DYEGYE's kickin it old skool with Ancient Strength!

[DYEGYE]

Alright guys, I've been selected to log Ancient strength for NTBM. I received my bottle in the mail today, and I will begin my log effective tomorrow. I will do my best to update daily, but with the state of my life right now there may be a gap here or there.

Stats:
6'2" 235 lbs 11.9% bf (3 point caliper, Jackson Pollock method)

Bench 305
Squat 415
Deadlift 555
OHP 170

Currently, I'm trying to get up over 250, and trying to get some good strength gains. I haven't been eating a good diet for the last couple of weeks due to lack of funds and some back to back illnesses, but I get payed on Friday and the first order of business is to do some shopping.

Due to being sick, my lifts have not been as strong as usual the last few weeks (I dropped 365 in the rack squatting the other day), but given that before I got sick I was right on par with my max lifts, I'm posting those as a baseline.

Today was back and bi day for me (Wed. is normally shoulders, but for some reason they were really sore from chest on Mon. so I switched the order around), and I took my first dose of ancient strength after my workout. The pills reminded me of GNC's Advanced Creatine 189 in terms of size and ease of consumption. Usually, when I switch creatine products I'm able to tell within the first week or two whether or not they're working for me, so hopefully I'll know soon what the effect is. Given that they are based on monohydrate, I do expect that I'll maintain some water bloat that I have from my plain mono I have been taking up until today, but I've found in the past that tablets usually provide less bloat for me so I would not be surprised if I dropped a lb or two initially. Also, I am curious about the other types of creatine it contains and what effect they will have. Strength gains are usually better for me with tablets, so hopefully that trend will continue with Ancient Strength.

Time to KTS!!!!

 

[DYEGYE]

Final Review:

Weight 238 lbs *a small amount of this may be attributed to rebound from being sick

Ancient Strength is hands down the best creatine product I've taken to date. I saw good strength gains, managed to put on a little weight, and saw diminished water retention.

It took probably about a week before I really felt that ancient strength kicked in for me. At that time, I began noticing my pumps becoming fuller, and a slight increase in the number of reps I could do. Obviously, adding reps means more strength, which was awesome to see so quickly.

After the first week, I began to notice that my skin felt tighter and less watery. I don't know what NTBM put in this stuff, but somehow I began to eliminate my creatine mono bloat, even though these tabs are mostly mono themselves! People were commenting asking me if I lost weight, even though I was about the same as I had been prior to beginning ancient strength.

My pumps throughout the duration of my bottle were AMAZING. Shoulders and biceps were particularly impressive. Normally you can see the big vein there slightly, but on Ancient Strength it really started to pop out (probably due in part to the lower subcutaneous water retention). Also during week 2 I began to notice better recovery, being less sore the day after a serious workout.

During week 3, I wanted to experiment so I went to dosing Ancient Strength both before and after my workout. This is when the product really shined for me. I got the awesome pumps and strength gains that I'd been seeing all along, but I also saw recovery improve even more. Unfortunately this meant that by the end of week 3 I had killed my bottle, but I'm sure I'll be buying more in the future.

One other comment I'd like to make- normally powdered creatine mono tends to make my stomach a little upset and also leaves me needing the bathroom a couple hours after I take it. I noticed that Ancient Strength did not have this effect on me. A couple times I forgot to take it an hour before my workout and took it right before my first set and still didn't see any problems. This was an awesome surprise.

Overall:

Strength: 8/10
Water Retention: 10/10
Pumps: 9/10
Creatine Dumps: 10/10

I definitely loved Ancient Strength! I want to congratulate NTBM on adding such an excellent product to their line. I will definitely recommend it to my friends and clients. As I predicted in my initial post, the sub-q water retention and resulting bloat was almost nonexistent, which makes it an excellent choice for women and precontest athletes as well. I already recommended it to one trainer at my gym who competes in the bikini class for this very reason. I said it before and I'll say it again- Ancient Strength is a BADASS product!!!!!!

 

[kanakafarian]

I'm here!

 

[Tomahawk88]

Count me in!

 

[RickRock13]

Subbed bro!! Lets see what Ancient Strength has in store for you!!

 

[MidwestBeast]

You know I'm in to see how you like it, bud :cool2:

 

[TheDarkHalf]

Subbed!

 

[Milas]

Looking forward to seeing how this works for you!

 

[BarbellBeast]

Present

 

[Ducati7]

Watchn

 

[DYEGYE]

Alright guys, I just took my second dose of Ancient Strength and drank a Ripped Force. I get off work at 6 and hope to be training by 6:15. Doing shoulders tonight since they finally feel good again. I will post weights afterward. I know for sure I'll be doing at least the following exercises:

DB Shoulder Press
DB Lateral Raise
Lying Reverse DB flyes
DB Shrugs

I'll throw a few more things in there as I feel the need, and then I'm going to FINALLY go home.

 

[kanakafarian]

KTS!

 

[MidwestBeast]

Hope the workout went solid, bro. I hit the same tonight and I know mine are torched :firedevil:

 

[RickRock13]

Alright guys, I just took my second dose of Ancient Strength and drank a Ripped Force. I get off work at 6 and hope to be training by 6:15. Doing shoulders tonight since they finally feel good again. I will post weights afterward. I know for sure I'll be doing at least the following exercises:

DB Shoulder Press
DB Lateral Raise
Lying Reverse DB flyes
DB Shrugs

I'll throw a few more things in there as I feel the need, and then I'm going to FINALLY go home.

Looks like a solid workout man...KILL THAT SH!T!!!:firedevil:

 

[DYEGYE]

Okay guys-
Workout was awesome. I took the Ancient strength about 45 minutes before I got started (kid that was replacing me at work was a few minutes late because he could barely walk from his leg workout) like I said, and I don't know if it's placebo effect or what but I definitely felt stronger tonight. Here's the workout:

DB Shoulder Press 35x15 45x12 55x10 65x8 75x4 45x10
DB lateral raise 30x12 30x12 35x10 40x8
DB lying reverse flye 35x12 35x12 35x12 35x8
Plate rear delt raises 10x12x4
DB Shrugs 95x15x4
Plate front raises 10x10x3 (just to burn out)
Arnold press 35x10x3 (more burnout)

Also got talking with my buddy towards the end and messed around with some funky lifts- discovered I can reverse curl a lot more with the EZ bar than I can curl the normal way. We suspect that it's due to the fact that I do a lot of deadlifts- my forearms are almost as big as my biceps (I have fairly large triceps and pretty small biceps, I'm under 17" pumped. My buddy and I joke that if we combined my tris with his bis we could win shows hahaha).

Anyway, my shoulders are pretty sore now which is good because that's a difficult task for me to accomplish. I look forward to seeing how I feel in the morning.

 

[MidwestBeast]

Great workout, bro!

And that's interesting about the reverse curls, but I've definitely seen it before

 

[DBdude]

sub'd

 

[RickRock13]

Nice workout and update bro!! Looks great so far :bigok:

 

[BarbellBeast]

Awesome bud. I definitely feel stronger when I take AS. But I also take it with N2KTS & Attack.

 

[DYEGYE]

Alright guys, took my Ancient strength around 4:40 or so, and I just had a worldwide sports nutrition Extreme Thermo Rage as my PWO. Probably gonna hit deads tonight. It's been a long, crappy week for me so hopefully this will be a good workout and help me clear my mind. Might go hit up all you can eat bbq afterwards.

 

[BarbellBeast]

Alright guys, took my Ancient strength around 4:40 or so, and I just had a worldwide sports nutrition Extreme Thermo Rage as my PWO. Probably gonna hit deads tonight. It's been a long, crappy week for me so hopefully this will be a good workout and help me clear my mind. Might go hit up all you can eat bbq afterwards.

KTS.... The weights and food :yup:

 

[DYEGYE]

Alright guys, here's how the workout went:

DL: 225X8 315x5 405x5 495x0 455x1 495x1 (the 0 is because I attempted and failed- I was being an idiot with my 90 lb jumps)
SL DL: 225x10x3
DB Front Squat: 80x12x3
Hanging leg raise: 7 6 7 5

PWO I drank one scoop of chocolate gaspari myofusion (I've used myofusion almost exclusively for the last year or longer)
Then went to the bbq joint and had cornbread, a sweet potato, cole slaw, and 2.75 plates of pulled pork. Had to go blow up the bathroom in the middle of it because I had an ABB XXL around 4:00 and those things go right through me. Almost had a problem on the drive home as well... If I space them out over the course of a day I'm fine, but if I drink them all at once they seem to come out in the same fashion lol... Now that I've given you guys waaaay too much information I'll post what my new DL program is going to be.

I was approached by a guy I talk to at the gym periodically who trains with American Top Team and also does a lot of powerlifting, and he suggested that I adjust my deadlift routine so as to better build strength, and given that he makes good progress with his lifts I figured that this fairly simple program would work well for me. As far as my build goes, deadlifts are my best lift.

Basically, here's the progression:

365x5
405x3
455x1
475x1
495x1
515x1
535x1
555x1
two working downsets of 5

That's basically how I remember it (he had it written out for 495 because he didn't realize that was waay less than my max- was just taking it easy due to my illness tonight). I'm kinda weird with my lifts, because I can't ever seem to decide which I'd rather train for- hypertrophy vs. strength. To me, however, deadlifts should ALWAYS be for strength, and just doing them will add mass. I don't mind that the amount I lift will prevent me from ever having a narrow waist- I'll just make my lats bigger to compensate. Besides, at the end of the day, I have to many people to watch out over to not be ridiculously strong.

Anyway, I have to finish writing out a bootcamp workout for tomorrow morning at 9:45. I might post part of it here later tomorrow. The fact that I'll be doing the workout with the people in class also affected how much I could beat myself up tonight. We'll see how the Ancient Strength treats me with a more cardio-intensive workout.

 

[RickRock13]

Awesome workout!! Killing them deads bro!!

 

[Milas]

Love the DL's! So your max is 555?

 

[DYEGYE]

Love the DL's! So your max is 555?

Yeah, pulled that a month or two ago. I'm trying to get over 600 this year.

 

[DYEGYE]

Just an update:

This morning was messed up. My phone did something funky and the alarms went off at times different from when I set them for. I got to the gym about 15 minutes after the bootcamp had started. Still, the instructor had pulled it together, and save for one exercise that I had not had a chance to explain to her, had the participants moving through it well. I generally participate in the class and demo new exercises, but today my cardiovascular capabilities were lagging due to the bronchitis I'm fighting and I could barely keep up. Still, everyone seemed to like the workout, so that made me happy.

I took my ancient strength when I got home since I basically got directly in the car out of bed. For having done deadlifts last night and a workout that was pretty tough on the legs today, I feel pretty good. I'm going to be going out in a bit with a friend and possibly a kid I work with at the gym- just gonna go have a little fun tonight- I need it. I'm just drained inside from this whole week and I need to relax.

 

[Tomahawk88]

Yeah, pulled that a month or two ago. I'm trying to get over 600 this year.

Someone mentioned deadlifts... My attention is definitely now had :lol:

 

[RickRock13]

Someone mentioned deadlifts... My attention is definitely now had :lol:

All rise!! The DL king is in da house!! :notworthy:

 

[DYEGYE]

I love me some deadlifts!

Have chest tonight, will report back.

 

[MidwestBeast]

Nice workout on deads, bro. Looking forward to you working on your new program for it, too!

I love me some deadlifts!

Have chest tonight, will report back.

Giddy up! :yup:

 

[DYEGYE]

Chest and tris was great. Unfortunately due to waiting so long to update I forgot some of the weights and reps, so I'm only going to post what I remember:

Flat Bench (beat myself up, a lot of sets so I don't remember)
DB Press 60x12 70x10 80x8 95x5
DB Incline 50x12 60x10 70x8 80x4 70x5
Cable Flyes 25x12 30x12 35x12 42.5x8 42.5x8 30x12
Rope Tricep Pushdowns 30x15 42.5x12 50x10 65x8 42.5x15 42.5x15
York Tricep Dip 225x15 245x15 255x15 255x15 255x15
Dips 8 5 8
Hanging leg raises 9 8 7 5 5


Took the ancient strength before my workout. Definitely felt like I was able to do more reps, even if I wasn't necessarily pushing a lot more weight. At this point in the log, I'd say it's safe to say that it's an excellent product, and one I would recommend to just about anyone. Like I said, I can usually tell with creatine if it's making a difference within the first week or two. Ancient Strength is a badass product.

 

[RickRock13]

Good workout man! And I'm happy that ancient strength is working out great for you! :bigok:

 

[MidwestBeast]

At this point in the log, I'd say it's safe to say that it's an excellent product, and one I would recommend to just about anyone. Like I said, I can usually tell with creatine if it's making a difference within the first week or two. Ancient Strength is a badass product.

That's saying a lot this early on!

And good clarification as far as knowing your body and if you can sense anything. This is something I need to work a little bit more on, and I need to get some Ancient Strength to try out, as well. I've used mono a lot and never "felt" anything from it at all (but I've got a kilo, so I always just toss 5g in my post shake).

 

[BarbellBeast]

Good DL's bro. Glad you like the AS!

 

[Tomahawk88]

Yeah, pulled that a month or two ago. I'm trying to get over 600 this year.

Trust me when I tell you will want 700 after you get 600 lol.

 

[DYEGYE]

Trust me when I tell you will want 700 after you get 600 lol.

No doubt. And then 800, 900, 1000, and so on. It's a vicious circle.

About to destroy my legs. PWO meal was whole grain pasta with steak and tomato sauce. Just took my Ancient strength. I'm going to kts this workout. SQUATS!!!

 

[BarbellBeast]

Murder dem legs brudda!

 

[RickRock13]

No doubt. And then 800, 900, 1000, and so on. It's a vicious circle.

About to destroy my legs. PWO meal was whole grain pasta with steak and tomato sauce. Just took my Ancient strength. I'm going to kts this workout. SQUATS!!!

Thats the glory of it all...never be sastisfied. The minute you become satisfied with yourself, you lose the drive to get better

Good to hear Ancient Strength is doing its thing for you

 

[DYEGYE]

Did shoulders today. Don't really remember my numbers because of some stuff that happened after my workout- it was a really loooong day. So, I'll just write what the workout was:

DB shoulder press
DB lateral raises
DB rear delt raises
DB front raises
DB shrugs

Forgot to take my Ancient Strength pre workout, so I took it after the first set of shoulder presses. Definitely felt a little boost a few minutes later.

On the bright side, I had my first appointment with my first true PT client this evening. He's a young kid who's trying to get ready for football this fall, hopefully to play as a WR and DB. We worked on deadlifts for about 15 minutes and then I did a bunch of conditioning/ speed work with him. He could still barely talk when his mom came to pick him up. Hopefully he'll take it as good training and not be afraid to come back.

 

[RickRock13]

Sounds like you started that kid out right....I would say if he doesn't come back then he isn't cut out to play the position he wants to anyways

 

[MidwestBeast]

Sounds like you started that kid out right....I would say if he doesn't come back then he isn't cut out to play the position he wants to anyways

No doubt.

 

[DYEGYE]

Sounds like you started that kid out right....I would say if he doesn't come back then he isn't cut out to play the position he wants to anyways

I hear that. I'm just hoping he realizes that. His mom has this idea that I'm going to give him a program for him to do and she's going to bring him back for check ups every few weeks. I'm trying to explain to her that I can't really build and work on a whole program in 1/2 hour (I gave him 45 minutes last night since it was his first appointment). What I'm hoping will happen is that he'll take what I'm teaching him and make good gains and want to come back. The fact of the matter is that last night I was outsprinting him, and I need to get him getting out in front of me if he wants to stand a chance. He also wants to gain a good bit of weight, which I can understand, but I think it will be largely effected by hormone levels at this point, as he's all of 120 lbs. Still I'm going to work with him on diet, and get him past the "I'm gonna get fat" fear.

I've got back and bis tonight, and I look forward to killin it.

 

[BarbellBeast]

Love back days... Bust out some Ancient Tbar rows

 

[RickRock13]

Love back days... Bust out some Ancient Tbar rows

Tbar's are my favorite back exercise. Love em!!

 

[DYEGYE]

Didn't hit any T-bars tonight, but I did the following:

Bent over rows 135x12 155x10 175x8 195x6 135x10
Iso Lat Pulldown (I used to love this machine but I really didn't feel it as much today, just felt like it was torquing my bad shoulder)
Cable Lat Pulldown
Seated Cable Rows (hit a new PR- did the full stack for 5 reps! A little bit of a "full body" row, but I really felt that I was properly isolating and stretching my back)
****insons
Straight bar curls
Iso plate curls
DB Hammer curls
#45 plate hammer curls

Safe to say my back and arms are toasted. Probably going to do some deadlifts tomorrow- hitting the gym bright and early- probably around 6ish. I know it's terrible for recovery, but I'm pulling an all nighter tonight because I have a test in the morning and I need to study all night- it's the only way I seem to be able to do well because I'm basically teaching myself a large portion of the material.

 

[RickRock13]

Nice workout there...looks like you killed it good

 

[DYEGYE]

Made it in this morning before class and hit my deads. I didn't do the downsets, but I did the singles progression my buddy showed me. For running on no sleep, I hit 525. Still under my max, but at that hour of the day I was happy with it. Not 100% sure I locked it out though. Regardless, it felt good to move some weight. After that I did 3x10x225 for straight leg deadlifts and then 8x225 and called it a workout. Have bootcamp again tomorrow and I need to be ready. Everything hurts though so I don't think I'm slacking in any of my workouts haha.

 

[BarbellBeast]

Strong deadlift bro. Catchin up to tom

 

[DYEGYE]

Strong deadlift bro. Catchin up to tom

I can only hope. I'm going to for sure attempt at least to go past my max by a little bit next week and hit like 565 or something. Bust out the nose tork and I'll be good to go. I don't know how my schedule is going to work out though because I have two days of conferences and then I'm going to spend next Saturday at the Europa bodybuilding show in Orlando. I'll have to find a gym to work out at while I'm up there or I'm going to go :fool2:

 

[Tomahawk88]

Strong deadlift bro. Catchin up to tom

*changes to gym clothes, lugs gym bag to car and drives to the gym. 20 sets of deadlifts and 2 puke buckets later return home. The quest for 700 continues!*