Hello all,
Man, what an awsome site/mag. I have only recently (6mo ago) made the life decision to change my body into the best body I can acheive, and since then I have been reading/listening and watching everything I can get my hands on. Unfortunetly, the incredible amount of info out there has confused the hell out of me. Add that to the only people I can find to ask questions to are the dolts at the club who are twigs but hand out info on getting ripped like experts. My first question is more of a request, I won’t list all of my questions in one post so could a few of you more knowledgable folks keep an eye out for my name and help me out whenever you see a post from me? I would greatly appreciate the help. Since finding this site earlier today I have been reading alot about Biotest’s producst, i.e. Tribex, Myostat and Mag-10. The Biotest page does a good job of promoting the product but could anyone please post if these products deliver what the claim? A little info on me: 33yoa, 252wt, 24%bf. I lift 7 days a week, and try to do cardio twice a day for 30-45 min each, usually on the treadmill or the bike. I take in about 240g of protein per day via cottage cheese and Met-Rx bars. I currently take Animal Cut thermo and also supplement 10g of Glutamine per day(am/pm). It has only been in the last two weeks that I converted to the 7 days a week thing as I was not seeing any results going 3 days a week. My goal is to get to around 10%bf regardless of what weight that puts me at. I know this is a long post, so if this goes agains the board code, I apologize. Thanks for any and all help.
Whoa, Nelly!!! Slow down on the lifting 7 days a week!! First thing to remember is that your muscles heal and grow when you’re resting. Training 7 days a week doesn’t give your muscles or your CNS time to recuperate. The best advice I can give you is to use the search engine and read as much info as you can. Off of the top of my head I’d suggest reading “Foods that make you look good naked”, “Back to basics”, “The Periodization Bible” and anything else referring to the essential basics of training and nutrition. One of the first rules of the forum is not to ask a question before you’ve thoroughly looked for the answer via the site’s search engine. Anyway, get to readin’ and good luck!
Your question about the Biotest products and what they do:
Myostat – This is a newly released product;I think it is too early too tell on this one. Apparently you have to take over an extended period of time. Although some people who have taken it so far are indicating that it might be helping them in gain weight/muscle (and even lose fat). I’ve been taking it for 2 weeks – don’t know for me yet what it is doing. Plus I’m taking it with Mag-10 so it will be difficult to tell which product is giving me the gains.
Mag-10 – Have completed 2 two-week cycles of it. Now in the middle of my 3rd cycle. I’ve gained about 10 pounds in each cycle, and strength definitely increases. You seem to lose a bit of weight when you go off it – but most of the gains seem to be there to stay.
Tribex – I use it occasionally – usually take it between Mag-10 cycles to help restore normal testosterone levels. It might have given me some very minor increases in weight gains/strength – although I’ve heard it gives others more substantial increases. It definitely increases sexual performance (reason alone to take it I suppose).
I’ve also had good results taking Androsol in the past – similar to the gains from Mag-10.
There’s a column written by Chris Shugart at T-mag called “Dawg School”. There have been 6-7 of them. Print them out and read them. Utilize the T-mag FAQ section too. Tons of info there. See the “Supplement Roundup” article as well. You’ve come to a great place to learn, but you have a lot of catching up to do! Good luck!
Your training frequency is very excessive and detrimental to your goals. 3-4 weight training sessions weekly is more than sufficient, and 2-4 cardio sessions (total) weekly (depending on intensity) is plenty. Results can be achieved in a timely manner, but not overnight. Trying to speed the process up through excessive training will only set you back.
Also, you need to add more variety to your diet. I wouldn't eat more than one Met-rx bar a day, its high quality protein, but all the calories from glycerin don't do much for you (other than add extra calories to your diet). And most Met-rx bars are packed with ~25 grams of the stuff. Try to get a good portion of your protein from meat and whole foods.
You may think that 10% at any weight is fine for now, but trust me, you'll think different if you lose a great deal of lean mass in the process. Doing things the smart way will allow you to hold on to much of your lean mass while achieve your body fat goals. Right now, you're absolutely, postively losing LBM with the excessive training...guaranteed.
Thanks for the pointers guys, much appreciated. I will do as much reading as I can and see if I can figure out a good plan to go with. So far, I think I will be changing my cardio from the twice a day, 7 days a week thing to the HIITS about three times a week and see if I get any results.
ok bro, im on a cutting phase right now, i lift 4 days a week (each bodypart gets hit once a week) and do cardio 2 interval sessions a week for 25 minutes. gotta remember recovery time. but yeah keep checking this forum, read up on the articles, and check a few other websites like charlespoliquin.net, myodynamics.com (ian kings website), and take everything you have by weider (ie muscle and fitness, flex, shit like that) and throw it in the trash. then take a big shit on the weider pile and burn the trashcan. after you burn it scatter the ashes across the ocean so it will not affect anyone ever again.
Welcome to the forum SO77. If you didn’t see any results when lifting three days a week and doing cardio twice a day, then you weren’t training or eating correctly for your goals. Upping the frequency to 7 days is only going to make things much worse. Read Chris Shugart’s article “The Diet Manifesto” and the diet articles that it discusses. Sounds like you are either (a) eating too much, and/or (b) not raining correctly.
P.S. Dump the Animal Cuts and get yourself some MD6. It’s much more cost effective. Good luck.
Go to Strength Training, Bodybuilding & Online Supplement Store - T NATION and follow the beginner’s blast program written by Chris Shugart. He recommends that you lift 3 times/week rather than 7. 7 is TOO much. I think 3-4 may be more optimal for you.
You also stated that you decided to lift 7 days/week b/c you saw no progress. Do you have a food log with detailed nutrition break down? If not, search for an article called MISSING INGREDIENT and read it. It'll be the key to your progress. :)
Good luck! And feel free to ask any questions.
Hey, If you want to lose weight you need to know what your daily caloric intake is so you must start a food log. Check out www.fitday.com it is free and it works. for cardio try joel marion’s HIIT sprinting progam it short and vey sweet.
http://www.tcnj.edu/~marion4/cardio.html
There is also allot of great info on nutrition on his site.
Also check out these articles.
www.testosterone.net/html/body_101pyram.html
www.testosterone.net/articles/199ess.html
www.thinkmuscle.com/articles/haycock/hypertrophy-specific-training-01.htm
KraigY
WOW, I can’t thank you ALL enough for all the help and “points” in what is hopefully the right direction. As coincidence has it, I started a food log a few days ago. Im getting about 1800 calories a day, 240g protein, 75g carbs. I will do the reading that all of you have prescribed before I get into my next round of questions. 
Any more comments on Myostat, Tribex or Mag-10? Or should I not worry about those supps. right now?
Hi there. Glad to know that we were helpful.
I don't know much about those supplements since I don't use them for obvious reasons, but I'd suggest that you focus on eating quality food and exercising intensely FIRST. Then if you think you have your routines down (eating and workout wise), start messing w/ supplements like Myostat. That way you know if your progress is from supplements or you. And if you don't seem to respond well to a particular supplement, you can drop it and save some $$. :)
Some supplements (like Mag10) will definitely get you closer/faster to your goals. But I suspect that by just making your diet is correct, and doing your workouts properly (overdoing it is probably worse than underdoing them), you’ll do just fine for now without them. With the exception of protein and creatine (and I don’t really even think the creatine did much for me), I didn’t go on any supplements for about 2 years after working out. It was when I started to plateau somewhat, even after mixing up my workout routines, that I started to use supplements.
There is some worth while information on my nutrition page, but alot of it is outdated…i will be updating it soon so that it reflects my current knowledge…I’d read Berardi’s column for the nutrition info and his recent article “The Winning Formula.”
The cardio page is still very current though.
Do you still recommend the cardio on an empty stomach or do you mean to update it? Do you ever eat before cardio or you find the empty stomach works? How bout everyone else? What gives best results?
Absolutly perform the cardio on an empty stomach. Studies have shown that you burn up to 3xs the amount of fat if you do cardio in the morning on an empty stomach as opposed to any other part of the day.
Right now with your desire to drop lbs. my reccomendations for supps would be: MD6, Methoxy (Hydroxy)7, T2 Pro along with a quality MRP that is low in carbs. Good Luck and take it easy and slow so you don’t lose much of your muscle. be patient.
What about losing muscle when you do the empty stomach thing? I’ve heard a few times from the t-mag writer that its a bad thing to do but im not sure whether undermine Bill. I hate having too much info.
I won’t be a problem provided that you supplement properly and limit your sessions to no more than 3 weekly.