The great reset and beyond

[RandallH1989]

I'm an active duty Marine fighting our PT schedule and a 90's small military mentality in an attempt to get big and strong. Now, i'm not gonna lie. Part of my motivation is aesthetics and I do plan on going back to Crossfit once I think I am big / strong enough.

Basically I started out about 1 year ago at 6'4 and 165lb. I did the Starting Strength workout for a while, or what I thought was SS, and made good gains in every lift. My squat is still weak because until recently I could not perform the movement properly. Currently I am about 200lb. and am looking to add another 30. Once I reach this weight I will decide what I want to do from there.

I will be using the Starting Strength M-W-F template of A/B with Squat, bench, deadlift, press, and power clean. I don't have any major form issues and am resetting my weight a bit to make up for the past few weeks of not lifting.

For recovery I will be eating mostly fatty meat, eggs, vegetables and fruit but will not hesitate to slam a burger and a shake if need be.

My first official workout of this training cycle will be tomorrow. The weights used will be:

Squat 3x5 - 190lb
Bench 3x5 - 175lb
Deadlift 1x5 - 315lb

If the weight cannot be handled i'll lower them, but I am pretty confident that i'll be good with them. I plan on increasing everything in 5lb increments.

[RandallH1989]

Everything went as planned today. Deadlift was bad and had to rest about 5 seconds between reps. I'm resetting it to 305 lb.

Squat - 190x3x5
Bench - 175x3x5
Deadlift - 315x1x5
Chin-Ups 3xMR - 11,8,6

[RandallH1989]

Squat - 195x3x5
Press - 130x3x5
Power Clean - 165x5x3

[RandallH1989]

Squat - 200x3x5
Bench Press - 180x3x5
Deadlift - 305x1x5
Chin Up 3xMR - 11,10,9

Everything felt strong. PR on chin ups.

[RandallH1989]

Squat - 210x3x5
Bench - 185x3x5
Deadlift - 310x1x5
Chin Ups 3xMR - 12, 6, 6 *PR on 1st set*

[Nixxon]

Damn dude, after I finish deadlift the last thing I can do is hang onto a bar and bang out some chinups. My grip is fried.

I'm also programming around my unit PT although I'm in the Air Force. We workout Tues / Thurs as a unit and so I basically just have two strength days and two days of cals. We do mostly sprints, runs and crossfit type bodyweight workouts.

Hows your recovery?

[RandallH1989]

Damn dude, after I finish deadlift the last thing I can do is hang onto a bar and bang out some chinups. My grip is fried.

I'm also programming around my unit PT although I'm in the Air Force. We workout Tues / Thurs as a unit and so I basically just have two strength days and two days of cals. We do mostly sprints, runs and crossfit type bodyweight workouts.

Hows your recovery?

I'm on recruiting duty right now and it's my off day. The station did some unit PT type stuff so I did some calisthenics but I am pretty confident i'll be able to recover. I may have to move to a 2x a week program like yours, unfortunately, if my unit gets more PT oriented.

My recovery is alright. I just try to eat a lot but I don't do well with milk so it's all about meat and fruit for me, and trail mix. (although I don't like eating nuts too much)

My squat strength suuuucks but that is because when I was doing SS before I was doing the good morning squat thing.. Just recently got the movement down. It was hard for me to teach myself all of the lifts but I am pretty confident in my form now.

So yes, I share your frustration with having to work around pointless workouts with no goal and countless repetition. Oh well, though. I have a year and a half left before I get out and then the real training starts!

I will be very very happy if I can get my work sets to 275x3x5 and my body weight to 225.

[RandallH1989]

Squat - 215x3x5 (last set was a bit sloppy. Could really use my oly shoes and belt right now but those are back in NC.)

Press - 135x4, 125x5, 120x5 (keep resetting this lift at 135. shoulder pain in left side near top of press every time. popping noise)

Power clean - 175x5x3 these felt really solid. good form

[RandallH1989]

I'm taking the next 2-3 weeks off due to persistent symptoms of adrenal fatigue and getting it checked out.

[RandallH1989]

I took a week off and now i'm back in North Carolina looking at my shiny new Inzer 10mm double buckle lifting belt.. And it's been a week since i've lifted. I can't stand this shit! I'm working out on Sunday.

As far as my last post about adrenal fatigue goes, I am still trying to identify it. I haven't been able to shake it but I don't think it's due to over training. I've got some endocrinology appointments set up soon and started this thread about it on the Crossfit boards: http://www.board.crossfit.com/showthread.php?p=777205#post777205

[RandallH1989]

So, I found out what my problem was after getting some bloodwork done. Low testosterone. I'm 20 years old and my total test was only 361. So, they put me on Androgel. Woohoo! FML. Anyways, here was my workout today. I felt strong as hell. These weights felt like feathers!

Squat - 225x3x5
Bench - 185x3x5
Deadlift - 315x1x5

[Beltshumeltz]

Good to hear about the belt, this will make your squat progression much easier. It did for me.

For the press, if you keep resetting it at 135, it might be for a reason other than a legitimate "stall". Maybe you just don't get the stimulus needed to jump by 5 pounds at once from doing 3x5x130 once, so you could perhaps wait until you can do 3x6x130, 3x7x130, or buy some partial plates. I found some partial 1.25 plates on Ebay. These will let you add 2.5 pounds at a time, until it no longer works. Better than resetting!

[RandallH1989]

Cool, I will do 130x2x5 and then 130x1xmax reps and see if that helps! i should really buy fractional plates. Today was my first day on the Androgel. Hopefully this was the reason I was having trouble with such light weights. Looking forward to continuing with a proper endocrine profile. However I am requesting that my doctor put me on testosterone cyponate injections as well as HCG injections after doing quite a bit of research on test. replacement therapy.

[RandallH1989]

Squat 230x3x5
Press 135x3x5
Power Clean 195x3, 195x3, 195x3, 195x2, 195x1 (hitting 2nd pull too early I think)
Weighted chin ups 4xMR - 25x5,20x6,20x6,20x6

Everything except power cleans went really well today. I got about what I expected on the chin ups. The squats were easy. The press was relatively easy and I should be able to hit 140. Next week I will be out of town on vacation and will miss my Monday and Wednesday workouts.

Day 2 of Androgel. Feeling pretty good. Big improvement over not taking it. My mood is great, I am more aggressive both in the gym and in my daily life.

[RandallH1989]

Squat 235x5x5
Bench 190x5x5
Deadlift 325x3x5

I won't be working out for another week due to me going out of town so I did a bunch of extra volume today. It is day 3 for me of Androgel. I put half of my dose on in the morning, and I felt like I normally do. When I put the other half of my dose on about 2 hours before my workout, took my energy crap, and went and worked out.. I was a beast. It's actually a bit scary as right now I can't really feel much pain at all. All of this volume felt like I was lifting nothing. I could not feel the weight. I'm not sure if this is how it's supposed to feel, or if I need to cut back on the hormone, but I feel like I could have added a million pounds to everything. Hoping this continues.. Hoping my balls don't fall off.. knock on wood (literally right now, hopefully that stays too)

[Beltshumeltz]

Squat 235x5x5
Bench 190x5x5
Deadlift 325x3x5

I won't be working out for another week due to me going out of town so I did a bunch of extra volume today. It is day 3 for me of Androgel. I put half of my dose on in the morning, and I felt like I normally do. When I put the other half of my dose on about 2 hours before my workout, took my energy crap, and went and worked out.. I was a beast. It's actually a bit scary as right now I can't really feel much pain at all. All of this volume felt like I was lifting nothing. I could not feel the weight. I'm not sure if this is how it's supposed to feel, or if I need to cut back on the hormone, but I feel like I could have added a million pounds to everything. Hoping this continues.. Hoping my balls don't fall off.. knock on wood (literally right now, hopefully that stays too)

How long do you have access to androgel for? Does it bring your testosterone levels down to what is normal for a 20 years old, or higher than that? I know steroid abuse is bad, but if you use it just to have normal (or slightly higher) levels, I wonder whether it's even bad at all.

Now I'm really curious how your log will progress, maybe you won't even have a problem raising your press by 5 pounds for a while.

[RandallH1989]

I probably have some form of testosterone for the rest of my life.. I don't know where it puts my levels at yet because I haven't been taking it that long. I didn't take my doses yesterday or today just to see what would happen and I feel pretty normal. Right now i'm going through a long process of finding out exactly what's going on with me and I am also getting a sleep study done.


I'm pressing tomorrow so we will see what happens. I was a complete animal in the gym last Friday and hopefully it'll happen again. I don't know if it was because of the Androgel or the monster energy drink + Jack3d energy powder crap I took, but probably the gel because of the lack of pain I felt all night.

And no, I am NOT abusing it. I'm simply using 100% legally prescribed Androgel to normalize my testosterone levels.

[PVC]

Is it even physically possible to abuse a testosterone gel? Well, I guess maybe if you bathe in it...

[RandallH1989]

Is it even physically possible to abuse a testosterone gel? Well, I guess maybe if you bathe in it...

That's a pretty good point. It's pretty weak stuff.

[RandallH1989]

Squat - 240x3x5 (kinda nasty form)
Press - 140x5,140x4,140x4, back off set @ 125x4
Power Clean - 190x3, 190x2, 190x2, 180x3, 180x3, 180x3
Weighted Chin Ups - 22.5x8,22.5x8,22.5x6,22.5x5

BW down to 204.5.

Didn't feel as crazy as I did that one workout a week ago. Not sure what happened. Just the right combination of conditions I suppose.

[RandallH1989]

Squat 245x3x5 - pretty solid
bench 195x1x5 (spotter had to touch the bar on the last 2 reps), 190x2x5
deadlift 335x1x5 - felt easy

bench issue is probably due to missing 2 workouts.

I think this puts my deadlift close to 2x BW for a 1RM, doesn't it? I could have easily pulled it 2-3 more times.

[RandallH1989]

Okay, so I haven't proven these numbers yet but just used the EXRX.com one rep max calculator and this is what I got:

BS-285
DL-400
BP-220
SP-155

Added 1 rep to every lift and like 1.75 reps to the deadlift because I am doing the weights at 3x5 and feel that I could easily crank another one or two out on each one.

BW today was 204.7 after eating w/ clothes (including heavy ass oly shoes) on.

[RandallH1989]

Not so great workout today. Got absolutely no rest after the last workout I posted that night, haven't been eating enough.

Squat 250x3x5 - a little pitching forward
Press 135x5,145x2,140x3,140x3,130x5
Power Clean - 175x5x3 - and they felt hard. god damnit.
Weighted chins 4xMR - 25lbx4x5

Everything should be good after this weekend. Seeing the new doc on Thursday.

[RandallH1989]

Everybody needs goals. Mine is a 1000 CFT before going back to Crossfit.

[RandallH1989]

Training around 3 PM tomorrow. Feelin' real good!

I admit i've been doing weighted chin-ups after my power clean workouts and will be adding weighted dips after my deadlift workouts. It ain't "the program" but it's servin' me well!

[RandallH1989]

Training didn't go so great today. Passed out while getting blood drawn and was fasted until about 12 noon. Hopefully Wednesday will go over well. No PRs right now. Had to lower the weight significantly on everything.

[250orBust]

randall where are you at? I thought we were going to compare dicks. Dont quit on me.