As much as I loathe the off season, things are going well for the most part. It's the lack of a deadline and not being REALLY lean that aren't terribly exciting for me -- never really have been. I prefer prepping for the black and white deadline, and for the changes that happen so frequently.

Though things have been going well, I am forcing a cruise week, this week. Strength is up and my recovery is pretty good, but I have some pretty bad tendonitis in my right knee. It isn't bad enough to not train, but it is getting worse and it wouldn't be logical to continue to push it as it isn't going to get better without backing off.

To give you some idea of how bad it is, this last week I warmed up for almost 30 minutes (the more I warm up, the better it feels to the point of almost not being noticeable when I am training). I hit big numbers (for me) but took precautions by wrapping my knees and I don't typically do that unless I either have big weights that I am going for PRs, or I have some knee pain.  

I was able to train and everything felt pretty good... until I got home, sat down and didn't move for a while. Over time, i stiffened up (inflammation) and by the next day I was limping on it. This lasted for about 2 days and then I woke up the following morning and 90% of it was gone, just like that. This is typical of how my tendonitis is, whether in a knee, a wrist, elbow, etc. It is pretty good now but, of course, I know it will flare up if I were to train legs heavy again.

It is more pronounced when I do things like the pendulum squat or hack squats, but is still irritated by other movements, as well -- just not as bad. I considered leaving pendelum and hack squats out for a month but after the inflammation was so bad this last time, I can't rule out that even the exercises that don't irritate it as much might not be as comfortable. So, I'm playing it safe. With no real deadline looming, I feel better about playing it safe right now. I think it will only take about 2 weeks to be close to 100% and a 3rd week might likely get me to 100%.

I also will likely be using BPC for the first time, so I am curious as to how well it is going to work. I have heard nothing but great things, but I have been leery of using it because I am still not convinced that BPC actually helps the heeling process vs simply masking the pain by reducing inflammation. Either way, I will find out how I like it how it works by using it, myself.

Outside of the knee issue, everything is rolling along smoothly in that recovery is much better without the rotating schedule. I would love to train body parts more frequently but the reality is that I would have to cut back on volume and intensity so much to compensate that I am just not willing to do that. I cannot stand not going into the gym and busting shit -- going for broke. So, I opt for keeping intensity high vs. a more frequent rotation of body parts. I just do not have the recovery ability to do that.

Calories are stable; I have not made a diet change in a while because I am slowly getting leaner during this TRT phase. I still do #saladSaturdays and then skipload on Sundays. I see no reason to change it as progress is pretty good and on track. My scale weight is now around 224-225. I have another 10 weeks to be at or just below 220 and it needs to be SLOW so that I don't compromise any progress in the gym.

 

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