Don’t you worry about the possibility of STI’s? I mean I guess if you have a long term partner it’s fine, but for one night stands I’d never go in raw… even if I was (probably am as both parents are/were) infertile
I have numerous reasons to believe I may be infertile, the only thing I’ve never gotten is a legitimate test to confirm (LH/fsh normal despite being on TRT/AAS hints at primary pathology, parental fertility issues that have the potential to be hereditary etc.)
Que for the awkward convo with a partner
“So unreal, I’m thinking we should try for a child”
Me - “well you see… the thing about that iiiissss”
I get it. But that will NEVER get better with the use of straps. If anything, warm up to the heaviest you can without the straps then throw them on for your max sets. I’m also a mini-man… I’ve got large hands but stubby fingers. I can’t trap the thumb around a bar to save my life. I use an alternate grip and build up until my grip strength matches my lift. You will get there especially at the weight ranges we are discussing. Just my two cents.
Other than that what @zeek1414 said goes for me too. I have off days all the time and surprisingly may hit a PR on the same exercise the following week. Don’t sweat it my man.
I forgot to comment on this. I’m on a high dose SSRI. I’ve tried to quit 3x without success. I was in pure hell. If there is ever a time to cut yourself some slack it’s now. I know that’s hard to do when you feel mentally unstable on the withdraw but be compassionate toward yourself as I know it’s a rough spell.
Was on 60mg fluoxetine daily (cyp2d6 ultra rapid metaboliser… for reference… was once given 30mg codeine (without a script) for pain associated with broken ankle, was later prescribed oxycodone
Taking the compound dumped very large amounts of morphine in my system, I threw up all over myself and lost consciousness… I remember my father saying “he’s just acting, don’t pay attention” etc… then I passed out and his callous disregard quickly turned into “oh shit…”, I quickly regained consciousness, thought “fucking hell, people like THIS?” and lay down as I was at a doctors office at the time. The throwing up may have been sphincter of odd dysfunction/spasm as it was accompanied by immense abdominal pain… the passing out was due to very pronounced respiratory depression… codeine isn’t a safe pharmaceutical to use on a populace, there’s far too much variability in relation to cyp2d6 metabolism and given how dependent the medication is on said enzyme to form its target compound, roughly 1-2 percent of the populace may acquire morphine toxicity from mere therapeutic or even sub therapeutic dosages. The stuff used to be otc here but kids were dying from taking mass amounts (extracting it in water and drinking it), whether moving it from OTC to schedule IV will work, who knows… I don’t think it will as kids are dumb enough to find anything they can use to escape the mundane or painful nature of reality. Now it’s cough syrup, which is arguably just as bad if not worse (hepatotoxic, cardiotoxic, disinhibitive etc)… seriously dumb thing to be doing (it’s legitimately quite dangerous in an acute setting)
Regardless I’ve been off for 6 wks now (stopped cold turkey, just like how I stopped using pain meds prescribed to me after I was put on TRT)
It’s a drag, I know it’s temporary though… everything just seems… bleaker, feel anxious at random times, moreso than usual, slightly irritable etc
Reason for my high dose was due to cyp2d6 ultrarapid metabolism… now the thing is, I was depressed from reactive variables (hypogonadism, chronic pain etc), chucking more SSRI at my way wasn’t the right way to go about treating my “depression”, what I needed was adequate treatment for the causing factors… I’d been on SSRI Meds since age 7 (albeit at 10-20mg daily), initiated in relation to depression stemming from being bullied… and now I have to deal with the side effects associated with discontinuation because my dose was so retardedly high for no good reason
I do have a long term partner now I call her my wife. And if she gives me a STD there gonna be some big problems lol
But before that I honestly never used protection. The life style I was involved in sexualy transmitted diseases were the least of my concerns.
Looking back of course I am extremely blessed to have never gotten any and obviously had I been making responsible decisions in life I would have used protection.
Mate, as I said in my post I’ve tried different esters and nowhere did I say that I’m shooting into the joint capsule, that would be absurd. Im on 20mg/day on test prop TRT. I said that I would do 70mg/day AS A CYCLE. You literally didn’t digest a single thing I said correctly, incredible.
Do you have access to a DL bar? They are thinner at 27mm, so easier to hold onto. Every DL bar I’ve used has had a wicked knurl too.
I’m actually weaker with straps. I think it has to do with me taking my breath at at top, and with straps I can’t do that.
I would spend some time seeing if you can learn hook grip. My wife can do it with a with a DL bar, so I’m guessing you can even with small hands.
Also, if you are doing AMRAP with deadlifts, and then trying to max out the same week, you will likely have fatigue built up. Not sure if CNS fatigue. My understanding is that it is pretty hard to actually fatigue the CNS. General fatigue will make you weak too.
For a sharp guy, you do some odd things. Explain to me, please, your reasoning in going beyond 12 reps in any single set with hypertrophy as a goal. It doesn’t make any sense. You would be taxing your anaerobic capacity, bordering on aerobic capacity when you get up around 20. You would more likely instigate fibre conversion and in fact limit hypertrophy in so doing.
I can see doing more sets with limited rest, say 30 - 45 second rest periods being much more conducive than marathon sets. And are you using mixed grip or double overhand? Do the lighter sets with double overhand and switch to mixed when that gets too heavy. The grip work does pleasant things for your forearms. Save the straps for the end when it’s heavy or you’re shot.
Fwiw it’s nearly impossible for me to reach proper hypertrophy with good movement and mind muscle connection with anything under 12 reps. I usually stay between 12-14 with a burnset at the end of 20 on a light weight. My rest are 45 seconds max
There notion that one needs to do X amount of reps appears to be largely steeped within bioscience. Firstly, numerous studies (I have one bookmarked, but can’t be bothered to look for others) indicate the amount of sheer hypertrophy accrued from low vs high reps is roughly the same… only difference being lower reps adds more to one’s existing 1RM. What DOES legitimately happen with higher reps is that the CNS is far more taxed… and barring perhaps an absolute 1rm, CNS needs at least 48 hrs too recover after intensive work as specified
20 rep deadlifts is certainly not purely aerobic output… Aerobic fitness becomes taxed say after the few minute mark. There is an aerobic element to weight training with little rest between sets… but DURING a set of deadlifts to failure certainly isn’t one of those times. The explosive nature of the lift itself is largely anaerobic unless say you were to do like 135x100 or something.
Another thing the straps were doing was giving my hands a much needed break, frequent tearing of calluses etc aren’t an issue with straps as they provide some layer of protection.
Typically double overhand, mixed (without straps) if lifting for a particularly difficult set or if grip is giving way though. I’m not a fan of mixed unless the grip is continually switched with each set as it facilitates the development of muscular imbalance over time and heavily predisposes to bicep injuries within the underhand side
Wasn’t there a study that compared levels on both IM and SubQ, and SubQ had an advantage over IM. I read it on T Nation.
I think injecting SubQ has the effect of a longer ester, and recently just saw a study that confirmed that. So you would likely have to wait longer to do a blood test to see the higher levels. Maybe that’s why people say it doesn’t get the same effect (they tested to soon).
Edit: I went back and read the article. The article on T-nation looked a study which claimed 20% better levels on SubQ than on IM, however it claimed that SubQ patients were on 2X a week shots. The advantage to SubQ was that it was easy and didn’t hurt so 2X a week was not an issue. Pretty sure they were comparing 2X a week at trough vs 1X a week at trough (not a very good study).
It’s largely anaerobic, and all things are individual dependent obviously, but I would expect your slow twitch versus fast twitch to be better served by more sets of fewer reps with very short rest. Same TUT, but easier on the CNS and I would expect it would allow for better levels of exertion. I’m not an expert on hypertrophy, it was never a goal for me, but anecdotally the guys doing endless reps are smaller in every gym I’ve been in. And the NPC/IFBB level guys I’ve actually trained around (not a lot, admittedly) semed to favour the 10-12 rep range. I’m not up on the latest science about that, it stopped mattering to me. Just curious. On a personal level, there is no chance of marathon sets for me, my muscles hate high reps. I’ve done 20 reps squat cycles, and they suck, and really didn’t do anything for me except raise my 20 rep squat number. @zeek1414 , I’m interested in input from you guys, it expands my horizons beyond strength training.
Iv trained many different ways. Ultimately I probably know very little about strength training my basic understanding of it is low reps with a nice rest period. I’m strong but by no means do I have impressive numbers especially for my size. Guys will ask me what my bench is and will be suprised when I tell them how light it is. They just assume because I’m big I can bench 450lbs I tell people I don’t want to lift a lot of weight just look like I can.
My biggest goal in the gym is focusing on the mind muscle connection and pump. I have found personally I grow the best when I do one warm up set 1 working set of a bit higher weight at 14 reps 1 working set of a weight I can only hit 10 then 2 more working sets of a weight that I can only hit 14 reps(sometimes this weight changes because the rest is only 30-45 sec) then il ether do a burn at 20 reps or il pyramid down with 3 burn sets (this depends on which muscle I’m working)
I honestly have no idea if my training is “good” training or if it would work for everyone it’s just sort of what I have found works best for me allows me to exhaust my muscles and get out of the gym in 45-60 mins.
When I was natural my training was much different but that’s another topic.
I also don’t do a lot of compound training. I beat the shit out of my body training naturally from that as well as some accidents I have some joint and lower back issues that make them difficult.
Fwiw I´ve injected from 4 to 11ml a week test prop (50mg/ml) suq during 6 or 7 months earlier this year without much of an issue, all inside the thighs. Got a few small lumps (below skin level) which disappeared after more or less time, but that should be better if splitting injections in more spots
I’ve never used straps either because I don’t believe I lift heavy enough to use them however I do lift a bit more than unreal, I only use chalk in the gym and that is at my heaviest working set. The chalk works wonders and I can bang out a few extra reps due to the grip it provides. Give it a try @unreal24278.
As for rep ranges for hypertrophy I usually hit 8-10 then progressively overload once I’m hitting my desired sets (2) of 12 reps max. It’s fascinating how everyone works differently, such as Zeek needing high reps to feel the tension on the muscle, I can hit 6/7 reps and be fully fatigued on a muscle group.
Yes, easier on the CNS… but what if I told you I merely like to punish myself for no good reason (though there’s def growth stimuli being tapped into with higher rep compound exercises)
Never said I was strong haha, however in theory my 1rm at 315x14 should be close to 440ish at a bw of 160-163lbs which isn’t terrible by any means… it’s like intermediate or something
What REALLY lags behind is my OHP, because I have structural abnormalities within one of my shoulder capsules stemming from birth, thus the movement induces an immense amount of pain and discomfort. So 60kg for like 2 reps was the last time I tried it… never again
When I COULD bench I got up to 107.5kg I believe (close to 240)
I might’ve pulled a muscle in my back today whilst partaking in manual Labour (hauling around large metal objects and pipes for moneyz) so we will see whether the injury is bad or not… one of my legs also fell through a large hole in the ground… this was unpleasant hehe
no, I know. my examples are throwing you off which is in turn confusing me haha. what I mean to say is I wouldn’t consider straps until maybe 260kg. my grip is fine at 200kg with chalk.