I am just wondering about the kind of results others have had with Ian King’s 12 week series. I am getting ready to start my first cycle of Androsol, and wanted to use one of the programs, specifically the upper body program. If anyone has any feedback as far as size and mass gains or how to optimize and manipulate this program for this type of goal, it would be greatly appreciated.
I find his programs excellent, I have done the upper 12 weeks program and am 1/2 way thru a combination of Bring on the Pain upper and Limping lower, I found that I made some very good gains on the 12 week one and am actually on more fat loss diet/ cardio at the moment and don’t seem to have lost any LM or strength. Go for it, and do the whole 12 weeks as I found the last cycle esp as when I really noticed the diff, let us know how it goes.
As I said under the Ian King+Volume thread, I just finished the Limping series this morning & added 90 lbs to my squat & 150 lbs to my deadlift. I’m starting the 4th phase of the 12 Weeks series on Monday, so I expect to see major increases in strength in my upper body, too (provided the injury to my left rotator cuff is healed up enough to allow me to train well). I can say that I added at least 20 lbs to every upper body compound movement so far. As far as increases in size, I can’t say too clearly. I kept my diet pretty tight for the first half of the program, dropping about 8 lbs, but I’ve since gained all of that weight back, but not too much of it is fat (e.g., my waist is still 3" smaller than it was when I began the program). As far as Androsol goes, I really began piling weights on the bar when I started my Androsol cycle (2 weeks), followed by Tribex (4 weeks). Go for it! I think you’ll be pleased with the results.
I am in the second phase of Limping and Super Strength and looking forward to the gains you are seeing. So far I am doint great except for a shoulder problem. What kind of rotator cuff injury do you have and how have you treated it? I have had problems for sometime with my right shoulder and I am finally seeing an orthopedic doctor on Tuesday - hopefully he can fix me up with some drugs and a physical therapist. Anyone else have any suggestions? Thanks
Didnt get much from the bring the pain upper body but I am loving the limping series.
make sure you get lots and lots of rest. I tried both his bring the pain series but it was during a time I was experiencing lots of stress with my life. I only got an average of five hours of sleep, and during the third phase of both programs, I just gave up. It had to do with the fact I wasn’t allowing anough time to recover between workouts. So make sure you get plenty of recovery.
I didn’t do anything too drastic to my rotator cuff, no tear or major sprain, but I did develop some tendonitis or bursitis or some kind of weakness. I discovered it when I was trying to do flat bench flyes & couldn’t control the movement of the dumbell with my left arm. All my other upper body exercises showed significant strength loss on the left side, too, but I didn’t have much localized pain in the shoulder. A physical therapist in my parish diagnosed me & put me on a program of moist heat, followed by isometric & light weight exercises for the cuff, followed by ice. It’s helped a lot. I got back full range of motion within a week or so, & my strength is returning. Only one odd & troubling thing remains: my wrist extensors (that pull the knuckles back toward my forearm) are still significantly weaker on the left side than on the right. I seem to have some kind of nerve impingement that’s taking forever to heal. Oh, well. This is the only substantial injury I’ve sustained in the last 9 months or so, so I count myself lucky. BTW, if you ain’t young anymore, I suggest very strongly taking the rest breaks that King suggests between the phases of his programs. Your hard-earned gains won’t shrivel up, you’ll progress better, & you might just prevent the kind of injury I got. Oh, yeah, & furthermore, if you have rotator cuff troubles, be careful with some of King’s suggested exercise forms: he calls for a lot of overhead presses & lat pulldowns behind the neck. You may want to think twice about doing these exercises in this way. Check the forum archives for “rotator cuff,” & you’ll find a lot of prior discussion about the issue. Hope that helps.
Thanks for the advice. I haven’t done behind the neck presses for a few years due to shoulder problems. As far as the rest goes, that is hard to do because I like to be in the gym training (not only for results, but because I think it is fun), but this injury has forced me to take a week off - so maybe I am better for it. Thanks again.
One last thing: I had meant to apologize for taking so long getting back to you. People in my line of work have been a little busy lately, as you might expect.
Ive gotten the best results of my life on his programs. I cant do the leg programs because my recovery cant handle it so i do the upper body programs on monday and friday and legs on wednesday. Ive gotten hellafied results from the bring the pain upper body series.