bigred250's picture
bigred250
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Update on Offseason

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Stats: 6'5 - 251lbs
Experience: 8 years consistently
Cycle: Test 500, EQ 400 - 4th or 5th cycle

See picture 1 for muscle groups and exercises.
Typically I train 2 days on, 1 day off, 3 days on, 1 day off, repeat
Taking it back to the tried and true. Nothing fancy. Took out my pressing movements the last 6-8 weeks and missed them very much. Had to add them back into the programming. Not really focused on growing any particular muscle group specifically. Looking for overall growth. 5-7lbs of lean muscle tissue would be a blessing.
Cardio: 15min HIIT sessions once or twice a week. If I am feeling lazy then I do 20-30 min steady state cardio instead.

Diet: see picture 2 for average weekly calorie count and weight increase.
Macros are typically around 250-300g protein, 400-450g carbs and 100-120g fat.
Cheat meals are once a week typically. Recently, been on a candy kick. I'll eat maybe 3-4 servings of sour candy maybe 2-3 times a week.

Cycle is going well, however my blood pressure has jumped up significantly and I am likely going to drop the EQ and bump test up to 600mg/wk. Before the cycle, BP sat around 110-120/70 but now being on EQ the last 9 weeks my BP sits 140-150/90. Heart attacks run in the family so it makes me extremely uneasy if my BP isn't absolutely perfect. Doc prescribed me some Lisinopril at 10mg/day but I am in a position where I know what the cause is so why even run EQ when other compounds like test don't give high BP.

It has been a while (1.5 - 2 years) since I have done any kind of strength training. I was wondering if doing heavier sets in the beginning of the workout could equate to more muscle breakdown leading to more size? I have been contemplating some heavy compound movements in the beginning of the workout and then doing sets of 10-15 for the rest of the exercises. What do y'all think?

Makwa's picture

Muscle has no concept of weight, only tension. Maximum muscle hypertrophy occurs with a TUT between 40-80 sec. So, the majority of your sets if interested in maximum hypertrophy should be within that range. With "Heavier" weight you will likely fail to hit that TUT goal. It will help make you stronger quicker but you won't get as big doing those type of workouts. Need to focus on oner or the other, Bodybuilder or powerlifter, pretty hard to be both. It is good to have a variety of rep ranges to target all of the different types of muscle fibers from Type 1 to Type 2a,b so a few so-called heavy sets would be Ok if bodybuilding, just don't make it the bulk of your workout. 10% or less for my workouts is the max for me. My heavy sets consist of being able to do at least 6 controlled reps of a weight. If I can't hit that 6th rep it is too heavy for me.

lundgren's picture

Hello,
thanks coach <3