The Powerlifter's road to 1150lbs / 500kg - TBOL/TEST/TREN/MAST

[DonQKong]

Last year, I celebrated cycle number 4 in 20 years. This spring, number 5 is going to be focusing on breaking a breathtaking 1150lbs on the magical 3s as well as toning up for the summer.

Goal

• Am I bulking? Nah. Am I cutting? Nah. Am I eating clean, getting strong and getting ready for ruling the beach this summer? Yup.
• PL goals are 200kg/440lbs Deadlift, 180kg/400lbs Squat, and 140kg/310lbs Bench
• If this goes well, I may go to my first meet. That'd be cool !

As-Is

• 44 years old
• Just under 100 kilos / 220 pounds @ 20% BF
• Injuries: Metal plate and 9 pins in ankle, limited flexibility. Reconstructive knee surgery, pins and plates, removed half hamstring to tie the knee together again, can't get much below parallell. Smashed left hand, limited "lock" in my grip. Left bicep tendonitis bound to creep up on me.
• Bench all-time PR - 125kg
• Squat all-time PR - 160kg
• Deadlift all-time PR - 180kg
• The PRs above are from last summer. Lost some strength last fall due to time-wasting 5*5 Stronglift, and estimate I am at 115 (B), 150 (S) and 170 (DL)

Training

• History: 20 years of going to the gym (12 on, 8 off). PLing for 30 months
• Am finding my benchmark now with Madcow 5*5, am 4 weeks into an 11-week cycle
• After Madcow, I will probably start Bulgarian again
• Less sessions than last year - 6-7 hours in the gym per week instead of 13-14
• Cardio 10 minutes to warm up. Always intend to do more, never get around to doing it.
• Abs every workout.

Diet

• No alcohol
• No added salt
• No junk, candy, crisps
• No added protein powder this year

PEDs

• Doing IA test/tren/mast/cheque drops/tbol this year
• At 4 UI HGH (Morning+Night). Not too impressed 2 months in, so won't count it
• TBOL at 50mcg/d (morning+night) as a kickstart Week 2-9
• Test E, keeping it low, at 250mg/w per week, Week 1-18
• Tren A, 750mg/w, Week 4-15
• Mast - 400mg/w , Week 6-15
• Sibutramine if hunger gets me like last time
• cialis 5mg/d for blood pressure (and for squatting with a boner)
• adex at hand, history of bloat
• Caber at hand, and will probably "try it" as it is a new compound to me
• nolva and clomid for pct, alternatively cruise
• DNP? Will I? If I need to lose 20lbs quickly, yes, but I would rather stick to my sibs.

I jab 3 times per week, ham for high-ml days, delt for low-ml days.

All compounds are tried and tested, except TBOL and Caber, which is the first time.

Ready, set, go. Started TBOL today.

DQ

 

[ickyrica]

How do you like Madcow? I'm in my first week...

 

[DonQKong]

How do you like Madcow? I'm in my first week...

Its good, mate. In week four now ... actually, I finished week 4 and am in week 5 ... its just that I have 4-5 sessions per week instead of 3, so the weeks go a bit quicker.

I've started to fail on the lifts, so its crunch time now next week. I like the way it varies from Monday max to Wednesday light to Friday volume. If you don't have the app, I suggest you download it - its great, intuitive and smart.

Getting that first initial baseline is important. I hit the spot on bench and deadlift, but missed it on squats, so it was calibrated too light.

Its opened up the apetite for a world of different systems, quite cool actually.

DQ

 

[Genghis K.]

Sub'd - Good luck brother!

 

[ickyrica]

I did grab a Madcow app.

I've had to adjust on the fly because my baseline numbers are off but I'm pretty close to accurate I think.

I'm 3 a week but I'm also getting a few good pump workouts in every week as well so I'm never truly stagnant.

 

[DonQKong]

Shit, I forgot about the cheque drops. Have 24 of them, will sprinkle them throughout.

And creatine...that's the magic sauce tipping the scales, I know ...

 

[legendary]

Keep an eye on BP my friend.

 

[franchise24]

Subbed

 

[DonQKong]

And HCG for the first time. Will do a pop every now and then with 500. If I PCT, will do 250 two or three times per week the last 6 weeks. If I cruise, I will just keep on popping.

Heartburn from the TBol! Lovely! Can't say I've missed that the last months. Zantac town here I come.

 

[insaiyan93]

Subbed. Best of luck homie

 

[DonQKong]

Poop, bug in the app.

Did DL the other day and am close to benchmark - Failed at 5*152kg, managed to get 2 of them up. So what the app does is ask me if I want to try the same weight next time as opposed to adding 5kgs, and I click yes.

A few days later, its time to try again. I assume the app has kept me at previous weight on the last set (152kg). I load up 157kg in line with what the app tells me....and can't get the fucker off the floor even once.

Went WTF, reviewed the log, found the error, pissed off, left the gym.

At least I am close to having a benchmark on all lifts ... still have some way to go on the squat, but as for bench and DLs, we're all tuned in. And I lifted over 6000 kg last session accumulated.

Anyways, pin 3 on the Test E and day four on the tbol. Its volume day in Madcow 5*5 town.

 

[DonQKong]

Am getting bigger, definitely challenging my clothes these days, am bursting

Bench 5*5, last set of 105kg/230lbs went up a bit of a grind
Squat 5*5, last set of 122.5kg/275lbs came up flying

TBOL definitely kicking in, subtle but good

 

[DonQKong]

Deads today, crap day. Gripped & Ripped 2*152 last time, not today ...

Deadlift 152kg/370lbs FAIL

Not good for someone who got 180kg / 440 lbs off the ground just 6 months ago. Bad hair day carried over to my lifts

 

[DonQKong]

Starting to Get heavy. Shifted 7 tons of lead today....

 

[DonQKong]

B: 110kg/235lb * 5
S: 125kg/275lb * 5

 

[jJjburton]

Am getting bigger, definitely challenging my clothes these days, am bursting

Bench 5*5, last set of 105kg/230lbs went up a bit of a grind
Squat 5*5, last set of 122.5kg/275lbs came up flying

TBOL definitely kicking in, subtle but good

I am rippiing every shirt I have when trying to take it off. Especially after gym when sweaty. It really annoying. But a good annooying. I feel ya.

 

[DonQKong]

DL today, second crap DL day. Its definitely my favorite lift of the three, but its such a mental fuck-up. With bench and squat, you unrack, reach the point of no return and have to make the best out of it. With deadlifts, though, there is no point of no return and its all about fighting with my own head.

Today's excuse was stomach acid and a painful backpump.

145kg/320lbs * 2

It may be I need more volume. Previously, when I hit my PR last summer, I deadlifted 7 days per week, 50 reps per workout. Now, I'm down to twice weekly, sometimes 1. Maybe I should do a high rep day on DL in between, see if that helps.

Hunger is back, literally ate straight out of the fridge yesterday

 

[ickyrica]

Sounds like your DL development needs a different approach at the moment.

Madcow was short lived for me personally. Maybe it's time to look at another plan for your deads?

 

[DonQKong]

@lckyrica, I am learning a lot on it and how I respond. For DL, I am back to 5-3-1 and daily maximums and 50 reps per session. I have 11 workouts left, then I will switch

Heavy day today, squatted gracefully, strong on the bench but chucking the kids around in the pool yesterday flared open my biceps tendonitis again... stopped working out 2/3 through

Bench 110/265lbs * 5 (fail)
Squat 130kg/310lbs * 5

 

[DonQKong]

Not a good day in Donkeytown. I haven't been on the scales for 6 weeks or so and been fooling myself with "oh, I'll just check the mirror, the mirror is my acid test". Due to the tbol and probably slightly by the test, I've felt better, more toned, more defined. At the same time, though, I'm bursting my suits.

So this morning I jumped on the scales, check this out:



I've gained 11 kilos, 24 pounds in 2 months! That ain't all muscle !

Its diet time, which is bad timing with the Madcow 5*5 program, because it is these very days I'm homing in on all time PRs.

So pissed off right now Sibutramine, here I come.

Deadlift: 150kg / 360lbs * 5

Rgs,
Donkey "Fat Kid" Kong