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Off Season Cycle

The Grim Repper

The Grim Repper

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Hey there Freaks -
Going to start a log for an off-season mass gain cycle. I'm one for keeping things simple, smart, but effective. My original plan was a 16-20 week one, but I think that one should get the most out of the least, so the length of the cycle will likely go longer as I'll be only increasing dosages MARGINALLY when things slow, but ONLY after upping calories and making sure I'm using every damned one.

The weekly compound and dosing schedule is:

400 Test (300 enth, 100 prop - split MWF)
300 Deca (150 split Tu/Sat)
600 EQ (300 split Tu/Sat)
300 Masteron (200 enth, 100 prop - split MWF)
Total weekly load: 1.3gm

I combine long and shorter esters as this has worked well for me in getting the 'kick' from the short ones and trying to keep levels stable by splitting the long estered compounds. I don't mind the injection frequency as I'm not slamming grams and grams of gear a week. I'm looking at having a solid test base, letting the anabolics like Deca and EQ do the work for growth and using the Mast for AI qualities and to keep any potential water down. The EQ has some nice AI properties as well. I typically convert DHT more than E2, so I'm typically leaner and carry little water and/or bloat. This is based on blood work and appearance, and how I'm feeling overall.

Currently 5' 9" - 196 @ 10-11%. I've been running 125mg test every 9 days for a while now, maintaining strength and size well for a while now - about 4 months.

I don't believe in using oral compounds during this because I want my appetite to remain good and increase, not a fan of GERD, lipids shot to shit or liver values elevated. I like to save those for holding mass when dieting down and eating less. The stops come out during a prep/diet, so I don't want to overly tax my system for little results, IMO. Thinking long game.

Diet is super simple as well. Using some carb cycling reflected with my day's activity.

Carbs low on off days, medium on regular lifting days and high on heavy leg/back days. I'm on a 5 day split (3 on 1 off 2 on 1 off).
I'll be using insulin on high days and I'll explain the way to correctly use it and avoid getting fat or running into issues with insulin sensitivity as well. Part of that is the way to use insulin and what/how to eat when doing so.

I'll lay out my training and diet strategies. Once you see the logic behind it, maybe you'll want to employ some of them yourself.

Thanks for reading. Let the games begin.
 
Tyler Durden said:
Good luck brother, may you get the most out of it, I'll be following your thread. I'll especially be interested in your slin protocol. Cheers, Tyler
Click to expand...
Thanks brother. I'll be updating tonight, covering where I'm at with training split, yesterday's log and today's updates for training and stuff. I'm excited to journal this.
 
Freaks! How iz you?
So, We'll get the pharmacology out of the way first as I'd rather focus on the diet and training.

SUPER SUPPS

400 Test (300 enth, 100 prop - split MWF)
300 Deca (150 split Tu/Sat)
600 EQ (300 split Tu/Sat)
300 Masteron (200 enth, 100 prop - split MWF)
Total weekly load: 1.3gm

I'm using a test blend, 300 (150 enth/150 cyp - don't ask me why you'd blend such similar esters, but it had the mg content I needed) and 100 prop.
I'm using a 300mg Deca, 300mg EQ and 200 mast enth and 100 mast dipropionate.
M/W/F - .33 test blend, .33 mast diprop
Tu/Sat - 1.0 EQ, .5 Deca, .33 mast enth

That's it for the super supps. I plan to increase over the cycle, but ONLY when as I said, weight/conditioning stalls, strength/recovery stalls (check sleep first then diet) and then I'll add more calories and after 4 to 5 days, possibly up the doses by about .25 to .50 max. This is ESPECIALLY important. Usually, when guys start getting side effects, it's not always because they're using way too much gear. At least not in the way you'd think. If you're blasting 1.5gm test a week, you're going to get crazy sides not only because of the actual mgs, but the speed and increments in which you're upping your dose, more than likely. How many times do you go on, use a dosage, get results only to find you're soon upping the dose (doubling or more) and thinking, "I need more to keep gaining." You don't gain much, other than some oily skin, puffy nipples or shedding in the shower like you had your dog in there with you. Too much, too quickly - an almost guarantee of rapid onset sides. So, it's ALWAYS the case that it's too much. Too much for the time being and after you adjust, those sides usually start to fade as you acclimate to the dose. Increase slowly. Don't kill your cycle and health with sides which you can avoid!

DIET

My diet is a carb cycling off season diet. I'm using high carb days on heavy lifting days like legs or back, medium carb days on regular lifting days, and low carb on off days. I'll get more into the strategy I'm employing to keep me burning all my food up and I also add insulin on high days to ensure that some carbs are a guaranteed glycogen source getting stored in the muscle as fuel.

The off season macro plan is Protein – 1-1.2 gm/lb of bodyweight - this is fairly constant except on high carb days where we reel it in a little bit. Carbs, I'll have 1.75-2.0gm/lb of bodyweight on medium days, up to 3.5 gm/lb of bodyweight on high days, and 0-1gm/lb of bodyweight on low days. Fats I'll usually keep at about 0.3 per lb of bodyweight, except on low carb days, I'll add a bit more.

So for a 200 lb guy, your off season macros would look something like:

LOW:
240 P
200 C
85 F*

*This is added fats, not fats from the diet. You'll add fat to every meal on low days, about 14 gms for 6 meals.

MEDIUM:
240 P
375 C
65 F**

**Added fats only to the 4 meals outside of your pre and post workout meals - no added fats there.

HIGH:
200 P
700 C
0 added fat***

*** Some fats will be in your protein (meat) sources. Go for the lowest fat proteins on high days, whitefish (cod, tilapia, haddock), 96% lean beef, 99% ground turkey, chicken breast, egg whites.

The above should serve as a starting point. Your mileage may vary. You can't handle carbs well, you bloat, hold water, feel sluggish, so maybe a low day for you is 0 carbs and by that, I mean only veggies. Cruciferous veggies like broccoli and cauliflower are great because they're loaded with fiber, keep you fuller and are somewhat of a free food, but they're not totally, so a cup or so of veggies with a meal should work, so you can curtail any fat gain during the off-season (I won't say bulk, you can't make me. Wait, um oops!) by going low/zero on low days if you're prone to carrying extra fat or gain it easily.

Next up: Training split and how meals are structured on training days.
 
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TRAINING SPLIT

I'm currently following a 5 day split. 3 on one off - 2 on, one off.
I personally follow a M-F off schedule so, my training generally falls as follows:

M: Off
T: Legs - Ham dominant, Quads, Calves, Abs
W. Chest/Biceps/Side Delts
Th: Back/Calves/Abs
Fri: Off
Sat: Legs - Quad Dominant/Hams/Calves/Abs
Sun: Delts/Tris/Chest

So, my diet (kCal - carb cycling) follows suit:

M. Low
T. Med
W. Med
Thu: Med
Fri: Low
Sat: High
Sun: Med

My goal is to have eventually - three high days - provided the training, eating and gains are going well.
 
Hey freaks. Time to really get this log going. I usually take Mondays off and RARELY have a dedicated arm day. But last night, low carb day, decided why not?...

My training has changed over time (like most of yours has I'm sure. There is a BIG emphasis on control. Most reps are a 3-1-1-1 tempo. 3 second negative, 1 second on the stretch, concentric and contraction. I also make sure to "fight" every negative, flexing the muscle as I lower then stretch it. I squeeze the living shit out of every contraction. Every one. This takes practice to not lose concentration, but it will give you a sick pump and it'll fuck your shit up.

Last night"s routine:

CABLE ROPE TRICEP PUSHDOWN 1x20 WARM UP THEN
WORKING: 3x15-20

SEATED STRETCH BICEP CURL MACHINE OR SEATED DB CURLS - POSTURE ALMOST COMPLETELY VERTICAL - CHEST HIGH)
3x15-20 DROP X 1 x 15-20 LAST SET

EZ BAR SKULL CRUSHERS 3x10-12

STANDING EZ BAR BICEP CURLS TO FOREHEAD
3x10-15 + 3-5 PARTIALS @ BOTTOM LAST SET

TRICEP CABLE PUSHDOWN (WIDE BAR) 3x15-20 DROP X 1 LAST SET 15-F

EZ CABLE CURL TO FOREHEAD
3x15-20 REST PAUSE LAST SET MUST GET 20 REPS.

REST BETWEEN SETS IS 2-2:30 AS HIGH AS 3:00 - GET THOSE REPS!!
 
Today is a high day. Lots of clean food and carbs especially. Fat's kept very low - no added fats, lean proteins only, and those come down slightly on high days slightly. I only count complete proteins, so the calories and macros get skewed, but this cycling approach keeps me strong and full. Tonight is

HAM DOMINANT/ QUADS/ CALVES.

I'm using insulin on meals 1, 3 and 5.
I'll post my full routine and diet tomorrow as well as the way I use insulin on high days. Stay tuned Freaks!!
 
Happy May Day, Freak Fam!

So, last night's leg session was intense. The rest periods of 2-3 minutes on some exercises were appreciated by the wheels and lungs.

LEG EXTENSIONS
3X15-20

LEG PRESS - LEGS LOW, KNEES WIDE.
3X10-12 DROP X 1 10-F

SEATED LEG CURLS
2X12-15 RP SECOND SET TO 20 REPS

LINEAR HACK PRESS
3X12-15 RP THIRD SET TO 15

SMITH MACHINE STIFF LEGGED DEADLIFTS
2X10-12

DB BULGARIAN SPLIT SQUATS
2X12-15

ADDUCTOR (GOOD GIRLS) MACHINE
2X15-20

STANDING CALF RAISES*
1X20 WARMUP
3X20

*30 SECOND RESTS BETWEEN SETS

This was supposed to be HAM dominant, but I decided to mix things up a bit and hammer quads more. Hams weren't done like a bitch, but the emphasis was on crushing the quads. It worked. LOL

So, since yesterday was a high day, I did a very good amount of carbohydrates and used insulin on meals 1, 3, and 5 (preworkout).

Here's the breakdown of the meals:

Meals 1-6 around 35 grams of protein - backed off a little since calories were higher from carb sources. Now, that works out to about 210 grams of protein. But that's COMPLETE proteins, so, of course total proteins will be higher as some come from the carb sources, albeit in low amounts. NO added fats to the meals on a day like today, only what's found in the protein. Fat sources like avocado and nut butters are not used. This landed me at around 50 gms of fat total.

Carbs were 100 for meals 1-4 and 125 for pre and postworkout meals. I use an intra workout containing 20 grams of EAAs and 50 grams of dextrose. 700 carbs total for the day.

Also, that's a SHIT TON of food to eat, so I allow myself some of that to come from simple (FAT FREE) easy and fun to eat carb sources. Sour patch kids, Swedish fish, fruit juice, pie filling (made with dextrose is the best, the high-fructose corn syrup is not really optimal), jellies and other stuff - as long as it's fat free. Candy is king! . Hell, I put 35 gm of Smucker's butterscotch sundae sauce in my cream of rice. Another 30 grams of carbs right there and it tastes frigging amazing. 😋

INSULIN: The way I use insulin is the way that seems to make the most sense when compared to "traditional" ways people tend to use it. This mistake most make is why many say, "insulin just made me get fat." No, insulin didn't make you fat, the excess calories did. See, many people think "Well, I'm going to use 10iu of insulin, so I need about 100 grams of carbs to cover it." Backwards. You don't change the diet to match the insulin intake - you tailor the insulin intake to the diet you have.

If you take 10 ius of insulin, then take in 100 carbs and don't need that many, then you're going to store lots of that as fat. You're eating too many calories and thinking the 'magic' of insulin is going to fix that. Wrong. You keep with the diet you have and you then add insulin conservatively to that amount - starting at about half of what you'd use if you were going 10 carbs for every iu of insulin. In other words, if your diet has you eating 50 carbs at meal one, you should use .5iu / gram of carbohydrates to about 2.5 iu of insulin to assist your body in ensuring a better assimilation of carbohydrates into muscle glycogen, not the other way around. Then, if you don't go hypo, raise it to about another iu or so with the meal three 50 carbs. No hypo? Up to another 1iu at the fifth meal of the day's 50 carbs. So, let's say at this point, you are at 4.5 iu and you go hypo. So, now, you know that the 3.5iu from meal 3 earlier is YOUR sweet spot. I'll say it again, you don't change the diet so you can take more insulin, you take what you need for your existing diet. This is only done on high days on half the meals.

I hope that makes sense. See, over time, you're going to become leaner and leaner LONG GAME because you're ensuring that your existing diet is being optimized. That's all insulin should be doing. Be smart, get results, leaner over time, repeat.
 
SF!!
Having my last meal of the day on a high carb day, second for the week. I'll catch you up on yesterday's diet, training split and today's as well. Tonight was back and it was what I like to call a "rockstar" workout. Nasty pump, weights were moving nicely, contractions were spot on and injuries that had nagged me for some time are fading away like a fart in the wind! Train hard, eat big, sleep BIGGER and grow. But most of all, enjoy every set, rep and second of your journey. Believe brothers. You got this.
Grim
 
Freak Factor Full speed...
Been lazy documenting but I'll catch up tomorrow. Had someone ask me today if I was a competitor. Mind you, I train completely covered, so that just made me train even harder. It's on.
Stay strong freaks!
 
Ok, so Bill Shakespeare here hasn't been keeping up with his logging. No excuses (sorry, been too busy bulking, I can't get to the laptop, too busy with the many women waiting at my home for me to feel my bare, muscled, chisled frame, etc. LOL). So, joking aside, I'm doing a FULL update from the past week, my training, slight setbacks, mindset, calorie adjustments and my DETAILED INSULIN PRE-WORKOUT PROTOCOL. This shit is 🔥🔥🔥
 
SEE GRIM WRITE

What's up my Freaky Fam,

I wanted to TRY to catch up on this log. So, I'm going to start by saying that I almost didn't want to jinx this by reporting back that everything was going very well and more than that, I was having a frigging blast! I feel like I'm starting to lift all over again, but every workout! It's weird, but I'm not questioning it.

Anyway, last Thursday's back workout was epic. I was totally switched on and focused. I was not holding back before this, but I wanted to press the pedal down a bit more this time around. So, I kept my controlled, paused eccentrics, but HEAVED that shit - tried to rip lats off the bone kind of contraction. No frigging games. SO, I'm chalking this up to two things. I've recently implemented insulin on all training days, pre workout, regardless of high carbs or not. Remember, I'm adjusting my insulin to my existing diet. See where my rant from before is starting to make sense now? LOL

Secondly, I'm pushing the pedal down on food as well. High days had me at around 4,200 kCal. Lately, I've been having nearly 4,800 kCal on training days of any type, but with more fats and protein for energy/calories than my max high carb days. A 1,200 kCal post workout feeding is definitely going down tonight after my session. The thing is, I'm looking much fuller and leaner/tighter. More on that to come. ;-)

So, here's Thursday's beast of a workout. 2-3 minutes rest on most exercises.

Assisted Chins - 2-3x12-15. Increase difficulty with each set. Slow negatives with deliberate 1 second TIGHT pause at bottom
Hammer Strength One Arm Rows - 2x12,2x12 high grip 2x10-12 low grip - the lower grip is more difficult, so lower reps are ok
One Arm Pulldowns - 2x12-15
T-Bar Rows - 3x10-12 Drop x 2F
Seated Wide Grip Straight Bar Rows 2x12 (minimal lean forward/backward) ALL upper back, rear delts
One Arm DB Rows - 2x10-12

Next up: The Leg Routine that Ended It All.



Freaks — it ain't for the weak!
 
The Grim Repper said:
Ok, so Bill Shakespeare here hasn't been keeping up with his logging. No excuses (sorry, been too busy bulking, I can't get to the laptop, too busy with the many women waiting at my home for me to feel my bare, muscled, chisled frame, etc. LOL). So, joking aside, I'm doing a FULL update from the past week, my training, slight setbacks, mindset, calorie adjustments and my DETAILED INSULIN PRE-WORKOUT PROTOCOL. This shit is 🔥🔥🔥
Click to expand...
Lol slacker :ROFLMAO:
 
The Grim Repper said:
Ok, my DETAILED INSULIN PRE-WORKOUT PROTOCOL. This shit is 🔥🔥🔥
Click to expand...
GR, I hope you don't mind me reposting your Slin protocol. It's the gospel of proper Slin usage. A lot of Bro's who may think more is better can greatly benefit from your well explained proper use protocol for Insulin:

INSULIN: The way I use insulin is the way that seems to make the most sense when compared to "traditional" ways people tend to use it. This mistake most make is why many say, "insulin just made me get fat." No, insulin didn't make you fat, the excess calories did. See, many people think "Well, I'm going to use 10iu of insulin, so I need about 100 grams of carbs to cover it." Backwards. You don't change the diet to match the insulin intake - you tailor the insulin intake to the diet you have.

If you take 10 ius of insulin, then take in 100 carbs and don't need that many, then you're going to store lots of that as fat. You're eating too many calories and thinking the 'magic' of insulin is going to fix that. Wrong. You keep with the diet you have and you then add insulin conservatively to that amount - starting at about half of what you'd use if you were going 10 carbs for every iu of insulin. In other words, if your diet has you eating 50 carbs at meal one, you should use .5iu / gram of carbohydrates to about 2.5 iu of insulin to assist your body in ensuring a better assimilation of carbohydrates into muscle glycogen, not the other way around. Then, if you don't go hypo, raise it to about another iu or so with the meal three 50 carbs. No hypo? Up to another 1iu at the fifth meal of the day's 50 carbs. So, let's say at this point, you are at 4.5 iu and you go hypo. So, now, you know that the 3.5iu from meal 3 earlier is YOUR sweet spot. I'll say it again, you don't change the diet so you can take more insulin, you take what you need for your existing diet. This is only done on high days on half the meals.

I hope that makes sense. See, over time, you're going to become leaner and leaner LONG GAME because you're ensuring that your existing diet is being optimized. That's all insulin should be doing. Be smart, get results, leaner over time, repeat.

This statement has true merit to becoming a sticky
💪😉👍
 
Tyler Durden said:
GR, I hope you don't mind me reposting your Slin protocol. It's the gospel of proper Slin usage. A lot of Bro's who may think more is better can greatly benefit from your well explained proper use protocol for Insulin:

INSULIN: You don't change the diet to match the insulin intake - you tailor the insulin intake to the diet you have.

This statement has true merit to becoming a sticky
💪😉👍
Click to expand...

I really don't mind at all. Its really nothing new., but it's new to many, which kinda sucks because that means a lot of people are doing dangerous stuff with long term consequences potentially, and they're listening to a lot of just bro stuff. Guys like Justin Harris have been preaching this stuff for a while.
 
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