Var + Prep Log

[OxyJen]

I have really enjoyed reading all of the logs created by the ladies on this forum so I wanted to start one too. I think this will be helpful for me to go back and look at for future preps and during this cycle/prep.
I will take all of my measurements this evening, it is something I have been meaning to do anyways.
I look forward to any input, suggestions and even constructive criticism. This is my first cycle and first prep so I realize I am bound to make mistakes and learn a lot.
I am 40
height:5'11'
weight: 133

I had my BF checked 4 weeks ago during my initial meet with my prep coach is was a shocking 21.3. I also weighed 135. I see him again tomorrow to have it rechecked so I will update that. I know I have shrunk some during this diet down.

Diet: Tracked daily using My Macros +
Around 1250Kcal per day
Close to 180P/69C/28F

I stick with a traditional clean diet. Lean meats (chicken, beef, turkey and fish)
Rice is usually my staple carb and some veggies.

My treat is mixing protein and oats with half a banana and a bit of coconut milk into a sludge ha. It is delicious. Sometimes I will have that for breakfast other times I opt for two eggs and 5 egg whites mixed with some rice.

Supplements:
Multi mineral
Trevenol
Psyllium Husk
Anarchy Preworkout mixed with creatine
BCAAs
Beverly Int. UMP protein

Cycle:
10 MG (tested) Anavar (two 5MG doses, one AM one PM)
Start date: Dec 5

Training:
Lifting 5 day split (Extra delt and glute work)
3 Days of HITT
2 Days Max incline treadmill (SUCK)
abs 5 days

Right now my goal is to maybe continue to build my delts, legs and glutes while dropping BF. If nothing else not losing what I have built during the prep process.

Today is day 4 on the cycle and I am feeling great, i know it is still early though.

[OxyJen]

Measurements tonight are as follows.
Hand held 17.9
Waist 28
Hips: 37
Shoulders: 42 spread
Thigh l 21.5 r 21
Bi 11

I used a handheld BF tester which I know it's inaccurate but for tracking it is ok. I did a comparison when I had my BF checked with calipers and it was about 1% off. I will compare again tomorrow when I see my coach.
Today was a rest day for me except for some cardio. I did Jump rope intervals with some stair sprints at home. Half way through I noticed that my delts had a pump. What?? I will take it tho. I looked pretty beefy.

[Micaela]

looking forward to read news about your cycle Keep it up!

[OxyJen]

I saw my coach today for my check in to have my body fat checked and let him pick at my body. (Constructively of course).
So 4 weeks ago I was at 21.3 BF weighing 135. I have been sticking to my diet and training like crazy with added cardio. Today my BF was 16% weighed 131!!! Holy f i was guessing 18/19 and I am holding water big time today so I felt like a cow.
Needless to say I left there happy as I could be and hit the gym to kill my shoulders.
Didn't notice any crazy gains in strength or extra reps but the pump my delts had was insane. My left delt actually hurt. I had to stop and massage it for a few minutes.
I like the visual but I didn't like having to stop training for a bit.
Also, since I just started my cycle I am proud as heck that I dropped my BF that much with strict diet and hard training. Now let the fun begin! Do your thing var.

[TheTaxMan]

Subscribed
Good luck with the cycle

[OxyJen]

Var day 6:

Today was weird, not in a bad way, but weird. My overall mood was extremely happy. I mean talking to strangers happy. Smiling at random people happy. I don't do either of those. EVER.
Training was good. I'm sticking to my coaches program but I felt like I had way more gas in the tank. I was more sweaty than usual.
My hair is kind of oily today. I can usually go 3 days without washing it but I will definitely need to wash it tomorrow so I'm down to two days.
I feel like I'm either holding water or really bloated. My diet hasn't changed at all so I have to blame the var.
I think that is all I have to report today. I will track workouts once weekly.

[TheTaxMan]

If your bloated or feel your holding water,
Drink more water, even if your water intake is good, more will help keep the water retention under control. Kee flushing yourself out

[OxyJen]

If your bloated or feel your holding water,
Drink more water, even if your water intake is good, more will help keep the water retention under control. Kee flushing yourself out

I drink a little more than a gallon a day. I can try to up that and see what happens.

[TheTaxMan]

I know its tough im sick of drinking water, not even thirsty but guzzling as much as possible, i have noticed a difference though, im on Deca at the moment, as soon as i bloat i drink more water and feel a lot leaner

[OxyJen]

It really is the hardest part. ha.

[OxyJen]

Officially a week and 1 day into my cycle.
I have been sweating like crazy! I wake up at night drenched. It's gross. Today I trained back, arms and shoulders. After doing weighted hyperextensions I had a lower back pump that had me concerned lol. I don't know if I have ever actually had a pump there. It was uncomfortable, I thought I over did my training then realized I was just pumped as F . I felt like I could have trained allllll day long.
I lowered my sodium intake and the water retention seems to have gone down a BUNCH! I finally woke I up pretty ripped and stayed that way all day. Good stuff. I am really enjoying this cycle.

[OxyJen]

First off let me just say that PMS and Prep are not a good combo.
So day 13...
Overall I have noticed that my training is getting better each day. I have more strength and even hitting a few PRs which seems crazy to me being on a decent caloric deficit. I am not going to question it.
Last night was kind of weird though. I couldn't get a pump to save my life and I was training delts. I ALWAYS get a good pump on shoulder day. I am going to blame PMS and being super hormonal and maybe my training wasn't as great as it seemed. Also, I noticed that I am getting a LOT leaner. My arms are getting smaller in terms of fat shedding. That was also a mind F for me last night. I couldn't understand why I looked so tiny. So mix the lack of pump and shrinking together, sprinkle it with some hardcore PMS and whammo you get a sweet emotional melt down. Is all I can say is thank god my BF competes too and knows what the heck I was going through. Poor guy. haha.
So today is a new day.
My diet is still the same as it was although i added 100 more calories. So I am around 1350 kCal per day right now. That is still a pretty aggressive deficit for me. Eventually I will start carb cycling but for now I just aim for the calorie goal with high protein.
I have read that some people are always hungry during their cycle. I haven't experienced any of that. I am usually pretty full all day. Other than being sweaty I haven't had any weird side effects. Maybe a tiny bit of increased libido.
Happy Thursday!

[GirlyGymRat]

First off let me just say that PMS and Prep are not a good combo. So day 13... Overall I have noticed that my training is getting better each day. I have more strength and even hitting a few PRs which seems crazy to me being on a decent caloric deficit. I am not going to question it. Last night was kind of weird though. I couldn't get a pump to save my life and I was training delts. I ALWAYS get a good pump on shoulder day. I am going to blame PMS and being super hormonal and maybe my training wasn't as great as it seemed. Also, I noticed that I am getting a LOT leaner. My arms are getting smaller in terms of fat shedding. That was also a mind F for me last night. I couldn't understand why I looked so tiny. So mix the lack of pump and shrinking together, sprinkle it with some hardcore PMS and whammo you get a sweet emotional melt down. Is all I can say is thank god my BF competes too and knows what the heck I was going through. Poor guy. haha. So today is a new day. My diet is still the same as it was although i added 100 more calories. So I am around 1350 kCal per day right now. That is still a pretty aggressive deficit for me. Eventually I will start carb cycling but for now I just aim for the calorie goal with high protein. I have read that some people are always hungry during their cycle. I haven't experienced any of that. I am usually pretty full all day. Other than being sweaty I haven't had any weird side effects. Maybe a tiny bit of increased libido. Happy Thursday!

Sounds like a roller coaster. Enjoy the ride. LoL

Sounds like your body is responding well to compound and protocol.

Don't do what I did!!! I ran a steep deficit for too long and I was barely eating 800 cal a day and still not losing.

The goal is to loss fat while taking in the largest amount of calories for as long as you can before severe calorie restriction.!

[OxyJen]

Sounds like a roller coaster. Enjoy the ride. LoL

Sounds like your body is responding well to compound and protocol.

Don't do what I did!!! I ran a steep deficit for too long and I was barely eating 800 cal a day and still not losing.

The goal is to loss fat while taking in the largest amount of calories for as long as you can before severe calorie restriction.!

You're not even kidding! I am generally a pretty chill person so when I get like this I know exactly what's going on lol.

My coach is all about the old school clean bodybuilding diet. Which I am fine with. He gave me a range of 1200-1500 calories a day so for now I may add 100 a week while I can just to see what happens until he starts making adjustments. I'm at about a 300 calorie deficit which isn't terrible.
I couldn't even imagine 800 calories! That makes me hungry even thinking about it!

[bloodchoke]

Sub'ed -- good luck!

[OxyJen]

Sub'ed -- good luck!

Thanks!

[OxyJen]

Today marks 3 weeks on this cycle. So far I am very pleased with it. I feel like I have shredded fat nicely while keeping the muscle i have, Maybe even adding a little which is great! I have also noticed a increase in strength. Mainly on my barbell overhead presses and dumbbell presses. I am seeing better endurance during cardio as well. Some days I feel like I could do it for hours. (I hate cardio) and the pumps are CRAZY! I have stopped doing some exercises that hit my lower back because it is so excruciating. Mainly hyper extensions but I have decided to stay away from dead lifts for the moment as well. I have had lower back issues in the past and I think the var is exacerbating it just a tad. I have also noticed that my rear delts pump quickly and intensely too.
Libido is out of control, which I am not complaining about and neither is my BF. I even get pumps during sex! It's crazy and awesome at the same time.
I see my coach again this Wednesday. I always get nervous for these check ins. He wanted me to be at 14% bf this time. I am hoping I am there. I feel like I have leaned out more so hopefully I am where I need to be. This will put me at my 12 weeks out mark. So everything will start to become more intense from here on out. I think I will run the var until my comp. it is a few weeks longer than I should but I am not sure what to expect once I stop. I may ask my coach what he thinks and when he thinks I should stop it.
Oh I have started gaining some lovely back acne and also on my booty. Uggggghhhh. Face is also oiler but no acne there yet. Hopefully I won't get any. I have started using dawn dish soap as a body wash and it seems to be helping! Wearing my suit in front of my coach with a butt full of zits is going to be so embarrassing.
I have been thinking about my next cycle. If anyone has any input I would love to hear it. I plan to make my purchases soonish, just so I have everything ready and in place. My main goal is to compete in figure for 2017. So for my bikini off season I really want to pack on some muscle. I may run the var again and stack it with something. I just don't know what that something is.
I will post some pics this week!

[bloodchoke]

Re: ACNE
I just started my fourth week of PCT. From the end of week one to the middle of week three, I had more body blemishes than during my entire adolescence, painful too. I worked the problem areas with acne soap on a spin brush and had to go use benzoyl peroxide for the first time in nearly 30 years. It missed my face (fortunately) but my shoulders, traps, neck and the backs of my arms were ridden with painful acne. I had a little on-cycle but it hit me hard during PCT.

Sounds like everything else is going well for you, though -- that's awesome!

[TheTaxMan]

Im 3/4 through a long cycle an acne increases
I hit the tanning bed shop 3 time a week for 3 weeks and it cleared up and also gave me a nice tan

Maybe worth a try

[OxyJen]

Hmmm... That was sucky log.. sorry!!! Update tho!
I had such a great experience with that last cycle. Started at 135 21.3%BF walked on stage at 135 8% BF! CRAZY! So needless to say I was happy with that. Placed in all of my classes 1st in Masters , 2nd Open and 3rd in True Novice. I felt great throughout the whole prep for the most part. I will definitely do it again on prep. For now though I am starting a recomp and going to run another cycle to see how it works with more food. I will put up some before and after pics.

[GirlyGymRat]

Crappy log but Great results! You the winner!!!!