**Marcus's HIT Dungeon**

[DCI]

None of us are where we want to be buddy. Youre doing great.

Cheers jm all I want now is to drop bf mainly and add mass to my body I'd be really happy

[marcus300]

If 10 kilos of muscle in 6 months is stupid, then i am ok with being called stupid Again missing the point, I had to do adapt to my situation, i could have skipped days or complained or made excuses. but regardless if it wasn't the most optimal way i was still there every morning at 5am working hard. And now that im having a change in life and doing something different i am taking advantage of now being able to changing my training hours around so that i dont have to continue down the road i was on.

Your mind set is wrong and you don't understand what I am saying but if your happy training fasted when bulking you carry on but if you ask anyone of any kind of size they will think your stupid missing an opportunity to feed the body. Doesn't matter you do what you think is right.

Why wont you post some pics? I suspect your not what you claim to be but don't worry we are here to help if you would listen instead of thinking your right all the time.

Certain times throughout my bodybuilding life I've implemented 24/7 feeding to get over a certain hurdle and get into a different league than anyone else. You never waste a opportunity to feed the body forget about eating all your requirements in one meal or so eat consistently throughout the day as soon as you get up, but I think I will stop trying to educate you because your on a different level and you wont get pass that level if you don't open your eyes to how to get big.
All the best

[Java Man]

5'5 I think
220lbs

It's your current 212lb Mr Olympia, Flex Lewis

The guy in the background must be well over 6'. I was using him as a reference.

So he's about igi's height... Jk igi lol

[marcus300]

Marcus, here is my question to this. What if you have muscle but you also have bodyfat at about 20% or so, fat in the midsection as well. How do you not lose some muscle when you attempt to lower the bodyfat? I don't see how you continue to eat the same as you would if you are mainlining or gaining mass while trying to strip away bodyfat, and I don't see how you can maintain HIT while trying to strip away bodyfat because of the reduced calories. Educate me on this please because maybe I am looking at it wrong

Ive talked about this a few times but let me try and explain how I go about doing this. Carry on eating clean at maintenance don't lower your cals at this stage all you need to do is adjust cardio and increase it to start off the fat burning effect. Remember its all about calories in calories out but when your carrying a lot of muscle that muscle needs feeding so don't drastically change your cals at the beginning, all you need to do is increase the cardio while eating a clean maintenance diet. Your body will start burning fat as fuel and after a couple of weeks your body will adapts to this and slow down the fast burning effect, this is when you introduce another approach along side the cardio like carb cycling which is worked off your maintenance diet, start with 3 days low 1 day high and monitor your fat loss over the next couple of weeks and adjust accordingly. No matter what approach your doing you never change your training style what built the muscle in the first place because this will maintain your muscle. What many do and I've done it myself is change your training style while attacking your diet and hitting your cardio this will waste your hard earned muscle tissue away aswell as bf, which is not what we want. Every lb of tissue you build you want to retain and the priority is to maintain that tissue while slowly reducing your bf levels.

Once you have upped your cardio and you body as adapted to it you introduce the carb cycling 3 to 1 ratio and watch how your body responds, again you adjust accordingly you may need to go to 4 days low and 1 day high after a couple of weeks but its done slowly, minor adjustment will be needed because not one body is the same some guys will still have to carry on going up to 5 day, 6 days low carbs and 1 day high but that's your limit don't go over this or you have a good chance of your metabolism changing which is something we don't want. You can also increase cardio along the way to give an even more of a calorie deficit. I would also do on the low carb days around 40-50% lower carbs than maintenance remember this is a slow process we don't need to go zero carbs just slightly adjust them and on the high day increase your carbs by 15% from your maintenance diet ones.

Don't do all of this at once, you do it gradual over time while watching your body respond to fat loss and how its retaining the muscle mass. When your carrying a lot of muscle its takes a lot of food to retain it, as soon as you drop it or restrict it you lose the tissue that's why you never see huge big guys giving advice on these super new diets what are the latest things because some study or internet knob says so. Nothing as changed you cant change the wheel you get big and you want to remain big them you eat big and trick your body into burning fat as fuel and do it slowly

[marcus300]

Attachment 147319

Snapped last night, just me and a friend in the gym. 9 weeks off cycle still cruising along and patiently waiting until restarting growth.

Looking good chad, keep on it

[marcus300]

Well..... If you keep the calories clean and they remain the same then you can increase cardio and still drop the fat without decreasing calories.

In regards to HIT, as Marcus has said, the same method used to build the tissue will also help retain the tissue.

I'm not responding for him - just giving my .02. His answer will probably be more detailed for you :-)

There you go Haz as nailed it, don't change anything except cardio and once fat loss slows down start carb cycling slowly 3-1 but don't drop the carbs to harsh hit around 40%-50% mark and on the high carb day increase by 15% if you work this out it isn't a drastic change but that slight change will have an effect on calories out along side cardio. If you need to increase when things slow down at 3-1 extend the low carb days to 4-1 but never change your training and I know I say this time and time again but what built the ,muscle will keep the muscle its all about cals in cals out what will attack your bf levels but do it slowly if your carrying a lot of tissue otherwise your tissue will be sacrificed

[marcus300]

Im not sure if i understood marcus right but tonight doing reverse grip pull downs i was trying to curl inward while keeping my chest up. No idea if i was doing it right, but i had to drop the stack by half and my lats were on fire like i pulled them.

great blunder or doing something right. unsure but my back got hammered.

No matter what pulldowns your doing make sure your back has a slight arch to it on the contraction otherwise your not stimulating your back fully, if you connect with this you will feel a burn and contraction like never before and build a bigger back, sounds like you had fun well down

[marcus300]

Legs

Leg extension
3 warm up sets
1 working set + 2 RP

Hack squat
2 feel sets
1 working set + 2 dropsets

squats
3 sets - increasing the weight each set, back held up ok

lunges
2 working sets to failure

lying leg curls
2 feel sets
1 working set + 2 RP

seated calves raises
2 feel sets
1 working set + 2 RP

standing claves raises
2 feels sets
1 working set + 2 RP + Repped with no weight until couldn't move my legs

Hard and intense workout, legs feel like jelly

[Igifuno]

The guy in the background must be well over 6'. I was using him as a reference. So he's about igi's height... Jk igi lol

Dammit! Lol. Not far off actually. I only have an inch on him.

[DCI]

Today was chest.

Was on my own started with

Incline warmed up 3 sets was cold then into teo heavy sets with two drops the last drop was till 10kg db's these really burned my chest.

Flat bench same working sets above

Decline same

Yates incline flies same

Funny thing happend today there was a big guy in the gym asked could he use the 50 db's between sets and as he was finishing his last rep he dropped the db's onto his 2 litre bottle of water it exploded like a bomb everywere mad a massive bang lol

[biggjd69]

Ive talked about this a few times but let me try and explain how I go about do this. Carry on eating clean at maintenance don't lower your cals at this stage all you need to do is adjust cardio and increase it to start off the fat burning effect. Remember its all about calories in calories out but when your carrying a lot of muscle that muscle needs feeding so don't drastically change your cals at the beginning, all you need to do is increase the cardio while eating a clean maintenance diet. Your body will start burning fat as fuel and after a couple of weeks your body will adapts to this and slow down the fast burning effect, this is when you introduce another approach along side the cardio like carb cycling which is worked off your maintenance diet, start with 3 days low 1 day high and monitor your fat loss over the next couple of weeks and adjust accordingly. No matter what approach your doing you never change your training style what built the muscle in the first place because this will maintain your muscle. What many do and I've done it myself is change your training style while attacking your diet and hitting your cardio this will waste your hard earned muscle tissue away aswell as bf, which is not what we want. Every lb of tissue you build you want to retain and the priority is to maintain that tissue while slowly reducing your bf levels.

Once you have upped your cardio and you body as adapted to it you introduce the carb cycling 3 to 1 ratio and watch how your body responds, again you adjust accordingly you may need to go to 4 days low and 1 day high after a couple of weeks but its done slowly, minor adjustment will be needed because not one body is the same some guys will still have to carry on going up to 5 day, 6 days low carbs and 1 day high but that's your limit don't go over this or you have a good chance of your metabolism changing which is something we don't want. You can also increase cardio along the way to give an even more of a calorie deficit. I would also do on the low carb days around 40-50% lower carbs than maintenance remember this is a slow process we don't need to go zero carbs just slightly adjust them and on the high day increase your carbs by 15% from your maintenance diet ones.

Don't do all of this at once, you do it gradual over time while watching your body respond to fat loss and how its retaining the muscle mass. When your carrying a lot of muscle its takes a lot of food to retain it, as soon as you drop it or restrict it you lose the tissue that's why you never see huge big guys giving advice on these super new diets what are the latest things because some study or internet knob says so. Nothing as changed you cant change the wheel you get big and you want to remain big them you eat big and trick your body into burning fat as fuel and do it slowly

Thanks Marcus

[marcus300]

Thanks Marcus

All you have to remember is to retain as much muscle you have built while cutting bf, your priority is to maintain muscle tissue so when dieting do it slowly and adjust things as your body responds and adapts. Work off your maintenance cals first and create the deficit by cardio then when things stall introduce a bit of carb cycl9ing which if done correctly will trick the body into burn fat as fuel while maintaining muscle tissue, once this comes to a stall increase cardio again and extend the low carb days, but remember low carb days doesn't mean zero carbs its means around the 40-50% less than your maintenance ones and the higher carb day will be 15 % higher so over all its not that much of a difference but the body is tricked into burn fat as fuel. Once your body adapts just increase the lower carb days and always train how you trained before and keep the intensity high and weight heavy. What built your will keep you !!!!

[Cuz]

5'5 I think
220lbs

It's your current 212lb Mr Olympia, Flex Lewis

yeah I seen flex's fan page post that yesterday. pretty insane, then I looked at the guy in back and thought he may be even shorter than the acclaimed 5 5. . if he was a little taller he would give Phil hell on stage. probably one of.the.thickest guys out there, looks like the lighting helps out with the definition also.

[marcus300]

When I was doing hack squats today its a real strange feeling of loneliness, when your loaded up and pushing through all your quads into your feet and the pressure is immense while focusing on a spot on the ceiling its like this is never going to end. I've been working on my outer sweep for some months now and changing the placing of my feet while I hack squat and its really improving the size and sweep of my quads. I'm going to post them up soon after ive shave some of the hair off them because you can see anything I'm full of hair all over my legs but soon I will show these bad boys. I am really falling in love again with hack squatting its just pure quad power and doesn't half put size on your quads.

[kelkel]

When I was doing hack squats today its a real strange feeling of loneliness, when your loaded up and pushing through all your quads into your feet and the pressure is immense while focusing on a spot on the ceiling its like this is never going to end. I've been working on my outer sweep for some months now and changing the placing of my feet while I hack squat and its really improving the size and sweep of my quads. I'm going to post them up soon after ive shave some of the hair off them because you can see anything I'm full of hair all over my legs but soon I will show these bad boys. I am really falling in love again with hack squatting its just pure quad power and doesn't half put size on your quads.

I haven't done a hack in at least 10 years. You're making me miss a commercial gym.

[marcus300]

I haven't done a hack in at least 10 years. You're making me miss a commercial gym.

I use to use them all the time me and 2 partners would hack huge amounts of weight while the whole gym would watch and we would drop set right donw until we failure, two hardcore guys screaming in your ears to carrying was fuking brutal and the pain was extreme. I remember dropping to the floor after my working set with something like quad drop set and sipping my water and it tasted like the best drink in the world. My legs have never dropped size since those heavy hack days I really do find it an excellent piece of equipment and the outer sweep you can obtain from it if you place it right is sick.

[thunderthor70]

When I was doing hack squats today its a real strange feeling of loneliness, when your loaded up and pushing through all your quads into your feet and the pressure is immense while focusing on a spot on the ceiling its like this is never going to end. I've been working on my outer sweep for some months now and changing the placing of my feet while I hack squat and its really improving the size and sweep of my quads. I'm going to post them up soon after ive shave some of the hair off them because you can see anything I'm full of hair all over my legs but soon I will show these bad boys. I am really falling in love again with hack squatting its just pure quad power and doesn't half put size on your quads.

What foot placement are you using to hit the outer sweep? I usually place mine a little under shoulder width with my toes slightly pointed out.

[marcus300]

What foot placement are you using to hit the outer sweep? I usually place mine a little under shoulder width with my toes slightly pointed out.

You got it, the closer the feet the more pressure on the outer sweep. You may not be able to push as much weight as you would with shoulder width or wider but the outer sweep is targeted beautifully with a close stance. The toes pointed issue I would recommend just going with how your body is made, some guys walk with toes out some with them straight forward and some pointed in, what ever feels and fits your groove because this is a big body movement and you don't want to be forcing against your joints, it would have a negative effect on you so just go with your standing position but keep your feet close together

[GirlyGymRat]

When you have built some decent size and muscle tissue lets says 220lbs+ upwards you don't diet in the conventional way, otherwise you will lose muscle tissue and we all know what it takes to build your hard earned tissue. Many and I mean most guys build tissue on cycle and then waste it away by dieting stupidly. When you carry high amount of size you don't follow these stupid internet diets what will restrict cals so much you waste away your precious tissue you also don't change your training. What do I say all the time WHAT BUILT THE MUSCLE WILL KEEP THE MUSCLE DONT CHANGE YOUR TRIANING ALL BECAUSE YOU ARE DIETING AND SHREDDING BF. You need a constant supply of nutrition to feed and support your muscles and all these so called new diets are fuking insane. Yes I will upset the skinny bodybuilding beach bums but I am talking about being huge and turning heads everywhere you go.

Maintain your tissue with your maintenance diet and first thing you do is adjust cardio to moderate low intensity, watch and study your body for change adjust when needed at the right me, things will change and once they start to slow down and your body adapts to this new regime, this is the time to change tactics and start carb cycling which I would recommend similar to my priming structure which will slowly attack bf levels manipulating your carbs and tricking your body into burning fat as fuel. Never do it fasts start with 3 days 40% low then one day 15% higher than maintenance and watch and record what happens, you need more of a kickstart go with 4 days then one day high and record the rests. Never go to 7 days low and never ever reset your metabolism which is a major event what happens to most who dieting, so never go to 7 days low this will reset your internal body cloak.
if YOUR BIG AND CARRY OT OF TISSUE YOU DONT DIET IN THE CONVENTIONAL WAY OTHERWISE YOU WILL WASTE AWAY YOUR HARD EARNED TISSUE.

This thread is epic Marcus and fellas. I must mostly miss Marcus post about diet/nutrition, until today other then the normal stuff "you fellas gotta eat eat eat to build and maintain, build and maintain" ( and I said that with a deep husky manly voice for effect )

It seems you big guys advocate bulk up and then drop BF. so real BBs don't mind looking like a bloated bull for a period of time. (No disrespect intended with the bloated bull reference - descriptive words to paint a picture really)

this chica likes the other way. Drop bf then build muscle bc I imagine i would look like a bloated cow if I add muscle b4 dropping body fat. Seems the different lifestyle of eating for the half men half beasts roaming this thread.

Carry on.

[marcus300]

This thread is epic Marcus and fellas. I must mostly miss Marcus post about diet/nutrition, until today other then the normal stuff "you fellas gotta eat eat eat to build and maintain, build and maintain" ( and I said that with a deep husky manly voice for effect )

It seems you big guys advocate bulk up and then drop BF. so real BBs don't mind looking like a bloated bull for a period of time. (No disrespect intended with the bloated bull reference - descriptive words to paint a picture really)

this chica likes the other way. Drop bf then build muscle bc I imagine i would look like a bloated cow if I add muscle b4 dropping body fat. Seems the different lifestyle of eating for the half men half beasts roaming this thread.

Carry on.

Thanks GGR, I think the secret is not to bulk to much so your a bloated out of shape guy, its all about maintaining your tissue while cutting bf and when you bulk don't go overboard. The problem is many think if you eat you will get bloated and fat but its not the case when your a real big guy, you need those nutrients to build new tissue and also maintain what you have already. Things change when your carrying a lot of tissue if your big you got to eat big and train intense doesn't mean you have to be fat its all about learning and listening to your body....

[thunderthor70]

You got it, the closer the feet the more pressure on the outer sweep. You may not be able to push as much weight as you would with shoulder width or wider but the outer sweep is targeted beautifully with a close stance. The toes pointed issue I would recommend just going with how your body is made, some guys walk with toes out some with them straight forward and some pointed in, what ever feels and fits your groove because this is a big body movement and you don't want to be forcing against your joints, it would have a negative effect on you so just go with your standing position but keep your feet close together

Thanks Marcus, I love this movement. I can't get my hands on the bar doing squats anymore and feel like I can bring my quads to failure better with these anyway. I've been doing Dorians' blood and guts leg routine for the last 8 months or so using youre HIT methods and have been getting great results. When I started I was using 3 plates a side for my working set and 2 weeks ago I started using 5 plates for 7 reps. Plus 2 forced. I'm very pleased with my results.

[marcus300]

Thanks Marcus, I love this movement. I can't get my hands on the bar doing squats anymore and feel like I can bring my quads to failure better with these anyway. I've been doing Dorians' blood and guts leg routine for the last 8 months or so using youre HIT methods and have been getting great results. When I started I was using 3 plates a side for my working set and 2 weeks ago I started using 5 plates for 7 reps. Plus 2 forced. I'm very pleased with my results.

Well done that's strong keep at it

[marcus300]

How many of you guys are on trt prescribed

[thunderthor70]

This thread is epic Marcus and fellas. I must mostly miss Marcus post about diet/nutrition, until today other then the normal stuff "you fellas gotta eat eat eat to build and maintain, build and maintain" ( and I said that with a deep husky manly voice for effect )

It seems you big guys advocate bulk up and then drop BF. so real BBs don't mind looking like a bloated bull for a period of time. (No disrespect intended with the bloated bull reference - descriptive words to paint a picture really)

this chica likes the other way. Drop bf then build muscle bc I imagine i would look like a bloated cow if I add muscle b4 dropping body fat. Seems the different lifestyle of eating for the half men half beasts roaming this thread.

Carry on.

My wife struggles with this. Growing up overweight makes her really weight conscious. She competed at 113 lbs. And afterwards she maintained 116 for a good 5 months. I convinced her to eat more and she started gaining weight and geting stronger especially this last month. She weighed herself last night and was 126 lbs. She is freaking out and said she doesn't feel good about her body. She's going to strictly follow her maintenance diet foe a few weeks and then I'll have her carb cycle. Bulking is to much for her and most women probably feel the same way. She would rather stay a little leaner and sacrifice some muscle.

[almostgone]

Not on TRT yet. Labs scheduled at end of January, then appointment is in Feb. Hopefully I will qualify. At my age, I think I will be subnormal/ low end of the range.

[marcus300]

Not on TRT yet. Labs scheduled at end of January, then appointment is in Feb. Hopefully I will qualify. At my age, I think I will be subnormal/ low end of the range.

How are your health issue now Almostgone? is everything ok

[Back In Black]

How many of you guys are on trt prescribed

Me, as you know

[marcus300]

Me, as you know

Welcome my son, your gifted in many ways none that you know of yet but soon you will

[kelkel]

Not on TRT yet. Labs scheduled at end of January, then appointment is in Feb. Hopefully I will qualify. At my age, I think I will be subnormal/ low end of the range.

Make sure you get the correct BW. Check the Finding A Doc sticky thread in the HRT Forum for an example.

[almostgone]

How are your health issue now Almostgone? is everything ok

Everything seems to be in decent shape....no pacemaker, last stress test and echocardiogram were good, still have left bundle branch block. I'm off most of the heart meds I was on. Basically feel pretty decent, but I can tell I'm missing some of the energy I had when I was younger.
My cardiologist cleared me for lifting several years back. The only restriction she gave me was to make sure to breathe during heavy lifting.

[kelkel]

Welcome my son, your gifted in many ways none that you know of yet but soon you will

Don't tell him. Might go to his head.....

[almostgone]

Make sure you get the correct BW. Check the Finding A Doc sticky thread in the HRT Forum for an example.

Thanks, kelkel. I saved that page for reference when I get my blood drawn....and thanks for answering my numerous TRT PMs. The help is much appreciated.

[almostgone]

Back to work for me. I'll check back in afterwhile.

[Hazard]

Looking good haz. What do you do to get those awesome traps? I am bringing mine up and they are strong as hell but I want them high and thick like yours.

A lot of people load the weight and do half assed reps with shrugs. My brother-in-law puts 405lbs on and try's to do 3 sets of 12 and he has no traps lol.

I put 275lbs on and I make sure I get a full contraction. I use the smith and do 2 sets forward facing and two sets rear. If you can't get a full contraction - lower the weight.

[Back In Black]

Welcome my son, your gifted in many ways none that you know of yet but soon you will

Don't tell him. Might go to his head.....

Hmmmm, cryptic. it's a good job I'm not paranoid.

MUCH!!!!!

[Rusty11]

How many of you guys are on trt prescribed

Yep.

I need to start doing hack squats again. Great info here.

[Cuz]

I will be on trt eventually if I keep pursuing bodybuilding

[kelkel]

I will be on trt eventually if I keep pursuing bodybuilding

You will be on TRT regardless of bodybuilding as you care about your health.

[mockery]

How many of you guys are on trt prescribed

yes and no

in one country i am and in the other country i am not because its too expensive, so i self medicate under the care of a great dr. who provides me with all my labs, ai's serms and other misc. but we still cant find a solid Endo

[kelkel]

yes and no

in one country i am and in the other country i am not because its too expensive, so i self medicate under the care of a great dr. who provides me with all my labs, ai's serms and other misc. but we still cant find a solid Endo

Look for a Uro. They usually know hormones better. Actually title doesn't matter, they just have to know hormones. A4M Certified is always a plus.