Need Advice - Pitching Cycle

[southpaw45]

I play baseball at the college level and need some advice. I have recently starting researching and found that the people on this site are filled with valuable information.
First off, I work out 5-6 days a week and eat healthy. I'm 6'2" but only 180 pounds. I am a pitcher which means I can't bulk up too much. I need to stay very flexible but I need to be strong in the triceps, forearms, back, and legs as well. Pitching is all about core strength and explosive power. I want to get my weight up around 195-200. As you know many baseball players juice and it's becoming a necessity in order to keep up. I have been working out for at least 6 years now so I know the ropes. I just have a very hard time putting on any weight. I condition 6 days a week and I need to stay healthy(no muscle pulls or arm problems) in order to compete.
I am new to the steroid scene and I'm trying to find as much information as possible. I was wondering if anyone could recommend what I should or shouldn't take. I have heard that stacking winstrol and equipoise works well for pitchers, but a friend of mine experienced pain throughout his joints from the winny. I have never taken steroids before and want to stay on the mild side because I don't need all the bulk. I also need to know what dosages to take for my goals.
Any information or advice would be great especially from other pitchers or baseball players. Thanks for your time.

 

[ghettostudmuffin]

This would be better posted in the steroid forum.

Personally, I think you shouldn't take them. I say this because naturally bulking up another 15-20lbs at your height and weight is EASY. Just eat more, up your protein and do a program like Madcow2's 5x5 or HST.

Also take a good brand of creatine.

I know this isn't what you want to hear, but starting roids to bulk up 15-20lbs when you could do that naturally in 6 months doesn't make any sense.

 

[Madcow2]

First, if you aren't able to gain any weight - there's a problem somewhere. More often than not it's training or diet related. If you aren't at low levels of BF, I'd look to the training side as caloric excess is not an issue. Most of the training programs one finds people using in gyms are absolute garbage. Even with good exercise selection it is simply not enough to go in the gym and work hard - an experienced trainee will not respond well to a program that doesn't systematically regulate volume and intensity. What that means in that the vast majority of programs used by BBers and gymrats are garbage and couldn't grow anyone except a bare novice - hence the heavy reliance on steroids to make up for shitty training.

Second, I've venture more pitchers are unjuiced rather than juiced for the most part. Steroids don't do wonders for the tendons/ligaments and tend to make people tighter for a variety of reasons making perceived benefits actually a detriment and increasing the chance of injury. You need to be very conscious of this and personally, given your stats I'd venture that you'd be far better off using a good program and making sure you get enough to eat. Handle this first while you continue to research your steroid options and you might be surprised to find that you didn't really need them at all (that may change in the future but 15-20lbs at 6'2" and 180 isn't a big burdle unless you are super ectomorphic to begin with).

http://www.elitefitness.com/forum/showthread.php?t=375215
This is the 5x5 workout that was referred to. There is a ton of info in this thread - primarily in the links contained in page 1. I'd invest some time reading through them - you'll be well rewarded and come away with a better understanding of what makes a good program. The benefit of this program is that you get a ton of hypertrophy and strength while the 3 day per week schedule leaves a lot of time for sport specific training and conditioning activities. For explosion you may wish to substitute power cleans for bent rows and high pulls for deads (either or both).

Got to run.

 

[southpaw45]

Thanks for the help, it is very much appreciated. I haven't convinced myself to use roids but it is an alternative. I have a while to decide what I would like to do b/c I am in mid season now anyway and I wont start to hit the weights hard again until summer. I just want to get a solid plan down for the summer so I can get the results I want. Would you reccomend any supplements like creatine? I have used it in the past but found that once I stopped taking it my gains went down.

 

[psilo]

Whatever you do, don't do HST. It will slow you down big time. HST is great for packing on mass, but its not functional mass. Trust me, as a college athlete, I know from experience. I would look toward olympic lifting and overall power movements.

 

[Madcow2]

Hey - one thing I totally forgot. If you are drug tested you'd best fully understand current NCAA testing protocol before touching anything. Typically, deca is avoided like the plague (a shame since it's really good on the joints and connective tissue) and test esters are favored since they don't result in odd metabolites and it's easy to use this in the offseason and have it cleared by the time you get back. This is by no means complete info and I'm not an authority on NCAA testing. There was a memeber here a long time ago named Nautica and another named Monkeyballs (sprinter) - they were fairly knowledgable about IOC and I believe NCAA. I think Panerai was another who had some depth of knowledge. They are likely no longer here but maybe someone can point you in their direction or to a decent source for this info as you absolutely do not want to screw this up.