For the guys here who create their own programs.. are you progressing? Do you feel like progress has become very slow? Why do you chose the food items that you eat? Do they have a purpose and a reason? Do you understand why you chose those specifically? Or is it because you enjoy them and they are “Healthy”? Why do you chose the lifts that you do in the gym? Do you walk up and put the same weight on the machine every day because you feel like it gives you a good workout and a good pump? What purpose does each lift serve? How do you execute them?
These are just questions to get the mind going and get you thinking. Purpose of this post today is to share the theory of how I create my own program when I sit down and create it.
I think a TON of people are simply just going through the motions with no rhyme or reason behind anything besides “eat food, lift weight, pin tren” and are only operating at like 40% of their potential. So this post is going to explain how I personally program things for myself and why I chose everything that I chose. Hopefully this helps whoever structure their self made programs, if they weren’t already doing it before, so they can capitalize on their opportunity and start making real gains.
This is how I program myself once I went to “coaching” myself. The fundamentals are things I learned training with previous coaches, that I have then researched/expanded on and tailored to what I think fits me. This recipe is what I think the optimal recipe is for me, and others who are like me. Things obviously can and will change slightly on an individual basis.
Pre cycle - Start at a low bodyfat percentage so nutrients and gear are used better by the body. Keep carbs on the lower side of moderate (120-150g ish) for weeks coming into the cycle so that insulin sensitivity is optimal. It has had to have been enough time since last blast that androgen receptors are clear and sensitive and ready to react to and process larger amounts of anabolic hormones, while still being a high enough cruise dose to maintain gains and keep dick working, etc, off cycle. 200mg/wk seems to be a sweet spot.
Basis of training - 4.5 days a week in the gym lifting weights. cardio twice a week to keep general heart health etc. All days will start with a high intensity compound lift, low volume and heavy weight. (After a proper warm up of course). Starting with a heavy low volume compound lift ensures me 2 things. It allows me to track my strength to make sure that I am forcing myself to get stronger via progressive overload. It is easier to track strength increases on low volume 5 rep strength movements vs high volume 15 rep strength movements. An extra rep of a high volume movement could just be a good day, but adding 10 or so pounds to a low volume heavy weight compound lift is definitely progress.
The second thing is ensures is that I am achieving maximum effort on top sets. You can feel a super pump with 1-2 reps still left in the tank on high volume, but low volume you can take it right to failure and know that you’ve achieved maximum effort easier.
Then I follow that with higher volume accessories for the rest of the workout. Following heavy movements with volume movements allows me to feel the mind muscle connection in the volume movements more, because I’ve pre exhausted with the low volume maximum effort movements.
ALL lifts have controlled negatives with no momentum helping bring the weight up to the top of the rep to feel the squeeze. Higher Volume lifts have a brief hold/squeeze at the top of every rep with slower negatives. At the very end of a high volume set, I can use a little momentum or cheat the last couple of reps, just to ensure that absolute maximum effort is achieved during the set.
All body parts get 6-7 top working sets with 2-3 priming sets and 1-2 pump sets. For example if I was going to do 4 sets of bench press, the first set would be a priming set where I take the lift to where it’s challenging, but stop just short of maximum effort being achieved. The following 2 sets would then be top sets where I go to absolute effort and maybe even a forced rep at the end just to ensure that maximum effort has been achieved. The last set would then be more of a pump set. Not all lifts get priming or pump sets, if I already feel good going into a set, I don’t feel the need for what I call a priming set. The priming set just helps me get that mind-muscle connection for the following REAL working sets, with more weight than just warm up weight. It lets me feel it and focus on the contraction in the squeeze, but with more weight than a warmup. Of course a proper warmup is done first every time.
I stick to movements that I have a good connection with, where I can achieve the highest quality reps, and I don’t change the lifts much outside of those. I might swap some lifts in a workout for a different lift, but the lift I swap it for will 98% of the time be something that I am familiar with and have a good mind-muscle connection on, so I can really focus on the squeeze and the rep quality.
Basis of diet - Starting with 3500 calories a day and slowly taper up as the cycle progresses and caloric requirements change. Reaching a high of about 4200-4400 calories at the peak of the cycle. Foods chosen must not bloat or distant my stomach, or cause any consistent feeling of illness (such as eggs). Any food that causes those will be eliminated from the diet.
Each meal I am looking for roughly 45g of protein, 80g of carbs and under 15 grams of fat. The exception of the higher fat meal would be before bed time. Before bed time I would go up to 30-35g of fat and not worry about it too much, but I wouldn’t want that meal mid day.
Carb sources are focused on digestible qualities such as jasmine rice, bagels, potatoes, cream of rice, etc. Ideally I would like BG back close to baseline by the 2.5 hour mark after a meal. This is why I try and stick to low fat until the last meal as well.
Aiming for high sodium because sodium does help cells to absorb nutrients. Sodium is hydrophilic and increases blood volume. You will notice a short increase in blood pressure until your body achieves a new homeostasis of higher salt content. Then you will get large performance benefits as well as a moderate enhancement to nutrient partitioning because the cells can operate at higher efficiency.
Also aiming for low sugar generally all day, with an exception being post workout I will let myself have a little bit more sugar such as cereal to help create a post workout insulin spike, as long as the carbs are still adequate and digestible.
Basis of drugs - looking for high anabolic and low androgenic compounds here. I do not want any PEDs that effect mental state at all, as it then will effect every single part of this plan negatively. Diet, training, all of it.
Preferably would like to do everything injectable, and compounds that don’t have crazy aromatization because I am a high aromatizer. I think the sweet spot for me is about 1500mg of anabolic hormones total per week. After that the results are diminishing and the side effects start to show exponentially.
Drugs are pretty much limited to testosterone, deca, NPP, primo, anavar, GH and a glucose disposal agent. If someone else can handle other drugs, all the power to them, but I cannot. Also, I want to use high concentration compounds such as T400 and 200mg/ml primo. This lowers the needle holes and oil volume per week.
Metformin hasnt been experimented with as of yet, but I think a dose of 850mg of extended release metformin every day with meal 2 will be an effective start, and changes will be made from there based off blood glucose readings and requirements, as well as tolerability to the drug itself.
GH at 4iu every day as a bolus pre workout dose. More than 4iu and my hands are numb all of the time and I can’t handle how tired I am. I think any difference of splitting the GH dose into 2 doses per day is extremely neglibale and unnecessarily tedious. You are doubling the amount of needles you have to buy and holes you poke in yourself, the difference should be very noticeable for what you are doing extra, but it hasn’t been so I have no interest in continuing to split my GH dose. On rest days, GH will be taken around lunch time.
These are just questions to get the mind going and get you thinking. Purpose of this post today is to share the theory of how I create my own program when I sit down and create it.
I think a TON of people are simply just going through the motions with no rhyme or reason behind anything besides “eat food, lift weight, pin tren” and are only operating at like 40% of their potential. So this post is going to explain how I personally program things for myself and why I chose everything that I chose. Hopefully this helps whoever structure their self made programs, if they weren’t already doing it before, so they can capitalize on their opportunity and start making real gains.
This is how I program myself once I went to “coaching” myself. The fundamentals are things I learned training with previous coaches, that I have then researched/expanded on and tailored to what I think fits me. This recipe is what I think the optimal recipe is for me, and others who are like me. Things obviously can and will change slightly on an individual basis.
Pre cycle - Start at a low bodyfat percentage so nutrients and gear are used better by the body. Keep carbs on the lower side of moderate (120-150g ish) for weeks coming into the cycle so that insulin sensitivity is optimal. It has had to have been enough time since last blast that androgen receptors are clear and sensitive and ready to react to and process larger amounts of anabolic hormones, while still being a high enough cruise dose to maintain gains and keep dick working, etc, off cycle. 200mg/wk seems to be a sweet spot.
Basis of training - 4.5 days a week in the gym lifting weights. cardio twice a week to keep general heart health etc. All days will start with a high intensity compound lift, low volume and heavy weight. (After a proper warm up of course). Starting with a heavy low volume compound lift ensures me 2 things. It allows me to track my strength to make sure that I am forcing myself to get stronger via progressive overload. It is easier to track strength increases on low volume 5 rep strength movements vs high volume 15 rep strength movements. An extra rep of a high volume movement could just be a good day, but adding 10 or so pounds to a low volume heavy weight compound lift is definitely progress.
The second thing is ensures is that I am achieving maximum effort on top sets. You can feel a super pump with 1-2 reps still left in the tank on high volume, but low volume you can take it right to failure and know that you’ve achieved maximum effort easier.
Then I follow that with higher volume accessories for the rest of the workout. Following heavy movements with volume movements allows me to feel the mind muscle connection in the volume movements more, because I’ve pre exhausted with the low volume maximum effort movements.
ALL lifts have controlled negatives with no momentum helping bring the weight up to the top of the rep to feel the squeeze. Higher Volume lifts have a brief hold/squeeze at the top of every rep with slower negatives. At the very end of a high volume set, I can use a little momentum or cheat the last couple of reps, just to ensure that absolute maximum effort is achieved during the set.
All body parts get 6-7 top working sets with 2-3 priming sets and 1-2 pump sets. For example if I was going to do 4 sets of bench press, the first set would be a priming set where I take the lift to where it’s challenging, but stop just short of maximum effort being achieved. The following 2 sets would then be top sets where I go to absolute effort and maybe even a forced rep at the end just to ensure that maximum effort has been achieved. The last set would then be more of a pump set. Not all lifts get priming or pump sets, if I already feel good going into a set, I don’t feel the need for what I call a priming set. The priming set just helps me get that mind-muscle connection for the following REAL working sets, with more weight than just warm up weight. It lets me feel it and focus on the contraction in the squeeze, but with more weight than a warmup. Of course a proper warmup is done first every time.
I stick to movements that I have a good connection with, where I can achieve the highest quality reps, and I don’t change the lifts much outside of those. I might swap some lifts in a workout for a different lift, but the lift I swap it for will 98% of the time be something that I am familiar with and have a good mind-muscle connection on, so I can really focus on the squeeze and the rep quality.
Basis of diet - Starting with 3500 calories a day and slowly taper up as the cycle progresses and caloric requirements change. Reaching a high of about 4200-4400 calories at the peak of the cycle. Foods chosen must not bloat or distant my stomach, or cause any consistent feeling of illness (such as eggs). Any food that causes those will be eliminated from the diet.
Each meal I am looking for roughly 45g of protein, 80g of carbs and under 15 grams of fat. The exception of the higher fat meal would be before bed time. Before bed time I would go up to 30-35g of fat and not worry about it too much, but I wouldn’t want that meal mid day.
Carb sources are focused on digestible qualities such as jasmine rice, bagels, potatoes, cream of rice, etc. Ideally I would like BG back close to baseline by the 2.5 hour mark after a meal. This is why I try and stick to low fat until the last meal as well.
Aiming for high sodium because sodium does help cells to absorb nutrients. Sodium is hydrophilic and increases blood volume. You will notice a short increase in blood pressure until your body achieves a new homeostasis of higher salt content. Then you will get large performance benefits as well as a moderate enhancement to nutrient partitioning because the cells can operate at higher efficiency.
Also aiming for low sugar generally all day, with an exception being post workout I will let myself have a little bit more sugar such as cereal to help create a post workout insulin spike, as long as the carbs are still adequate and digestible.
Basis of drugs - looking for high anabolic and low androgenic compounds here. I do not want any PEDs that effect mental state at all, as it then will effect every single part of this plan negatively. Diet, training, all of it.
Preferably would like to do everything injectable, and compounds that don’t have crazy aromatization because I am a high aromatizer. I think the sweet spot for me is about 1500mg of anabolic hormones total per week. After that the results are diminishing and the side effects start to show exponentially.
Drugs are pretty much limited to testosterone, deca, NPP, primo, anavar, GH and a glucose disposal agent. If someone else can handle other drugs, all the power to them, but I cannot. Also, I want to use high concentration compounds such as T400 and 200mg/ml primo. This lowers the needle holes and oil volume per week.
Metformin hasnt been experimented with as of yet, but I think a dose of 850mg of extended release metformin every day with meal 2 will be an effective start, and changes will be made from there based off blood glucose readings and requirements, as well as tolerability to the drug itself.
GH at 4iu every day as a bolus pre workout dose. More than 4iu and my hands are numb all of the time and I can’t handle how tired I am. I think any difference of splitting the GH dose into 2 doses per day is extremely neglibale and unnecessarily tedious. You are doubling the amount of needles you have to buy and holes you poke in yourself, the difference should be very noticeable for what you are doing extra, but it hasn’t been so I have no interest in continuing to split my GH dose. On rest days, GH will be taken around lunch time.