DYELB: The Gainz Train

Health, fitness, and nutrition freaks, lets see those gainz.
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SAWCE
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Nice guys!

Hit shoulders with that new dude on Thursday, was alright. Strength gap between us was about what I expected, but he was down to shut up and just follow the workout, so I'll let him tag along whenever he wants.

Friday hit a quick arm workout at Michelle's gym with her. Was a little :disappoint: because I forgot their loaded barbells only go up to 60lbs. All of the smith machines were being used too, by people who were doing multiple exercises in them, so I couldn't do one of my triceps moves. I'll have to hit arms at my gym going forward.

Hamstrings on Saturday by myself, then chest yesterday at her gym again.
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SAWCE
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Gonna do bloodwork on Friday morning. I've been wanting to reset my day off to Thursdays so that I don't have to deal with parking at my gym (stree parking on ly) while the farmer's market is going on around the corner, so I'll take Wednesday off like I have been, and then Thursday off to set the new schedule. This will give me more accurate BT results too on Friday morning since some markers can read high after a strenuous workout.

Coach just wants me to get liver, kidney, estradiol, and cholesterol.. but I'm gonna do a full panel just to see everything and use the money in my HSA/FSA whatever so it doesn't go to waste. Should be about $300 through a private lab.
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SAWCE
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Went with a slightly less comprehensive exam. $157 after a 15% discount. 8 different types of test:
Complete Blood Count
Comprehensive Metabolic Panel
Lipid Panel
Thyroid Panel w/TSH
Prostate-specific Antigen
IGF-1
Estradiol
Testosterone, Free and Total

Will be interesting to see where I'm at after being on gear for a good 14 months. 5 weeks clean at this point. I'm not worried about anything being messed up since we kept things to pretty moderate doses. My anti-estogen dose was high leading up to the show so make sure I didn't hold water weight.. this can fuck up your lipids, but I've been off long enough, and eating healthy enough that I should see normal cholesterol levels. Doing things to stay healthy with stuff like that like eating all my breakfast carbs from oats, taking ubiquinol, fish oil, walnuts instead of almonds, and adding omega-3 rich foods like avocados and flax/chia seeds.

I'll post up my results here so we can all :doomed: at how young I'll die from abusing my body and not listening to the propaganda put out to deter people from using :sawce:
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coogles
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SAWCE wrote: Mon Mar 18, 2019 5:38 pm Went with a slightly less comprehensive exam. $157 after a 15% discount. 8 different types of test:
Complete Blood Count
Comprehensive Metabolic Panel
Lipid Panel
Thyroid Panel w/TSH
Prostate-specific Antigen
IGF-1
Estradiol
Testosterone, Free and Total

Will be interesting to see where I'm at after being on gear for a good 14 months. 5 weeks clean at this point. I'm not worried about anything being messed up since we kept things to pretty moderate doses. My anti-estogen dose was high leading up to the show so make sure I didn't hold water weight.. this can fuck up your lipids, but I've been off long enough, and eating healthy enough that I should see normal cholesterol levels. Doing things to stay healthy with stuff like that like eating all my breakfast carbs from oats, taking ubiquinol, fish oil, walnuts instead of almonds, and adding omega-3 rich foods like avocados and flax/chia seeds.

I'll post up my results here so we can all :doomed: at how young I'll die from abusing my body and not listening to the propaganda put out to deter people from using :sawce:
:popcorn:

What lab are you using? I've been interested in doing some of this too just to see how much my test levels have improved now that my UC is in remission.
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SAWCE
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coogles wrote: Mon Mar 18, 2019 5:57 pm
SAWCE wrote: Mon Mar 18, 2019 5:38 pm Went with a slightly less comprehensive exam. $157 after a 15% discount. 8 different types of test:
Complete Blood Count
Comprehensive Metabolic Panel
Lipid Panel
Thyroid Panel w/TSH
Prostate-specific Antigen
IGF-1
Estradiol
Testosterone, Free and Total

Will be interesting to see where I'm at after being on gear for a good 14 months. 5 weeks clean at this point. I'm not worried about anything being messed up since we kept things to pretty moderate doses. My anti-estogen dose was high leading up to the show so make sure I didn't hold water weight.. this can fuck up your lipids, but I've been off long enough, and eating healthy enough that I should see normal cholesterol levels. Doing things to stay healthy with stuff like that like eating all my breakfast carbs from oats, taking ubiquinol, fish oil, walnuts instead of almonds, and adding omega-3 rich foods like avocados and flax/chia seeds.

I'll post up my results here so we can all :doomed: at how young I'll die from abusing my body and not listening to the propaganda put out to deter people from using :sawce:
:popcorn:

What lab are you using? I've been interested in doing some of this too just to see how much my test levels have improved now that my UC is in remission.
I went through PrivateMDlabs.com. They put the order in to a LabCorp out here, so I'll just show up on Friday with the requisition that PMDL emailed me.

I did the Hormone Panel for Males found here:
https://www.privatemdlabs.com/lp/body-b ... esting.php

I was going to do a full blown one seen here under Male Athletic Anti-Aging:
https://www.privatemdlabs.com/lp/anti-a ... g-male.php

If you want to do it, and your doctor won't order it for you under your insurance, do this, and use "rhino" when checking out for 15% off.
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Last night was frustrating...

Got in the gym at 6:00.. light traffic on the way home, was feeling good about that. Get in, get changed, head out to the floor.. I start my back day with smith machine barbell rows. As I'm walking over there, this newer dude sets his towel and water bottle on a bench that's in the smith rack. No biggie, I like to warm my shoulders up before all my upper body days. 10 minutes later, he's still not in the rack, just next to it using another bench to do wrist curls on. Stare at him for a minute or two waiting for him to realize that's he's taking up needed space, and he doesn't get it, so between sets of his I ask if he's using the smith.. "oh, no.." Moves his stuff. I get through my 4 sets plus two warm up in 10-15 minutes..

Right as I finish that and I'm about to go do my rack deadlifts, this trainer grabs it for one of his clients. This guy is the epitome of bad personal trainers. He usually runs a group training class in the afternoons where he as 6-10 people all doing the same weights even though there are obvious strength discrepancies between them. Someone will absolutely get hurt under this guy's watch. Yesterday he just had one client. I'm hoping they're just squatting and won't be too long in the rack. :wrong: He has the guy doing a circuit of squats, deadlifts, and then he strings up some TRX straps in the rack for the guy to do pushups on, but since they're in the rack, they're in his way while he's squatting :dafuq: Ask how many rounds they're doing, and the trainer just says they're going to be in there for a while. Fuck.

There's an old "deadlift" platform in another corner of the gym. I've seen them before, but normally they have safety bars running the sides that you can do rack pulls from. This one just has little arms to hold the bar that can be adjusted for different heights. I find a setting just below my knee, and although I don't believe they'll hold the weight of the bar (the screw holding the arms in is maybe 1/4" OD, and screwed in maybe 1/2"...) I load up for my first warm up set with 275. Set up my feet on the platform, grab the bar, start to lean forward to get into position, and BAM my forhead smacks the mirrored wall. Fun. The platform is bolted to the floor, so I can't scoot it back a few inches and I have to just do a weird set up to make it work. Run through my warm up sets.. 275, 315, 365.. load 435 on for my first working set grab my gym bag to get my wrist straps out.. and they're not fucking there :rage: I go check my locker in case I accidently put them in there with out realizing, not there. Scour the gym to see if they fell out anywhere, nothing. So now I have to use a staggered grip and just see what I can do with all the shit that's gone wrong.

Pulled 4 sets of 4 reps each, which I feel good about given the circumstances, but by the time I've finished this exercise, I've already been in the gym for a fucking hour. Two of my seven lifts done in an hour. Luckily the last five are easy to set up and aren't as demanding so I can move quicker between sets, but fuck I spent over two hours in the gym last night for a workout that normally takes me 90ish minutes. Didn't find my straps at home either. I have an extra set I can start bringing, but still annoyed about not having them last night.

Two weeks now that I couldn't fully do my rack deads. When my membership is up in May I'm switching gyms. Get away from the talkers and the shitty trainers.
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SAWCE
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Damn. Off day squatting too. No real reason. Knees and hips just weren’t feeling right once it got heavy. First set of 315 I only hit 6 reps, so decided to just go heavy and then get the volume back with a drop set.. Did 325x6, 335x4, 345x3 then dropset to 225x12 then dropset to 135x20.

I’ll come back for my 4x10 with 315 next week.
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I’m glad that I don’t typically run into crowd issues at 530/6 am.


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SAWCE
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It’s usually not bad at my gym, there are just a few talkers and the one shitty trainer.
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Threw 245 on for heavy set squats this morning. No complaints from my back.


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SAWCE
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Calvinball wrote: Wed Mar 20, 2019 10:41 am Threw 245 on for heavy set squats this morning. No complaints from my back.


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Man, I've been hitting our gym lately. Doing more running than anything. I hate weights, but I try to keep my routine to 3-4 machines of core every workout, and then alternate between arms and legs. And then followed up my interval running, until I can get back in the swing of things where I can run for longer periods. The lactose acid shit is gone, so I don't get so sore since the rust is getting shaken off, so that's a plus. I'd rather just run like a mother fucker than deal with weights.
I'm getting there tho. Diet is better but I'm not completely back into Keto yet. But making better choices when I do eat.
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SAWCE wrote: Wed Mar 20, 2019 10:59 am
Calvinball wrote: Wed Mar 20, 2019 10:41 am Threw 245 on for heavy set squats this morning. No complaints from my back.


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:fuckyeah:
All right Animal Bro:

The 50 YOA thing is starting to take a toll in terms of recovery time. Stiff, sore, achy breaky. Sometimes I can't recover from OHP in time for a good chest day, sometimes leg day doesn't leave my legs fresh enough to really blow it up on the DL day.

What recovery options are available other than roids? I'm too old to jack with the witches' brew of problems that can come with that.
Detroit wrote:Buy 911s instead of diamonds.
Johnny_P wrote: Thu Feb 09, 2023 3:21 pm Earn it and burn it, Val.
max225 wrote: Mon May 01, 2023 5:35 pm Yes it's a cool car. But prepare the lube/sawdust.
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Desertbreh wrote: Wed Mar 20, 2019 3:16 pm
SAWCE wrote: Wed Mar 20, 2019 10:59 am

:fuckyeah:
All right Animal Bro:

The 50 YOA thing is starting to take a toll in terms of recovery time. Stiff, sore, achy breaky. Sometimes I can't recover from OHP in time for a good chest day, sometimes leg day doesn't leave my legs fresh enough to really blow it up on the DL day.

What recovery options are available other than roids? I'm too old to jack with the witches' brew of problems that can come with that.
What does your lifting schedule look like?
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Apex wrote: Wed Mar 20, 2019 3:16 pm
Desertbreh wrote: Wed Mar 20, 2019 3:16 pm

All right Animal Bro:

The 50 YOA thing is starting to take a toll in terms of recovery time. Stiff, sore, achy breaky. Sometimes I can't recover from OHP in time for a good chest day, sometimes leg day doesn't leave my legs fresh enough to really blow it up on the DL day.

What recovery options are available other than roids? I'm too old to jack with the witches' brew of problems that can come with that.
What does your lifting schedule look like?
Friday- Chest
Saturday DL + supplemental back work.
Sunday OHP if my shoulders are not sore from Friday, If so I'll just do some arms.
Monday---Arms
Wed---Leg

Doubled up on the arms again after I realized once a week without some volume was giving me tiny pipe cleaner arms that were no bueno. Also, because I am old AF, it is beneficial to simply hit the gym (which is 3 minutes from my haus), hit the bike and stretch, which happens before each workout, even if not doing a major lift. Some Saturdays I can tell I just have not recovered and I have said fuck it and moved DL to Sunday.
Detroit wrote:Buy 911s instead of diamonds.
Johnny_P wrote: Thu Feb 09, 2023 3:21 pm Earn it and burn it, Val.
max225 wrote: Mon May 01, 2023 5:35 pm Yes it's a cool car. But prepare the lube/sawdust.
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Desertbreh wrote: Wed Mar 20, 2019 3:16 pm
SAWCE wrote: Wed Mar 20, 2019 10:59 am

:fuckyeah:
All right Animal Bro:

The 50 YOA thing is starting to take a toll in terms of recovery time. Stiff, sore, achy breaky. Sometimes I can't recover from OHP in time for a good chest day, sometimes leg day doesn't leave my legs fresh enough to really blow it up on the DL day.

What recovery options are available other than roids? I'm too old to jack with the witches' brew of problems that can come with that.
TRT aka low dose roids. Just makes you like a normal middle age dude vs one thats old af
brain go brrrrrr
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Desertbreh wrote: Wed Mar 20, 2019 3:23 pm
Apex wrote: Wed Mar 20, 2019 3:16 pm

What does your lifting schedule look like?
Friday- Chest
Saturday DL + supplemental back work.
Sunday OHP if my shoulders are not sore from Friday, If so I'll just do some arms.
Monday---Arms
Wed---Leg

Doubled up on the arms again after I realized once a week without some volume was giving me tiny pipe cleaner arms that were no bueno. Also, because I am old AF, it is beneficial to simply hit the gym (which is 3 minutes from my haus), hit the bike and stretch, which happens before each workout, even if not doing a major lift. Some Saturdays I can tell I just have not recovered and I have said fuck it and moved DL to Sunday.
I might try combining Sat and Sun into Sunday, then skip arms on Monday. This will give you Monday and Tuesday to recover before hitting legs again on Wed.
How's your sleep schedule? Approximately how many hours per night?
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SAWCE
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Desertbreh wrote: Wed Mar 20, 2019 3:16 pm
SAWCE wrote: Wed Mar 20, 2019 10:59 am

:fuckyeah:
All right Animal Bro:

The 50 YOA thing is starting to take a toll in terms of recovery time. Stiff, sore, achy breaky. Sometimes I can't recover from OHP in time for a good chest day, sometimes leg day doesn't leave my legs fresh enough to really blow it up on the DL day.

What recovery options are available other than roids? I'm too old to jack with the witches' brew of problems that can come with that.
First thing I'd look at is general recovery. Eating enough (1g per pound of bodyweight minimum) protein? How much sleep are you getting (athletic performance drops sharply if you get under 7 hours)? So if those aren't in line with where they should be, work to fix them.

Secondary to that, I'd look for vitamin deficiencies. Specifically vitamins D and B. Both are very easy and cheap to supplement. A quick bloodwork test from your doctor would have you those results in a week or so.

For things you can do :

1) Sauna time is great. Helps with recovery, lowers risk of stroke, heart attack, all cause mortality, etc.. If you have time for it after you lift (and if your gym has one, steam or IR) sit in there for 10-15 minutes after each workout. If you have more time, spending 3-5 minutes in one before you lift is an awesome way to literally warm up for your workout and get your joints feeling good.
2) Foam rolling can be useful, but I'd caution not to overdo it. Don't use any thing super hard, or one of the special spikey ones, it doesn't take much pressure at all do start doing damage. Hit your whole body over 2-3 minutes a few times a week just to get some blood moving between workouts.
3) Stretch. Not your standard isometric holds like bending to touch your toes. But right after your workout, do weighted stretches for whatever bodypart you just worked out. IE for chest, lay on a flat bench and grab some relatively heavy dumbbells, kick them up to your starting position and let them push down your hands to stretch your pecs. Just sit like that for 60-90 seconds. Boom. For back, you can hang a weight from your waist and grab onto a pull-up bar for the 60-90 seconds (this also feels amazing for decompressing your spine). Stuff like that. I can send you a link that shows you more stretches for other parts like shoulders, quads, etc.

May I ask the aversion to steroids? I'm not talking underground, blackmarket stuff like I use, but legit TRT from your doctor. He can test your natural test levels when you get the bloodwork for vitamin deficiencies. The "problems" you mention are a non-issue when using a lower TRT dose and watched by your doctor. In fact, it can have many positives outside of better recovery from the gym. Low testosterone equals higher estrogen in men. This is bad. Increase fat storage, which increases risk of heart attack, stroke, blood pressure, etc. Managing your hormones in incredibly important for general well-being and health. In addition to the testosterone, your doctor should give you something to lower your estrogen, and some will give you HCG too in case you're worried about testicular atrophy. FWIW even at 750mg test/week (about 5-7x what you'd be prescribed) my boys were still around and working well. I'm sure my sperm count would have read low though.

If you're really averse to that, you could look at a natural test booster. The only ingredient I'd recommend based on all of the research I've seen published is Ashwaganda. Other stuff only helps in hypogonadal men. There is some KSM standardization you want to look for in it. I posted some links in here or the supplement thread at some point for Toby IIRC.
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Acid666 wrote:Man, I've been hitting our gym lately. Doing more running than anything. I hate weights, but I try to keep my routine to 3-4 machines of core every workout, and then alternate between arms and legs. And then followed up my interval running, until I can get back in the swing of things where I can run for longer periods. The lactose acid shit is gone, so I don't get so sore since the rust is getting shaken off, so that's a plus. I'd rather just run like a mother fucker than deal with weights.
I'm getting there tho. Diet is better but I'm not completely back into Keto yet. But making better choices when I do eat.
I like speedwork to keep a base of some endurance over the winter. Hadn’t run more than a few miles probably since before I hurt my back in August, but was able to go out and do 6 miles a couple weekends ago with my sis-in-law with no problem.


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Desertbreh
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Big Brain Bradley wrote: Wed Mar 20, 2019 3:32 pm
Desertbreh wrote: Wed Mar 20, 2019 3:16 pm

All right Animal Bro:

The 50 YOA thing is starting to take a toll in terms of recovery time. Stiff, sore, achy breaky. Sometimes I can't recover from OHP in time for a good chest day, sometimes leg day doesn't leave my legs fresh enough to really blow it up on the DL day.

What recovery options are available other than roids? I'm too old to jack with the witches' brew of problems that can come with that.
TRT aka low dose roids. Just makes you like a normal middle age dude vs one thats old af
:notbad:
Detroit wrote:Buy 911s instead of diamonds.
Johnny_P wrote: Thu Feb 09, 2023 3:21 pm Earn it and burn it, Val.
max225 wrote: Mon May 01, 2023 5:35 pm Yes it's a cool car. But prepare the lube/sawdust.
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Desertbreh
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SAWCE wrote: Wed Mar 20, 2019 3:38 pm
Desertbreh wrote: Wed Mar 20, 2019 3:16 pm

All right Animal Bro:

The 50 YOA thing is starting to take a toll in terms of recovery time. Stiff, sore, achy breaky. Sometimes I can't recover from OHP in time for a good chest day, sometimes leg day doesn't leave my legs fresh enough to really blow it up on the DL day.

What recovery options are available other than roids? I'm too old to jack with the witches' brew of problems that can come with that.
First thing I'd look at is general recovery. Eating enough (1g per pound of bodyweight minimum) protein? How much sleep are you getting (athletic performance drops sharply if you get under 7 hours)? So if those aren't in line with where they should be, work to fix them.

Secondary to that, I'd look for vitamin deficiencies. Specifically vitamins D and B. Both are very easy and cheap to supplement. A quick bloodwork test from your doctor would have you those results in a week or so.

For things you can do :

1) Sauna time is great. Helps with recovery, lowers risk of stroke, heart attack, all cause mortality, etc.. If you have time for it after you lift (and if your gym has one, steam or IR) sit in there for 10-15 minutes after each workout. If you have more time, spending 3-5 minutes in one before you lift is an awesome way to literally warm up for your workout and get your joints feeling good.
2) Foam rolling can be useful, but I'd caution not to overdo it. Don't use any thing super hard, or one of the special spikey ones, it doesn't take much pressure at all do start doing damage. Hit your whole body over 2-3 minutes a few times a week just to get some blood moving between workouts.
3) Stretch. Not your standard isometric holds like bending to touch your toes. But right after your workout, do weighted stretches for whatever bodypart you just worked out. IE for chest, lay on a flat bench and grab some relatively heavy dumbbells, kick them up to your starting position and let them push down your hands to stretch your pecs. Just sit like that for 60-90 seconds. Boom. For back, you can hang a weight from your waist and grab onto a pull-up bar for the 60-90 seconds (this also feels amazing for decompressing your spine). Stuff like that. I can send you a link that shows you more stretches for other parts like shoulders, quads, etc.

May I ask the aversion to steroids? I'm not talking underground, blackmarket stuff like I use, but legit TRT from your doctor. He can test your natural test levels when you get the bloodwork for vitamin deficiencies. The "problems" you mention are a non-issue when using a lower TRT dose and watched by your doctor. In fact, it can have many positives outside of better recovery from the gym. Low testosterone equals higher estrogen in men. This is bad. Increase fat storage, which increases risk of heart attack, stroke, blood pressure, etc. Managing your hormones in incredibly important for general well-being and health. In addition to the testosterone, your doctor should give you something to lower your estrogen, and some will give you HCG too in case you're worried about testicular atrophy. FWIW even at 750mg test/week (about 5-7x what you'd be prescribed) my boys were still around and working well. I'm sure my sperm count would have read low though.

If you're really averse to that, you could look at a natural test booster. The only ingredient I'd recommend based on all of the research I've seen published is Ashwaganda. Other stuff only helps in hypogonadal men. There is some KSM standardization you want to look for in it. I posted some links in here or the supplement thread at some point for Toby IIRC.
Very comprehensive answer as usual, thank you.

Sleep: I'm getting 7+
Brotein: I doubt I'm getting 225 g of brotein a day. More like 125.
Roids: No aversion to prescribed TRT, I just can't do felony possession of anything.

After a little too much vacation time and not getting on the scale every morning, I ballooned back to 227-229. 225 this morning. When I drop back down to 215 I'll go get the bloodwork done/see the doc. I am working towards a 200 lb. goal at this point....while maintaining strength. Several reasons:

1. Don't want to die
2. Try and reduce BP w/o meds
3. Going to switch a term life insurance policy to whole life and that means another judgment day by nurse wratched, see #2
4. Fucking feel a lot better/pants slip on nice and easy.

Stretching. YES, super interested in some shoulder stretches. It's the biggest problem point in terms of pain prohibiting gains........Front Delt. Heavy chest work and heavy OHP make that sore, and not good worked out sore, workout inhibiting sore.
I'll try that back stretch, no doubt by lats get tight AF after DL, back day.
Detroit wrote:Buy 911s instead of diamonds.
Johnny_P wrote: Thu Feb 09, 2023 3:21 pm Earn it and burn it, Val.
max225 wrote: Mon May 01, 2023 5:35 pm Yes it's a cool car. But prepare the lube/sawdust.
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SAWCE
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Desertbreh wrote: Wed Mar 20, 2019 4:33 pm
SAWCE wrote: Wed Mar 20, 2019 3:38 pm

First thing I'd look at is general recovery. Eating enough (1g per pound of bodyweight minimum) protein? How much sleep are you getting (athletic performance drops sharply if you get under 7 hours)? So if those aren't in line with where they should be, work to fix them.

Secondary to that, I'd look for vitamin deficiencies. Specifically vitamins D and B. Both are very easy and cheap to supplement. A quick bloodwork test from your doctor would have you those results in a week or so.

For things you can do :

1) Sauna time is great. Helps with recovery, lowers risk of stroke, heart attack, all cause mortality, etc.. If you have time for it after you lift (and if your gym has one, steam or IR) sit in there for 10-15 minutes after each workout. If you have more time, spending 3-5 minutes in one before you lift is an awesome way to literally warm up for your workout and get your joints feeling good.
2) Foam rolling can be useful, but I'd caution not to overdo it. Don't use any thing super hard, or one of the special spikey ones, it doesn't take much pressure at all do start doing damage. Hit your whole body over 2-3 minutes a few times a week just to get some blood moving between workouts.
3) Stretch. Not your standard isometric holds like bending to touch your toes. But right after your workout, do weighted stretches for whatever bodypart you just worked out. IE for chest, lay on a flat bench and grab some relatively heavy dumbbells, kick them up to your starting position and let them push down your hands to stretch your pecs. Just sit like that for 60-90 seconds. Boom. For back, you can hang a weight from your waist and grab onto a pull-up bar for the 60-90 seconds (this also feels amazing for decompressing your spine). Stuff like that. I can send you a link that shows you more stretches for other parts like shoulders, quads, etc.

May I ask the aversion to steroids? I'm not talking underground, blackmarket stuff like I use, but legit TRT from your doctor. He can test your natural test levels when you get the bloodwork for vitamin deficiencies. The "problems" you mention are a non-issue when using a lower TRT dose and watched by your doctor. In fact, it can have many positives outside of better recovery from the gym. Low testosterone equals higher estrogen in men. This is bad. Increase fat storage, which increases risk of heart attack, stroke, blood pressure, etc. Managing your hormones in incredibly important for general well-being and health. In addition to the testosterone, your doctor should give you something to lower your estrogen, and some will give you HCG too in case you're worried about testicular atrophy. FWIW even at 750mg test/week (about 5-7x what you'd be prescribed) my boys were still around and working well. I'm sure my sperm count would have read low though.

If you're really averse to that, you could look at a natural test booster. The only ingredient I'd recommend based on all of the research I've seen published is Ashwaganda. Other stuff only helps in hypogonadal men. There is some KSM standardization you want to look for in it. I posted some links in here or the supplement thread at some point for Toby IIRC.
Very comprehensive answer as usual, thank you.

Sleep: I'm getting 7+
Brotein: I doubt I'm getting 225 g of brotein a day. More like 125.
Roids: No aversion to prescribed TRT, I just can't do felony possession of anything.

After a little too much vacation time and not getting on the scale every morning, I ballooned back to 227-229. 225 this morning. When I drop back down to 215 I'll go get the bloodwork done/see the doc. I am working towards a 200 lb. goal at this point....while maintaining strength. Several reasons:

1. Don't want to die
2. Try and reduce BP w/o meds
3. Going to switch a term life insurance policy to whole life and that means another judgment day by nurse wratched, see #2
4. Fucking feel a lot better/pants slip on nice and easy.

Stretching. YES, super interested in some shoulder stretches. It's the biggest problem point in terms of pain prohibiting gains........Front Delt. Heavy chest work and heavy OHP make that sore, and not good worked out sore, workout inhibiting sore.
I'll try that back stretch, no doubt by lats get tight AF after DL, back day.
Yeah, no need to worry about legality with TRT. Doc will prescribe everything, and even administer the injections once a week or so for you if you don't like doing it yourself and don't care about the copays for a little visit like that adding up. You can do creams, or an injected tablet that slow releases over time, but I haven't looked into them much and they come with their own unique risks, like if your wife touches you where you put the cream she could absorb some, blah blah. Injections are easy and you get used to them.

I can't find the site I used to reference with pictures of the stretches, but this gives some details:
http://dc-training.blogspot.com/2005/11 ... ching.html

Front delts being overworked is common. Strengthening your rear delts can help this, plus help posture and overall shoulder health.

Buy a resistance band, hold it with both arms straight out in front of you, spread your arms until the band touches your chest. Do 20-30 reps. Band doesn't need to be much resistance since we're going for high reps here. I do this to start every single upper-body day, and I sometimes do it on my leg days too. I use these two (was using the red, just started using the green, they might have an orange that is lighter.. check out their chart explaining the resistances.)

https://www.elitefts.com/pro-mini-resistance-band.html
https://www.elitefts.com/pro-monster-mi ... -band.html

In addition to that stretch/warm up, I do a few other moves for my rotator cuffs. I can send you a video of my full shoulder warm up routine I do if you'd like. Tonight is a quick night in the gym, so I don't mind spending some time filming that part.
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Desertbreh
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SAWCE wrote: Wed Mar 20, 2019 4:45 pm
Desertbreh wrote: Wed Mar 20, 2019 4:33 pm

Very comprehensive answer as usual, thank you.

Sleep: I'm getting 7+
Brotein: I doubt I'm getting 225 g of brotein a day. More like 125.
Roids: No aversion to prescribed TRT, I just can't do felony possession of anything.

After a little too much vacation time and not getting on the scale every morning, I ballooned back to 227-229. 225 this morning. When I drop back down to 215 I'll go get the bloodwork done/see the doc. I am working towards a 200 lb. goal at this point....while maintaining strength. Several reasons:

1. Don't want to die
2. Try and reduce BP w/o meds
3. Going to switch a term life insurance policy to whole life and that means another judgment day by nurse wratched, see #2
4. Fucking feel a lot better/pants slip on nice and easy.

Stretching. YES, super interested in some shoulder stretches. It's the biggest problem point in terms of pain prohibiting gains........Front Delt. Heavy chest work and heavy OHP make that sore, and not good worked out sore, workout inhibiting sore.
I'll try that back stretch, no doubt by lats get tight AF after DL, back day.
Yeah, no need to worry about legality with TRT. Doc will prescribe everything, and even administer the injections once a week or so for you if you don't like doing it yourself and don't care about the copays for a little visit like that adding up. You can do creams, or an injected tablet that slow releases over time, but I haven't looked into them much and they come with their own unique risks, like if your wife touches you where you put the cream she could absorb some, blah blah. Injections are easy and you get used to them.

I can't find the site I used to reference with pictures of the stretches, but this gives some details:
http://dc-training.blogspot.com/2005/11 ... ching.html

Front delts being overworked is common. Strengthening your rear delts can help this, plus help posture and overall shoulder health.

Buy a resistance band, hold it with both arms straight out in front of you, spread your arms until the band touches your chest. Do 20-30 reps. Band doesn't need to be much resistance since we're going for high reps here. I do this to start every single upper-body day, and I sometimes do it on my leg days too. I use these two (was using the red, just started using the green, they might have an orange that is lighter.. check out their chart explaining the resistances.)

https://www.elitefts.com/pro-mini-resistance-band.html
https://www.elitefts.com/pro-monster-mi ... -band.html

In addition to that stretch/warm up, I do a few other moves for my rotator cuffs. I can send you a video of my full shoulder warm up routine I do if you'd like. Tonight is a quick night in the gym, so I don't mind spending some time filming that part.
5/7 would watch. Thanks!
Detroit wrote:Buy 911s instead of diamonds.
Johnny_P wrote: Thu Feb 09, 2023 3:21 pm Earn it and burn it, Val.
max225 wrote: Mon May 01, 2023 5:35 pm Yes it's a cool car. But prepare the lube/sawdust.
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SAWCE
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Desertbreh wrote: Wed Mar 20, 2019 4:54 pm
SAWCE wrote: Wed Mar 20, 2019 4:45 pm

Yeah, no need to worry about legality with TRT. Doc will prescribe everything, and even administer the injections once a week or so for you if you don't like doing it yourself and don't care about the copays for a little visit like that adding up. You can do creams, or an injected tablet that slow releases over time, but I haven't looked into them much and they come with their own unique risks, like if your wife touches you where you put the cream she could absorb some, blah blah. Injections are easy and you get used to them.

I can't find the site I used to reference with pictures of the stretches, but this gives some details:
http://dc-training.blogspot.com/2005/11 ... ching.html

Front delts being overworked is common. Strengthening your rear delts can help this, plus help posture and overall shoulder health.

Buy a resistance band, hold it with both arms straight out in front of you, spread your arms until the band touches your chest. Do 20-30 reps. Band doesn't need to be much resistance since we're going for high reps here. I do this to start every single upper-body day, and I sometimes do it on my leg days too. I use these two (was using the red, just started using the green, they might have an orange that is lighter.. check out their chart explaining the resistances.)

https://www.elitefts.com/pro-mini-resistance-band.html
https://www.elitefts.com/pro-monster-mi ... -band.html

In addition to that stretch/warm up, I do a few other moves for my rotator cuffs. I can send you a video of my full shoulder warm up routine I do if you'd like. Tonight is a quick night in the gym, so I don't mind spending some time filming that part.
5/7 would watch. Thanks!
You got it!

Back to our first posts. For protein.. do you take a protein supplement? If not, it's an easy, relatively cheap way to get that intake up. A two-scoop shake right after your workout is gonna boost you up 44-50g depending on the brand you buy.

If you don't want to use whey, plant-based powder, casein, or any other protein "supplement", I would recommend at least tracking your meat/egg/dairy intake to try to get that number up. You don't have to go :fullretard: :math: and count all of your macros/calories, but get a cheap food/weed scale to leave on your kitchen counter, and just try to hit 4-6oz of chicken/beef (cooked weight) a few times a day. Aim for the higher side with beef since it'll have more fat thus less protein, plus it's easier to get down more beef than protein due to the fat and flavor.

4oz chicken (breast) will give you about 34g or protein.
6oz will give you about 51g.

4oz ground beef (90% lean) will give you about 28g protein.
6oz will give you about 42g.

Hit a breakfast with eggs, egg whites, bacon, sausage, whatever it takes to get you to 50g for that meal, then a 6oz chicken meal, for lunch, 2 scoops of protein post workout or for a snack, and 6oz beef/steak for dinner and you've got a good 200g right there.
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Desertbreh
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SAWCE wrote: Wed Mar 20, 2019 5:13 pm
Desertbreh wrote: Wed Mar 20, 2019 4:54 pm

5/7 would watch. Thanks!
You got it!

Back to our first posts. For protein.. do you take a protein supplement? If not, it's an easy, relatively cheap way to get that intake up. A two-scoop shake right after your workout is gonna boost you up 44-50g depending on the brand you buy.

If you don't want to use whey, plant-based powder, casein, or any other protein "supplement", I would recommend at least tracking your meat/egg/dairy intake to try to get that number up. You don't have to go :fullretard: :math: and count all of your macros/calories, but get a cheap food/weed scale to leave on your kitchen counter, and just try to hit 4-6oz of chicken/beef (cooked weight) a few times a day. Aim for the higher side with beef since it'll have more fat thus less protein, plus it's easier to get down more beef than protein due to the fat and flavor.

4oz chicken (breast) will give you about 34g or protein.
6oz will give you about 51g.

4oz ground beef (90% lean) will give you about 28g protein.
6oz will give you about 42g.

Hit a breakfast with eggs, egg whites, bacon, sausage, whatever it takes to get you to 50g for that meal, then a 6oz chicken meal, for lunch, 2 scoops of protein post workout or for a snack, and 6oz beef/steak for dinner and you've got a good 200g right there.
Detroit wrote:Buy 911s instead of diamonds.
Johnny_P wrote: Thu Feb 09, 2023 3:21 pm Earn it and burn it, Val.
max225 wrote: Mon May 01, 2023 5:35 pm Yes it's a cool car. But prepare the lube/sawdust.
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