Hammerblow
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- Mar 9, 2016
- Messages
- 479
So you just spend the last 10-12 weeks busting your arse in the gym. You've been forcing yourself to eat when your sick, turning down invitations to go out drinking with your friends, and all the other good stuff that goes along with doing your cycle the right way. Well I hate to be the bearer of bad news but the fun is just beginning. The easy part is over and the hard part has just begun. Every aspect of your diet, training, and rest has to be completely on point for the next 2-3 months and beyond. This is not the time to start missing meals, missing your calorie targets and macronutrient goals, skipping workouts, staying up all night etc. Everything needs to be perfect in order for to keep as much of this new muscle as possible.
So when you come off cycle your testosterone levels crash, leaving you with lower test levels then a 90 year old diabetic. So in order to successfully keep your gains some adjustments have to be made. When you're on cycle, your testosterone levels are 10 times higher then a normal male. You can train harder, longer and more frequently. During pct you can't continue to do things exactly the same, its a recipe for you to crash and burn. I see a lot of talk on this forum about proper pct protocols with serms and such but hardly anything about how you should be training during this time. So these are some of the things Ive learned during my past pcts that have allowed me to keep basically all of the strength and size I gained during my cycle.
Diet
This is arguably the most important aspect of having a successful pct. As a bodybuilder, power lifter, athlete, fitness enthusiast you should never let you diet slide, but sometimes shit happens thats out of your control and you can't keep up on your eating like you should. Things like moving, vacations etc can make it extremely hard to follow any sort of well structured meal plan, so you must take this into account when planning your cycle and pct. Dont cycle If you know your pct is going end up during the time you're moving across the country, or your going to be spending 3 weeks in Hawaii.
So what that said you need to keep eating big. This is not the time to try to cut some body fat you accumulated on cycle, this is not the time to try to recomp and drop your calories down to maintenance. During pct your body is in an extremely catabolic state, so you need the calories in order to maintain the muscle you put on. If your diet was sufficient for gaining weight on cycle, don't change a thing. If you gain a little bit of fat during pct so what? Its a hell of a lot better to gain a little fat then lose all the muscle you just worked so hard for. Stick to this plan for at least 1-2 month after your pct is complete, so thats 2-3 months after your finish your cycle. And even then make very small adjustments if you feel you gained some unwanted fat. When you add 20lbs of muscle in 12 weeks your body doesn't have time to get used to it like it would if you gained it slowly over a year or two. So if you start making drastic changes in your diet and lowering calories the first thing to go will be the muscle. Our bodies strive for homeostasis and will do whatever it can to return to normal, and this new 20lbs is not normal. So you must do everything in your power to make sure this doesn't happen.
Training
While you are on cycle you can train longer, harder and more frequently then if you were not. But as I stated before your body is extremely catabolic right now, so you must make some changes while you wait for your test levels to recover. The first change you should make is the number of days per week you should be training. Rest days are so important during pct, so you need to add a few more into your weekly routine. On cycle, and when I'm not in pct I train 5 days a week. During pct 4 days has been perfect for me. So I suggest taking one more day off each week, and maybe adding that extra day half way through your split. If on cycle you have already been training 3-4 days per week then you should be fine.
How should you train?
Like I said before when your on cycle, you can train harder and longer. But during pct this is not the case. You need to get in, train hard and smart, and get out as fast as possible. Like I've stated before your body is extremely catabolic right now so you need to make some changes to your training routine. I would limit your time in the gym to 1 hour and 15 minutes MAX. 45mins-1hr would be even better. If your not fucking around and bullshitting with your friends the entire time between sets and checking out the cardio bunnies on the treadmill, then 1 hour should be plenty of time to complete your workout. Drop all of your workouts by 4-6 sets. So if on back day you were doing 16-20 sets, drop that to 12-16 sets, instead of doing 12 sets for biceps do 9 etc, but keep your intensity HIGH. What you have to realize is about 99% of us are not going to build any muscle during pct. It sucks to think about but its the truth. Now some guys including myself can continue to get stronger during pct, but this has nothing to do with muscle growth, and everything to do with the central nervous system becoming more efficient. So your goal is just to get in there and do enough to make sure you body knows it needs to keep this muscle. Now don't think Im telling you to train like a pussy, cause I'm not. You still need to be pushing foor one more rep, or adding 5 more pounds to the bar each workout. But doing tons and tons of sets is going to do more harm then good.
Cardio
I personally drop all cardio during pct. But if you really don’t want to stop doing cardio all together try to do it at a different time then when you lift. So my suggestion would be to do cardio in the morning no more then 3-4 days a week for 30 minutes, and then lift at night. When you lift you want to get in, work the muscle and get out and get some food in you. So doing cardio after you lift just prolongs the amount of time your bodies releasing cortisol and breaking down muscle tissue, and not to mention burns calories that you will need to replace.
Supplements
Im not gonna advise any kind of pct protocols in this post as I believe theres no one size fits all pct, so these are some OTC supplements that have helped me in the past. You should know this already, but these do not take the place of a proper pct with clomid and nolva. These OTC supplements are not necessary, but if you have the extra money I think they are very beneficial.
Creatine
Im sure a lot of you are familiar with creatine and have used it in the past but if you're not ill give you a brief run down of the benefits. First off creatine will make the majority of people retain some water. The water retention is the first thing to go when you start pct and losing 5-10lbs the first week is very discouraging to a lot of guys. So by loading creatine the week before you start pct you can avoid this sudden drop off so you guys don't shit your pants thinking you just lost 5lbs of muscle. You will undoubtedly still lose some water weight, but adding creatine will help keep some of the water on. The next thing creatine will do for you is allow your body to synthesize ATP or adenosine triphosphate at an accelerated rate. ATP is is the chemical in the body that powers your muscles. As you get deeper and deeper into your set, the amount of ATP in your muscles decreases until your fail. So by supplementing with creatine your body will be able to re-synthesize ATP at a faster rate which will allow you to pump out a few extra reps, or add 5 more pounds to the bar. So my suggestion would be to load 20 grams per day of micronized creatine monohydrate starting a week before pct. Split the doses up into 4 5gram doses and take them with a sugary drink. One of these doses would be best taken with your post workout shake. Then after your 7 day loading phase you can back off to just 5 grams a day, and again take it with your post workout shake consisting of both carbs and protein. The fast acting carbs in the shake will spike your insulin levels and transport the creatine directly to your muscles.
Glutamine
Glutamine is an essential amino acid and the most common amino acid found in the skeletal muscles. As I've stated many times in this article our bodies are extremely catabolic during pct. Among other benefits, glutamine is great at starving off muscle catabolism. It is also great at aiding in muscle recovery after bouts of intense exercises. Since you are no longer on steroids your recovery is going to be compromised, so supplementing with glutamine has proven to be very beneficial for me. Glutamine is routinely given to patients by doctors after surgery due to its healing and recovery benefits. So what that said take 5 grams upon waking, 5 grams pre workout to help fight off catabolism during your workout, and 5 grams before bed. You can wait and start this when you start pct, theres no need to load.
Pre workout
As you all know having low testosterone can make you feel very lethargic, and unmotivated among many other things. So using a pre workout during pct can really help get you pumped up and energized for training. Most of the strong pre workouts containing amphetamines like the old jacked, and crazed have been banned but I have found a few that still work really well. I personally like C-4, and the new jacked, not the jacked 3d micro that came out after the ban of the original.
BCAA's
This supplement I have not personally used during my pct but the idea popped into my head recently. I plan on adding it to this pct coming up and I think it would be great to sip on during a workout to give your muscles fuel, and avoid catabolism. It will also be great to sip on if you insists on doing cardio during pct.
Rest Week
Now this is highly individualized. Some guys can lift 12 months a year without ever needing to take more then the weekend off. I personally cannot do this. After about 3 months or so I crashed If I don't take a full week of rest. But just remember this, the entire time you have been on cycle the steroids have been accelerating your muscle recovery, but they do nothing for your central nervous system and that takes a pounding each and every workout. If you're like me and need to take a rest week every so often then you need to plan it into your cycle. Pct and the month after is not the time to do so. If you don’t take a rest or at least de load week at some point during your cycle then your looking at roughly 22 weeks straight in the gym before your at a point where you can safely take a rest week. 12 weeks on cycle plus two weeks wait period plus four week pct plus the month after pct. One month post pct is the earliest I think a rest week should be taken. So my suggestion would be to take a rest week during the first week you’re waiting to start pct. Then you come back fresh and ready to go for at least the next 9 week. The last thing you want to happen is to burn out during pct. Overtraining sucks, and a lot of guys will say theres no such thing as overtraining, just under eating and sleeping. While this is true for your muscle, this is not the case for your central nervous system. You can eat all you want but the only way for your CNS to recover is will proper rest. But like I said we are all different and some guys never need a full week of rest, but some of us do. So if your someone who does you should plan a rest or de load week into your cycle before pct.
Injuries
You should already know to be smart in the gym and not lift with your ego. Nobody really cares how much you can lift, and a lot of times ego lifting will get your injured. If you get injured during your pct or really at any point you will lose muscle. But you will lose it at a much faster rate if it occurs directly after your cycle. So lift heavy and hard, but also lift smart. So make sure your warming up throughly and lifting with good form.
Stress
As you all know stress can greatly effect many aspects of your life including your time in the gym. High levels of stress are associated with lower levels of testosterone, higher levels of cortisol and many other things that are detrimental to a successful pct. You want to avoid your pct overlapping with stressful times in your life. So If you’re working on an important deal or project at work, having a new baby, moving to a new city etc is not a good time to be coming off a cycle and starting your pct so just try to plan accordingly.
Sleep
Sleep is often overlooked but a very important aspect of your routine, especially during pct. Make sure you get a least 7-8 hours of sleep a night, more if possible. Sleep is when your muscles and CNS recover and rebuild the most. Since your recovery abilities are now limited during pct you want to make sure you get your 8 hours every single night.
So these are just some things I have learned from my experiences, and talking with others. Theres no point in spending all the money on gear and food, and dealing with the shitty side effects that steroids can cause just to lose all the muscle you worked so hard to gain. So good luck to all you guys and happy cycling!
if I've missed anything or you want to add please feel free.
So when you come off cycle your testosterone levels crash, leaving you with lower test levels then a 90 year old diabetic. So in order to successfully keep your gains some adjustments have to be made. When you're on cycle, your testosterone levels are 10 times higher then a normal male. You can train harder, longer and more frequently. During pct you can't continue to do things exactly the same, its a recipe for you to crash and burn. I see a lot of talk on this forum about proper pct protocols with serms and such but hardly anything about how you should be training during this time. So these are some of the things Ive learned during my past pcts that have allowed me to keep basically all of the strength and size I gained during my cycle.
Diet
This is arguably the most important aspect of having a successful pct. As a bodybuilder, power lifter, athlete, fitness enthusiast you should never let you diet slide, but sometimes shit happens thats out of your control and you can't keep up on your eating like you should. Things like moving, vacations etc can make it extremely hard to follow any sort of well structured meal plan, so you must take this into account when planning your cycle and pct. Dont cycle If you know your pct is going end up during the time you're moving across the country, or your going to be spending 3 weeks in Hawaii.
So what that said you need to keep eating big. This is not the time to try to cut some body fat you accumulated on cycle, this is not the time to try to recomp and drop your calories down to maintenance. During pct your body is in an extremely catabolic state, so you need the calories in order to maintain the muscle you put on. If your diet was sufficient for gaining weight on cycle, don't change a thing. If you gain a little bit of fat during pct so what? Its a hell of a lot better to gain a little fat then lose all the muscle you just worked so hard for. Stick to this plan for at least 1-2 month after your pct is complete, so thats 2-3 months after your finish your cycle. And even then make very small adjustments if you feel you gained some unwanted fat. When you add 20lbs of muscle in 12 weeks your body doesn't have time to get used to it like it would if you gained it slowly over a year or two. So if you start making drastic changes in your diet and lowering calories the first thing to go will be the muscle. Our bodies strive for homeostasis and will do whatever it can to return to normal, and this new 20lbs is not normal. So you must do everything in your power to make sure this doesn't happen.
Training
While you are on cycle you can train longer, harder and more frequently then if you were not. But as I stated before your body is extremely catabolic right now, so you must make some changes while you wait for your test levels to recover. The first change you should make is the number of days per week you should be training. Rest days are so important during pct, so you need to add a few more into your weekly routine. On cycle, and when I'm not in pct I train 5 days a week. During pct 4 days has been perfect for me. So I suggest taking one more day off each week, and maybe adding that extra day half way through your split. If on cycle you have already been training 3-4 days per week then you should be fine.
How should you train?
Like I said before when your on cycle, you can train harder and longer. But during pct this is not the case. You need to get in, train hard and smart, and get out as fast as possible. Like I've stated before your body is extremely catabolic right now so you need to make some changes to your training routine. I would limit your time in the gym to 1 hour and 15 minutes MAX. 45mins-1hr would be even better. If your not fucking around and bullshitting with your friends the entire time between sets and checking out the cardio bunnies on the treadmill, then 1 hour should be plenty of time to complete your workout. Drop all of your workouts by 4-6 sets. So if on back day you were doing 16-20 sets, drop that to 12-16 sets, instead of doing 12 sets for biceps do 9 etc, but keep your intensity HIGH. What you have to realize is about 99% of us are not going to build any muscle during pct. It sucks to think about but its the truth. Now some guys including myself can continue to get stronger during pct, but this has nothing to do with muscle growth, and everything to do with the central nervous system becoming more efficient. So your goal is just to get in there and do enough to make sure you body knows it needs to keep this muscle. Now don't think Im telling you to train like a pussy, cause I'm not. You still need to be pushing foor one more rep, or adding 5 more pounds to the bar each workout. But doing tons and tons of sets is going to do more harm then good.
Cardio
I personally drop all cardio during pct. But if you really don’t want to stop doing cardio all together try to do it at a different time then when you lift. So my suggestion would be to do cardio in the morning no more then 3-4 days a week for 30 minutes, and then lift at night. When you lift you want to get in, work the muscle and get out and get some food in you. So doing cardio after you lift just prolongs the amount of time your bodies releasing cortisol and breaking down muscle tissue, and not to mention burns calories that you will need to replace.
Supplements
Im not gonna advise any kind of pct protocols in this post as I believe theres no one size fits all pct, so these are some OTC supplements that have helped me in the past. You should know this already, but these do not take the place of a proper pct with clomid and nolva. These OTC supplements are not necessary, but if you have the extra money I think they are very beneficial.
Creatine
Im sure a lot of you are familiar with creatine and have used it in the past but if you're not ill give you a brief run down of the benefits. First off creatine will make the majority of people retain some water. The water retention is the first thing to go when you start pct and losing 5-10lbs the first week is very discouraging to a lot of guys. So by loading creatine the week before you start pct you can avoid this sudden drop off so you guys don't shit your pants thinking you just lost 5lbs of muscle. You will undoubtedly still lose some water weight, but adding creatine will help keep some of the water on. The next thing creatine will do for you is allow your body to synthesize ATP or adenosine triphosphate at an accelerated rate. ATP is is the chemical in the body that powers your muscles. As you get deeper and deeper into your set, the amount of ATP in your muscles decreases until your fail. So by supplementing with creatine your body will be able to re-synthesize ATP at a faster rate which will allow you to pump out a few extra reps, or add 5 more pounds to the bar. So my suggestion would be to load 20 grams per day of micronized creatine monohydrate starting a week before pct. Split the doses up into 4 5gram doses and take them with a sugary drink. One of these doses would be best taken with your post workout shake. Then after your 7 day loading phase you can back off to just 5 grams a day, and again take it with your post workout shake consisting of both carbs and protein. The fast acting carbs in the shake will spike your insulin levels and transport the creatine directly to your muscles.
Glutamine
Glutamine is an essential amino acid and the most common amino acid found in the skeletal muscles. As I've stated many times in this article our bodies are extremely catabolic during pct. Among other benefits, glutamine is great at starving off muscle catabolism. It is also great at aiding in muscle recovery after bouts of intense exercises. Since you are no longer on steroids your recovery is going to be compromised, so supplementing with glutamine has proven to be very beneficial for me. Glutamine is routinely given to patients by doctors after surgery due to its healing and recovery benefits. So what that said take 5 grams upon waking, 5 grams pre workout to help fight off catabolism during your workout, and 5 grams before bed. You can wait and start this when you start pct, theres no need to load.
Pre workout
As you all know having low testosterone can make you feel very lethargic, and unmotivated among many other things. So using a pre workout during pct can really help get you pumped up and energized for training. Most of the strong pre workouts containing amphetamines like the old jacked, and crazed have been banned but I have found a few that still work really well. I personally like C-4, and the new jacked, not the jacked 3d micro that came out after the ban of the original.
BCAA's
This supplement I have not personally used during my pct but the idea popped into my head recently. I plan on adding it to this pct coming up and I think it would be great to sip on during a workout to give your muscles fuel, and avoid catabolism. It will also be great to sip on if you insists on doing cardio during pct.
Rest Week
Now this is highly individualized. Some guys can lift 12 months a year without ever needing to take more then the weekend off. I personally cannot do this. After about 3 months or so I crashed If I don't take a full week of rest. But just remember this, the entire time you have been on cycle the steroids have been accelerating your muscle recovery, but they do nothing for your central nervous system and that takes a pounding each and every workout. If you're like me and need to take a rest week every so often then you need to plan it into your cycle. Pct and the month after is not the time to do so. If you don’t take a rest or at least de load week at some point during your cycle then your looking at roughly 22 weeks straight in the gym before your at a point where you can safely take a rest week. 12 weeks on cycle plus two weeks wait period plus four week pct plus the month after pct. One month post pct is the earliest I think a rest week should be taken. So my suggestion would be to take a rest week during the first week you’re waiting to start pct. Then you come back fresh and ready to go for at least the next 9 week. The last thing you want to happen is to burn out during pct. Overtraining sucks, and a lot of guys will say theres no such thing as overtraining, just under eating and sleeping. While this is true for your muscle, this is not the case for your central nervous system. You can eat all you want but the only way for your CNS to recover is will proper rest. But like I said we are all different and some guys never need a full week of rest, but some of us do. So if your someone who does you should plan a rest or de load week into your cycle before pct.
Injuries
You should already know to be smart in the gym and not lift with your ego. Nobody really cares how much you can lift, and a lot of times ego lifting will get your injured. If you get injured during your pct or really at any point you will lose muscle. But you will lose it at a much faster rate if it occurs directly after your cycle. So lift heavy and hard, but also lift smart. So make sure your warming up throughly and lifting with good form.
Stress
As you all know stress can greatly effect many aspects of your life including your time in the gym. High levels of stress are associated with lower levels of testosterone, higher levels of cortisol and many other things that are detrimental to a successful pct. You want to avoid your pct overlapping with stressful times in your life. So If you’re working on an important deal or project at work, having a new baby, moving to a new city etc is not a good time to be coming off a cycle and starting your pct so just try to plan accordingly.
Sleep
Sleep is often overlooked but a very important aspect of your routine, especially during pct. Make sure you get a least 7-8 hours of sleep a night, more if possible. Sleep is when your muscles and CNS recover and rebuild the most. Since your recovery abilities are now limited during pct you want to make sure you get your 8 hours every single night.
So these are just some things I have learned from my experiences, and talking with others. Theres no point in spending all the money on gear and food, and dealing with the shitty side effects that steroids can cause just to lose all the muscle you worked so hard to gain. So good luck to all you guys and happy cycling!
if I've missed anything or you want to add please feel free.
