Even though I'm a fairly new member of this board, and mostly do more reading than posting, I couldn't resist to offer my experiences on this topic.
To make a long story short, I'm 46yo, 5'7", 200lbs.two years into my comeback to regular training (had been off for 11years and 13 since my last cycle). My comeback had been partially derailed with a partial tear on my rotator cuff while attempting to do dips last spring, along with knee irritation after doing leg work, It's just like my joints were trying to sabotage my workouts and gains and even with the pain, I still found exercises to work around the pain. Being a side sleeper didn't make my shoulder any better, and would wake up multiple times when sleeping on the messed up shoulder.
I just finished a mild 12 week cycle of Deca and Proviron, mostly to see if the joint relief was true (had read that deca provides 270% collagen synthesis) starting/finishing with 300mgs and peaking with 400mgs mid cycle for 4 weeks. I had taken test cyp and enanthate in my earlier cycles and bloated like a beach ball, that's why I decided to omit the test and suck up any deca-dick sides.
It's a very slow acting ester and started to feel the effects until week 5; from there on, my joint pain started diminishing dramatically, I was able to incorporate squats and my leg extensions weights increased without the knee discomfort I'd suffer post workout. My shoulder also improved greatly, and even though I still have impingement, the pain is almost non existent and able to sleep a lot better at night. The addition of proviron kept any estrogen related probs away:no bloat, no sore nipples and some wood help right up to week 8 or nine when I started to notice my sex drive to take a nose dive. Also the quality of woods started to diminish drastically, to the point of admitting the unavoidable: Deca-dick arrived!
It's been two weeks since my last shot, waiting for third to start PCT with clomid and nolva and hopefully get some test going again in my body, but Overall with the joint relief, along with some nice newly added muscle mass and mild strength increase, I'm very pleased with the results and will definetely run deca in the future, but this time will make sure to invest in some caber to see if i can avoid the prolactin related deca-dick that come with it.
I'm actually happier with this cycle. compared to the test cycles I'd run in my younger days. With deca I felt an overall feeling of well-being, more confident at the gym and some mild fat decrease.
I just hope my experience with deca helps any bro make an informed decision and Good Luck to Ya All!