A slightly bizarre week.
First, I am still having these damn nagging rib pains with the muscles surrounding my ribs on my right, lower back area under my latt. I cannot figure out what the problem is but it only flares up when I am doing legs or back, usually. Again, it is that pain that you usually get when you get a cramp after drinking a lot of water and then running or doing cardio. It hurts to breathe and as much as I think it is a slightly pulled muscle, it is not keeping me from training 100% as far as strength but it IS cutting into my leg workouts because I get nervous squatting as if something is wrong and I don't want to get injured again. I have contemplated taking a cruise week and letting it rest but the bitch is that I just did that about 4 weeks ago so I have only been back 100% blasting for about 3 weeks so I hate to cut back, already. I may be forced to, though.
Second, I hate to "show off" eating a ton of food and then proclaim how awesome it is and how much leaner I am but I have little choice. I filmed the "burger battle" last Sunday for the DVD where myself and a good friend who is also a foodie went to as many of the 12 best burger places in Denver to see how many burgers we could eat in that day. We got to 8 before it got unfun but where you would think I would gain weight from this (they were gourmet burgers, not fast food type burgers), I ended up losing 2 pounds by Thursday of this week. I looked significantly tighter, as well, and this is all after having my weight stable for the last 4 weeks due to my last diet change of increased calories. I was also strong as hell all week. Obviously, I am not going to start burger loading every Sunday by eating 6 to 8 burgers but I mention it because it obviously resulted in a metabolism surge that a lot of people don't understand when it comes to off season nutrition. This is precisely why even in the off season you should off set your calories either with a Skipload or a Cheat meal or meals once a week.
I am currently 218 and in about as good of a spot as I could be right now with size and condition. I am going to continue to drive home the point that most people in their 40s can be in incredible condition and still carry a lot of muscle on only TRT dosing. I just had 2 guys on the same day ask me if I was doing a show in the gym yesterday. I may not be impressive to YOU but to some I still carry the look that I could be competing sometime soon. It was quite flattering and it added a little bit of extra effort to my workout, I admit.
One thing I have not yet said until now and was going to hold off and not say until the DVD comes out is that I plan to compete next year. I plan to compete on only my TRT dosing because I am thoroughly convinced that I can get into wicked condition and still hold a lot of muscle and I think I can continue to promote TRTbodybuilding by showcasing what can be done on these small, healthier doses. I understand to the younger crowd that seems silly but I honestly don't give two shits what the younger crowd thinks, anyway. I was getting out of competing because I thought I would not be able to carry anywhere near the muscle I am carrying on TRT AND I figured competing without improving would be boring. Now, the thought of proving my point and being in incredible condition while on TRT is a challenge that motivates me to want to get back on stage.
Okay, maybe I will have ONE burger this weekend. Just one.
Caleb
Today I trained back and there were no issues, at all. Didn't feel a thing. I am hoping that the weekend helped to mend the problem but who knows. It could show up again tomorrow for chest and shoulders.
By the way, when I have a rib that pops out, it sucks until my Chiro can get it adjusted and then I am golden again. I just so love my Chiro. If I wasn't straight, I'd sleep with him. Just sayin'.
I have also been dosing the injectable L-Carnitine at 400mg a day with 2IU Novorapid 5 days a week for a month or two, which I think was the same dose as you ?
I've been on a few well respected forums and some are dosing at around 5g which is more then double your dosage.
I'd like to try the higher dosage as people mention the fat literally melts off and currently at .4g a day ( 2mg a week ) I'm not seeing any progress in unison with my normal cutting regime.
The main reason was simply because I got tired of pinning it. It worked incredibly well but there comes a time that I just get tired of the pinning.
Yes, that dose you are doing is the same that I was doing with the carnitine and SCGS compound. Not sure that "novorapid" is. *wink*
I have seen much higher dosing, as well. I haven't used higher dosing for no other reason than I haven't seen a need due to the lower dosing working so well. I have clients that have used higher dosages and thought it worked better but I couldn't tell that it worked better than my dosing - just that it DID work well.
If you aren't seeing much progress then definitely up the dosing and please report back. I am curious as to how well it works for you as the dosing goes up.