MRI on already surgically repaired achilles next week. Getting old is fun!

I'm going to start long term hgh tomorrow. I have enough for 4iu daily for a year. I'm excited about the healing benefits. We'll see how long it takes to start seeing changes in old nagging injuries and skin improvement. In particular, I'm interested in what it can do (if anything) for my shoulders. I haven't been able to bench press seriously in about a year. I've been stuck doing machine presses and cable work for chest.

UGL or one of the online places like TRTNation?

UGL. The supplier has been tested many times and comes out good in every test. 191 amino acid chain is 191 amino acid chain.

Keep us updated. I might give it a shot at some point.

2022-2023 was the year of OOOOOLD...I turned 52 (I'll be 53 in a week) and in the year leading up to that and this year, I kinda hit a brick wall. Started having serious pain in my shoulder, so I had to adjust lifting. Then had knee and hip bullshit, got sick (not Covid) and various other crap that kept me from the gym.

Gained a lot of weight, (I'm up to 220 or so now) and even though my muscle stayed relatively even, I did put on some fat. Then I just had surgery on my feet to fix my f-ed up toes on both feet, so now I have those stupid surgical shoes to wear. Add to that, it's the holidays, I like my whiskey and I'm about to be 53, and well...shit just ain't as "easy" as it used to be.

Still trying to get 125+ mg of protein (that's not enough, but damn...it's a lot), and I'm doing in home dumbell stuff till the first of the year when I get back to Orange Theory.

It doesn't get any easier that's for sure. I think the days of 200lbs are in the rear view at this point.

Couldn’t bench because of the Lat tear?

How’s back work feel now?

Yeah. I started having shoulder issues because there's not the same lat power to keep my shoulder girdle down and locked so my left shoulder rolls up and forward. It gave me a nasty case of biceps tendonitis and it caused a lot of AC joint pain. It's finally starting to get back to normal (I'm not getting a click and pop every time I lift my arm), but I had to spend a long time using super light weight to train my other muscles to compensate and stabilize the shoulder.


Back work, surprisingly, is alright for the most part. I can't do any wide grip overhead stuff like wide pull ups or lat pulls, but near shoulder width or narrow is fine. Rowing motions are fine. I'm terrified to deadlift more than 275 now because it feels weird.


Through it all, though, I've transitioned to a higher rep scheme with a focus on complete squeeze and contraction, and 30 seconds of static hard flex after each set. It seems to be paying off. I think my days of anything resembling heavy is over.

please post a video of you waddling around in your special boots.


thx

How many reps/sets are you doing now? I’m seriously thinking of going that direction. I’m 48 and incorporating more agility stuff. Lifting heavy just isn’t feeling good anymore.

I have found I can still go heavy as long as I am training for strength vs size. The 5 minutes between sets with 3-5 reps per set has kept the pain away.

Thanks for the tip. One of my issues is impatience. I know I push through too fast and don’t give myself time to recover properly. I’ve always felt great, but I think age is starting to catch up to me. But, the older you get, the more important it becomes to strength train.

After 2 months of inconsistency with lifting due to work and let's be honest some laziness I got back on track in November. Finish the year strong gents

I have found over the past year that hypertrophy training is not great for me anymore. I recover much quicker and with much less, almost zero, joint pain.

so for me its 9 months out of the year strength training: High weight (RPE 7-8),
Low reps and sets. 3-5 reps for 3-5 sets with a minimum rest of 3, preferably 5, minutes between sets.

The other 3 I will do hypertrophy with mid-range weight. 10-12 reps, 3-4 sets with 45-60 seconds between sets.

I'm 8-12 with a pause at the bottom and a hard suqeeze at the top. This may not seem high rep to you, but in the past I was mostly in the 4-6 rep range and I wasn't suqeezing. The squeezing and flexing makes light weight seem heavy as hell.



I do a 4 day split:
Chest and shoulders (side and front delts)
Back, rear delts, and traps
Arms
Legs
Rest day whenever I feel like I need a rest day or when something inevitably comes up



I'll typically pick 3 exercises per body area- almost always 1 big compound exercise and 2 isolations. I'll do a few feeler sets to get warmed up and primed for the real working sets, then it's usually 2 sets to failure. The last set I'll often do a drop set or a rest pause or something like that. Leg day is a little different in that I'll pick 2 big compound movements (squat, hack, leg press, lunges, bulgarian split sqats) and I always do curls and extensions. Sometimes I'll throw in sissy squats or super high rep slant board goblet squats as a finisher.



After the failure sets, I'll flex hard and hold it for 20 seconds. I generally rest about 1:30 between sets unless it's one of the taxing compound exercise like BB rows, squats, or lunges.

I have really not read up on HGH but have heard some hype. What is it really supposed do for you? Sounds like you guys have done your homework.

Increased cellular turnover, so you're going to heal faster, recover from exercise faster, skin will rejuvenate and tighten, and tissues like tendons heal better

It also bumps thyroid conversion and it liberates fatty acids, so fat loss occurs

Conversion to IGF 1 leads to creation of new muscle cells

Supposedly it increases cognitive function (through methods I'm not familiar with)

There are also side effects, of course, but at the dose I'm going to use they typically aren't serious (high blood sugar is the most common and detrimental, maybe some water retention and possible carpal tunnel)

Dude, that’s good stuff! Thanks so much for the information. I never thought about the post set flexing. I’m definitely going to give this complete workout a go.

Where are you finding the HGH? Doctor prescribed?

LOL, hell no. Do I look rich like Scho?


I buy it from China direct from the pharm manufacturer. And even then it's still pretty expensive.

What will be your yearly cost?

Feel free to post this publicly here so you can flex your income at the same time.

Anyone used a meal prep company? Yay or nay?

Meal prep yourself every Sunday and save 75% from what they charge for a protein and side.

Chicken breast and rice/veggies is quick, easy and cheap to do.

Yeah, diy is the way to go, unless you’re just into giving $$$ away. Lots of simple, low cost, tasty recipes out there these days.

I use vertical diet. Yeah, it's expensive,but it's nice to have some tastier things that I don't have to make for myself. I don't eat exclusively from the prepped meals, of course. I do some of my own too. Every Sunday I make 2 eye of round roasts in the instapot, cubed them, split them into 6 oz servings,and put them in the freezer. I've been doing kalua pig lately, too.

$78 for a 15 iu kit (that's 10 vials of 15 iu).

So I need 10 kits to last a year, so $780. Not so bad, right?

That’s cheap as shit.

Hope it’s not cat piss!

It's been third party lab tested by quite a few people and anecdotal evidence suggests it's good.

It's amazing how much the bureaucracy in the US pharma system adds to cost

We shootin up in here?

Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong but isn’t there a large increase in cancer risk with HGH supplementation?

Speaking of tiger and HGH...

It doesn't cause cancer. But if you do have cancer, it speeds the growth of the tumors, just like it speeds up the rest of the activity in your body.

That makes sense. I read somewhere that prior to taking Sermorelin you should have a body scan done to make sure you have no visible signs of cancer.

You nailed it!

"Vertical Diet" was one of my biggest customers at one point. They always ordered "Duroc" , Never made sense.

I hit 2,000 miles running for the year last week. Five weeks earlier than my year long goal. 6.15 miles a day. Proud of myself to sticking to it.

Nice job. I despise distance running so I really respect folks like you.

What’s your resting heart rate?

It's probably about the closest to a youth serum you can find.

What's wrong with duroc? Why doesn't it make sense. Is duroc a bad eating pig or something?

Although I am not diabetic, being 61 I don't want to mess with potential blood sugar issues down the road. Everything else sound great for sure.

If fbg gets chronically high, all you have to do is add a little metformin or a bit of insulin to move that stuff back into the cells. It doesn't typically get our of control on these small doses

After 3 weeks of not being able to do any lower body lifting I pulled a 405lb Axle Deadlift for a double yesterday.

Felt good. Shooting for a 450lb Axle Deadlift and a 250lb log press by end of Jan.

Oh, you're a strongman? I did not know that.

Getting more into as I get older. Virtually every lift is a compound lift so it is much easier on the body.

Competing in an amateur event at the end of Jan.

Overhead medley: Circus dumbbell press, log press, viking press for reps. 60s time limit.
Max axle DL
Atlas stone to shoulder for reps. 60s
Hercules Hold
Tractor pull

Trying to put down at least 6k calories per day. Not an easy task when you are really never hungry to begin with.

Goal is to get weight up to 200 from 185.

This time last year I was 150 due to all the medical shit I went through.

Show us your lats

Whew man that has to suck as I am sure you are trying to keep the calories pretty clean.

I've been trying to add some weight myself as I am not training for a race at the moment and its tough to change your diet that much even when it seems like it would be fun. I just don't eat much at any given sitting and adding more meals is hard to do. 3,000cal a day is a challenge for me. At least consistently.

That seems excessive for your weight, unless you do tons of activity like a manual labor job through the day.

I was in the best shape of my life but then I foolishly quit smoking and turned into a fat butterball.

Billay, do you like my shorts with a special access zipper just for you?

<iframe allowfullscreen="true" mozallowfullscreen="true" webkitallowfullscreen="true" style="height: 500px; width: 540px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px;" class="imgur-embed-iframe-pub imgur-embed-iframe-pub-faJjvZs-false-540" scrolling="no" src="https://imgur.com/faJjvZs/embed?context=false&ref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.chiefsplanet.com%2FBB%2Fshowthread.php%3Ft%3D341639%26page %3D5&w=540" id="imgur-embed-iframe-pub-faJjvZs"></iframe><script async="" src="//s.imgur.com/min/embed.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

I put down around 4k to stay at 185.

Just daily walks and the 2-2.5 hours in gym.

If I eat less I start dropping weight quickly.

GTL!

You that dark all year?

No. I stay dark a long time though...I got back from Hawaii a few weeks ago. I did tan before that though.

That’s pretty damn insane for your weight and that activity level.

Yeesh. You're a food processing machine.

We used to have a channel that only played Strongman Champoins League so I kind of got into it (not doing it, just watching it). I liked watching Hafthor Bjornsson and Krzysztof Radzikowski

It sucks ass. Especially when wanting to put on mass.

Thor is coming back in 2024. Will be in the Arnold's Classic in March.

Shitty picture....

https://i.ibb.co/0ZqL3QC/asdf.png

Holy shit that's a hairy-ass arm!

If i were to ever compete in a BB show I would go broke and have to mortgage the house for hair removal. :(

It got a lot worse after starting TRT.

Actually where did u get those? That would be a real innovative way to store poker chips and money

They're just some cheap anazon workout shorts. The brand is Mier

Noticed this the other day and got mildly excited about it.

Getting chest vascularity starting to pop. This is no pump and veins are popping.


https://i.ibb.co/0cYwYPd/PXL-20231215-180851091.jpg[/url]

Shave and they'll pop better. :D

LEW! Post your lats. Penguinz and I did. It's your turn.

We need MahomesMagic to post. He is always calling others a fatass so let's see what a fat **** he is. :D

ROFL I'm not expecting much there

He probably makes Newman look like peak male performance.

No way man, I'm at peak offseason weight. I do want to say that thank God I don't have much body hair. Dude could offseason work at Bigfoot.

Plus I'm gonna start at Natty thread so I can be judged fairly from you juicers.

Peak offseason = peak mass! Let's see that barn door!

What are everyone's goals for 2024? I hope to hit a 600lb deadlift, 250lb log press and a 250lb Atlas stone to shoulder.

Gotta not be fat this year

I managed to finish 2023 down 27 pounds from the beginning of the year. Got in a good groove later part of the year losing 2-3 pounds per month. Just gonna keep rolling with that this year. Also have been in a good groove doing Crossfit. Not setting a bunch of goals other than to show up 4-5 days a week and not get myself hurt.

I'd like to add about 5 pounds of muscle and stay lean going into spring, then cut. I'd like to get down to a contest condition to prove to myself that I can do it. Then, I'll regroup and maybe do a show in the fall. It would be Master's Physique.

So quick question: I've always kind of curled my hands in (bent wrist) at the top of a bicep curl. But recently I noticed in a vid that the guy was actually keeping his hands straight (straight wrist) instead. I tried it last time i did arms and I felt like the focus was more on my biceps and that I was able to lift slightly more weight or reps.

Is this a thing? Or am i just imagining it?



Also, mini-update, I think the HIIT (med. high intensity) is working. I can do unassisted pull ups now. 4 last week. I know, not a lot, but haven't been able to do one since 2018, so progress. I've decided to continue the HIIT thing for an extra month.

It's real. When you flex wrist you engage the Brachialis which is a forearm muscle that flexes the elbow.

Ah okay. So if I want to focus on the biceps, keep 'em straight. If I want to engage the Brachialis, curl my wrists. Thx.:thumb:

I actually do curls with my wrists cocked back (the opposite way you do). I feel like I get a better contraction at the top like that. Is either way "better"? I don't think so. It's all about what feels better for you.



It looks like this, but I don't hold the weight out on my fingertips like that:


https://i.ytimg.com/vi/SA77MpVOOKQ/maxresdefault.jpg

Hmm. That I've never seen before. I'll try to remember to give that a try next arm day.



While I'm here, I'll throw in this tidbit: saw a vid of a guy curling EZ bars one-handed (standing). Tried it once a couple weeks ago, the difficulty of controlling it while going through the rep made me think it could be a heck of finisher set. That guy said something about holding the bar slightly off-center for whatever reasons, but I found just holding it in the middle was pretty challenging. ymmv.