Quote (zpy15 @ Sep 25 2011 03:20pm)

Hey Raynor,

A question about Kre-Alkalyn. I remember before you said that you used it and saw no results, after you read that article did you give them another try? And did you see any results this time around, if you did?
I used it before and saw no results, just wondering if I should try them again or go with mono. Thanks ^^

Quote (frankrulz @ Sep 25 2011 05:33pm)

Hi there

I am probably doing my last cutting week on keto. I reached a weight that i think is low enough with a good BF%,
I am 175 pounds 5'9, 18 years old. Been on keto for a good 3 months.
How to get out of it? Do i use the last cheat day or theres no need for it? Id want to stay on keto for this week until next sat/sunday. I just had a cheat day (sat)

Quote (Canadian_Man @ Sep 25 2011 08:42pm)

Sorry for the wall of text in advance, Raynor. I appreciate your help 50fg sent your way again since I appreciate the help you've given.

So I was doing my back day over a week ago (on the 16th) and I felt no pain during my routine. Immediately when I was finished (within 15 minutes), my upper spine, upper back, and left shoulder blade felt painful. My flexibility of my neck / head decreased, and movement became a bit painful.

I took a couple days off, then continued with my workouts doing my arm day, leg day, and chest day, as well as cardio. Things got better.

Today my upper back and shoulderblade felt pretty much fine. There was still a tad bit of pain, but it felt like I'd be fine. So I started my German 10x10 and went for 10 sets of 10 rep wide-grip pullups. I weighed in at 173 pounds before starting my workout, and got out 10x10, 10x10, 10x8, and then the rest were 10x6 and 4 assist, 10x5 and 4 assist, and then a few more sets of 10x5 and 4 assist. On my very last set (10th set), I went to start my first rep and my left shoulder blade crackled (it felt like the right side of the left shoulder blade). The crackle wasn't like cracking fingers or joints... it was a few crackle sounds pretty quickly and they were lighter sounds that I could hear from the vibration traveling up my spine. Afterward, my flexibility went down, pain increased quite a bit, and I had to stretch out. Right now, my left shoulder blade feels a tiny bit tingly while resting, the muscle that is between my spine and my left shoulder blade on my upper back is somewhat hurting, and when I turn my head either way that muscle feels tense.

What could I have done to myself, and how long should I rest after the pain has entirely subsided (I'm betting the pain will take 7-14 days to almost entirely go away... which is unfortunate since I promised a progress pic in about 20 days from now and was hoping to keep progress at a maximum). What days should I skip, and what exercises should I absolutely avoid (aside from the obvious rows, pullups, chinups, deadlifts). Are chest day, arm day, leg day, and abs just fine?

I'm probably going to see a physiotherapist to see if the pain in my back left shoulder blade could be correlated to the pain and shoulder problems in my front delt area of my shoulder. Until then, a little expert advice (whether or not you're certain of any analysis of the situation) would be appreciated.

Any recommended stretch exercises would be helpful as advice too. I'm thinking I'm going to do rotator cuff stretches, and basic stretching daily for 20 minutes at a time, 2-3x daily... I want to get on this and really make sure recovery is happening. Sick and tired of these issues I've had to deal with lately -- want to make some serious progress!

Thanks.

Quote (SKCRaynor @ Sep 25 2011 06:57pm)

Hey there man, thanks for the donation! I've updated the donors list.

Anyway, as far as your problem goes - I am especially worried about you turning your head/neck and feeling tension/pain in the shoulder. This is the sign of a pinched nerve (less serious), or a more important injury such as a fracture or separation.

Quite frankly I don't want you to stretch it at all....or use it for that matter. Use the RICE method, minus the compression. So just rest, ice, and elevate (elevating it shouldn't be hard lol).

However, get to the doctor asap. I recommend a sports medicine doctor or a good chiropractor. They will take xrays and be able to determine the problem quite easily. If it's a pinched nerve - great news, just need to rest. If it's something more serious, quite a bit more rest and/or surgery might be in order.

I want to wish you the best and hope that everything is fine - please get back to me after you see a doc and let's go from there. You should also take some anti-inflammatory meds as necessary to dull the pain and give the area a chance to heal itself.

I'm sorry I couldn't be of more help - but right now you really need to help keep yourself healthy and avoid any further injury. No workouts until the xrays (at a minimum).

I also want you to continue your normal diet/supplement routine, but you can reduce the carbs overall now that your energy requirements will be lowered.

Quote (Canadian_Man @ Sep 25 2011 10:09pm)

Does it help my situation that turning my head / stretching relieves the pain by a fair amount? Or are you saying it's still a bad idea. The pain is bearable enough that I could watch a movie and probably mostly forget about it, or go to sleep and find a nice sleeping position. It's painful enough that I can't look to the right and then to the left both immediately in succession without having to slow down.

Guess I'll make myself a doctor's appointment tomorrow and get myself a referral. I'll beg her to get xrays lined up (either to refer me to someone who can, or to make an appointment somewhere to get them).

Thanks for the quick help there. I wasn't going to see my doctor quite as soon, but if you say it's a good idea, I'll get on that.

[edit]: As far as strength goes, I definitely didn't exert myself after lifting, but I feel as though my strength hasn't gone down... just pain has gone up as well as flexibility. So I think the pinched nerve theory might be what the issue is -- here's to hoping. Honestly though the pain doesn't feel like it will be permanent... I'm not an expert, but I just have that feeling. Unlike my front delt, this pain feels like it'll go away. It's best described as that stiff neck feeling you get when you wake up and it doesn't go away for a couple days: it's like that but in my upper back.

Quote (SKCRaynor @ Jan 25 2011 06:43pm)

here is a full weekly plan for hypertrophy along with basic guidelines and supplement explanations.

Supplements:

Multi Vitamins are for overall baseline health and optimal muscular and recovery function.
Vitamin C has anabolic properties as well as antioxidant properties which both assist in hypertrophy
Vitamin D has immense anabolic and immune properties. It's basically a wonder vitamin. People who take 5,000 IU of vitamin D per day see more muscle increases, get sick much less frequently, and recover faster than those who do not take it.
Creatine goes without saying - it assists in muscle growth through saturation (primarily of water and additional nutrients) which swell the muscles and assist in the growth process through increased uptake of nutrition to the muscles as well.
Arginine + Ornithine improves your vascularity by dilating your blood vessels and improving the pump you get with each set. In addition in improves your recovery when you sleep.
ZMA assists in anabolic function and is particularly helpful when taken before going to bed. Athletes who took ZMA regularly saw a big strength increase over the placebo group for a 1 month period.
BCAA's keep the metabolism on track and prevents muscle wasting through extended workout sessions or periods of time without eating. It is best every 45 mins before/during/after training and before bed.

Basic Guidelines:

Get at least 8 hrs of sleep per night
Drink at least 1-1.5 gal of water per day
Eat at least 500 cal more than your basal metabolism needs per day (all from clean sources) - use a BMR calculator to figure out what you need...although hardgainers will need approx 50% more cal intake than others.
Don't get lazy....the more days you take off from the gym, the worse your gains will be. You need a strict routine to follow every week.
Get enough good fats in your diet. Good fat and cholesterol boost testosterone and assist in body fat loss. Get at least 60-80g good fat every day.
Drink casein shake or eat cottage cheese before bed to sustain metabolism throughout the night.


Workout plan for hypertrophy:

[Perform all exercises as follows: 1. Warmup set (15ish reps light weight), 2. First set (wait about 30 seconds after warmup, then do 10-12 reps medium weight), 3. Second set (wait about 30-45 seconds after second set then do 8-10 reps medium/heavy weight), 4. Third Set (wait about 1 minute after second set then do 85% of max weight for as many reps as possible until failure, rack the weight, wait 5-10 seconds and get it again for as many reps as possible until failure), 5. Fourth Set ( wait 1 minute after third set then do the Same as third set), 6. Fifth Set (WITHOUT RESTING after the fourth set, cut the weight in half and immediately go until failure again).

The only exception to these exercises are supersets which will be performed with medium/heavy weight and both exercises done until failure, wait 60 seconds, then repeat the process with a MILD weight increase (5-10% max increase). The key with supersets is just to keep going and fight the burn and get as many reps as possible with medium/heavy weight.


Mon (chest/bis) - Incline Bench Press, Flat Bench Press, Incline DB Flies SUPERSET with Flat DB Flies, Wide-grip Dips (weighted if possible), lying DB pullovers, Low cable crossovers SUPERSET w/ high cable crossovers. Standing olympic bar curls, seated E-Z Bar preacher curls, Standing DB curls SUPERSET w/ seated DB hammer curls, Concentration DB curls, High cable curls (looks like a standing double-bicep pose) SUPERSET w/ low cable bicep curls.

Tues (Back/Tris) - Straight-Leg Deadlifts, Seated Cable Rows, Wide Grip Lat Pulldowns, T-Bar Rows, Bent over DB Rows SUPERSET w/ Lawnmower DB Rows, Good Mornings Superset w/ Lower Back Hyperextensions, Bent Over Barbell Rows. Cable Tricep Pulldowns (Rope or V-Bar), One-Arm tricep cable pulldowns SUPERSET w/ One-Arm tricep cable kickbacks, DB Kickbacks, Seated DB Skullcrushers SUPERSET w/ laying EZ-bar skullcrushers, Close-Grip machine dips.

Weds (Legs/Shoulders) - Barbell Squats (ATG), Plate loaded Leg Press, Leg Extension SUPERSET w/ Leg Curls (laying or seated), DB Lunges, Hip Abductor SUPERSET w/ Hip Adductor, Standing Calf Raise Machine, Donkey Calf Raises SUPERSET w/ Seated Calf-Raises. Seated Military Press, DB Shoulder Press, DB Arnold Press SUPERSET w/ DB Front raises, DB Lat raises (normal 2 arm method) SUPERSET w/ one arm slow-decline lat raises, DB Shrugs, Barbell Shrugs.

Thurs - REST

Fri - Repeat Monday

Sat - Repeat Tuesday

Sun - Repeat Weds

Mon - OFF


Now the only part I didn't mention was abs and cardio. For Abs, you can train them 3-4 times per week (although you only really need 2x per week) on whatever days suit you. Consider ab training on your easier days. So whichever 2 of the 3 days are the easier days, throw ab training on those days. If you can't get abs more than 1-2 days per week, that is fine and shouldn't really matter all that much.

Abs - 30 minutes ab instinct training (yep, just like arnold) - basically you jump from a plethora of ab exercises without stopping in between. You are going to jump from exercise to exercise and perform them all until failure (weighted exercises until failure - for bodyweight ab exercises, just do 20-25 reps). After 30 minutes of ab instinct training is over, hang from a pullup bar for 30-60 seconds to stretch out the abs sufficiently.

For cardio, this is totally optional. If you start detecting fat gains, you can throw in 20 mins of HIIT cardio every morning and 15-20 mins post-workout every day. If you aren't gaining fat, forget cardio all together.