Cut Time - Team Stacking Plates W/ ChestRockwell

[Marcus]

Okay, update time.

As of yesterday, the cut has been abruptly stopped. I found out I have to go in for an unexpected surgery on friday morning, so Chest and I both concluded this would be a good time to drop everything and run a "cruise" for the next 6, or so, weeks.

Overall, I'm very pleased with the work we did. Significantly leaner, while retaining almost all strength. The amount I learned was worth the cost of admission tenfold. I will never neglect tracking electrolytes, I cannot overstate their importance. Also, I learned that you can have an effective cut without the usage of trenbolone.

We'll be keeping daily macros at a "maintenance" level, to avoid putting on TOO much soft weight before the mass gaining phase. This game is about adaptation.... And, while I wasn't ready to cut this cycle short, it's the right call.

I'm realizing now this log was underutilized and was lacking in a lot of the details I would've liked to have shared, so I will start logging more in-depth this cruise period.

Here was yesterday's workout, for those who like trying new shit:

Flat Barbell Press

- Work up to 8 rep max, 4 sets of 8 or to failure

Seated DB press

- Work up to 8 rep max, 4 sets to failure after 8 rep max is found

Dips

- Bodyweight dips/assisted, should hit at least 20 reps per set. 4 sets to failure.

Cable Flys

- Work to 10 rep max, 4 sets to absolute failure

V bar tricep pushdowns

- Work up to 10 rep max, 1 second iso hold and 3 second negative on each rep, 4 sets

Flat DB CEP Press (look up "Ben Pakulski CEP training" to learn more about)

- Work up to 8 rep max. Do 1 set of 8, weighted stretch for 40 seconds… Drop weight by 20% do 8-10 reps (failure) and another 40 second eccentric stretch….Drop weight by 20% again and go to failure, 40 second eccentric stretch followed by 1 rep as slow and controlled concentric and eccentric possible.


DB side raises

- 4 sets of 8/failure

Cable front raises

- 4 sets of 8/failure

Great following along here WP. Congrats on the progress and I hope the surgery isn't anything too serious. Cheers to a speedy recovery my man!

 

[Mr.B66]

Very interesting stuff here Wunder. You have really peaked my interest with the electrolyte talk, could you give an example of your timing of electrolyte intake and of course what your using ?
Wunder on cruise (trt) dose [emoji15] never thought I'd see the day. I been cruising for a long while now, was planning on cruising for 2-3 months but much to my surprise im having great results on cruise and cant really justify blasting rt now. The JM training really opened my eyes to the fact that training intensity and of course diet, are far more important than just adding more drugs while training remains the same. My future blasts will be under a gram, prob more like 500Test and maybe 300 deca. Although ive been kicking around the idea of using primo for the first time ever.
Nice to see updates in this log. Good luck on a speedy recovery from the penis enlargement surgury... Oh wait!!!!! Was that a secret [emoji15]

 

[Wunderpus]

Very interesting stuff here Wunder. You have really peaked my interest with the electrolyte talk, could you give an example of your timing of electrolyte intake and of course what your using ?
Wunder on cruise (trt) dose [emoji15] never thought I'd see the day. I been cruising for a long while now, was planning on cruising for 2-3 months but much to my surprise im having great results on cruise and cant really justify blasting rt now. The JM training really opened my eyes to the fact that training intensity and of course diet, are far more important than just adding more drugs while training remains the same. My future blasts will be under a gram, prob more like 500Test and maybe 300 deca. Although ive been kicking around the idea of using primo for the first time ever.
Nice to see updates in this log. Good luck on a speedy recovery from the penis enlargement surgury... Oh wait!!!!! Was that a secret [emoji15]

Thanks for the kind words about my penis, I have a good feeling this surgery will be a success.

As far as electrolytes, I would say we stay around 6000mg's of potassium and 4500mg's of sodium a day. Basically, I buy Morton's Salt Substitute and spinkle 1/2 TBSP in my gallon of Crystal Light for the day.... The other 1/2 TBSP I sprinkle on my meals and in my intra workout drink. This gives me a good trickle of potassium throughout the day. Give it a go.... I can't believe the fullness and energy it gives me in the gym. Also, encourages you to stay hydrated if it's in your beverages... Tastes good, kind of like Gatorade when mixed with the Crystal Light.

The other take away from this run was intra workout nutrition. I always sort of did it, kind of incidentally with insulin usage... Never really noticed it's importance until lately. Studies have shown intra carbs (good carbs, not crap like waxy maize) + EAAs (not BCAAS, save your money) as well as citrulline malate intra workout reduces cortisol levels dramatically and promotes muscle protein synthesis, while negating a bunch of muscle protein breakdown. Or, add muscle without tearing current muscle down (more or less).

 

[Mr.B66]

Thanks for the kind words about my penis, I have a good feeling this surgery will be a success.

As far as electrolytes, I would say we stay around 6000mg's of potassium and 4500mg's of sodium a day. Basically, I buy Morton's Salt Substitute and spinkle 1/2 TBSP in my gallon of Crystal Light for the day.... The other 1/2 TBSP I sprinkle on my meals and in my intra workout drink. This gives me a good trickle of potassium throughout the day. Give it a go.... I can't believe the fullness and energy it gives me in the gym. Also, encourages you to stay hydrated if it's in your beverages... Tastes good, kind of like Gatorade when mixed with the Crystal Light.

The other take away from this run was intra workout nutrition. I always sort of did it, kind of incidentally with insulin usage... Never really noticed it's importance until lately. Studies have shown intra carbs (good carbs, not crap like waxy maize) + EAAs (not BCAAS, save your money) as well as citrulline malate intra workout reduces cortisol levels dramatically and promotes muscle protein synthesis, while negating a bunch of muscle protein breakdown. Or, add muscle without tearing current muscle down (more or less).

Great info !!!! Thanks again Wunder [emoji4]

 

[ChestRockwell]

Great info !!!!

I also wanted to briefly jump in and say that electrolyte intake tends to differ from person to person, and can change based upon the type of compounds they are running as well.

Just some key relationships to remember though sodium and potassium have a very close relationship with one another as do calcium and magnesium. And all of them work together in concert to regulate many processes within the body.

As @Wunderpus has already mentioned, you really don't realize how much you are sacrificing until you actually begin tracking and modifying your intake levels. For some it can be modest, but for a lot of others it can be truly eye opening.

 

[gr8whitetrukker]

As far as electrolytes, I would say we stay around 6000mg's of potassium and 4500mg's of sodium a day. Basically, I buy Morton's Salt Substitute and spinkle 1/2 TBSP in my gallon of Crystal Light for the day.... The other 1/2 TBSP I sprinkle on my meals and in my intra workout drink. This gives me a good trickle of potassium throughout the day. Give it a go.... I can't believe the fullness and energy it gives me in the gym. Also, encourages you to stay hydrated if it's in your beverages... Tastes good, kind of like Gatorade when mixed with the Crystal Light.

So 1 TBSP a day of mortons salt substitute ED which is potassium chloride and what for sodium?

 

[Mr.B66]

So 1 TBSP a day of mortons salt substitute ED which is potassium chloride and what for sodium?

I was also a little surprised at " table salt" as the source. I was thinking i would use Hawaiian sea salt. My favorite salt actually.

 

[ChestRockwell]

Iodized salt works very well should sodium needs not be met with whole food alone. As most already realize, iodine is an indispensable component of the thyroid hormones making up well over 50% of the weight of T4 and T3.

 

[Inquiring Mind]

Thanks for the kind words about my penis, I have a good feeling this surgery will be a success.

As far as electrolytes, I would say we stay around 6000mg's of potassium and 4500mg's of sodium a day. Basically, I buy Morton's Salt Substitute and spinkle 1/2 TBSP in my gallon of Crystal Light for the day.... The other 1/2 TBSP I sprinkle on my meals and in my intra workout drink. This gives me a good trickle of potassium throughout the day. Give it a go.... I can't believe the fullness and energy it gives me in the gym. Also, encourages you to stay hydrated if it's in your beverages... Tastes good, kind of like Gatorade when mixed with the Crystal Light.

The other take away from this run was intra workout nutrition. I always sort of did it, kind of incidentally with insulin usage... Never really noticed it's importance until lately. Studies have shown intra carbs (good carbs, not crap like waxy maize) + EAAs (not BCAAS, save your money) as well as citrulline malate intra workout reduces cortisol levels dramatically and promotes muscle protein synthesis, while negating a bunch of muscle protein breakdown. Or, add muscle without tearing current muscle down (more or less).

Being relatively new to the world of AAS, I appreciate you sharing your knowledge with us. In a world that is facinated on extremes, it never wonder why so much out there promote crazy dosages while overlooking the most fundamental approachable. If it's not risky it's not sexy, and that down right dangerous.

Thank you for divulging what you could and allowing us into your progress this far.

Looking forward to your fast return.
Wish you God speed to recovery brother!

 

[Wunderpus]

I was also a little surprised at " table salt" as the source. I was thinking i would use Hawaiian sea salt. My favorite salt actually.

Hey brother, this isn't salt, it's "salt substitute".... AKA potassium chloride, not sodium... So, I'm getting my potassium in using salt substitute... One TEASPOON a day, not tablespoon.

 

[Mr.B66]

Hey brother, this isn't salt, it's "salt substitute".... AKA potassium chloride, not sodium... So, I'm getting my potassium in using salt substitute... One TEASPOON a day, not tablespoon.

Well glad i didnt leave yet, woulda been sucking on salt all day [emoji23]

 

[Wunderpus]

So, as many of you know @ChestRockwell and I decided to stop my "cut" phase short due to an unexpected need for an operation (I'm good now). Anyway, we dropped things down to a "cruise" dose of test (150mg's/week) and will run that until we decide to start our mass gaining phase. Ideally Chest and I will be growing at the same time this year, so that should be fun to have someone to compare results with and provide a bit of motivation for me (however, I rarely need motivation to grow... Cutting is a different story).

Things are good on my end as far as health and overall feel. Only had 2 good workouts in the last week and a half, but we're getting there.

I'm going to incorporate a "new" training style in this down period, to hopefully have it dialed-in and ready to rock once we get serious with training, diet and drugs.

The overall idea is progressive overload training in a Push/Pull/Legs layout, hitting each group 2 times a week. Where this will differ from your standard PPL layout is, the "dominant" muscle/s trained will change every other workout. So, think this:

Push: Chest dominant, triceps and shoulders "pump"
Pull: Lat dominant, rhomboids, traps and biceps "pump"
Legs: Quad dominant, hamstring "pump"
Off/Cardio
Push: Shoulders and triceps dominant, chest "pump"
Pull: Rhomboids, traps and biceps dominant, lat "pump"
Legs: Hamstring dominant, quad "pump"
Off/Cardio
Repeat

So, for the "dominant" muscles worked I will be performing 2 sets to failure on each lift. One set will be failure around the 8 rep mark, the other will be around the 12 rep mark. There will be around 4 feeder sets leading up to those 2 work sets. No drop sets or other "conditioning" work, yet.

Second change to my workouts is adding in Ben Pakulski's CEP training. CEP training focuses on hyerplasia as well as hypertrophy. Recent studies have shown that intra set stretching causes muscle fibers to literally split... So, rather than just grow the fibers you have, the idea is to produce new fibers (hyperplasia) and grow all fibers (hypertophy) simultaneously*. Guys, this shit is PAINFUL, seriously, it's NO joke. How do you do this amazing thing?! Well, I'll save you guys $200 and break it down quite simply with an example:

Chest supported row
Warm up to your 8 rep max
Do 1 set of 8, now at the "bottom" of the movement (eccentric) let your lats stretch open using the weight to almost "pull" them apart... This should last about 30 seconds... It will REALLY open you up.
Immediately drop the weight by 20% and do another 8 reps with another eccentric hold for 30 seconds
Drop the weight again by 20% and do another 8 reps followed by the 30 second hold.
As extra credit, I do 1 slow and controlled rep at the end to DRIVE as much fucking blood and power as I can into the muscle, literally trying to BLOW it up.

This should be the last thing you do for a particular muscle, as it will be GASSED after this... Do not start a workout with this shit, finish with it.

So, put it all together, here's an example of the chest dominant push workout I did yesterday:

Incline Bench Press

-Work up to 8 rep max, 1 set of failure at 8, 1 set of failure at 12

Flat DB press

-Work up to 8 rep max, 1 set of failure at 8, 1 set of failure at 12

Smith decline press

-Work up to 8 rep max, 1 set of failure at 8, 1 set of failure at 12

Machine press

-Work up to 8 rep max, 1 set of failure at 8, 1 set of failure at 12

Machine flys

-Work up to 8 rep max, 1 set of failure at 8, 1 set of failure at 12

Dips

- 4 sets to failure w/ added 25lbs

CEP DB flys

- Work up to 8 rep max, 1 CEP set

DB side raises

- Work up to 8 rep max (at least 4 feeder sets). 1 giant drop set of 2 20% reductions to failure on each, then failure partials on each

Cage press

- Work up to10 rep max (at least 4 feeder sets). 1 giant drop set of 2 20% reductions to failure on each, then failure partials on each

Tricep press down on assisted dip machine

- 4 sets of 15-20

Single arm cable tricep crossover

- 4 sets of 15 with a 3 second descent

Skull crushers

- Work up to 8 rep max, 3 sets of 8

Behind the head rope pulls (CEP)

- Work up to 8 rep max, then 1 CEP set


*Muscle fiber formation and fiber hypertrophy during the onset of stretch-overload. - PubMed - NCBI

 

[Inquiring Mind]

A wealth on knowledge here..!

 

[Just Fish]

So, as many of you know @ChestRockwell and I decided to stop my "cut" phase short due to an unexpected need for an operation (I'm good now). Anyway, we dropped things down to a "cruise" dose of test (150mg's/week) and will run that until we decide to start our mass gaining phase. Ideally Chest and I will be growing at the same time this year, so that should be fun to have someone to compare results with and provide a bit of motivation for me (however, I rarely need motivation to grow... Cutting is a different story).

Things are good on my end as far as health and overall feel. Only had 2 good workouts in the last week and a half, but we're getting there.

I'm going to incorporate a "new" training style in this down period, to hopefully have it dialed-in and ready to rock once we get serious with training, diet and drugs.

The overall idea is progressive overload training in a Push/Pull/Legs layout, hitting each group 2 times a week. Where this will differ from your standard PPL layout is, the "dominant" muscle/s trained will change every other workout. So, think this:

Push: Chest dominant, triceps and shoulders "pump"
Pull: Lat dominant, rhomboids, traps and biceps "pump"
Legs: Quad dominant, hamstring "pump"
Off/Cardio
Push: Shoulders and triceps dominant, chest "pump"
Pull: Rhomboids, traps and biceps dominant, lat "pump"
Legs: Hamstring dominant, quad "pump"
Off/Cardio
Repeat

So, for the "dominant" muscles worked I will be performing 2 sets to failure on each lift. One set will be failure around the 8 rep mark, the other will be around the 12 rep mark. There will be around 4 feeder sets leading up to those 2 work sets. No drop sets or other "conditioning" work, yet.

Second change to my workouts is adding in Ben Pakulski's CEP training. CEP training focuses on hyerplasia as well as hypertrophy. Recent studies have shown that intra set stretching causes muscle fibers to literally split... So, rather than just grow the fibers you have, the idea is to produce new fibers (hyperplasia) and grow all fibers (hypertophy) simultaneously*. Guys, this shit is PAINFUL, seriously, it's NO joke. How do you do this amazing thing?! Well, I'll save you guys $200 and break it down quite simply with an example:

Chest supported row
Warm up to your 8 rep max
Do 1 set of 8, now at the "bottom" of the movement (eccentric) let your lats stretch open using the weight to almost "pull" them apart... This should last about 30 seconds... It will REALLY open you up.
Immediately drop the weight by 20% and do another 8 reps with another eccentric hold for 30 seconds
Drop the weight again by 20% and do another 8 reps followed by the 30 second hold.
As extra credit, I do 1 slow and controlled rep at the end to DRIVE as much fucking blood and power as I can into the muscle, literally trying to BLOW it up.

This should be the last thing you do for a particular muscle, as it will be GASSED after this... Do not start a workout with this shit, finish with it.

So, put it all together, here's an example of the chest dominant push workout I did yesterday:

Incline Bench Press

-Work up to 8 rep max, 1 set of failure at 8, 1 set of failure at 12

Flat DB press

-Work up to 8 rep max, 1 set of failure at 8, 1 set of failure at 12

Smith decline press

-Work up to 8 rep max, 1 set of failure at 8, 1 set of failure at 12

Machine press

-Work up to 8 rep max, 1 set of failure at 8, 1 set of failure at 12

Machine flys

-Work up to 8 rep max, 1 set of failure at 8, 1 set of failure at 12

Dips

- 4 sets to failure w/ added 25lbs

CEP DB flys

- Work up to 8 rep max, 1 CEP set

DB side raises

- Work up to 8 rep max (at least 4 feeder sets). 1 giant drop set of 2 20% reductions to failure on each, then failure partials on each

Cage press

- Work up to10 rep max (at least 4 feeder sets). 1 giant drop set of 2 20% reductions to failure on each, then failure partials on each

Tricep press down on assisted dip machine

- 4 sets of 15-20

Single arm cable tricep crossover

- 4 sets of 15 with a 3 second descent

Skull crushers

- Work up to 8 rep max, 3 sets of 8

Behind the head rope pulls (CEP)

- Work up to 8 rep max, then 1 CEP set


*Muscle fiber formation and fiber hypertrophy during the onset of stretch-overload. - PubMed - NCBI

When you do the tricep push down with assisted dip machine where do you place your hands on the pad?

I'm going to have to steal some of those exercises lol. I use the assisted dip machine for lower chest on chest pump sometimes

 

[D-max]

When you do the tricep push down with assisted dip machine where do you place your hands on the pad?

I'm going to have to steal some of those exercises lol. I use the assisted dip machine for lower chest on chest pump sometimes

Make a triangle with your thumbs and fingers. Bend over just enough when your elbows come up they don't hit the dip bars.

It's one of john meadows favorite tricep exercises. If you look on YouTube he has several vids that show it.

 

[Wunderpus]

When you do the tricep push down with assisted dip machine where do you place your hands on the pad?

I'm going to have to steal some of those exercises lol. I use the assisted dip machine for lower chest on chest pump sometimes

 

[Wunderpus]

You guys want a killer leg workout? This was one of THE BEST I've ever done... The two other dudes I trained with are still in misery, two days later... It's quad focused, but, it's a KILLER... Dig DEEP, failure means that you can no longer perform the rep with proper form... I want this to be TOUGH! Enjoy:

Narrow stance leg press

- Work up to 8 rep max, one set of ~8 failure, one set of ~12 failure

Quad extensions

- Work up to 8 rep max, one set of ~8 failure, one set of ~12 failure

- Giant drop set of 12 reps drop by 20%, 10-12 more, drop by 20% and failure

Back supported squat machine

- Work up to 8 rep max, one set of ~8 failure, one set of ~12 failure

Frog stance leg press

- Work up to 8 rep max, one set of ~8 failure, one set of ~12 failure

Lying hamstring curls

- Work up to 10 rep max (4 feeder sets), failure set of 10-12 reps

Standing hamstring curls

- Work up to 10 rep max (two feeder sets), failure set of 10-12 reps

Seated calf raises

- 3 sets of 10 reps with a 10 second hold at the top, then 10 more reps, another 10 second hold, then 10 more reps... Squeeze one last time for 10 seconds at the top. This is ONE set.... Do that 3 times... Still my favorite calf routine.

Hanging leg raises

- 3 sets to failure

Rope crunches

- 3 sets of around 15-20/failure

 

[Docd187123]

So, as many of you know @ChestRockwell and I decided to stop my "cut" phase short due to an unexpected need for an operation (I'm good now). Anyway, we dropped things down to a "cruise" dose of test (150mg's/week) and will run that until we decide to start our mass gaining phase. Ideally Chest and I will be growing at the same time this year, so that should be fun to have someone to compare results with and provide a bit of motivation for me (however, I rarely need motivation to grow... Cutting is a different story).

Things are good on my end as far as health and overall feel. Only had 2 good workouts in the last week and a half, but we're getting there.

I'm going to incorporate a "new" training style in this down period, to hopefully have it dialed-in and ready to rock once we get serious with training, diet and drugs.

The overall idea is progressive overload training in a Push/Pull/Legs layout, hitting each group 2 times a week. Where this will differ from your standard PPL layout is, the "dominant" muscle/s trained will change every other workout. So, think this:

Push: Chest dominant, triceps and shoulders "pump"
Pull: Lat dominant, rhomboids, traps and biceps "pump"
Legs: Quad dominant, hamstring "pump"
Off/Cardio
Push: Shoulders and triceps dominant, chest "pump"
Pull: Rhomboids, traps and biceps dominant, lat "pump"
Legs: Hamstring dominant, quad "pump"
Off/Cardio
Repeat

So, for the "dominant" muscles worked I will be performing 2 sets to failure on each lift. One set will be failure around the 8 rep mark, the other will be around the 12 rep mark. There will be around 4 feeder sets leading up to those 2 work sets. No drop sets or other "conditioning" work, yet.

Second change to my workouts is adding in Ben Pakulski's CEP training. CEP training focuses on hyerplasia as well as hypertrophy. Recent studies have shown that intra set stretching causes muscle fibers to literally split... So, rather than just grow the fibers you have, the idea is to produce new fibers (hyperplasia) and grow all fibers (hypertophy) simultaneously*. Guys, this shit is PAINFUL, seriously, it's NO joke. How do you do this amazing thing?! Well, I'll save you guys $200 and break it down quite simply with an example:

Chest supported row
Warm up to your 8 rep max
Do 1 set of 8, now at the "bottom" of the movement (eccentric) let your lats stretch open using the weight to almost "pull" them apart... This should last about 30 seconds... It will REALLY open you up.
Immediately drop the weight by 20% and do another 8 reps with another eccentric hold for 30 seconds
Drop the weight again by 20% and do another 8 reps followed by the 30 second hold.
As extra credit, I do 1 slow and controlled rep at the end to DRIVE as much fucking blood and power as I can into the muscle, literally trying to BLOW it up.

This should be the last thing you do for a particular muscle, as it will be GASSED after this... Do not start a workout with this shit, finish with it.

So, put it all together, here's an example of the chest dominant push workout I did yesterday:

Incline Bench Press

-Work up to 8 rep max, 1 set of failure at 8, 1 set of failure at 12

Flat DB press

-Work up to 8 rep max, 1 set of failure at 8, 1 set of failure at 12

Smith decline press

-Work up to 8 rep max, 1 set of failure at 8, 1 set of failure at 12

Machine press

-Work up to 8 rep max, 1 set of failure at 8, 1 set of failure at 12

Machine flys

-Work up to 8 rep max, 1 set of failure at 8, 1 set of failure at 12

Dips

- 4 sets to failure w/ added 25lbs

CEP DB flys

- Work up to 8 rep max, 1 CEP set

DB side raises

- Work up to 8 rep max (at least 4 feeder sets). 1 giant drop set of 2 20% reductions to failure on each, then failure partials on each

Cage press

- Work up to10 rep max (at least 4 feeder sets). 1 giant drop set of 2 20% reductions to failure on each, then failure partials on each

Tricep press down on assisted dip machine

- 4 sets of 15-20

Single arm cable tricep crossover

- 4 sets of 15 with a 3 second descent

Skull crushers

- Work up to 8 rep max, 3 sets of 8

Behind the head rope pulls (CEP)

- Work up to 8 rep max, then 1 CEP set


*Muscle fiber formation and fiber hypertrophy during the onset of stretch-overload. - PubMed - NCBI

You know I got love for you Pus, and if I'm bringing negativity into your log please tell me and I will stop (since it's not my intention), but please tell me you're not using this study as a means of proving the stretching and hyperplasia link?

 

[Wunderpus]

You know I got love for you Pus, and if I'm bringing negativity into your log please tell me and I will stop (since it's not my intention), but please tell me you're not using this study as a means of proving the stretching and hyperplasia link?

To some degree, yes. It's not used to "prove", per se, rather as an example as to why it MAY work... It's interesting enough to my that it split the muscle fibers, and could potentially cause hyperplasia. I see no harm in trying it out.

 

[Marcus]

To some degree, yes. It's not used to "prove", per se, rather as an example as to why it MAY work... It's interesting enough to my that it split the muscle fibers, and could potentially cause hyperplasia. I see no harm in trying it out.

Has there ever been any kind of proof with human trials with this kind of program? I didn't find anything...