synthol

[Rrrrolla]

Curious to your thoughts on using synthol. I have tried this and it worked quite well. My biceps were always relatively small, it was evident in all of my stage pics from all of my competitions. I figured I might as well see if synthol can help. So I used enough to create borderline painful pumps in the gym and to get a constant stretch feeling in the muscle. I had some impressive results at the time (obviously), but the muscle seems to have kept its new shape and size for the most part a year and a half later (most of which time I was completely clean and lost ALOT of weight). Have you tried this? Or have you seen similar results in clients?

[Praetorian]

Synthol is used by more BB then people realize...mostly because the ones using it correctly keep the muscle looking natural...not overly inflated like a balloon as you have seen the many idiots on the net. It is very useful for lagging body parts like bis and tris...calves are difficult and painful so i dont recommend them. The oil needs to be injected deep into the muscle belly and in the right spot otherwise you may get a weird shape to it.
I only see it necessary 6-8 weeks out from a contest when you can actually tell lagging body parts.
P

[Rrrrolla]

In the offseason, I wonder if there is a benefit to stretching the fascia to allow easier growth after a stretching phase. I dont know for sure, but it may be that muscle can grow less impeded after being stretched with synthol. Do you think the physical restraints of a tight muscle fascia might slow growth? Or... if its going to grow, its going to grow, regardless of the density of its surroundings? I'm wondering if short bouts of synthol use would be beneficial to actual muscle growth.

[Praetorian]

That's the theory but i wouldn't put much faith in it.
P

[TT Eric]

I'm guessing you don't put much faith either in fascia stretch training (FST-7) ?

Eric

[Praetorian]

As Lee Priest said...BB's have been doing FST-7 for 30 years...its called drop sets...and I dont see it stretching fascia to any significant degree. FST-7 is a marketing tool based on an old concept.
P

[TT Eric]

Thanks.

It reminds me of a theory Arthur Jones came up with, he said that when a muscle doesn't increase in sized when training it (the pump doesn't make the muscle stretch in up in size), then it's the time you have reached your full potential. He used Sergio Oliva's arms as an example, back then he measured the arms of Sergio before and after training them, he said they were exactly the same size before and after, so he said that Sergio's arms could have not get any bigger from this point.

Eric

[Hosehead]

Thanks.

It reminds me of a theory Arthur Jones came up with, he said that when a muscle doesn't increase in sized when training it (the pump doesn't make the muscle stretch in up in size), then it's the time you have reached your full potential. He used Sergio Oliva's arms as an example, back then he measured the arms of Sergio before and after training them, he said they were exactly the same size before and after, so he said that Sergio's arms could have not get any bigger from this point.

Eric

Makes sense. If you look at clips of pros training they don't seem to get pumped. I always assumed it was because the difference in a 22 inch arm vs a 22.5 inch arm is negligable.

[cog]

Was it the owner of PM that wrote an article on his use of synthol in shaping his calves?Good read.

[steve_d]

Makes sense. If you look at clips of pros training they don't seem to get pumped. I always assumed it was because the difference in a 22 inch arm vs a 22.5 inch arm is negligable.

It sort of makes sense, but I think you have a whole bunch of different factors going on there. For example, any clip you see they are probably already pumped. When you're ripped and taking various supplements, it likely doesn't take much more than a few minutes to get a max pump. When ripped and carbed up, I am literally pumped after putting on my coat and tying my shoes. To me that's one part of it...

the other is that a pump is simply blood swelling muscle tissues. something like 4 or 5 times the normal blood volume. So the only reason someone would get less of a noticeable effect of the pump is if they either can't properly get the pump for whatever reason (diet, glycogen, training issues), or if they are already pumped to begin with simply by breathing and then you get for example someone storing 3-4 times the normal blood volume just standing there and then that just jumps slightly, so you go from pumped to maybe just a little more pumped.

So I am not sure I am going to agree with the Arthur Jones theory! I go through times where I can get a better pump than others, and it certainly has nothing to do with reaching genetic limits on muscle size - I am still relatively a small guy.

[TT Eric]

Well I should say also that Arthur Jones was measuring every BBers that came to him, Arnold, Franco, Casey, the Mentzers... and he was picking up a difference for all of them except for Sergio. Not saying it's a true theory, just stating what was said.

Eric