What I've learned this prep. These are things I've learned for MYSELF this prep. I'm not seeing /saying this applies to everyone but for me, it's played out this way.
For starters, where you begin a cut or in this case, a prep is imo almost as important as the prep itself.
I stayed much leaner this "off season" then I did before my last two shows. Not only did this allow me to start prep in a better position body fat wise, it also made growing much more noticeable then before. I could see where I was needing improvement during my gaining phase. Also, the way I had my nutrition set up, I didn't allow myself to get super insulin resistant. In the past I would just pack on tons of fat by eating way too much and then, when I did need those insulin spikes, they just weren't there or weren't as effective as they should be. This was the biggest reason I grew so much since last show.... By not eating AS MUCH. Doesn't make sense but, if you follow my logs you see the timing of my Food is most important to me and that's why.
Second. I took a pretty decent break from AAS and training before I started. This was due to injury but, it was kind of a blessing. This break set me up to use the first few weeks of prep to increase calories instead of decrease them and actually grow instead of just cutting from the start.
Third. I haven't done any notable amount of cardio in two years. This is partly due to the reason above about diet but also, that extra expenditure when I was trying to grow was unnecessary. I continued to hold out cardio and let the diet and hard training do the fat burning until I absolutely hit a wall. When that happened, MINIMAL cardio was needed to get progress going.
Forth. Cardio again. Huge problem in the past was that my legs would fade very fast from lots of cardio. Keeping it out had helped me avoid that to this point. It could happen still but we will see.
Fifth. Fat burners. Not much clen and no T3. Given I was not getting all my calories which would effect this, I just haven't needed them to get where I'm at. I still have fat to come off and it's the hardest fat to come off but, I still have those tools in the bag much like cardio to fall back on.
AAS. Pretty conservative. Nothing crazy just better choices. I have stayed on sust the entire time with some test e thrown at the start when at this point, I would have switched to prop..... I'm fuller, running more test then I would be and not holding water because my e2 is in check. I also decided to add in a low dose of NPP. Reason for this is how flat tren gets me. Adding in the npp has kept me full and strong.... It'll be a staple from here on during a prep.
Diet isn't really relative to what I can do next time since I had have the colitis issues but, increasing protein over 1.5g per lb has made a difference.
Training less frequently has been amazing. More rest means in fresher and able to push harder when I do train. Moving heavier weights so I'm holding on to more lean tissue, again, despite the colitis.
There's more I just can't think of it right now.
