CONTEST PREP - GIVE ME YOUR THOUGHTS

I dont suggest tren these days for clients prepping anymore, people go mad for it, but the issue comes in of lack of sleep, anger issues, etc. if you are going to go that route, 50mg 3x a week is all you will need, remember Dorian yates only used to use 225mg a week seeing they only used to get 76mg/ml stuff. so doing more is overkill.

i would be adding anavar from 6 weeks out. and you can use tren from 6 weeks out too.

that being said, remember, it is not the drugs that do the work, i would do 2-3 day of 100g of carbs daily at this stage, 2 days of 150g daily, 1 of 250g daily, and then plan you refeeds. keep protein the same, and keep fats at 60g each day at this stage.

you got a lot of work to do, and this is where people dont have the grit they need to get into condition, I have learned how suffering feels and what you need to do to get PEELED to the bone, and trust me, that is basically feeling like death for 6 days a week, even on 2700 calories for me, i feel like death when i prep cos i push the limits. conditioning takes suffering.

I am pretty solid mentally and have been able to change my habits drastically in the last 4 years (getting up at 4am every morning, working 14 hours a day, eating clean, building a business, 4-day water fasts etc). So I think I will be able to tolerate the Tren, again keeping it conservative.

If I do everything correctly and I don't get in shape on-time, I can forgive myself. I won't forgive myself if I don't go all-out.

I feel like sh*t on my current calorie load, but I am ready for it. I will start the carb cycling tomorrow as suggested, which scares the sh*t out of me, but LET'S DOOOO IT!!

Empire, I can't thank you enough dude, I am doing this completely alone. My wife has my back but I don't have coaches or training partners going through this with me. So thank you bro.

Bro if you feel like shit already, good luck with tren and lack of sleep and irritability shoot up by 100×. It's not going to be a fun ride, just letting you know.

Tren will make people shout at trees because they are green. No other reason, it's a whole new ball game.

Yeah but I came off a 3 year bulk in Jan. I went from 73kg to 107kg. So I'm used to high cals.

But f-it. I want to see where my limits are. So I'm buckled in, stiff-upper lip, listening to experienced gents such as yourself and not fooling myself thinking this will be easy.

If it was easy it wouldn't be worth it right?

Bro, to be honest, I fucking hate tren, love what it does, but hate what it does to the mind.

Well done on the gain, but you gotta understand it is another level. People like tren and they can handle it, but when it comes to super low cals, depletion, lack of sleep, it's all a bitch compounded 1000.

Got it! Will be sure to expect the worst. Luckily it is Tren Ace, so I suppose if I feel it is messing with me too much, I can just cut it and should feel better in a couple of days?

pretty much, and you are going to be using low dose too.

Just warn your wife that you are going to be difficult to be around with a short fuse at times on the tren even at 50mg 3x a week. The acetate ester is in and out your system so quickly so EOD shots put you on noticeably more of a psychological rollercoaster than every day shots because of the unstable blood levels zigzagging up and down.

You've put in 3 years of work so you might as well try tren now pre comp.

Thank you sir. I'll let everyone know how it goes. Luckily my wife is 100% supportive.

Muscleaddict is 100% spot on. Trying tren isn't for sissies is all I am saying. I see guys using tren their first cycle and I wonder what the fuck they'll end up doing in the long term..

Just be on the look out for sides and be aware of them.

Thanks DJ, I always document all my cycles and make notes on the side effects I experience. Hence I stay away from Dbol and always keep my Deca doses low. So I try to be self-aware and not cycle blindly, which I know is the norm,unfortunately.

I have spoken with my wife about this. Luckily I'm not sissie, been through hell and completely changed my life around a couple of years ago. So keen on this challenge.

You are gentlemen and scholars! I will post updates and pics. Let's see where this goes.

TheTrain wrote:

with this poise, the hand you are grabbing ,you are trying to face your palm to the floor, flip your hand over so the back of the hand is facing the floor, and your fingers will be easier to grip, straighten the elbow to flex the tricep hard and focus on pulling that hand away from your body like a side raise, but the hand at the back will be pulling it back, that way your shoulder will pop, your tricep will pop and it will feel comfortable.

plant your feet into the ground and try and drive your knees and heels apart, this will feel strange, it is like if you were to let you feet off the floor you would be abducting your legs out straight. big deep breathe into the chest, exposing your lats.

lock your knee and have your toes off the ground and your heel on the ground.breathe out and crunch down card on the abs, keep your breathing all in the chest.

feet in line with one another, not a staggered stance, and focus on pushing those knees and feet out whilst your feet are drilled into the ground. that will bring out cuts on both quads at the same time, unless you kick your one foot into the but keeping your feet in line with one another, remember all your weight would be on the one leg.

Glad to see that you practice what you preach. Absolutely insane conditioning. My first posing class is this weekend. I will be using your photos as reference this week whilst training. Posing training sucks ass.

I introduced Tren Ace and Winstrol 50 yesterday. Did 10km on the treadmill. 30min fasted stepmill this morning with Yohimbine and caffeine. The Yohimbine is much more tolerable than Clen. ECA stack later in the day. Performance in the gym was much better today. I was rowing the 70kg dumbbells very clean and controlled. Today was a low carb day (100g), tomorrow will be as well.

Thanks for the feedback DJ. Follow your advice to the T.

Thanks bud, Remember, I don't have the genetics for this game, I how ever have enough work ethic to get me to where I need to be and realize that suffering is apart of it.

I would have started at 25mg of Winstrol and upped it as I went along after a couple weeks, and personally would have chosen anavsr over winstrol but it is done and you will see results never the less.

Keep us updated.

I was running Anavar for 4 weeks prior to this.

I understand what you are saying about genetics. Neither do I. But hard work beats talent, if talent doesn't work hard. And I suppose we can enjoy the journey without being Mr Olympia and still get the character development that comes with it.

I would be stoked to get to your level though.

So I did 1 hour posing training with an IFBB pro. It went really well. It was tough as hell though. I was totally spent after that.

I need to focus on my angles (standing off line) and keeping my waist sucked-in. He really helped my bring out my strengths. I have another lesson next Saturday and will take my training partner with me to record the session, so he can correct me on my daily posing practice.

yea it is a rough ride posing, and if you are extremely lean and dry, posing means squeezing at a 2 out if 10. in 2019 i did Gentle giant, and I had decided to do the show last minute. i didn't practice at all, but i was so lean and dry I didn't need more than a 2/10 contraction, so whilst everyone was huffing and puffing, I was still cool and relaxed.

Yes he also said I was too tense. Rather loosen it up a bit and add flow to the posing. I practiced my posing today and it went a lot better.

I did fat caliper reading again today. Fat reduced significantly on pecs, bis, tris, suprailiac but fat around my naval and quads are still the same. I knew the belly fat would be a bitch, but obviously my quads are stubborn too. Forearms and chest circumference grew a bit too, which is great.

Lots of work to do still but getting after it.

Exactly why I suggested the yohimbine and caffeine pre cardio In the morning, you don't want insulin present to affect the yohimbine, do your Cardio and reap the benefit. A2 receptors are blocked naturally when carbs are lower than 150g a day hence why I suggested the carb cycling. Going low to moderate for 4 out of the 7 days so burn into that stubborn fatty areas.

So quick update.

I didn't hit the gym today (after training 11 days straight). Work kept me busy with max 5 hours sleep at night. Not ideal.

I have stayed low carb for about 13 days now. My weight isn't dropping much but the fat on my arms and especially abdomen is definitely getting less. The skin around my naval is starting look and feel "loose". I hope that it will tighten up and adapt to my new dimensions soon.

I feel very depleted and my pumps suck at the gym. 3 days ago I had 3 rice cakes and 100g oats pre workout and couldn't believe the effect it had on my performance and pump. It was amazing. Posing is going well but I struggle to control my abdomen on the side tricep pose still.

Yesterday I added more salt to my food, to see if it would help with performance at all. Now I've got some serious water retention to get rid of. Popped half an adco-retin and some Arimidex. So should be better soon. Will go back to moderate salting.

Vascularity is getting more pronounced even with the depletion. Strenght is still surprisingly good. Cardio capacity took a hard knock from the Tren. The stairmaster is kicking my ass much more than usual. The Yohimbine is well tolerated and definitely makes me feel as if my body is expending more calories during cardio.

Second posing session this Saturday with the coach. I'll take some pics and share with you guys.

ok, so one thing i have never understood is the need to up your training during a diet or contest prep, the goal of your training is to maintain muscle mass, and even grow muscle mass, not burn fat. "Dance with the one that brought you" comes to mind, so why, if you were training with days rests, why are you not doing that now? the goal is to still recover and maintain strength, even dropping overall volume to do so.

So water retention will most likely from increased cortisol levels from high training stress and no rest, and from yohimbine making you retain water. when you burn adipose fatty tissue the skin can seem "Squishy" from extra fluid retention where the adiposite is situated, after a couple of days the water will "whoosh" from that area and you have this drop in fluid retention.

DO NOT DROP SALT FROM YOUR DIET AND KEEP IT AS HIGH AS POSSIBLE. before a show, I am on 20-25 grams of salt a day. no that is not a typo. You need sodium for muscle fullness and to transport potassium etc. water intake should be about 50mls per KG at this stage. So you wont have water retention at that level.

do not worry about water retention at this stage, the time you need to worry about water retention is the day of the show! that is it, which you should have a strategy in place for that. I don't cut water unless making weight, and fluid is till 6-9L the day before the show. remember it is manipulating water. Water transports carbs and electrolytes to the muscle, so please DO NOT start at 8L and go down to 500mls before a show. diuretics should be used as the icing on the cake, so half a diazide the night before the show is more than enough. You need water to fill out the muscle, so cutting water and increasing carbs is a shit show of an idea!

at this stage, i wouldnt train more than 3 days in a row without a rest day, and plan a deload for 1 week at 50% of the weights used for 1 week after 6 weeks to training straight, otherwise you are in for burn out.

20 - 25 grams? Well fuck me I didn't expect that much wow. I am just lightly salting all my meats at this stage. But I'm cool with increasing that, I love salt. I am pushing 5 litres minimum every day, so that seems in line.

My whole plan was to increase carbs moderately 3 days out and slowly decrease water 1 week out. So that whole protocol is on it's head. So much conflicting info, but your approach makes more logical sense to me. I will adjust.

I guess I need to change my typical bodybuilding mindset of "more is better" when it comes to training. It has been tough as hell the last week. The tren is a bit of a bitch as well, but I'm staying busy, so no time at all for mood-swings.

See this Is where the whole skiploading process comes alive. Each week you see how long it takes you (meals on 1 day and grams of carbs) to fullout and get the point of spilling over(excessive muscle glycogen to sub q water) and how many days it takes you come down to baseline after your load where you have the best balance of muscle fullness(usually 2 to 3 days post load) to muscle dryness (3 to 4 days post load) and then still drop weight going into the weekend due to metabolic increase from replenished glycogen, lowered leptin, increased insulin etc etc.

So what do carbs need to full out a muscle? Water, Sodium and potassium. So why are you trying to get carbs into a muscle when water is low?