cygnus
GLP-1 Novice
I've been noodling on a concept related to running peptide protocols alongside specific training blocks to get the most out of my training. This is just an intellectual experiment because there's no reason a person couldn't run multiple peptide protocols at once, but if I had to choose, here's how I'm thinking of deploying. I'm very much open to everyone's experiences, especially if you ran experiments related to the same goal as me: be the jacked 80yr old grandpa one day that can lift his adult grandkids overhead and squat them.
Peptide Protocols:
1. Cellular health and repair [18 weeks]. There's a 14 week guide posted in the forum for how to run SS-31 followed by MOTS-C, with NAD+ throughout. I posit that due to how, simplistically speaking, SS-31 is primarily about repairing the mitochondria and MOTS-C is about AMPK activation (charging the mitochondria), it could make sense to modify this protocol to add a 8 week cycle (keeping NAD+ going) that runs SLU-PP-332 at the tail end, as it divides the mitochondria. Fix the cell, power it, and then multiply it.
2. Growth/recovery protocol [16 weeks]. Obviously there's a lot of possibilities here as some people love CJC-1295, some even like sermorelin for some reason. For me, I've been in love with tesamorelin/ipamorelin doing a microdose of 250mcg each in a fasted state just before bed-time. For me it was about sleep maximization, which was where I am lacking most in my recovery. For a true growth specific protocol I think the dose would need to at least double on the tesamorelin, possibly ratcheting up to 2mg. The max cycling I've seen beyond those that run ghrh/ghrp in perpetuity is a 4 month block, so 16 weeks is what I'm holding it to.
3. Repair/recovery protocol [12 week]. I've done BPC-157 by itself both orally and sub-q, paired with TB-500, and in GLOW. Moving to a KLOW stack and adding in Cartalax seems to be something the market is asking for and it's not too hard to see why. I really like what this might be able to do in healing up all those strained muscles, stretched ligaments, crunchy cartilage, and the pernicious tendonitis that plagues me after heavy pull sessions.
4. Metabolic protocol [forever]. If this were 5 years ago maybe we'd be talking about pairing semaglutide with metformin and a SGLT2, but just looking at the data from phase 2 and the breakout phase 3 for retatrutide, what more do we need? Improved lipids, improved blood pressure, A1C improvements, insulin sensitivity, visceral fat reductions...and obviously weight loss. I'm not on a very aggressive protocol as I'm very focused on maintaining the lean mass I worked to build over a couple decades. I did a small cycle with semaglutide with decent results and am now doing another with retatrutide that is working even better with greater ease. Practically every cardiometabolic marker is rocking; this stuff is good for my health.
Training:
I'm not sure if I am allowed to link out to my specific plans, so I'll hold off on that; I use AlphaProgression to track my various plans, which is an app similar to HEVY or RP Strength. There's others that are newbie friendly like Stronglifts 5x5. I'm a big fan of people picking pretty much any popular training app and just sticking with it for a year or two; you will get so much benefit. If I'm allowed to share, I'll drop in the specific exercises for each plan I am scheduled to run over the next year for my 8 mesocycles. Mesocycles for me are usually 6 weeks of increasing intensity and volume followed by a 1 week deload.
Keep in mind the most recent literature shows hypertrophy will occur so long as you are in proximity to failure, anywhere from 5-30 reps; it is likely that it occurs in as low as 1 and high as 50+, but research being research, this is so far what has been actually proven. Therefore, all of the training blocks result in lean tissue accumulation provided a local caloric/protein surplus exists.
1. Muscular endurance blocks (15-30+ rep ranges primarily) -- 2 of my blocks have a primary goal of muscular endurance
a. Full Body, 6 cumulative lifting week, mixed rep / high rep target, barebell and bodyweight focus, 12 day repeat cycle
b. PP+L (push/pull w/ legs each session), 6 cumulative lifting week, high reps, 12 day repeat cycle
2. Hypertrophy blocks (8-15 rep ranges primarily) -- 4 of my blocks have a primary goal of hypertrophy
a. Upper Lower, 6 cumulative lifting week, medium reps, 12 day repeat cycle -- right before the endurance blocks
b. Push Legs Pull, 6 week, medium reps, low volume (this is usually my first mesocycle after a break)
c. Push Legs Pull, 6 week, medium reps, medium volume
d. Push Legs Pull, 6 week, higher reps (of hypertrophy boundary), high volume
3. Strength blocks (4-8 rep ranges) -- 2 of my blocks have a primary goal of strength
a. Push Legs Pull, 6 week ladder volume, low reps, machine focus, 6x/week
b. Push Legs Pull, 4 week, low reps, dumbbell focus, 6x/week
Some of the mesocycle design is accounting for expected exercise staleness. Over time it's normal to hit a wall on progressing with a specific exercise, and sometimes you might still be progressing but you notice a nagging minor pain that keeps occurring. On some lifts I know I have 2-3 months before my AC joint hates me, on some it's my elbow, so I rotate through. The beauty is it allows me to make progress on, for example, a barbell RDL, then a plate loaded machine RDL, dumbbell RDL, belt squat RDL, etc. The movement patterns overlap significantly, but are different enough to solve whatever what causing discomfort. Mentally it also allows for breakthroughs versus feeling stuck. My days of chasing 1 rep PRs have been dead for a while; long live the estimated 10RM PR.
In addition to volume and intensity increasing over the course of a mesocycle, measured in reps and reserve (RIR) and number of working sets per muscle group, volume is also periodized across on a macro level leading to a culmination of several weeks off of training post final mesocycle deload for a reset during July. I'll be 50 soon, having lifted consistently for 25+ years, and this still manages to work in getting me stronger with more lean tissue mass year after year. Those endurance blocks are near the end of my macro cycle and they pile on fatigue as it's close to 30 working sets in a given lifting session, so the 12 day repeat cycle is a little unusual but allows me to hit any given muscle group every 4 days.
Day 1: Lift
Day 2: Lift
Day 3: Yoga
Day 4: Rest
Day 5: Lift
Day 6: Lift
Day 7: Endurance cardio
Day 8: Rest
Day 9: Lift
Day 10: Lift
Day 11: Norwegian 4x4 HIIT
Day 12: Rest
Treadmill desk at the office so I get daily zone 1/2 cardio regardless of what is going on.
Peptide Protocols:
1. Cellular health and repair [18 weeks]. There's a 14 week guide posted in the forum for how to run SS-31 followed by MOTS-C, with NAD+ throughout. I posit that due to how, simplistically speaking, SS-31 is primarily about repairing the mitochondria and MOTS-C is about AMPK activation (charging the mitochondria), it could make sense to modify this protocol to add a 8 week cycle (keeping NAD+ going) that runs SLU-PP-332 at the tail end, as it divides the mitochondria. Fix the cell, power it, and then multiply it.
2. Growth/recovery protocol [16 weeks]. Obviously there's a lot of possibilities here as some people love CJC-1295, some even like sermorelin for some reason. For me, I've been in love with tesamorelin/ipamorelin doing a microdose of 250mcg each in a fasted state just before bed-time. For me it was about sleep maximization, which was where I am lacking most in my recovery. For a true growth specific protocol I think the dose would need to at least double on the tesamorelin, possibly ratcheting up to 2mg. The max cycling I've seen beyond those that run ghrh/ghrp in perpetuity is a 4 month block, so 16 weeks is what I'm holding it to.
3. Repair/recovery protocol [12 week]. I've done BPC-157 by itself both orally and sub-q, paired with TB-500, and in GLOW. Moving to a KLOW stack and adding in Cartalax seems to be something the market is asking for and it's not too hard to see why. I really like what this might be able to do in healing up all those strained muscles, stretched ligaments, crunchy cartilage, and the pernicious tendonitis that plagues me after heavy pull sessions.
4. Metabolic protocol [forever]. If this were 5 years ago maybe we'd be talking about pairing semaglutide with metformin and a SGLT2, but just looking at the data from phase 2 and the breakout phase 3 for retatrutide, what more do we need? Improved lipids, improved blood pressure, A1C improvements, insulin sensitivity, visceral fat reductions...and obviously weight loss. I'm not on a very aggressive protocol as I'm very focused on maintaining the lean mass I worked to build over a couple decades. I did a small cycle with semaglutide with decent results and am now doing another with retatrutide that is working even better with greater ease. Practically every cardiometabolic marker is rocking; this stuff is good for my health.
Training:
I'm not sure if I am allowed to link out to my specific plans, so I'll hold off on that; I use AlphaProgression to track my various plans, which is an app similar to HEVY or RP Strength. There's others that are newbie friendly like Stronglifts 5x5. I'm a big fan of people picking pretty much any popular training app and just sticking with it for a year or two; you will get so much benefit. If I'm allowed to share, I'll drop in the specific exercises for each plan I am scheduled to run over the next year for my 8 mesocycles. Mesocycles for me are usually 6 weeks of increasing intensity and volume followed by a 1 week deload.
Keep in mind the most recent literature shows hypertrophy will occur so long as you are in proximity to failure, anywhere from 5-30 reps; it is likely that it occurs in as low as 1 and high as 50+, but research being research, this is so far what has been actually proven. Therefore, all of the training blocks result in lean tissue accumulation provided a local caloric/protein surplus exists.
1. Muscular endurance blocks (15-30+ rep ranges primarily) -- 2 of my blocks have a primary goal of muscular endurance
a. Full Body, 6 cumulative lifting week, mixed rep / high rep target, barebell and bodyweight focus, 12 day repeat cycle
b. PP+L (push/pull w/ legs each session), 6 cumulative lifting week, high reps, 12 day repeat cycle
2. Hypertrophy blocks (8-15 rep ranges primarily) -- 4 of my blocks have a primary goal of hypertrophy
a. Upper Lower, 6 cumulative lifting week, medium reps, 12 day repeat cycle -- right before the endurance blocks
b. Push Legs Pull, 6 week, medium reps, low volume (this is usually my first mesocycle after a break)
c. Push Legs Pull, 6 week, medium reps, medium volume
d. Push Legs Pull, 6 week, higher reps (of hypertrophy boundary), high volume
3. Strength blocks (4-8 rep ranges) -- 2 of my blocks have a primary goal of strength
a. Push Legs Pull, 6 week ladder volume, low reps, machine focus, 6x/week
b. Push Legs Pull, 4 week, low reps, dumbbell focus, 6x/week
Some of the mesocycle design is accounting for expected exercise staleness. Over time it's normal to hit a wall on progressing with a specific exercise, and sometimes you might still be progressing but you notice a nagging minor pain that keeps occurring. On some lifts I know I have 2-3 months before my AC joint hates me, on some it's my elbow, so I rotate through. The beauty is it allows me to make progress on, for example, a barbell RDL, then a plate loaded machine RDL, dumbbell RDL, belt squat RDL, etc. The movement patterns overlap significantly, but are different enough to solve whatever what causing discomfort. Mentally it also allows for breakthroughs versus feeling stuck. My days of chasing 1 rep PRs have been dead for a while; long live the estimated 10RM PR.
In addition to volume and intensity increasing over the course of a mesocycle, measured in reps and reserve (RIR) and number of working sets per muscle group, volume is also periodized across on a macro level leading to a culmination of several weeks off of training post final mesocycle deload for a reset during July. I'll be 50 soon, having lifted consistently for 25+ years, and this still manages to work in getting me stronger with more lean tissue mass year after year. Those endurance blocks are near the end of my macro cycle and they pile on fatigue as it's close to 30 working sets in a given lifting session, so the 12 day repeat cycle is a little unusual but allows me to hit any given muscle group every 4 days.
Day 1: Lift
Day 2: Lift
Day 3: Yoga
Day 4: Rest
Day 5: Lift
Day 6: Lift
Day 7: Endurance cardio
Day 8: Rest
Day 9: Lift
Day 10: Lift
Day 11: Norwegian 4x4 HIIT
Day 12: Rest
Treadmill desk at the office so I get daily zone 1/2 cardio regardless of what is going on.
