Jin's first bulk: newbie gainz

[Gainjin260]

This was the first day in 3 weeks I felt I didn't need a mid afternoon nap. The fatigue from elevated e2 was almost debilitating at times.

Feeling pretty good. Looking better. Was worried I'd drop a bunch of weight as my e2 settles down, but it's holding steady above 275. We'll see.

Blood pressure is down to 139/64.

Push day, emphasis on chest.

Flat bench DB 6x15
Incline DB 6x15
Machine flys 6x15

Superset x6
HS declinex15
DB pull overs x15

Supersetx6
Cross-body cable push x 15
Tri rope x 20

Supersetx6
Shoulder lateral cable flys x 15
Rev grip tri push downs x 20

Still eating between 5,500-6,500 cal/day. Recently I've been getting most of my carbs from pancakes, Life cereal, corn bread, etc. Seems to work just fine and it's a nice change from brown rice and oatmeal.

 

[Gainjin260]

Weight: 274

Legs/bicep day

Squat @ 225 3x15
@ 245 3x15
Leg press 6x25
Worked up to 9 plates a side for 25 reps

Superset x 6
Extensions x 15
Seated curls x 15

Superset x 4
Adductor x 25
Abductor x 25

Straight bar curl 6x 15
Preacher curl machine 6x15
Front double bi cables 6x20

Seems like I've lost a couple pounds in water weight. I'm curious where my e2 is. Getting bloods pulled on Friday.

 

[Gainjin260]

Feeling great and looking much better since e2 coming down. Eating my face off to try to keep in the mid 270's, but the weight I've lost is all water weight and it doesn't seem that I've lost any strength along with it.

Pretty good deadlift and back day.

Warm up 135-315
1x3 @ 405
1x2@455
1@495
2x1@545
1x11@405

I had enough muscle strength to rep out 12 or 13 @ 405, but it was good I didn't cause I nearly passed out stopping at 11. Even though the 545 was a PR I was more impressed with the last set.

DB rows 6x15
Cable rows 6x15
Cable pull downs 6x15
HS pull downs 6x15

Supersetx6
HS high rowx15
HS low rowx15

Hammer curls 6x15

Post WO meal

5 eggs
5 egg whites

4 servings of steel cut oats
1/4c maple syrup
1c strawberries
1tbsp butter
1tbsp half and half

1 piece of corn bread

1,720cal 216c/53f/82p

 

[Gainjin260]

Chest day

Flat bench- weak sauce, but getting better
3x15@205
3x15@225

Incline DB press
6x15

Decline bench
6x5

Superset x 6
High to low cable flys x 20
Tricep rope over head ext x 20

Superset x 6
L2H cable fly x 20
Tri push down x 20

Cable flys
6x20

Got in a little over 6,500 cal yesterday

Water weight from e2 is still coming off, looking leaner and abs are slightly visible.
Bloods tomorrow.

 

[Gainjin260]

Weather was super warm yesterday so I went out and about in town with a tank top. I have to purposely walk around with a big goofy smile or people are too intimidated to interact with me. At the checkout line a younger girl was ringing me up and her older coworker says "I'm sorry, but I have to ask: are you like a wrestler or something?".
I said "Why? Do I look familiar?"
"Yeah, maybe" she said.
I told her I did porn and maybe that's where she's seen me. As she vehemently denies ever watching porn, the young girl checking me out turns bright red and cannot make eye contact with me as I get my change. Priceless.

Did heavy rack pulls today along with arms.

 

[Gainjin260]

Pretty grueling chest and leg day.

Wanted to start with bench on a Monday cause it's usually Thursday's after a shitload of volume M-W. Hadn't hit 315 since my 20's and wanted to rid my self of that mental barrier.
Warm-up then some lighter working sets.
6x275
3x315
2x335
355- miss

Squats
1x15@225
2x15@245
3x15@275

I'd have never jumped to 275 but my lifting partner pushed me to it. Pretty happy with today's weight.

Flat DB press 6x15
Leg press 6x25

Supersetx6
Pec dec x 15
Seated leg curl x 15

Leg extensions 6x15

Not the highest volume workout, but I'm completely fried right now.

blood work in. E2 dropped from 139 to 68 (ref 7.6-42.6 pg/mL) took another whole 1mg Adex today and will continue with .5mg eod from here on out.

Does that sound reasonable or should I up the Adex to .5mg 4x/wk?

 

[Gainjin260]

Pretty grueling chest and leg day.

Wanted to start with bench on a Monday cause it's usually Thursday's after a shitload of volume M-W. Hadn't hit 315 since my 20's and wanted to rid my self of that mental barrier.
Warm-up then some lighter working sets.
6x275
3x315
2x335
355- miss

Squats
1x15@225
2x15@245
3x15@275

I'd have never jumped to 275 but my lifting partner pushed me to it. Pretty happy with today's weight.

Flat DB press 6x15
Leg press 6x25

Supersetx6
Pec dec x 15
Seated leg curl x 15

Leg extensions 6x15

Not the highest volume workout, but I'm completely fried right now.

blood work in. E2 dropped from 139 to 68 (ref 7.6-42.6 pg/mL) took another whole 1mg Adex today and will continue with .5mg eod from here on out.

Does that sound reasonable or should I up the Adex to .5mg 4x/wk?

 

[Gainjin260]

Weight 275, have lost a lot a of bloat, you can tell there are abs under there- somewhere.

Deadlifts and back

Pulled 405 from a 4" deficit 7x5

BB rows 6x15
DB rows 6x15

Superset x 6
Seated cable rows x 15
Lat push down x 15

Superset x 6
HS Lat pull down x 15
HS high row x 15

Consistently getting in 5,500-6,500 cal/day.

 

[Gainjin260]

Last Thursday early morning chest session before I headed to the Midwest to visit family.

Finally got 225 for all 6 sets, 15 reps.

Found a gym in Milwaukee that bills itself as a "Hardcore Bodybuilding Gym". Fair enough. Did an early morning arm session there on Friday with a bunch of senior citizens.

Off day Saturday.

I usually take off Sunday, but the bed I'm sleeping in sucks and my back needed some blood flow. Hit Chest/Back.

Today was legs. I strayed from my normal 6x15 routine. This is the first gym that I've worked out in the has chains so I played around with them on my squats.

3x10@225
2x10@225+40lbs chain
2x6@315
3x6@315+40
1x365
1x385
1x405

Right now I'd guess my max squat is in the high 400's, but 405 is a PR. That was barefoot with no belt.

I don't consider myself a good squatter, but the gym owner and a powerlifter both commended me on my form.

 

[Gainjin260]

I've been sick as all hell. Bad cold/cough/congestion. Stayed in bed until 1pm on Wednesday. Hit chest on Thursday and Deads/back today.

I've been a little over 280 the last two days. I've upped my Adex to .5 5x/wk and I think this is a good dose for this amount of gear. I'll probably run one more set of bloods so I can know for sure what my best Adex dose is for future cycles.

That said, I've lost a lot of "fluffiness"; looking a lot leaner and feeling much better. High e2 is no fun.

Did modified workout bc I don't have the lung capacity to go 6x15.

Today I pulled 495 for 3 and 545 for 1 both w/o straps. October 2015 I was maxing out at 315 for 5 reps, so I've come a long way. Being hypogonadal didn't help.

There's a 21 year old powerlifter in my gym. Dude is 165 and was pulling 455 for sets of 3.

Next week is deload

 

[Gibsonator]

Weather was super warm yesterday so I went out and about in town with a tank top. I have to purposely walk around with a big goofy smile or people are too intimidated to interact with me. At the checkout line a younger girl was ringing me up and her older coworker says "I'm sorry, but I have to ask: are you like a wrestler or something?".
I said "Why? Do I look familiar?"
"Yeah, maybe" she said.
I told her I did porn and maybe that's where she's seen me. As she vehemently denies ever watching porn, the young girl checking me out turns bright red and cannot make eye contact with me as I get my change. Priceless.

Did heavy rack pulls today along with arms.

Lmao dude!

 

[Gainjin260]

Haven't had morning wood since week 4 of the cycle, assuming it went away due to elevated e2 levels. But now it's back. And I don't pee all the time. So I sleep more. Life is good.

I've been going hard since October without a break so I'll be deloading this week. Going to keep the intensity up (60 sec btw sets), but reduce the weight and go 5 sets of 10 rather than 6 sets of 15.

The following week I'll be going heavy. Maybe 6-8 sets of 6.

The next 4 weeks I'm undecided as to whether to keep going 6x15 or do something different like reverse pyramid: 2-4-6-8-10-12-15-20

Any opinions on this? I've been progressing nicely with adding weight to my 6x15. Should I finish out the cycle with high volume or change things up?

As soon as I pin my first TRT dose in May I'll be going heavy.

 

[Gainjin260]

Here's how I woke up today at 285

View attachment 566341

6 more weeks on cycle bulking then 2 months maintenance, then plan is to drop down to 260-265.

 

[Gainjin260]

Deload week

Yesterday was legs
Squats 5x10@225 1 min rest btw sets
Leg press 4x25
Extensions 5x10
Curls 5x10
Also did 3 exercises of biceps.

Shoulders today
Standing BB press 5x10
Side raises 5x15
Rear flys 5x15
Cable side raises 5x10
3 exercises of tri's

All the weights were light and easy, but I kept the rest to a minute or less btw sets

20 min of cardio

Now that I'm in the 280's I'm slowing down a but on my eating. I'm aiming to eat around 4,800-5k, which is about 500-700 over TDEE.

 

[Gainjin260]

I think I really needed this deload. I've had zero desire to push beyond what I set out to do this week: relatively light weight, 45 sec rest btw 5 sets of 10. 20 min of LISS cardio afterwards.

Going to take the next three days off and come back next week firing on all cylinders with race gas and NOS. getting one last set of bloods tomorrow. I've been at 2.5mg of Adex/wk but my BP has been running high again and I took an extra .5 yesterday and it's come down a bit.

I ordered knee sleeves, they should be here tomorrow for Monday, leg day.

Since I've dropped the calories my BF is coming down, hoping to end the cycle with slightly visible abs while maintaining a 500-700cal surplus.

 

[Gibsonator]

You put on a lot of weight fast, i can imagine that to be a mindfuck of sorts, thats why i went with a lean bulk. Ive never had more than a slightly visible upper 2 abs lol and i used to be heavy so i don't ever want to be too big. I'm ending my cycle 20 lbs up and leaner than before. You have different goal i get that, i admire your ability to consume 6,000 cals/day. Good log so far bro!

 

[Gainjin260]

You put on a lot of weight fast, i can imagine that to be a mindfuck of sorts, thats why i went with a lean bulk. Ive never had more than a slightly visible upper 2 abs lol and i used to be heavy so i don't ever want to be too big. I'm ending my cycle 20 lbs up and leaner than before. You have different goals i get that, i admire your ability to consume 6,000 cals/day. Good log so far bro!

I thought we were both aiming for about 265 at 15%, no? Maybe different methods of getting there. I'm a proponent of bulk then cut and I don't mind a little extra BF while bulking.

 

[Gibsonator]

Yea 265 is the goal at somewhere aroun 15%

 

[Gainjin260]

Heavy week day 1: legs

Lost some weight over the last week. Just don't have the appetite without going hard at the gym. Sitting at 277.

Slept a lot, foam rolled and stretched in anticipation of this week. Very happy with today's results.

Skwaats
Warm-up to 275
315x10
365x8
405x6
4x8 @ 365

This is by far my best effort on squats. 2 weeks ago I hit 405 for the first time just messing around with no belt and no shoes. Today I hit it 6 times equipped with belt, shoes and knee sleeves. Felt great.

October 2015 I did 5x5 for 3 months. When I started I couldn't do 225 for 5 reps! I'd never really squatted properly (to depth and/or free weights) so I'm basically still making newbie gains on squats (and deads) even though I've been lifting for 15 years.

Did a bunch of other legs stuff and biceps.

 

[Gibsonator]

Impressive bro