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Keeping
It Up
How
to maintain your gains post cycle Part I
by
Maki Riddington
For
more information on Maki Riddington and WannaBeBig.com please click
the above banner.
Note:
This article is geared (pun intended) towards the moderate user
(defined as 400mg-1000mg/week). It is not intended for the advanced
user who stays on for long periods or year round and uses more then a
gram per week plus Insulin, GH and other goodies.
Life
is good. You've got money in the bank. You're dating Barbie, the hot
silicone blonde from the gym, and you've just amassed 15 pounds of
lean muscle on your current cycle. With this newfound muscle under
your belt, 24/7 pumps, heavier weights lifted with each new session,
and a sex drive that'd put Hugh Hefner and Ron Jeremy combined to
shame, the good times are definitely rolling. What more could a
meathead ask for? Probably a whole lot more, but that's beside the
point. However, all good things must come to an end. Week 12 has
arrived and you've just taken your last shot.
For
newbies the weeks ahead will be met with mixed feelings and for the
non-virgins the routine is far too familiar. Your balls are no longer
swole, your pumps are going to disappear quicker than a fat lady
gobbles down a Krispy Kreme, and your strength is going to drop. Oh
yeah, your newly acquired muscle gain is going to take a beating. Fun
stuff, eh? Of course, there's always the option of bridging until
your next cycle, but what's the point? You're going to have to come
off sometime, that is, if you value your health and your balls enough
to quit.
Granted
you've been smart and planned out your entire cycle in advance, it
should be safe to say that the post cycle therapy (PCT) portion has
been designed according to the type of drugs and their reactions with
each other and with your body. So, what else can be done to offset
the classic post cycle symptoms? Well, there are three areas that
need to be addressed.
Training
Nutrition
Supplements
The
understanding of how to implement the proper use of each area will
not only allow you to hold on to your newly acquired muscle, it may
also create some more muscle tissue in the process, even if it is a
small amount.
Gearing
Down Coming off isn't a walk in the park. A user often faces
multiple symptoms such as weight loss, a decrease in body strength,
loss of muscle tissue, increased fat deposits due to a drop in
nutrient partitioning (more on this in Part II), a decrease in
motivation to train, depression, laziness and a lack of self
discipline. All of this is caused by a catabolic state induced by a
decrease in testosterone production and an increase in cortisol.
Simply stated, you've got the post cycle blues. Your life now sucks.
All those gains are going bye bye. Or so you think. Alas, there's
hope for your poor small-balled self.
With
the proper knowledge, dedication, and testicular fortitude, holding
onto the majority of your strength and size gains after a cycle is
not such a far fetched idea. In most cases it appears that taking two
steps forward and one step backward is the result in carrying out a
properly designed cycle. However, what many end up doing, is taking
one step forward and two steps backward. In other words, many people
know how to build up muscle while using steroids but very few
understand how to maintain that muscle afterwards. Let me explain.
Most
trainees put a lot of time and effort into planning a cycle and very
little into a training program. It almost seems that the majority of
trainees feel that an increase in effort in combination with one or
more injections a week magically solves their problem! However, an
increase in effort does not and will never make up for a poorly
planned program. For those who have put aside some time to draw up a
program, they still tend to ignore the post cycle phase, which can
bring about our worst fears, small balls, no hair, and big
breasticles. A cycle doesn't end after the last injection. It stops
when the next one is started. However, if you're one of the rare few
who've decided to play it safe and only plan on doing one cycle a
year, understanding how to come off a cycle is extremely important as
opposed to those who come off and go back on after a 2-4 month hiatus.
After
a cycle, the muscles are in need of a stimulation that is at a level
close to what they had been given while "on." Unfortunately
many times trainees become paranoid afterwards and continue to keep
the level of intensity high. Big mistake! This causes a couple of
things. For starters, it opens up the body to burn out in the form of
neural fatigue. This in part, is primarily because the body can no
longer cope with the demands that are being placed upon it. The
hormonal system is in a state of recovery and the body cannot
withstand the same amount of stress anymore. Two, injury can and
often does occur as the loads used can no longer be supported by the
body due to the rapid increase of muscle tissue and the lag in
development of the supporting soft tissues. As a result you have a
strong muscle but your tendons and ligaments cannot support the
muscles that are being used to lift the loads.
Instead
of sucking it up and kissing 40% or more of that hard earned muscle
away post cycle, a training program needs to be structured in such a
way that it allows for the body to adapt back to it's regular state
and still allows for a stimulus to be received.
For
this to happen, several variables need to be examined. The two most
important for our purposes are the frequency of the workouts during
the cycle, the number of sets performed and the rep range. I've left
some other variables out, however these are the main variables that
most trainees change in a program. For simplicities sake I've drawn
up a couple of generic programs that might be employed during a
cycle, for examples.
The
Strategy and Programs The number of times you "hit it"
is important in most relationships. If you skimp on frequency,
performance suffers, and as a result your relationship weakens. The
same can be said about the frequency of training sessions, the body,
and the relationship between strength and size. During a cycle most
people increase the frequency due to increased recovery. However,
post cycle the number of sessions in a week should be altered as the
body is now in a state of recovery. Nevertheless, there are
exceptions to certain rules; this being one of them. If you were
training five to six days a week during your cycle, the same
frequency can still be maintained almost to the same degree, however
one of the other exercise variables (mentioned above) involved must
be changed (more on this later).
If
your training has been based around a six day split, cutting the
frequency down a day or more will give the body some much needed time
to recuperate. Below are some examples of how your training frequency
can be structured when coming off the above outlined programs. Here
are five, four, and three day splits that can be used. The choice of
muscles worked each day may be varied.
Increasing
the Volume Once the frequency of training has been chosen, the
next step is to choose the number of sets or the amount of volume
that will be used in the routine. The number of sets selected will
depend on the level of intensity you'll be using. Intensity, for the
purpose of this article, can also be defined as the overall work load
used in a training program (determined by the frequency and number of
sets employed). For example, if you have been training to failure
using a high number of sets, it should be quite obvious that you
cannot continue training in the same manner. That said, to maintain
the same level of intensity the number of sets employed must be
lowered. You do this because there is an inverse relationship between
intensity and the number of sets used in a workout session. As seen
below the number of sets chosen should coincide with the frequency.
Below are some examples based upon the first two example routines I
outlined above.
Spicing
Things Up
Variety
is the spice of life. Although cliché, it's the truth though,
and most likely throughout your cycle, the repetition range that's
been used has varied. Post cycle, however, repetition ranges should
stay the same if they've been altered. Let me explain a bit further.
High
reps are known to primarily work on increasing the non-contractile
proteins and the semi fluid plasma between the muscle fibers. In
scientific circles the 140 pound lab techs call this sarcoplasmic
hypertrophy. Meatheads refer to this as "pump training."
The other type, low rep training, is called sarcomere hypertrophy.
This is otherwise known as power training. It works on increasing the
size and number of the sarcomeres that make up the myofibrils. Each
type of hypertrophy has a different effect. Bodybuilders and those
purely interested in aesthetics train using the pump method. Athletes
who are in sports that require explosiveness and speed train
primarily using the power method. Training post cycle should focus on
a variety of rep ranges. Low rep training focuses on neuromuscular
efficiency, which in turn is responsible for strength production with
minimal hypertrophy. Higher rep training focuses more on hypertrophy
while placing less emphasis on the neuromuscular system. If one area
is favored the other will suffer. So, to stay big and strong it is
imperative that you utilize a mixed rep range in your training
program. Below I've outlined the programs in their entirety so you
can see what the programs look like once all the variables I
mentioned have been added in.
Coming
off a cycle isn't fun, and it's not an easy task. Truthfully, it
sucks. However, with proper precautions taken, and by simply
following the guidelines I've provided, the post-cycle transition
won't be so rough. It's that simple.
Next
month, I'll outline some of the nutritional stumbling blocks that
you might face after a cycle and some supplements that might offset
this problem.
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Article by Maki Riddington.
*
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