DYELB: The Gainz Train

[SAWCE]

495bomber

my name on GroupMe with a friend group is Bomber 3:15 after benching 315 for the first time

[Desertbreh]

Those arms

Also, you going to change your name to CX5bomber?

Haha should probably be CuckBomber or something since I’m rolling in Michelle’s car. Never updated it after dumping the Jeep to reflect the Elantra. Maybe I’ll ditch the car prefix all together and go straight bodybuilding with it.

I laughed.

[golftdibrad1]

Haha should probably be CuckBomber or something since I’m rolling in Michelle’s car. Never updated it after dumping the Jeep to reflect the Elantra. Maybe I’ll ditch the car prefix all together and go straight bodybuilding with it.

it seems to be the passion these days, why not?

[SAWCE]

Haha should probably be CuckBomber or something since I’m rolling in Michelle’s car. Never updated it after dumping the Jeep to reflect the Elantra. Maybe I’ll ditch the car prefix all together and go straight bodybuilding with it.

it seems to be the passion these days, why not?

I almost changed it when I got the Elantra, but I didn’t want to risk messing up engagement with my stuff for Animal. But they’ve gone away from discount codes and now I just have the referral link, so think it’s less of an issue. Probably wasn’t before and I was just overthinking it, but yeah that was my logic.

Just need to think of something.. had toyed around with NPCBomber (then could change to IFBBBomber if I get a pro card) or ClassicBomber or something like that.

[golftdibrad1]

it seems to be the passion these days, why not?

I almost changed it when I got the Elantra, but I didn’t want to risk messing up engagement with my stuff for Animal. But they’ve gone away from discount codes and now I just have the referral link, so think it’s less of an issue. Probably wasn’t before and I was just overthinking it, but yeah that was my logic.

Just need to think of something.. had toyed around with NPCBomber (then could change to IFBBBomber if I get a pro card) or ClassicBomber or something like that.

Dont do NPCBomber...might read Non-Player Character Bomber to some....

[SAWCE]

I almost changed it when I got the Elantra, but I didn’t want to risk messing up engagement with my stuff for Animal. But they’ve gone away from discount codes and now I just have the referral link, so think it’s less of an issue. Probably wasn’t before and I was just overthinking it, but yeah that was my logic.

Just need to think of something.. had toyed around with NPCBomber (then could change to IFBBBomber if I get a pro card) or ClassicBomber or something like that.

Dont do NPCBomber...might read Non-Player Character Bomber to some....

[SAWCE]

First time training in a very long time that I had no patellar tendon pain my right elbow tendon felt much better too. Been dealing with some depression, and not being able to train properly was compounding that. Very happy with how tonight felt. Need to keep up with the rehab work to make sure things stay this way.

I’ve decided to bump my rep ranges for everything up a bit. I’m too old to be playing the 6-9 rep game for things like deadlifts and squat pattern movements. Joints just aren’t what they used to be.

[D Griff]

First time training in a very long time that I had no patellar tendon pain my right elbow tendon felt much better too. Been dealing with some depression, and not being able to train properly was compounding that. Very happy with how tonight felt. Need to keep up with the rehab work to make sure things stay this way.

I’ve decided to bump my rep ranges for everything up a bit. I’m too old to be playing the 6-9 rep game for things like deadlifts and squat pattern movements. Joints just aren’t what they used to be.

Hope being able to train properly gets you in a better mental state man! One thing I've learned is that the mid thirties are a weird time of life and not necessarily as easy to be happy as younger years, for me at least.

You bumping those reps up or down?

I honestly go back and forth on my DL volume and where I think it should be. Most of my lower body work is cycling and running, so I generally think that maybe higher weight/lower volume DL work would be a nicer compliment since I get a ton of volume on the legs with cardio stuff, but then again, I am pushing my limits is really the safest thing or beneficial to my joints/back.

[SAWCE]

First time training in a very long time that I had no patellar tendon pain my right elbow tendon felt much better too. Been dealing with some depression, and not being able to train properly was compounding that. Very happy with how tonight felt. Need to keep up with the rehab work to make sure things stay this way.

I’ve decided to bump my rep ranges for everything up a bit. I’m too old to be playing the 6-9 rep game for things like deadlifts and squat pattern movements. Joints just aren’t what they used to be.

Hope being able to train properly gets you in a better mental state man! One thing I've learned is that the mid thirties are a weird time of life and not necessarily as easy to be happy as younger years, for me at least.

You bumping those reps up or down?

I honestly go back and forth on my DL volume and where I think it should be. Most of my lower body work is cycling and running, so I generally think that maybe higher weight/lower volume DL work would be a nicer compliment since I get a ton of volume on the legs with cardio stuff, but then again, I am pushing my limits is really the safest thing or beneficial to my joints/back.

Yeah dude, a whole lot of life happened at once and the gym was usually a place to go process things and clear my head, but I’d felt like I was losing that too with these injuries.

Whoops, meant to say bumping them up to higher numbers. Not a lot, but enough to make me lower my weights a bit. 6-9 range is now 10-12.. 10-15 range is now 15-20.. stuff like that. Trying to make sure I’m really contracting the target muscle with each rep and not just moving weigh around either.

I’d probably lean towards higher rep lower weight stuff for deads for you with the injury you picked up doing them. I know form can still breakdown towards the end of those high rep sets, but you’ve at least got less weight on the bar pulling on your body, so to me that’s less potential for damage/injury. You can also assess throughout the set as as soon as you’re starting to feel fatigued and questioning the integrity of your form for the next rep you can call the set there. You’re not trying to get hugebro, so no reason to push things like that to failure. Leaving 2-3 reps in the tank per set will still give you the benefits of having done the lift at all, just a little less of a hypertrophic response.

[Desertbreh]

First time training in a very long time that I had no patellar tendon pain my right elbow tendon felt much better too. Been dealing with some depression, and not being able to train properly was compounding that. Very happy with how tonight felt. Need to keep up with the rehab work to make sure things stay this way.

I’ve decided to bump my rep ranges for everything up a bit. I’m too old to be playing the 6-9 rep game for things like deadlifts and squat pattern movements. Joints just aren’t what they used to be.

I understand you have some cf production issues and all that. Beware the PNW November through February. I thought Seasonal Affective Disorder was just bullshit created by hypochondriac whiner types until I spent my first winter in Tacoma. Black to Dark Grey to Light Grey to Dark Grey to Black (Heavy emphasis on black and dark gray) fucks you up without you realizing it. Start mixing in alcohol and weed and all of a sudden things don't look so good. Weekend trip to Bend and sit out on a deck and get some sun bro.

I use both Animal Flex and PM now for joints/recovery. Way to sell that shit.

[coogles]

Hope being able to train properly gets you in a better mental state man! One thing I've learned is that the mid thirties are a weird time of life and not necessarily as easy to be happy as younger years, for me at least.

You bumping those reps up or down?

I honestly go back and forth on my DL volume and where I think it should be. Most of my lower body work is cycling and running, so I generally think that maybe higher weight/lower volume DL work would be a nicer compliment since I get a ton of volume on the legs with cardio stuff, but then again, I am pushing my limits is really the safest thing or beneficial to my joints/back.

Yeah dude, a whole lot of life happened at once and the gym was usually a place to go process things and clear my head, but I’d felt like I was losing that too with these injuries.

Whoops, meant to say bumping them up to higher numbers. Not a lot, but enough to make me lower my weights a bit. 6-9 range is now 10-12.. 10-15 range is now 15-20.. stuff like that. Trying to make sure I’m really contracting the target muscle with each rep and not just moving weigh around either.

I’d probably lean towards higher rep lower weight stuff for deads for you with the injury you picked up doing them. I know form can still breakdown towards the end of those high rep sets, but you’ve at least got less weight on the bar pulling on your body, so to me that’s less potential for damage/injury. You can also assess throughout the set as as soon as you’re starting to feel fatigued and questioning the integrity of your form for the next rep you can call the set there. You’re not trying to get hugebro, so no reason to push things like that to failure. Leaving 2-3 reps in the tank per set will still give you the benefits of having done the lift at all, just a little less of a hypertrophic response.

For me I've learned to enjoy finding leg exercises specifically that I can work in high reps and really get a pump, rather than being focused on moving heavy weights all the time. Step-ups, slant board squats, hamstring curls, hip thrusts, 45* back extensions, assisted nordics, dumbbell b-stance RDLs, tib raises and calf work. Going from always trying to work up to a heavy single to doing 10 minute EMOMs with lighter weights (for example) actually busted some lifting plateaus for me. You can't flex bone, after all.

[golftdibrad1]

I've lost a lot of strength letting injuries heal but still did a 145 seated ohp, 315 squat, and 435 deadlift this week. bench 185 higher reps because shoulder. oh and some heavy pulldowns and pullups.

[SAWCE]

First time training in a very long time that I had no patellar tendon pain my right elbow tendon felt much better too. Been dealing with some depression, and not being able to train properly was compounding that. Very happy with how tonight felt. Need to keep up with the rehab work to make sure things stay this way.

I’ve decided to bump my rep ranges for everything up a bit. I’m too old to be playing the 6-9 rep game for things like deadlifts and squat pattern movements. Joints just aren’t what they used to be.

I understand you have some cf production issues and all that. Beware the PNW November through February. I thought Seasonal Affective Disorder was just bullshit created by hypochondriac whiner types until I spent my first winter in Tacoma. Black to Dark Grey to Light Grey to Dark Grey to Black (Heavy emphasis on black and dark gray) fucks you up without you realizing it. Start mixing in alcohol and weed and all of a sudden things don't look so good. Weekend trip to Bend and sit out on a deck and get some sun bro.

I use both Animal Flex and PM now for joints/recovery. Way to sell that shit.

depression is something I’ve dealt with most of my life unfortunately, but yes, this seasonal shit seems to get the better of me especially when compound with shit going on in life. I’m down to an actual TRT dose of test now too, which doesn’t help things. 100mg/week for the lose. Trying to look at that as letting my body and androgen receptors heal though.

Luckily alcohol isn’t in the mix.. weed has been cut way down, but it does need to more or less go completely.

Been slacking on both flex and omega. I need to put an order in for some shit, including those two.

[golftdibrad1]

100mg/week for the lose.

jesus dude im on 132, and that barely keeps me in the 400's a week after an injection...

[SAWCE]

100mg/week for the lose.

jesus dude im on 132, and that barely keeps me in the 400's a week after an injection...

Yeah man.. and I’m used to taking 400 for the last year and a half, and even more than that before. The difference is noticeable.

[SAWCE]

Damn. Bloodwork from Friday showed my hematocrit back up at 61. I’m gonna have to drop the 100mg of test out even and go all natural for a few months until that number is down in a safe, healthy range. Wish me luck boys.

Test tested at 935.. still higher than the normal range and high for only being on 100mg of test, but I’d been on 200mg for a while before that and with a 14 day half life, some of that was still in my system since it’d only been about two weeks from when I dropped the dose to 100mg.

[golftdibrad1]

Damn. Bloodwork from Friday showed my hematocrit back up at 61. I’m gonna have to drop the 100mg of test out even and go all natural for a few months until that number is down in a safe, healthy range. Wish me luck boys.

Test tested at 935.. still higher than the normal range and high for only being on 100mg of test, but I’d been on 200mg for a while before that and with a 14 day half life, some of that was still in my system since it’d only been about two weeks from when I dropped the dose to 100mg.

thats still too high for it to be just test if you are getting blood drawin after a week of a shot. You still on GH? could be some of your natural production as well.

just looked at my recent bloodwork and my hematocrit was 49.x and the ref range cutoff for high is 51. Looking at an older lab from different lab cutoff was 45.

how long have you been on the lower dose? RBC's last about 120 days so it may take some time for that number to come down on its own, IE just because you've unstimulated the RBC production the ones that already exist take some time deteriorate (die? IIRC RBC's are not typical 'cells' and are not 'alive')

[coogles]

Damn. Bloodwork from Friday showed my hematocrit back up at 61. I’m gonna have to drop the 100mg of test out even and go all natural for a few months until that number is down in a safe, healthy range. Wish me luck boys.

Test tested at 935.. still higher than the normal range and high for only being on 100mg of test, but I’d been on 200mg for a while before that and with a 14 day half life, some of that was still in my system since it’d only been about two weeks from when I dropped the dose to 100mg.

Just regular TRT can have a negative impact on that number? I've listened to plenty of Mark Bell chat about TRT and I don't think that's something they've ever mentioned.

[SAWCE]

Damn. Bloodwork from Friday showed my hematocrit back up at 61. I’m gonna have to drop the 100mg of test out even and go all natural for a few months until that number is down in a safe, healthy range. Wish me luck boys.

Test tested at 935.. still higher than the normal range and high for only being on 100mg of test, but I’d been on 200mg for a while before that and with a 14 day half life, some of that was still in my system since it’d only been about two weeks from when I dropped the dose to 100mg.

thats still too high for it to be just test if you are getting blood drawin after a week of a shot. You still on GH? could be some of your natural production as well.

just looked at my recent bloodwork and my hematocrit was 49.x and the ref range cutoff for high is 51. Looking at an older lab from different lab cutoff was 45.

how long have you been on the lower dose? RBC's last about 120 days so it may take some time for that number to come down on its own, IE just because you've unstimulated the RBC production the ones that already exist take some time deteriorate (die? IIRC RBC's are not typical 'cells' and are not 'alive')

I’ve been on 400mg since last July, I did blood work on Nov. 1 that showed the high hematocrit so that’s when I dropped down to 200mg, and then midway through November is when I dropped down to 100mg. So yeah a lot of that is still just in my system. We even did the phlebotomy on like Nov 13 or 14 and that dropped my hematocrit to 57.8, but then it came right back up to this 61.

So I’ll bite the bullet and come off completely for a few month to get healthy again.

And nope, not on anything else. Growth and everything else got dropped when I came down to 400 last July.

[SAWCE]

Damn. Bloodwork from Friday showed my hematocrit back up at 61. I’m gonna have to drop the 100mg of test out even and go all natural for a few months until that number is down in a safe, healthy range. Wish me luck boys.

Test tested at 935.. still higher than the normal range and high for only being on 100mg of test, but I’d been on 200mg for a while before that and with a 14 day half life, some of that was still in my system since it’d only been about two weeks from when I dropped the dose to 100mg.

Just regular TRT can have a negative impact on that number? I've listened to plenty of Mark Bell chat about TRT and I don't think that's something they've ever mentioned.

Yep! Unfortunately not a lot of people talk about that. One of my buddies is on 125mg, and has been for years, and he has to donate blood every 8 weeks or his starts to get thick fast. He’s said that as he’s gotten older it’s gotten worse, so age may be a factor.. not sure if there are any studies that have looked for a correspondence in how much hematocrit is elevated by exogenous testosterone over time at different ages. Would be very interesting to see.

Anecdotally, my seems to be similar since I used to run 600-750 test and not really have to worry about mine outside of donating every 12-16 weeks.

[coogles]

Just regular TRT can have a negative impact on that number? I've listened to plenty of Mark Bell chat about TRT and I don't think that's something they've ever mentioned.

Yep! Unfortunately not a lot of people talk about that. One of my buddies is on 125mg, and has been for years, and he has to donate blood every 8 weeks or his starts to get thick fast. He’s said that as he’s gotten older it’s gotten worse, so age may be a factor.. not sure if there are any studies that have looked for a correspondence in how much hematocrit is elevated by exogenous testosterone over time at different ages. Would be very interesting to see.

Anecdotally, my seems to be similar since I used to run 600-750 test and not really have to worry about mine outside of donating every 12-16 weeks.

That's super interesting, and good to know. The last two times I've had bloodwork done my free test levels were in the mid 500s. I don't take any extracurricular stuff but I do take some of the supps that the Huberman types recommend for test improvement. Ashwagandha, Longjack/Tongkat Ali, Fenugreek, plus some magnesium and zinc. Seems to help me to some degree even if I'm not boosted, so to speak, although I'll admit it is tempting.

I've seen a couple younger guys join the gym within the last couple years and when they first walked in I was bigger & stronger than both, now each of them has blown past me. I'm almost 100% positive they're on some good shit and I'll admit, I'm a bit jealous. I don't have the best genetics for building muscle to begin with, then plus the ulcerative colitis lingering in the background I'm sure I'm not exactly building muscle as optimally as other people are. Eh.

[golftdibrad1]

Damn. Bloodwork from Friday showed my hematocrit back up at 61. I’m gonna have to drop the 100mg of test out even and go all natural for a few months until that number is down in a safe, healthy range. Wish me luck boys.

Test tested at 935.. still higher than the normal range and high for only being on 100mg of test, but I’d been on 200mg for a while before that and with a 14 day half life, some of that was still in my system since it’d only been about two weeks from when I dropped the dose to 100mg.

Just regular TRT can have a negative impact on that number? I've listened to plenty of Mark Bell chat about TRT and I don't think that's something they've ever mentioned.

yes, but if you are on a therapeutic dose it is not likely to come up enough to cause concern.

[SAWCE]

Yep! Unfortunately not a lot of people talk about that. One of my buddies is on 125mg, and has been for years, and he has to donate blood every 8 weeks or his starts to get thick fast. He’s said that as he’s gotten older it’s gotten worse, so age may be a factor.. not sure if there are any studies that have looked for a correspondence in how much hematocrit is elevated by exogenous testosterone over time at different ages. Would be very interesting to see.

Anecdotally, my seems to be similar since I used to run 600-750 test and not really have to worry about mine outside of donating every 12-16 weeks.

That's super interesting, and good to know. The last two times I've had bloodwork done my free test levels were in the mid 500s. I don't take any extracurricular stuff but I do take some of the supps that the Huberman types recommend for test improvement. Ashwagandha, Longjack/Tongkat Ali, Fenugreek, plus some magnesium and zinc. Seems to help me to some degree even if I'm not boosted, so to speak, although I'll admit it is tempting.

I've seen a couple younger guys join the gym within the last couple years and when they first walked in I was bigger & stronger than both, now each of them has blown past me. I'm almost 100% positive they're on some good shit and I'll admit, I'm a bit jealous. I don't have the best genetics for building muscle to begin with, then plus the ulcerative colitis lingering in the background I'm sure I'm not exactly building muscle as optimally as other people are. Eh.

If you ever do go the enhanced route, I’d spend the little extra to go through a clinic and do bloodwork every 3-4 months to make sure you stay healthy. Ultimately this is all because I didn’t do bloodwork or give blood for over a year, so I had no idea how high the numbers had gotten.

[coogles]

Just regular TRT can have a negative impact on that number? I've listened to plenty of Mark Bell chat about TRT and I don't think that's something they've ever mentioned.

yes, but if you are on a therapeutic dose it is not likely to come up enough to cause concern.

Good to know, and really all I can ever envision myself doing. Sounds fun to be huge but I don't want to deal with it, or the potential long-term concerns.

[coogles]

If you ever do go the enhanced route, I’d spend the little extra to go through a clinic and do bloodwork every 3-4 months to make sure you stay healthy. Ultimately this is all because I didn’t do bloodwork or give blood for over a year, so I had no idea how high the numbers had gotten.

I'd do that even if I were to really be interested in the TRT route. The Marek Health route seems legit, but . I'm pushing 40 now...I feel pretty damn good most of the time, but I wouldn't be shocked if TRT is something I look at eventually.

Good luck being natty for a bit, . I'm sure it's not easy after being on gear.