(05-10-2018 05:25 AM)Hannibal Wrote:  ...

One of the things I learned from him was to drink honey as a preworkout. After researching it, apparently it gives you a steady stream of glucose to fuel a long workout and it also raises testosterone while lowering estrogen.

https://www.gynecomastia.org/smf/index.p...ic=15340.0

...

Good to know. I wanna try this out.

This is probably my favorite video for getting pumped on lifting. It's got it all - maximal effort lifting, explosiveness, getting amped and angry, friendship and camaraderie in the gym, friendly competition:

Well brahs 2 things I knew were coming when I got my blood panel back.

I got it pulled last week, results came back.


My test levels were at 768 last year around June and after my first Test/Var cycle are now 343 as of last week.

I don't feel to different, don't feel sluggish, strength is still there at the gym, sex drive is relatively the same.


Now the even badder news, Cholesterol. (Thank my IRT genetics )

Total Cholesterol= 283
HDL= 50
LDL= 210
VLDL= 23

Basically the doc was saying I was bordering on needing statins and possibly may be pre diabetic.

I wasn't taking fish oil consistently, 2 meals a day included bacon fried Brussels sprouts, Mon Wed Friday, I had 4 whole eggs and half a tray of ground beef cooked in 2 strips of bacon/grease.

I'm sure that apart of the culprit.

The more I read about side effect of the Anavar I took - it seems it was a high factor in my cholesterol.

VAR ups bad cholesterol and drops good cholesterol so it's probably a factor in tanking my lipids.


As of now I'm gonna cut out bacon, take fish oil and my multivitamin consistently, take Niacin, and Red Yeast Rice as well.

I do cardio 2-3 days a week, now I'll do 3-4 days a week, I moved from incline treadmill to stairmaster.

The last thing I want to be is another victim to big pharmas drug pushers, so I'm hoping to do lower my cholesterol naturally.



As for my body, I took before and after photos from my last cycle.

Long story short, trimmed fat, put some size on, other gents confirm I look better.

Summer's around the corner and it's cutting season, I'll be jumping on another cycle of Test and Tren shortly. (Shoutout to LINUX for guiding me this entire time) (Honrable mentions General Stalin, Captain Chardonnay, and MiscBrah)



As for my lower back issues - I've been stretching religiously with a foam roller, lacrosse ball, I looked up lower back leg stretches that I've added into my routine after working out or running.

It's helped immensely.

I nailed down a physical therapist - even with insurance it's like $50 a session, at this point I'm thinking of it as an investment for healing my problems.

Also found a Chiro through insurance, it's only $15 a session which isn't bad.

I also got my first Thai massage 2 weekends ago and holy fuck was it awesome and brutal.

The way I was committed to the gym when I was on test, is the way, I'm committed to fixing my lower back problems and cholesterol now.



Any advice, supps, or suggestions would he helpful, thanks brahs!

I’ve been lifiting and increasing the weights since about a year and a half, now I lift 12.5 kg for biceps but I find it dificult with the lateral raise, I still lift with 6.5 kg!

(05-10-2018 04:16 PM)kaotic Wrote:  As for my lower back issues - I've been stretching religiously with a foam roller, lacrosse ball, I looked up lower back leg stretches that I've added into my routine after working out or running.

It's helped immensely.

I nailed down a physical therapist - even with insurance it's like $50 a session, at this point I'm thinking of it as an investment for healing my problems.

Also found a Chiro through insurance, it's only $15 a session which isn't bad.

I also got my first Thai massage 2 weekends ago and holy fuck was it awesome and brutal.

The way I was committed to the gym when I was on test, is the way, I'm committed to fixing my lower back problems and cholesterol now.



Any advice, supps, or suggestions would he helpful, thanks brahs!

As far as rehabbing your lower back; do you know what happened to it? Did you have MRI to determine what's up?

Regardless, before you shell out money for a PT or a Chiro (which can make your back worse), I would spend some time learning about Dr. Stuart McGill.

Dr. McGill is one of the world's foremost experts on spinal health, and I've used his advice to heal my own low back, as well as those who I have coached with rave reviews.

His website (http://www.backfitpro.com) will take you through the beginnings of it, and he explains a lot of these concepts waaay better than I do. The Back Mechanic Book is where i'd start. I've personally pulled a lot of concepts from there.

Also, make sure you're doing the McGill Big 3 at the end of your workouts (it really helps a TON). Do the Big 3 in conjunction with 30 minutes of walking outside per day, and that alone usually will make a massive difference.

Questions for those who are doing SS.

As some may know, I have begun doing SS 4 weeks ago. Progress is going good and I am adding weight every time to my lifts, but at the same time I am starting to feel that I will not be able to do that soon.
For example, tomorrow I will be doing 70 kg squat and I don't doubt that I will get it done, but 72,5 kg on the Friday? Hmm... not totally sure. I read SS book a couple of times and Rippetoe talks only about adding every time weight and that it becomes adding two times a week AFTER a couple of months.
I am eating well and going steady up in bodyweight and really feel stronger each time, but somehow I am not sure how would I be able to add weight to bar every time for couple of months. Doing deadlift with each time 5 kg more also seems like a huge chore to me, but I think I could do it like that for some time more because I have entered phase where you do it either once or twice per week. Press on the other hand is over with 2,5 kg increments. Last Friday I managed 40 kg and will do it in following increments: 41, 42.5, 43.5, 45, etc.

If you can do 70 kg tomorrow for three sets of 5, try 72.5 kg on Friday. Maybe you won’t succeed three sets of 5 immediately but you should do at least 2 or 3 reps and increase over the next 2 or 3 sessions. If after 3 sessions you can’t achieve three sets of 5, deload to 65 kg and work back up.

That seems like a good idea, hadn't cross my mind really as I never dealt with this stuff before. I'll do that.

(05-15-2018 02:46 AM)sterling_archer Wrote:  but at the same time I am starting to feel that I will not be able to do that soon.

it's ok, SS isn't supposed to last more than 12-16 weeks for the general population anyway.
you should already start considering what kind of goals you want when you become an intermediate (i.e. when you stop adding weight to the bar each workout)

(05-15-2018 04:40 AM)randomA Wrote:  

(05-15-2018 02:46 AM)sterling_archer Wrote:  but at the same time I am starting to feel that I will not be able to do that soon.

it's ok, SS isn't supposed to last more than 12-16 weeks for the general population anyway.
you should already start considering what kind of goals you want when you become an intermediate (i.e. when you stop adding weight to the bar each workout)

I figured that out already at the beginning. I want to use SS to give me foundation. Foundation in sense to reap newbie benefits in strength, learn better technique of compound lifts and such after which I will go to some hypertrophy / bodybuilding style program.

(05-15-2018 06:23 AM)sterling_archer Wrote:  

(05-15-2018 04:40 AM)randomA Wrote:  

(05-15-2018 02:46 AM)sterling_archer Wrote:  but at the same time I am starting to feel that I will not be able to do that soon.

it's ok, SS isn't supposed to last more than 12-16 weeks for the general population anyway.
you should already start considering what kind of goals you want when you become an intermediate (i.e. when you stop adding weight to the bar each workout)

I figured that out already at the beginning. I want to use SS to give me foundation. Foundation in sense to reap newbie benefits in strength, learn better technique of compound lifts and such after which I will go to some hypertrophy / bodybuilding style program.

Once you're done with the novice progression, you can turn to SS book chapter 8 (p. 291) on programming, where Rippetoe talks about progression on pp. 297-308. If you would like more detail, as you should, you must read the SS companion book: Practical Programming for Strength Training. There he describes intermediate and advanced programs.

Eric B is a pretty funny guy. I am not too into his style, but I appreciate that level of dedication to insane weights. Occasionally you gotta load up some weight you can't do and do it.

(05-15-2018 06:23 AM)sterling_archer Wrote:  I figured that out already at the beginning. I want to use SS to give me foundation. Foundation in sense to reap newbie benefits in strength, learn better technique of compound lifts and such after which I will go to some hypertrophy / bodybuilding style program.

Yup, agreed- in fact that's the whole purpose of SS.
What program will you move onto for hypertrophy later on?

(05-15-2018 06:57 PM)MOVSM Wrote:  Once you're done with the novice progression, you can turn to SS book chapter 8 (p. 291) on programming, where Rippetoe talks about progression on pp. 297-308. If you would like more detail, as you should, you must read the SS companion book: Practical Programming for Strength Training. There he describes intermediate and advanced programs.

Iirc ch.8 is just the programming for SSNLP, so not much for intermediate there.

As for PPST3rd, I wouldn't advise that if the fella above is not considering continuing with strength intermediate programming. Tho I think the general principles in the first part of the book are still mostly relevant.
As for the Texas Method etc. later chapters, that kind of programming has become a little bit outdated if your goals are mostly strength-powerlifting related.

(05-15-2018 09:55 PM)randomA Wrote:  Yup, agreed- in fact that's the whole purpose of SS.
What program will you move onto for hypertrophy later on?

Not sure yet. It seems to me at first glance that Greyskull with arms plugin could give me a mix between hypertrophy and strength workout.

(05-16-2018 01:10 AM)sterling_archer Wrote:  Greyskull with arms plugin

cant recall the arms plugin, but i remember the greyskull general template to be very little hypertrophy-oriented.
they probably get shilled on this sub-forum a lot, but have you considered the PHUL/PHAT routines?
in those routines, I like that half week is spent on strength work and the second half week focuses on volume and higher rep work for hypertrophy.
that could be quite a good compromise for you, if you don't want to go full-bro and do more typical splits or classic PushPullLegs or PushPull templates.

Just checked them out and damn, they are almost every day done and really high in volume, especially PHAT. I don't want to make up my mind about it now, I am long away from being intermediate.

(05-16-2018 04:27 AM)sterling_archer Wrote:  Just checked them out and damn, they are almost every day done and really high in volume, especially PHAT. I don't want to make up my mind about it now, I am long away from being intermediate.

They're either 4 or 5 day/week routines.
I doubt you will find efficient hypertrophy-focused programs that are less than that: even the various PPL/PP or bro-split routines require you to go to the gym around 5 times a week minimum.

The good news for all them is, however, that they're really fast. It might look like a lot of volume but you need to use weight you can lift having only 1-3 min rest across sets.
If you add that up, I doubt that would take more than 90 min at worst per workout.

If your goal is hypertrophy, once you have a good strong squat at lower reps, have you considered 20 rep squats and milk (gomad) diet?

That seems to be the go to for adding mass.

No milk for me, I am not exactly lactose intolerant in the way it messes me up, but still milk doesn't like too much my stomach. Anyway, gomad is not really viable option in Europe since milk is not really cheap.

I'm not sold on the GoMad diet. Look at the athlete that Mark Rippetoe put on that diet. The kid looked like a fat sack of trash after he finished that diet.

Eat more fucking food. If you feel uncomfortable as you gorge on protein, that's a good sign. It means you're hitting your limits.

Milk is kinda a weird thing. There are several scientists/dietitians that say human adults should never consume milk. A quick Google search will show you that.

I dunno. I'm a big fan of milk. I love it. But it is weird that humans are the only animals that consume milk as adults, right? I used to eat a small bowl of cereal with milk every night just before bed. I don't do it anymore, but I miss it.

I don't have any problems with milk, personally, beyond my lactose intolerance. I mostly make Kefir and drink that to get in some healthy fat. I think drinking some calories is fine, but you ultimately have to expand your stomach to accommodate more food if you wanna get bigger. There's no way around it.

The reason I don't suggest milk is that all the sugar and stuff bloats some guys. I like using whey isolate and other things. Extra body fat is not gonna do you any favors since it throws off your hip to shoulder ratio as you get bigger. If my hip to shoulder ratio drops below 1.5 at any point, I always make sure to reassess my diet and exercise fork control.

I agree completely. The reason I stopped drinking milk is from all the sugar.

I started drinking the above product and it didn't upset my stomach at all. Seems a healthier version.

But, like you said, i prefer a good protein powder nowadays. There's just no reason to drink milk, really, especially if you have a good diet.

(05-17-2018 01:19 AM)sterling_archer Wrote:  No milk for me, I am not exactly lactose intolerant in the way it messes me up, but still milk doesn't like too much my stomach. Anyway, gomad is not really viable option in Europe since milk is not really cheap.

As the Tibetan sage said "the books and practices you don't ever get round to using, give them up"

Alot of ambivalence about GOMAD on the forum which is fair enough.

As other posters have said, its more about taking on calories to your utmost in whichever way works.

Same goes for 20R squats, if it appeals do it as it seems to be a tried and tested hypertrophy formula going back decades. But if a lifter is keener on another program obviously its better to go where the interest is.

Btw, I am drinking whey + 3 dcl of milk as an supplement to my nutrition. 3 dcl of milk doesn't bloat me, it adds a bit of protein and combined with vanilla whey tastes awesome (I use My Protein brand).

GOMAD is ideal pretty much for only a few specific populations. Not really ideal for the average joes who arent underweight + arent novices anymore.