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can u just post a vid of u flying like Goku already?

If anyone remembers, I had knee tendonitis for months and months straight. I tried many different stretches and exercises, but in the end, NOTHING helped more than simply foam rolling the IT bands, and then activating my VMO's, then ATG squatting. After squat sessions I would remember both my VMO's being very sore. Now the soreness is gone as they are used to the stress, but they will grow as my squat grows.

I haven't read this entire thread, but maverickdawid, have you tried foam rolling your IT bands? Do about 4 sets of 10 slow rolls back and forth and see how it feels. After that I would activate my VMO's and then do my workout or go play basketball.

Also, the best VMO activation I found was doing single leg knee extensions, but only the negatives. You REALLY gotta load it... bring up the bar with two feet, then drop one of your feet, and lower it slowly with the other foot. I have read that activation works better when doing heavy negatives and I tried it out. Ended up working for me.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U08pdMzjKUo" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U08pdMzjKUo</a>

Seemed to get through the sticking point a bit easier than the last vid you posted.

I cannot wait to see what your vert is going to be like.

Going on an intense plyo phase soon?! I would really hate to see you get injured before you can reap the benefits of your strength!

My post won't mean crap but I really like how upright low bar squats look. Pretty boss.

Quote from: Dreyth on February 06, 2013, 01:07:14 pm

Thanks for the in depth response

I want to bulk to get stronger. Whenever i workout without gaining weight, i just end up spinning my wheels in place. Evidence of this in my log where I couldn't go down past 193-194lbs for like a month and didn't increase strength one bit in any lift at all.

Yes, it's easier to get stronger while your bw goes up... but if you get stronger while your bodyweight goes up and then lose strength when you cut weight you are also spinning your wheels, albeit not in place.

I lost 10lbs without losing any net strength. That is good progress in terms of relative strength, which is what I want. Kingfish and frank yang also cycle(d) their bodyweight a lot. I simply won't get much stronger by not gaining any weight anymore, so I just want to gain weight SLOWLY so I can still gain strength and not have to cut fat for a long time.

What I would suggest for you is not to bulk but to eat enough to get stronger.

This is exactly what I want to do. I want to maintain my calories on rest days, and be at about a 400cal surplus on workout days. That's a very small surplus... +1,600 after the whole week, as opposed to the traditional 500-700cal surplus every single day which leads to a 3,500-4,900cal surplus at the end of the week. big difference!

my advice: If you are at your goal weight why not eat maintenance for awhile and continue to train hard in the gym.  You were just in a restrictive diet so eating maintenance levels should put you in comparatively a much better state to make strength increase.

I was at maintenance for a while (over a month) and literally did not have a single increase in strength

For now keep your protein close to 200g and get about 20g carbs before workouts and 50g of carbs post workout.  Of course throwing in about 40 grams of heathly oils takes your calories at this level to about 1500... Meaning you won't have a ton more to play with and not gain weight.  Kinda elimates things like late night pizza.  That's why this approach takes discipline.   Give your lifts time... strength should gradually increase, but if you really find your lifts getting stuck then try to counteract this by adding in some most postworkout carbs.  A big reason we lose strength when cutting is insufficient glycogen reload, you can make huge inroads by modulating this.   

If you follow this kind of an approach you may in fact end up gaining some weight as you might find it necessary to increase your carbohydrate intake more to keep the strength from stalling.  This weight gain should be moderate and can be held back by a few days of tempo work (ie.  Medium intensity system work - sprinting/swimming).   I think this type of approach in the long term will get you much better relative strength than a blanket decision to start eating at a surplus of X amount of calories.  This advice isn't super simple but you are already a pretty strong guy (squatting 400+ at under 200lbs) and as such your nutrition requirements are going to be more advanced than +cals/-cals if you want to become an even better athlete.    Think of your new goal as getting stronger and eating just enough to facilitate this rather than deciding to eat a surplus of calories which will make it easier to get stronger.  Your weight work dictates the nutrition rather than nutrition dictating what you can do in the gym.

pretty much what i want to do! I want to get in at least 200g protein a day. In addition, I want a HIGH calorie in vs calorie out.. what I mean by this is not a high surplus, but rather:

4,000 calories in
3,600 calories out

leads to better body composition than:

2,500 calories in
2,100 calories out

All those extra calories really lets me pack in a lot more muscle-building nutrients while remaining at the same surplus! So yes, watching the diet will be pretty important.


Anyway I've come to the decision to slowly up my calories every week, aka Option 3. I'll try to squeeze whatever strength gains I can out of that transitional phase.

So I'm about a week away from finishing my cut completely. I was 200lbs before, and now I'm 190lbs (my goal weight, but that fluctuates so I'll finish this week of cutting). I actually have the same strength levels as when I was 200lbs! This is because I ended up gaining some strength during my cut, but then lost whatever I gained.

I've been cutting at -700/day for a few months now. I want to bulk very slowly now.


So tell me what's best. Week 1 means this week right now. I'm at my goal weight right now.


Option A: Right into it
Week 1:   -700/day
Week 2:   +250/day

Option B: One or two weeks of maintenance
Week 1:  -700/day
Week 2:   0/day
Week 3:   +250/day

Option B: Slowly up the calories
Week 1:   -700/day
Week 2:   -350/day
Week 3:   0/day
Week 4:   +250/day


I'd like to do it properly this time.

yes, i was able to lift 440 before (445max), but those were inconsistent peak lifts that i can do 1-2/week (if everything goes well) and rest 2-3 days in between.  i've been lifting this 440 daily for almost 2 weeks now.

holy shit when are you going to test your vert man?

something like that has happened to me in my dream too. my brother was going to hit me in my dream and in real life i moved my arm to block it and woke myself up.