Training and diet check before starting my first steroid cycle

[PaulyP]

Ok guys this week i will probably get my hormonal blood work plus my gears. I will post how i intend to run the cycle after i will get my blood work so we will be able to adjust it together. In the mean time i will post my diet together with my usual training so you guys can give me some advices, the goal is a lean bulk.
These are my stats: 5'8" weighting around 175lbs at 10% bf, i am 30 years old and i workout since i was 21 with a bit of break in my mid 20s.
This is my diet:

08:00am

-30gr. whey isolate+50gr. instant oats+banana+1 full scoop of peanut butter+250ml of almond milk all in one shake.

12:00pm

200gr. of rice or pasta;
200gr. of turkey or veal or salmon;
100gr. spinach together with lettuce;
small piece of cheese.

03:00pm
100gr. tuna;
80gr. raw ham with a small brown breadroll.

06:00pm
200gr. of veal or chicken breast or fish;
100gr. spianches or lettuce(in workout days i add some mushed potatoes aswell)

09:00pm
30gr. whey protein with 200ml almond milk.


Lets go with training now:

Mondayush

Bench press 3x6-8-10 2'
Incline barbell or db press 3x8-10 90"
Db flies or machine flies 3x10-12 1'
DB or machine shoulder press 3x8-10-12 90"
side laterals 3x10-12 1'
Cable push-down 3x15-20 1'
Ez bar french-press 3x8-10-12 90"

Wensday: Legs

Leg extensions 3x12-15 1'
Squat or hack squat 4x15-12-10-8 2'
Leg-press 4x8-10 90"
Leg curl or seated leg curl 4x8-10 90"
Standing or seated calf raises (moderate light weight the goal is to reach 100 reps in less sets possible, when it takes me less than 4 sets i add more weight)
Various crunch variations in a circuit

Friday: Pull

Front lat pull-downs or chin ups 4x12-10-8-6 if i do chin ups i do 4 sets to failure 2'
Machine row 4x8-10 90"
One arm db row 3x10-12 1'
Db or barbell shrugs 3x12-15 1'
Ez barbell curl 3x8-10-12 90"
Preacher curl machine 3x-10-12 1'


So this is basicly my diet and workout. What you guys think?

 

[RickRock]

Diet could use a little tweaking. Lettuce is basically worthless unless it's romaine, and even then there are better options. Id like to see different green veggie sources.

Also I'd avoid too much pasta. Once in a while is one thing but try to get more complex carb sources like sweet potatoes,oats, and rice.

Chicken breast and other lean meats are going to be better than ham, and salmon is ok, but more white fish would be better but I wouldn't have more than one serving of fish per day regardless.

 

[PaulyP]

Ok rick thanks for the advices. I will always have rice for lunch and i will get pasta just on sundays for cheatmeal. When i say lettuce i mean a mix green salad sorry i had to be more precise. I have just one serving of fish a day. Also as supplement i am using also 1gr. Of vitaminc plus vitamin d before breakfast and 5gr. Of creatine monohydrate a day plus 3gr. Of fish oil per day. What do you think about training i was told at the gym that i could workout more days since some people had the gym said that ob gear i will have much more energy and i could workout 5 days a week instead of 3 doing the classic bro split where you train a single body part each day

 

[Carmel cowboy]

Do you plan to make any changes to your workout? What I mean by changes is planned progression over time.

 

[PaulyP]

Well the progression should come by itself is gonna be a low dose cycle probably 300mg a week of test cyp but considered is my first one strenght should increase quite a bit too so i am not gonna go any lower than 6 reps and risking a injury.

 

[RickRock]

Well the progression should come by itself is gonna be a low dose cycle probably 300mg a week of test cyp but considered is my first one strenght should increase quite a bit too so i am not gonna go any lower than 6 reps and risking a injury.

You always want to implement progressive overload, regardless of your training style....so you should always be trying to best your previous numbers going to near failure by being able to do more reps or adding more weight

Sent from my SM-G928V using Tapatalk

 

[Carmel cowboy]

Well the progression should come by itself is gonna be a low dose cycle probably 300mg a week of test cyp but considered is my first one strenght should increase quite a bit too so i am not gonna go any lower than 6 reps and risking a injury.

Good idea with not risking injury. Here is my opinion, I like to use science to guide my individual respone. after a meta-analysis conducted by Dr. Brad Schoenfield one of the most important aspects of a training program is volume. Volume is weight x reps x sets and increasing either one in a systematic way will induce hypertrophy or increase in lean muscle. The reason I was asking about your plan of progression is because your volume per body part is very low. For example for chest you are doing 9sets total, back 11 sets, quads 15 sets, hamstrings 4 sets, shoulders 6 sets, tricep 6 sets, biceps 6 sets. I would recommend thinking about making some sort of progression!

 

[PaulyP]

Thats what i meant rick i will try every time to add more weight. But let say if for example on bench press i get 6 reps one week with 225lbs next week i dont add weight instead i try to get to 7 reps or 8 once i can do 8 reps i will add 5 pounds

 

[RickRock]

Thats what i meant rick i will try every time to add more weight. But let say if for example on bench press i get 6 reps one week with 225lbs next week i dont add weight instead i try to get to 7 reps or 8 once i can do 8 reps i will add 5 pounds

Yes bro, exactly....thats a very good representation of how progressive overload works. I personally track my workouts so I know exactly what my previous numbers were to try and best them

 

[PaulyP]

Good idea with not risking injury. Here is my opinion, I like to use science to guide my individual respone. after a meta-analysis conducted by Dr. Brad Schoenfield one of the most important aspects of a training program is volume. Volume is weight x reps x sets and increasing either one in a systematic way will induce hypertrophy or increase in lean muscle. The reason I was asking about your plan of progression is because your volume per body part is very low. For example for chest you are doing 9sets total, back 11 sets, quads 15 sets, hamstrings 4 sets, shoulders 6 sets, tricep 6 sets, biceps 6 sets. I would recommend thinking about making some sort of progression!

Yes i see what u mean but i also find out for myself in past years that i grow more with low volume and high intensity than high volume and low intensity. But the workout above is just a general idea obviously i will consider how the cycle goes and if i see i can handle more volume by not losing intensity i wil add some more volume

 

[PaulyP]

Yes bro, exactly....thats a very good representation of how progressive overload works. I personally track my workouts so I know exactly what my previous numbers were to try and best them

I do that too rick. I signed them on paper and once i cannot add any weight or reps during a week i deload or rest for a week and then next week i start again and i change the routine

 

[RickRock]

Yes i see what u mean but i also find out for myself in past years that i grow more with low volume and high intensity than high volume and low intensity. But the workout above is just a general idea obviously i will consider how the cycle goes and if i see i can handle more volume by not losing intensity i wil add some more volume

Nothing wrong with that plan at all bro if that's what works for you. Higher volume doesn't work worth a fuck for me. I've always been a hyper responder to high intensity low volume workouts. I get very strong and big as fuck, so it blows volume out of the water....at least for me. Everyone is different, but I train like an animal so thetes no way I could do high volume with the way I train. 45 minute workouts and I'm done

 

[RickRock]

I do that too rick. I signed them on paper and once i cannot add any weight or reps during a week i deload or rest for a week and then next week i start again and i change the routine

Great plan bro. That's exactly how you do it.

 

[PaulyP]

Nothing wrong with that plan at all bro if that's what works for you. Higher volume doesn't work worth a fuck for me. I've always been a hyper responder to high intensity low volume workouts. I get very strong and big as fuck, so it blows volume out of the water....at least for me. Everyone is different, but I train like an animal so thetes no way I could do high volume with the way I train. 45 minute workouts and I'm done

I saw your workouts on your log you train with even lower volume than me almost dorian yates style but i am sure like him you throw blood and guts in the gym. I will probably train 5 times a week training each bodypart by itself so every workout will last 40 minutes included workout. I trained like this 3 years ago when i was working at disney and i had good results. The gym was 20 meters from my apartment lol

 

[RickRock]

I saw your workouts on your log you train with even lower volume than me almost dorian yates style but i am sure like him you throw blood and guts in the gym. I will probably train 5 times a week training each bodypart by itself so every workout will last 40 minutes included workout. I trained like this 3 years ago when i was working at disney and i had good results. The gym was 20 meters from my apartment lol

Absolutely bro. A lot of my influence comes from Dorian Yates, and especially DC training...which I'm a very big advocate of

 

[Carmel cowboy]

Yes i see what u mean but i also find out for myself in past years that i grow more with low volume and high intensity than high volume and low intensity. But the workout above is just a general idea obviously i will consider how the cycle goes and if i see i can handle more volume by not losing intensity i wil add some more volume

I was asking about your progression and it sounds like you have a good plan. Remember if you increase or progress one of those, weight x reps x sets, then your volume increases!! I to respond better to increases in weight but will also increase sets and reps at different times to stimulate slow twitch and fast twitch muscle fibers! Everybody is different in what progression works the best for them but everyobody needs to have some plan of progression and that's all I was making sure you had. I was going to mention frequency but I will leave that alone.

 

[ironlifter36]

Only thing I would add is some direct rear delt work. Unless you are one of the few that has naturally well developed rear delts.

 

[RickRock]

I was asking about your progression and it sounds like you have a good plan. Remember if you increase or progress one of those, weight x reps x sets, then your volume increases!! I to respond better to increases in weight but will also increase sets and reps at different times to stimulate slow twitch and fast twitch muscle fibers! Everybody is different in what progression works the best for them but everyobody needs to have some plan of progression and that's all I was making sure you had. I was going to mention frequency but I will leave that alone.

I left frequency alone too, but I think most people understand how frequency and volume are relative to one another that need balanced. As one is raised the other must be lowered. You can't have high volume AND high frequency and expect to recover and make progress

 

[Carmel cowboy]

I left frequency alone too, but I think most people understand how frequency and volume are relative to one another that need balanced. As one is raised the other must be lowered. You can't have high volume AND high frequency and expect to recover and make progress

I agree and disagree Rick. I agree that you can't have high intensity high volume and high frequency. I kinda of disagree in that over the block of time selected the progression should be that your working towards peaking. What I mean by peaking is that at some point towards the mesocycle your progression should come to an apex of high intensity of the max weight you can use for a predetermined rep range for the max number of sets!! This time frame is not very long and is often referred to as overreaching. I agree that you can't start out with high intensity with a lot of sets and a lot of frequency. It should be gradually brought up over a period of time. I know what you mean by most people may know that as intensity goes up volume goes down but a lot of people don't not know how to apply that to a workout program to get optimal results. Although training is very specific to the individual there are principles that can guide you and what you respond better to as to get the optimum results. You obviously know these principles and how to apply them to yourself but I am not convinced that most others do.

 

[PaulyP]

Only thing I would add is some direct rear delt work. Unless you are one of the few that has naturally well developed rear delts.

I do have naturally good rear delts but as you said i might add some specific work for them depending how i feel