workout routine during cycle

[Kelleh]

When your begining your cycle do you change the frequency that you work the muscle groups? Do you work the muscle groups harder (more sets) and longer?

Kelly

[dupa95]

change it all for max gains.(sneak up on the muscle)

[hosam4ever]

u can increase ur workout intinsty our freq of training the muscle groups as ull have a better recovery compared 2 when ur off aas but also rest is one of the most imp factors in acheiving muscle gain

[Kelleh]

I dont think I could increase the intensity anymore lol. I give it all I have everyworkout except every now and then Ill do a week or two of light workout to give my body a break. Ill definially try playing with the frequency though. If anyone has time could you post your workout shced. while on gear and while off..

Thanks

Kelly

[sonnygll]

You give it all you have now, but when you're on gear you will have more to give. You can increase volume and frequency a little, but you grow during recovery. Plus I think some people do more than they have too. Dorian Yates and others have done pretty well without going real high with the volume.

In my opinion high volume with lots of isolation is for muscle separation, fixing week spots and that sort of thing. I like to stick to the basics for raw mass.

[Kelleh]

Agreed. Thanks for your input

Kelly

[RDY2GO]

Is a once weekly, intense workout of each muscle group adequate? Ive been reading a lot about giving plenty of rest for max gains but im not sure if this is as effective on juice. Currently lifting

M- Pecs - 3 Lifts 3 Sets of 7-10 reps or failure
Biceps - 3 Lifts 3 Sets of 7-10 reps or failure
Abs- Pully Weighted Crunches 3 sets of 20reps BW crunches - 60reps

T- Rest

W- Quads, Hammys, Calves- 2 Lifts ea. 2-3 sets 6-10 reps or failure
Back & Lats- 2 Lifts ea. 2-3 sets 6-10 reps or failure
Abs- Pully weighted crunches 3 sets of 20reps

Tr- Rest

F- Delts and Traps- 3 Lifts 2-3 sets 7-10 reps or failure
Triceps- 3 Lifts 3 sets 6-10 reps or failure
Abs & Obliques- BW Crunches 4 sets of 20

Sa- Rest
Su- Rest

M - Repeat

Ive never worked each muscle so infrequently, does this seem like a good routine? Its similar to the routine recommended by ARs info section.

P.S. Dont want to thread jack but its relevant and could give some insight into the volume and intensity of a recommended routine.

[Kelleh]

I peronally work a muscle group more then once in a weak.

[RDY2GO]

I peronally work a muscle group more then once in a weak.

Post your routine.

[sonnygll]

I like both kinds of workouts. I've done it all and I like to rotate them around. Right now I'm really into minimal full body stuff. Where you use mostly all compound lifts and you work the whole body. But each day the focus is totally different.

My last natural workout went like this. Mon, Tue, Thu.

Everything at 90% of 1 RM for 3 reps. Except calves which I do at 90% but I get 5 or 6 reps just short of failure. Everything in pairs with 1 minute rest.

flat bench (alternate barbell and dumbbell each week) 6 sets
paired with bent over row (alternate over and underhand grip) 6 sets
2nd pair
squat 6 sets
standing calf 6 sets

Tue
Incline bench (alternate barbell and dumbbell each week) 6 sets
chins (half underhand, half overhand, add weight or do pulldowns if needed) 6 sets

2nd pair
Romanian deadlift 6 sets
calf press 6 sets

Thu
weighted chest dip 3 sets
dumbbell row 3 sets

2nd pair
weighted pushup with feet elevated about 3' on bench, lowering chest to floor 3 sets
weighted palm facing chins 3 sets

3rd part, pair the following with 6 sets of calf press
hack squats 2 sets
standard deadlift 2 sets
sumo deadlift with all 25 lbs. plates 2 sets


Now while I'm on test e, I'm probably going to do 8 sets of everything. Plus maybe add some curls in since I'm just a tad weak on the biceps. But add whatever your own weak point is.

So with this everything gets worked 3 times, but it is always from a different angle. Except gastorcs, because they are 1 muscle with 1 neural connection, so what can you do? I don't do any seated because the soleus gets enough work from squats.


Another good one is upper/lower working everything twice.

If I do a regular once a week split, I don't really like the typical random body part splits. I like to break it up by movements that make sense. Like this.

push/pull/legs

upper primary/upper secondary (IE direct shoulder and arm work)/quad focus legs plus calves/ham focus legs plus abs

chest, back, rear and front delt/quad focus legs, shoulder elevation, arms/ham focus legs, calves, abs

upper horizontal/upper vertical/lower quad focus/lower ham focus


When you do an upper/lower twice a week. One thing you can do with it is go real heavy for low reps the first half of the week. Then go lighter for more reps the second half.

Sometimes I'll even do a low volume, beyond failure type thing with prefatigue supersets, drop sets, negatives and such. Run that till I burn out my CNS, then do a deloading phase for a couple weeks. Then run my own modified German volume training. Run that till I start to overtrain on it, do the deloading and move on to yet something else.

Everything works if the movements logically go together, rather than random body parts. And if the combination of time under tension and load are enough to overload your muscles. But nothing works for ever. Your body adapts, so you have to switch up protocols.

Hope that helps. I figure at least one of those ideas should be to your liking. I've had good results with all of the above.

[Merc..]

I like both kinds of workouts. I've done it all and I like to rotate them around. Right now I'm really into minimal full body stuff. Where you use mostly all compound lifts and you work the whole body. But each day the focus is totally different.

My last natural workout went like this. Mon, Tue, Thu.

Everything at 90% of 1 RM for 3 reps. Except calves which I do at 90% but I get 5 or 6 reps just short of failure. Everything in pairs with 1 minute rest.

flat bench (alternate barbell and dumbbell each week) 6 sets
paired with bent over row (alternate over and underhand grip) 6 sets
2nd pair
squat 6 sets
standing calf 6 sets

Tue
Incline bench (alternate barbell and dumbbell each week) 6 sets
chins (half underhand, half overhand, add weight or do pulldowns if needed) 6 sets

2nd pair
Romanian deadlift 6 sets
calf press 6 sets

Thu
weighted chest dip 3 sets
dumbbell row 3 sets

2nd pair
weighted pushup with feet elevated about 3' on bench, lowering chest to floor 3 sets
weighted palm facing chins 3 sets

3rd part, pair the following with 6 sets of calf press
hack squats 2 sets
standard deadlift 2 sets
sumo deadlift with all 25 lbs. plates 2 sets


Now while I'm on test e, I'm probably going to do 8 sets of everything. Plus maybe add some curls in since I'm just a tad weak on the biceps. But add whatever your own weak point is.

So with this everything gets worked 3 times, but it is always from a different angle. Except gastorcs, because they are 1 muscle with 1 neural connection, so what can you do? I don't do any seated because the soleus gets enough work from squats.


Another good one is upper/lower working everything twice.

If I do a regular once a week split, I don't really like the typical random body part splits. I like to break it up by movements that make sense. Like this.

push/pull/legs

upper primary/upper secondary (IE direct shoulder and arm work)/quad focus legs plus calves/ham focus legs plus abs

chest, back, rear and front delt/quad focus legs, shoulder elevation, arms/ham focus legs, calves, abs

upper horizontal/upper vertical/lower quad focus/lower ham focus


When you do an upper/lower twice a week. One thing you can do with it is go real heavy for low reps the first half of the week. Then go lighter for more reps the second half.

Sometimes I'll even do a low volume, beyond failure type thing with prefatigue supersets, drop sets, negatives and such. Run that till I burn out my CNS, then do a deloading phase for a couple weeks. Then run my own modified German volume training. Run that till I start to overtrain on it, do the deloading and move on to yet something else.

Everything works if the movements logically go together, rather than random body parts. And if the combination of time under tension and load are enough to overload your muscles. But nothing works for ever. Your body adapts, so you have to switch up protocols.

Hope that helps. I figure at least one of those ideas should be to your liking. I've had good results with all of the above.

GVT is good ( you gonna tweak it)....

Ever heard of a type of training called
ABCDE


Merc.

[sonnygll]

I never heard of that. I'm always interested in hearing about different training protocols though.

[Merc..]

I never heard of that. I'm always interested in hearing about different training protocols though.

I dont have the time to go over it in detail ...

ABCDE is Anabolic burst cycling of diet and exercise !!


It was invented by a doctor/ bodybuilder in sweden ..

You basically eat high cals for 2 wks and than low cals for 2 wks ( a certain protocol must be followed but I must say I have seen many people go into to single digit BF% fairly quickly...

Merc.

[sonnygll]

I don't know about the training, but I have done my diet kind of like that. I would do a very short 2 week bulk and then a 4 week cut. The bulk gives you you a pound of muscle and pulls your metabolism up after running it down with the cutting. I lost a lot of weight doing that.