Women-Only First cycle ever

Gains! Gains!

Your making very good progress.
Happy to hear your legs are finally making gains.

Stay consistent with your training and nutrition. Soon you may have to increase your calories some . More clean healthy foods = more nutrition for your muscles.

Are you noticing or feeling waa by difference in your muscles by adding DROPSETS?

Any differencein how much bigger and harder your muscle pumps are getting?

Are you pushing and challenging yourself yourself more in the gym. Pushing past COMPLETE MUSCLE FAILURE with every set?

Musle pump and hardness I feel mainly in the back.
I had to cut back quad training a bit due to regeneration issues, but today after squatting quads felt defenitely fuller and harder.
From next week on I'll add more dropsets to lower body training!

On barbell excercises I never go to complete failure. I stop at technical form break down to prevent injuries.
As for machines, I mostly do one topset where I go all in with the max weight for the given reps (until failure) and "lighter" backoffs like at RPE9 ish.
 
DAY 19

First side effect:
Hair is getting greasy and more oily.
Not a big deal yet, just the first change I noticed.

Started implementing dropsets for legs today as I'm recovering better by now!
And I'm also less tired. That has always been an issue before, now I have more energy throughout the day :)

My right biceps tendon hurted a bit today (maybe because bench is increasing so fast) so I postponed bench training to tomorrow.
I'm pretty sure I'll hit my "old" 1RM for reps soon :)
 
DAY 21

Back strength is really ON. Added again 10kg to my horizontal cable row for sets of 8. Started at 42,5 kg, last week 50kg and today 60kg for 3 sets :)

Also tripled my former training bench 1RM today :) and hit my meet max for 2 sets of 8 ;)
DAMN :)

Regarding visible muscle / physique changes:
So far I don't see any difference. Only on some mornings my abs popp a little more than usual, but than might be a dehydration issue from the night.

I do DROPSETS now on machine work for legs mainly.
Leg extension, leg curls, Adduction and Abduction. I like the pump I get, it's just even harder to regenerate from. That's currently my main issue.
I still hope that this will improve.
Sometimes my legs are sore for days and I have even muscle pain while just walking normally.
 
DAY 23

Side effects:
Since yesterday I’ve developed some acne in the face, small pimples in the temporal bone area and a bit in the chin/neck area.

Not too bad yet. I was wondering when it will start, cause I had quite a rough acne fight in my teenage years. Let’s hope that it’s not going to get that bad…


POSITIVE THINGS:

Last week I tripled my former 1RM on squats.
Today I added another 5lbs for a triple with even lower RPE.
THIS IS SO EXCITING!!!

I finally feel that all the work in the last 10 months is paying off.

And afterwards I’ve hit 220lbs*9 for an RPE 8.5 ish. Before I could do 220*5 :)

Just didn’t continue, cause I was short of breath... DAMN CARDIO ;)
 
I'm having a Vit B Complex, but will add addional Vit B5. Thanks for that tip.

So far my muscles still feel the same, just the weight moves easier from day to day.
I guess I'm still too high on bodyfat to see vascularity.
But I'm happy if only the weight on the bar goes up. If this cycle my physique won't change much, I'm ok with it :)
 
Just checked how much B5 is in my complex... It's only 100mg!
Ordered pills with 1.000mg and will start with 2 daily. Hope it helps! Will keep u posted. :)
 
DAY 24

Finally quads stopped being so fatigued and I had a great deadlift session.
Pulled 130kg / 286lbs x5 :)
Just did this weight once as a single, so I'm VERY HAPPY :) and this is just 5kg below my current 1 RM.
Next week I'll increase the weight :) :) :)
 
DAY 26:

Update side effects:

I changed my shampoo and that greesy, oily hair is completely back to normal!

As suggested by @leggodess I've purchased Vitamin B5 for my beginning acne.
It's not severe (and I hope it stays like this), the tiny red pimples already changed from the face to the neck. (Neck is better than face ;))
It looks more like an allergy now, but I'll try 2500mg VITAMIN B5. Let's see if it's really so helpful.
 
DAY 28:

SKIN UPDATE

In addition to the 2.500mg VITAMIN B5 I apply pure TEA TREE OIL on my entire face and neck twice a day and it's already so much better!
The redness is 80% gone and no new acne is arising!
Very promising :)

We are heading into a new CoVID Lockdown starting in a couple of days and gyms will be closed (again).
I do have a small homegym where I can lift, but not as heavy as in the gym, because I don't want to make that much noise (e.g. for deadlifts) and I don't have a spotter for higher weights at bench and squats.

Not sure if I should continue with the cycle nevertheless and do lighter weights.
Will it be as efficient?
Or should I rather stop and have some break and do another cycle like in January?
Any feedback is very welcome!
 
STILL DAY 28

Today was actually supposed to be my off day, but due to the upcoming closing of the gyms, I went and had a deadlift session.

Added 5 kg to my all time 1 RM PR (135 kg) and pulled 140kg / 310lbs for a DOUBLE :)
Starting position for the second rep was super akward, cause the bar wasn't close enough, otherwise I would have pulled most likely a third rep.

I discussed the ON/OFF CYCLE question with a friend and he also suggested to stay ON, as I have everything I need in my home gym.

At the moment my focus is 100% on muscle strength, so I'll switch my thinking more towards hypertrophy and muscle building, with I can for sure achieve at home.
During the first lockdown in spring I made the gains of my life at home with high rep work.
So three more days to go competely insane in the gym.
I'll try to hit some more PRs. Would love to squat a single with 120kg and bench 70.
Whohoooooo.
 
DAY 30

BENCH PRRRRR!!!!
I finally hit a single with 70kg/155lbs @RPE 8 :)

This is +7,5kg compared to my last meet PR and a huge mental breakthrough!

Sides:
My skin is getting better from day to day, face cleared nearly completely and I'll stay at those 2500mg Vitamin B5.
 
DAY 30

BENCH PRRRRR!!!!
I finally hit a single with 70kg/155lbs @RPE 8 :)

This is +7,5kg compared to my last meet PR and a huge mental breakthrough!

Sides:
My skin is getting better from day to day, face cleared nearly completely and I'll stay at those 2500mg Vitamin B5.

Congratulations on the new PR. Keep pushing and challenging yourself. Keep making new PR.

How are your muscles feeling? Any difference in how your muscles are looking or feeling?

How is your form? With your new PR?
How is your nutrition?
 
Congratulations on the new PR. Keep pushing and challenging yourself. Keep making new PR.

How are your muscles feeling? Any difference in how your muscles are looking or feeling?

How is your form? With your new PR?
How is your nutrition?

Actually I don't feel any difference regarding the muscles, but the other day my gym partner told me, that my physique did change quite a bit!

Form with the PR was awesome, competition stop at the chest with a press command, and the barbell flew up :)

Nutrition is still that topic that bothers me most.
My problem is that I can't force myself to eat (and also don't want to).
I wanna grow muscles, but I also wanna get leaner. Well, at the same time of course and preferably already yesterday...

I'll keep pushing myself and the optical change will come. Strengthwise it's already a lot and I'm super happy!
 
DAY 34

First training at home.
Did lighter sets of bench and lots of bodybuilding volume stuff for the upper body
Got a nice pump :)

Acne is gone, B5 did it's job!
No additional sides so far - all's great :)
 
I just realized that the issue is more that I'm too lazy to cook, not my actual appetit....
The last days I always got some left-overs from my family, so I have way more healthy than junk food atm. That's good :)

I've also ordered some peptides (TB500 and BPC157) and hope they help me with my soreness, chronic inflammation and my shoulder/biceps tendon issues.
Most likely will open another thread, once I've started this experiment :)
 
Well, cycle is over.
BUT I was always wondering if strength drops (and if so - how much) when you stop the Var, I'll keep tracking it.

OFF CYCLE DAY 3

Today I've hit a paused Squat PR with 110kgx4.
That used to be my lowbar (non-paused) PR when I started the cycle!
This is huge, as I've squatted today at home, no hype, no spotter. In the gym I probably could have done another rep!
 
OFF CYCLE DAY 7

Bench PR :)
During the cycle I've hit 70 for a single, which has been a PR for me.
Today ( at home - self lift off) I've doubled the 70. Unfortunately I misgrooved the second rep, otherwise I would have gone for a third... Next time baby :)
 
Back
Top