Genetics, what does it mean?

I believe we are all restricted by genetics to varying degrees.

It’s a shame but it doesn’t stop us from being the best we can be. This is easier said than done and many think they are but in reality, aren’t!

We are also restricted by knowledge, will power, lifestyle and wealth...sad but true

let’s loose the word 'genetics' here guys. Let use the word potential instead.

Some people are 5ft tall while some are 7ft tall, some are fat, and some are thin. My mate doesn’t train biceps, yet he has massive biceps. Any one ever known someone when they were at school that was ripped and massive without even touching a dumbbell? Yep they probably only ever ate shit as well! These are the guys that go on to be huge.

Look at the size of Arnold at 16 yrs old!!!!!!!! He had to go on to be massive and he did! He did have dedication oh yes, and someone who is dedicated will go on to be the best THEY can be just like he did. But his potential was better than the rest at that time. Look at the mans waist....It doesn’t matter what we strive for; many of us will never have a waist like that!

The shape of a muscle is determined by so many factors. I have long muscle bellies which isn’t great. The only way I can peak my arms is to site inject. I have one side of my body bigger on the arms and lat due to the years I have spent in my day job. Try as I might, it never evens out.

Some of us have good parts while other parts are lagging, that’s the way it is. Yes we can help bring these parts up but it never gets them to the standard of our good parts.

My point is that some of us have more potential than others to grow, stay lean or have freaky body parts. Guys like Jay Cutler have it all, they are lucky and that’s why they have perfect symmetry and are 300lbs+ at less than 30 yrs of age. These guys still have to have the determination of Arnold combined with year in/out consistency and gear/ nutrition advise as well as top coaches training them to be where they are.

I tell you now that if I were to be under the supervision of Chad Nichols, Charles Glass, Dave Pulumbo and Milos Sarcev for ten years with unlimited gear and food, I still would not make top 6 at Olympia. I would be an f'ing good pro, but it would be the best I can be.

I am not trying to be sceptical, rather realistic. Yes we are held back by our lifestyles and own laziness or even lack of motivation, but many of us even having the perfect environment wouldn’t be the best.

Paul Borreson was the most educated, motivated, passionate man I ever met regarding bodybuilding but even he recognised his limitations. It never stopped him trying to overcome this which is what made him one of the biggest names in the sport. That’s what I admire in a bodybuilder, and that’s what makes us the best we can be.

Well bugger me with a barbell!!! 100 rep chest work out

I think the powers that be were trying to tell me something this week!

1 Inspiration started with reading Cookies post on training routines, I remembered back to the old days when me and the guys used to do 3x100reps on calf raises. We used to be shattered from this and would always spend around two days walking bent legged, up on tip toes!

2 The next sign from above was in reading New Users journal. He said that he was set a challenge to see how many reps he could complete whilst benching 100kg

3 When I walked into the office at the gym this evening divine light struck me a third time when Harold told me he had been using Jay Cutlers rest pause technique for his chest, accumulating nearly 100 reps in the process!

Three times now I had been told to rep my way to heaven and back so I could do nothing but get on with it so as to not defy the all and powerful lord (NO NOT VEX!)

I'm currently as clean as a pair of Justin Timberlake’s pants so I thought it would be a good measure of my true abilities. So, I started off by stepping up to the plate with NU and see what I can do.....Warmed up with 60kg for two sets of 20 reps and then loaded the bar with 100kg.....

I usually rep 140kg flat for around 8 so I was confident I would get lots out with 100kg....Not a fu**ing chance ladies and gents. I used Cookies method of lowering the bar to my chin/neck and only managed 25 full reps! This was poor by my estimations so I rested 10 secs and pushed another.....5 pathetic reps!

Off came the plates and I was down to 60kg, 10reps (bugger) 5 seconds, another 10(wake up you useless piece of excrement)

Down to 40kg, got 25 completed, 10 more seconds and completed the final 25.....My goodness I was spent! It was like being thirteen years old again after just discovering Men Only magazine

On to the incline press for a triple drop set 80kg 10reps, 40kg 10reps and 20kg another 10reps.

Swiftly on to the incline dumbbells for another triple drop. My chest was begging me for a rest so I allowed myself a warm up on 20kg dumbbells for 10reps or so. Then the real set....50kg dumbbells for 6, 35kg for 8, 20kg for 10, rest then another 6 or so.

I was now sporting a chest that would make Katie Price (Jordan) jealous! If I had time I would have taken five minutes to play with them, instead I...

Moved onto the cable cross over and repped with no drops for 100 with maybe three or four 5 second pauses.

Goodness gracious, golly gosh I'm a hero folks, autographs later LOL

In all seriousness that was fun people. Try it yourself or something similar, you will be surprised at how low your poundage’s will drop!

Oh my God, my anus has almost prolapsed! 100 rep leg press part 2

So, following up on the chest work out, I felt kind of strong today as I walked into the gym!

It was quads day today so I decided it best to go hell for leather as there was a few fit bits of Minge in the gym

all I did was leg press followed by extensions as my hams were still sore from Tuesday.

Starting with the presses I racked 200kg for a warm up of 30 reps or so. This got the blood pumping well but my knees are playing me up a little lately so I had to raise my feet on the foot plate somewhat to ease them a sufficiently.

Up to280kg for 12reps, 360kg for 10 reps and finally 440kg for eight excruciating reps.

My goodness, I swear I was an inch shorter after that set...but that wasn't enough, oh no!

Trying to prove a point about high reps is always hard in my gym but no one agrees with me. Maybe that’s why at competition time they all lack separation and detail (all be it huge) in their thighs.

Well I had done my low rep heavy bit already, now it was time to do the real work!

I lowered the weight to 240 kg and repped towards oblivion. Then I waited for a few seconds before I started my matrix set.

Matrix? I hear.

Matrix is like the old 21's on biceps. Remember 7 full reps, 7 half up and 7 half down. Well, it’s similar but I used tens, 10 full, 10 half up, 10 half down and 10 full. After a short pause I repped out again to achieve around 100 reps over the whole set.

I only needed 3x20 reps on the extensions to finish my thighs off, that was it.

I dare you all to try matrix at the end of your work outs, it’s a phucker that’s for sure.

Sorry if this post is boring but I'm tired and I've been standing on a night club door with sore, week legs all evening!

The Dark Side



Ok I have been using gear for ten years now. I have used every type and every dose; I have used almost all other drugs that surround the sport too.

If I could go back in time, I would never use gear; in fact I would swerve the sport all together!

This may sound strange as I love this sport almost as much as I love life???

Well it’s because everything in the sport has a snowballing effect.....What do I mean by this? Well many will agree with me here. A person starts off with weights in their bedroom; next they join a gym, next get a diet and use supps. .....

All perfectly ok here? For many yes, but for some, they have already become addicted, a slave to the mirror.

So what happens next? They cant get any further so they try a few dbol tabs, next shots, then more shots, then insulin,aminogluthamide, gh, ephedrine, thyroid, anti e's, nubaine, dnp................see what I mean? Before they know it, ten years down the line they are addicted to all areas of bb'ing, competing, spending ?100's a week on food and even more on drugs, some even addicted to bloody opiates.

I will get flamed for this and some will be surprised at my post but I for one have seen the ugly side and yet I am still obsessed with the sport and everything that goes with it. I work two, sometimes three jobs to pay for it and have lost every gf ive ever had due to it and yet it still consumes me......

So this part is now written for all the girlfriends out there in hopeless relationships with moody bb'ers LOL

Gear does severely effect some guys in their relationships, myself obviously am such a person. When I step back and look at my behaviour and attitude to past gf's I am ashamed, but it is ultimately me that has lost out!!!! Just be aware of the signs, aggression, mood swings, being ignored, taken for granted and treated disrespectfully by him....it can happen (but may not)

I went to visit an x gf not so long ago and she was very bitter towards me. She told me that she loved me so much but I did all of the above to her and more that I am ashamed to put into writing. Overly excessive bb'ing, coupled with abusing (not just using) steroids ruined the best thing that ever happened to me and not only I did it to her but her next bf did the same as he was a bb'er too!! All my mates are at the same level as me and 7 out of ten of them are in the same relationship situations that I have been in.

I hope I haven’t offended anyone here, but I will say again, do not all fall prey to the dark side.....and to some reading this, who secretly pretend to themselves and others that all is fine will know a bit of what I am saying also applys to them as well

I'm off to slash my wrists now LOL

Training for a lifetime.

Well, where to start??? .

I have tried it all over the years and I mean ALL. There isn’t a workout, set, principle or exercise I haven’t performed! Matrix, drop sets, super sets, rest pause, high rep, and low rep....need I go on?

Training is the most important part of bodybuilding. I know we all need correct nutrition but let’s face it; nothing will work if we train incorrectly in the first place!

"There are many different roads to Rome" I was once told. How true this is ladies and gents. I cannot credit ant one workout/training method for my physique today because a combination of everything is what has worked for me.

So how do we go about designing a specific workout to make us grow?

I suggest to any newbie’s buying magazines, books and training encyclopaedias. Read these and try all the workouts and styles going. Try them for a decent period of time and get used to the workouts so as to know it off by heart. You should get to the point where you find that you have progressed so much that all your weights have increased significantly.

Those of you that aren’t new to training should already know these workouts and strategies, yes? So what now?

Well what I do isn't as common as I believe it should be! Not only do I not know what I'm going to do when I walk in the gym, I don’t even know what type of split I will use at the start of the week!

Come Monday I know roughly the order I will train each body part and on what days but I see how I feel and if I'm ready to use that muscle group.

Once I have decided my split and on what days, I then go to the gym and perform the exercises that I feel like doing on that day. Sometimes I train heavy with low reps, sometimes light and high. Sometimes I use strip sets, sometimes rest pause, sometimes straight sets of four, five, six...etc. You see what I'm getting at; I never train the same week after week and always gauge how I train depending on how I feel that day. It's that simple.

So how often do we train each muscle?

Well this is the million dollar question! We are all individuals with different lifestyles. Dorian Yates trained each body part every six days, some go for seven days, some EOD...it all depends on recovery. If we recover quickly we can train more often. Lea the labourer who works on a building site every day may need to train each BP far less often than Colin the computer operator that sits in an office all day because he is far more fatigued.

I have trained with different frequency and have found that every seven days is best for me. This is the most widely used approach. I can manage more often for a while to great benefit but can’t keep it up for too long due to burn out. It’s something we must all try for ourselves and keep things constantly changing to keep from getting stale.

Time for rest.

We should always be able to recognise when we are knackered! If we are showing the signs of over training or even just getting stale like mentioned above, we need to either back off or stop. I know it’s hard to do this but trust me, a week off will do the world of good. You may think that you’re going to shrink but even if you do, it comes back, sometimes threefold.

To summarise, forgive me if I am rambling, there is no one workout that works best, we must try to shock our bodies into growing by learning all approaches and getting down the gym and going hell for leather.....So what are you all waiting for?

Clean bulking

So what are the benefits??

I was discussing this idea today with one of my mates and I feel it important to share here.

You see, we all gain in the early stages of a diet, which I put down to a regular intake of quality nutrients.

When we eat clean at moderate kcals we deplete glycogen slowly until we start to get hungry and that’s when we start to eat all meals on the button.

Now let’s say we weren’t dieting for something as important as a show. We could at this point afford to squeeze another quality meal, yes??

I have been using this approach with a few of the guys I help and it works.

My opinion is that too many people bulk on far too many kcals in the first place, leaving them too full to eat the whole meal or indeed miss a meal!!

Keep the kcals moderate and well balanced and we start to make every kcal work for us.

I see no reason why one can’t bulk on quality food AND loose BF, in fact I have proven it with two of my guys!!

The problem is will power! When that hungry/week feeling sets in, it’s hard to eat chicken when mcvities is calling. A way round this is to have a cheat meal every 3 days, which helps curb the cravings and help keep sanity

Testosterone Ester Report


One of the most misunderstood subjects in the world of steroids is the ester--the mechanism by which injectable esterified steroids like testosterone cypionate, testosterone enanthate, and Sustanon work. If you take a quick look around the Internet you will probably find countless articles that consider one form of a steroid far more effective than another. Arguments over the superiority of cypionate to enanthate, or Sustanon to all other testosterones are of course very common. Such arguments are in all practicality, baseless. In this report we'll take an authoritative look at the ester and what specifically it does to a steroid.

WHAT AN ESTER IS, AND HOW IT WORKS

I'm sure that if you have taken an interest in anabolic steroids you have noticed the similarities on the labelling of many drugs. Let's look at testosterone for example. One can find compounds like testosterone cypionate, enanthate, propionate, heptylate; caproate, phenyl propionate, isocaproate, deaconate, acetate, the list goes on and on. In all such cases the parent hormone is testosterone, which had been modified by adding an ester (enanthate, propionate etc.) to its structure. The following question arises: What is the difference between the various esterified versions of testosterone in regards to their use in bodybuilding?

An ester is a chain composed primarily of carbon and hydrogen atoms. This chain is typically attached to the parent steroid hormone at the 17th carbon position (beta orientation), although some compounds do carry esters at position 3 (for the purposes of this article it is not crucial to understand the exact position of the ester). Esterification of an injectable anabolic/androgenic steroid basically accomplishes one thing; it slows the release of the parent steroid from the site of injection. This happens because the ester will notably lower the water solubility of the steroid, and increase its lipid (fat) solubility. This will cause the drug to form a deposit in the muscle tissue, from which it will slowly enter into circulation as it is picked up in small quantities by the blood. Generally, the longer the ester chain, the lower the water solubility of the compound, and the longer it will take to for the full dosage to reach general circulation.

Slowing the release of the parent steroid is a great benefit in steroid medicine, as free testosterone (or other steroid hormones) previously would remain active in the body for a very short period of time (typically hours). This would necessitate an unpleasant daily injection schedule if one wished to maintain a continuous elevation of testosterone (the goal of testosterone replacement therapy). By adding an ester, the patient can visit the doctor as infrequently as once per month for his injection, instead of having to constantly re-administer the drug to achieve a therapeutic effect. Clearly without the use of an ester, therapy with an injectable anabolic/androgen would be much more difficult.

Esterification temporarily deactivates the steroid molecule. With a chain blocking the 17th beta position, binding to the androgen receptor is not possible (it can exert no activity in the body). In order for the compound to become active the ester must therefore first be removed. This automatically occurs once the compound has filtered into blood circulation, where esterase enzymes quickly cleave off (hydrolyze) the ester chain. This will restore the necessary hydroxyl (OH) group at the 17th beta position, enabling the drug to attach to the appropriate receptor. Now and only now will the steroid be able to have an effect on skeletal muscle tissue. You can start to see why considering testosterone cypionate much more potent than enanthate makes little sense, as your muscles are seeing only free testosterone no matter what ester was used to deploy it.

ACTIONS OF DIFFERENT ESTERS

there are many different esters that are used with anabolic/androgenic steroids, but again, they all do basically the same thing. Esters vary only in their ability to reduce a steroid's water solubility. An ester like propionate for example will slow the release of a steroid for a few days, while the duration will be weeks with a deaconate ester. Esters have no effect on the tendency for the parent steroid to convert to estrogens or DHT (dihydrotestosterone: a more potent metabolite) nor will it effect the overall muscle-building potency of the compound. Any differences in results and side effects that may be noted by bodybuilders who have used various esterified versions of the same base steroid are just issues of timing. Testosterone enanthate causes estrogens related problems more readily than Sustanon; simply because with enanthate testosterone levels will peak and trough much sooner (1-2 week release duration as opposed to 3 or 4). Likewise testosterone suspension is the worst in regards to gyno and water bloat because blood hormone levels peak so quickly with this drug. Instead of waiting weeks for testosterone levels to rise to their highest point, here we are at most looking at a couple of days. Given an equal blood level of testosterone, there would be no difference in the rate of aromatization or DHT conversion between different esters. There is simply no mechanism for this to be possible.

There is however one way that we can say an ester does technically affect potency; it is calculated in the steroid weight. The heavier the ester chain, the greater is its percentage of the total weight. In the case of testosterone enanthate for example, 250mg of esterified steroid (testosterone enanthate) is equal to only 180mg of free testosterone. 70mgs out of each 250mg injection is the weight of the ester. If we wanted to be really picky, we could consider enanthate slightly MORE potent than cypionate (I know this goes against popular thinking) as its ester chain contains one less carbon atom (therefore taking up a slightly smaller percentage of total weight). Propionate would of course come out on top of the three, releasing a measurable (but not significant) amount more testosterone per injection than cypionate or enanthate.

IN CONCLUSION

while the advent of esters certainly constitutes an invaluable advance in the field of anabolic steroid medicine, clearly you can see that there is no magic involved here. Esters work in a well-understood and predictable manner, and do not alter the activity of the parent steroid in any way other than to delay its release. Although the lure surrounding various steroid products like testosterone cypionate, Sustanon, Omnadren etc. certainly makes for interesting conversation, realistically it just amounts to misinformation that the athlete would be better off ignoring. Testosterone is testosterone and anyone who is going to tell you one ester form of this (or any) hormone is much better than another one should do a little more research, and a lot less talking.