Need advice

[Sandpig]

I'll get Jay's input on this but I want to hear from you guys too.
I want to try and train for the love of it now instead of always trying to push myself to be bigger, stronger, faster so to speak.
But I only know how to train balls to the wall.
How do I back off the intensity without losing everything that I have worked do hard for?
And I plan on getting off everything but test also.
Thx

 

[tri-terror]

I think that's actually easier than you might think, IF you can truly dial it down. Maintenance is not too hard on test alone. How much size are you trying to keep?

 

[Sandpig]

As much as I can. Lol
I'm only 5'10" 200lbs

 

[chaotichealth]

It might take some work. On a lot of things I have two speeds. I'm wide open or parked. My advice to you is if you want to cut back on intense. Cut back on gym time. Find a new hobby to fill that time with. Tennis or something else that will halp you stay in shape. Or learn to fly a radio control aircraft. But a boat and fish.

Get a harley Davidson and cruse some days instead of the gym. If you go 6 days a week go 3 and ride the other 3

 

[Sandpig]

Thx for the advise but gym to me for me is 4am

 

[MattG]

Man thats a hard one bro. Id have to think no matter what youre gonna lose at least a little bit by cutting down, no way around that...if you find a way to do it tho please inform me how so i can do the same thing.lol. Ive always found a happy medium so to speak is hitting it hard 3 times a week. I dont look nearly as good as when im lifting a steady 5 days a week, but still look good enough to be somewhat content with myself plus have time for other things. Ive actually been doin the 3-4 day a week thing for quite some time, but with summer coming Im getting ready to go back to 5 days again soon

 

[Magnus82]

We like to grow in spurts, so I think your in the right path. I have found over the years no longer have the reserves or injury prevention I once had. Tailoring my trying with my usage has allowed me to continue growing while decreasing the chance of injury or burnout. I also like high frequency so I'm not annihilating a muscle group to the point of needing 7+ days to recover. On the heaviest times, I like a 3 way split, 3 on 1 off rotation, doing 10-12 total work sets per body part. During moderate times, I like a 2 way split, 2 on 1 off, doing 8-10 total work sets per body part, adding in light cardio/active recovery on off days. Now during trt/light cycles, I use the same 2 way split before but going eod, 6-8 work sets total, and adding either cardio, active recovery, or auxillary/weak muscle work as I see fit. For all the routines I choose 2 to 3 exercises per muscle group reserving roughly 1/2 of the work sets for the big mass gaining lifts and splitting the remainder with the other exercises but always adhering to the total number of work sets.

 

[thebrick]

Sand, unless you are on a ton of gear, I think you may find you will not loose as much as you expect. I have seen huge guys in the past that held on to most of their size after building all by doing more of a maintenance style workout. Lighter weights and higher reps. They still looked great. I know when I dropped most of everything I was using when my health problem popped up, I didn't lose as much size as I thought I would… even just using test. I bet your joints will thank you and you may find a whole new enjoyable chapter to your training.

 

[Sandpig]

Yea, I bet my joints will thank me big time.

I think I'll be all right. Just gonna do what I feel like. Like when work is busy, I'll train every other day. When not, maybe two on one off.

Same with volume and intensity.

Exercises that hurt me, I will not do anymore regardless of how "great" it is. And if I want to train delts every time on the gym, I'll do it. lol

One thing for sure, there will be no more having to beat the log book every time I train.

 

[thebrick]

I think that is just being comfortable with who you are and doing what is right for you. That just makes life more enjoyable. You get to a point where you learn to do what is right for you and say fuck what everyone says I "should" do or how I "should" look. And bottom line, you will still look great.