I did a search for similar topics but nothing really came up specific to rest and cycling.
My current cycle is 500mg/wTE 20mg Anavar/day, BPC 157 twice a week. 400IU HCG twice a week, .75mg anastrozole/w
My workout schedule is Mon thru Friday, one muscle group per day, my gym limits my time on the floor to 60 minutes. Cardio everyday 15minutes on the bike. That leaves 45 minutes.
Mon Pecs, Tues Traps, Wed Lats, Thur arms/legs, Fri delts(3)
with total rest on Sat and Sun.
When cycling what are your thoughts on rest? How much? How often?
Should one take their age into consideration?
Intensity should be looked at far harder than frequency when trying to determine how much rest is necessary. Do you feel ready to go by the time you hit the gym? Is it hard to sleep because you’re overtrained? Do you constantly feel exhausted? Does it seem like you’re having trouble pushing the same or more weight from week to week?
I believe it is a lot easier to carry fatigue when on cycle than when off cycle, but all of the same questions apply whether you’re on cycle or not.
AAS no doubt help with recovery, but as @wsmwannabe stated, it’s individualistic. If you aren’t having symptoms of over training then try to do more and see how you react. You have pharmacological help you didn’t have before. Yes, age will play a role. There are no drugs to help with any arthritic and cartilaginous issues. I’m in my late thirties. I can train harder, and as I read your topic I was just about to add in more minutes onto each workout during the week to see how I do. My limits are knee and shoulder pain, possibly more if I increase intensity. Since your gym time is limited, what about adding another day or work from home? If you don’t have equipment a pull up bar will go a long way. I have a gym at home but depending how my day is going I mix in some bodyweight type stuff, only after I’ve trashed that body part in the gym that week. I grab my kids and have them line up on my back to do pushups and have them hang onto me when I do pullups. I’ve taken one week off this year, and I don’t think I even needed that.
I don’t change my training whether off or on. When you’re off you need to keep up the intensity and try to hold on to every ounce of ‘dem gainz!’. More serious note, most of us don’t overtrain. Its basically a myth. Olympic and pro athletes might reach this point but training an hour a day won’t get you there. Basically just train as much and as often as your lifestyle allows.
When on gear, nothing changes. Even tho you think you recover better, you also work harder.
For me, actually, the more i take the more i push myself, the more i fuck myself and nowdays i believe im even more cautious about my training than most naturals in their 20s when just starting.
I do weights only EOD and i only do 1 base exercise for like 5-7 heavy sets, and then just some accessories. So i will do like - bench day 531 + 5x5 and then some pullups and 2x12 for arms… deadlift 531 + 5x5 and then some rear delt raises 2x12 and then 2x12 for arms.
That is all i can do not to fry my CNS.
Yes but i always use an argument that there are people who build roads and bridges(heaviest manual labour) and they still go to the gym and live life. I dont think my work is as heavy as 9 hours of building roads.
I saw on another thread you were talking about multiple sets at 90%+ of 1RM every day for various compound exercises.
It’s one thing to build bridges and go to gym. It’s another to work heavy construction and max out on a daily basis. The one is possible, the other isn’t sustainable at all. I lived on a farm, I was frequently used for heavy lifting as I was and still am by far the strongest within my family. Still went to gym afterward, but on the days wherein I had already been lifting enough concrete and pulling tarp out of the ground and whatnot to elicit DOMS my workouts certainly suffered.
Im stupid when it comes to strenght training, so i am learning and im not doing that anymore. Im sticking below 85% and going close to 90% only once every 3 weeks for now.
But yes, i did fry my CNS doing that.
My intensity is greater when I cycle. I feel much stronger and time flies in the gym. With only 60 minutes I have to work smart. I spend 15minutes on the bike for my cardio and warm my heart rate. Then I focus on one area. That usually means 2 warm-ups and 6 working sets. I like Hypertrophy so my sets are 10-12 reps and on the last 4 sets rep 11 and 12 are half reps due to failure. If there is more time I will move to another exercise working the same group. Usually there is not. I never feel like I have over trained. Yes sometimes my hands/arm/legs shake but I am fine 24 hours later.
This has always given me DOMs the following day. So I feel like there was progress.
I am kind of confused when some say nothing should change. I feel much stronger when cycling and fatigue / failure is much later in the sets so I add more weight to compensate. I plan to continue that.
My question is about rest. Since all the YouTubers say muscles don’t grow without rest how much rest do you do on cycle?
Let me make the question even narrower.
If I work all 3 pecs (incline and decline bench, pec deck) on Monday and never touch pecs again until next Monday have they not been resting for 7 days?
I understand we use our arms for everything upper body so they get little rest.
Thanks everyone for your comments, suggestions, and advice. It is much appreciated. I really do enjoy talking this stuff with other like minded body builders. I go to a yuppie Gym for the eye candy it motivates me more than grunting but no one there has a clue about pharma. After you have done this on and off for a few years you just know.
There’s a difference between natty and not. Youtubers, whether natty or otherwise are using principles they are reading on blogs carried over from Men’s Health (no thought to pharmacology). On AAS, we’re changing our physiology to prioritize growth, that changes the rules. As @blshaw stated, I don’t think people over train as much as they think. I do train different now than when I did a natty competitor, but I truly believe I could have done more then. I think you could do one primary work out for each muscle group once per week, and then hit it again in a different way at the end of another work out for a few reps. I started this this blast and I like the results. For example, on shoulder day I’ll do a sort of extreme incline bench press to hit upper chest and front delts. Since I’m trashing delts anyways this is another way to activate chest on a second day. I always work in weighted pull ups on leg day which is about three days after my back workout. I hit bi’s a second time, tri’s I haven’t yet since they are accessory muscles on shoulder day. I don’t get a full second workout in on each but get at least 4-6 extra sets per body part on their non isolated day.
I follow the same workout structure (5 days) with weekends off. When on cycle I feel like I can handle a lot more volume since recovery is improved. Regardless fatigue builds up and I personally prefer a deload week every 8 weeks. After deload I always come back feeling refreshed and stronger.
gman12 my cycles are usually only 8 weeks.
This is due to my age and wanting to keep my blood pressure, lipids and HCT in check.
Are you deloading and still cycling or deloading when you stop.
I don’t do PCT’s since I just drop back to 100/w and stop everything else.
I’m doing a similar thing. I’m going heavy on two exercises per week 3x5 and after that compound assistance exercises in the 8-12 rep range but not the most strenuous ones for the CNS. The third exercise of the big three I am not Training heavy but for reps and leave at least 2 in the tank.
We’ll see if this will yield significantly greater strength and gains than going heavy on 2+ main exercises every workout.
There was an article by Christian thibaudeau last week on here that described the best training setups and I think he’s as correct as one can be.
Since my cycles are 12 weeks, I typically deload during the cycle. Some prefer to take a whole week off from the gym and they recover better that way. I always follow my same training schedule, but keep all the weight at 50%. A lot of people underestimate the benefits of just backing off for a week.
In your case I would delod before starting the 8 week cycle. This way you can go into your cycle feeling recovered. Also it doesn’t have to exactly be every 8 weeks. For example the powerlifting 5/3/1
Program I followed required a deload every 4 weeks since volume was low but intensity was high. It all
comes down to the type of training you’re doing and how you’re feeling. Every 4 weeks was necessary when you consider you’re working with 80-90% working sets multiple times per week on compound lifts. Now that I focus on volume (20 sets per workout x 5 days per week) along with the addition of some AAS, I can get away with going 8 weeks before I really feel like I’m getting to a point where I’m hitting a wall.
This is a great approach. I’ve been doing something similar for the last couple months. I start each workout with a compound and work up to 75-80% for a set of 5+, then I come down for 3 sets of 10-12 (volume) followed by another 4 exercises that are specific for that body part/day. It really helps hold
onto strength while also working on hypertrophy.
Yes I think so too. I’m going a bit heavier on the main sets with 85-87% roughly of 1RM for 5.
I’m impressed by the results so far. Cutting down the intensity a bit seems to give the body more recovery for muscle growth. What could also be is that I have more energy for the hypertrophy work
A thing I have noticed is that the stronger people get, the lower their intensity gets. If the experienced lifters lifted the percentages that the newer lifters did, it would just be too much to recover from (also mentally draining to go in to train). Thor was looking pretty shot from doubles and triples with like 850 - 900 on deadlifts, but was working for a max of 1100. Some of the newer lifters at the gym will do sets on deads with like 30 lbs less than their max for sets of 4-5. Percentage they are doing like 95%.
Yes, I know exactly what you mean. I tried out a powerlifting program not long ago. It was sets of 5 with 70% 1RM. To me this was way too light to gain anything from it as I’m nowhere near as strong as a Powerlifter. So I got weaker doing it. But strong guys don’t need that much intensity to profit as the weight is still really heavy.