Why Can't I Gain Muscle?

I’m sorry to hear that. Although I did not have to deal with addiction, I had to deal with mental illness which took me years (seventeen years if I recall correctly) to overcome.

It is great that you are taking care of your family and that you have such a passion. You should compete considering your passion, but I hope you don’t prioritize bodybuilding to a point in which other matters suffer, as they have for many people. I know I can never compete again considering what is involved because I now have a son born three weeks ago. I know many say, “Oh, you can have a family and work and compete.” Perhaps that goes for others, but I’d be up shit’s creek if I were to do more shows. I did ONE show at 37 years old, and that’s it!

Honestly I have OODLES of free time. I have money saved from my “previous life style” that I ended up in jail from, and I Work part time. My fiancé gets over 2.5k a month in government checks ( I know right) and makes amazing money babysitting a teenage kid that lives in her building, so between us we do quite well while having lots of free time.

Especially considering my daughter and fiancé still live in another city it seems all I have is time right now. They spend like 12 days a month here with me though!
My fiancé is very understanding with my goals and it doesn’t bother her at all! I “Rescued” her from a terrible life style and her quality of life has drastically changed since I met her, so she is very grateful and understanding. She is the perfect girl honestly I am sooo lucky! I make sure not to neglect my family due to bodybuilding! When we lived in the same city, I often brought my daughter and fiancé to the pool while I worked out, ate my post workout in the lobby, then joined them in the pool! We always make it work!

I hope you are using a REAL TRT dose–that is, 100 mg per week–and that it is taken with a competent urologist or endocrinologist. I’ve had idiopathic hypogonadism since 22 years old, I’m now 38 years old, have a highly competent doctor that helped me with having a kid and TRT, and so I have a decent knowledge on TRT. And some of the doses and antics I’ve heard some guys speak about is no good and NOT TRT or plain silly (e.g., taking 100 mg of T in itty bitty doses every day to maintain some magical daily value).

I suppose you can do this, and that’s your business, but I don’t think competent doctors would tolerate this. Again, your business.

OK, great! I like talking to you and you seem like a good guy, and as I said before, I can empathize with personal hells! So, going forward, you know if I say something that might sound 100% hunky-dory, we can just act like adults about it.

No doctors absolutely wont tolerate what I’m doing. I plan on using moderate to high dosages eventually.

I am doing self administered TRT style dosages (Currently 150mg test/week) and once I hit 8%, Ill be doing lighter cycles (what most would call “beginner cycles”) with a month or two of trt style dosages between.

I’m not actually on trt I am just using that as a reference to describe my current dosing. It would be irresponsible for me to by cycling much heavier while above 10% bodyfat.

I have a doctor who is experienced with trt and with steroids in general who does my bloods and moniters my organs etc, but I have nothing prescribed from him. I do all my dosing myself. He is just there to make sure my health is in check, and to see how I react to what compounds, so I know what I can safely use in the longer term.

While I don’t mind explaining my AAS use, I am here primarily for advice on cutting from people who have been through contest prep. So I will ask you this question:

I currently do fasted 30min walk first thing in the am, and 20 min of low to medium intensity interval cardio post workout.

I know I do not need hours of LISS to be shredded, and I could just lower my cals as opposed to doing 1.5hr plus of liss a day. I also di HIIT once a week.

However, I really enjoy liss…
In your opinion, would adding more LISS hurt me or benefit me? I know that Its not the only way to reach my goals but again, I Would ENJOY adding another session. I like the feeling of “putting in work” towards my goals. I am saving adding more HIIT session for if I stall out around 10% or something seeing as that is my strongest weapon against fat loss (lol). Your opinion as someone who has been through prep is appreciated!
On my way to the gym now, ill respond when I get back! thanks for the help brother!

That’s a lot of cardio for someone not prepping. I don’t see the need for three sessions of low-intensity cardio and perhaps one short interval session being necessary for staying lean year round.

It can take quite a bit of cardio toward the end of prep to give the final touch! In the final adjustment of my program, I was eating 1900 to 2000 calories per day, and doing 50 minutes of LISS (walks) before breakfast, two interval sessions every six to seven days, and another 30 minutes LISS after every leg workout. There was not one more adjustment that could be made at that point no matter what my condition was or was going to be!

A prep done right needs a lot of time, four to five months. It needs to be slow and calculated.

It depends on how far you are into a prep, and what you’re eating. Where would you put another session considering you do LISS every morning and after your workouts?

I think someone should start with two sessions of HIIT to start with for a prep with some added LISS after the session and add in more weekly LISS after the first stall and then add in more as needed, with appropriate calorie deficits made in conjunction with those adjustments.

When is your next show?

Stu and I are easy to find on the net considering his long time presence on here and the photos and ourYou Tube Mas Macros Podcasts I’ve shared here in case you need more fine-tuned help.

I understand; I’m from and work in Queens, NY, after all. :slight_smile: “Lifestyles aren’t foreign to me.”

Sounds all good! Congratulations!

I actually haven’t done a show yet bro. As I said I started prep back when I was at my biggest (230) and got into heroin shortly after so that never ended up coming to fruition. Right now I am not prepping, but I am cutting to 8% and treating it as if it was a prep basically for practice (although I know getting to 8% is the easy half!!). Gear works MUCH better when you are under 10% bodyfat, and I think that anyone bulking with gear has no excuse to pass 10% bodyfat or 11% at the very most, assuming they are bulking for BB purposes. So I’m cutting to 8% so I can bulk effectively, that way I Can bulk to 10-11% then cut back to 8%, repeat until I am ready to compete!

Well my thinking was possibly another 20-30 min LISS walking only session maybe in the early afternoon/early evening, I think I’m going to wait until I stall if I stall. I’m currently losing 3.5lb a week, which many would say is too fast for natty progress, but again I am assisted so I am comfortable with this rate of fat loss (at the beginning) all things considered. I’m down to 201.8lb, haven’t measured bf in a few days but I’m sure I’m a lil under 12 now. I have a fully defined 6 pack again.

And When I am bulking, I do 1 cardio session MAYBE 2 per week of LISS, plus I walk to work etc. I find even when eating in the realm of 600 carbs a day and 4500 cals, I do not add much fat at all. Last bulk I went from 185 at 12.5% to 212 at 14% in like less than 7 weeks probably about 6 weeks (lots of muscle memory keep in mind) and that was a very aggressive bulk for me. I did NO cardio during this bulk actually, was in a new place and was not in the best spot mentally.