Post cycle nutrition

**Brick** · 10-01-2012, 02:27 AM

I posted this in Nutrition but had no replys. Thought I would try here!

]First off let me state that I don't want this to turn into another 'you will eventually lose all your gains/you will only lose some' thread. That has been, and is, being discussed at length. I do not want to argue about that.

I would like to learn more about proper nutrition following a cycle with a long ester (PCT starting 14 days after last pin). The goal is to maintain as much of your new mass as you can.

1) what would be the appropriate amount of calories to consume assuming you are keeping your training intensity high. 300-400 above maintenance to encourage more growth and limit muscle wasting?

2) what compounds can be taken to assist in muscle sparing?

3) what supplements will assist? (gluatamine, etc)

I understand that not all gains will be kept and that you must eat enough to sustain your new mass but am unsure about maintenance or excess calories. I am sure I will have more questions and thank you for your responses!

**DanB** · 10-01-2012, 02:35 AM

just eat a few hundread over maintaince during pct, some may have their own opinion but I have found this to work for me, I wouldnt bother with OTC supps like glutamine etc, mabey creatine if I was to bother using anything

Remember that your maintence wont be the same as it was pre cycle due to the increase in weight, people think they in a surplus but in fact they can be under maintence due to not recalculating with the extra LBM, you may already understand this but its commonly overlooked so I thought I would mention it

weight will fall off rapidly, it mostly water and nothing you can do just dont get freaked when you jump on the scale, its normal

i.m.o this is about all you can do, people may say add clen its anti catabolic, yes true but to what extent? i.m.e its massively exaggerated, it may help very slightly but for me the difference is not noticeable and alot of the time it recommended by people who have never used it for this purpose

so sum it up, eat, eat, eat

**marcus300** · 10-01-2012, 02:48 AM

Nutrition - First you need to calculate the change in the new calories needed for the new tissue gained during the cycle and support the new tissue, a person who under eats to their requirements will be stripped of the muscle mass very quickly.Overeating has been shown in numerous studies to maximise these factors. Over maintenance calories are needed to promote the anabolic edge, dietary fat has an influence on androgen secretion, monounsaturated and saturated fat raises testosterone levels but polyunsaturated fat does not so a healthy diet containing O'3 and O'6 will help in this period. Eat clean and feed the new tissue with abundance of calories but always have in mind of muscle building foods and not the sugar rich alternatives we can easily lean to in this period. As testosterone returns to normal and recovery is nearly there, eating over the calories can be lowered to maintenance of the new found muscle what's been gained during the cycle. Never start dieting in the recovery stage it will strip you of your hard earned tissue. Try and hit around the 400-500 over maintenance.

Training - If you have been training intensely during the on period you can help to maintain the new found gains with a slight alteration in the way your training. In some cases further gains have been seen in the recovery part of cycling, this is normally with short cycles and very intense training. If you implement more rest days and make sure your C.N.S gets fully recovered, further gains can be seen. Keep the training sessions down to around 30 mins and incorporate longer rest days in-between. Long workouts lower testosterone to cortisol ratio, so don't go for long workouts no matter how strong or fit you may feel, short and fast will help with recovery without further stress on your system. Still concentrate on the basic heavy movements this and still focus on HIT type of training, also take more attention on the eccentric part of the lift because this causes most of the muscle fibre damage, after warm up do about 2 sets per bodypart and dropset them, which should consist of eccentric reps start with maximum followed by 90% Max, then 80%max, making sure you take a good 5-6 seconds for the eccentric portion of the reps on all dropsets. There are many other ways of training to help recovery but this method does have great benefits by making the workout shorter and the muscle being hit in a different way. Further gains can be achieved if careful planning is done of your training sessions.

Supplements - Its hard to advice what supplements will help and work for you in the recovery and maintenance period. Clearly a quality protein powder,creatine, test booster's,BCAA's, glutamine and vital vits and supps in the off period does help drastically and all aid recovery, past experience will help to pick which other supps may help and agree with your body.

I would also recommend clen , this has worked amazing for me and use to hold onto tissue really well. Alot of guys start taking clen in pct period like when they are cutting but you shouldnt. A small dose 2 wks on 2 off will help alot IMHO

**Brick** · 10-01-2012, 05:48 PM

Originally Posted by marcus300

Nutrition - First you need to calculate the change in the new calories needed for the new tissue gained during the cycle and support the new tissue, a person who under eats to their requirements will be stripped of the muscle mass very quickly.Overeating has been shown in numerous studies to maximise these factors. Over maintenance calories are needed to promote the anabolic edge, dietary fat has an influence on androgen secretion, monounsaturated and saturated fat raises testosterone levels but polyunsaturated fat does not so a healthy diet containing O'3 and O'6 will help in this period. Eat clean and feed the new tissue with abundance of calories but always have in mind of muscle building foods and not the sugar rich alternatives we can easily lean to in this period. As testosterone returns to normal and recovery is nearly there, eating over the calories can be lowered to maintenance of the new found muscle what's been gained during the cycle. Never start dieting in the recovery stage it will strip you of your hard earned tissue. Try and hit around the 400-500 over maintenance.For 400-500 cals over would you suggest TDEE or LBM formula for calculating this

Training - If you have been training intensely during the on period you can help to maintain the new found gains with a slight alteration in the way your training. In some cases further gains have been seen in the recovery part of cycling, this is normally with short cycles and very intense training. If you implement more rest days and make sure your C.N.S gets fully recovered, further gains can be seen. Keep the training sessions down to around 30 mins and incorporate longer rest days in-between. Long workouts lower testosterone to cortisol ratio, so don't go for long workouts no matter how strong or fit you may feel, short and fast will help with recovery without further stress on your system. Still concentrate on the basic heavy movements this and still focus on HIT type of training, also take more attention on the eccentric part of the lift because this causes most of the muscle fibre damage, after warm up do about 2 sets per bodypart and dropset them, which should consist of eccentric reps start with maximum followed by 90% Max, then 80%max, making sure you take a good 5-6 seconds for the eccentric portion of the reps on all dropsets. There are many other ways of training to help recovery but this method does have great benefits by making the workout shorter and the muscle being hit in a different way. Further gains can be achieved if careful planning is done of your training sessions. I will try and map out the whole 6 week period following the end of my cycle to look like this. however, I am currently following baselines power/hypertrophy routine and would like to continue doing this. I will look into a hybrid and see what inspires!

Supplements - Its hard to advice what supplements will help and work for you in the recovery and maintenance period. Clearly a quality protein powder,creatine, test booster's,BCAA's, glutamine and vital vits and supps in the off period does help drastically and all aid recovery, past experience will help to pick which other supps may help and agree with your body. I have protein, creatine and BCAA's handy. Perhaps I will look into test boosters but I have not read good reviews on lots of them as to if they actually work or not. as for the price ($80+) I could get real stuff for that!

I would also recommend clen , this has worked amazing for me and use to hold onto tissue really well. Alot of guys start taking clen in pct period like when they are cutting but you shouldnt. A small dose 2 wks on 2 off will help alot IMHOI have clen handy as well. What would you recommend the small dosage be? Would it be smarter to start day of last pin or two weeks after when PCT starts? Thank you for your quick reply

Also, thank you DanB for your reply! It was well thought out and helped me on some of my opinions on what to do, particulary the calories. I am not sure on how to multi-quote so please excuse me for not quoting you! Cheers!