I am only 25, but I have as much hormone experience as most people who "cycle" who are 50. This is basically my life and I am a legitimate contender to go pro one day. So take my advice for what it is, but don't expect me to spit some bro science at you right now (i.e. the alpha-keloids that testosterone produces are simply more effective than the celluloid inducing binders of trenbolone, despite the fact that trenbolone is 7 times more anabolic... etc etc etc). This is just real talk from my massive amount of experience:
A test only cycle is not fucking smart as your first cycle or ever. Testosterone in a cycle is for many purposes, but mainly libido. Think of it as your balls. But there are a list of other compounds that are straight up superior for muscle building purposes. However, they will often shut you down, hence the need for synthetic testosterone. Tren for example will build thick, lean muscle. On tren ace, you will build more lean muscle in one week than you would have otherwise built on a 3 month cycle of test @ 500 mg per week. Think of tren as your heart. But tren often leads to libido problems, and it definitely does shut you down. Here is where testosterone comes in- the synthetic testosterone raises your libido again and balances everything out.
But you are probably scared of running tren. You have read 1001 threads condemning the first time cycler for thinking about running tren. You have also read 25,000 threads telling you to run test only as your first cycle. So you definitely don't want to run tren, because you are convinced that you need to run "at least 3 cycles before you run tren". You have also read 1,000 threads on that topic on other boards. So I introduce either deca or eq, and in my recommendation you should run both. But you don't want to run both deca and eq at the same time because you have read 183 threads last month on the other board about not running deca with eq, because it will "shut you down too hard." So pick one or the other.
Now I'll cut the shit and give it to you straight. If you run the deca, don't do it for less than 10 weeks. Do it at least @ 250 mg per week and at the most 500 mg per week, and you can shoot it only once per week if you want. The esters will allow that. If you choose the EQ, run at the minimum at 600 mg per week (the conversion is NOT 1:1 from deca to eq, so 250 mg deca does NOT equal 250 mg EQ) and at the maximum 900 mg per week. If you choose EQ, run it for at least 12 weeks, but I would highly recommend 16 weeks at least on it. EQ takes a little while longer to really kick in.
Then add in your 500 mg of testosterone on top of either of these two cycles and you are golden. You will gain so much more lean, real muscle than you would have on a 10-12 week test alone cycle.
There is a reason we dislike test only cycles in the thunder dome (get big). It is because if you run a testosterone cycle without anything else you will look like a furniture mover, not a bodybuilder. And also, a testosterone only cycle is worthless without gh. There is a saying that for every gram of testosterone, you need 5 iu of GH to make it work. That saying has a great deal of merit to it.
And heed my last piece of advice strongly- there is a TON of fake deca and eq out there. Do your research. Because you might take my advice and run a 16 week cycle of EQ @ 600 mg and test cyp @ 500 mg, and purchase both compounds, but the EQ turns out to actually not be EQ, and in all likelihood if it is counterfeit EQ it is testosterone. So in that situation, you end up running 1,100 mgs of testosterone a week.
Do your homework. You found the right board, trust me. Now take our advice and never fall victim for another internet steroid cliche again. Here at the thunder dome we shatter cliches and turn skinny kids into local champion; local champ into "I just won my ticket to nationals"; national invite into pro card. The other boards give you a sticky and they repeat the information over and over from that sticky like a bunch of parrots, and overall hormone IQ is very low.