AndrewNico's Bulking Alpha Mass Log (Not Sponsored)

[AndrewNico]

Hey guys, picked up 2 bottles and will be dosing 6 caps / day and will most likely bump up as needed. As the title implies, Im bulking.

Currently around 180lb, %bf ≈ 13%
before pictures have been taken :

Too lazy to list out my current lifts, so I'll just let my 1st week of this give you that info. From what Ive seen, there is not too much going on in the first week anyway. I only plan on listing my working sets.

Diet is very consistent; it's about 3600 cals, 350g carbs / 255g pro / 130g fat. Might even bump it up soon.
Food sources are: protein powder, golden gains, chicken breast, olive oil, natty pb, pistachios, pasta, oats, whole wheat bread (no HFCS)


I actually started this up yesterday before a chest and arms hypertrophy workout.

WORKOUT

Flat Bench
225x10, 225x9 +1, 225x9 +1, 235x4 (pause reps), 235x3 (pause reps)

Incline Bench
185x8, 185x8, 185x6 +1

Incline Skull Crushers
80x20, 80x15

Seated dB Bicep Curls
25x15, 25x15

Standing dB Hammer Curls
25x15, 25x15

Tricep Cable Pushdowns (V bar)
57.5x15, 57.5x15, 57.5x15

Ticep Cable Kickbacks
10x10, 25x6, 20x8


NOTES

So today I noticed that I have some hair shedding. I could just be paranoid, but Im sure when my hair is this short I never shed. Going to keep an eye on this and might have to pull the plug early if it gets worse. I have never had any trouble with my hair before, FYI.

 

[Royd The Noyd]

How long have you been running it?

 

[AndrewNico]

Started yesterday with 6 caps.

 

[AndrewNico]

Sick day today. Nice weather, epic lifting . . . aint even mad I had to stay an hour late at work

THE WORKOUT

Front Squats
225x8, 225x6 +2, 225x6 +2

Leg Press (plates / side)
5x8, 7x8, 8x6 => legs were totally destroyed

Seated Hamstring Curls
210x8, 210x7, 190x7 drop 130x8

Standing Machine Calf Raises (rack = 20)
20x8, x8, x8

Fascia Stretching Work: Seated Leg Extensions
70x100 => holy mother of god . . . quads.were.done.

Deep stretching for ~7 minutes

NOTES
Just felt amazing today. Went out for lunch at work for a coworker, all you can eat bombers (a burrito joint). Kept it relatively clean with chicken, flour tortillas, rice, a little cheese, and a little sour cream. Definitely ate a lot (8 mini burritos), so i was pretty much dead at work for the rest of the day, haha. Took a scoop of neurocore (freakin loving this stuff), 2.5g of bulk beta alanine, 2.5g bulk citrulline malate, and 2.5g of LCLT. Was sweatin up a storm during front squats . . . pretty much my limiting factor for the exercise is not being able to breath with the weight across my upper chest / shoulders.

On a good note, I definitely was being paranoid yesterday with my shedding concern. Didnt notice much of anything today, so while Im not going to dismiss it entirely, but Im sure I exaggerated a bit yesterday. Good news indeed.

Im currently dosing the alpha mass 3 caps with meal 1 and 3 caps with my last meal. I might switch things around and try outa preworkout dose / split doses more / add more caps . . . but that will all come with time.

Should also note that Im taking orange triad and fish oil (2g of combined EPA/DHA per day) for joint health. The OT isn't necessarily for the product, just because I was having trouble with my right knee for the past few weeks. Couple days on it and my knee already feels better . Also dropping down 2g of celery seed daily to deal with any potential BP issues. High BP runs in my family, so I do my best to keep it down.

Why no questions??? da fuk.

 

[mattrag]

Subbed. Too early for the compound to show yet IMO.
Questions... Maybe what else have you run? And interesting training style.

 

[TheBGRigatoni]

Sub bro

 

[AndrewNico]

Subbed. Too early for the compound to show yet IMO.
Questions... Maybe what else have you run? And interesting training style.

Yeah I agree
Have run 1 cycle halodrol (halovar) for 6 weeks back about 18 months ago. Made huge strength gains I couldnt keep (was still sort of dumb with training / diet), but other than that it was a nice experience. After that I decided to strictly train natty to build up my knowledge of training and diet.
My training is modified from PHAT. Certain things I omit and others I added in because my body responds well to them.

Sub bro

coolstorybro


Today was a good day, did upper body

THE WORKOUT

Incline Bench
225x5, 230x5(PR), 235x3, 235x2.5 drop 225x1.5

Seated dB Shoulder Press
90x5, 95x3, 95x fail, 90x4

Hammer Strength Underhand Lat Pulldown (plates / side)
3x5, 3x5, 3x4.5 drop 2x8 drop 1x12

Flat dB Flys
65x8, x8, x8

Close Grip Parallel Attachment Lat Pulldowns
200x5, x5, x5

FST 7 Training: Lateral dB Raises
35x12
35x12
35x12
27.5x12
27.5x12
20x20
20x15 +5 (or so) forced reps

NOTES
Incline bench felt stronger than usual today. Usually do my working sets at 230x4 +1, today I managed to get that 5th rep. Everything else is standard. 7's were just awesome as usual.
Nothing else new. Diet was consistent with the usual 3600 cals. This is getting bumped up as soon as my vasolate gets here . . . mmmm

additionally, this is my new favorite motivation video / lifting song

 

[TheBGRigatoni]

Yeah I agree
Have run 1 cycle halodrol (halovar) for 6 weeks back about 18 months ago. Made huge strength gains I couldnt keep (was still sort of dumb with training / diet), but other than that it was a nice experience. After that I decided to strictly train natty to build up my knowledge of training and diet.
My training is modified from PHAT. Certain things I omit and others I added in because my body responds well to them.



coolstorybro


Today was a good day, did upper body

THE WORKOUT

Incline Bench
225x5, 230x5(PR), 235x3, 235x2.5 drop 225x1.5

Seated dB Shoulder Press
90x5, 95x3, 95x fail, 90x4

Hammer Strength Underhand Lat Pulldown (plates / side)
3x5, 3x5, 3x4.5 drop 2x8 drop 1x12

Flat dB Flys
65x8, x8, x8

Close Grip Parallel Attachment Lat Pulldowns
200x5, x5, x5

FST 7 Training: Lateral dB Raises
35x12
35x12
35x12
27.5x12
27.5x12
20x20
20x15 +5 (or so) forced reps

NOTES
Incline bench felt stronger than usual today. Usually do my working sets at 230x4 +1, today I managed to get that 5th rep. Everything else is standard. 7's were just awesome as usual.
Nothing else new. Diet was consistent with the usual 3600 cals. This is getting bumped up as soon as my vasolate gets here . . . mmmm

additionally, this is my new favorite motivation video / lifting song

like this chit right here dammit

 

[AndrewNico]

Hit arms today. Sweet lift session; went heavy for the power exercises and then switched over to hypertrophy for da pumpz

THE WORKOUT

CGBP
225x5, 230x4, 230x4, 225x4 +1

Seated dB Tricep Extension
100x5, 110x5, 105x5

Overhead Cable Tricep Extensions (Rope)
57.5x12, 65x12, 65x12, 65x12

Seated dB bicep curls (alternating)
60x5, 60x3 +4 swinging, 60x3 +3 swinging

Seated dB bicep curls (simultaneous) on incline bench
30x10, 30x12, 30x13

Standing Reverse Curls (half reps for bottom part of movement, removing shoulders)
50x13, 50x13, 50x13, 50x13

Spider Curls on incline bench (straight bar)
40x15, 40x15, 40x15, 40x15

FST 7 Training: Standing Bicep Curls (straight bar)
50x12
50x12
50x12
50x12
50x12
50x12
50x12 => forearms, biceps, everything dead.

Deep stretching for ~5 minutes


NOTES
Nothing too much to note today. Appetite is pretty low, I need to switch up my standard pasta+chicken+olive oil meals or Im going to start throwing up, :\.

 

[AndrewNico]

Another sick workout today, did legs and killed it.

THE WORKOUT

Back Squats (only down past parallel, not ATG ... my knees do not like ATGs)
335x4, 335x4, 335x3 (Rep PR)

Box Squats with Cambered Bar (down to parallel)
225x8, 225x8, 225x8

Hamstring Raises
bw x8, x8, x8

Standing Calf Raise Machine (rack = 20)
rack x8, x8, x10, 10x8 (5 seconds down, 15 seconds at bottom, 1 second up)

Seated Calf Raises (plates / side)
1x13, x13, x13

Hammer Strength Independent Hamstring Curl Machine
100x8, x8, x8


Deep stretching for ~10 minutes

NOTES
Squats felt awesome today. Last time I did back squats I was in the UNC weight room with no music, no spot, and a different bar. Barely did 315x3x3 that day. Always amazing me how much of my lifts are mental. Anyway, not too much else to note. Sunday will be my first weigh in at the 7 day mark, so we'll see how I did the first week (I don't expect anything crazy, maybe 1-2lbs)

 

[AndrewNico]

Saturday was an off day. Ate a lot of corned beef and veggies.

Today is the 1 week mark. Weighed myself this morning after urination:

Weight: 183lbs (+3lbs)

More than I expected. Not too shabby.

Did Chest and Tris today . . . was awesome.

THE WORKOUT

Flat Bench
225x10, 225x10, 225x10 (Yeaaa finally did it), 245x3 +1 (pause reps)

Incline Bench
185x8, 185x8, 185x8

Decline Cable Flys
35x12, 35x13, 35x10, 25x20

Incline dB Flys
30x15, 30x15, 30x15

Tricep Cable Pushdowns (Vbar)
65x15, 65x15, 65x15

dB Skullcrushers on Flat Bench
25x8, 30x8, 27.5x8 (pretty weak on these, I think I've done them once before over the past 3 years)

Tricep Cable Kickbacks
15x13, 15x12, 15x12

Deep stretching for ~7 minutes

NOTES
Finally got my 225x10x3 done. Been working on that for a few weeks now, always got to 9 or 8 on the last 2 sets. Feltgoodman. Strength overall seemed to be up today (very slightly though). Maybe kicking in? Who knows.

 

[AndrewNico]

Hit up legs and lower back today. Starting to get back into regular deadlifts since I want to increase strength in that area again.

THE WORKOUT

Deadlifts
135x8, 225x5, 315x2, 405x1, 455x1, 485x0, 455x1 drop 405x3 => meh, not bad for not having done them in a month or so

Leg Press (plates / side)
7x5, 8x5, 8(+25lbs)x5 (PR), 6x10

SLDL (go ahead, tell me doing two deadlift exercises is wrong . . . not a single f**k will be given)
135x8, 225x5, 275x3, 315x10, 315x4 => lower back failure

Seated Calf Raises (plates / side)
1x15, 1x15, 1x15

Seated Calf Machine (toes pointing in)
270x8, 200x15, 200x15, 200x15, 200x15

Standing Calf Raise Machine
13x8 (5 sec down, 15 sec bottom, 2 sec up)

Fascia Stretching Work: Seated Leg Extensions
75x113 => mother of god, legs stopped working, instant quad cramps as soon as I stepped off the machine

Deep Stretching for ~7 minutes => ahh, all quad cramps gone


NOTES
Again, not too much to note. Nothing standing out from normal gains, we're still early though. I'm guessing by the end of this week things will start to get much better

 

[AndrewNico]

Did upper body today. Was a so-so day, nothing great, nothing bad

THE WORKOUT

Incline Bench
235x4, 235x3 +1, 225x3 +1

Seated dB Shoulder Press
90x4.5, 90x4.5, 90x4

Hammer Strength Lat Pulldown Underhand (plates / side)
3x5, 3(+5lbs)x5, 3(+5lbs)x4 drop 2(+25lbs)x5 drop 2x10

CGBP
225x6, 225x5, 225x5

Rear Delt Cables (single arm)
30x13, 30x10, 25x13

FST 7 Training: Seated dB Lateral Raises
25x16
25x16
25x16
20x16
20x16
20x15
20x18 +5 or 6 assisted reps = delts were non-functioning

Deep Stretching for ~8 minutes

NOTES
Again, nothing really to note. No change in mood or strength. I can see I've put a bit of size on (weighed in at 189 post workout, clothed), but nothing crazy. Off day tomorrow and then legs on friday. BTW, the days I don't post I take off . . . in case anyone was curious.

 

[AndrewNico]

Catching up

So, been sort of busy the past couple of days, time for da updates

Friday was legs day. shaking legs were had at the end of the day

THE WORKOUT

Front Squats
235x8, 235x8, 225x8

Leg Press (plates / side)
6x5, 7x5, 6x10

SLDL on Smyth Machine (weight added)
140x10, 140x10, 140x10

Seated Calf Raises (plates / side)
1x15, 1.5x15, 1x15

Standing Calf Raises (rack = 20)
rack x10, x10, x9, 10x8 (5 sec down, 15 sec bottom, 2 sec up)


Deep Stretching for ~6 minutes

NOTES
Made some progress from last week with my front squats, but I had about a minute more of rest each time this go around. Still, more weight lifted = more weight lifted. Hams and lower back were still kind of sore from my previous legs day earlier in the week so I went sort of light and concentrated my hams with the smyth machine. Calves, as always, were on fire upon completion.


Saturday (yesterday) was shoulders and back

THE WORKOUT

Seated Shoulder Press
185x3, 185x3, 185x3, 185x2.5, 180x3, 180x2 +1, 180x3 +1

Side Lateral dB Raises
25x12, 30x12, 30x12, 30x12

Rear Delt Machine (I do 1 arm at a time)
160x15, 190x15, 190x15, 190x15

Seated Front dB Raises
30x10, 30x10, 30x10

Speed Work: Bent Over BB Rows
195x3, x3, x3, x3, x3, x3

Pullups
bw x10, x10, x7 +2 +1

Seated Cables Rows (close grip)
100x15, 120x15, 110x15

Hammer Strength Lat Pulldown Underhand Grip (weight / side)
70x15, 70x15

Deep Stretching for ~5 minutes


NOTES
I haven't had a good shoulder/back workout in a few weeks due to schedule bs, but I did better than I thought I would with it. Tried out my wrist wraps for the workout yesterday, the things are awesome (I got the GASP ones). Perfect for anyone who's had wrist problems in the past like myself.


DOSAGE
I've been steady at 6 caps a day 3 am, 3 pm. I was thinking about bumping it up to 9 since not much is going on after 2 weeks. Thoughts?

 

[AndrewNico]

Hit chest and arms today. Pretty good workout; I started shifting my flat bench from hypertrophy back to strength.

Morning Weight: 184 (+4 lbs total, +1 from last week)

THE WORKOUT

Flat Bench
255x4.5, 255x4 +1, 255x3.5 +1, 225x6 +2 (pause reps for last set)

Incline Bench
195x8, 195x8, 195x7.5

Incline dB Flys
40x13, 40x13, 40x13, 40x12.5 (yep, I failed at the peak of my flys)

Decline Cable Flys
30x15, 30x15, 25x15, 20x20

Concentration dB Curls
30x10, 30x10, 30x10

Preacher BB Curls
70x8, 70x8, 70x8

dB Curls on Incline Bench (simultaneous)
25x13, 25x13, 25x13

Tricep Cable Pushdowns (v bar)
65x15, 65x15, 65x13

Tricep Cable Kickbacks
20x8, 20x8 +3, 20x8 +3

FST 7 Training: Seated Overhead Tricep Extensions (rope)
40x14
40x13
40x12
35x14
35x13
35x12
35x13

Deep Stretching for ~4 minutes


NOTES
Weight is up 1 lb from last week, 4lbs total gain so far. I bumped my cals up to account for the additional weight, naturally.
Trying to ease my body into going heavy on flat bench again, looking forward to some nice strength gains.


DOSAGE
My question from previous post still stands: bump up from 6 to 9 caps now?

 

[Royd The Noyd]

You can try to increase the dose but your gains are decent thus far at 6 per day.

 

[AndrewNico]

You can try to increase the dose but your gains are decent thus far at 6 per day.

true. I kind of got impatient (noob mistake, I know). I'll just shift my evening dose to preworkout for the remainder of the 1st bottle.

off day today. arms and chest are still pretty sore.

 

[Royd The Noyd]

As you up your weight you can always increase even if it's just 1 more cap. I think 6 caps is good for 185lb'ers. About 9 for 200lb'ers. I used 12 for 4 weeks and gained a lot starting at 210lbs.

 

[AndrewNico]

As you up your weight you can always increase even if it's just 1 more cap. I think 6 caps is good for 185lb'ers. About 9 for 200lb'ers. I used 12 for 4 weeks and gained a lot starting at 210lbs.

Aye, still no need to bump up though. Slow gains = easier gains to maintain (regardless of the *I want da gainz now* mentality)

Tried out the preworkout dose today (3 caps with preworkout meal 1.5 hrs preworkout), I think I'll stick with this for the rest of the time.

Did legs today . . . PRs were there.

THE WORKOUT

Squats (down a bit past parallel)
340x3, 340x3, 340x3 (PR)

SLDL (I do DC style training with this exercise. one working set, 10+ reps)
315x12

Seated Hamstring Curls (just to make sure my hams were fried)
170x8, x8, x8 => yup, they were fried.

1 Legged Leg Press (plates / side)
2x5, x5, x5 => 1st time doing this. thought what the hell . . . pretty awesome

Standing Calf Raises Machine (rack = 20)
rack x10, x10, x10, 11x7 (5 sec down, 15 sec bottom, 2 sec up) => stretched the s**t out of my calves. feelsgoodman.

Deep Stretching for ~6 minutes


NOTES
Somewhat of a short workout today. I was pretty happy with my squats, definitely the strongest Ive ever been. SLDL properly pumped the heck out of my lower back, hams were killed, calves were on fire . . . good day.

 

[AndrewNico]

Had a pretty good lift session today. Some weights went up, others stayed about the same

THE WORKOUT

Incline Bench Press
240x3, 240x3, 240x2 +.5 (fuuuu, wanted that third rep) (PR)

Seated dB Shoulder Press
95x3.5, 95x2.5 (ugh), 85x6 (UGH, shoulders were just dead)

Hammer Strength Lat Pulldown Underhand Grip (plates / side)
3(+10lbs)x4.5, 3(+5lbs)x4.5, 3x5 drop 2(+25lbs)x5 drop 2x8 drop 1(+25lbs)x12 => lats & forearms dead.

Seated Smyth Machine Shoulder Press (weight added), needed to do more than 10ish reps of heavy shoulder presses
140x5, 140x5, 130x5 drop 90x8 => ah, much better

FST 7 Training: Side Lateral dB Raises
27.5x13
27.5x13
27.5x13
25x13
25x13
25x13
25x15 +8 assisted reps (delts = ruined)

Deep Stretching for ~6 minutes


NOTES
I keep feeling like I take out most of my energy on incline bench, so when I do dB shoulder press my body has limited energy i.e. the weight is staying the same. I might change my rep range on this day to 8 reps since Im going heavy and low reps on my shoulder/back day. The good news is that my incline bench is getting heavier, which is always nice .
I know some of you guys are like, HEY, you usually do CGBP on this day . . . WTF *******?? Due to feeling like I was going to die today, I opted to push CGBP to a newly formed arms day tomorrow. Should be good stuff.

 

[AndrewNico]

So, I didnt end up doing arms yesterday. My body was completely shot from tuesday's workout and I needed the rest. Good thing I did that because my legs workout today was awesome.

THE WORKOUT

Front Squats
240x8, 240x8, 240x8 (PR)

Leg Press (plates / side)
6x5, 7x5, 7x5 => my right knee was bothered by this, so I decided to keep it somewhat light

Box Squats with Cambered Bar (to parallel)
225x8, 245x8, 245x8, 245x8 drop 135x10

Individual Hamstring Curls Machine (weight / side)
70x8, x8, x8 => knee was still bugging me, kept it real light

Standing Calf Raises Machine (rack = 20)
rack x10, x10, x10, 11x8 (5 sec down, 15 sec at bottom, 2 sec up)

Seated Calf Raises (plates / side)
1x8, 1x10, 1x12, 1x12 => calves were deadface

Deep stretching for ~7 minutes


NOTES
Felt real good today, my knee wasn't bugging my on front squats, went up in weight, did a sh*t load of pressing movements and auxiliary calf movements. Legs were shaking when I was packing up my stuff to head home. Felt awesome.

Tomorrow is shoulders / back day . . . looking forward to some good progress on my shoulder presses.

 

[AndrewNico]

Had some pretty good lift sessions the past 2 days. Yesterday was shoulders and back.

THE WORKOUT

Seated BB Shoulder Press
185x3, x3, x3, x3, x3, x3, x3 +1

Seated dB Lateral Raises
30x13, x13, x13, x13

Front BB Raises on Incline Bench (underhand grip)
50x15, x20, x20

Rear Delt Machine (single arm)
175x20, 190x15, 190x15

Speed Work: Bent Over BB Rows
185x3, x3, x3, x3, x3, x3

BW Pullups
x10, x10, x10

Hammer Strength Low Row Machine (weight / side)
55x15, 55x15, 45x15

Hammer Strength Lat Pulldown Machine Underhand (weight / side)
70x20, 70x20, 70x20

Deep Stretching for ~ 7 minutes


NOTES
Made progress on my shoulder press, everything else was feeling good. Had massive cheat day yesterday, probably hit around 6k cals. Not too much else going on.


Today I weighed in and did chest & arms

Weight: 184 lbs (+0, +4 total)

No change from last week, cals have been at 3800 for the past week, going to bump it up another 200-500 this week. That should help.

THE WORKOUT

Flat Bench
255x3, 265x3, 265x3, Pause Reps: 245x3 +1.5

Incline Bench
210x8, 195x8, 195x10 +1 assisted rep

Incline dB Flys
40x15, 40x13, 40x13, 40x10

dB Bicep Curls on Incline Bench (simultaneous)
25x15, 25x15, 25x15

Single Arm Hammer Curls on Preacher Bench
27.5x10, x10, x10

Spider Curls on Incline Bench
50x13, 50x13, 40x15 => did some partial reps on last 2 sets after failure

Tricep Cable Pushdowns (vbar)
80x10, x10, x10

Incline Skull Crushers
80x15, 80x13, 80x13

Single Arm Tricep Cable Kickbacks
20x8, 20x8, 20x10

Deep Stretching for ~5 minutes

NOTES
Making steady progress on my chest movements, which is always nice. Arms were looking and feeling pumped up today. Like I said above, cals are going up again this week to get my weight moving up again. Adding some dried fruit in (da fructoseeeeeeeeeeeeee)

 

[AndrewNico]

Sup F**kers . . . Here's what Ive been up to the past 2 days

4/3 Workout: Lower Body

THE WORKOUT

Deadlifts
405x1, 455x3, 455x1 drop 405x1

Leg Press (weight / side)
6x5, 7x5, 8x5, 9x2 drop 7x5 drop 6x5 => kind of aggravated my right knee doing these, been killing me over the past 24 hours. Going to have to tone down my weight for leg pressing movements

Seated Calf Press (plates / side)
1x15, 1x15, 1x15, 1x15

Isolation SLDLs on Smyth Machine (weight added)
180x8, x8, x8

Deep Stretching for ~7 minutes

NOTES
Well, besides f'ing up my knee on leg press, not a bad lift day at all. First time doing 9 plates / side on my leg press (which btw I will never be maxing out on that again), and legs were feeling nice afterwords. Deadlifts are sort of a work in progress, I have only been doing heavy singles for the past 6 months or so, so changing up my rep range I feel will totally shock my body.


4/4 (Today) Workout: Upper Body

THE WORKOUT

Incline Bench
240x3, 240x2.5, 235x3 +.5

dB Shoulder Press
85x8, 85x6.5, 80x8

TBar Row Machine (front & rear plate loaded)
4 plates x8, 4 plates (+2 25s on back) x5, x5 drop 4 plates x8

FST 7 Training: dB Lateral Raises
35x13
35x12
30x12
30x12
22.5x15
22.5x20
20x20 +10ish assisted reps => i.e. delts were beyond on fire.

NOTES
Bad news is my knee is still killing me. Really hoping some time off of heavy pressing movements will help it out. Good news is that today was a pretty sick workout. Incline bench didnt really change from last week, I changed up my rep range for shoulder press, and the tbar rows were awesome.

DOSAGE
Since I have 1 more day left on my 1st bottle, I am probably going to bump up my dose to 7 or 8 caps for now, and then eventually say 'f it' and go up to 9. But who knows the slight bump up might be enough for my body. Curious to see what my weight is at this week with my addition of about 500 cals (up to ~4300 cals).

 

[AndrewNico]

Had a great lift session yesterday for arms . . . killed it

THE WORKOUT

CGBP
230x5, 235x3, 240x3, 245x3 (PR), 235x3, 225x6 +1

Seated dB Overhead Tricep Extensions
100x5, 105x5, 105x10, 100x4 (slow reps)

VBar Tricep Cable Pushdowns
85x8, 80x8, 80x8, 80x8, 80x8

Alternating dB Bicep Curls (seated)
50x5, 50x5, 50x6, 50x6

Simultaneous dB Bicep Curls on incline bench
25x15, 25x13, 25x12

Lower Half Rep Reverse BB Curls (complete forearm isolation)
50x15, 60x12, 60x12, 60x12

FST 7 Training: Seated Cable Bicep Curls
42.5x13
42.5x12
35x13
35x13
30x15
30x13
25x16 ish

Deep Stretching for ~4 minutes


NOTES
Really killed it with my CGBP . . . I usually do them in the middle/end of my upper body day so my tri's were pretty fresh this time around. I didn't even know how much I could do on it, as I figured 235x3 would be as high as I could go:banana:.
Rest of the workout was also pretty sweet, arms were pumped the f up. One thing that I have continued to notice as I progress through this cycle is the slight leaning out of my body. My arms are always very lean, but despite the increase in calories (by about 1k since I started) my %bf seems to have remained constant. Good news indeed . . . as I weighed in at 195 postworkout (clothed) yesterday. Anxious to see this week's weigh in on sunday. BTW happy Good Friday.

 

[AndrewNico]

Time to Play Catch Up

So I've been pretty busy over the past week, but I finally have a little time to get this thing back on track. I'll just update my main lift progress and any noteworthy bits.

Friday, 4/7 . . . Legs Rehab Day
NOTES
So whatever I did to my knee, Ive had to totally tone down my leg work. Eliminating squats and leg pressing movements all together for now, just doing very light leg curls, moderate weight leg extensions, and a hell of a lot of calf work (did no joke 20 sets of calf raises).


Saturday, 4/8 . . . Shoulders / Back
MAIN LIFT PROGRESS
Seated BB Shoulder Press:
190x3, 190x3, 190x3, 190x3, 190x2+1, 190x2.5+1

NOTES
Shoulder press is making some solid progress here. Up about 15lbs in 5ish weeks (or some time around then). Everything else was feeling good, mostly because I wasn't doing anything using my legs.


Sunday, 4/9 . . . Off Day
WEIGHT
Morning Weight: 189lbs (+5lbs, +9lbs total)
Whoa, weight really shot up this past week. Good stuff, but I started to notice some fat gain (obviously, muscle doesn't just grow like that), so I toned back my cals by about 300 down to about 3900.


Monday, 4/10 . . . Chest and Tri's
MAIN LIFT PROGRESS
Flat Bench
270x3, 270x2+1, 265x2+1

NOTES
Making steady progress on flat bench. Working out on mondays SUCKS and I'm sure that had something to do with not nailing 270x3x3. Killed the rest of chest and tris with a high amount of volume starting with incline bench 205x8, x8, x8+2


Tuesday, 4/11 . . . Lower Back / Legs Rehab Day
NOTES
Tried doing deadlifts, only went up to 405x1 and my knee was feeling alright. Killed my calves again along with traps this time around.


Wednesday, 4/12 . . . Upper Body
MAIN LIFT PROGRESS
Incline Bench
235x3, 245x3, 245x3 (PR), 225x3+1 (pause reps)

NOTES
Went total beast mode with incline bench, felt amazing. All other upper body lifts were also beasting; upper back, shoulders, triceps all were feeling good, and some progress was made on all as well. All and all a very good lift session.


Thursday, 4/13 . . . Off Day
NOTES
A well needed off day. Have work tomorrow, so I'm just taking it easy today, giving my knee plenty of time to rest and recover. Will be back at it again tomorrow with more leg rehab / calf killing
(hey, at least I'm still in good spirits)


BTW, dose has been steady at 7 caps / day with 4 caps with preworkout meal

 

[Royd The Noyd]

Nice updates

 

[AndrewNico]

Sup guys, been a really interesting week, had a lot of family matters to attend to so I apologize for my lack of updates. Just because I haven't updated doesn't mean I haven't been killing it though.

While Im not going to go through the past week and update everything, I'll say that my strength has stayed relatively the same, with the exception of CGBP which I PRd yesterday at 255x3 up from 245x3. Weight is steady at 189 since I dropped my cals a bit. Still rehabing my knee, doesn't look to be getting better anytime soon .

I guess the plus that I can give for the AM so far is that I have had 0 sides. Now, you may want to take that with a grain of salt, since I also had 0 sides with halodrol and epistane in the past. This time around, however, I have drastically decreased my support supps down to fish oil, orange triad, and celery seed.

I still have another week or so at 7 caps a day, so we'll see how this ends up.

 

[AndrewNico]

Wow, so I guess I kind of slipped up here :|

Sorry my updates have been s**t and infrequent as of late, been a rough couple of weeks. I'm going to update my main lifts from the past week.

4/21
Seated Shoulder BB Press - Strength was way down for whatever reason. shoulders were feeling shot; not sure why. To put things in perspective, the previous week I hit 190x3 for 5 sets and then 195x3 for the last 2 sets, and that felt good. Probably my own fault :\
195x2.5, 190x2, 185x3, 185x3, 185x3, 185x3, 185x2.5

4/22
Flat BB Bench - Another seemingly weak / unstable day. Planned on doing 255x5 for 3 sets, unfortunately my body in general did not feel like doing that. Had to switch it up a tad, as I think I will have to keep my weight lower and reps high simply due to my body :\. At least 225 pause reps felt amazing
255x4.5, 245x5, 245x4.5, 225x7 (pause reps), 225x4 (pause reps, maximum acceleration)

4/23
Off day

4/24
Knee rehab / calves day - Nothing to note, finally been able to do some SLDLs on the smyth machine to hit my hams and glutes; up to this point I have not been able to work them at all . Legs were shaking after my sets with 275 . . . feltgoodmang

4/25
Incline Bench - I have to say, for whatever reason I can go heavy on incline BB bench no problem and my body likes it (weight is catching up to my flat bench )
240x3, 245x3, 250x2.5

4/26
Off day

4/27 (Today, last day of cycle)
Knee rehab / Smyth Machine SLDL / calves - Well, today is my last day on. I'll go more into this and my experiences below.
Smyth Machine SLDL (weight added, not including weight of bar, which I think is ≈15lbs)
230x5, 230x5, 230x5 drop 180x5 drop 140x5 drop 90x10 => killed it

NOTES:
So, over the last week I have hit some serious lethargy for the first time (pretty bad especially at work when things are slow), other than that no real downsides to the cycle at all. Again, I will reiterate that I have ran 2 methyl orals (epi, halodrol) also with no sides (but with more supports), so take this with a grain of salt.

PCT will begin tomorrow (duh!). In case anyone is curious, it will be:
tamoxifen: 20/20/20/20 - may drop it down to 20/20/10/10 depending on how it goes. I imagine I will, but the 20 for 4 weeks is pretty standard.
testabolan v2 - don't laugh, got it for dirt cheap so I will be running it at recommended dose for 3 bottles worth. will be combining with 2 bottles of triazole after the tamoxifen runs out.
resveratrol v2 - again, one of those things that I don't need, but I have it and have no other plans for it and need to start going through my stash. Recommended dose for 1 bottle's worth.
daa @ 3g - staple for me. run it pretty much indefinitely, as I have in the past (come @ me critics).

Final review / stats will be in the next post.

 

[AndrewNico]

FINAL REVIEW

Going to throw this at the top, I injured my right knee so my leg progress will not be listed as I have not squated or done heavy legs in the past 3 weeks

Alright, having said that, let's get to the changes:

Start:
Weight: 180lbs
Flat Bench: 225x10, 265x3
Incline Bench: 230x3
Seated BB Shoulder Press: 180x3 for 7 sets
CGBP: 230x3

End:
Weight: 189 (+9 lbs)
Flat Bench: 270x3 (didnt max out my reps with 225, but I could tell you that I hit 225x7 pause reps after my working sets this past week, so I can say for sure that my flat bench strength has increased based on that and just the feel of the weight. My body does not like heavy flat BB bench , I'll just call this +strength )
Incline Bench: 245x3 easy (+15 lbs)
Seated BB shoulder press: 190x3 for 7 sets easy (+10lbs)
CGBP: 255x3 (+25lbs) . . . woah

Da pics:

Da feeling:
Aside from the intense lethargy over the past week, nothing negative to speak of. Kind of didn't have that 'on' feeling though, I feel like if I didn't know I was taking this I wouldn't think I was (may be a negative for some people, I didn't care that much).

As for the results, you can see that they are in fact there, just not too drastic. Keep in mind I have been eating ≈4000cals every day since week 2 (March 25 ish), so over the course of 6 ish weeks, these gains seem reasonable but not extraordinary. Was looking for more in the strength department, but I was somewhat limited by my own body design in certain exercises.

The other thing I have to note here is where my leg strength was going before I injured my knee. Back squats were up about 15lbs on 3 rep max to 340x3 and front squats went up about 15 lbs on my 8 rep max to 240x8 for 3 sets. I can only imagine where I would be now had I not injured myself (rather stupidly I'll admit) only 3 weeks into my run . Unfortunately, I can only rest, recover and hope to one day get my squat back up to where I was a few weeks ago.

In terms of my weight gain, I'll let you decide for yourself from the pictures, but I'll say from my own views I have put on fat, no doubt in my mind about it. This somewhat further discounts my actual muscle gains, which I would conservatively estimate at ≈4 lbs; still not bad at all for 6.8 weeks. The fat gain is unfortunate, but not something I wasn't expecting. Not being a methyl, I had my doubts for the capability of this compound from the start. However, it did surprise me with all that it did do.

So, what's next for me? Going to keep my cals at 4000 for the next 4-5 weeks, and then drop them down to maintenance and start up a recomp to get rid of some of this fat gain. I am planning (as of now) to not do a full cut during the summer, and just keep on trucking. After I get to a reasonable body composition in my mind, I'll slowly start bumping up the cals and continue my foreverbulk.

I'll update weekly during PCT to keep you guys informed of any changes, but I doubt anything negative will be going on given the gains I did get over the past 7ish weeks. If anything, I don't think I'd be surprised if I lost a few lbs due to glycogen storage, but we'll see . . . I've misread this compound before.

 

[Royd The Noyd]

Great log

 

[TheBGRigatoni]

Agree

 

[AndrewNico]

PCT is going great. Strength is still up there (and increasing), weight has dropped by 1-1.5lbs (I expect because of water loss - surprisingly affecting my knee, see below), and I still look as big as I did before.

In regards to my knee, I suspect that what has happened in these past 6-7 weeks is that I have had an excess amount of fluid buildup in my right knee (I have some sort of fluid in my knees already) maybe resulting from an increased fluid retention from AM. Somewhere along the line I aggravated the area and boom! excess fluid hurts my knee. now that Im in PCT my fluid retention has gone down and the pain in my knee is much better . . . to the point where I can actually squat again (just with like 95 lbs, but good progress).

that's just my theory.