ParagonA, this has been a very nice read and I really like reading this thread as it has been both inspirational and informative,thank you.
I have a question regarding testosteron levels, is there a way to increase it by supplements(the legal way), from what you know that works as you have a long bbing experince and also phd in biology. Which one is better between DAA and ZMA for hormone increase or don’t they make a big difference?. Thx in advance 
[quote]jake_j_m wrote:
I just wanted to say this is the most inspiring thread I think I’ve ever read!
Ironically, with you being the most organised person I’ve ever read about, I only discovered this properly today and read from start to finish in one sitting. With all the time and priviledges you have clearly never had, I find it embarrasing I’m not more on top of the whole ‘life balance’ thing.
Still, I hope that your philosophies on life and lifting gradually filter through to me, as a just-20-year-old I need to really get everything together in my life if I want to succeed and be happy over the next few years. Reading this thread just might help. Thank you. [/quote]
Thank you so much for your kind words. I feel deeply honoured and will do my best to post more frequently in the future.
Thank you very much for reading,
PA
[quote]Alexsarmin wrote:
ParagonA, this has been a very nice read and I really like reading this thread as it has been both inspirational and informative,thank you.
I have a question regarding testosteron levels, is there a way to increase it by supplements(the legal way), from what you know that works as you have a long bbing experince and also phd in biology. Which one is better between DAA and ZMA for hormone increase or don’t they make a big difference?. Thx in advance :)[/quote]
I had my testosterone levels tested only twice in the past and they are pretty high naturally. Last time it was almost twice the upper “limit” of the normal spectrum.
Therefore I do not have a very big experience with T-boosting supps.
I have tried Biotest’s AlphaMale in the past nad felt it increased my libido. But I didn’t do any bloodwork, so I can’t quantify what it did for me.
DAA I have never used yet.
I know there are some pretty experienced natural bodybuilders who use AlphaMale with great success. Have you read The Mighty Stu’s thread in this forum?
Very inspiring and I know he uses the supp.
As for DAA, Thib mentioned that he uses it with great success, if I remember correctly.
I’m sorry I can not give more of an answer, I just lack experoence in the field of natural testosterone boosters.
Cheers, PA
Im sad I reached the end of this thread. I think I’m going to print much of it out to send to my father who in his 60s is first realizing that if he doesnt make changes he’ll die earlier than he should.
Just curious - I’ve used the Elite Bands you posted on Page 9 but back on maybe page 2 or 3 you posted I believe the TNT bands. How do they compare to one another in terms of usefulness and resistance?
I think I’ll be taking the stairs down from my office from now on.
[quote]ParagonA wrote:
[quote]Alexsarmin wrote:
ParagonA, this has been a very nice read and I really like reading this thread as it has been both inspirational and informative,thank you.
I have a question regarding testosteron levels, is there a way to increase it by supplements(the legal way), from what you know that works as you have a long bbing experince and also phd in biology. Which one is better between DAA and ZMA for hormone increase or don’t they make a big difference?. Thx in advance :)[/quote]
I had my testosterone levels tested only twice in the past and they are pretty high naturally. Last time it was almost twice the upper “limit” of the normal spectrum.
Therefore I do not have a very big experience with T-boosting supps.
I have tried Biotest’s AlphaMale in the past nad felt it increased my libido. But I didn’t do any bloodwork, so I can’t quantify what it did for me.
DAA I have never used yet.
I know there are some pretty experienced natural bodybuilders who use AlphaMale with great success. Have you read The Mighty Stu’s thread in this forum?
Very inspiring and I know he uses the supp.
As for DAA, Thib mentioned that he uses it with great success, if I remember correctly.
I’m sorry I can not give more of an answer, I just lack experoence in the field of natural testosterone boosters.
Cheers, PA[/quote]
not to butt in, but i can offer some info i have found…
tribulus
i have recently tried (and liked) using the equivalent of 750mg w/ 45% saponins once in the morning and once pre-workout - i say the equivalent bc i used a trib product with roughly 25% saponins and had to take more of it to get the same effect
zinc picolinate
before i took trib i was taking 30mg every day and this increased total test a lot - forget acutal numebers…
i didnt get much (noticeable) benefit but hear good things about DAA at 3 grams every day although some people say it doesnt work for them and others report it working for about a week then nothing
tongkat ali as well…
the main ingrdients in Alpha Male are trib, vitex agnus castus (not sure what that does) and Eurycoma longifolia (aka tongkat ali)
[quote]EndersDrift2 wrote:
Just curious - I’ve used the Elite Bands you posted on Page 9 but back on maybe page 2 or 3 you posted I believe the TNT bands. How do they compare to one another in terms of usefulness and resistance?
I think I’ll be taking the stairs down from my office from now on.[/quote]
I really love the Elite Bands. The strength curve they produce is just fantastic. I bought a whole set of elite bands so I find a proper resistance or assistance for every exercise I use them for. I love the short bands for resistet deadlifts and the monster mini bands for all kind of arm work. The regular length strong bands are great for bench presses and squats.
There are some nice videos on elitefts.com
The Elite bands are extremely useful (short and regular bands, many different ones, many applications).
HAPPINESS
Most people are unhappy, or at least not as happy as they could possibly be. Are you happy? What is happiness anyway? Unfortunately, it is much more elusive and enigmatic that we might want it to be, and much less of a rational concept.
Go do a search on amazon.com and you’ll find literally hundreds of books on the topic of happiness. On how to find it, how to get out of the rut you’re in, how to be happy in marriage, how to be happy in your job, how to have a happy sex life, general guides to happiness…
So, I probably won’t add anything new to all that. At least, I can give you some of my guidelines, and tell you what’s important to my happiness. So here is my (very incomplete) list (in no particular order):
- Nourish friendships
About a month ago, my girlfriend (and soon to be wife) celebrated her 30th birthday. Therefore, she invited her (and my) best friends to the Kaufleuten Lounge in Zurich. It was a great night. Lots of laughter, happy faces all around me, people connecting with each other; simply one of those rare and precious occasions where I couldn’t think of one single bad thing, it was all good. I remember one moment shortly after midnight when my girl opened her birthday presents. She sat there at the lounge table with the smile of a little girl, as happy as a child on Christmas morning. I looked around and found myself surrounded by people I respect, care for and love, surrounded by friends. It wasn’t the first time I realised that friends are what make life as good as it is.
The French writer and philosopher Sartre said: “Hell is other people.” It doesn’t seem to be true. Social scientists estimate that up to 70 percent of our happiness comes from our relationships with friends, as well as family, co-workers, and even neighbours; from other people!
Self-absorption is a bad thing, as the more you shut yourself off from the world, the more the world closes in, and you’ll end up unable to see outside yourself. I would even go a step further than just to suggest keeping an open mind and letting friendships happen, I even suggest nourishing friendships whenever possible. It’s the small things that count. An occasional text message, e-mail, or phone call can keep friendships alive, and you should celebrate those once in a while with a nice dinner with your friends, some drinks after work, or a happy birthday party…
- Don’t suppress sadness
Manliness is a funny thing. It’s very hard to define. How many times have you been told that a man should not cry? Let me tell you something: this is bullshit!
One thing most people just don’t seem to realise, is, that happiness is not the absence of sadness! It’s an emotion by itself, and if you suppress sadness, you’ll end up suppressing other emotions as well - positive emotions! Don’t suppress sadness. Let go. Cry. By suppressing negative emotions you’ll end up being more sad and depressed, not less.
Not allowing yourself to cry is not manly at all, it’s plain stupid.
- Do some crazy shit!
Yeah, right. Do some crazy, reckless, dangerous things in your life. Well, I’m not telling you to jump out of a plane without a parachute, neither should you apply for MTV’s Nitro Circus Team. What I mean is to force yourself to do things outside of that comfort zone you so easily get stuck in. Do things where the outcome is unknown. Do things where you have to take some risks.
Make no mistake, I’m not taking about doing mindless bullshit activities that might very well hurt or kill you or others. People very often do that solely as a reaction to their helplessness, and for the sake of distracting themselves from their otherwise miserable lives. Don’t get addicted to recreation for the sake of recreation.
What I’m talking about is to keep an open mind to new, exciting, life-enriching experiences. You won’t experience any “magic” by pulling all the shades and wandering your great indoors. If you’re life is just a seemingly endless repetition of the same three to five activities (sleep-eat-work-shop-fuck), to me, you’d be well-advised to “memento mori”: remember you will die.
I’m not going to lie on the deathbed some day and tell my grandchildren how fulfilling it was to take a good shit every day, to have worked exactly 8.42 hours every day, and that the most exiting moments in my life had been the rare occasion when I tried to shave myself left-handed.
C’mon! You will die some day. And each and every day is a gift, and not a given right! Live like you mean it. Dangerous, crazy, reckless things are what memories are made from. These are the things that will make you smile when, inevitably, you’re engaged in the occasionally emerging daily grind. These are the things that your friends, children and grad children will be telling about you, and that will make them smile, too.
I advice you to do enough dangerous, crazy, yet constructive, positive, and life-affirming, pro-joy shit so you want to replay that “inner video” of your life over and over again in your mind. Make your life a blockbuster!
-
Read at least 10 pages a day. Write at least one page a day.
Enough said. -
Make other people happy
This is the last one my list, but certainly not the last one in terms of importance.
Try to be good.
Do good things, be kind, gentle, and humble.
Doing good seems to spawn happiness. Making other people happy seems to spawn happiness. So take up that bloody phone and call your mom to tell her you love her (mine died some month ago and, hell, do I miss her), go pick up some flowers on your way home from the office to show your wife you still care, go have a couple of drinks with your friends you haven’t seen in a long time, go invite them over for dinner, and cook dinner by yourself, write a birthday card to somebody who really wouldn’t ever have thought you would, don’t pay it back, pay it forward!
Remember the first sentence of Goethe’s famous poem “On the Devine”?
Remember the first sentence of Goethe’s famous poem “On the Devine”!
“Let man be noble, generous and good.”
That’s about it. I know dozens of other good tips, of course. I’m writing the 5 above not to make it more complicated than it is. Hey, that’s an important ingredient of the recipe for happiness, too: keeping it simple.
Yours, PA
Why is your thread so gem-like? Your words of wisdom is something everyone should heed.
I like your idea about being a full person. You are certainly a hard working, well-meaning person, with an open mind and heart.
unfortunately, I experience, that people like you are a minority these days, myself included as well. We tend to envy people like you for your happiness, results, and for all the great things that happen to you, but forget about the main difference:
You actually worked hard for having these achievements in life. Nothing comes easy, being happy is the same. One must work for it, aim for it, not letting barriers standing in his way.
Inspirational, as always. Cheers.
Great post! I agree with everything. Number 4, also. I have sarted reading again (I’m a Stephen King fan, just finish “All Dark, No Stars” a few minutes ago ) and feel a lot better. My roommates will wake up (noon at the earliest) and immediately turn the tv on and watch it all day (we’re on summer vacation in college). It drives me nuts how they have no ambitions to do anything other than sleep, watch t.v., and drink/smoke.
I appreciate the post!
[quote]ParagonA wrote:
HAPPINESS
Most people are unhappy, or at least not as happy as they could possibly be. Are you happy? What is happiness anyway? Unfortunately, it is much more elusive and enigmatic that we might want it to be, and much less of a rational concept.
Go do a search on amazon.com and you’ll find literally hundreds of books on the topic of happiness. On how to find it, how to get out of the rut you’re in, how to be happy in marriage, how to be happy in your job, how to have a happy sex life, general guides to happiness…
So, I probably won’t add anything new to all that. At least, I can give you some of my guidelines, and tell you what’s important to my happiness. So here is my (very incomplete) list (in no particular order):
- Nourish friendships
About a month ago, my girlfriend (and soon to be wife) celebrated her 30th birthday. Therefore, she invited her (and my) best friends to the Kaufleuten Lounge in Zurich. It was a great night. Lots of laughter, happy faces all around me, people connecting with each other; simply one of those rare and precious occasions where I couldn’t think of one single bad thing, it was all good. I remember one moment shortly after midnight when my girl opened her birthday presents. She sat there at the lounge table with the smile of a little girl, as happy as a child on Christmas morning. I looked around and found myself surrounded by people I respect, care for and love, surrounded by friends. It wasn’t the first time I realised that friends are what make life as good as it is.
The French writer and philosopher Sartre said: “Hell is other people.” It doesn’t seem to be true. Social scientists estimate that up to 70 percent of our happiness comes from our relationships with friends, as well as family, co-workers, and even neighbours; from other people!
Self-absorption is a bad thing, as the more you shut yourself off from the world, the more the world closes in, and you’ll end up unable to see outside yourself. I would even go a step further than just to suggest keeping an open mind and letting friendships happen, I even suggest nourishing friendships whenever possible. It’s the small things that count. An occasional text message, e-mail, or phone call can keep friendships alive, and you should celebrate those once in a while with a nice dinner with your friends, some drinks after work, or a happy birthday party…
- Don’t suppress sadness
Manliness is a funny thing. It’s very hard to define. How many times have you been told that a man should not cry? Let me tell you something: this is bullshit!
One thing most people just don’t seem to realise, is, that happiness is not the absence of sadness! It’s an emotion by itself, and if you suppress sadness, you’ll end up suppressing other emotions as well - positive emotions! Don’t suppress sadness. Let go. Cry. By suppressing negative emotions you’ll end up being more sad and depressed, not less.
Not allowing yourself to cry is not manly at all, it’s plain stupid.
- Do some crazy shit!
Yeah, right. Do some crazy, reckless, dangerous things in your life. Well, I’m not telling you to jump out of a plane without a parachute, neither should you apply for MTV’s Nitro Circus Team. What I mean is to force yourself to do things outside of that comfort zone you so easily get stuck in. Do things where the outcome is unknown. Do things where you have to take some risks.
Make no mistake, I’m not taking about doing mindless bullshit activities that might very well hurt or kill you or others. People very often do that solely as a reaction to their helplessness, and for the sake of distracting themselves from their otherwise miserable lives. Don’t get addicted to recreation for the sake of recreation.
What I’m talking about is to keep an open mind to new, exciting, life-enriching experiences. You won’t experience any “magic” by pulling all the shades and wandering your great indoors. If you’re life is just a seemingly endless repetition of the same three to five activities (sleep-eat-work-shop-fuck), to me, you’d be well-advised to “memento mori”: remember you will die.
I’m not going to lie on the deathbed some day and tell my grandchildren how fulfilling it was to take a good shit every day, to have worked exactly 8.42 hours every day, and that the most exiting moments in my life had been the rare occasion when I tried to shave myself left-handed.
C’mon! You will die some day. And each and every day is a gift, and not a given right! Live like you mean it. Dangerous, crazy, reckless things are what memories are made from. These are the things that will make you smile when, inevitably, you’re engaged in the occasionally emerging daily grind. These are the things that your friends, children and grad children will be telling about you, and that will make them smile, too.
I advice you to do enough dangerous, crazy, yet constructive, positive, and life-affirming, pro-joy shit so you want to replay that “inner video” of your life over and over again in your mind. Make your life a blockbuster!
-
Read at least 10 pages a day. Write at least one page a day.
Enough said. -
Make other people happy
This is the last one my list, but certainly not the last one in terms of importance.
Try to be good.
Do good things, be kind, gentle, and humble.
Doing good seems to spawn happiness. Making other people happy seems to spawn happiness. So take up that bloody phone and call your mom to tell her you love her (mine died some month ago and, hell, do I miss her), go pick up some flowers on your way home from the office to show your wife you still care, go have a couple of drinks with your friends you haven’t seen in a long time, go invite them over for dinner, and cook dinner by yourself, write a birthday card to somebody who really wouldn’t ever have thought you would, don’t pay it back, pay it forward!
Remember the first sentence of Goethe’s famous poem “On the Devine”?
Remember the first sentence of Goethe’s famous poem “On the Devine”!
“Let man be noble, generous and good.”
That’s about it. I know dozens of other good tips, of course. I’m writing the 5 above not to make it more complicated than it is. Hey, that’s an important ingredient of the recipe for happiness, too: keeping it simple.
Yours, PA[/quote]
Everything in here is gold, but this is superb. Thank you for this Para.
Thanks for the newewst post Para- I truly believe there is not one person on this earth who couldn’t benifit from reading that.
What life is all about.
Gradually I’m learning that the more decisions you take to lead you in the right direction, the more life seems to throw you a bone so to speak. Not sure if you’ve seen the preachings of the great Will Smith- but seriously, he’s got the exact right attitude to life- “make a choice. DECIDE what you want to do- and from that point on, the universe is going to get out of your way.”
Amazing post ParagonA, thank you for that!
I definitely need to work on every single one of those points.
B.
@all: Many thanks for the very positive reactions on my last post. Makes me want to write more!
Thank you, thank you!
Just a short update contest prep.
Honestly, this is the weirdest contest prep I have ever done. On one hand, it’s kind of a comeback and therefor feels “funny”. Every day in the prep I have those flashbacks and quite often I get terribly nostalgic. It’s all good feelings I can’t even properly describe. Somehow it just feels like I am 21 again…
On the other hand, since I am a contest veteran, I take it much easier than in my earlier bodybuilding years. Not when it comes to training or nutrition: there I am 100% disciplined all the time. But I don’t feel pressure, it’s much more fun than it used to be.
Training-wise I still stick to Thib’s powerlifting routine. That means I do squats, bench presses, overhead presses, and deadlift 5 times a week. I don’t do any isolation work yet besides the direct biceps work and haven’t found a reason yet to train abs more than, say, twice a week.
I really focus ob strength gains and my ultimate goal is 2’000 pounds combined weight in the powerlifting moves (dl, squat, bp). So basically, I am training for strength right now and still my shape improves every week. Very funny, strange, odd feeling…
Last week was a tough one. I trained MON-SAT through and twice every day. On 5 of those days I worked on the PL moves, as mentioned above. In addition, I did one HIIT session and one cross-fit session (don’t laugh, please. I promised a fried at work who is a big CF fan to join him for a session and thought I could be fun and in the worst case would increase my energy turnover…).
Weighted 221.5 this morning, in very decent shape.
I start to believe that Indigo-3G is a REAL game changer. I eat such a load of carbs every day and still get leaner every week. When I work out twice a week, I down 4 FINiBARs, 6-8 scoops of Surge Workout Fuel, 2 servings of Metabolic Drive Mass, 2 pieces of fruit and 3 oz. oatmeal (and lost of protein, of course). That just doesn’t feel like being on a diet and still I’m getting better every week.
Very cool, I’ll keep you posted…
Cheers, PA
Dare I suggest it’s time to sticky this thread?
Paragon:
Few years ago a natty BB used to focus entirely on strength, without “sculpting” excersises, and he said it helped him a lot to retain as much muscle as possible. Sounds reasonable, as one would assume that compounds with heavy weight will take care of creating a demand for muscle retention, as well as burn a lot of energy on the way.
I have to admit, that as a former fucking fat ass, I always had a phobia towards isolation excersises, so I kept my training around clean and press, squats, deadlifts, pullups, dips and bench press mostly. I just felt, that clean and presses fried my shoulders, whereas they’re very demanding for the cardiovascular system, especialy if one starts every rep from the floor. Never felt the need to rely on isolation excersises, though I enjoy them after the compounds.
When you first prepared for a show, what was different training-wise? I know, that countless reps with light weight used to be (and still) a preferred method for contest preppers, how was your approach?
And I also dare to ask about the differences in supplementation and diet, as you have a nice history in preparing, and the industry-food choices undergone some dramatic chanes since you first started.
Please, keep hitting us with your posts whenever you have the time, cheers 
GluteusGigantis: I was wondering, why it wasn’t stickied so far.
Uh oh, time to change the name of the thread of “Paragon A - Crossfit Enthusiast”
Glad to hear you are getting such great results man, that certainly SEEMS like a ton of carbs, but if you are making progress, who is anyone to argue? Its guys like you, Stu, and Synergy that have really fostered my love for natty BBing this year and are really inspiring me to compete myself in the near future. Can’t wait to see your comp pics.
Greetings Paragon,
for your heart (stabilize rhythm):
“The effects are so significant they make any drug look like a placebo.”
Also, have you heard of Dabrowski’s Theory of Positive Disintegration? I think you will see yourself in it:
[quote]ParagonA wrote:
On one hand, it’s kind of a comeback
Cheers, PA[/quote]
don’t call it a COMEBACK!
Read everything on the thread. So much information and has really inspired to hit life harder… but man , your wallet must be dying from all the supplements you buy from Biotest lol.