IT Band Release; Weak Without Drugs

IT Bands Needed Kneading

First off, I think both my IT bands have been in very bad need of myofascial release. I used my back off week as it's supposed to be used yesterday and rolled my IT bands as devoutly as I would bench or squat. There was one time in my left thigh where it felt like I was squeezing a fist-sized rock through a garden hose. The knot seemed to move from mid-thigh down to the outside of my left knee as I slowly rolled and repeatedly stopped till a particular area released.

My right quadricep was in much more pain than my left during actual squats. And while my right quad felt better after I rolled it (and now seems to be contracting smoothly), I think the deeper problem was with my left thigh, particularly the IT band which seemed to have been pulling the knee out of ideal position. This would explain why for so long I have had chronic mild effusion in the left knee no matter what I do.

After a day of rolling my left knee felt "loose". Actually both knees felt this way, but especially the left. As of this morning, I am still rolling and attacking the "rock through a garden hose" knot in my left thigh. The effusion in my left knee DOES appear to be diminishing.

It's great that I'm using this deload week to focus so hard on working the debilitating kinks out of my IT bands. But this is something I really need to pay more attention to during my lifting cycle.

Weaker Without LGD

I'm not feeling the urge to hit the weights, but I figured I'd stop in for a quick few doubles on the bench press this morning.  I knew I was in zero danger of wanting to squat because my quads feel a little beat up from all the PVC rolling yesterday.

9.1.2015/Tue
Bench Press, touch and go
45 x 10
135 x 5
185 x 3
225 x 2
235 x 2
One-Arm DB Row 100 x 10

I knew I was in trouble with how heavy 185 felt. 235 for a double felt heavier than 255 for a double did last week. It's been five days since I last took any LGD-4033. I am pretty sure my strength is already wearing off. I expected this, but it's kind of freaky to experience it. This is why I timed my deload for the week I planned to go off the SARM for a few days.

The gains with SARMs are supposed to be more "keepable" than those with actual test and steroids. But it stands to reason that subtracting androgen receptor activation is going to result in lowered mass and strength. To wit, taking a SARM clearly made  me stronger; what makes me think I will be as strong when NOT taking a SARM?

Now some might point out that my relative weakness today is just part of the natural wave inherent in a deload week. But while I was on LGD I could bench thrice weekly and come back stronger each time without fail. I am sure I never had a time where I felt like a weight 20 lbs below what I did the week before felt challenging.

I weighed 185 lbs this morning. This is only my fourth day without LGD. I don't like it. I read somewhere that cycling training weights was actually born of lifters being forced to use lighter weights when cycling use of AAS.

I will eventually have to take a longer break. Right now this one-week breather is just so I can link two six-week cycles as close together as possible and get to a 12-week total. I wonder if I'll continue to get weaker over the course of the week or if this ~5% drop in three days off is the worst of it.

The fact remains that even though I'm off my peak strength, I'm still considerably stronger now than I was when I started the LGD dosing. I could only get 225 for a very hard double back then. My new mass (admittedly mostly glycogen and water) is still there. I'm just lacking the oomph without the LGD-4033 filling my androgen receptors.

Bench Measure Anabolic Effectiveness Best

This article explains why my bench has been flying up more than my squats and pulls:

One study showed that men who used steroids for 10 weeks gained 2 to 5 kilograms of lean body mass — muscle, in other words. They also reported a 5% to 20% increase in strength. Study participants gained more muscle mass in their chest, [neck], shoulders, and upper arms than in other areas. That’s not because they skipped leg day, but because the muscles in these areas have more androgen receptors in their cells. Not surprisingly, the participants improved more noticeably at bench-pressing than in other kinds of weight-lifting.

While testosterone and its simulacra build muscle tissue, their presence in the body is vital for the maximal performance of that tissue. So when anabolic levels fall so does strength even before the muscle has had time to diminish in size.

Ligandrol's half-life is something like 30 hours. It's been 96 hours since my last dose. Any strength I exhibit now is due to the "hangover" of increased muscle mass without the benefit of high levels of exogenous anabolic/androgenic substances in my system.

This double-blind placebo study backs me up here. Testosterone increases not just muscle mass but also maximal voluntary muscle strength and power.

This study demonstrates that gains in maximal voluntary muscle strength and muscle power are related to testosterone dose and to serum and free testosterone concentrations. A single log-linear, dose-response curve best described the relationship between circulating testosterone concentrations and changes in fat-free mass and muscle size. Our data are consistent with Forbes’s hypothesis of a linear relationship between testosterone dose and muscle mass and strength gains. 

Testosterone not only tells the body to increase muscle mass; it also lets those muscles contract harder and faster. I remember reading somewhere P. Tsatsouline describing test as completing a "strength circuit" in the neuromuscular system.

I want to clarify. I am just feeling a little weaker. I have not lost any weight. So my "gainz" aren't dwindling after just a few days off. My strength just isn't what it was on-cycle because the half-life on SARMs is significantly shorter than that of AAS. Enough time has passed for my last dose to be down to less than 1/8th of what it was initially.

I just get the feeling that somebody is going to read this and say that the strength loss is in my head...that I only lost anything because I expected to. But why in the world would strength remain the same days after discontinuation of a compound that fades to less than 10% of its original amount after four days?

Not only is my strength down a bit, but bilateral golfer's elbow that had been going away is starting to flare up a bit; my right shoulder is starting to hurt again, too. I said I'd take a week off, but that is an arbitrary number conforming to a calendar grouping. That fact is that the LGD has cleared out of my system out already. I may start again tomorrow or the day after. Four mg per day for a couple weeks plus, then eight for the remaining three-plus weeks. Don't think I'll ever go up to 12 mg daily again! Testicles started hurting at that dosage last time.