[Andy]

Another horrible leg session yesterday, following the same plan as last week. A lot of volume, so my legs were pretty cooked. My training partner spewed, which never happens.

Both the hack and the pendulum went up in weight, so the “hit” from the session was far worse than last weeks.

<b style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>Abductor – 2 sets, 15-20

– I’d like a little more in the way of glute development, so this has been added. I have a torn hip, so hip thrust aggravate my injury.

Cybex seated leg curls – 1 sets, 8-12, 2 back-off sets, 12-15

– Both BO sets are paused in the lengthened

Prime PL leg ex – 2 sets, 12-15 + triple drop

Arsenal Hack squat – 2 set, 8-12, 1 set, 12-15

Pendulum squat – 2 set, 8-12, 1 cluster set (4×4)

Seated PL calve raises – 3 sets, 20

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[Andy]

Cyp and E are very similar esters, so switching between the 2 won’t do much.

Have a look at dosing your test more frequently and see if that helps. Having less peaks and troughs in blood levels can stem off certain sides.

The initial cycles shouldn’t really be compared in terms of sex drive as even if you’re taking 1 shot per week of say 250mg of test, it’s still a great deal higher than your natural output, so sex drive will be through the roof, and as dosages escalate over time, you become more and more used to a higher drive, so then when you for what ever reason go back down in dosing, you’ll notice less of a drive on the same amounts that initially gave you a lot.

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[Andy]

I’ve been rotating both this push phase. EQ does skew my bloods a touch, so I’ve ran that at 6 weeks stints from the start to middle portions of my push phases. NPP I tolerate fine (bloods wise) so I don’t mind running that a bit longer. Until this past Saturday the load was 1000/600/400 (test/primo/NPP)

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[Andy]

A fantastic weekend at the PCA Manchester, with 2 of my clients coming away with 2 wins (Jr BB and Tall BB). Both of them have been my clients for years, so it was incredible to see them lift up 1st place. They are both venturing into new classes (James going from classic to open, and Josh going from teens to juniors)

They both have a good few shows in the pipeline, and they’re both only getting better.

As for myself, I checked in with Nick on Saturday morning at a new high BW of 288.4 (only a 0.2lbs increase, but I’ll take it). We’ve decided to push NPP up by another 200mg, bring the total to;

Test E – 1000mg

Primo – 600mg

NPP – 600mg

GH – 8IU

(lantus, novorpaid {pre}, T4, telmisartan, metformin are all in there too)

This is the biggest androgen load I’ve ever done, but it’s only for a short period until the end of this push phase.

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[Andy]

A busy day yesterday with 1-2-1 PT, and another week without massage work due to my guy being on holiday. That’s been 2 weeks without one, and although this is not the end of the world, I could do with one – or 5

I tend to try and keep my NTD’s busy, if I don’t have 1-2-1 clients then it will be quite hard for me to reach my step count, so it’s a easy way of hitting those targets.

It’s been a while since I took a deload, I think my last one was 20 weeks ago when I went to Tenerife. I usually take one every 7 weeks, but I’ve felt great, and not felt the need to take one.

However, I’m starting to feel the need to take one now. My training partner goes on holiday on the 19th, so I’ll take one then. I’m in Sweden that weekend for the Gasp Classic, so it would tie in relatively well.

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[Andy]

If the urge is there to do it yourself, then do it. I’ve only had one coach where they took full reigns and I disagreed with many of his decisions, but because I was paying him, and he was a high achieving coach, I assumed that he knew better. As much as I learned and loved a lot about his training, he over dieted me, and at my lowest I almost weighed as much as I did when I was a junior 6 years prior.

My current coach is my second pair of eyes, I devise all of the plans, and he is my voice of reason if I can’t figure something out. That works best for me.

Prepping yourself is a great experience, and even though you’ll make mistakes, at least they’re your own to learn from.

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[Andy]

We trained legs yesterday at Future Fitness, we just wanted to crack on and get the job done, so travelling to another gym, even though it’s only 15 minutes away, wasn’t ideal.

Abductor – 2 sets, 15-20

– I’d like a little more in the way of glute development, so this has been added. I have a torn hip, so hip thrust aggravate my injury.

Cybex seated leg curls – 1 sets, 8-12, 2 back-off sets, 12-15

– Both BO sets are paused in the lengthened

Prime PL leg ex – 2 sets, 12-15 + triple drop

Arsenal Hack squat – 2 set, 8-12, 1 set, 12-15

Pendulum squat – 2 set, 8-12, 1 cluster set (4×4)

– I think I’ve mentioned this before, but the pendulum doesn’t feel like a squat to me, and I get zero lower back, so I’m happy to do it post-hack (happy is a strong word)

No Bulgarians this week as the legs were toast. I did attempt them via a warm up set, but I felt nothing. . .

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[Andy]

A superb push session yesterday. We actually started on time this week. My training partner has got a lot going on at work just now, so we tend to chill for a bit with a pre/coffee for 20-30 minutes and then get warmed up, but yesterday we just cracked on.

Strength was superb, a lot of movement in numbers, both reps and weight.

Seated d-handle cable flys – 1 working set, 8-12, 2 back-off sets, 12-15

– Both back-off sets paused

Incline DB press – 1 working set, 8-12, 1 back-off sets, 12-15

– Back-off set paused

Prime incline PL press – 1 working set, 8-12, 1 cluster set

Prime peck deck – 1 working sets, 12-15

– Torque set to 3

Prime rear peck deck – 3 working sets, 15-20

– Torques set to 2

SA cuffed cable side raises – 3 working sets, 12-15

Standing EZ-bar curls – 3 working sets, 12-15 + double drop

SA DB concentration curls – 3 sets, 12-15

Standing EZ-bar cable curls – 2 sets, 12-15

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[Andy]

There are studies showing peak levels of GH being higher with IM shots. Personally, sub-Q is just quick, convenient and painless, so I just do that.

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[Andy]

A nice chilled weekend to round off last week.

I checked-in at 288.2, which is a 3lbs jump from last week, but we pushed carbs up a touch last week, so I’m guessing that’s the main reason for that.

This is the first off season where I actually like my photos. In seasons gone by, I’d take my photos, send them to Nick and then delete them.

We’ve chosen to keep things the same this week, thank god because food is becoming a real struggle!

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[Andy]

If you are going to tweak anything, tweak 1 thing at a time and check for the response, either by how you feel, BP etc, or via labs. Running labs for each and every individual change isn’t feasible obviously.

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[Andy]

I’m seeing a lot of good things already from the push (shoulders) day tweaks I made (I pulled a little bit of volume, nothing major, just basing it off how fried my shoulders feel as the session goes on).

Small incline Y raises – 1 set, 8-12, 2 sets, 12-15

– Reps performed with a pause in the lengthened portion for the back-off sets

Prime rear peck deck – 3 sets, 15-20 + double drop set

HS iso PL shoulder press – 1 set, 8-12 + triple drop set with lengthened negatives

Back supported cable flys – 1 set, 8-12, 2 sets, 12-15

– Reps performed with a pause in the lengthened portion for the back-off sets

HS PL machine side raises – 1 set, 12-15 + double drop set

Overhead rope cable extensions – 3 sets, 12-15

Straight-bar ex SS rope cable ex – 2 sets, 12-15

Check-in tomorrow with Nick will be a good one, you know that feeling you get the night before a check-in, knowing some good visual progress has been made. . .

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[Andy]

I’d say at 4 weeks out, if you’re using the stairs for 40 minutes, I’d be looking to swap to bike or high incline walk anyway due to the impact that stairs tend to have on the way the leg looks. So your swap to a 20/20 split would work considering that.

As for boredom, I don’t think any of us are doing cardio for excitement, it’s just a tool. If said boredom is impacting discipline, then that’s a different story.

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[Andy]

I decided to train legs at a different gym yesterday, I’m getting a little tired of my gym to be honest. Not in a bad way, but when you’ve spent an entire morning PT’ing, you kind of want to get away for a bit.

We went to the new Muscle Hut in Glasgow, which is a superb facility!

Abductor – 2 sets, 15-20

– I’d like a little more in the way of glute development, so this has been added. I have a torn hip, so hip thrust aggravate my injury.

Watson seated leg curls – 1 sets, 8-12, 2 back-off sets, 12-15

– Both BO sets are paused in the lengthened

Prime PL leg ex – 2 sets, 12-15 + triple drop

Cybex Hack squat – 2 set, 8-12, 1 set, 12-15

Arsenal leg press – 2 set, 8-12, 1 cluster set (4×4, no racking)

BSS – 2 sets, 12-15

<b style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>Standing pin-loaded calve raises – 3 sets, 20

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[Andy]

All 3 (+T4) have all been taken together for a very long time. As Clare said, taper them up accordingly based off of your progress. I’m sure each coach has their upper limits for each, as well as many seasoned users knowing how much they can tolerate of each one before sides kick in.

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