Looking good brother!
Now up them calories and hit it balls to the wall! You won’t recognize yourself in 3 months!
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One thing that I had forgotten about that I’ve clearly noticed since upping my dose (as well as injection frequency) and dropping Danazol: my voice is much deeper. It does something for your confidence hearing that and knowing you sound more assertive.
Been enjoying Mike Mentzer’s Complete Book of Weight Training. This guy was such a boss — really respect him. Obviously, he was a HUGE advocate of training intensely. Here’s one particularly good section on the topic:
Among the reasons for lack of success of many body-builders is the failure to understand specificity. This lack of understanding has led to training that results in improvement in their endurance more than muscle building. Those who train according to convention train too often, usually every day, and too long, two to four hours per session, to stimulate much in the way of muscle size. Training too often and too long prevents high-intensity training and, therefore, limits progress as well as size and strength gains.
Most serious body-builders desire to build as much pure muscle as possible, as opposed to developing total fitness. If this is the case, then lowering the intensity to any level below 100 percent will compromise that goal. Intensity of effort is the most important factor in stimulating size and strength increases in skeletal muscle mass. Only high-intensity muscular contraction can stimulate the growth mechanism in the muscle itself.
Thus carrying a given exercise or set to the point where it’s necessary to use 100 percent of the momentary muscular strength is the single most important factor in increasing size and strength. Working to this “point of muscular failure,” where another rep is impossible, ensures maximum growth. Obviously, this forces a reduction in the amount of time you can spend training.
He makes a compelling case, yet if can be tough to reconcile this with the growing literature on the importance of training frequency (2-3X per week for maximum results). Obviously you can’t go to total failure and hit a muscle group that often.
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He makes a GREAT case, and it is very applicable even today. There is a caveat though.
Intensity is about bringing the muscle to failure, or in other words…overload. When you train like those guys did, there was always a partner available and a means to produce this type of intensity going heavy and short in a somewhat safe manner. In today’s world however, there are quite a few options to achieve “overload” relatively safely by yourself. I use the heavy and short high intensity methods very often, but another technique that I have found to be VERY effective, especially when working out alone or with a partner that can’t lift anywhere near what you do, say like your wife, is increasing intensity through rep speed, and rep quantity.
Scenario A - High Intensity Heavy method (Similar to what Mentzer was most likely doing)
Set 1 - 75% 1RM 12 reps
Set 2 - 85% 1RM 10 reps
Set 3 - 90% 1RM - Fail (5-8 reps) + 1-2 Forced
Scenario B - High Intensity Rep Speed method
Set 1 - 12-15 reps 50% 1RM
Set 2 - 10-12 reps 65% 1RM
Set 3 - 75%1RM Performed as follows…
3 reps normal speed (1-2 sec up, 1-2 sec down)
3 reps 5 sec up, 5 sec down (or down then up depending)
3 reps normal speed
3 reps 5 sec, 5 sec down (this second slow phase is optional, depending on how fatigued you are getting)
rep out until failure normal speed
One thing to add…The Scenario B method is a much safer way to overload the intended muscle without overloading the joints…Something to think about as we get older…
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Me too… When i was eod, it would be deeper the day after an injection. Now I’m ED, it’s deeper every day… almost like I have a cold.
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@bcostigan41 And pussies love that, right 
Actually you can. Your muscles only need 48 hours for recovery, as long as you don’t keep this pace for too long.
Though I don’t recommend running this type of training methodology for more than about 4-6 weeks at a time, it is perfectly acceptable and doable.
Also, keep in mind that when designing 2x - 3X per week schedules, the total weekly volume still remains approximately the same.
If you’re doing 2X per week, you will decrease the number of total sets for a group on each training day. What this typically means is that instead of 3-4 exercises for 3 sets each, you would do 2 exercises on day 1 and 2 exercises on the second day.
So basically, running the 2X method results in shorter workouts, but the intensity is even more important here. You have to make sure that you’re leaving EVERYTHING on the table at the end of each workout. Give it everything you’ve got.
What you described in Scenario B is exactly what I’ve been debating – whether I could play with rep timing and light weight to achieve the desired effect of intensity while remaining safe.
For example, if I’m doing squats with just 85 pounds on the bar, but totally focused on muscular contraction and maintaining tension for a prolonged period (say, I don’t know, 60 seconds), I will eventually reach muscular failure. Even if training solo, I don’t think it’d be very dangerous to then bail and simply drop the weight, given how light it is.
Imagine a bench press – eventually, you’ll regain the strength to push the light weight back up to the pins.
In other words, you said they went “heavy and short,” and I agree – but what if instead of “light and long,” we were to go “light, INTENSE, and short”?
I’ve also been contemplating the Dexter Jackson/Ronnie Coleman methodologies. Dexter focused on contraction and light weight; Ronnie was an absolute monster who pushed heavy weight and is now paying for it, while Dex looks amazing. I get the sense that “light, INTENSE, and short” could be beneficial for both longevity and gains.
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I think you’ve got the idea, but just don’t substitute “feather” for light…You still want to get a decent load…
That’s why I say judge it off of 1RM. When using light weight, slow reps to increase intensity, 50%-60% seems to be a good golden number range for starting… At least in my experience.
I judge when to go up in weight on these type of routines by how many burn out reps I wind up doing on the last set at the end. If I get over 15 burn reps before I hit failure, then it’s time to go up.
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I’m even debating taking time off of counting reps entirely. You can do 12-15 reps, lasting 20 seconds, or 12-15 reps, lasting 80 seconds – and the exercise is COMPLETELY different!
For a stretch, I might just log the weight and time under tension, e.g. 75 lbs x :40., :42, :41 (sample logs for three working sets). I would only scale up in weight once every set eclipses a prescribed threshold (say, :50).
This could be an illuminating educational experience. I’d be especially interested in observing the hypertrophic response. I probably wouldn’t gain much (or any) strength, but handling the weight in that manner could definitely make someone blow up. At this point in the game, I’m way more interested in size than strength.
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Forgive me brother for interrupting your thread, but since I mentioned it here before…
We have been waiting on the last hurdle to buying our new house, the appraisal to be finalized, and I have been so COMPLETELY stressed. That’s because if it didn’t come back at at least the purchase price, we were going to be dead in the water. This seller has proven in the past that he isn’t willing to negotiate, as well he shouldn’t because he has another offer on the table already ready to go if I back out, so there would be no room for negotiation if the appraisal didn’t go our way. (And you guys have NO idea how much of a seller’s market we are in here now)
Well…the appraisal came back today and as it turns out, we will be going into the deal with almost 9K in equity right of the bat!!!
I’m so freaking stoked and as it looks at this point… I’ll be a proud new homeowner in 2 weeks!!!
Tonight is a night for CELEBRATION!!! Lol
End of interruption…
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Time for some drinks and a nice fat, juicy ribeye! Congratulations, brother – I know that must be a massive relief. You can celebrate for 2 weeks, then the moving gains begin 
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Decided to tidy up down south today and cut the boys. Ouch. Definitely one part of applying the cream that I don’t miss.
Have my follow-up appointment here momentarily – hoping to add Cytomel (T3 only) at 25 mcg, per @enackers recommendation. Was previously recommended only 10-15 mcg – we shall see what happens.
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Are you still using dr Saya?
Still with Defy, but I wanted to see someone soon to hopefully start thyroid, so I’m seeing my usual P.A.
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Cool, let us know how it goes. I am interested in trying thyroid too based on @enackers comments/results
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LMAO!!!
Some shit just doesn’t require our opinion!! LOL
Lol, definitely not, brother – but honestly, I think it’s something guys should be aware of if they start cream. It is a great therapy in terms of results (which is what matters most) but does come with some inconveniences, like shaving down there and timing up showers/sex/etc.
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It went great. I was prescribed 25 mcg Cytomel (T3 only), but the recommendation is to scale up to it (e.g., start at 10, see how I feel, move up by 5 incrementally as needed).
The goal, as I understand it (this thyroid stuff is new to me), is to get T3 to top of range and T4 under 1…but I don’t want to take so much T3 that it shuts off my body’s production of T4.
Very excited to see if optimizing thyroid increases my success with TRT.
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