blastthru23
Moderator
I see this question pop up from time to time, and have even asked myself this question in the past, and it is an important question to ask: "What do I do now that I have completed my cycle?" "Do I take a break? do I change my approach to training? What about diet, does that change?" For the sake of this tread, I am going to assume that the goal of the cycle was to create loyal lean tissue gains since it doesn't seem many are here to compete in a power lifting, or a strong man contest. So hypertophy it is.
The answer to the 3 questions after the quoted question, is pretty much "No, or not really," and I will get into that shortly.
After one sculpts a clay figure, it must be glazed, and fired. Likewise, once we've reached our goal for X amount of lean tissue, we have to instantiate that gain into loyal gains. The way to do this, whether you are cruising, TRT, or PCT, is to continue to train in the same fashion. We have to continually push our body to create a new homestatic set-point. Some argue against the theory of such a set point, and there is merit to their argument, however, I am going to set that aside since I have personally experienced creating a new set point for myself. So for my purpose here I will assume that such is the case.
To create a new set point, we must continue to train for hypertrophy, continue to achieve the number of sets and reps for a muscle group such that we reach our maximum recoverable volume (MRV). MRV is that volume of training that we can fully recover from by the time we train that muscle group again. This number will decrease once we are off cycle given that we don't have supra-physiological amounts of androgen coursing through our bodies. But, this does not mean that we train any differently. Sure, the load will likely decrease, and that is fine, however, we still must continue to hit the required volume to stimulate MTOR thus promoting muscle protein synthesis, lest we lose what we have worked so hard to gain over the course of our cycle. We will still train 4-6 days per week not missing a beat. To fail to continue in this fashion is like the sculptor setting the clay figure off to the side never glazing or firing the piece. It is thus left incomplete. The upshot is that we must continue to train for hypertrophy to instantiate the gains we have made. Further, continue to achieve progressive overload just like on cycle. It's really no different.
Diet will be much the same as well, though, the our macros may, or even ought to decrease, especially if we were running a massive surplus. We will likely decrease calories to somewhere above maintenance calories usually decreasing both protein and carbohydrates, fat typically stays close to the same. We still eat 5-6 meals per day, and if you practice nutrient timing, keep doing it. Keep taking your supplements (BCAA, liver support, etc.).
As time goes on, keep a close eye on BF%, your FFMI, and monitor your body composition through visual assessment. Are you getting puffy? are clothes fitting differently, how do you look in the mirror? Adjust you macros accordingly, usually carbs.
Train hard, and eat clean. Get a cheat meal in now and again for psychological reasons if needed. But do not relent, there are always improvements to made, work harder on lagging muscles or muscle groups during this phase in preparation for the next cycle. Just because the cycle ended, our work has only begun. Even though we made it across uncharted seas to a new land, the journey is not over. We must build dwellings, capture food, find a clean water source, and maybe even deal with inhabitants already living in the newly discover land. No time to kick up the feet and drink mead, shit, you have to make it first! The fat lady is nowhere in sight to sing the farewell song. There's yet a lot of work to be done. Keep grinding folks!
