Approved Log My Training Log - Another old man trying to live life as a young man

[ChasetheCase]

Thanks, it's always so much easier to stick to your meals when someone else is cooking it and cleaning up after you
Food was great everywhere and generally pretty good value. (Apart from a Tepanyaki restaraunt we went to and then decided we'd go al a carte instead due to extorniate cost!)

 

[Fletch Elliot]

Thanks, it's always so much easier to stick to your meals when someone else is cooking it and cleaning up after you
Food was great everywhere and generally pretty good value. (Apart from a Tepanyaki restaraunt we went to and then decided we'd go al a carte instead due to extorniate cost!)

Haha, would be nice to have that 24/7

 

[ChasetheCase]

@Fletch Elliot yeah that'd be amazing, guess this is why so many Aussie fitness influencers have moved there.

Well I ran out of machines today, after MMA this morning I noticed riding to work with my helmet that my neck was a bit sore. After a couple of hours sat on my ass in the office I stood up and realised that my foot was painful and my neck hurt more. Have a couple of guys competing in two weeks so helping them out with their sparring, I spent the whole time in southpaw as unfortunately they're both fighting south paw fighters, and they both got the better of me. Anyway part of the game and had to try and train around a slightly pulled neck and a sprained foot. Days like this I wish I went to a World Gym or similar which have hundreds of machines.

Haven't taken my weight this week as have been up too early everyday.

Lying Leg Curl (Machine)
53kg x 10 reps
60kg x 10 reps
67kg x 10 reps
74kg x 5 reps

Leg Extension (Machine)
47kg x 10 reps
68kg x 10 reps
75kg x 10 reps
82kg x 10 reps
89kg x 10 reps
96kg x 11 reps

Hip Abduction (Machine)
42kg x 10 reps
49kg x 10 reps
56kg x 10 reps
63kg x 10 reps
65.5kg x 10 reps

Chest Fly (Machine)
40kg x 8 reps
61kg x 10 reps
68kg x 10 reps
68kg x 10 reps
68kg x 10 reps

 

[ChasetheCase]

Want to cry, my cut was way worse than I expected, really disappointed.

I’m in exactly the same boat I was in during my early 30s when I’d put on weight and, whenever I tried to cut, I’d lose as much muscle as fat. Back then, I trained with Pete Wall at City Gym (ex-Junior IFBB champ who beat Lee Priest, so he knew his stuff). He was the first to highlight that I might have low testosterone, as my cut wasn’t going according to plan. I honestly thought being on 200mg of test would have spared my muscle.

I really wish I’d taken a DXA and photos before my January cut, stupid, I kept meaning to do it, then some things came up, and before I knew it I was three weeks in, so I didn’t see the point.

I went from 87 kg to 81 kg. I estimate my starting body fat at 13.5%, ending up at 10.7%. I really wanted to be just under 10%, so body fat wise I was close. I’d need to lose another ~1 kg of fat to hit 9.9%.

For reference, my last DXA in May showed total mass of 83 kg, lean 70.2 kg, 12.6% body fat. I’m now 80 kg total, 68.8 kg lean, 10.7% body fat.

Looking at it relative to my last scan, I’ve lost 2 kg of fat and 1.4 kg of muscle but it’s actually worse than that if you consider I started at 87 kg and 13.5% body fat. It looks like I’ve lost about 3kg of muscleand 3kg fat.

Good news is my bone mineral density is still improving, I'm getting very close to normal, from my start of borderline osteopenia.

I stopped Reta two weeks ago and have started increasing my calories slightly. Could this just be down to water/glycogen? I really thought two weeks would have been enough for things to settle. I was only on 2mg a week, slowly titrated up, hitting my protein targets 2g per kg.

Going to get blood work booked for next week, get started on P5P then get on cycle. Hoping this will get me back to nearer my Jan starting point with a little less fat.

 

[ChasetheCase]

Well had a pretty slow session, spent half the time being one of the assholes on the internet on the phone. The gym was empty to my defence. Trying various scenarios in ChatGPT to see likeliness of glycogen and water loss being the main factor of my lean mass loss. It’s still reasonably high chance that it’s not lean muscle I’ve lost.

When I compare my Nov photo (86kg) to today (80kg) I can’t see much size difference so only time will tell now.






Squat (Barbell)
Set 1: 60 kg x 6 [Warmup]
Set 2: 90 kg x 5 [Warmup]
Set 3: 120 kg x 3 [Warmup]
Set 4: 140 kg x 4
Set 5: 100 kg x 12
Set 6: 100 kg x 10
Set 7: 100 kg x 8

Incline Bench Press (Dumbbell)
Set 1: 20 kg x 6 [Warmup]
Set 2: 25 kg x 5 [Warmup]
Set 3: 30 kg x 12
Set 4: 30 kg x 12
Set 5: 30 kg x 14

Leg Extension (Machine)
Set 1: 68 kg x 10
Set 2: 82 kg x 10
Set 3: 96 kg x 10
Set 4: 103 kg x 12

Bicep Curl (Barbell)
Set 1: 35 kg x 12
Set 2: 35 kg x 12
Set 3: 35 kg x 17

 

[Fletch Elliot]

Want to cry, my cut was way worse than I expected, really disappointed.

I’m in exactly the same boat I was in during my early 30s when I’d put on weight and, whenever I tried to cut, I’d lose as much muscle as fat. Back then, I trained with Pete Wall at City Gym (ex-Junior IFBB champ who beat Lee Priest, so he knew his stuff). He was the first to highlight that I might have low testosterone, as my cut wasn’t going according to plan. I honestly thought being on 200mg of test would have spared my muscle.

I really wish I’d taken a DXA and photos before my January cut, stupid, I kept meaning to do it, then some things came up, and before I knew it I was three weeks in, so I didn’t see the point.

I went from 87 kg to 81 kg. I estimate my starting body fat at 13.5%, ending up at 10.7%. I really wanted to be just under 10%, so body fat wise I was close. I’d need to lose another ~1 kg of fat to hit 9.9%.

For reference, my last DXA in May showed total mass of 83 kg, lean 70.2 kg, 12.6% body fat. I’m now 80 kg total, 68.8 kg lean, 10.7% body fat.

Looking at it relative to my last scan, I’ve lost 2 kg of fat and 1.4 kg of muscle but it’s actually worse than that if you consider I started at 87 kg and 13.5% body fat. It looks like I’ve lost about 3kg of muscleand 3kg fat.

Good news is my bone mineral density is still improving, I'm getting very close to normal, from my start of borderline osteopenia.

I stopped Reta two weeks ago and have started increasing my calories slightly. Could this just be down to water/glycogen? I really thought two weeks would have been enough for things to settle. I was only on 2mg a week, slowly titrated up, hitting my protein targets 2g per kg.

Going to get blood work booked for next week, get started on P5P then get on cycle. Hoping this will get me back to nearer my Jan starting point with a little less fat.

You're in a good place to put some mass on with only 10% BF for your next bulking cycle. To be honest, you're looking bloody full and lean in those last pics!

 

[ChasetheCase]

Thanks @Fletch Elliot really hoping it’s just mostly water weight I’ve lost. But like you say I’m in a good place now for a long lean bulk. Getting my blood tests tomorrow will be interesting to see if fat loss made much difference.

Also booked to get my IGF-1, TSH/FT3/FT4, hbA1C and PSA checked. Considering going down the HGH route for 6 months.

 

[Fletch Elliot]

Thanks @Fletch Elliot really hoping it’s just mostly water weight I’ve lost. But like you say I’m in a good place now for a long lean bulk. Getting my blood tests tomorrow will be interesting to see if fat loss made much difference.

Also booked to get my IGF-1, TSH/FT3/FT4, hbA1C and PSA checked. Considering going down the HGH route for 6 months.

It definitely looks that way! Will be interesting to see how those markers come up.

 

[silverfox]

HGH route is a slow burn. If you can, try pushing it 12+ months. Just to really see the body comp and recovery benefits.

 

[ChasetheCase]

Thanks @silverfox

Yeah I’ve heard it’s best for 12 months, I’m just worried about LVH. My blood pressure isn’t ideal hovers around 130 average during the day and about 124 24 hour average. I’m on telmisartan which is support help mitigate LVH. But I was planning on 5iu a day for 6 months. Plus cycling the risk is much higher and I can’t afford private echocardiograms.

I need to see what my levels are but maybe I’ll continue at a lower dose, say 2iu a day for another 6 months. I just wasn’t sure if that low would be much different over baseline.

Lunch upgrade today from the default naked burrito. Lemon pepper chicken, honey mustard sauce, pumpkin and peas.

Full workout in, swapped the barbel back squats for the hack machine. Cycling this morning has given me wobbly legs, guess it’s going to take a few weeks to get the legs used to doing both. The Cybex hack squat was just as hard as I remember. Only had 100kg on it and was ruining me.

Thinking about simplifying my workout for my next cycle. One which is easier to be fully consistent on.

Incline Bench Press (Dumbbell)
Set 1: 20 kg x 6 [Warmup]
Set 2: 25 kg x 5 [Warmup]
Set 3: 30 kg x 10 [Warmup]
Set 4: 35 kg x 9
Set 5: 35 kg x 10
Set 6: 35 kg x 10
Set 7: 25 kg x 12

Hack Squat (Machine)
Set 1: 50 kg x 10 [Warmup]
Set 2: 70 kg x 8 [Warmup]
Set 3: 100 kg x 6
Set 4: 100 kg x 6
Set 5: 100 kg x 6

Lat Pulldown (Cable)
Set 1: 60 kg x 12
Set 2: 70 kg x 12
Set 3: 80 kg x 10
Set 4: 60 kg x 15

Triceps Dip
Set 1: 10 reps
Set 2: 10 reps
Set 3: 15 reps

Standing Calf Raise (Dumbbell)
Set 1: 30 kg x 20
Set 2: 40 kg x 20
Set 3: 40 kg x 20

Bicep Curl (Barbell)
Set 1: 35 kg x 15
Set 2: 35 kg x 15
Set 3: 35 kg x 15
Set 4: 25 kg x 15

 

[ChasetheCase]

Well got my bloods done this morning. Planning my cycle and workout now, going to start with NPP and than transition to Deca. Will decide on HGH once I had my IGF1 results.

The phlebotomist really did a good job this morning. Three holes due to her incompetence, maybe she was a trainee not sure. I thought I had really easy veins.

Left arm really aching and probably shouldn't have gone to BJJ but all seems ok.

 

[ChasetheCase]

Half way there, this is my plan for my next cycle. Obviously would have been best to just stick with one ester of Nandrolone, but I had both and this is the best compromise I can see to use them both up.

NPP to start in two weeks once I have built up P5P in my system, 50mg pre cycle and for 3 weeks after, and 100mg a day during cycle.

NPP (200mg) and Deca (200mg) overlapped by two weeks.

Test (300mg) a week.

All sponsored by @ozsteroidsofficial

Let me know your thoughts.

 

[ozzyboy]

Want to cry, my cut was way worse than I expected, really disappointed.

I’m in exactly the same boat I was in during my early 30s when I’d put on weight and, whenever I tried to cut, I’d lose as much muscle as fat. Back then, I trained with Pete Wall at City Gym (ex-Junior IFBB champ who beat Lee Priest, so he knew his stuff). He was the first to highlight that I might have low testosterone, as my cut wasn’t going according to plan. I honestly thought being on 200mg of test would have spared my muscle.

I really wish I’d taken a DXA and photos before my January cut, stupid, I kept meaning to do it, then some things came up, and before I knew it I was three weeks in, so I didn’t see the point.

I went from 87 kg to 81 kg. I estimate my starting body fat at 13.5%, ending up at 10.7%. I really wanted to be just under 10%, so body fat wise I was close. I’d need to lose another ~1 kg of fat to hit 9.9%.

For reference, my last DXA in May showed total mass of 83 kg, lean 70.2 kg, 12.6% body fat. I’m now 80 kg total, 68.8 kg lean, 10.7% body fat.

Looking at it relative to my last scan, I’ve lost 2 kg of fat and 1.4 kg of muscle but it’s actually worse than that if you consider I started at 87 kg and 13.5% body fat. It looks like I’ve lost about 3kg of muscleand 3kg fat.

Good news is my bone mineral density is still improving, I'm getting very close to normal, from my start of borderline osteopenia.

I stopped Reta two weeks ago and have started increasing my calories slightly. Could this just be down to water/glycogen? I really thought two weeks would have been enough for things to settle. I was only on 2mg a week, slowly titrated up, hitting my protein targets 2g per kg.

Going to get blood work booked for next week, get started on P5P then get on cycle. Hoping this will get me back to nearer my Jan starting point with a little less fat.

Don’t stress man, the numbers actually aren’t as bad as you think. Those numbers are pretty normal for a cut. Even with gear and high protein guys still lose a bit of lean mass dieting. The bigger thing here is glycogen and water. When you diet that hard and especially running reta and eating less carbs the muscles flatten out and DXA reads that as lean mass loss. I've spoken to the guys who do these scans and they said that glycogen can swing 1 to 3kgs on a scan cause it holds a lot of water... That extra weight difference is likely glycogen and water not all muscle. But moving foward you should bring cals and carbs up slowly and keep training hard and you’ll probably see fullness and lean mass numbers bounce back a bit over the next few weeks.

 

[ChasetheCase]

Thanks @ozzyboy that's good to know, really wasn't expecting the DXA to be that much out. Further reading this morning about DXA and hydration and gut content even affects the results. I knew the gut would but didn't think much about hydration. These are the gold standard for body composition testing and are still flawed.

 

[ChasetheCase]

That was quick, received part of my bloods back from yesterday, my IGF-1 came back at 27 nmol/L, much higher than expected, upper normal range, top high end for 45 year olds.

I've just learnt that exogenous testosterone increases IGF-1, I wasn't aware of this, wish I had a pre-TRT IGF-1 test.

Summary; good glucose control, healthy thyroid function, upper-normal IGF-1 baseline and low PSA

Test	Result	Units	Reference Range
HbA1c- NGSP	4.9	%	(4.0-6.0)
HbA1c- IFCC	30	mmol/mol	(20-42)
IGF-1 (Somatomedin C)	27	nmol/L	(12-34)
Total PSA (Alinity)	1.16	µg/L	(0.25-2.50)
TSH	1.3	mIU/L	(0.5-4.0)
FT4	15	pmol/L	(10-20)
FT3	5.5	pmol/L	(3.5-6.5)

I'm expecting all my other blood to be good, so I'm highly likely good to go with HGH.

Will aim to get up to 5iu a day, assuming I don't have sides, I can't tolerate things like carpel tunnel or joint pain due to my other sports, hoping a slow titration up will mitigate this.

Questions:

1. What should I start from? 2iu? I was thinking 1iu but seems like that would give me the same result as now. But as it's exogenously supplied the circulating levels are much longer, and more constant IGF-1 stimulation so possibly sides even from the same total naturally?

2. As I have a cycle coming up with Nandrolone which is going to cause water retention, is it preferable to start HGH post cycle? (I want to reduce water retention due to other sport)

3. Titrate up 1iu every two weeks?

4. What is your dose and IGF-1 level?

 

[ChasetheCase]

So today’s workout was a trial of one of the days on my new training programme. Work in progress, would like to add ad/abductor and calves back in, will see.

But the overall goals were:

• Quicker workout, current ones take about 1hr20
• Less fatigue (removal back squats, overhead press, deadlift)
• Less stress on AC joint
• More volume in less time - lower chance of missing exercises due to time
• More machine usage to get closer to failure - current workout was more free weight oriented so I could swap on days at home in gym
• Less chance of injury

Today’s training took 63mins, a bit of wasted time trialing weights, but should be done in under an hour moving forwards.

Leg Press Horizontal (Machine)
Set 1: 75 kg x 12
Set 2: 95 kg x 12
Set 3: 115 kg x 12
Set 4: 135 kg x 20
Set 5: 155 kg x 20

Iso-Lateral Chest Press (Machine)
Set 1: 10 kg x 10
Set 2: 20 kg x 10
Set 3: 30 kg x 15
Set 4: 40 kg x 15
Set 5: 45 kg x 15

Pull Up
Set 1: 7 reps
Set 2: 6 reps
Set 3: 5 reps

Chest Fly (Machine)
Set 1: 61 kg x 10
Set 2: 68 kg x 10
Set 3: 75 kg x 10
Set 4: 82 kg x 9

Seated Incline Curl (Dumbbell)
Set 1: 12.5 kg x 15
Set 2: 12.5 kg x 12
Set 3: 12.5 kg x 9

GHD Sit ups
Set 1: 15 reps
Set 2: 12 reps
Set 3: 10 reps

So my new workout is currently set out to be the following, would love any feedback.

Day 1: Quads & Push
Hack Squat (Machine)
Incline Dumbbell Press
Lat Pulldown (Cable)
Lying Leg Curl
Lateral Raise (Dumbbell)
Triceps Pushdown

Day 2: Hinge & Shoulders
Romanian Deadlift (Barbell)
Iso-Lateral Shoulder Press
Seated Row (Machine/Verve)
Leg Extension (Machine)
Bicep Curl (Dumbbell)
Face Pulls

Day 3: Legs & Chest Focus
Leg Press (Machine)
Iso-Lateral Chest Press
Pull Ups or Chin Ups
Chest Fly (Machine/Pec Deck)
Seated Incline Curl
GHD Sit Ups

Today’s lunch a very posh ALDI microwave meal.

 

[ChasetheCase]

Only two of us last night for BJJ. Really good almost a private session. Aching all over from working on throws.

Have my full bloods back will post them later. Test mic higher than expected at almost 1800 and e2 at 338. Apart from that everything is pretty much in range.

Hour recovery ride this morning. Just started watching Fallout on Amazon Prime to accompany my 5am garage riding. I was a bit hesitant to watch a series based on a computer game, but really enjoying it.

Anyway so much for my quicker workout, this was 1hr20. In fairness I would have saved 10 minutes by trying not to stare at the new girl who works in the gym had she not been there. She’s a spitting image of Alicia Vikander. If you haven’t seen Ex-Machina watch it.

Hack Squat (Machine)
Set 1: 50 kg x 10
Set 2: 75 kg x 10
Set 3: 100 kg x 8
Set 4: 50 kg x 12

Incline Bench Press (Dumbbell)
Set 1: 25 kg x 10
Set 2: 30 kg x 10
Set 3: 35 kg x 12
Set 4: 35 kg x 10
Set 5: 25 kg x 12

Lat Pulldown (Cable)
Set 1: 60 kg x 12
Set 2: 70 kg x 12
Set 3: 80 kg x 8

Lying Leg Curl (Machine)
Set 1: 60 kg x 12
Set 2: 67 kg x 12
Set 3: 74 kg x 10
Set 4: 60 kg x 16

Lateral Raise (Dumbbell)
Set 1: 12.5 kg x 12
Set 2: 12.5 kg x 12
Set 3: 12.5 kg x 12

Triceps Pushdown
Set 1: 28.75 kg x 12
Set 2: 28.75 kg x 12
Set 3: 32.5 kg x 10

Really struggled with the push downs. My abs from Wednesday’s GHD sit ups hurt when coughing. Let alone trying to use them to stabilise the exercise.

Beef pasta for lunch downed with a can of kombucha.

Early home today as off to see Jimmy Carr. Can’t wait I think he’s great

 

[ozzyboy]

Thanks @ozzyboy that's good to know, really wasn't expecting the DXA to be that much out. Further reading this morning about DXA and hydration and gut content even affects the results. I knew the gut would but didn't think much about hydration. These are the gold standard for body composition testing and are still flawed.

Gut content? I didn't know that

 

[ozzyboy]

That was quick, received part of my bloods back from yesterday, my IGF-1 came back at 27 nmol/L, much higher than expected, upper normal range, top high end for 45 year olds.

I've just learnt that exogenous testosterone increases IGF-1, I wasn't aware of this, wish I had a pre-TRT IGF-1 test.

Summary; good glucose control, healthy thyroid function, upper-normal IGF-1 baseline and low PSA

Test	Result	Units	Reference Range
HbA1c- NGSP	4.9	%	(4.0-6.0)
HbA1c- IFCC	30	mmol/mol	(20-42)
IGF-1 (Somatomedin C)	27	nmol/L	(12-34)
Total PSA (Alinity)	1.16	µg/L	(0.25-2.50)
TSH	1.3	mIU/L	(0.5-4.0)
FT4	15	pmol/L	(10-20)
FT3	5.5	pmol/L	(3.5-6.5)

I'm expecting all my other blood to be good, so I'm highly likely good to go with HGH.

Will aim to get up to 5iu a day, assuming I don't have sides, I can't tolerate things like carpel tunnel or joint pain due to my other sports, hoping a slow titration up will mitigate this.

Questions:

1. What should I start from? 2iu? I was thinking 1iu but seems like that would give me the same result as now. But as it's exogenously supplied the circulating levels are much longer, and more constant IGF-1 stimulation so possibly sides even from the same total naturally?

2. As I have a cycle coming up with Nandrolone which is going to cause water retention, is it preferable to start HGH post cycle? (I want to reduce water retention due to other sport)

3. Titrate up 1iu every two weeks?

4. What is your dose and IGF-1 level?

I don't remeber the dose I started with GH. Now I'm on 4IU a day and go up to 6IU when cycling. I should look into my IGF-1 level

 

[ChasetheCase]

Well a short and sweet workout this afternoon. Didn’t have all the equipment to do my workout properly as was at home. This is why my previous plan had lots of compound and dumbell exercises.

More inconvenient is having to move toys out the way as the kids insist on playing in the garage.

Received my insulin pens, needles and cartridges from my brother. Ordered BAC water from premium supplements. He sells that too, costs him £0.45 for 10ml in a vial. Absolute joke how much it sells for. Didn’t think get him to send that to me with the pens. He told me to be really careful if importing bac water from
China as many just ship sterile water. Took him a few suppliers to get real BAC water.

Took it easy with the RDLs as haven’t done them for almost 6 weeks.

Romanian Deadlift (Barbell)
Set 1: 60 kg x 5 [Warmup]
Set 2: 80 kg x 5 [Warmup]
Set 3: 100 kg x 5 [Warmup]
Set 4: 120 kg x 8
Set 5: 120 kg x 8
Set 6: 120 kg x 8

Verve - Seated Cable Row
Set 1: 40 kg x 10
Set 2: 80 kg x 12
Set 3: 100 kg x 12
Set 4: 120 kg x 15

Behind the Back Curl (Cable)
Set 1: 30 kg x 10
Set 2: 40 kg x 15
Set 3: 40 kg x 15
Set 4: 40 kg x 15