Becoming the Iron Lion

[REHH]

Hard to find a good feeling leg extension or leg curl machine

 

[Battousai]

Hard to find a good feeling leg extension or leg curl machine

I agree. Many of them suck. At one gym it will hit them really, another I feel nothing.

 

[Montego]

I agree. Many of them suck. At one gym it will hit them really, another I feel nothing.

Hard to find a good feeling leg extension or leg curl machine

So we've got 2 leg curls that are great. The Atlantis is amazing and we've also got a Techno Gym seated curl that probably gives me the best contraction I've ever had.... the only down fall is I don't get a good stretch because the rom isn't long enough.

No quad extensions feel good. I usually end up sliding myself all the way forward in the seat and putting the bar high up on my shin in extension so it's pinning my legs, slide back and lean back. It takes a lot of pressure off the knee but will really blast the rectus femoris

 

[Montego]

Weight holding still.

I expected a drop when the free meal got structure, but that hasn't happened.

Training is going well. Placebo maybe, or peds, but strength started to pick up. I haven't really had a stagnant point on strength this last year, but I was getting to a point where the reps or added load were slow going. This week, I improved on every set in some way.

My right wrist is STILL being a bitch. It's a singular point I can press, no radiating pain when it's pressed but moving certain ways hurts. Just a long loving sprain I guess.

Knees didn't recover as quickly this time. Today they started to feel better though so I should be good to go tomorro. They didn't get bad bad but, enough to be uncomfortable.

Nothing today, work and rest until then. Just chugging along.

 

[REHH]

So we've got 2 leg curls that are great. The Atlantis is amazing and we've also got a Techno Gym seated curl that probably gives me the best contraction I've ever had.... the only down fall is I don't get a good stretch because the rom isn't long enough.

No quad extensions feel good. I usually end up sliding myself all the way forward in the seat and putting the bar high up on my shin in extension so it's pinning my legs, slide back and lean back. It takes a lot of pressure off the knee but will really blast the rectus femoris

I do the same on extensions, slide seat way back, then slide my butt foward to get the right feel. Then use the max ROM the machine settings allow

 

[Montego]

Legs yday was good stuff.

Knees were still not but good enough. Adjusted a bit.

Adductor and glute work to start.

I lightened up the glute work and went higher reps..... this won't grow any tissue, but it's helping me feel them work more, and in turn, when I do start to load heavier, it'll translate over time.

I was supposed to increase load on hack but since the knees weren't all the way there I opted for the same load and did paused reps bottoming out the hack. These were brutal but I hit my pervious reps so I win.

Also did some widow maker's on the leg press with partial rom. Enough to stretch the quad and keep good constant tension with it.

Seated hamstring curls on the Techno machine.

Some extensions to finish it off.

Feeling full and strong. Food reduced today. Small bits, not major. Still fat.

 

[Montego]

Push today.

Nothing exciting. I'm still nursing this wrist, so pressing isn't great. Got some quality sets and a small progression, but not much.

Did a JM press on a flat machine where the grips spin, felt great. I'll be running those into the ground. Pump wasn't very good today, and I realized I haven't been salting my damn meals. I typically do 12 grinds of pink salt in every meal, but I put the grinder away on Sunday (I usually leave it out) and completely forgot about it.

That'll do it.

Rolling on

 

[Montego]

Pull day was excellent.

Been using a pronated grip on the chest supported prime machine clone, switched back to the neutral grip and used it iso. Last time this was in rotation I used 5 plates on the bottom peg and 2 on the middle for 7 reps, got 9 this time and a second set of 8. Third set was both arms with 5pps for 10 I think.

Turned myself around in the seat of the pulldown machine so I'm facing away and can't use the leg brace. The reason I turned around is so I can press my back into the middle upright and keep my posture high without leaning back on any on accident. A neat surprise, since I'm wedged into the upright I can focus on my mid back more and get a better contraction. 3 sets with 2pps for 12ish reps and a big stretch.

Deads. 405 , but I can't remember reps....I think it was like 10,10 ,9? There was progression is all I remember since I don't have my book ATM. The first 10 might have been the same as last session but I had more in the tank, stopped short since I added volume.

One arm pulldown to finish instead of start. Lost a rep on both sets but, given where they were placed I'll take it.

 

[Montego]

Legs today.

Pretty good.... found a new torture method.

Adductor and glutes/hams to start. Same shit. I started using the thin 45lb plates on the Adductor so there's more room for future progression. Stack 3 plates and 2 green bands doubled over. (I looked up weight transition on these, best I can figure is around 90lbs of resistance) Did plain back extension instead of the ghr. My hamstrings felt really tight at the start of the session so I erred on the side of caution. No weight, just held a deep stretch and made sure to not use the low back. Fried my hams and glutes.

Went over to the Squat Pro. Only went up to 3 plates this session. My knees were getting some pain in this movement with my normal stance, they also hated me the last time I did it so I will look for an alternative(maybe Hatfield squats) so I went narrower and the pain wasn't there at parallel. I did lose some strength though. 3 sets at 3pps for 12,13,11. This actually hit the quads pretty well but, the knees might but agree.

Glute thrust stuff in-between.

The killer. I didn't feel like the Squat did to enough work so, instead of the iso leg press I tried using the hip hack one leg at a time. Fuck me running. These were absolutely perfect. This machine tears my knees up using both legs but this way there was no pain at all. Plus, I only needed 1 plate lol. Sets of 12, 10, 9 all to failure.

Stiff legs at only 225 because of the hams. 2 sets of 15 was more then enough.

Also, that sweat is after my first working set on adductors lol. Was drenched to my socks after the entire session.

 

[Montego]

Churning along.

Current doses-

750 test e
450 mast p
450 npp
12.5mg aromasin ed
5iu orange tops ed (Post training on training days, first thing on non training days)
250mcg bpc in each knee ed
150mcg t4 (this is my replacement dose for hypothyroidism, not any extra)

Weight unknown.

Been a good week so far. I'm off work for "vacation" butI'm just doing a bunch of stuff around the house, nothing fun besides naps.

Weights coming off decently. I can see it mostly from the sides, the waist just comes off the last week from the front.

Strength is fantastic. I'm in that spot where I'm still kinda heavy, anabolics are going and I'm not so heavy that it hurts performance in the gym.

I'll get some pics soon, tomorrow is leg day so I'll be murdered after that.

 

[Battousai]

Churning along.

Current doses-

750 test e
450 mast p
450 npp
12.5mg aromasin ed
5iu orange tops ed (Post training on training days, first thing on non training days)
250mcg bpc in each knee ed
150mcg t4 (this is my replacement dose for hypothyroidism, not any extra)

Weight unknown.

Been a good week so far. I'm off work for "vacation" butI'm just doing a bunch of stuff around the house, nothing fun besides naps.

Weights coming off decently. I can see it mostly from the sides, the waist just comes off the last week from the front.

Strength is fantastic. I'm in that spot where I'm still kinda heavy, anabolics are going and I'm not so heavy that it hurts performance in the gym.

I'll get some pics soon, tomorrow is leg day so I'll be murdered after that.

Do you notice any difference with site injection for bpc? I've been doing in my stomach fat.

 

[Montego]

Do you notice any difference with site injection for bpc? I've been doing in my stomach fat.

Absolutely.

So the pain I get in my knees moves a bit depending on where the tendinitis is the worst. Sometimes, it's on the side. Other times, it's in the front.

If I put the injection where the pain radiates from (best I can find the spot, if it's in front instead of the side, it's harder to tell if it's high/low/middle) there is notable difference the next day. If I only do the injections in the side, since it's easier to get sub q and I don't feel like I'm going through tendon (which I'm probably not doing) the pain in the front of the knee doesn't improve as much the following day.

As much as bpc has helped, and God almighty, it's helped SO much. I don't believe isn't a cure for tendinitis. Even with reduced training volume/intensity,rehab, and the bpc, it's still there, just not crippling. I'll have to stop training my quads completely in a "bodybuilding" fashion and only train for function which is disheartening and not an option currently.

 

[Battousai]

Absolutely.

So the pain I get in my knees moves a bit depending on where the tendinitis is the worst. Sometimes, it's on the side. Other times, it's in the front.

If I put the injection where the pain radiates from (best I can find the spot, if it's in front instead of the side, it's harder to tell if it's high/low/middle) there is notable difference the next day. If I only do the injections in the side, since it's easier to get sub q and I don't feel like I'm going through tendon (which I'm probably not doing) the pain in the front of the knee doesn't improve as much the following day.

As much as bpc has helped, and God almighty, it's helped SO much. I don't believe isn't a cure for tendinitis. Even with reduced training volume/intensity,rehab, and the bpc, it's still there, just not crippling. I'll have to stop training my quads completely in a "bodybuilding" fashion and only train for function which is disheartening and not an option currently.

Thank you. I'll have to try doing that from now on.

And yeah, by biggest fear is not being able do the bi movements. Especially squats. Thankfully I have no knee issues. I just fucked up my ankle years ago from kicking a wall and left shoulder from sleeping in a car.

 

[davidsheart]

Awesome can’t wait to see the results. Go get some.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Montego]

Legs yday.

Pushed it too far on hacks. First set went up to 5 plates instead of 4 and a quarter. Ground out 7 reps but from rep 4 on it felt bad. The right knee, the better if the two, had some shooting pain. I thought I was pushing slow enough but I was wrong. Tried a backoff at 4 plates and only did 1 rep and ditched it.

Moved to an iso leg press. These were fine. Foot low and wide on the platev with tires m toes out. The sweeps were smoking, and I'll keep these I think.

Rest of the session was fine. Hams, adductors, calves all got solid work.

Today the wife and I went thrift store hunting for grandson stuff the very first baby I'll have a hand in raising (my wifes 3 kids who i consider my own were 6,6 twins and 2. I didn't know about my daughter until she was 2) and I'm so damn excited lol.

My wife is humoring me because she knows what I missed out on and how important it is to me lol.

Got a baby bed with some jungle theme bedding. One of those electric baby swing/bouncer things and a little seat type thing. It's not much but, it was fun and a good start.

A few weeks back, I started buying a big box of baby wipes and diapers every time I go in Sam's club. Think I've got like 5 of each, which isn't a ton but, by the time February is here I assume it'll be a good start for the daughter and her guy with everything that they'll get at the shower.

Some other good news. My son was able to submit an application finally to where I work. They emailed him some tests and he came over and I helped him through them even though he didn't really need it. He passed all of them so now he just waits to see if they contact him for an interview.

I really hope he gets this job. It's going to be rough for the first few years but, this is a career that pays well, has probably the best retirement you can get and has equally good medical insurance. It's a life changer. Him being young, he'll have to sacrifice a lot of fun stuff younger adults do but, I did it so can he.

 

[Battousai]

Legs yday.

Pushed it too far on hacks. First set went up to 5 plates instead of 4 and a quarter. Ground out 7 reps but from rep 4 on it felt bad. The right knee, the better if the two, had some shooting pain. I thought I was pushing slow enough but I was wrong. Tried a backoff at 4 plates and only did 1 rep and ditched it.

Moved to an iso leg press. These were fine. Foot low and wide on the platev with tires m toes out. The sweeps were smoking, and I'll keep these I think.

Rest of the session was fine. Hams, adductors, calves all got solid work.

Today the wife and I went thrift store hunting for grandson stuff the very first baby I'll have a hand in raising (my wifes 3 kids who i consider my own were 6,6 twins and 2. I didn't know about my daughter until she was 2) and I'm so damn excited lol.

My wife is humoring me because she knows what I missed out on and how important it is to me lol.

Got a baby bed with some jungle theme bedding. One of those electric baby swing/bouncer things and a little seat type thing. It's not much but, it was fun and a good start.

A few weeks back, I started buying a big box of baby wipes and diapers every time I go in Sam's club. Think I've got like 5 of each, which isn't a ton but, by the time February is here I assume it'll be a good start for the daughter and her guy with everything that they'll get at the shower.

Some other good news. My son was able to submit an application finally to where I work. They emailed him some tests and he came over and I helped him through them even though he didn't really need it. He passed all of them so now he just waits to see if they contact him for an interview.

I really hope he gets this job. It's going to be rough for the first few years but, this is a career that pays well, has probably the best retirement you can get and has equally good medical insurance. It's a life changer. Him being young, he'll have to sacrifice a lot of fun stuff younger adults do but, I did it so can he.

Awesome man. I can tell you are excited.

 

[Montego]

Awesome man. I can tell you are excited.

Yep lol.

My wife just laughs at me half the time with the things I say or questions I have.

Example ‐ after we got the bedding stuff I said "now we just have to find pillow cases and pillows for him". Apparently babies don't use pillows because the can suffocate..... never knew

Anther example ‐ I was talking about getting formula or whatever and I also said "I can get that and whatever snacks the baby might like"..... Apparently babies don't get snacks either lol.

I'm a pretty sharp guy but, when it comes to babies I'm ignorant af

 

[Battousai]

Yep lol.

My wife just laughs at me half the time with the things I say or questions I have.

Example ‐ after we got the bedding stuff I said "now we just have to find pillow cases and pillows for him". Apparently babies don't use pillows because the can suffocate..... never knew

Anther example ‐ I was talking about getting formula or whatever and I also said "I can get that and whatever snacks the baby might like"..... Apparently babies don't get snacks either lol.

I'm a pretty sharp guy but, when it comes to babies I'm ignorant af

I would be clueless too; thank goodness we have the women to take care of them.

 

[Montego]

Been a fucking week......

Weight around 249. Feel good and I've finally started to FEEL leaner this week. That stage from skinny fat to tighter fat.

Drugs updated to -
750mg Iron Lion Test E
600mg Iron Lion mast p (didn't have mast e yet when I got some)
5iu Iron Lion orange tops ed
150mcg t4 (prescription, not used as a ped)
12.5mg aromasin (switched to the from adex)

Basically, I just dropped the npp and increased mast.

More carbs pulled from diet. Hungry but not starving yet.

Work has slowed way down and these greedy fucks cut jobs at my location. Went from a set schedule (nights, 60+ hours a week off Friday and Saturday night) to being back on call 24/7......18 fucking years here and this shit happens but, I'm not going anywhere. Pay, benefits, and retirement are way to good, especially with no education at my age to go anywhere else.

Left knee is feeling really good..... right knee went to shit. Pretty painful and I dunno when it got tweaked. This feels like when I tore the cartilage off the bone in the knee cap 17 years ago but I'm not sure. Working around it and letting it rest as much as possible.

Leg training was.......interesting. The pain is right at parallel. My solution, don't train through parallel in the ROM.

Adductor and glutes as usual to warm up. Banded hypers for the glutes/hams. I set up the band way out in front of me on the ground wrapped around a barbell wedged into a rack. This pulls me AWAY from the hyper bench instead of pulling me down like they are usually done. I feel the stretch all the way through my damn calves and just focus on pushing my hips into the pad to move instead of lifting my torso up. Give it a try.

Tru squats (bad choice) - counter loaded the machine to reduce load as well as I could in that area. Ended up doing partials in the hole to just short of parallel keeping a ton of tension, then partials at the top the same way. The good thing here, my quads were shot all the way up through the rectus femoris from the partials at the top since I was making sure to get full extension.

Single leg curls. Knee pain here at 90°. Stopped just short of that.

Glutanator. Like the abductor machine but the arms track down and away. Besides hip thrusts, this is the best exercise I've done for glutes. Has been a favorite since my gym got one.

Single leg hip hack. These still smack. I can adjust my foot position and knee travel so there's very little to no pain. Like I mentioned before, I don't have to load a fuck ton of weight on it either which is awesome lol, only 1 single plate... the sled is pretty heavy and a decently steep angle though.

Finished out with extensions. Started right above full flexion where the pain is. Slow eccentric, slow concentric making the quad flex to lockout. Did a couple muscle rounds here since the other quad training wasn't as complete as I would have liked.

 

[Montego]

Been busy af.

Battery in the car died, had to dish it 240 for a new one

Wifes ac in her car went out again after spending 1k getting it "fixed" (I tried to get her to take it to my guy but she didn't want to wait the extra day it would have taken to get it done)

Think she tore her rotator cuff or labrum possibly. Dunno how but her shoulder has been fucked up for a few days now. Mri tomorrow.

On top of that the on call work has completely fucked up my sleep schedule. Instead of just staying up at night I gotta sleep whenever I can which is annoying.

I had some decent training. Push day I did a little Deload. Mostly to try and help this wrist heal but it's either a terrible sprain or I possibly broke that little bone on the top towards the inside. Shouldn't take this long for a sprain.

Lightened up stuff, no wrist pressure best I could manage. Was sore the next day but I didn't log anything. Just lots of volume.

Pull today was similar but a little heavier.

 

[Tresto]

Shit man, when it rains it pours. Hopefully you all catch a break and get back to normal routine soon

 

[Montego]

Still fat. 248lbs this morning. I guess these are the first check in pics I've posted since starting prep. Around the 9 week out mark? No certain date picked with the work schedule.

The biggest change I can see right now in my physique is how much better my hamstrings and lower lats have gotten.

Waist fat comes off at the very end, it's fun to be shredded with a spare tire at 4 weeks out.

 

[Montego]

Legs today.

Volume. Knee sparing volume.

Adductors and hypers to start, like always. Heavy sets here to failure, one drop after my last set of each.

Did some extensions between a few sets of the above to warm up the knees more. Lighter weights, just flexing and driving blood.

Single leg hip press. These don't hurt but the knees are just SO weak. Full extension is hard and shaky. Not a great sign overall but, here we are. 4 sets total with the last using both legs for partials.

Did extensions with these. Moderate weight with the shorter rom. Not enough eccentric to put pressure on the knees but a full hard concentric with a slight pause.

Hatfield squats. Haven't done these in ages. I was just testing out how I could set up. The rack we have doesn't really have a good way to hold so I'll have to figure it out. 3 sets here.

Did split squats with these. My quads were pretty shot at this point so i didn't need much weight, again, haven't done these in a while. 3 sets to failure.

Did some calves and that was it.

Just trying to be smart....... my plan was to just go ham this prep and say fuck it but, with the schedule change I dunno that I'll even be able to get time off for the shows ahead.

If I could for sure be able to hit late October or early November I wouldn't blink at the prospect of rupturing a tendon. Not ideal of course but, it would be a sure thing. Now I'm just hoping to be able to be off lol, if not I've gotta save these sticks for next season.

 

[Montego]

Missed a couple sessions the last 2 days.

Worked Friday morning and got a call that my mother in law was having acute respiratory failure so I went to the hospital. She's fine now but, Spent the afternoon there and didn't have time to train.

Saturday we went to see my grandpa who just turned 90 and spent the day so no training.

Push today though.

Not training for a few days and low calories i went in pretty puny but, the pump and fullness picked up quick. Very solid session and the wrist is feeling a good bit better.

Update pics tomorrow, might drop a few

 

[MindlessWork]

Having a run of bad luck and poor timing sure is a downer but the grandkid on the way at least is a small light at the end of the tunnel. Your motivation still is key and keeping that's a great thing.

 

[Montego]

Getting there.

750mg test
900mg mast
40mcg clen
5 iu orange tops

Things have definitely picked up this week. Fat is noticeably falling off pretty quick now which is good to see.

Training is going well. Holding strength and the sessions have been a good vibe.

Work is still stupid so I'm having to be very flexible with my schedule. So far it's been OK.

Pics from Monday morning.

 

[Montego]

Gonna go get some x rays today or tomorrow.

I was pulling on a clamp handle at work and when I pulled it up it felt like my fucking hand was going to explode. Pain was so bad it made me sick. I've been having the pain for weeks now and this was enough to make me look into it more.

While I'm there I'm going to get my right knee (the good one usually) looked at as well. Same thing there, been hurting too much for too long.

Couple pics from the last 2 days.

 

[cdubw44]

Gonna go get some x rays today or tomorrow.

I was pulling on a clamp handle at work and when I pulled it up it felt like my fucking hand was going to explode. Pain was so bad it made me sick. I've been having the pain for weeks now and this was enough to make me look into it more.

While I'm there I'm going to get my right knee (the good one usually) looked at as well. Same thing there, been hurting too much for too long.

Couple pics from the last 2 days.

Not supposed to get hurt. Stop hurting yourself

 

[Montego]

Not supposed to get hurt. Stop hurting yourself

Yeah it's getting harder and harder not too lol

 

[Montego]

Update -

The knee is fine. There's nothing on the x ray, so it's just tendinitis.

Wrist is "dislocated." Not in the normal sense though.

The picture below is not my x ray but it points to the "dislocated" area. Those bones should be together and mine aren't. It's pretty common for this injury to need surgery, and seeing as how I've gone over 2 months with it, that's probably where I'm heading.

Gotta book an appointment with the ortho to see what he says, but I'm hopeful that wearing a splint will be enough.

Until I know i need surgery, I'll continue to prep. If I do need surgery, then I'll have to end the prep and start over at a later date.