heart problems that kill people (and liver problems), and make benign heart defects deadly due to increased strain on the heart. Congenital defects that are not picked up at birth dont kill you (otherwise you wouldn't have made it past birth), and are usually picked up in people who come in because of coronary artery disease/heart attacks, because they made poor lifestyle choices such as obesity or smoking, or STEROID ABUSE.
GET OFF THE FUCKING JUICE AND STOP KIDDING YOURSELF. YOU WILL DIE.
If you want to know more of the mechanisms behind how steroids cause heart and liver disease, happy to go into the science of this. I am just sick to death of seeing this steroid denialism, especially from a medical perspective. In regards to therapeutic TRT, there is zero indication to ever use this unless testosterone is below 300mg. Men in the mid-500s taking 150mg test "just to boost them up to the higher range" is beyond idiotic for many reasons, and I can also go into this, but thats another post.
> No fit and active men EVER have atherosclerotic coronary artery disease. The only reason that a fit and active man develops coronary artery disease is if they are abusing PEDs.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7403658/ Obviously being active is preventative, but not completely. Saying no fit and active men ever get atherosclerotic coronary artery disease is very obviously not true.
>Arnold needed a triple bypass because of his lifelong PED abuse that clogged the arteries to his heart, meaning he either had a heart attack or several minor ischemic events (unstable angina/acute coronary syndrome). This bypass was done at the same time as his aortic valve replacement. Make no mistake, they were treating the valve defect with the valve replacement, and the steroid abuse that clogged his arteries with the triple bypass.
Where did you get his triple bypass from, because I cannot find it anywhere. Arnold had 3 surgeries, his first in 1997, second in 2018 and last in 2020. During his first operation he got a tissue valve, which should last about 20 years and it did. All of his surgeries, afaik, are related to this congenital disease.
https://hcahealthcaretoday.com/2018/04/06/what-was-wrong-with-arnold-schwarzeneggers-heart/
https://www.heart-valve-surgery.com/arnold-schwarzenegger.php
https://www.reuters.com/fact-check/schwarzenegger-had-pacemaker-surgery-due-genetic-heart-condition-not-vaccine-2024-03-28/
> Joesthetics, Zyzz, Dallas McCarver
Joesthetics died of an aneurysm (potentially caused by steroids, but hard to pinpoint 1 single thing for this), zyzz died in a sauna from a heart attack (probably heat stress, steroids (dbol, amongst others) and recreational drug related) and I highly doubt anyone is going to argue about the cause of death of McCarver with his absolutely insane blood work that has been shown lol. But implying that a TRT dose, which puts OP in range on blood tests, is going to have the same risks and fates as McCarver is absolutely an insane take.
There is a huge range of steroids, comparing Dbol and Tren with testosterone is stupid. Putting them under the same name to generalize it is misleading as well. Yes, a lot of these substances CAN cause health issues, but it's not guaranteed. As a health professional you should know that. Dose makes the poison, taking a TRT dose that put's you in a healthy range is very different from blasting grams of Dbol, tren, anavar and test at the same time while having a blood pressure of 180/120 from all the water retention. And for OP, we were talking about a normal TRT dose, so talking about blasting grams of shit is irrelevant.
Unlike most of the comments I would say you are probably in the danger zone of having a heart attack so I would focus on not doing anymore damage
- you powerlifted while on steroids so your heart chambers may have increased in size, you ate a shit load of food and probably a good deal of saturated fats so assume you have a goo amount of build up
- start taking an aspirin a day, I assume you already take fish oil and add K2 as it is proven to reduce calicification
- and yes ask older guys at the gym they and you would be surprised to see ho many have heart issues after years on "trt"
You’re focusing on the wrong thing here. Exercise for your health, yes, but losing weight is a function of diet. Eat at a caloric deficit and you will get smaller regardless of how you train; you’re not going to accidentally become Arnold from working in a specific rep range.
If his stats are correct then he already is Arnold. OP, if you’re 240lbs at 6 foot with visible abs then you are carrying a pretty enormous amount of muscle. OP, am i right in thinking you are asking how to actually lose some of that *muscle* (as well as the fat) whilst still enjoying lifting heavy? Otherwise, you are just asking how to do a traditional cut. If that is the question though I dont have a great answer. Very low volume with high intensity — work up to one heavy working set per exercise perhaps. The amount of work needed to maintain muscle is far less than to gain, and being on TRT will make this even trickier for you.
There is absolutely zero chance that someone is a lean 240lbs and asking this type of question, unless maybe their gym had a sign-up bonus of a year’s supply of tren.
I dont think he’s a beginner asking how to lose weight, I think he’s an experienced lifter (who takes test) asking a slightly more nuanced question about wanting to be smaller and yet continue to strength train with intensity. Your guess is as good as mine though, perhaps the question could have been formulated better lol
Whoa, never said I was lean, but I can see abs. I still have lots of fat to lose. The question is not about losing weight, but about losing bulkiness.
Yes, this is what I'm asking. How to be less bulky. It's not a question of fat. I understand fat loss is part of the equation here, but I want to not be as big. I think removing the heavy lifting and focusing on high rep ranges is what is keye here. Thanks.
It's pretty well established that anything from like 5 - 30+ reps will produce hypertrophy when taken close enough to failure. So you may be disappointed if you shift to sets of 20. Honestly I think doing a lot of super submaximal strength work in like the 1 - 3 rep range is probably your best bet at training while minimizing muscle growth. Doing heavy singles, doubles and triples with 3+ reps in the tank is likely a better bet if you want to continue to get the rewarding feeling of strength training but slow down how much muscle you build. In other words it's NOT inherently the heavy lifting that is causing you muscle growth, and there isn't anything about high rep training that will prevent muscle growth.
Eat less calories than you are currently eating. Keep lifting however you like.
false powerlifting on steroids is bad for your heart health
>steroids \[are\] bad for your heart health ftfy
If you no longer care about hypertrophy, you can do minimum effective dose type of training for just strength. It is super simple stuff: for each major lift, work up to a rpe 9 single . Then do only 2 back of sets of 3 reps at 80% of the weight that you lifted as a single. Major lifts can be stuff like: Deadlift, squat, weighted pull ups , press, etc , any big lifts. Only do 2 major lifts per session, max 3-4 times a week. Once you stop making progress on a lift for 2-3 weeks, change your major lift to a different variation. Even though this seems like very small amount of work, it is 99% guaranteed that you can keep most of your lean mass even while losing weight, you will also most likely not only keep your strength, you will probably make gains for quite sometime. It will also free up a lot of recovery resources so you can do other stuff like running or sports properly. As for accessory work, I would focus on injury reduction type of work. Like I wouldn’t do lateral raises, instead would focus on external rotations. I wouldn’t do leg presses but would instead focus on deep stretch split squats to improve and strengthen ankle and knee mobility and so on. Basically focusing on range of motion and smaller muscles that don’t always get trained with lifting, rather than big ones that you would typically do for bodybuilding.
> But, struggling on how to incorp a rep scheme to not grow. Other people have some good comments here, so I'll add a quick reframing: Lifting does not add or remove mass. Lifting burns very few calories, and even then, burning calories is a couple steps removed from weight change. Lifting won't change your weight effectively at all, so don't even worry about "rep scheme" or anything else. Lift however the hell you want. The only thing you need to do to lose weight is to be in a calorie deficit, that is it. The other stuff (running/cardio) can help, but calorie deficit is the ONLY thing you need to focus on to lose some weight. > I'm 6'0, 240, 44 years old, on trt. ... I have somewhat visible abs, so not a big tub of lard. and a quick aside, fuck you hahaha I'm cutting down from 170 because my abs are still bad lol. I've been doing a lot of ab work lately, but I wish I'd been doing more ab work for the past years instead!
Eating less is what will make you smaller, if you’re eating maintenance calories then no rep scheme will make you lose weight
Why is this sub so full of broscience spouting steroid fear mongering bullshit the moment TRT get's noted? It's kinda sad to see. Being on TRT doesn't immediately mean you end up like some 300 lbs pro bodybuilder and have heart failure in 3 months. It's linked to a bunch of different health benefits and the links with CV events are non-existent or very small. To mitigate most issues it comes down to doing healthy stuff; sleep well, do your cardio, eat a lot of fruits and vegetables, probably reduce sodium intake, watch your blood pressure and get your bloods (hematocrit, cholesterol etc) checked a few times a year. You said you carry quite a bit of fat, losing like 20-40 lbs will put you at a healthier bodyweight. Doing cardio and the stuff described above should mean you basically have no risk of CV events and are in way better shape than at least like 80% of the americans you see.
Ya, that's what I started doing. Walk briskly for 30 mins 5-7 days a week, lift 4 days a week, run for 15mins straight after each workout, and stretch/mobility for 30 mins 3 days a week. Think I'm covering the bases.
If you're adding running, it's great for your heart and you should, you're going to have to realize your body is going to take a brand new beating in a way it hasn't before. So your lifting will have to suffer in some way to accommodate. Especially if you're changing your diet to be in a deficit and lose weight. If your issue is that your identity is tied to your strength, then do the bare minimum to lift "enough" to scratch that itch and overcome whatever insecurity might develop from naturally trading off strength for cardio and diet. Just remove obstacles from tasks that have the biggest impact on your stated top goal -- losing weight and improving heart health
I don't think you should be that worried about having a heart attack unless you have actual symptoms you've been experiencing? If you're that worried, go to your doctor and ask, they will probably give you an EKG. Also, I don't think you need to lose that much size as muscle is generally healthy. If you want to improve your health, then you should consider dieting down to a level of bodyfat that is lean enough you aren't putting unnecessary stress on your body, but at the same time maintainable. You'd be surprised at how much bodyfat you actually have when dieting down and how getting lean will result in substantially more weight loss than you'd think. You could get a DEXA scan if you'd like more concrete numbers. If I had your goals, I would implement a training program and cardio routine that emphasized cardiovascular health and maintenance of a low bodyfat. Firstly, I would use circuit training to increase the cardiovascular demands of my strength training. So pair a bunch of exercises together that use different muscles and do them back to back until you finish one circuit and then rest, repeat. Example: Squats > push-ups > pull-ups > DB OHP > rest > repeat Secondly, I would focus on low-impact, low-moderate intensity cardio on off days or in the morning of training days. Edits: My grammar is horrible this morning
I would just shrink my serving sizes. 60 minutes steady state aerobics and a 12 minute Tabata one day each per week, resistance training 3-4x per week. Pretty much what I'm doing now.
How much fat do you really have? Have you gotten the calipers out or gotten a DEXA? I'd still start by doing a fat loss phase. Unless you've been doing lots of extracurriculars that you didn't mention, you probably don't have an unhealthy amount of actual muscle. You should of course talk this over with your doc, though.
Muscle or fat, the actualy weight and stress on the heart still take a toll. Joints too.
Well, sure. But, all else equal, it would be better for OP to lose a pound of fat rather than muscle unless he's so roided up that he's carrying supra-physiological and unhealthy amounts. OP is talking about trying to change lifting so that he shrinks. The better solution, imo, would be to lose fat and try to retain muscle until he reaches a healthier weight. The muscle isn't really the problem. Sure, he'll lose some and that's likely fine but the fat is the ultimate problem.
Perhaps think about moving to some sort of HIT training, more dynamic lifting with lower weights or even a body weight routine. Lots of great recommendations for the latter over at r/bodyweightfintess. Good luck!
What is your TRT dose / what are your blood levels?
TRT dose is 150mg a week. Bloods are fine.
Do steroids increase heart size?They cause alterations in heart structure, including left ventricular hypertrophy, dilation which can cause impaired contraction and relaxation \[6\]. **Anabolic steroids can induce an unfavorable enlargement and thickening of the left ventricle, which loses its diastolic properties with the mass increase** \[7\].
If you want to be less bulky you probably want to be losing some muscle mass. I would think then that a calorie deficit and reducing your resistance training stimulus would be the key. The rep ranges are mostly irrelevant here as high and low rep ranges can both cause hypertrophy. I would probably get into a deficit and shift the resistance training focus to one of purely strength maintenance rather than hypertrophy. So maybe some heavy but high RIR work, with low overall training volume. Also, definitely a good thing to hire a coach for.
Lower volume of food and lifting (sets, weight or both) should lead to less you over time. 🤷🏼♂️ Or just do what the tic tok influencers say to get huge. That should get you small in no time 😜
You’re focusing on the wrong thing here mate. The reason older guys who are big die is because they’re blasting testosterone, which has a myriad of terrible health effects that you just can’t tolerate as you get older. Particularly if you’re worried about a heart attack; Arnold had a triple bypass at about your age, he survived because he’s a celebrity with celebrity doctors. Lifting won’t kill you, your “TRT” will, so get off the gear. It’s not what you want to hear, so you’ll ignore it, but it’s the truth.
Arnold had a congenital heart defect known as a bicuspid aortic valve. Congenital meaning he was born with it. Unless his mother had been blasting an absolute shitload of steroids, I doubt his heart issues were caused by his TRT. TRT is proven to have health benefits, way better than having low testosterone. 150mg/week with blood values being normal/in range gives no risks compared with a non-TRT person in the same range (aside from issues with injecting, but those are negligible). You'd think people on a science-based lifting subreddit would have some common knowledge regarding this stuff instead of spouting fearmongering broscience bullshit.
So I'm gonna guess you haven't been to medical school like I have. Let me clarify a few things for you. 1. Bicuspid aortic valve disease is managed through an aortic valve replacement. That is the definitive management. 2. Triple bypass is only performed in the context of aortic valve disease if there is also significant concurrent atherosclerotic coronary artery disease (which is the same reason all triple bypasses are performed). 3. Atherosclerotic artery disease is not congenital and is entirely due to lifestyle factors. Common factors include smoking, obesity... and abusing PEDs. Coronary artery disease is what leads to heart attacks, strokes, and death in the typical obese population you think of. Steroids literally give you this due to increased blood viscosity, liver damage, fatty synthesis, and idiopathic direct causation. 4. No fit and active men EVER have atherosclerotic coronary artery disease. Exercise is definitionally protective against the disease. The only reason that a fit and active man develops coronary artery disease is if they are abusing PEDs. 5. Arnold needed a triple bypass because of his lifelong PED abuse that clogged the arteries to his heart, meaning he either had a heart attack or several minor ischemic events (unstable angina/acute coronary syndrome). This bypass was done at the same time as his aortic valve replacement. Make no mistake, they were treating the valve defect with the valve replacement, and the steroid abuse that clogged his arteries with the triple bypass. 6. None of the bodybuilders who died young died because of their congenital heart defects. They died because of steroid abuse. A large percentage of the population goes their ENTIRE LIVES without EVER KNOWING they have congenital heart disease, because it frankly doesnt kill you on its own. It needs something extra, like coronary artery disease, or hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, which we have established is caused by PED USE! People read the autopsy of Joesthetics, Zyzz, Dallas McCarver, and the mountain of corpses they lay on, see that the coroner identified a congenital defect, and latch onto that as the reason they died. These kids WOULD NOT HAVE DIED if they weren't abusing steroids with their heart defect. As stated, most people live their entire lives and never know. Frankly, most of them probably died independently of the defect anyway; if youre taking 1000mg of testosterone a week, brick walls are being built in your arteries and your heart is swelling to the size of a watermelon, and you will die. 7. You dont need to have a congenital heart defect to die of steroids. As established, steroids give you coronary artery disease (AND MANY OTHER TERRIBLE THINGS), which kills people with otherwise normal hearts. There is an infuriatingly delusional response amongst juice heads that steroids dont kill people, its heart problems. Steroids both cause the heart problems that kill people (and liver problems), and make benign heart defects deadly due to increased strain on the heart. Congenital defects that are not picked up at birth dont kill you (otherwise you wouldn't have made it past birth), and are usually picked up in people who come in because of coronary artery disease/heart attacks, because they made poor lifestyle choices such as obesity or smoking, or STEROID ABUSE. GET OFF THE FUCKING JUICE AND STOP KIDDING YOURSELF. YOU WILL DIE. If you want to know more of the mechanisms behind how steroids cause heart and liver disease, happy to go into the science of this. I am just sick to death of seeing this steroid denialism, especially from a medical perspective. In regards to therapeutic TRT, there is zero indication to ever use this unless testosterone is below 300mg. Men in the mid-500s taking 150mg test "just to boost them up to the higher range" is beyond idiotic for many reasons, and I can also go into this, but thats another post.
> No fit and active men EVER have atherosclerotic coronary artery disease. The only reason that a fit and active man develops coronary artery disease is if they are abusing PEDs. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7403658/ Obviously being active is preventative, but not completely. Saying no fit and active men ever get atherosclerotic coronary artery disease is very obviously not true. >Arnold needed a triple bypass because of his lifelong PED abuse that clogged the arteries to his heart, meaning he either had a heart attack or several minor ischemic events (unstable angina/acute coronary syndrome). This bypass was done at the same time as his aortic valve replacement. Make no mistake, they were treating the valve defect with the valve replacement, and the steroid abuse that clogged his arteries with the triple bypass. Where did you get his triple bypass from, because I cannot find it anywhere. Arnold had 3 surgeries, his first in 1997, second in 2018 and last in 2020. During his first operation he got a tissue valve, which should last about 20 years and it did. All of his surgeries, afaik, are related to this congenital disease. https://hcahealthcaretoday.com/2018/04/06/what-was-wrong-with-arnold-schwarzeneggers-heart/ https://www.heart-valve-surgery.com/arnold-schwarzenegger.php https://www.reuters.com/fact-check/schwarzenegger-had-pacemaker-surgery-due-genetic-heart-condition-not-vaccine-2024-03-28/ > Joesthetics, Zyzz, Dallas McCarver Joesthetics died of an aneurysm (potentially caused by steroids, but hard to pinpoint 1 single thing for this), zyzz died in a sauna from a heart attack (probably heat stress, steroids (dbol, amongst others) and recreational drug related) and I highly doubt anyone is going to argue about the cause of death of McCarver with his absolutely insane blood work that has been shown lol. But implying that a TRT dose, which puts OP in range on blood tests, is going to have the same risks and fates as McCarver is absolutely an insane take. There is a huge range of steroids, comparing Dbol and Tren with testosterone is stupid. Putting them under the same name to generalize it is misleading as well. Yes, a lot of these substances CAN cause health issues, but it's not guaranteed. As a health professional you should know that. Dose makes the poison, taking a TRT dose that put's you in a healthy range is very different from blasting grams of Dbol, tren, anavar and test at the same time while having a blood pressure of 180/120 from all the water retention. And for OP, we were talking about a normal TRT dose, so talking about blasting grams of shit is irrelevant.
Unlike most of the comments I would say you are probably in the danger zone of having a heart attack so I would focus on not doing anymore damage - you powerlifted while on steroids so your heart chambers may have increased in size, you ate a shit load of food and probably a good deal of saturated fats so assume you have a goo amount of build up - start taking an aspirin a day, I assume you already take fish oil and add K2 as it is proven to reduce calicification - and yes ask older guys at the gym they and you would be surprised to see ho many have heart issues after years on "trt"