It has been a long time coming.
I am officially back in #beastmode #AJACmode (because he loves the reference as much as I do) and I am heading for #biggainz. Ok, enough of that. I just threw up a little in my mouth.
My test levels have rebounded and it is time to kill some shit.
First things first I have changed my schedule so that I can step things up a bit as far as frequency. I haven't used my TEAM SKIP training split in quite a while simply because I haven't been recovering well enough to use it. I was hitting every muscle group roughly once a week for the last 5 months or so while test levels were in the crapper and ... probably even used that schedule longer than that. Off the top of my head it was probably all of last year. It is time for a change.
I am still training 4 days a week but it looks like this:
Mon -
Chest/Back/R Delts/Traps/stretching
Tues -
legs (calves, hams. quads, glutes, adductor/adductor work)
Wed -
REST
Thurs -
Back/Chest/Lower Back/Abs
Fri-
Delts (side and front)/Arms/Stretching
Sat -
Kid sports during the day.
Take my white-trash wife out at night, allowing her to pour copious amounts of Bud Light down her throat.
Sunday -
Eat large amounts of carbs and bacon. Ride motorcycles if weather permits. If not, spend more time with my kids but complain to them the entire time that I wish I was riding my motorcycle.
I like this schedule because of the frequency of training back and chest twice a week. This also forces me to keep my volume lower than I would, otherwise, or I will simply run out of gas and struggle later in the workout. Right now I am doing roughly 10-12 working sets for chest and 12-15 for back, just to give you an idea of the workload.
My diet is not going to change as I kick things up, at least for a few weeks. This way, I can have a better understanding of how my body is reacting without the variable of a changing diet. I am already getting more hungry and especially after training so that is a great sign so early on.
Intensity is also up. I am utilizing drop sets, rest pause sets, super sets, etc., but not going overboard.
I am concerned with my current body fat levels especially around my lower back and abs. I made a conscious decision to make sure that my calories were higher the last 5 months while my test levels were struggling to come up as I felt this would help me hold muscle and strength during this phase. It worked but now I have to decide whether to recomp over a handful of months or to take a couple months and just pull off as much body fat as I can. Right now I am leaning towards the recomp because, quite frankly, I don't want to lose any time from my off season by dieting right now. I think if I am careful and calculated I can slowly lean down and not miss out on any gains. I will just have to be patient.
Do you have a preference to 4 or 5 days? And do you train 4 simply because its more efficient or because you feel 3 days recovery is ideal. Sorry if its a bit broad
In my experience and with training a lot of clients over the years, very few people actually benefit from training 5 or more days. You have to have an incredible recovery ability to do that and most people do it simply because they can't stand not training. That isn't a good reason to train more frequently.
I would go with 4 days and see how it works for you but I bet you would see new growth due to the added recovery.
Thanks for the reply and for all the content