Low dose test to help prevent over-training

[hollywoodfw]

If diet was on and sleep was adequate, would that help a person be able to go harder for longer by injecting a little bit of Test? Basically I'm wondering if it'll work just as well to repair muscle damaged for heavier cardio sessions like it helps repair muscles for heavy weight training? The cardio is for fitness sake, not to shed body fat.

 

[Zyglamail]

If diet was on and sleep was adequate, would that help a person be able to go harder for longer by injecting a little bit of Test? Basically I'm wondering if it'll work just as well to repair muscle damaged for heavier cardio sessions like it helps repair muscles for heavy weight training? The cardio is for fitness sake, not to shed body fat.

Cardio is one word I hate because there is no standard definition for it. When I think cardio I thing 65-75% max heart rate for 30+ minutes at a crack.

This kind of training builds endurance by causing muscle cells to bloat so they can hold more energy. Hypertrophy causes cells to increase in size by increasing the motor portion of the muscle cell. These 2 things are directly opposed to each other and extended duration cardio builds cortisol which is also catabolic.

If you want to improve the bodies strength and ability to feed the muscle quickly you need to train at very high heart rates with movements that actually tax the muscle. This will cause the body to adapt by slight hypertrophy as well as establishing pathways to feed the muscle cells during times of high demand. Since this sort of training also involves very high heart rates and short durations (usually less than 15 minutes) it also increases lung capacity (ie vo2max).

Test can help overcome damage by hypertrophy training but its benefit, in my opinion, is no where near as good as what can be developed by altering your training to improve metabolic conditioning. Add test to great metabolic conditioning and you will be amazed at what you can do.

Heavy moderate rate heartrate cardio doe not cause muscle damage like hypertrophy training does so test will be of limited benefit.

 

[hollywoodfw]

To clear up cardio I'm talking one day a week each of long distance swimming and running, progressively building up distances and then 2 days a week each of sprint type training both swimming and running. Mixing it up every once in a while with some biking or rowing. The majority of it will be sprint work though with distance being more of mental test (when higher mileage is achieved) and also just to condition the body to be able to go those distances.

 

[Zyglamail]

To clear up cardio I'm talking one day a week each of long distance swimming and running, progressively building up distances and then 2 days a week each of sprint type training both swimming and running. Mixing it up every once in a while with some biking or rowing. The majority of it will be sprint work though with distance being more of mental test (when higher mileage is achieved) and also just to condition the body to be able to go those distances.

Thats kind of what I assumed, moderate long duration is what most mean when they say cardio. I dont think test will give you much of a boost in this area, maybe a little but not like it will for mass gains.

 

[hollywoodfw]

All right, I always wondered about that. Makes me want to do some more research into the kind of damages long distance and sprint work do on the body and how it recovers from that...

 

[lmm23]

I think over-training is used as a sloppy definition for a variety of results from working-out. When I was running track seriously, I was often over-training, particularly from high intensity sprint work combined with weights over a period of weeks; but I would bounce back after 4 days relative rest in better shape than before. This is over-reaching rather than over-training; and it would happen far less when "on". The only problems would be bacterial / viral that everyone faces.

Cardio, though, I agree, can really mess you up - if done to a high level. I started doing 40 miles per week (granted, few on the board will be looking / needing that much) a few years ago, with 2 x weights per week, because my priorities changed. I've been fucked now for two years: dizziness, fatigue, depression, weight changes, flickering eyelids, constant swelling of glands, etc.

I was taking minimal supplements at the time - glutamine, vits, etc; so, I suspect I could have added some test in there to buffer the raised cortisol. But the problem with combining weights and high cardio is that, neurologically, you stress both the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. The parasympathetic is less benefitted from supplementary test, so if you over stress the system (which works antagonistically to the sympathetic), you raise the risk of implicating the other in the overtrained state; and even by adding test in the overtrained state, it is difficult to recover. Only rest will help - and it can take years, believe me. One of the main problems is that when you try to re-introduce some anaerobic work, inc. weights, this will actually stress out not only the sym- but the parasympathetic NS, because you are overtrainined, and you go back to square one.

If you live a very stressful life (as I did), and are already hitting the sympathetic nervous system hard, you need to be really careful with the cardio, even when "on". Look out for changing in mood (in particular, depression and aggressiveness (more moody than 'pumped', if that makes sense, and lack of motivation). That's the best guide. I wouldn't rely on test to buffer the (potential) dangers - and I certainly would bear in mind that orals usually have the effect of raising cortisol, so as acting to compound problems that are building up.

Don't want to sound like an alarmist prick, but thought it worth using my extreme case study to point out danger of too much of a good thing...

 

[hollywoodfw]

That's been extremely helpful, thank you.