Ruckin's first cycle log: test cyp only [IV gear]

[Seven]

power clean: 230x1x8
Bench: 255x8,8,8,9
Squat: 330x8x4
Barbell rows: 210x8x4
Paused incline bench: 205x10,9
Power Shrugs: 455x12x3 (straps)
Barbell holds: 405x19 sec x2 (normal bar, alt grip)
Weighted planks: 90x30 sec x2
Curls: 40sx10,10,12

Very good workout tonight. I wasn't as "into it" as I would have liked, but I still got the job done so I'm happy. Added 5 lbs to my clean, bench, squat, and row. Also I added 2 reps to my paused incline bench. Still getting stronger on everything every time I lift

Today was also my first time using 365 as a warm up on my squat, so that was cool.

Idk much about PL ruck. So, I've been learning from your log. I enjoy reading it. Got a question 365 warm up?? And then you drop down 330 for working sets??

You weighing 258 now?

 

[ruckin]

Idk much about PL ruck. So, I've been learning from your log. I enjoy reading it. Got a question 365 warm up?? And then you drop down 330 for working sets??

You weighing 258 now?

Yessir, ~258-262 has been my gym weight lately when I go to do my chin ups. And I'm glad to hear you've been learning from this and enjoying it!

Yes I started warming up like this a while ago, and I've found it to be the best, most effective way to warm up I've ever used. What I do is generally start with something like 15-20 reps with just the empty bar, then when I'm up to around 50% of my 1RM I'll do 2-3 reps with that weight, and then after that I only do singles up to roughly 85% of my 1RM. For example my yesterday my bench warm up was this (assuming 1RM is low-mid 300s):

45x15
135x5
185x1
225x1
275x1
Then working sets (255x8x4)

Squat warm up was this (I'm assuming my 1RM is low 400s):
45x20
135x5
225x2
315x1
365x1
working sets (330x8x4)

I think warming up this way is excellent. I noticed a very small improvement in my performance when I started doing it this way. The early set or 2 with the empty bar for high reps gets me "warm" without costing strength needed for the working sets, and the following 1-rep warm up sets prime the nervous system and recruit all available muscle fibers due to the high 1 rep max percentage, still without costing strength needed for the working sets.

 

[ruckin]

Just finished my conditioning 2 min ago. I did bike sprints again, 19 cycles this time (i did 18 last week)... I've done my fair share of conditioning work over the last few years, and I don't think I've ever felt such a painful, firey burn in a muscle before as I just felt in my thighs. Wow that was insanely hard, I can't believe I made it through 19 sprints.

Anyway, I'm planning on making tomorrow's workout a lighter recovery workout. I can feel that I would definitely benefit from it and come back stronger on sunday or monday.

Ruckin's song of the day:



Enjoy

 

[ruckin]

power clean: 185x1x4
Press: 125x5x2
Squat: 265x8x2
Bench: 205x5x2
Deadlift: 315x1x5

So I did a nice light recovery session tonight. Obviously nothing exciting happened so there's not much to write about. I am developing a bit of a problem though. I'm getting sort of a shin splint type feeling in my left lower leg... From squats... I'm trying not to get really worried about it lol. I started applying ice to it tonight after I finished lifting for 20 minutes. Gonna start doing that regularly. I'm not sure what else to do to help it get better though...

Hope everyone has a great Independence Day tomorrow!

Ruckin's song of the day:

 

[ruckin]

I didn't get around to typing up this entry yesterday after my workout so this is for yesterday.

Power cleans: 185x1x5
Press: 155x8,8,8,11
Front Squat: 235x8,8,8,10
Deadlift: 435x1x12 in 8 minutes
Paused Incline bench: 205x10x2
Chins: 262x5,5,6,6
Weighted planks: 95x30 sec x2
Curls: 40sx10,10,12 superset w/
Side raises: 40sx12x3

This workout was excellent. My strength is still fucking exploding, it feels amazing. I keep adding weight to my lifts expecting the amount of reps I'm able to do to decrease to my planned set/rep scheme, but instead I keep getting more and more reps despite the aggressive weight increases. Not complaining though

I can't believe I got 12 singles with 435 on my deads. I was going into the workout hoping I'd be able to get 8, maybe 9 lol. I'm definitely gonna be upping that weight to 455 next time, maybe even a little more if I feel like that isn't enough weight to max out at 8-10 singles.

This is such a great feeling, not many things make me happier than getting bigger, stronger and better at rugby.

So this weekend I'm going on vacation to visit my grandparents and other family and I'll be flying, so I'm trying to decide what to do about pinning. I've been doing sunday and wednesday pins, and I'll be gone this saturday through next saturday. So I'm thinking I'll just pin all 500 mg for the week on saturday before I leave. I can't imagine it will make any difference short or long term, and I definitely don't wanna try to sneak gear on the plane. Thoughts anyone?

 

[Seven]

I can't believe I got 12 singles with 435 on my deads. I was going into the workout hoping I'd be able to get 8, maybe 9 lol. I'm definitely gonna be upping that weight to 455 next time, maybe even a little more if I feel like that isn't enough weight to max out at 8-10 singles.

Nice!! Yeah 455 easy!!

So this weekend I'm going on vacation to visit my grandparents and other family and I'll be flying, so I'm trying to decide what to do about pinning. I've been doing sunday and wednesday pins, and I'll be gone this saturday through next saturday. So I'm thinking I'll just pin all 500 mg for the week on saturday before I leave. I can't imagine it will make any difference short or long term, and I definitely don't wanna try to sneak gear on the plane. Thoughts anyone?

That's really your only choice. 500mg the morning you leave. You taking that week off from training as well? I bet you're going to be eating real good that week, nothing beats grandma's cooking.

 

[Docd187123]

Like 7Dog said, just pin it all the day you leave and resume your cycle once you get back. A week isn't going to make or break anything.

 

[ruckin]

Thanks guys, I'll pin 500 mg the morning I leave then.

I'm planning on training as I normally would while I'm there. I know there are a few gyms near where my family lives so worst case scenario I'll have to pay $10 a couple times to lift that week.

 

[ruckin]

Today was conditioning day WOOHOO!!!

Just kid... About the woohoo part.

Anyway I did those zig-zag laps around a 50x50 yard grid that I haven't done in almost a month. I did 5 sets of 2 laps with 60 seconds between sets and I was very happy with my performance. 2 of my teammates came with me, both of who are significantly lighter and theoretically should be faster than me, and I smoked both of them. Felt pretty good

RUCKIN'S SONG OF THE DAY:



This song gets me so crazy pumped! Fantastic gym song for any of you reading who want some new workout music.

 

[ruckin]

power clean: 235x1x8
Bench: 260x8,8,8,11
Squat: 335x8x4
Barbell rows: 215x8,8,8,9
Paused incline: 205x8 (slight elbow tendon pain)
Power Shrugs: 455x12x3 (straps)
Barbell holds: 405x20 sec x2
Weighted planks: 95x30 sec x2

Interesting workout tonight. My motivation and focus started at 9/10 and by the time I finished squats it was down to like 3/10. I'm not sure why. Still a successful workout nonetheless, aside from my elbow starting to bother me when I started doing incline bench... I started feeling some slight pain there so I stopped mid-set. It was pretty discouraging and I'm not sure what I'm gonna do about this. Flat bench press went super great though, I'm thrilled about getting 260 for 11 on my last set.

I'm starting to feel like I might need a deload. Lack of motivation lately, and small dings and dents starting to build up are a couple symptoms I'm having of needing one. Coincidently I'm going on this vacation next week so maybe that'll be a good time to deload. Or maybe I'll start it Thursday and end it halfway through vacation. It'll be a game time decision on Thursday probably, depending on how I'm feeling.

 

[Docd187123]

I'd just do your deload on vaca. You should just kick back and enjoy the time off.

I also just read about your warmups. It's a huge surprise you like it bag way to me. If my working set was 330 I'd do

Bar x 2sets x 10 reps
135 until warm and loose usually around 5-7 reps
185 x 3
225 x 2
275x 1

And go right into working sets from there. Obviously the number can change a little or reps can but I would imagine warming up with more weight than you work with for the day to be counterproductive and just Rob some energy

 

[ruckin]

I'd just do your deload on vaca. You should just kick back and enjoy the time off.

I also just read about your warmups. It's a huge surprise you like it bag way to me. If my working set was 330 I'd do

Bar x 2sets x 10 reps
135 until warm and loose usually around 5-7 reps
185 x 3
225 x 2
275x 1

And go right into working sets from there. Obviously the number can change a little or reps can but I would imagine warming up with more weight than you work with for the day to be counterproductive and just Rob some energy

Well the theory is that if I were warming up for a 1 rep max PR attempt, I'd warm up the way I described in that other post you're referring to. So if that's how I'd prepare to lift as much weight as I'm capable of lifting and maximize performance, why wouldn't I prepare the same way to lift a lighter weight but still trying to maximize performance with it? And besides I definitely noticed a slight increase in performance when I started warming up this way a few months ago so if it isn't broken I'd rather not try to fix it, nomsayin?

 

[Docd187123]

Well the theory is that if I were warming up for a 1 rep max PR attempt, I'd warm up the way I described in that other post you're referring to. So if that's how I'd prepare to lift as much weight as I'm capable of lifting and maximize performance, why wouldn't I prepare the same way to lift a lighter weight but still trying to maximize performance with it? And besides I definitely noticed a slight increase in performance when I started warming up this way a few months ago so if it isn't broken I'd rather not try to fix it, nomsayin?

Without a doubt, if it works, it works and you shouldn't change it just bc someone told you to. It just surprises me is all lol.

Warmups are meant to get you loose, blood flowing, and prepared to lift the weights you plan on using for your working sets. Using a 365 warmup for a 400+ squat effort is fine bc it's priming your CNS for the heavier load ie 400+lbs. when you're doing working sets of 330 though you do get the priming effect but you have wasted some of your energy in lifting a weight that's heavier than your working sets and isn't necessarily needed to prime you since you're working with less weight.

Again, not telling you to change it up if it's working, but this is a new one for me lol

 

[ruckin]

I was busy all night after my workout yesterday evening so I didn't get around to doing this, so this post is for yesterday's conditioning workout.

I did bike sprints and like always, they sucked haha. I did 20 total sprints this time, big PR for me. 15 second sprints with 45 seconds slow between each one like usual.

I don't want to do more than 20 sprints in a workout so I have to decide how I'm going to make these more difficult without increasing the number of sprints for next time. I'll either increase the time for each sprint and decrease the rest times by a couple seconds, or maybe increase the resistance on the bike. I'm leaning towards the former but not positive yet.

Anyway, today's gonna be the first day of my deload so I'll update tonight with what I did for my workout. I think I'm gonna just do the main movements with half the weights I've been using and cut the amount of sets in half too, so none of the assistance work either.

 

[ruckin]

So I've just been relaxing the last few days. Haven't lifted since Thursday so I'm planning on going somewhere to lift later today. I'll probably start lifting normally again on Thursday or Friday depending on which day is more convenient. I'm just going very light just to practice the motor patterns so I'm not gonna bother typing out everything I do, unless someone asks me to which I'd be happy to share, but it's nothing exciting.

I noticed that I've been very, very moody ever since saturday night (I pinned 500 mg saturday morning). My brothers have also been extremely annoying too so it's just been pissing me off a lot more than I probably would be normally.

On a completely different topic, I've been thinking about what I want to do for my second cycle. I definitely want to use boldenone, most likely eq, unless I can get my hands on bold cyp from a source I'd trust. So a test and eq cycle. No idea what doses to go with, or whether or not I should add an oral and/or test p as well. I'll likely start around late november/early december time so plenty of time to prepare, but it's fun to think about. I'd love to get any input on this fron you guys.

 

[Seven]

Beat the the shit out of those brothers!! Imo EQ over the holiday's would be a good choice. If you could start first of Nov or end of Oct, the way its supposed to increase your appetite, should be fun. An oral I'm not real sure about maybe Halo or T-Bol??

How's the food?

 

[ruckin]

Beat the the shit out of those brothers!! Imo EQ over the holiday's would be a good choice. If you could start first of Nov or end of Oct, the way its supposed to increase your appetite, should be fun. An oral I'm not real sure about maybe Halo or T-Bol??

How's the food?

Trust me it's taken a lot of self control to not snap on them yet.

I've never had an issue my entire life with not having enough appetite so that isn't one of the reasons I wanna use eq. Who knows though, maybe as I keep gaining more weight than I've ever carried before it'll start getting harder to stuff enough food down to make progress. I still want to be 260 morning weight by the end of this cycle so who knows what I'll be up to with that next run.

I was thinking tbol as well. My only issue, aside from finding good tbol, is that it would be pretty expensive (for my budget anyway). Something to think about though.

Maybe I'll look into dbol too. Dbol sounds fun but the estrogen issues that come with it make me leery. And needing that extra aromasin to combat it kinda defeats the purpose of getting dbol for it's low cost, at least the way I see it. Unless I'm missing something.

 

[Docd187123]

Trust me it's taken a lot of self control to not snap on them yet.

I've never had an issue my entire life with not having enough appetite so that isn't one of the reasons I wanna use eq. Who knows though, maybe as I keep gaining more weight than I've ever carried before it'll start getting harder to stuff enough food down to make progress. I still want to be 260 morning weight by the end of this cycle so who knows what I'll be up to with that next run.

I was thinking tbol as well. My only issue, aside from finding good tbol, is that it would be pretty expensive (for my budget anyway). Something to think about though.

Maybe I'll look into dbol too. Dbol sounds fun but the estrogen issues that come with it make me leery. And needing that extra aromasin to combat it kinda defeats the purpose of getting dbol for it's low cost, at least the way I see it. Unless I'm missing something.

If you're not prone to getting gyno or hypertension from estrogen then I wouldn't worry about using more AI for dbol. Part of the beauty of dbol is the water retention anyway. It helps with the strength gains from it. Maybe just stick to a test and EQ cycle but bump up the test. 750mg or more plus EQ would be a fun ride

 

[ruckin]

If you're not prone to getting gyno or hypertension from estrogen then I wouldn't worry about using more AI for dbol. Part of the beauty of dbol is the water retention anyway. It helps with the strength gains from it. Maybe just stick to a test and EQ cycle but bump up the test. 750mg or more plus EQ would be a fun ride

Nice, that's good to know. I've been on 500 mg test for 9 weeks now as you know, and I've yet to use any of my aromasin. I'm definitely retaining a lot of water, but I don't think I'm getting gyno from the estrogen, so I'm hoping I'm not prone at all. My nips feel fine so I'm saving my pharma nolva and ai for when I need them in the future.

Do you think high test with eq would be best? I was thinking about maybe low or moderate test, maybe 200-500 mg per week with high eq, maybe up to 800 mg. Idk, I'm very open to suggestions. I'd prefer to keep doses as low as I can while still being able to make good enough gains, but at the same time I have very extreme goals. So I'll always be willing to do whatever I need to to reach them.

 

[Docd187123]

Nice, that's good to know. I've been on 500 mg test for 9 weeks now as you know, and I've yet to use any of my aromasin. I'm definitely retaining a lot of water, but I don't think I'm getting gyno from the estrogen, so I'm hoping I'm not prone at all. My nips feel fine so I'm saving my pharma nolva and ai for when I need them in the future.

Do you think high test with eq would be best? I was thinking about maybe low or moderate test, maybe 200-500 mg per week with high eq, maybe up to 800 mg. Idk, I'm very open to suggestions. I'd prefer to keep doses as low as I can while still being able to make good enough gains, but at the same time I have very extreme goals. So I'll always be willing to do whatever I need to to reach them.

EQ/Bold Cyp is on my list to brew and try soon but as of now I have yet to try either. What I offer is based in what I've read from the ppl I trust to get my info from.

EQ is more mild compared to say tren or nandrolone. The changes are smoother and more mellow. Going with higher test will just speed along the process and give you more in the end which is obvious: more Anabolics = more results. Out of all the successful powerlifters I talk to, every single one of them who can tolerate high test runs high test during their toughest training cycles. They'll run whatever doses on other compounds but test will always be 750-1g as a minimum. Now I'm not telling you to jump to that dose but I am saying for those who value performance over aesthetics as you do, they all prefer a lot of test.

From the cycles I've seen, 800mg EQ is a moderate dose not a high one. Maybe something like 500-750mg of test and ~800mg of EQ. If you want something to get the festivities started sooner add in some dbol or drol to the first few weeks. If you have the money halo would be my first choice but it's expensive and won't add much in terms of sides. Strength, aggression, focus, etc it absolutely is insane for but not so much the size.