Home gym chronicles, part 1; the great bulk

[BendtheBar]

Hang tough hombre. Eat some extra food for me, and keep up your strength.

[Soldier]

Thanks man. Things are so crazy.

I've been offered the chance to get a big civilian certification for free through the Army, a cisqo ccna, which would be nice to have once I get out of the Army. But I have to take 20 something online classes as prereqs, and I have to do 14 of them in the next 2 weeks. On top of that I have to try to train for the PT test, and I'm also helping my wife get some lifting articles together for her blog.

Also, I started PCT today. I know, I was going to bridge to another PH cycle, but last night my joints started hurting so bad that I couldn't sleep. It came out of nowhere, basically. My joints were just a little dry for a couple weeks, as expected, then 2 days ago all hell broke loose. My shins started hurting, then my ankles, then everything else. My PCT was ready to go before I even started the cycle (as it should always be), so it was really no issue. I'm doing this;

Morning-
Tamox (Nolva)- 20mg
Titanium (test booster)- 1 cap

Evening-
Tamox- 20mg
titanuim- 1 caps
ZMA- 2 caps

Next week I'll start to bring in my AI, Erase. I'll fade in the Erase as my tamox dosage fades down over the next 4 weeks, then fade Erase back down over the weeks after that.

So now I have a whole new thing to think about. I can't cut while I'm on PCT or I'll definitely strength and muscle, which means I need to go to maintenance, which means that when I go into the PT test I'll still be over 230lb. That kind of bodyweight makes pushups, situps, and running that much tougher.

I'm sorry, I know I'm long winded, and I know that BTB is probably the only person reading this, but I just need a sounding board. I'm stressed the f*** out. It's not a good time to have low test and high E levels, but I'm going to get through it. If I can't get the PT score I need now, I'll get it in another couple months, and I still have a cycle of Hdrol and Pro-tren to look forward to. That should get me nice and cut up, ready to go jump out of some helicopters. High speed, low drag, hooah.

[BendtheBar]

Have you ever run Hdrol before?

High speed, low drag, hua.

[Soldier]

No. I'm just going to run it as a companion to the tren. I've never run a PH stack before, so it'll be a fun experiment, and Hdrol isn't nearly as harsh as Sdrol from what I've read. It should be a very good cutting stack, but for now my goal is to recover from what I consider a succesful Sdrol run.

Spent all day at the automatic rifle range shooting machine guns, which would be great if it wasn't with the Army, who are experts at sucking the fun out of everything. It also meant that I had to wait until after I got off work to do even more work on my online classes. No training today, but I'm doing a ruck march in the morning.

For now, that is all.

[Soldier]

SO, I got a good night's sleep last night, and my mood has improved dramatically. I feel much better today. I should be fine with these classes I'm taking, and so far PCT is going extremely well. I'm not shut down at all. 3 days now with no Sdrol. I never had any issues with my nipples while on, or anything else other than back pumps and joint pain, both of which have completely disappeared now that I'm off. My sex drive was up through my cycle, and is still at normal levels now, which is funny because I read that your sex drive should actually go down while your on.

Oh, and my testicles haven't shrunk at all, which is awesome and evidently an exception to what normally takes place with a cycle of Sdrol at doses like 30mg a day, which is what I took.

And to top it all off, I reached my final goal! 365 squat, 3 plates and a quarter per side. That takes me to a 3 lift total of 1135, which surpasses my total goal by 35lb.

So here's the final tally for my Sdrol cycle-
Bench went from 285 to 315 and 275x5
Squat went from 335 to 365 and 315x3
Deadlift went from 405 with a failure at 425 just before the cycle to 455 with more left in the tank.

I'm going to try to hit up the crossfit gym this week. They have chalk there, and bounce plates. I'm going to see if I can get 475 on deadlift, and maybe even more.

I did a ruck march this morning with about 35-40lb in the ruck. I only did a couple miles, but I ran the second mile, which was my first time running in full uniform with boots and a loaded ruck. My calves and thighs started burning really quickly, and it was definitely a workout. I'll be doing this more, trying to bring up my ruck time to get ready for Air assault, which culminates with a 12 mile ruck that must be completed in 3 hours. 3 hours running in combat boots with a 35lb ruck on your back? Meh, no big deal.

[BendtheBar]

Originally Posted by Soldier

And to top it all off, I reached my final goal! 365 squat, 3 plates and a quarter per side. That takes me to a 3 lift total of 1135, which surpasses my total goal by 35lb.

So here's the final tally for my Sdrol cycle-
Bench went from 285 to 315 and 275x5
Squat went from 335 to 365 and 315x3
Deadlift went from 405 with a failure at 425 just before the cycle to 455 with more left in the tank.

I'm going to try to hit up the crossfit gym this week. They have chalk there, and bounce plates. I'm going to see if I can get 475 on deadlift, and maybe even more.

Smash the deads. That ruck work would kill my lower back. Christ I am old.

That's damn good progress for a cycle like that. Well done.

[Soldier]

Just got in a quick saturday overhead press session, with a little chest and arms for fun.

Overhead press-
45x8
95x8
115x5
135x3
135x3
155x3
155x3
135x7

Extended ROM close grip pushups-
BWx10
BWx10
BWx10

My shoulders still aren't a fan of overhead presses. I warmed up for a really long time, but I just couldn't make them not hurt. I had the strength to move more weight, but 155 is as heavy as I'll be able to go for now. Hopefully I'll get stronger and get more of a feel for the movement. I wish I had dumbells, because I love heavy dumbell overhead presses.

Anyways, I felt my shoulders working hard, so that's good.

I did the pushups by placing my safety rails a little over a foot apart, then putting my feet on my bench. I kept my arms tight to my sides and allowed my chest to sink between the rails for a huge ROM. I also made sure to lock out each rep to hit my triceps too. The pump in the outside of my chest was huge, and I'll be using these a lot in the future.

[BendtheBar]

Keep killing it.

[Soldier]

Hell yeah.

I needed some cardio in my life today, so I took my sled and a few plates down to the local park and pulled some weight around for a while.

I started with 1 plate, sprinted about 50 yards out and back, then 2 plates, then 3 plates, then 4, with each subsequent sprint being a little shorter than the last. I finished by putting a 25 on top of the 4 plates and gave it a good pull. I could only get it about 35 yards.

Then I went down to 2 plates and did a quick 50-60 yard sprint. Then I waited for a couple minutes, sprinted back, and called it a day. The part of my quads right above the knee was on fire after all this, especially considering that I maxed on squats just yesterday. This was a good session, and I'm going to need to do many more like it to get my run up and get ready for some intense ruck running.

[Soldier]

He said "You've gotta be HUNGRY, gotta be HUNGRY!"

I said "What does that mean?"

He said "People who are HUNGRY are willing to do the things today that others won't do to have the things tomorrow that others won't have."