Hydrowhey is good...but the best thing for weight gain is Cytosport Cytogainer in my opinion. A close second would be Optimum Nutrition Pro complex gainer.

Secondly...there is no cycle/schedule you need to run with protein shakes. Just make sure you take at LEAST one per day post-workout.

Hey there.

Okay well...first you can try an olympic bar squat pad to take some of the pressure off your back. Secondly, don't put your arms so far out to the sides when squatting. Thirdly, as far as the stretch marks don't worry about that - totally normal lol

Also try going a bit lighter on the squats until you get the form perfect.

Ray -

I'm about to do a deload week, should my diet change to compensate not working out?

This post was edited by machetebill on Aug 21 2011 08:09pm

Yes, reduce calories by about 500 per day, keep protein about the same, reduce the carbs mostly.

I spoke to oak about this and he gave me some great insight. I am at 15% bf by calipers @ 211 pounds. Last week on keto I got to 207 on Wednesday and then thurs fri and sat morning(before carb) I weighed 211. I carbed up and gained no weight. Oak told me this is the whoosh effect and that it is normal? I currently do 0 cardio. Hiit is out of the question due to ec stack ( I know we can't talk about this) so I Plan on doing cardio when I find it absolutely necessary just because I don't want to crash and do it too quickly. Oak says if I don't hit below 207 by wed( I carbed yest) that I should start cardio. Opinions? I don't want to crash and the second I come off keto to lean bulk I become a fat ass haha

Thanks again man!

Hey Raynor, Welcome back Hopefully you enjoyed your break from jsp

I need to get my chest biggerrrrr

First off its pretty weak, so I have been taking some time to build up strength esp since coming off contest prep.

I never been very good at pressing stength, but I recently maxed out at 275lbs @ 178lbs. Not great but thats where I was at before dieting & weighed 195-200lbs.

So I am currently hitting chest twice per weak, first day hitting it with 5x5 & lower volume. Second time high volume & high reps (10 + ) & using drop sets, super sets etc.

I doubt it had anything to do with it, but I do have mild case of gyno from puberty. Im jst sick of having little scrawns having a bigger chest than me

Thanks dude.

Hey there.

Yes, sometimes you can hit a plateau without necessary cardio. You can try to reduce the calories a bit more and make sure you aren't consuming any citric acid. Also have you tried keto strips to make sure you were in ketosis? You can also try a carb day every 14 days instead of every 7.

Hey buddy. Some people just genuinely have a stubborn chest. I am lucky to have very intense chest strength, although aesthetically my chest is one of my weaker points. Strange I know.

anyway, to fix your issue there are a few things you can do....try this program:

Week 1-4: Perform usual monday chest routine with a bit of added volume (maybe an extra 10 sets or so); On Weds/Thurs/Fri/Sat you are to do maximum repetitions of pushups (various grips/placements) for 10 sets each day. Meaning if you can do 100 pushups before failure, do that 10 times in a day for a total of 1,000 a day. By doing this, you are forcing massive amounts of trauma to your chest and shocking it from it's usual routine. It will be FORCED to grow and start accomidating to this new brutality. If you strength decreases, do NOT panic...just let it be - this is normal.

Week 5-8: Perform usual monday chest routine with a bit of added weight (keep the set scheme proper, but add weight and do some more forced sets/reps than you normally would); in addition, you will hit chest again on thursday or friday but training purely for volume and not strength. You should be in the area of 40-50 sets of chest on that day. During this time you are giving your chest solid gains without the massive shock trauma.

Week 9-12: Perform usual monday chest routine but with total focus on a complete chest routine (this means a 20set-20set split of 20 sets strength and 20 sets volume); on friday you will perform the exact same routine as you did monday. This will throw your chest into the last phase of the growth cycle. By this time you should start seeing a huge increase over original thickness and density...as well as symmetry.


Hope this helps!

Hey Raynor,

I read somewhere online that grouping a muscle group you want more growth in (ie biceps) along with legs increases gains for that muscle moreso than if you were to do that muscle on a different day

it sounds somewhat logical to me, but im skeptical...is there a grain of truth to it?