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Expend more calories than you take in...

Hrdgain, remember my post a long time ago about who would you rather be?..Peter Parker at one end of the bar or Wolverine on the other? Basically who would pick up the chicks...Peter looking as small and ripped as a 12 year old boy or manly wolverine, huge with a slight spare tire? It's not like you're gonna pick up women at the beach...Most muscle shirts are tight around your upper body, and loose down bottom...->Just for people like us!

I'm sure in your case, while on a never ending cutter that you are a lot more cognizant and hard on yourself. I'm sure you may look in the mirror and think you gained fat, when in fact you didn't. I'm the exact same way, but with muscle mass! Hypothetically, if you added in some light cardio (stationary bike) 6-8 hours either before or after you lift, it would burn the remaining calories and you wouldn't have to worry about eating egg whites.

Plus, even with all the calories I take in, I don't put on that much fat at all. I have average genetics.

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This is somewhat from the carb cycling thread I made from TP in the nutrition forum here.

Guidelines to be loosely followed:

- A pure mesomorph would be better served doing three high carb days and four low carb days. [This makes the 5x5 preferrable]
- Try not to stack more than two high carb days back-to-back (save for the ectomorph)
- Put your high carb days on days with your most difficult, highest volume workouts [Three of them]
- Where possible, put your heaviest, hardest, and highest volume workouts after a low carb day. This works well on a maintenance or bulk program.

HIGH CARB DAY (Three 5x5 days)
On your high carb day, four of the meals (out of six) can have as much carbohydrates as you like. (Mainly approved, but that is largely IMO semantics:eek: ) But remember, you must eat the minimum amount of protein at each meal as discussed above. Of course, my protein will always be eaten first.

-To me, (243 lbs), this means about 600-700 grams, 150-175 grams per each of the 4 carb meals. I plan on 6 meals total. The 4 carb meals will be:
-Breakfast
-Preworkout meal (1.5 hour prior to lifting)
-Postworkout shake
-Postworkout meal

-Beyond that, carb cuttoff is at 6 pm, unless lifting at night. Also, I'm sure everyone thinks I'll be eating everything in site, when in fact I am not. My carb sources are mostly begels (a la UD2.0), oatmeal, fiber-one cereal, sweet potatoes (around working out timeframe), ect. However, if I feel so disposed to stop at KFC, so be it. Also, I'm gaining mass and am not competing in a speedo, so these guidelines are just that: Guidelines. IMO they are vital during my cutting phase, but bulking is the total opposite. A lot of people confuse the two sometimes.

LOW CARB DAY (Rest days)
Here, three meals may contain carbs out of six. Again, one rule is that at least the meal following your workout must be a carb meal. The others you can schedule as you see fit. Here, carb amounts are limited, however. We are seeking to eat approximately one gram of carbohydrate (from the list) per pound of bodyweight each low carb day.

-These days are 240 grams of carbs. I do feel like shit during a non-workout day if I pig out on carbs so this makes sense. 80 grams per my first three meals. After that, it's veggies with a copious amount of red meat and chicken. I might take a walk during these days with my wife for a mile or two, which will at the very least turn up my metabolism.

NO CARB DAY
"Negative Ghost Rider...The pattern is full."-Top Gun

Protein will be a lot easier I've found in the past to be met during the high carb days. Begels, for example, hold 10 grams per bun. Protein, as I've said, is set at 300 grams rain or shine. This is a realistic goal to follow with whole foods vs. trying to down extra protein shakes to fit in 350+.

Tuesday: Full Body

Olympic Squats: 5x5
Flat Bench: 5x5
JS Rows: 5x5
Skullcrushers: 3x8-10

-Today was pretty f'ing difficult to say the least. I forgot how draining it was. Well, as I've said, today was my day for finding where I'm at and what the weights will be for each week. I'm surprised to say that I've gotten slightly weaker from my last run-through (only bench). But, that'll change with progression through the program.

Here's what I did today:

Olympic Squats: (255) 5x5
Flat Bench: (285) 5x5
JS Rows: (275) 5x5
Skullcrushers: (70) 3x8-10

-A2G squats: Felt great. This weight is what I'm going to use in week 3, then add another 10 lbs for week 4. This has actually increased from my first run through.
-Flat Bench: Good grief. I felt pretty shitty. My last run in September was 305 for my final 5x5's in week 4. Not this time. I absolutely must stay true to myself so I don't die trying to lift the same poundage as 5x5 #1. I'm quite positive the loss of strength is from doing the bodybuilder type workouts for the past few months: ie. increased TUT, supersets, cosmetic work. My only problem is that after a few weeks of this, the 295 might be too easy for that final week. Still, this is what I'll stick with for now.
-JS Rows: Also was good to go. I did 275 with perfect form, dynamic. My back didn't pick up at all. Still, hard as hell after squats on my hams. So, this will be my week 3 weight, then I'll break it for my week 4. This is another lift that I surpassed in strength (like squats) from my first run.

hahah i dont remember that conversation, but thats pretty funny. I dont ever want to look like peter parker, and i would have to end up at a serious cal def to get under 200lbs again, just not worth it.

And your right, i am prob my biggest critic. I have had others come up to me in the gym and say things like "looking good man starting to thin out" or "dam bulking up, looking strong dude" and all i can ever thing is ... not good enough. But thats just me, it keeps me motivated.

And if we are going with superhero bodytypes, the goal is to look like beast, but without all the blue hair

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I don't do this for my family, my friends, women, accolades, pride, or ego. I do it for me and no one else, its just part of who I am.

What's up, C.A.!? Thanks for the invite over here. Rock solid poundages on that 5x5 start. I'm sure the strength will come back quick on bench. Looks like you're primed to have another good go of it.

In two runs through this thing my 5x5 squat #'s went up exactly 40lbs on both 5x5 day and 1x5 day. You simply can't argue with results like that. If you would have told in September that by X-mas I'd be ass-to-grass squatting 40 more lbs., I'd have thought you were nuts. DL's went gangbusters too.
:cool:

Glad to see you took my advie Eric! Read through that email I sent you. It should take you about a year to get through!

If anyone's wondering, he works at my gym I go to. So, this is a good thing because I cannot LIE! My pics came out shitty, so just ask him about my guns

Thursday: Full Body

Front Squats: [A2G] 5x5
Incline Barbell: 5x5
Weighted Pull ups 5x5
Deadlifts 5x5
Accessory (incline curls: 3x8-10)

Here's what I did today:

Front Squats: 185 (3x5), 195 (2x5), 205 (1x5)
Incline Barbell: 225 (1x5), 245 (1x5), 255 (3x5)
Weighted Pull ups: bw (1x5), +20 (4x5)
Deadlifts: 315 (1x5), 365 (4x5) [no belt]
Incline Curls: 50 (2x10)

-After each exercise per bodypart, I'll do a loaded (DC) fascia stretch, each one running 60 seconds worth of pain.

-Front Squats: Felt really good on these. I actually did six sets of five with different weights to see where I'm at. The 205 started to get slightly difficult coming out of the hole, but not bad for my first time in a long time.
-Incline Barbell: Another fairly easy exercise. Felt great even after doing flat bench just two days prior. It looks like 255 is my (5x5) max doing every rep without a spotter's help. However, the standing military's that will happen two days prior might drop this poundage down a bit if memory serves.
-Weighted Pullups: Nothing special. Rest between sets was about a minute. Of course, these were dead-hang....Which is nothing more than locking out my elbows every rep.
-Deadlifts: Slightly difficult. Hard on my quads after all the front squatting. I used wrist wraps on the last two sets. No belt of course....Standard rule of thumb for that -> Twice my bodyweight = Using belt. Otherwise, I fail to see the point.
-Incline Curls: Super easy. Elongated negatives, ect. My goal on accessory work (ie. bi/tri's) is not so much using a truckload of weight, but using a slow tempo, focused contractions, ect. Due to the high frequency of indirectly hitting my arms, IMO it isn't wise to use heavy direct work.

Looks like I'm good to go for next week. I've got my poundages recorded for all four weeks of volume. Today (Saturday) my muscles are killing me, probably due to that X-Factor. Not complaining, just logging in that it does as stated on the label.

I've decided on not waiting until Wednesday to begin, but rather on Monday. So it's going to be Mon, Wed, Fri. Should be fun. I also had a crazy thought about "cookie cutting" this program to where I'd be doing (5x5) flat bench on Monday, then (5x5) incline dumbbell press [instead of OHP's] on Wed, then ending with (1x5) pyramided flat bench on Friday. Not sure on that. I probably won't because standing military's are one of my favorites. Plus, the dumbbells at my gym only go up to 125's. So by week three or four, I'd be out of luck. I think while I was cutting I was doing the 115's for sets of 8.

Week One: DF 5x5

Monday:

[5x5] Olympic Squats: 225
[5x5] Flat Bench: 265
[1x5] JS Rows: 275
[2x10] Skullcrushers: 70

-After each exercise per bodypart, I'll do a loaded (DC) fascia stretch, each one running 60 seconds worth of pain.

- First week is always the easiest. The weight was a lot lighter than I would've liked, but I'll be adding 10-15 lbs more every week. Since the weight was easy, I only rested 60-90 seconds between sets to make it more difficult. My goal for this week is managable weights, focusing on form and decreased rest periods. The JS Rows took the full 90 seconds rest between sets. The 1x5 means pyramiding up (still 5x5) until my final set is my top set of weight I planned on hitting. My pyramid looked like this: 225x5, 245x5, 255x5, 265x5...Then my top set of 275x5. All five sets were dynamic pulls-(meaning pulling as fast as possible). The other reason why I went slightly lighter is because of the X Factor. I know that it'll make me a lot sorer than usual, which is why I need to get used to the frequency and weight so it won't be a factor in the coming weeks.

Wednesday:

[5x5] Front Squats: 185
[5x5] Standing Military Press: 165
[5x5] Weighted Pullups: bw + 10
[5x5] Deadlifts: 335
[2x10] Barbell Curls: 125

-After each exercise per bodypart, I'll do a loaded (DC) fascia stretch, each one running 60 seconds worth of pain.

- Had a lot of fun today. Mainly because it was fucking great to do an entire full body workout inside the squat rack. Everything had about 90 seconds rest between sets. Front squats are still A2G w/ heels on 10 lb plates. I didn't keep much spacing between my feet to further torch my quads. OHP's were good to go. I might try and increase the weight for my final week to 205-215 lbs, which would be a new PR from last time. My goal with these is to go slightly lighter than I could so it won't impede my incline barbell workout on Friday. I'll most likely increase the weight by 20 lbs for next week.:eek: Pullups aren't worth mentioning until I start back up with the 25 lb dumbbell between my knees. My goal is 30 lbs. Deadlifts were done w/out straps because for some reason all the sweat from my previous workouts made them really slippery. I gotta go buy some more because I hate doing deadlifts without them...Not because I cannot, but because I really don't care to try harder than I have to. For my supplemental exercises (ie. bi/tri), my goal isn't to use a ton of weight like I could use. I don't want a few heavy curls hurting my progress on JS rows. So, 2 sets of 10 barbell curls was enough. After those, I did a set of 10 with the cables. For these, I set the cable high on each side. Using the handles, I basically just did a double biceps pose, slowly flexing my biceps, and slowly releasing. The only point I want to make on these is that you need to keep your elbows as high as possible. I used to love doing these, so I figured fuck it.:cool: