My personal advice is to train natty until you're 25 but you do you.
'just a baseline test cycle' not sure what you think you're getting into here but that isn't how gear works- You're on or you're not. Once you're on, you will never go back to normal without it. See Pete Rubish's youtube channel, he's been documenting his progress off gear for a while now and it's ridiculous how much he lost. Should be required viewing for anyone considering gear tbh. Pete is one of the strongest competitive powerlifters in the world in case the name is not familiar, so he is not just a random bro.
Yes, but an AI and SERMs because you can't predict how your body will respond and you will NEED these drugs to combat any side effects that do pop up. Most guys fail to do this and then come crawling back when they have problems, some even lie and claim they tried something but it didn't work as if we're gonna tell them that some OTC product in Walmart can save them now lol. Anytime a post says 'AI on hand' or similar, they're lying their ass off and YOLO'ing it.
Most people do not get blood work done but it is always a good idea to get checked out every so often once you join this lifestyle. It's almost a meme though at this point; Vast majority of guys on gear will never get their blood panel done, they all larp online and claim that they do though. Anytime you see someone say 'Bloods every X months' or 'Bloods came back clean' or 'All values in range' they're almost always bullshitting and have never gotten a test done lol.
Nobody actually does PCT. You will try it once maybe, like some, and find out that it is a load of bullshit and just end up sticking to blast/cruise instead. Literally no downsides to cruising on test, lot of downsides to PCT. None of the people you want to look or lift like do PCT. There's always a LARPer that'll lie to you and claim they PCT'd and kept all their gains and had no issues but this is hardcore bullshit.
Do what you want to do but this is my input from years of usage and years of being on forums and around circles that use shit in the various gyms I've been a member at. The forums are full of a shit ton of blatant lies, LARPing, exaggerating, E-Stating (lying about numbers, doses, body fat, etc). Take everything with a handful of salt.
