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In Pursuit of 26 Inch Quads

Get Shredded!
BTC said:
Not entirely true. My quads grow on 30, 40, 50 rep sets.
Click to expand...

Same here. Best growth from volume. Just ask Tom Platz.

I'll occasionally do 5x5 to mix it up thou, but guys struggling to build wheelz? Volume all the way.

I just read this article on 20-rep front squat sets. 1 set, heavy as you can go. Rest pause allowed but the bar stays on ;)
 
BTC said:
^^^ Dont forget the variables also in this..... how much AAS, Growth, you are on along with any insulin, genetics, experience level and amount of food consumed. Obviously its a giant equation that is highly individual.
Click to expand...
I've been eating more fish, but the growth came while on TRT only. Last supraphysiological doses were way back in April.

The majority of the growth also came when I cut back the volume, but this might have just been the body responding to a change instead of the same workout all the time.

You can see my posting back in April, it was failure after failure after frustration after frustration. I got sick, stopped the steroids, took some time off the gym, then the growth happened when I got back in the gym.

I also added cardio which I had not been doing before (Stairmaster). This thing pumps up the legs, unlike a treadmill or an elliptical or running. I do not want to rule this out as a contributing factor.
 
I love the stair master as a warm up before legs. 10min, gets the blood pumping as you mentioned, joints lubricated, ready to go.
 
franchise24 said:
You should also try intervals on a spin bike. Low impact exercise and it gets your legs pumped pretty good.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
I'll give it a shot. I am also going to try bike riding, like, out on the street, but that might wait for summer to be over.
 
Legs are still over 26 inches. Arms were 18 after working them last night (pumped and flexed), only 17.5 on one arm and 17.75 on the other cold and flexed this morning.

Three weeks off of the gym due to very nasty head cold again, but I kept injecting test and deca so I was ready to hit the ground running now that I feel better.

You know how you look in the mirror and think, wow, I look great. Bigger and leaner. Then you snap a photo of that image in the mirror with your cell phone and realize your are fucking delusional. You do not look big and you do not look lean. Instead, you look old, fat, and lacking in muscles. Hell, I'm not even as tan as I thought I was looking in the mirror. Pics are a slap in the face dose of reality, so I thought I would throw them up here for the sake of accountability.

I hate that shit.

49 years of age. 6 foot. 230 pounds. body fat, what, maybe 20%? All photos are relaxed, no sucking in gut and flexing bullshit, as if that fools anybody.
 

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Working out is tough after a three week break . . .

Day before yesterday:
Incline press 225 x 10, 245 x 8, 275 x 6, 225 x 7
Incline flies 45 x 10, 10, 10, 10
Bench Press 275 x 8
Bar dips weighted 45 x 8, 8, 7
Flat db fly 40 x 10, 10, 10, 10​

Yesterday:

Bis:
Preacher curl 90 x 10, 10, 10, 8
Incline db curl 30 x 10, 10, 10, 10
Concentration curl 25 x 15, 15, 12
Hammer curl 35 x 20, 17​
tris:
Lying tri ext 110 x 12, 12, 10
Db tri kickback 30 x 10, 10
Tri pushdown (pulley v bar) 11 x 10, 10, 10, 10, 10
Rev bb curl 40 x 16
Wrist curl 95 x 12​

Chest and arms are sore today.

Today is leg day.
 
That's grilled chicken, brown rice, and mixed steamed veggies. Cleaning up my diet.
 
11 iu of insulin, and its off to the gym to do legs. Try to put some size on these birdie legs.
 
Leg day after after a long layoff is the worst.

Squats 185 x 10, 225 x 10, 275 x 6, 315 x 3
Leg Press 540 (6 plates per side) x 10, 630 (7 per) x 10
Hack Squat 110 x 10, 8, 6 performed all the way to the bottom
Walking db lunges 25 x 20
stiff leg deadlift 155 x 10, 10, 8
cybex leg curl 90 (1 plate per) x 12,12, 12
leg extension 100 x 16, 16, 10

Weird cramps, one in my tricep and another in my calf (painful as hell) neither of which was a muscle being worked.
 
IML Gear Cream!
Hit shoulders and calves last night. Nothing to write home about. Everything is sore since I am just starting back.

10 iu insulin preworkout.

After the workout I get home, and the wife has my chicken, rice, and broccoli hot on the table for me. The chicken smells wonderful. She is a master at cooking and manages to season meat without adding carbs or sugar.

So I am still in this insulin window and wanting to get that chicken in . . . and I have like 15 minutes to eat before I have to get on the road for a scheduled event.

I cut it . . .

Pink blood runs out! It's not cooked all the way through!!!!

Argh!

The wife is apologizing while I am scrambling to open cans of tuna . . .

LOL!

She says the oven is not working correctly . . .
 
Time to work back!

Chicken and rice.
 

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malfeasance said:
Working out is tough after a three week break . . .

Day before yesterday:
Incline press 225 x 10, 245 x 8, 275 x 6, 225 x 7
Incline flies 45 x 10, 10, 10, 10
Bench Press 275 x 8
Bar dips weighted 45 x 8, 8, 7
Flat db fly 40 x 10, 10, 10, 10​

. . .
Chest and arms are sore today.
. . .
Click to expand...
Chest day today! I incline pressed 295 for 6 reps! That is a personal record. Insulin is like magic. One workout with insulin not only restored 3-4 weeks off but made me stronger than before. Just one workout with insulin.

Amazing.

Chest pumped.
 

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I won't bore y'all with another picture of lunch. It looks just like the one above, except with broccoli added. It's very difficult to keep it all on the plate - making a mess. And there is yet another one waiting to be consumed in about three hours. Making sure I have enough fuel for the arm workout coming up. Don't need these puny sticks starved of nutrients when I get into the gym and do my best to exhaust the muscles in my spindly arms.

Yesterday was a bunch-of-red-meat day, potatoes, and a little beer. Felt good. I know you're jealous.
 
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triceps after arm day
 

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Any suggestions for what I should do to make this log more interesting to you who are reading it?
 
I think it's a pretty detailed log. For me when I follow some of these logs I mostly check out their workouts I like to compare my routines to the ops. I've found some of my favorite workouts this way.
 
Increased test/deca to 900/550.

Leg day . . . this is only second leg day since long layoff . . . hopefully it goes better than the first, above.
 
malfeasance said:
Leg day after after a long layoff is the worst.

Squats 185 x 10, 225 x 10, 275 x 6, 315 x 3
Leg Press 540 (6 plates per side) x 10, 630 (7 per) x 10
Hack Squat 110 x 10, 8, 6 performed all the way to the bottom
Walking db lunges 25 x 20
stiff leg deadlift 155 x 10, 10, 8
cybex leg curl 90 (1 plate per) x 12,12, 12
leg extension 100 x 16, 16, 10

Weird cramps, one in my tricep and another in my calf (painful as hell) neither of which was a muscle being worked.
Click to expand...

Okay, above was my first leg day back to work (3-4 weeks off sick). Below is my second leg day after my extended layoff.

Yesterday, I had very limited time due to a family obligation (kids and sports!), but I decided to give legs a go instead of skipping the gym and waiting until tomorrow. So, I ran out of time.

Yesterday was:

Squats:
I'll skip listing all the 185, 225, 275 that I listed last time. Who cares about such puny weights squatted by a weakling with puny, birdie legs? Worked up to:
315 x 5 - this was two more reps than last time. Then I stripped a plate off each side. With only 225, I could do, what? 15 reps? More? LOL! No!
225x8 and that last one was a struggle. Oh, well. I'll keep working on it.

Cybex Leg Press:
Also skip here - I start with three plates per side and add one plate each set until I get to 6 plates, where I start listing below.
540 x 12
630 x 12, 12

Hack Squat: (all the way down to the bottom!)
110 x 11
110 x 10
110 x 10

Note - the last two sets I had to rest three minutes. Urge to puke went away.

Walking DB lunges:
25s x 10
25s x 10

Stiff Leg Dead:
155 x 11
155 x 11

Times up!

Damn it. No leg curls or leg extensions like last time. Everything I did was an improvement over last time. That is all I can really ask from a workout, isn't it? All in all, not a bad workout considering the limited time I had. Legs felt burned out later that night, so I did something right. Trying to grow legs at my age is paddling up stream, but I have this theory that if I paddle hard enough, I will make progress up that stream.
 
Get Shredded!
Looking forward to shredded chicken breast over rice with black beans and cheese and some sort of hot sauce . . . my wife is such a wonderful cook.
 
All through being sick I continued hgh at 2 iu daily and test deca at 600/300. I dropped the tren ace. I think this helped immensely in maintaining some strength while not working out. I also kept up my eating as well as I could.
 
Okay, I am flexing them like crazy, trying to make them look like they have a little muscle, even though they don't, but here is a current shot of my quads.

Legs have a long way to go, I know, but they look better than a few months ago.

See the rubber ducky?
 

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Yesterday was shoulders and calves. 15 iu insulin. 234 pounds on the scale (probably a very temporary fluctuation upward).

Shoulders

Cybex Shoulder Press:
90 x 12
110 x 10
140 x 10
140 x 8
90 x 15

DB Lateral Raises:
30 x 15
30 x 15
30 x 15
30 x 13

DB Rear Flies:
25 x 9
25 x 9
25 x 9

Facepulls:
6 x 11
6 x 11
6 x 11

Rear Delt Cable: This is done with no attachment. I just grab the safety ball, put the cable at about shoulder height, and stand in a way that keeps resistance all the way through the movement, including at the peak, where I hold it for a little bit before performing the next rep. My gym does not have a rear delt machine, so this is as close as I can get.
2 x 11
2 x 11
2 x 11

Calves

Cybex Donkey Calf Raise:
270 x 15
270 x 15
270 x 12
270 x 11

Cybex Seated Calf Raise:
135 x 12
135 x 12
135 x 10
135 x 10
 
Yesterday, my weight was up to 237 pounds on the scale (probably a temporary fluctuation upward again?). 15 iu insulin, again, pre workout.


Back

Pull up wide:
7
6

Pull up neutral grip:
8

Cybex Lat Pull:
250 x 9
250 x 9
250 x 9
250 x 9
230 x 10
200 x 11

Barbell Row:
135 x 10
185 x 11
185 x 10
185 x 10
185 x 8
135 x 13

T Bar Row: (no T on the bar, just an Olympic bar with one end shoved in a corner)
115 x 12
115 x 12
115 x 12

Close Grip Pulley Row:
12 x 13
12 x 13
12 x 12
12 x 12

Stretcher:
12 x 15
13 x 12

DB Pullover:
70 x 10
70 x 10

Shrugs:
295 x 10

Today is a rest day. I was considering hitting squats again, but I think I am going to take the day off.
 
I know I aven't updated in a while. I took some time off because my son was born! Yay! Momma did it unmedicated. She is a tough woman.

Enough good news.

Now for the bad.

Trying to squat with three plates and I was having a hell of a lot of difficulty. I was in pain. By decreasing the weight I have been able to figure out where the pain was (I know it sounds silly but with 315 on there I could not tell where the pain was, just that it hurt!). The pain seems to be the front of my knee, below the patella, as I bend the knee starting a little before the halfway point.

It does not hurt to walk on level ground, but stairs, ouch!

So I decide to try lifting lighter. Say squats with 225 and crank out higher reps. It hurt, but it was manageable enough to grit my teeth and crank them out, slowly lowering down into that bottom position and pushing back up . . . the entire workout felt like a knee torture instead of muscle work.

So two hours later at home I am having trouble even getting out of bed to pee. Bending the knee even lying down with no weight was excruciating.

I have loaded up with Alleve and it seems a little better today, but I might be holding off on squats and leg press and hack squat for a while. I am not sure what is up.
 
Sounds like a good plan, Hopefully it will blow over quickly. Are you doing any sort of warm-up exercises and/or stretching prior to squats? Thankfully I've never had any issues with my knees over the years, but I always am sure to warm-up with 4-5 sets of light leg extensions prior to getting under the bar. In addition to that, I ease into my squat sets typically starting with 135lbs on the bar and gradually increasing the weight after each set. That way by the time I'm into the meat and potatoes of my squat routine I'm nice and warmed up and feeling good. I do find the first few sets to be tight and uncomfortable though.
 
I start with 25s on each side, then 45s, then 45s and 25s, then two 45s, then two 45s and a 25, before going to three 45s. I always thought that would be plenty of warmup. Maybe not.
 
TouaregV8 said:
Sounds like a good plan, Hopefully it will blow over quickly. Are you doing any sort of warm-up exercises and/or stretching prior to squats? Thankfully I've never had any issues with my knees over the years, but I always am sure to warm-up with 4-5 sets of light leg extensions prior to getting under the bar. In addition to that, I ease into my squat sets typically starting with 135lbs on the bar and gradually increasing the weight after each set. That way by the time I'm into the meat and potatoes of my squat routine I'm nice and warmed up and feeling good. I do find the first few sets to be tight and uncomfortable though.
Click to expand...

I took a break for a while from working legs. It was painful. Climbing stairs hurt. Descending stairs hurt.

It felt quite a bit better last night, so I took 3 Alleve pills and headed to the gym. Worked calves first. Then I did as you suggested with the leg extensions, except I did them one leg at a time. The right leg, with a ridiculously light weight, felt like it was working out, whereas the same weight on the left leg did not. It just felt light. Anyway, I did four sets of leg extensions and then got under the squat bar.

I went up to only two plates on each side, and for the most part it did not hurt that knee. I did not want to push my luck, since it was my first time back. I am going to (very) slowly begin adding some volume and weight, and we'll see how it goes.

It was just weird for each leg to feel that light weight on the leg extensions so differently.

The knee actually felt better, though, somewhere around the fifteenth rep of the first set, so there might be something to warming up with light leg extensions. We'll see how it goes.
 
Good, hopefully the extensions will help. I do them one leg at a time also.

I tweaked my back/and or quad last week doing squats. I set up with my feet a bit narrower than usual and the set just didn't feel right, instead of reracking and starting over I just pushed through it and on the 6th rep w/405lbs I felt something tighten up. Still trying to figure out whether it's a strained quad or sciatica. So no squats for me for a few weeks...
 
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