Starting TRT now

[hannes joubert]

Hi All. First off, thanks to every one who has participated in helping to get me this far...Way to pay it forward.

As per my other posts, I have rcvd my meds and have front loaded with hCG@250iu for the past two days. Tomorrow (Monday morning) I will pin my first 150mg's of Test E in my quad...(1st time pinning myself, so I would like to see what I am doing ) Next 150 mg's pin will be Thursday afternoon (following the 3.5 day plan) with a single 250iu hCG on Wednesday.

Concerning the diet and training, this is placed on the almanac for the New Year, being the silly season, I would like to firstly rest after a hectic year, and perhaps give my body time to acclimatise to the T that will be floating around...

Diet is worked out already, basic summary is high protein, good fats, moderate carb, with carb tapering and timing, especially around workouts.

Training is summarised as heavy compound movements on Monday and Friday, isolation exercises on Wednesday, with low intensity cardio on these days for warm up, the "odd" days will hopefully see HIIT cardio, if recovery allows.

My goal is to drop body fat to between 10% and 13%, (weight is not my issue, the fat is), improve cardio vascular fitness, get vitality back and perhaps have a good body to boot. At the moment cosmetics is of less importance. I just want to start living again is all.

So, I will continue posting progress from now, through until I start exercising, and will log everything that happens.

Thanks again to all who helped so unselfishly, for your patience and guidance.

God Bless, take care.

Cheers, H

 

[Zyglamail]

My goal is to drop body fat to between 10% and 13%, (weight is not my issue, the fat is), improve cardio vascular fitness, get vitality back and perhaps have a good body to boot. At the moment cosmetics is of less importance. I just want to start living again is all.

It sounds to me like you should alter your training approach to suit your goals. It seems like you are more concerned with cardio fitness and fat loss that appearance. There is nothing wrong with that at all and is actually very common as we get older, carrying around a lot of mass is just too much work and doesnt really do anything for you.

Right now you seem focused on a hypertrophy style workout with HIIT cardio as able based on recovery. These kind of workouts generally put mass as the primary goal with weight loss and even strength coming in after that.

So if you goal is cardio or more specifically VO2max output increases and fat loss I would really suggest switching to something like a crossfit program with a strength bias, yea I know its not well liked around here but in all my years I have not seen anything peel the fat of like crossfit. While not known for building big muscles the standard workouts can build some decent strength and if weighted with a strength bias can actually build very good strength.

 

[caribeman]

Best of luck my friend, keep us updated.

 

[XMAN.]

good luck bro

 

[hannes joubert]

Eish, 1st pin went off without a hitch, did not even need to aspirate more than once... Painless before and after, although did have a bit of a muscle twitch when the needle was going in to the hilt.

@ Zyglamail, thanks for the advice Bro. I guess I am going to have to make a decision, to drop the fat first, and then "bulk" Will definately look in to the crossfit program.

I have not yet felt any difference, but I assume that it is still a bit early to expect results

Cheers, H

 

[XMAN.]

about ur training bro even if u wanna focus on cardio and fat loss exercises and whatever u do never stop lifting weights and do it at least twice a week 60%-80% rep max, u want to preserve ur muscles as much as u can to keep burning the fat u have to keep the growth stimulus in ur muscles and watch out for ur diet that's a real fat loss program it starts from the inside. remember every 1 lbs of muscles burns 35-50 cals a day the more u grow in muscle the more u'll burn fat in the long run.
as for cardio if u don't have any heart issues and ur healthy stick to HIIT for at least 3 times a week for 20-25 min max per session.
your training program could look like that :
3 days per week M - W - F

full body workout , mostly compounds ,1-2 min rest between sets 60-80% rep max ascending it'll take 30 min max, u can occasionally reach the 90% of ur rep max.

then 25 min HIIT on a bike 8 sec sprint 12 sec rest on slow pace, keep the ratio 1:1.5, of course warm up for 2-3 min and cool down for another 2-3 min at the end so the real timing for it will be the 20 min in the middle no need for more.

good luck

 

[hannes joubert]

about ur training bro even if u wanna focus on cardio and fat loss exercises and whatever u do never stop lifting weights and do it at least twice a week 60%-80% rep max, u want to preserve ur muscles as much as u can to keep burning the fat u have to keep the growth stimulus in ur muscles and watch out for ur diet that's a real fat loss program it starts from the inside. remember every 1 lbs of muscles burns 35-50 cals a day the more u grow in muscle the more u'll burn fat in the long run.
as for cardio if u don't have any heart issues and ur healthy stick to HIIT for at least 3 times a week for 20-25 min max per session.
your training program could look like that :
3 days per week M - W - F

full body workout , mostly compounds ,1-2 min rest between sets 60-80% rep max ascending it'll take 30 min max, u can occasionally reach the 90% of ur rep max.

then 25 min HIIT on a bike 8 sec sprint 12 sec rest on slow pace, keep the ratio 1:1.5, of course warm up for 2-3 min and cool down for another 2-3 min at the end so the real timing for it will be the 20 min in the middle no need for more.

good luck

I agree...I want to stick to compounds because they work the whole body. I think I will adjust the method to reps to failure for three sets, reducing weight every time (there is a name for this method I think) This is a great way to get and keep intensity way up there. But, having said that I want to keep the isolations on Wednesday to give the body time to recover.

Trial and error to see what suits me I suppose. Some exercise is better than none as well...

H

 

[XMAN.]

I agree...I want to stick to compounds because they work the whole body. I think I will adjust the method to reps to failure for three sets, reducing weight every time (there is a name for this method I think) This is a great way to get and keep intensity way up there. But, having said that I want to keep the isolations on Wednesday to give the body time to recover.

Trial and error to see what suits me I suppose. Some exercise is better than none as well...

H

it's called strip sets or drop sets , i suggest changing methods rep range rest between sets and even the whole program like one muscle group per day from time to time, don't stick to the same program more than 12 weeks and always take a week or two rest between programs , it's called periodizing , u wanna change the way u hit ur system or u will hit a plateau and the periodic rest between programs is good for cns and joint recovery and it also makes u kind of loose a little bit of ur adaptation to exercising so when u come back is like feeling the old weights like something new and u can benefit from them again cuz eventually u will reach a certain weight u can never pass or add to it this is when u want to regain the benefits of the same old weights. 2 weeks gap won't do u a thing u won't loose any muscles if taking care of diet specially protein intake, u can keep a little cardio meanwhile.

 

[hannes joubert]

Schweet, thanks Xman. Don't get me to excited, I said I wanted to start next year...

 

[Zyglamail]

@ Zyglamail, thanks for the advice Bro. I guess I am going to have to make a decision, to drop the fat first, and then "bulk" Will definately look in to the crossfit program.

Losing fat and gaining mass dont have to be two separate issues. Ive been consistently replacing a lb of fat with a lb of muscle weekly for some time while maintaining a fairly steady bodyweigh. Thats where strength biasing crossfit comes in. Do CF wods prefaced by a couple compound heavy lifts. Give it 6 weeks with a super clean diet and you will be amazed at the results.