Review of my fall diet/training

[archive_Flash]

I was hoping my bros here at AF could critique my upcoming training and diet for an upcoming fall cycle. This is my first time doing a true bodybuilding type split in about 3 years, so if I'm off on rep ranges or volume, dont be shy in offering suggestions. My pics are posted, so They may give you guys some insight to weak points that I may be missing.

My Goal is to add 10-15lbs of muscle and gain very little fat (hopefully none).

Diet will be:
- Protien = +300g
- Carbs = 200g-300g
- Fat = +/-50g
divided into 6 meals daily. Carbs will be from Yams, oatmeal, pasta, and rice. Protein will be from Chicken, tuna, lean steak, Salmon and Myoplex MRP's. Post-workout will be 75g maltodextrin/50g whey. I'l aslo be supplementing w/ vit.C, Flax oil, r-ala, multi-vit, vit.E, and calcium/magnesium/potassium.

My split will Be:

MON - off

TEUS - Back/Abs/Calfs
-narrow grip pull-ups (4setsx15reps)
-romanian deads (4x8)
-lat-pulls (3x10)
-bent rows (3x8)
-incline crunches (4x50)
-hanging leg raises (4x25)
-seated toe raises (4x10)
-donkey calf raises (4x15)

WED - off

THURS - Shoulders/Tris/ Forearms
-military press (4x8)
-front raises (4x8)
-reverse cable crossovers (4x8)
-skull crushers (3x15)
-cable push-downs (3x15)
-forearm curls (3x30)
-reverse foream curls (3x30)
-grip strength (4x25)

FRI - off

SAT - Legs/Abs
-leg extensions (2x15)
-lying leg curls (2x15)
-front squats (3x12)
-squats (4x8)
-leg press (4x8)
-incline crunches (4x25)
-hanging leg raises (4x15)

SUN - Chest/ Bis
-push-ups (4x25)
-bench press (4x8)
-incline bench press (4x8)
-hammer bench (3x15)
-hammer incline (3x15)
-dumbell flies (3x15)
-dumbell curls (3x8)
-preacher curls (3x8)

My cycle will be 500mg test/400mg Eq/525mg tren.

I'm looking forward to starting this split, at the same time I'm dreading it. this is about 3x the volume I was doing for racing. I'm going to be a sore lil' bastard /infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif. I'm starting the diet and new split teusday, and will start my cycle in about 3-4 weeks. I'm hoping that by training natural in the beginning I'll get a good respect for the routine and diet. Thanks in advance for your help.

Pump up the valium!

[archive_Bjaarki]

We get to check your pics on the pics forum, and then comment on your training plans here. Nice package, great opportunity to be helpful to a quality guy.

Your diet seems right on, Flash. I avoid grain-based carbs (like pasta), but that's mostly to avoid the hunger that follows. You just have a little grain-based food in there, and I know your level of dedication, so the hunger shouldn't be a problem. You might want to up the protein a bit, and get more of it from whey shakes. Not that that's better, but 300g of protein is a hell of a lot of chicken breast. You can't beat the convenience and palatability of a good whey shake, and if you get plenty of fiber elsewhere, it's no problem. I bring up this point because, as a cyclist who has stayed fairly trim, I'll bet you anything that just chugging down the food necessary to gain quality mass will be challenge to you. It is to me. Your planned diet is only in the 2500-3000 Kcal/d range, quite a bit short for a guy your size to add much mass. I would raise protein to 350-400g/d, and raise fat as well (not sure how much). With your high basal activity level, you're going to need 4000 Kcal/d minimum to show any real gains. Do that mostly with additional protein and quality fats.

Now as to your pics and your proposed training schedule: You have strong, athletic-looking legs - guess all that cycling has helped - and a good-looking leg routine. Only thing I would change would be to do squats first, before leg extensions and leg curls (more finishing-type lifts than mass-builders, IMO), and put the Romanian DLs into leg day. I've argued this out before, and I know there are honest differences, but I consider heavily leg-involving DLs like Romanians or Sumos to be essentially leg lifts and lower-back lifts, not "back" lifts (which to me means more upper back, lats and lower traps). Those changes would help.

Your back is a weak point for you - both width and thickness. For width, there is simply nothing like wide-grip pullups. A few narrow-grips and some pulldowns on a cable will not compensate. Trust me on this. Work your way up to 150 pullups a day, on back day, however long, however many sets, it takes you. This is Fukkenshredded's idea, I adopted it a year ago, and my back has EXPLODED. This will tear up your hands something awful - you get a lot of shearing pressure on your palms when you're hanging from a pullup bar, and some of your callouses will rip off, but this will really make your lats wing-out very nicely. For thickness ... I don't know, mine is thick, but not especially so, and I'm looking for some good back thickeners myself. Maybe someone else will jump in and help us both out here.

I don't see a single shrug in your routine anywhere. That's a mistake. You have good genetic potential for some nice traps - in the 3rd shot you posted it looks like you already have some mass up there - and it could be a real focal point for you, give you an excellent athletic look. I would add in a lot of shrugs. Use one of your "off" days if you want. I posted a thread last year, something like "Some interesting shrug variations," something like that, that gives you my philosophy on shrugs. GO HEAVY with them. If you're not shrugging at least your body weight, you're not shrugging.

You seem to also have a weak point in your delts. Militaries and front raises won't do it for you, delts are awfully stubborn. My recipe is a "triple super," behind-the-neck militaries to failure followed immediately (no rest) by seated bent lateral raises to failure followed immediately (no rest) by front bar raises. That will hit your delts from every angle, and 10 sets of those will thoroughly cook you, the last few subsets of front bar raises will bring tears to your eyes. I usually do 10 triples like that, then 10 to 12 more sets of just in-front-of-the-head militaries, use some ab work to rest between sets. This will make your delts "pop out" quite nicely. Combine well-popped delts with big hulking traps, and you've gone a long way toward "the look."

Your tris are good, and your arms have a nice shape. Your bis can use some more size, though. I don't think you have enough bi work in there. Buy an "armblaster" (I've put a half-inch on my bis got a peak on my right bi for the first time using one of these devices, Arnold used one so you can't laugh) and do lots of standing bar curls, as well as spiders, rope curls, hammers, you know the drill. You're going to need 15+ work sets with various lifts to really make a dent.

Chest is another area of concentration for you. If I had one myself I'd give you some advice, but the best I can do is urge you to drop the pushups (what the hell is a set of 25 pushups, a long way from failure, gonna do for you?) and concentrate on inclines. You have that already, I see. I agree with that, you need to bring out your upper pecs. I like volume training on a Smith doing inclines. 35 sets, burnout with spotter assist every 7th set. Around set #30, if you do these right, a real weird condition sets in, you get swollen, red and burning just like you have an abscess or something. Not many guys have ever seen this because they've never pushed inclines that far, but it's really something, and you'll be sore as hell for days afterward.

Last thing: I like really heavy cable work for abs. I treat abs like any other muscle - work 'em heavy, lower reps (none of this 50-rep jazz), lots of sets. I admit I've hurt myself doing that - I have a rectus abdominus tear from last year that still hasn't healed - but I got that doing weights double what most other guys will attempt, like 220 on a cable crunch. I like to use both abs and calves as "between-set" bodyparts, things I'll work on between sets of legs, shoulders, chest, traps. I'll just step away from my station, do a set of toe raises or cable crunches or whatever, then go back for another set of MPs or inclines.

Finally, about the cycle: You've got 1400mg of anabolics in there. I would start lower, if I were you. Run the test/EQ for awhile, then run test/tren to harden and finish you up. Stay under 1g/wk total anabolics for as long as possible, most guys don't need more than that. Remember to have ready the usual ancillaries.

Good luck, young brother. Be well, journey safely.

Bjaarki

... Then, do what you have to do