Slow and steady

Retroguy2000

@nossmf Congrats on the progress. Your arms especially look huge. And the measured size change is huge too. What have you been doing to train them? I assume you've been doing more volume there compared to other parts?

That 20% bf estimate looks a little optimistic to me. Just a little bit, mind.

nossmf

An old article I read by a professional bodybuilder years ago said, "If you have energy to work your arms, you have the energy to do more chest/back work." As a result, I only do 3 sets of arms each upper body day.

But then a different pro I read talked about how he did every rep of every set for 10-30 second negatives. I don't go to that extreme, but for those 3x10 arm sets, each rep is done for 3-5 second negatives, really build up the time under tension.

And I was hoping the 20% was ok, but phooey. You're thinking more like 22%? From images I can find online, it's definitely not 25%.

Retroguy2000

I don't do arms on upper day. As you say, I save the energy and focus for compounds like barbell row, db press, etc. I do throw in a few extra Myo-reps style arms sets on leg day though. After legs, I'll do a starter set of 10 for arms, then 30 secs after each set finishes I'm starting the next set, rinse repeat until 5 reps is failure. I'll do that with ez-bar curl, then with the same bar do a JM press and immediately super-set with close grip press. As before, 30 secs rest until 5 reps.

I'm no laser eyes expert, so take it with a grain of salt, just going off when I see the likes of Coach Greg measuring people with calipers, and other sources, yeah I'd have guessed you were 20%-22%.

nossmf

Well, it finally happened...I reached the limit of how much my pants would fit my thighs. The other day I bent down to pick something up, and RIP, popped a seam. While I want to continue to gain upper body muscle to keep reaching for that 315 bench, I draw the line at buying BIGGER pants. That plus the fact my BF has been inching up (see last few posts above), and I think it's time to transition to a slow cut, see if I can't keep the muscle I've gained this past year and a half while losing the fat around it.

For the next two weeks I'll switch my calorie target from "gain .5lb" to "maintain" before I switch to "lose .5lb". Looks like it's goodbye to desserts for a while, so I can continue with the rest of my eating regimen the same.

nossmf

3 weeks update: I did my two weeks at maintain, and this past week was starting the slow loss. Wow, what a difference, to go from 2500 calories per day (slow gain) to 2000 per day (slow loss). After a year and a half of never having to deny hunger sensations, I'm back to living with them again. Not extreme, totally endurable since I'm eating proper nutrition, but the body realizes there's a difference from this time last month and is telling me all about it, lol.

I'm thinking I'll keep this slow loss phase going until the start of November, then switch back to slow gain in time for the holiday season. Something to look forward to, followed by something to look forward to!