Been pondering for a while with a number of thoughts based on what I see and read today on the Forums and a few posts from Muta and Viking and others made me put my thoughts down in to a post.

So to set the scene a little....I’ve been around the boards since I would say 1995 not sure if any of the old school people frequent these boards but if you do - you may remember Elite Fitness when it was a CGI board with no username and password and youd just post? Then came a tirade of other boards from 1998 to 2005 - AB, Triedia, Fina Farm, Meso, and numerous others....i even remember Anabolex when it had some core good people on it! TBH theres too many good boards to list! DNP was becoming famous and the IN thing to take and experience back in 2002-ish and then came the rest of the drugs.

You’d learn a lot and you’d see a lot of bullshit and broscience. Back then Brewing was a rage and many would buy Fina Pellets and brew themselves. Animal was one of the key guys that was an expert in this area and many took off from him.......that was then......THIS IS NOW!

So the purpose of this thread? NOTHING SEEMS TO HAVE CHANGED. PEOPLE ARE STILL DOING WHAT OTHERS DID AND NOONES LEARNING FROM OTHER PEOPLES EXPERIENCES!.

It's all just the same; but with MORE people asking the same stuff but doing it wrong on a LARGER SCALE! Learning curve over the last 15 years and information on Diet, Nutrition, Training and Drugs has taken a whole new dimension and allowed people to attain results that could take 1/3 of the time....yet people dont seem eager to read or learn? Why?

If I was 21 now - I am 100% convinced that I could achieve numerous goals in BB and PL in a fraction of the time - as many people have shared theIR experience in diet, nutrition, training and drugs.

So what's confuzzling me?

I was looking through the Pics and Cycles section and the number of people taking so many compounds is totally shocking. Their physiques do not represent the amount of steroids and GH they take. Yet they haven’t reached 25 and seem to be happy with adding more and looking for the next fix? Why is this? LEARN from people...READ and ABSORB and then EXECUTE! You guys have a wealth of knowledge out there with people who have done all the hard work and graft to allow you NOT to make the same mistakes we have! We as humans need to evolve and we do that via the environment, adaption and experience!

Fundamental Foundation
At what point do you take the route of Steroids? Is not the answer simple? When you have reached within 20-30% of your natural genetic potential, at least? If you have started training or even have 3-4 years under your belt what are you lifting? If you aren’t anywhere near

Deadlifts : 3.5 plates a side : 12 reps
Squats : 3 plates for 20 reps
Bench : 3 plates for 10 reps
Overhead Press : 2 Plates for 10 reps

Why are you even considering Steroids or GH or Both?! Those figures were examples obviously and I totally acknowledge and understand that its relative - but the point I am making is that you should be striving to get to a strength position which is well above the average of your body type / structure.
For example - I started training at 15 and trained till I was 24 before touching ANYTHING. First few years I was limited to Muscular Development from USA delivered to my local Newsagents and then I had access to the Internet and the first few boards were out but in general I went through a whole cycle of learning through trial and error! I tried every goddamn routine to man! I kid you not!

There is not a single routine I haven’t tried! But I was subjective AND objective! I let each routine carry on for a minimum of 4 weeks to gauge how it worked for me. I have done Volume Training, HIIT, Extreme HIIT, DC, Medium, TUT, Numerous Splits, Cardio : LISS, Cardio : HIIT , Cardio : HIIT + LISS - in fact I don’t think there is a training split I haven’t tried! But what I did make sure in my starting was that I had a good base!

By 20 I was

Squating : 4 Plates for 15
Benching : 55kg Bells
Deadlifting : 4 plates a side for 7 reps
Shoulder Press DB : 45kg
Dips with weight : 60KG
Chins : up to 30 BW

The above was my fundamental core it was what I had naturally and what I busted my ass off in getting to and even today I can do those figures and weights with EASE! It was only then and after then [few years later] that I started a light stack of Test and Deca but that's a diff story.

Now that's a HUGE contrast to what I see today! I live in London and also work in California [few months in each] and I tell you - the level of unconscious incompetence out here is shocking! People just don’t want to put in hard graft! The number of times I have seen people bang on steroids without any sort of base is amazing! In fact it’s the norm! Social Pressure? Possibly! Laziness? Definately! Consciously Incompetent? More than likely!

Diet
This one is huge and my own personal take on diet and BB is somewhat controversial as I don’t believe in the usual garbage of

Post Work Out Shakes

5 Meals A Day

Stupendous Amounts of Protein per Day

However I will save that for another day as Diet and Nutrition is a huge topic!

Diet is key but equally very easy!

Protein : Simple! Hybrid sources and strive for 1g/1lb of LEAN MUSCE TISSUE
Carbs : Relative to body type but 1.5 to 2.5 / 1lb of LEAN MUSCLE TISSUE
FATS : Essential and get missed! Coconut Oil, Olive Oil, Meat Fat, Nuts, you get the drift
Supplements : Creatine, Beta Alanine, Curcumin, Resv, Vit D and a good solid Multi Vit and Mineral

Work back from your numbers and eat to ensure the total caloric and macro profile delivers your goals!
How hard is this? Simple isn’t it?

Majority of issues in gains come from Diet - people react to foods differently! I will say that again - PEOPLE REACT TO FOODS DIFFERENTLY. The only way you can find out how your body deals with FOOD is to have a Food Allergy Test - but again - that's a different post

Steroids and Peptides
Seems the "IN" thing to take as much as you can with as many compunds as possible? Why? Have you any idea how low amounts you can use and get away with if your DIET and TRAINING are on point? It would shock many of you! A mere 400-500mg Test and a simple NPP addition of 300mg a week could pack on serious size and strength if done right. Manipulation of compounds in small doses can work wonders IF YOU TAKE THE TIME TO UNDERSTAND WHAT THEY DO TO YOU AND HOW THEY WORK.

Steroids and Timing: Why are people taking steroids when they are 20% fat? STOP!! Spend 12 weeks on a good diet and training regime and lost the fat! Get down to MINIMUM 15% Bodyfat and watch your gains from Steroids soar! I kid you not - the gains and efficiency of Steroids have been well documented and you will experience a serious surge in growth t a lower bodyfat. I can even go in to depletion and super compensation techniques and how this method "on cycle" could make gains seem unbelievable but its all basic science once you break it down.

Getting LEAN is easy without any assistance but if you need it take 300mg of long acting Test every 7th day and work on a strength based routine. The following will get even the most insulin resistant trainee lose fat!

5 x 5 Routine 3 times per week
Work Up to 30 Mins LISS Cardio per day
Perform 100 Burpees first thing in the morning every other day
Control your Insulin as Insulin STOPS fat burning

Focus on getting stronger from the 5x5 routine, and use the LISS and HIT to shred the fat off!
It really is THIS simple! YOU WILL LEAN UP with the above! Ive put over 55 people on that basic setup and ALL have leaned up – my biggest success was from 32% to 12% in 17 weeks NATURAL.

General Health
How healthy are you? How is your diet? Are you getting the body’s essentials everyday? Do you have regular health screens or blood tests? All of this comes in to play. People are happy spending 100’s and 1000’s on Steroids and HGH but arent willing to have 2 blood tests every 3 months?! How does that work?! You are NOTHING without your health!
All those in the early 20’s now. Do you want to be around in your 40’s, 50’s,60’s and 70’s? Trust me – when you have a family and have kids – you WILL want to. Being able to see your family grow is far more important then addressing your body issues! Once you have kids you will realise this!

The Psychological Saga
This is the one that probably affects many of us! How we see ourselves, The reason why we started training, Our OCD, Our drive and desire to be big and all the issues that we have to somehow address by being big and muscular. Yep! We all have some of them so don’t deny it! We all have those insecure demons in our heads or the reason why we feel we MUST be this big or that strong! Again, this area is huge and would need a whole thread on this but its seldom talked about but is present in I would say 99.9% of us.

With the right mind set – you can practically do anything! It’s what determines your success and failure.

Learn to control your thoughts and emotions. Review how you react to people. Learn to communicate and dialogue in the right manner. If you can grasp your mind - you will have already overcome your BIGGEST potential obstacle. Next time you get angry and your GF/Wife/Man in the street STOP. Take a min to understand WHY you got angry and if your response was justified? You remember that time when your GF said something and you went in to a rage or started shouting? Ask if the response was justified? Put it in to context of the situation and realise that its seldom that bad! One thing I do that has helped me for over 10 years is to have no more thn 5 to 10 mins per day of you just thinking! I do this via a walk around my block and just thinking about what I need to do, why I am doing it and what I need to overcome to get there.

YOU can do virtually anything if you have the right people around you, the right mental attitude and the will and desire for success

We as strength training muscle hounding people have a few issues pschologically. Many of those bang on steroids have a ADDICTIVE personality. Sadly, this clouds our better judgement and potentially leads us to more harsher cycles and even harsher social drugs. TAKE CONTROL! Stop those demons trying to destroy you....you DONT need more, You WILL be ok OFF CYCLE and you CAN train hard during POST CYCLE RECOVERY. Understand what your "set points" are and remember that you have advanced

Harness your brain and always strive to educate it more!

Training :
I have a very simple view on training.

Take advantage of the 2 variants for Hypertrophy : Myofibrillar and Sarcoplasmic and do them as many times as possible; once recovered!

Google is your friend for a description but this was page 1

Myofibrillar Hypertrophy.
Myofibrillar Hypertrophy occurs when the muscle fiber gains more myofibrils, which in turn contract leading to greater tension within the muscle fibre. This will provide a greater density to the muscle tissue, resulting in a 'hard' look. Myofibrillar hypertrophy will result in increases in strength and power.

Sarcoplasmic Hypertrophy
Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy occurs when there is an increase in sarcoplasm within the cell. This is a type of fluid which does not stimulate or enhance the muscle contraction, it simply increases the size of the muscle cell. This can be as much as 25-35%. So the obvious result of sarcoplasmic hypertrophy will be an increase in muscle mass.

In simple terms – train in the 3-6 range, followed by 6-12 range and then 12-20 range in ONE workout for a muscle group and train the muscle as many times as possible. Forget weeks and months – be instinctive! If it takes two days to recover train it again, If it takes 4 days to recover train it again! The body works, adapts and grows better when its put under stress in an unstructured way!

I could go in to lots of examples and thoughts and my own results on training ON and OFF gear – and if it helps ONE person I am more than happy to share my journey for what works best – for me! But in summary

2 days on 1 day off
Chest / Back / Shoulders
Legs / Arms

Pick ONE CORE exercise for the bodypart and ONE isolation
3 set total : 5 reps / 10 reps and 15 reps - DONE! for CORE Exercise
2 x 10 Sets for the Isolation
The CORE reps must be done to near failure BUT NOT failure. You must ALWAYS have ONE rep left
DONE! Go Home and Recover

YOU WILL GROW LIKE A WEED ON THIS! ONLY if you ensure each session you increase the weight, increase the TUT or Increase the Reps.

This brings me on to the next point relating to training! DONT IGNORE YOUR CARDIO! Your V02 max and Cardio Health is extremely important! I ignored it for many years as I thought I knew best! Little did I know! When I started experiementing with diff HIT Cardio I realised just how out of shape i was. Yes, I was strong as hell but could I run or could I be agile? FUCK NO! [excuse my language!] I started by doing bodyweight complexes [YOUTUBE is your freind] and BURPEES. If you dont do BURPEES look in to them. IMO, one of the BEST BW Exercises you could do for overall conditioning! Your aim? 100 in as little time as possible! My first time when I did them I got to 100 in 8 mins 15 seconds and I thought I was going to have a heart attack! I later realised it was a decent time and what got me to 100 was my mental attitiude. But since adding them my overal conditioning is excellent! I just wish I looked after that side of training years ago!

GOALS : If you don’t have goals you don’t have a path! If you don’t have a path you dont know how to plan the route,. If you dont know how to plan the route, you dont know what the onstacles are, and if you dont know what the obstacles are, then you will not be prepared for issues and outcomes.

Lots more to write to be honest – but take home messages based on my experiences are

• YOU can do virtually anything if you have the right people around you, the right mental attitude and the will and desire for success
• You REALLY don’t need lots of drugs to get relatively big and strong. You will know if you have Pro BB genetics even before you need to take Drugs! Your body will respond favorably with training
• You can get to sub 10 % bodyfat WITHOUT steroids
• You don’t need to eat stupid amounts of calories ON and OFF cycle to get big! If you do you’ll just add silly amounts of fat!
• You need a solid training foundation and you don’t need Drugs to get that!
• Your mind is the biggest and most complex muscle! It makes you and it breaks you! Control it!
• Don’t overcomplicate things! Gaining size and strength is basic proven science!
• Assess yourself and ask yourself if you need the number of drugs you take to sustain your current position and do you really think it’s worth it?
• Find something that works, and keep doing it till it stops working then readjust!
• Keep things SIMPLE! Training for size and strength is about breaking down and rebuilding. The more rebuilding phases you have, the more growth opportunities you have!
• Make sure you have mini goals and strive to better your log book EVERY session. This can mean weight, reps, speed, TUT and movements

Appreciate I have not gone in to immense detail in some of the areas but overall this was my brain dump!

If it helps one person good my time in writing this has been worthwhile!

EDITED FOR CARDIO SUMMARY

The Cardio Conundrum

So after numerous years of trying various forms of cardio and using it/them for various goals such as

• Maintain leanness
• General Fat Loss
• Cardio Health and Conditioning

However, before I go in to this in more detail I guess it’s important to provide some context to this Post. My views are based on a person training for overall strength, size and conditioning. It is not made to get in to sub 7% conditioning for a short period of time for a show.

Anyway…………….

I have come to the conclusion that if you want to make and get the best gains in strength and muscle building you need to keep tabs on your general cardio capacity and body fat [>15%] and also adopt a strategic view point on your general cardio regime

I, on one hand, didn’t do this and just kept focusing on strength and size. This led me to a place where my overall V02 max was appalling and my general conditioning and agility was pretty shit. IE get out of breath relatively easy, couldn’t play Soccer for sustained periods, would get out of breath after a flight of stairs etc. etc. It wasn’t until I was fortunate enough to train with a incredibly knowledgeable trainer in London that I changed my whole approach to Cardio. [As well as this - I also had a full medical as part of my Life Insurance which had me run through numerous tests and my results for the cardiac output weren’t the best for what I thought I have achieved physically]

What I am getting at here is ignore your agility, conditioning and VO2 at your peril. If you don’t look after your heart and overall conditioning - expect problems as you progress in life.

This brings me on to a related subject which generally poses the following questions

What is the best form of cardio?
Is pre-food / no food cardio the best?
Does cardio on empty stomach burn the most fat?
Does HIIT and EPOC create the best environment for sustained fat loss?

So I’ll throw my thoughts to the above question in the non-structured order above

What is the best form of cardio?

I have found that the answer to this question relates to the goals you are trying to achieve. Many people that may be reading this will no doubt be looking at creating a caloric deficit in order to induce some kind of Fat Loss? If this the case - then you will more than likely default to 30 minutes on the treadmill at 5kph OR the stair climber and do this for mind numbing days and hours whilst also cutting back drastically on your calories. Net-effect? Lose Fat and Lose Muscle you may not have needed to.

I see [and have done] many hours on the Treadmill over the years going up to 60 mins every day at its deluded worse. Net affect? Lost fat but also lose lean tissue – even in the presence of Exogenous Hormones.

So what if I want to lose fat, improve my VO2 and stay conditioned?.... Yep there’s an answer…read on
Is pre-food / no food cardio the best?

Not really sure about this. The body is extremely intelligent - it will look at your daily caloric input and then relate it to your expenditure and rebalance from that point. But it’s not all black and white! Why? Well, namely HORMONES! Hormones are integral to fat loss. Insulin, Glucagon, Glycogen and Leptin are all involved in various forms for optimal fat loss. Some key things to think about

• The Body cannot be in fat loss mode in the presence of Insulin
• The body takes a little longer to tap in to fat stores if you have full glycogen stores
• The body will cease using FFA's after a HIIT session if you consume Carbohydrates [that illicit an Insulin response.]
• When doing Steady State cardio the body will start using fat for fuel in as little as 10 minutes but the figure is proportional to how full your muscle and liver glycogen is

Anecdotally – is consuming 10g of Instant BCAA’s pre workout good for you? Yes. Will it cease fat stores being used in the cardio session? Not really – especially if you are mixing it up

So when you do perform Cardio in the early morning without food the following does hold true

• You will burn more energy from fat substrates but it can take anywhere from 15 to 25 minutes as liver and muscle glycogen do, by default, initially provide some energy for the activity. It then realises that the body and the ATP requirements are not extreme and so tells the body to tap in to fat stores. Now, this is where it gets interesting! The way and level in which this happens is dependent on your GENETICS! Yep! Blame your Parents! We have all seen and heard about those people that don’t need cardio and are always lean? Why do you think that is? Optimal substrate benchmarking within the body.

  • You will cease to burn fat once you stop the LISS cardio therefore many people adopt a 60 minutes cardio session. What is wrong with this? It's anti catabolic! Have you seen the muscular stature of a Marathon Runner? :-)

Does HIIT and EPOC create the best environment for sustained fat loss?

Now this ones an interesting one. Does anyone remember Muscle Media 2000 and Bill Phillips? You remember the HIIT Craze? My thoughts on HIIT in general

• If you are already lean - say >15% HIIT will be optimal for you to stay in good overall conditioning and to use it for fat loss

• If you are higher than this then the tax HIIT has on your body will be a lot more significant. Depending on your choice of HIIT it can be hard on your joints

  • What’s the deal with EPOC? Well here is another challenge with the EPOC data. Remember, that we know that it is near impossible for fat loss to occur in the presence of Insulin? So how valuable is EPOC if you then go an eat a carb meal after 20 mins of hard cardio [HIIT] ? Well - it’s not the valuable if you don’t control the Diet whilst adopting HIIT. Epoc WILL have an effect on net gain / net loss but how it does that depending on your genetics and current set points. We know that the more conditioned your body is - the better it is at losing fat and being fit and strong

Do you see how many contradictions there are for getting lean and optimising fat loss? Many just stick to what they know and spend hours on the treadmill for many weeks with less than efficient results but they get there in the end - but what if you could get there in 1/3 or 2/3 of the time? Well you can!
I have found that in order to make your fat loss AND conditioning optimal you need to understand the energy substrate utlisation the body goes through.

Rather than summarise herein what is optimal - I will share the data and journey I went through.
So I went through various proven and related studies which actually used TRAINED individuals over sustained period of time to conclude how the body adapts and uses energy within the body. Surprise Surprise - there was not that many! I wonder why!

Anyway - I then stumbled across 3 that were pretty interesting as they actually focused on the energy use and also the intensity of the exercise performed!

However, before I go in to that I want to highlight a few points

General Steady State cardio will consume calories and will create a deficit when under a diet – therefore you SHOULD lose weight/fat under a structured optimal diet

General Steady State cardio does and has worked for many. My post isn’t about whether you do or don’t do it. It is more about how to reach your goals more efficiently whilst also getting greater benefit.
Back to the study

So I want you all to read this. You should have numerous light bulb moments as you read it but remember we are interested in ENERGY SUBSTRATE UTILISATION. The paper should also enlighten many on substrate and ATP use within exercise – it’s extremely important to understand energy mechanisms in the body : http://startingstrength.com/articles/death_by_prowler_reynolds.pdf

Read it to the end? Ensure you focus on Page 5 – that’s where the key information is!
Good, now let’s summarise

To force the body to utilise the 3 main energy systems – you need to put the body in to a state of emergency. What I mean by that is high intensity movement for short bursts. This can be anything from 10 seconds to 60 seconds. But remember – the harder the HIIT the lower the burst period

When the 3 energy systems are used a mixture of substrate is broken down – namely glycogen and fat stores.

But – and this is a big BUT. What happens when you perform HIIT in Tabata Style or general 30 sec on and 60 sec off style for 10 rounds? You get FFA’s [Free fatty Acids] being broken down and released in to the blood stream. So what happens when you then go home / have your PWO with the insulin spike? Those FFA’s get shuttled back in to Muscle Cells OR Fat Cells.

So, how to avoid the above? Well mix up your Cardio! Start with HIIT sessions and then end with Steady State cardio for no more than 20 mins at a relatively fast pace.

One particular session I am doing right now is a mix of Burpees and Treadmill and its an amazing fat loss and conditioning session!

I perform the following 3 mornings per week

10 Mins Treadmill
50 Burpees
5 Mins Treadmil
50 Burpees
10 Mins Treadmill
25 Burpees
5 mins Treadmilll

Take Home Messages
Do NOT ignore cardio. It is an extremely important functional activity and ensure that you focus on conditioning cardio. Spending mindless minutes and days on the Treadmill is THE most inefficient way of losing weight

Mix up cardio and ensure you do steady state and HIIT in the same workout

Don’t be scared in losing muscle by doing HIIT. You will not! The diet is key to this as is the frequency
If you are training for size and strength condition the heart! If you don’t – your future has an increased change of looking bleak!

Think EFFICIENCY. Why do 5 hours of treadmill a week when you can do 1.5 hours of SS/HIIT and get near twice the results?