[Andy]

I took to Performance Gym Irvine yesterday to train legs and film another session for my YT channel. I don’t think I’ve ever been excited to train legs this close to a show. Usually the dread is there in droves.

HS seated leg curls – 1 set, 8-12

– Each rep is paused in the stretch

Prime PL leg extensions – 1 set, 8-12

Arsenal leg press – 1 set, 8-12

Gymleco hack squat – 1 sets, 8-12

HS pin-loaded lying leg curls – 1 sets, 12-15

Seated calve raises – 3 sets, 15-20

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[Andy]

Sas & Kuba are bang on here!

I also think it’s more likely your bloat is digestion related, rather than sodium/gear related – albeit that might be exacerbating things if there is already a gut issue.

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[Andy]

Back to the usual routine today. I weighed in this morning prior to the 2 high days Nick and I agreed upon, at 258.8, so that’s 3lbs down from Saturday which is what I was expecting. I’m not flat, but we’re both very conscious of fullness dropping too much for too long, so 1000g of carbs goes in today and tomorrow with chest and legs. I’ll pull clen out these 2 days as well.

The shift forward in conditioning is also what I wanted, there’s been a big drop in the glute fat, as well as my obliques getting that paper thin look which I’ve never really had.

I didn’t take photos this morning, it was just a weigh-in to see where I was prior to the load.

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[Andy]

I had a really long drive from Glasgow to Bradford yesterday, in total it took me near enough 6.5 hours due to roadworks. Anyway, I managed an insanely good back session as Muscle Bound. A fantastic gym, one of which I only found out about a few days ago. It was one of those situations where there’s so much kit it’s almost overwhelming to the eye. I didn’t stray from the usual back setup, and stuck to machines I know.

Time to spend a bit of time with the TBJP team at the Ben Weider Classic today!

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[Andy]

Yesterday was probably the first day of the prep I noticed fatigue, dragging my arse a bit, not being bothered with conversation, hyping myself up for small tasks, but even then, it was nothing compared to my hardest days on some of my hardest diets, so I’m not complaining – just observing.

I boxed off most of my steps, cardio and posing in the first 3 hours of the day, so that probably sent me wayward.

Nick and I pulled my carbs down by 15% after Tuesday’s check-in in an attempt to get my glutes to move faster. I’m interested to see just how much has come off with tomorrow’s check-in.

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[Andy]

Dosing = based on carbs

– I don’t think you need to run anything just now.

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[Andy]

A great leg session yesterday, and another one de-volumed. The reason being is that I deloaded last week, and my legs continued to look better as the week went on, so after passing it past Nick, I kept the volume the same except this time I took the sets to failure with a few forced reps.

Cybex seated leg curls – 1 set, 8-12

– Each rep is paused in the stretch

Leg extensions – 1 set, 8-12

<b style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>Pendulum squat – 1 sets, 8-12

BB squats* – 1 set, 8-12

Prime lying leg curls – 1 sets, 12-15 + 1 forced negative

Seated calve raises – 3 sets, 15-20

*As my legs/hip get leaner, I don’t know what it is, but this movement just goes down the gutter. I am hell bent on holding poundages the same, but no matter what, I just lose all power through it. BB squats is and always has been my favourite leg movement, but in the offseason I strip it out because the weight I’m using always starts to stray into unsafe territory.

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[Andy]

A superb day at the PCA Scottish yesterday with a win, two 2nd places and a 5th. I’m gutted for my man Kieran who since leaving the juniors has put on 28lbs of stage weight, and he came in super conditioned for this show, but was outsized by a superb guy from Ireland – Hilly’s client from what I remember. Working that hard in the offseason, putting that amount of size on and not getting the win is gutting – I’ve been there too – but placing aside, it was nothing but positives from this prep and past 2.5 years.

I’m fine, cracking on. . .

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[Andy]

Agreed, the progression is there, it clearly works, keep doing what you’re doing.

If I were to apply context to where some of these opinions come from, some naturals will sometimes replace protein calories for carb calories when they start to get really depleted. However, if for now everything is flying then keep things the same.

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[Andy]

Checked in with Nick this morning, and after the week long deload, increase in food, and all round rest, I’m down another 2lbs to a new prep low of 261.1. I had a wee photoshoot with a local photographer that I’ve shot with since I was a junior, and I have to say this is my favourite look of all time. I need to be leaner than this obviously, but if I could walk around year round like this I’d be very happy with that. This is giving me a tonne of motivation to nail my reverse even more than I did last time.

We’re going back to the diet setup pre-deload which was the diet above in the thread. I’m looking forward to getting back into the depths again.

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[Andy]

Have you tried splitting the dose through the day? 3IU fasted, 3IU pre, 3IU pre-bed?

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[Andy]

Current cycle (at 7 weeks & 1 day out)

Test E – 825mg/week

Mast E – 700mg/week

GH – 6IU/day (pre-bed)

SLU – 400mcg/day (oral)

Telmisartan – 40mg/day

MT2 – 0.5mg/week

DSIP – 0.5mg/day (taken around 1 hour before bed)

RU5881 – 5 sprays on my crown (I also take 0.5mg of Finasteride year round)

Reta – 0.75mg/week (2x 0.375mg) – I’m going to start tapering this back down next week I think

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[Andy]

I spent all of yesterday at the PCA First Timers, and got the look myself and my client were hoping for. It was a quiet show, probably the quietest FT show I’ve been to, and there were only 2 guys in my clients class, but there’s nothing you can do about that.

I’m glad to be back in Glasgow though and ready to smash the 2nd half of this prep.

I’ve just finished posing practice, and I’m delighted with the look.

It’s another busy one with the PCA Scottish this Sunday – my biggest show of the year client wise – so I’m spending the week making sure the guys are on point.

As mentioned, I’m deloading (removing 1 session) this and pushing food up to 750g of CHO, so I should by the end of the week shave off some of this fatigue and then we go again as of Monday.

Epic!

How you feeling at this point vs previous years in prep ?

How’s current set up looking with diet a cycle at this point in prep ?[/quote]

Night and day compared to previous preps. Without jinxing it, it’s been a breeze so far, I’m sure some hurdles will come up.

M1

100g – Beef fillet

1 – Whole egg

3 – Egg whites

75g – White jasmine rice

1 – Banana

300ml – OJ

M2/M3

200g – 2% turkey mince

75g – White jasmine rice

1 – Apple (M2)/1 – Banana (M3)

10g – Macadamia nut oil (M2)

50g – Fermented veg

INTRA

10g – Creatine mono

30g – EAAs

50g – Performance fuel

5g – Taurine

PWO SHAKE

10g – Creatine mono

3g – HMB

30g – Iso Pro

PWO MEAL

30g – Iso Pro

120g – Rice Krispies

100g – Pineapple (I sometimes have this with M5 or M6)

M5

200g – 5% beef mince

75g – White jasmine rice

50g – Pasta sauce

50g – Fermented veg

200g – Pineapple

M6

260g – Salmon fillet

50g – White jasmine rice

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[Andy]

Agreed, just keep it the same if you know how you react to that dose.

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[Andy]

I spent all of yesterday at the PCA First Timers, and got the look myself and my client were hoping for. It was a quiet show, probably the quietest FT show I’ve been to, and there were only 2 guys in my clients class, but there’s nothing you can do about that.

I’m glad to be back in Glasgow though and ready to smash the 2nd half of this prep.

I’ve just finished posing practice, and I’m delighted with the look.

It’s another busy one with the PCA Scottish this Sunday – my biggest show of the year client wise – so I’m spending the week making sure the guys are on point.

As mentioned, I’m deloading (removing 1 session) this and pushing food up to 750g of CHO, so I should by the end of the week shave off some of this fatigue and then we go again as of Monday.

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