Dave’s 5 Point Thursday – 20/12/2019

It’s been a while everyone, but I’m back. Back for another edition of Dave’s 5 point Thursday (It’s Friday today). Let’s jump straight into some lesser known knowledge.

Human Chorionic Gonadotropin as an enhancer for sexual desire?

Human Chorionic Gonadotropin or abbreviated as hCG has been shown by a number of papers to be a successful medication to increase fertility in men/women and to also increase testicular fullness in men who are hypogonadal. Thanks to the internet, we have some newer ways of collecting “epidemiological data” through anecdote on forums. It seems that there is a large following of men who have noticed that hCG use with their HRT or anabolic steroid cycle is increasing their libido and well being. For whatever reason, when they use a mean of 500 iu of hCG twice per week, they notice a significant increase in libido and well being. The inverse is also noticed when they remove hCG from their drug protocol. Are you experiencing any libido or well being issues on cycle or with your TRT regime? Perhaps give hCG a shot at 500 iu twice per week. I’d be interested to hear if anyone else has noticed a positive or negative response to hCG as far as libido and well being are concerned with their cycle or HRT regime.

Why do women require so little anabolics to get results?

If a man were to use just 10 mg of Anavar per day, he may even lose muscle due to his natural testosterone shutting down and utilising only the Anavar for androgenisation. If a woman were to use 10 mg of Anavar per day, she may see strength and muscle gains in 6 weeks that she wasn’t able to obtain in 5 years of strict training and dieting. Why is this so? It’s because of relativity. A man’s testosterone is produced at approximately 1 mg/kg per week. For a 100 kg male, that’s about 100 mg per week. For a female, they produce approximately one tenth a male does. That’s approximately 5-10 mg per week in total. So when a total of 10 mg per *day* of an anabolic drug is added to a female’s body, profound changes can be seen. It is also why women will likely experiencing virilisation (man sides) symptoms on as little as 10-20 mg per day of Anavar if used long term; and almost definitely see her menses come to a complete hault. So what’s the secret for women using anabolic steroids then at all? It’s simple. Choose the right dose and duration, then rinse and repeat. 4 weeks on, 8 weeks off. Something like this is a great way to minimise the potential of virilisation side effects while still building a tonne of quality mass. There are of course many other ways to do this and each way will depend on the females specific case, but that’s the kind of thing you hire me for.

What is the simplest way to check up on our heart health without poking a needle into our arm?

In short, measure your HRV. Measuring your Heart Rate Variability has been shown to be the single most important metric to measure your heart health from a home device. There are many devices that can accurately measure your HRV. In short, your HRV measures the balance between your sympathetic (flight or fight) and parasympathetic (rest and digest) nervous systems. Having a higher HRV typically means your heart is healthier and having a lower HRV means you may want to reconsider what you’re doing and either rest more, or take up a spin class. Although these gauges should be taken in the general sense at the most (because we are all different), some reasonable goals for HRV and RHR (resting heart rate) could be:

HRV: 60-80
RHR: 55-65

If you’re an elite level athlete performing some kind of endurance sport that requires a lot of aerobic capacity, it’s likely your HRV is higher and RHR lower. That’s fine. These gauges are designed for the generally healthy. On the inverse, If you’re a bodybuilder who’s 100 kg plus, then we may need to find some more reasonable metrics for you (aha).

Who’s worried about losing muscle or gaining fat over the Christmas period?

Well, I can’t help you with the fat gain unless you’re upping your tren, DNP, or clenbuterol doses. What I can help you with is preventing any muscle loss. Often times, we think we need to train at the same volume and intensity to maintain the same size we have. That’s been shown to be untrue. In fact, it’s likely that the volume you need to perform each week is only about 6 sets per body part, or about 30-40 sets per week. If you focus on compound exercises only, you should be able to get away with as little as training 30 sets per week and splitting that workout into 1 x upper body session and 1 x lower body session per week.

I’m intrigued Dave. What’s an example of this maintenance workout routine?

I’m glad you asked. Here is Dave’s Christmas Maintenance Workout Routine:

Day 1. Upper Body

– lat pull ups 3 x sets of 6-10

– bent over T-bar rows 3 x sets of 6-10

– shoulder press 3 x sets of 6-10

– flat bench press 3 x sets of 6-10

– incline bench press 3 x sets of 6-10

– face pulls 3 x sets of 6-10

Day 2. Lower body

– squats 3 x sets of 6-10

– lunges 3 x sets of 6-10

– trap bar deadlifts 3 x sets of 6-10

– calve raises 3 x sets of 6-10

Total sets performed: 30

Have a great Christmas and NY all! Cheers, Dave.