Tony Huge

CJC-1295 Ipamorelin Stack: The Real-World Protocol I’ve Run for Four Years

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Four years ago I was 43, training hard, sleeping fine, but recovery had started to feel like a chore. The pumps were shorter. The mid-afternoon energy dip was real. My IGF-1 came back at 162 ng/ml on bloodwork — middle of the reference range, mediocre for a guy doing what I do.

I started running the CJC-1295 Ipamorelin stack. Eight weeks later my IGF-1 was 287. Twelve weeks later I was sleeping like a teenager, recovering between hard sessions in 36 hours instead of 72, and visible body composition shifted without changing diet. I’ve been running this stack in cycles ever since. This is the actual protocol.

Why This Stack and Not Just “Growth Hormone”

Actual rHGH (recombinant human growth hormone) works. It also costs $1,500–2,500 a month for real pharma-grade, shuts down your natural pulse, blunts insulin sensitivity if you run it too long or too high, and is a one-way ticket to your face thickening and your hands getting weird.

Growth hormone secretagogues — peptides that prompt your pituitary to release your own GH in natural pulses — give you 60–70% of the benefit at maybe 10% of the cost, while preserving the negative feedback loops that keep things sane. That’s the trade I’ve been making for four years and have no plans to abandon.

CJC-1295 (without DAC, sometimes called Mod-GRF 1-29) is a GHRH analog. It mimics the hypothalamic signal that tells your pituitary to release GH.

Ipamorelin is a GHRP — a ghrelin mimetic. It hits a different receptor (GHSR) on the same pituitary cell. Same cell, two different doors knocking.

When you stack a GHRH with a GHRP, the resulting GH pulse is bigger than either peptide alone — meaningfully bigger. It’s the classic 1 + 1 = 3 of peptide chemistry.

Ipamorelin specifically (vs. GHRP-2 or GHRP-6) is selective. It doesn’t significantly raise cortisol, prolactin, or appetite the way the other GHRPs do. That’s why it’s the GHRP I use. The others have their place but cause more side effects for marginal extra GH release.

My Actual Protocol

  • CJC-1295 (no DAC): 100 mcg per injection
  • Ipamorelin: 200 mcg per injection
  • Both drawn into the same syringe, subq, 3 times per day
  • Timing: upon waking (fasted), pre-workout (or mid-afternoon on rest days), pre-bed (90 minutes after last meal)
  • Cycle: 5 days on, 2 days off
  • Total cycle length: 12 weeks, then 4 weeks off

The two-injections-per-vial math: a 5 mg vial of CJC-1295 reconstituted with 2.5 ml of bac water = 2,000 mcg per ml. 100 mcg is 5 units on a slin pin. A 5 mg vial of Ipamorelin done the same way is 2,000 mcg per ml; 200 mcg is 10 units. Combined into the same pin, you draw 5 units of CJC, then 10 units of Ipa, total 15 units. Subq belly fat. Takes 10 seconds.

Three times a day is the high-frequency protocol. You can run twice a day (morning + bed) and still see results — that’s the minimum effective dose. Once a day is mostly a waste. The pituitary’s pulsatile, so you want multiple opportunities to spike GH per 24-hour cycle.

Why Timing Is the Thing Most Guys Get Wrong

Ipamorelin needs to be injected on an empty stomach. Specifically, no carbs or significant fat within 90 minutes of injection. Why? Insulin and elevated free fatty acids both suppress GH release. You inject the perfect dose, your pituitary cell goes to release a beautiful pulse, and circulating insulin tells it to shut up. You wasted the shot.

This is why the timing is: fasted upon waking, before food. Pre-workout, after a 90-minute eating gap. Pre-bed, 90 minutes after dinner.

Guys who run this stack mid-meal or right after a protein shake see half the results and conclude the peptides don’t work. The peptides work. The timing was wrong.

What to Expect on a Real Cycle

Week 1–2: Sleep deepens almost immediately. This is the first signal that’s working. You’ll start waking up before the alarm feeling rested. If you don’t notice this in 10 days, your peptide is probably underdosed.

Week 3–4: Recovery improves. The 48-hour soreness from a hard leg day starts becoming 24-hour soreness. Skin quality improves subtly — looks slightly more hydrated, less tired. Fasted appetite drops.

Week 6–8: This is when the body comp starts shifting. Same diet, same training, you’ll notice you’re carrying less subcutaneous fat in the obliques and lower back. Muscle fullness improves. IGF-1 bloodwork at this point typically shows a 50–80% increase from baseline if your supply is real.

Week 10–12: Diminishing returns kick in. The dramatic early shifts plateau. This is when I cycle off. The pituitary doesn’t truly desensitize the way some forums claim, but the additional gains per week start dropping.

Side Effects In Four Years

The one consistent side effect for me is vivid dreams, especially in the first three weeks of a cycle. Like, full feature-length Christopher Nolan dreams, every single night. I don’t mind it. Some guys hate it. If it’s interfering with sleep, drop the pre-bed dose temporarily.

Injection-site reactions: minor occasional itching for 30 seconds after injection, mostly with CJC. Goes away.

Water retention in the first week, especially in the hands. This is real GH-mediated fluid shift. Resolves by week three.

Numbness or tingling in the hands (mild carpal tunnel-like sensation) is a sign you’re running too high a dose. Drop to twice a day. Goes away in days. I had this once when I tried bumping to 300 mcg of Ipa per injection. Lesson learned.

No lipid changes. No fasting glucose changes (this is one of the reasons Ipamorelin specifically is the right GHRP — the GHRP-6 / GHRP-2 crowd does sometimes see glucose creep). No HPTA disruption.

Bloodwork I Actually Run

  • IGF-1 — baseline before cycle, week 8 of cycle, week 4 of break
  • Fasting glucose + HbA1c — every 6 months on any GH-adjacent protocol
  • TSH, free T4, free T3 — GH can shift thyroid conversion. I run these every 6 months too.
  • CBC + CMP — annual baseline

If you’re not running labs you’re flying blind. There’s no point doing this if you don’t know your numbers. I cover the broader bloodwork philosophy for guys over 40 in my TRT guide for fathers over 40.

Stacking CJC/Ipamorelin With Other Tools

Great with TRT — synergistic. GH-axis recovery is amplified when testosterone is dialed in. Most guys running both feel meaningfully better than either alone.

Great with BPC-157 — different mechanisms, no interaction, both contribute to recovery. My current cycle is running CJC/Ipa + BPC-157 simultaneously. The combined effect on tendon health and overall recovery is the best I’ve felt in years. The full BPC-157 healing protocol explains how I dose that side.

Great with a clean cut — GH peptides preferentially mobilize fat for fuel, which is why you’ll lean out without losing as much muscle as you’d expect on a deficit.

Be careful with insulin or aggressive carb refeeds — for the obvious reason that they’ll blunt the GH pulse from any injection done within 90 minutes. Time it around them.

For a broader view of how I think about peptide stacking, the best peptide stacks 2025 guide lays it out.

CJC-1295 With DAC vs. Without

Someone always asks. CJC-1295 with DAC (the version with the drug affinity complex that gives it a 6–8 day half-life) sounds convenient — one shot a week. The problem is it creates a chronic GH bleed, not the pulsatile release pattern your body evolved for. You lose the natural rhythm. IGF-1 stays elevated 24/7, which sounds great until you remember what chronically elevated IGF-1 does to your cancer risk over decades.

Mod-GRF 1-29 (CJC without DAC, what I run) has a 30-minute half-life. You get a clean pulse, then it clears. That’s physiological. That’s what I want. Stick to the no-DAC version.

Sourcing

Same story as with every peptide. Most of what’s sold is underdosed. A real 5 mg vial reconstituted properly should give you predictable, repeatable results — better sleep within two weeks, IGF-1 rise on labs by week 6. If you’re getting neither, you’ve got bad supply.

Third-party COA. Domestic supplier. Don’t chase the cheapest vial. The peptide isn’t expensive to make if you make it correctly — the only reason a vial is suspiciously cheap is that there’s not much peptide in it.

Reconstitute with bac water. Refrigerate. Both peptides are stable for 30+ days reconstituted in the fridge. Don’t freeze.

Who Should Run This Stack

Guys over 35 with declining recovery, declining sleep quality, declining IGF-1 on bloodwork, and an established foundation (training, diet, sleep, hormones). This isn’t a beginner peptide stack. It’s a refinement tool for someone whose base is already in order.

Not for guys under 30 with naturally high IGF-1. You’ll get some sleep benefit and not much else. Save the money.

Not for anyone with active cancer or a personal history of GH-axis-sensitive cancer. GH and IGF-1 are mitogenic. This is a real consideration, not a marketing disclaimer.

Not for anyone unwilling to run labs. If you’re not going to measure IGF-1 before and during, you have no idea what you’re doing. Don’t fly blind.

Bottom Line After Four Years

CJC-1295 + Ipamorelin is the best non-pharmaceutical option I know of for restoring GH-axis function in guys past 35. It’s safer than rHGH, cheaper than rHGH, preserves your natural pulse architecture, and stacks well with everything else worth running. The dosing is forgiving as long as you respect the timing. The side effect profile is mild. The bloodwork response is real and measurable.

It’s not magic. It’s not going to make a 50-year-old look 25. What it’ll do is give you back the recovery and sleep architecture of a younger version of yourself, and that compounds over the years in a way that nothing else I’ve tried quite matches.

If you’ve got the foundations in place and the bloodwork shows declining IGF-1, run a 12-week cycle. Time it correctly. Run labs. See for yourself.

That’s the stack. That’s what I’ve been doing. That’s what’s worked.

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