Plateau buster - eat big/lift big

Not7fifteen

New member
27yo (28 in feb)
6'0"
180lb Starting Weight

Never done a AAS cycle, only taken prohormones back in 2002 and 2005. Did one cycle of 1AD and a cycle of Pheraplex. Used otc post cycle therapy (pct) and probably fucked myself up. Develope very minor still existing gyno in left nip and very very slight gyno in right nip. Only small bumps that have a little pain when rubbed on or pressed. Going to run Letro with my fingers crossed with joint support supplements to try to rid this as soon as it comes in but otherwise ran nothing ever as my stats probably indicate lol. Hit a plateau once again and going to try some advice I got on here as far as upping nutritional intake overall and deloading volume with my training back to a 5x5 compound lift based routine.

Had been on a 4000cal/day 300g protien/day intake before semi clean. Lots of tilapia, shakes, whole grains, brown rice, veggies.

Prior routine was a 4 day split focusing on a coumpound lift to start he workout each day Squats on M, Military/Rows T, Bench W, Deads Fri, followed by quite a bit of isolations prob 8-10 more sets per muscle group (4-5 sets of two other exercises). For example on my Leg day I'd warm up, do 4 sets of squats with about 8-12 reps, then finish, do walking weighted lunges 4 sets, quad extensions 4 sets, and hamstring curls 4 sets.

Reorganized my routine as follows:

Monday:
Back or Front squats - 5x5 starting light and building up to barely make my 5th rep.
Chest press (db or bb, switching angles) - 5x5 same way.
Pull downs 5x5 same way
Finish with a set to failure at half the weight i make it to on each exercise divided

Tues:
Calves and abs (I have terrible calfs, obviously genetic for the most part if you could see my dad and grandfathers calfs) I've always worked the shit out of them with barely any growth so I'll just go heavy as hell and blast them tuesdays and do 2-3 ab circuits with 3 exercises and 15 reps per exercise.

Wed:
Military Press DB or BB 5x5 and a final set at half the max weight to failure
Laterals 2x10
Bicepts - 2x10

Thurs:
Off

Fri:
Deads 5x5 with a final set of half the max weight to failure
SLDL 2x10
Chest press different angle than I hit mondays 5x5
Tricept extensions/skulls/close grip press 2x10

I'm starting my 4th week so my posts are going to be starting from 12/20 and going through present and then on.

I don't have any before pics but I'm pretty small and have small legs despite training them hard for years. Most of my weight is in my upper body, if I was proportionate on the bottom half I'd probably weight 10lbs more or so but oh well.

Here we go...

:Pump:
 
First week started 12/20/2010, I kept it lighter so I could really make sure I got the last sets of 5 hard and not have my form suffer.

MONDAY 12/20/2010 - 179lbs (light today)

Front squats 5x5
45, 75, 95, 105, 135, final set of 75x12
This felt real easy for 135

DB Press (flat) 5x5
30's, 40's, 50's, 60's, 70's, final set of 35's x 15
70's felt like cake

Pull downs 5x5
50, 70, 90, 110, 140, 70 x 25
obviously too light on these

WEDNESDAY 12/22/2010 - 181lbs (back to normal weight)
DB Military 5x5
30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 25x12
left shoulder had a lot of pain for some reason so I kept it light
Laterals 2x10
20x2, 20x2
Bicept DB Curls
25's x 10, 25's x10

FRIDAY 12/24/2010 - 182lbs (up a lb from before)
Deads 5x5
135, 185, 225, 275, 315, 155x12
Stiff deads 2x12
135, 135
Decline Bench 5x5 (shoulder still in pain)
45, 95, 135, 165, 185, 95x10
Tricept extensions 2x12
120, 120 (cable machine)

This week sucked kinda, I was pretty glad to start then had a bunch of shoulder pain which hindered my workout.. This got better over the weekend

Ate real big this week, I won't get into my macros, but I track it with daily burn on my iphone and I've been averaging 5000+cal and 350g protein, around 400g carbs, 200g fat or so. Felt a bit full but no additional bf noted. I walk around 13% or so according to bodpod and calipers on average. All abs show, bottoms aren't as pronounced as the tops, but tops are fully there. Pretty vascular normally, striations in most muscles with a pump, good vein pronunciation for the most part but nothing freaky.
 
WEEK 2

MONDAY 12/27/2010 - 183.5 (ate big all weekend)
Front Squats:
45, 95, 135, 155, 175, 95x11
Incline DB Press
20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s (felt light) 70s, 35s x 10
Pull Downs
50, 80, 110, 130, 150, 80x15 (still too light)

TUESDAY 12/28/2010 (couldnt' make it WED) - 183.5lbs
DB Military
25, 30, 35, 45, 55, 25s x 8
Laterals
25s x 10, 30s x 8 (shoulder much better)

THURS 12/30/2010 - 184lbs
Deads
135, 185, 225, 275, 315, 155x10
Flat Machine Chest press
50, 80, 110, 140, 170, 80x15 (this was easy but shoulder started to hurt so I wanted to try not to re-injure it and keep on a machine to avoid straining it).

This week was kinda off becuase of my work schedule and new years on friday with the gym closed. Up 5 lbs from the start and no visible increase in bf that I could note. I feel smaller but more solid from not doing the hypertrophy. Core feels good, shoulder pain down. Continued to consume around 5000cal 350P, 400C, 200F on average (got pretty damn close most days).
 
WEEK 3

Felt really good coming into this week after the new years celebrating lol. Went real light on the partying and slept and ate all day sunday to make up for any lack there of from fri/sat.

MONDAY 1/3/2011 -184lbs
Back Squats 5x5, drop to half max weight and fail
95, 135, 185, 225, 255, 135x8 (barely got the 255 - last rep was not below parallel)
DB press (flat) - same way
40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 40s x 10 (these felt great, last couple reps on the last working set was tough but room to improve)
Pull downs (reverse grip) - same way
50, 80, 110, 140, 170, 80x14 (easy)
Pull overs
40x10, 50x10 (wanted to get a full stretch and the chest/lats felt great)

WEDNESDAY 1/5/2011 - 184.5
DB Military 5x5 same way
25s, 35s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 30s x 7
Laterals
20x10, 25x10, 30x6
DB Curls
25x12, 30x12
(laterals were rough after pushing the 60's on military db press, didn't get 8 like last week, but the shoulder felt great with no pain at all this week)

FRIDAY 1/7/2011 - 185lbs
Decline Bench (dead lift area was occupied so started with chest)
45, 75, 135, 185, 225, 135x15 (had a bad lift off on the 225 set but kicked 135's ass on the final set)
Deads
95, 135, 225, 315, 335, 155x7
Stiff Deads
135x10, 185x10
(lower back had such a strong pump at this point i felt awkward and walking funny)
Tricepts
Rope 10x150
Vbar 10x120
Rev grip 1handed 50x10 each hand

This week went great, no shoulder pain what so ever. lifts are up, I'm up on weight and still no visible bf increase as far as i can tell, pants not getting any more snug but shirts are. Loving this so far, hoping to break 186 as thats the heaviest I've ever been at a good bf.

Diet upped about 500 cal and 25 g protien
I track it with daily burn on my iphone and I've been averaging 5500+cal and 375g protein, around 4250g carbs, 210g fat or so.

So far so good in my opinion. Keep in mind the only supplement I'm taking is a preworkout shake, post workout shake, and a shake before bed, these are not mass shakes like I'd been taking before, only Dymatize Elite whey, only 345cal a day is coming from shakes based on the powder, these are normally mixed with milk except for my preworkout shake. Lots of cheat meals, triple stackers, steaks, pork, chicken, wings, you name it, I'm eating it as far as meat. No oil fried foods really aside from the wings that were only once that week. Lots of cheat food and clean food mixed, been eating a clif builder bar 20g protien between breakfast and lunch with a bottle of milk.
 
Finally caught up! Below is todays routine, Got sick'ish on Sat so my intake sucked on sat night and sunday, but my activity was very low so I didn't really lost much. Got LOTS of sleep too after a tough week last week.

TODAY!

Monday 1/11/2010 -186lbs (was really pumped to see i didn't lose anything from the weekend problems, plus I had a really crappy intake today from all the meetings that screwed my lunch and I forgot my builder bar and milk... I'd been telling my friend and trying to convert him from his rediculous volume based 5 day split who doesn't eat right... He came in to work out with me but had to leave early, he already worked out chest tonight before he came at his other gym so oh well..

Front Squats 5x5, set 6 drop to half max weight and fail
45, 95, 135, 165, 185, 95x15

DB Flat Press - done same way
45's, 55's, 65's, 75's, 85's, 40's x 12
(two bigger guys were watching me do this as they were on 70's for 8 reps or so and when I grabbed the 85's one laughed, got 5 clean reps with a little struggle on the 5th rep, but clean, no spot, no one helping lift off)

Pulldowns (wide grip) - done same way
50, 80, 110, 140, 180, 90x25 (I think going half the final 5th rep weight isn't enough on these)


This workout felt alright, nothing crazy, really haven't been hurting by deads day (fridays) after my monday leg work outs so I implemented a "Merch March" (something I made up a name for, probably already exists but it really blasts my inner quads for a solid pump) I do this by going one leg at a time for high reps on the quad extension machine. Got 65lbs for 60 reps, 30ea leg, one leg at a time one leg lift followed by the other, right/left/right/left... so to speak... When I put my jeans on they were tight as hell in the quad area (and no I don't wear skinny jeans) These are just boot cut JC Penny American Living 32/34's.

I still am yet to notice any fat increase on my body, bottom abs still show but were never great from the start.

Breakfast was big and had 1500cal and 70g protien before leaving the house, but the rest of the day was not only made it to 4600 cal 320P, 414C (lots of carbs today considering the cal), and 167Fat. Diet really lacked but I'll make up for it tomorrow.

Had a big ass ribeye for dinner with a potato and dinner roll and a glass of milk to wash it down.

Hopefull off to bed to get some play from the woman!

Good day all things considered...

Can't wait for WED to come.. doubt I'll hit 187, but then again if i made 186 after crappy eating this weekend and today its possible. That will be the most I've ever weighed. Probably still around 13-14% bf but haven't measured, will try to get to that after this week and keep on it once a month.
 
Good log! I use 5x5 in my work out too. Right now its 5x5 for squats, dead`s, Overhead press, Bench, pull ups/chins. I do a few warmups & then I do 5x5 all the same wt. Then I add reps till I can do 5 sets of 6 reps then I add wt (about 5 or 10 lbs.) and drop the reps back down.
 
Nice, theres so many ways to tweak it for ones self, this is just how I wanted to stick with it for a while. If anyone was wondering about the imbalance of muscle groups, I hit legs, shoulders and chest hard as those are my weaker points, my back has good thickness to it from years of Bb and tbar rows so I'm trying to add some width, going to switch to pullups and weighted pullups next week
 
WEDNESDAY 1/12/2011 - 187Lbs
DB Military 5x5 then drop to half of max wieght and fail at this weight
20's, 30's, 40's, 50's, 60's, 30's x 16

Side laterals
20's x 10, 25's x 10, 30's x 10

DB Curls
20's x 10, 25's x 10, 30's x 10

did some calf work and ab work since i skipped yesterday also.

I had really low expectations going into the gym tonight, felt like complete shit this morning, got little sleep, my food intake today was pathetic, as I'm reviewing my macros and typing this I only made it to 3390 calories which is absolute crap, 199C 205F 201P...

My joints felt a little wierd because I went directly home and slept from 5:30-8PM. Left for the gym, my cold truck didn't help this either. Cranked the heat once it warmed up, jumped on a treadmill and did some very short sprints to get my body woke up and try to break a sweat and feel "warm" lol.

The DB military 60's went a little more rough than last week, laterals went better...

I was very hesitant to even get on the scale tonight in fear of falling back to 184 or something like that, however I hopped on and started moving the weights over starting at 180 nope
184 nope
185?? nope
186!? nope
187...

Not sure how that happened but I'm pretty happy. And still don't feel any noticeable fat gain... I have a picture of my 6 pack from before when I was tan before I started this but I'm pale as hell now so it won't be an easy comparison, really need to get a myotape and take all my measurements again and start keeping track.

Can't wait till Friday, if i can make a gain like that after eating mediocre on tues, and like a girl today, friday should be great after eating good again tomorrow and fri till gym time
 
Friday 1-14-2010 190lb
I'm not sure if someone fucked up the scale the last two times I weighed in but this is serious if I'm really 190 tonight!

Felt really taxed so I took it easy tonight and kept the weight down a bit from normal

Deads
135 x 10, 185x10, 225x10

Sldl
135x15, 135x15

Decline press (machine)
45s x 10, 45s and 25s x12, 2 45s x 12

Dips
Bw x 10, bw x 10, bw x 12, bw x 15

Row machine
45s x 10, 45s and 25s x12, 2 45s x 12

Tricep extensions - cable - rope
100x10, 100x10, 100x10

Had a great pump tonite from the lower weight/higher reps, felt good to change it up and it wasn't as taxing, taking a lighter cruise next week then back heavy the following week
 
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