The answer to this question has eluded me for many years, and so I will poll the T-Men out there: In your experience, what factors contribute the most to increasing vascularity? I know that many will say it is genetic, and I completely agree (I work in the field of genetic engineering). But aside from what you’re born with, what REALLY works for increasing vascularity? First I thought it might be bodyfat levels; yes, I’ve seen more vascularity at around 7% BF than I did at 11%, but the difference wasn’t that huge. Recently, I started hitting my calves really hard…I tried the Luke Sauder routine (Poliquin, I think) for a few weeks, and then the King method of bodyweight-only raises, hopping, balancing, and generally looking like a madman-type routine. My calf size has noticeably increased, but the interesting thing is that without a change in diet or bodyfat %, I’m seeing new vascularity through my calves! So maybe it’s overall volume? Hatfield wrote in one of his books that if you do a few super-high rep sets at the end of your workouts, you could increase vascularity because the blood flow demand by the muscle would cause new capillarys to form, which are very small themselves but somehow would lead to increased vascularity. I thought he was full of shit, but maybe not. Anyway, I’m sure it’s a combination of factors, but what have you guys discovered…especially anyone who has gone from being not very vascular to having those rope-like veins everywhere? One more interesting thing is that of all factors, a cycle of nandrosol probably had the most effect for me on increasing vascularity, but it went away once I cycled off. For the steroid gurus, what is going on physiologically when things like equipose and Deca start causing such a huge increase in vascularity…I mean, I’ve seen fat juicers with crazy vascularity…which suggests that the gear is much more of a factor than bodyfat levels.
When I went on the anabolic diet I got extremely vascular. It wasn’t because of the weight loss, it was because of the increased T. Hence why fat juicers are vascular. Also I good pump will always get me nice and vascular.
Matt, which calf program do you think gave you better results? Poliquins or Kings? I’m interested in trying one and can’t decide which one to start with. Thanks