Hyde’s Strength Odyssey

[Hyde]

First off congrats on a great weekend to both of you. Sounds like a near perfect weekend for both of you minus a single bench. You should be incredibly proud of that squat and the mental component of firing everything at perfect timing to make that lift and not injure yourself and set up the rest of the day.

How much did the halo help on the squats and pulls?

I think you get healthy and go for elite at 198 once you are. Sounds like it’s achievable at either 198 or 220. I bet if you’re healthy though you could add 25+ lbs to squats and deads at 198 though. My question I guess would be , do you think injury risk is higher trying to replicate all this at 198 or making up 85 lbs at 220?

Get healthy first though , you’ve earned it

Thank you! And same to everyone for all the kind words and support.

Glad you brought up the halo: I think 30mg worked a lot better for me than 20mg to help put me in the right zone. Gave me that “fight in the dog” type of aggression, but didn’t feel angry/irritable the way Tren Ace/No Ester can make me. And I think it helped a lot, both from that psychological perspective as well as actual neural output/power: 600 squat was FAST on camera, and it felt light too. On the pulls, I had zero hesitation or fear. Someone asked me after the squat if I thought I could have done even more. I told them neurologically definitely, but no way - I simply didn’t have the training to even consider setting up for anything bigger at this time.

This is pretty relevant because this was actually a bit lower total mg cycle for me too: most of the 14 week prep was just the sub-600mg oil/wk, then tapered in 25-50mg of Var preWO some day 6-7 weeks out before adding 40mg Tbol & 25mg Var daily the last month, and 40/50 the last 2 weeks to peak. So basically >600mg for 6 weeks, then 750-1,000 and last 2 weeks 1150-1230 total. But the power was there at the end when it counted and my muscle retention was incredible.

The risk is technically higher going down to 198 because I’ll have to continue to operate in a deficit for a prolonged period (instead of switching to maintenance cals), but the idea of getting down one more time to see what I can do there does excite me. And I can always still go 220 again still if not.