[quote]ParagonA wrote:
I have another shelf full of supps in my kitchen, too. And one for my collection of Nalgene bottles…[/quote]
I only have one Nalgene bottle, that I run through the dishwasher once a week lol. I rinse it with hot water a few times after each use, though. It is a bit dented here and there, which happened in the dishwasher somehow (??). Maybe it’s time to place another order 
I thought my stock of Biotest supplements was impressive, but yours puts mine to shame haha.
Lots of respect for your determination and success.
I’m trying myself to gradually lower how much sleep I’m getting so I get get more shit done during the day. Going from 9 to 8 hours, on average, was challenging but platable. Recently I’ve gone from 8 to 7 and it can be difficult to get out of bed, I sometimes hit snooze a couple times, and sometimes I get a mid-afternoon crash and have a hard time focusing on whatever I’m working on. but overall I’m able to do it. I foresee getting down to 6 will be an even bigger hurdle.
I’m curious about how long it took you to transition to so little sleep, the main challenges you faced with the process and how you overcame them.
how much to you spend on supps a month would you say?
[quote]TheBlade wrote:
Lots of respect for your determination and success.
I’m trying myself to gradually lower how much sleep I’m getting so I get get more shit done during the day. Going from 9 to 8 hours, on average, was challenging but platable. Recently I’ve gone from 8 to 7 and it can be difficult to get out of bed, I sometimes hit snooze a couple times, and sometimes I get a mid-afternoon crash and have a hard time focusing on whatever I’m working on. but overall I’m able to do it. I foresee getting down to 6 will be an even bigger hurdle.
I’m curious about how long it took you to transition to so little sleep, the main challenges you faced with the process and how you overcame them.[/quote]
Hmm, honestly I never needed much sleep. Runs in the family. I wouldn’t recommend cutting sleep too much, since getting enough sleep is so incredibly important for your health. Not everybody needs to sleep 8 jours a night, but if that’s what you need to stay healthy, you better arrange yourself so you get the desired amount of sleep.
You can still get a lot of shit done during the day if you are well-organized and cut the big time-wasters (like watching TV…).
The only time when I sleep less than I would need is in the end-stage of a contest prep. I feel that controlled sleep depletion can actually boost energy short before a contest when my system is down. I mobilizes some energy, probably via stress-response mechanisms.
Cheers, PA
[quote]MAF14 wrote:
how much to you spend on supps a month would you say?[/quote]
Hmm, I don’t know exactly. I do not consider my protein powders being supps, because I would have to buy some other clean protein sources if i didn’t use them, and that would propably be more expensive.
I empty one MD and one Grow! per week.
On top of that, my staples are some vitamins (cheep) and, of course, my peri-workout supps (expensive, but worth it).
Without doing any calculations, my rough guess would be around 400$, including the protein powders.
When I was a student and my budget was tight, the only “supps” I used were a protein powder (not the best tasing, but it did the job) and some creatine. You can use a basic supplement stack for 50$ a month with great results.
I’m happy I can afford the peri-workout supps. They made a big difference. And, of course, I have to save that money elsewhere! I don’t drink alcohol (or very little) and have no expensive hobbies (I bodybuild, hike, run, swim, jog, cycle, read, cook).
Cheers, PA
Just bumping and making sure Paragon knows we like to read his insights. Lay em on us if you have more big P.
[quote]Lonnie123 wrote:
Just bumping and making sure Paragon knows we like to read his insights. Lay em on us if you have more big P.[/quote]
x2
I always get excited when I see this thread bumped haha.
[quote]ParagonA wrote:
[quote]MAF14 wrote:
how much to you spend on supps a month would you say?[/quote]
Hmm, I don’t know exactly. I do not consider my protein powders being supps, because I would have to buy some other clean protein sources if i didn’t use them, and that would propably be more expensive.
I empty one MD and one Grow! per week.
On top of that, my staples are some vitamins (cheep) and, of course, my peri-workout supps (expensive, but worth it).
Without doing any calculations, my rough guess would be around 400$, including the protein powders.
When I was a student and my budget was tight, the only “supps” I used were a protein powder (not the best tasing, but it did the job) and some creatine. You can use a basic supplement stack for 50$ a month with great results.
I’m happy I can afford the peri-workout supps. They made a big difference. And, of course, I have to save that money elsewhere! I don’t drink alcohol (or very little) and have no expensive hobbies (I bodybuild, hike, run, swim, jog, cycle, read, cook).
Cheers, PA[/quote]
On a similar note, how much would you estimate you spend on food?
Like many others have already said, this is a great thread.
[quote]ParagonA wrote:
[quote]TheBlade wrote:
Lots of respect for your determination and success.
I’m trying myself to gradually lower how much sleep I’m getting so I get get more shit done during the day. Going from 9 to 8 hours, on average, was challenging but platable. Recently I’ve gone from 8 to 7 and it can be difficult to get out of bed, I sometimes hit snooze a couple times, and sometimes I get a mid-afternoon crash and have a hard time focusing on whatever I’m working on. but overall I’m able to do it. I foresee getting down to 6 will be an even bigger hurdle.
I’m curious about how long it took you to transition to so little sleep, the main challenges you faced with the process and how you overcame them.[/quote]
Hmm, honestly I never needed much sleep. Runs in the family. I wouldn’t recommend cutting sleep too much, since getting enough sleep is so incredibly important for your health. Not everybody needs to sleep 8 jours a night, but if that’s what you need to stay healthy, you better arrange yourself so you get the desired amount of sleep.
You can still get a lot of shit done during the day if you are well-organized and cut the big time-wasters (like watching TV…).
The only time when I sleep less than I would need is in the end-stage of a contest prep. I feel that controlled sleep depletion can actually boost energy short before a contest when my system is down. I mobilizes some energy, probably via stress-response mechanisms.
Cheers, PA
[/quote]
maybe try some GHRP-6 before bed? should help you feel(and actually be) more rested in the morning
@ Lonnie, Elelson, ashylarryku: Thank you very much! I try to post as much as possible, but have been very busy lately. Hope to be able to share a bit more in the neer future.
[quote]Eielson wrote:
[quote]ParagonA wrote:
[quote]MAF14 wrote:
how much to you spend on supps a month would you say?[/quote]
Hmm, I don’t know exactly. I do not consider my protein powders being supps, because I would have to buy some other clean protein sources if i didn’t use them, and that would propably be more expensive.
I empty one MD and one Grow! per week.
On top of that, my staples are some vitamins (cheep) and, of course, my peri-workout supps (expensive, but worth it).
Without doing any calculations, my rough guess would be around 400$, including the protein powders.
When I was a student and my budget was tight, the only “supps” I used were a protein powder (not the best tasing, but it did the job) and some creatine. You can use a basic supplement stack for 50$ a month with great results.
I’m happy I can afford the peri-workout supps. They made a big difference. And, of course, I have to save that money elsewhere! I don’t drink alcohol (or very little) and have no expensive hobbies (I bodybuild, hike, run, swim, jog, cycle, read, cook).
Cheers, PA[/quote]
On a similar note, how much would you estimate you spend on food?
Like many others have already said, this is a great thread.[/quote]
First I have to say that food is very expensive in Switzerland. So one probably can’t really “translate” the amount of money I spend on food into USD.
However, the number would be roughly 1’100-1’200 USD per month.
SHIATSU
Last Saturday I did sumo style deadlifts. Nothing fancy and not to the limit. Hit 616lbs x 3 on my last set.
But the day after the session, my lower back really hurt. I never have back issues, thank God!, but I somehow couldn’t bear this workout.
So I went to see a Shiatsu specialist today for a one hour treatment.
It was very “soft”. No tissue massage, just twisting and stretching my limbs and putting some pressure on some specific points on my back, legs, calves and head.
I almost fell asleep it was so relaxing.
And after the treatment: pain gone! Completely!
I didn’t expect that to be the case and I am usally a bit sceptical when it comes to wunder treatments. But this experience was just fantastic!
Plan to do it every 3-4 weeks now.
Cheers, PA
BY FAR MY FAVOURITE PUSH WORKOUT
This is what I did in the gym today and what is by far my favourite pushing/performance routine:
A. Barbell Bench Press
After warming up, some mobility work and 3 feels sets (empty bar x 12, 90lbs x 4, 180lbs x 4) i started ramping the weight up.
I started at 264 and ramped up to 422 in 9 sets.
On the 9th set I lost some speed and decided to continue ramping singles. 6 sets up to 466lbs.
After that I droped the weight to 352 and did 2 sets of 8 and 6 reps, respectively.
After that I did one speed set with only 220 for roughly 20 seconds and as many reps as only possible within that time. Didn’t count. Must have been 15 or so.
B. Push Press
5 sets of 5 res, ramping up the weight each set. Up to 228lbs.
C. Dips
3 sets of as many reps as possible without losing tempo.
In between pressing sets I did a lot of blast strap work for rhomboids, rear delts and rotator cuffs. 25 sets or so in total with reps ranging between 6 and 10 (far, far away from failure, just to add some volume).
Felt really great!
Cheers, PA
Hell of a pressing workout…
A massage is one of those things I’ve been meaning to get for like 3 years now but never get around to it, or never want to pay 90 dollars for one. Maybe its time to bite the bullet and schedule on in.
WHAT WORKED AND WHAT DID NOT
I’m not a coach, nor am I a real training and nutrition specialist. I just want to share a few thoughts on what has worked for me in my life as a bodybuilder…
TRAINING
What did not work?
When I did HIT/Mentzer kind of routine with a low frequency, I usually hit the wall pretty quickly and stopped making gains altogether. My body can’t tolerate too much “adrenal stress” or max-effort training. I can’t train to failure for more than a couple of weeks.
Bill Pearl once said that he never trained to failure, that he always left a bit energy in the gym to find it aging when he returned the next day.
When I did low frequency training with higher volumes and lower effort (i.e. not going to failure) I didn’t really progress either.
I am not saying that I never max out. I like those all-out sets from time to time as well. But I use them only infrequently and use intensity techniques like forced reps very, very seldom.
What did work?
Take pressing muscles for example: I often hit chest and shoulders on Monday with lots of bench pressing and push pressing. I do another chest workout for those muscles on Thursday, followed by two shoulder workouts on Friday (morning and evening) and an arm workout which contains a lot of sets of dips on Saturday. Often I also do some floor presses and band work for the pressing muscles on Saturdays, too.
But, e.g., the Saturday pressing is fairly light. I might do 10-12 sets of floor presses with 2 reps per set and a weight I could easily press 3-4 times on my last set. I do it just to add some volume for chest.
That has worked best for me in terms of both mass and strength gains.
CARDIO
What did not work?
Too many HIIT sessions
I did up to 7 sessions a week in preps. But that really burned me out. I believe the impact on my nervous system is just too big. HIIT is just too taxing when overdone.
Fasted cardio
I am talking about completely fasted cardio, i.e. getting out of bed and jumping on the stationary bike. I just lose too much muscle doing that. Somehow, this really starts a very catabolic cascade. It’s not even depending on the type of cardio I do; it just costs me too much muscle.
What did work?
I usually end up doing 2 HIIT sessions and 2 sessions at a low intensity.
For me, there is nothing magical about any type of cardio. Its main purpose is to increase energy turnover. That’s why I always try to do as much NEPA as possible (non-exercise physical activity). This includes walking to the store instead of taking the car, taking the stairs instead of the elevator, etc.
I also like to add 15 minutes of comfortable walking on the treadmill after my workouts in a prep. Very low intensity, just to increase energy turnover a bit.
I believe keeping energy turnover high is also very valuable if you are trying to gain weight!
Take 2 identical twins and put both on a mass gaining plan. One does only do his weight lifting sessions and eats 3000 cals a day, which, in this example would be 500 above maintenance. The other twin does lots of NEPA, some steady-state cardio, one HIIT session, mobility work, active recovery, etc. and therefore has to eat 5000 cals per day to be 500 cals above maintenance. After a few months the two bodies will look very different. At least I believe so.
Especially in a prep: move as much as possible without exceeding your capacity to recover.
This way, I still profit from the carb depleted state (not exactly depleted, but at least I did not eat carbs for 7-10 hours or so prior to the session) and don’t lose muscle.
Much the opposite, I found some cardio with whey/BCAA to be very valuable also in mass gaining phases.
NUTRITION
What did not work?
Very low fat diets
Those were very popular in the early 90s. Never worked for me. Neither for mass gaining phases, nor for contest preps. Much less for preps! I lose so much muscle mass when I go too low in fat in a prep.
Very low carb diets
I sometimes feel like many people believe that carbs are evil and to be avoided like the plague. If I go too low in carbs for too long, I lose much muscle mass. The classical 5 day low carb / refeed on weekends plan does not work for me.
I believe that in a prep, we should eat as much carbs as we can tolerate and still make progress with. For me, that’s 50g on 3 days of the week and much more than that on the rest of the days (100-200 on moderate carb days, 400-600g on high carb days).
What did work?
SUPPLEMENTATION
What did not work?
What did work?
By far my favourite staples in my supplement program are Biotestâ??s Surge Workout Fuel and Surge Recovery, Finibars and Grow!
Combine proper peri-workout nutrition with a decent protein powder.
If I have the money, I add some greens supp and fish oil to that.
Donâ??t even think about the latest fat burner or testosterone booster before you covered the above.
CONTEST PREPS
What did not work?
What I wrote above about the fasted cardio, too much HIIT, very low fat diets
Switching to high reps “for definition”
Best way to lose muscle: Gain a lot of strength and muscle mass by working with heavy weights and then switch to a contest prep routine with 15-20 reps per set on restricted calories. Enough said.
Going to high with my weight in the off-season.
This approach is still popular. Bulk up in the off-season and then lose 50 pounds of fat for the contest. I am a natural bodybuilder and really can’t do that. I just seem to lose almost all of the gained muscle with the ton of fat I have to shed.
Radical carb depletion / carb reloading approaches
Never worked. I’ll have to write a separate post about the last week before a contest.
What did work?
The parameters I change in a prep are diet (mainly caloric intake, I keep cycling macros) and cardio/energy turnover.
Of course I could go on and on writing, but you won’t go on and on reading 
Cheers, PA
As always, a great and informative post!
S
[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:
As always, a great and informative post!
S[/quote]
x2
It’s really cool of you to take the time out of your day to help people you basically don’t even know. Hopefully I’ll be able to fill your shoes some day!
[quote]ParagonA wrote:
What did not work?
Fasted cardio
I am talking about completely fasted cardio, i.e. getting out of bed and jumping on the stationary bike. I just lose too much muscle doing that[/quote]I assume you had some caffeine pre-cardio and some BCAAs during cardio, right?
Good thoughts man, I’m actually curing right now using primarily HIIT style stuff, well see how it goes. I definitely think I could have done better using a carb cycling approach earlier on, and have switched over to on for he time being after reading Stu’s contest prep. I was initially following a Get Shredded Diet style, high fat/low carb with a weekly high carb day, I think the carb cycling approach should help me finish up here in the next few weeks.
I can’t wait until my next cut to try out put my newfound knowledge to good use. Hopefully my next bulk(9-10 months) will yield some nice gains and the the cut will be more productive. So frustrating to make the mistakes, but so rewarding to implement the new info and succeed the next time around.
[quote]tolismann wrote:
[quote]ParagonA wrote:
What did not work?
Fasted cardio
I am talking about completely fasted cardio, i.e. getting out of bed and jumping on the stationary bike. I just lose too much muscle doing that[/quote]I assume you had some caffeine pre-cardio and some BCAAs during cardio, right?
[/quote]
I believe BCAAs would during cardio is the much better option than doing it completely fasted. I never really tried it. I used to do fasted morning cardio with nothing but water pre and during - didn’t work, lost much muscle, burned me out.
I then switched to my whey pre / BCAAs during protocol which I can only recommend.