Getting ready for summer with USPLabs and PES!

[kaikara]

USP and PES were extremely generous in handing out a few products to try, and they didn't even require a log!

I'm doing one though, because I have a feeling this is going to be awesome. I'd like to give a huge THANK YOU to USPLabs and PES for this opportunity.



Supps included:
C20
Erase Pro
Modern BCAA
Jack3d

I'm undecided whether or not I'll be using the Prime at this time. I think I'll need to pick up a second bottle before I start.

Other staples I use year round:
Creatine Mono
Orange Triad
Salmon Oil

A little background:
I've been lifting weights since just after my daughter was born in January 2008. In the past 2 1/2 years, I've really dialed in my diet, and tried a lot of different supplements, so I'm familiar with what works for me and what doesn't. My gains are coming slower and slower now, so I'm excited to see if these products live up to the claims.

In June of 2010, I embarked on my first real attempt at a cut. I went super OCD on my calories and dropped 25lbs in 12 weeks with NO supplements. I was pretty happy that I was able to see my abs for the first time in my life, but there was a problem. I was way to freaking skinny!

Before: (200 lbs)


After: (175 lbs)


I made up my mind that I would not cut again until I put some real mass on. Since the end of August 2010, I've been packing on mass, some muscle, some fat. My goal now is to get similar results that I got from my 12 week cut, now in 8 weeks. But this time, I've got help.

So here's the new before pictures. I'll post side-by-side comparisons at the end of the log.

232 lbs!

Relaxed:


Flexed:






Here's the equipment I'm working on:

(Yes, it's in my living room)


Occasionally I'll hit the gym, maybe once a week. I have a gym membership, but it's for a gym by my girlfriends house that is an hour away from where I live.

Cardio:
I hate it! I haven't done cardio since that last cut! I had my numbers checked recently though, and my HDL was Less than 15! I was advised that I needed to do cardio at least 20 minutes a day, 4 times a week. So for the past week, that's what I've been doing. During my last cut, I was getting up at 4:30 to go for a run, about 30-45 minutes, every day. I'm working my way back up to that. It's harder now with all this extra weight though!

I'll be starting this stack up in the next day or so, probably tomorrow since I'm so excited. I already cracked into the Jack3d and BCAAs for tonight's back workout. I'm not a big fan of fruit punch, and both the Jack3d and BCAAs are that flavor. I won't be rating taste on a scale of 1 to 10 because of that though. In fact, the only flavor I find worse than fruit punch, is watermelon. This goes for anything. I'm more of a grape, strawberry, apple kind of guy. I give mixability on the Jack3d and BCAAs about a 9 though. It was pretty smooth!

So buckle in, and let's get to work!

Thanks again USP and PES!

[AaronJP1]

Excited for this run?

[rsnake21]

Good luck bro and amazing job on the cut thats impressive.

[kaikara]

My current diet:

6:30am
4 whole eggs
2 slices Ezekiel bread
Shake (1.5 cups milk, 2 handfuls berries, 2 scoops whey, blender)

9:30am
10oz ground beefalo (hybrid cattle, bison and cow, low fat) prepared with taco seasoning
1 tbl spoon salsa
sprinkling of shredded cheese
1/4 cup frozen spinach

12:30pm
10oz chicken breast
1 whole potato (sometimes white, sometimes sweet)
1/2 cup veggies

3:30pm (preworkout)
1 cup plain greek yogurt
2 apples

7pm (post-workout)
Shake (1.5 cups milk, 1 banana, 1 handful berries, 2 scoops whey, blender)

8:30pm
8oz steak
Large salad

[kaikara]

Excited for this run?

You couldn't tell?

Good luck bro and amazing job on the cut thats impressive.

Thanks!

[nokkT]

Damn you, jumping in already? So, you changing anything in your diet for this or you going to keep everything the same and see how the supps treat you?

Oh, btw, don't hurt yourself again.

[mattrag]

Nice. I'm subbed. Let's see some shreds!!

[hvactech]

dang it...you guys are lucky...usp labs are doing big things these days...lovin the beard

[AaronJP1]

Damn... This log is buzzing already haha

[kaikara]

Damn you, jumping in already? So, you changing anything in your diet for this or you going to keep everything the same and see how the supps treat you?

Oh, btw, don't hurt yourself again.

I'll be changing minor things. Like dropping cheese, switching salad dressing, grabbing a lower fat milk. We'll see.

I did deadlifts tonight. Doctor said no deadlifts for at least a month. Screw it! I pick things up and put them down!

Nice. I'm subbed. Let's see some shreds!!

That's the goal!

lovin the beard

I grew it in September/October, shaved it off in November, girlfriend had a fit because she loved it, so I grew it back.

Damn... This log is buzzing already haha

It's cuz I put lots of pictures!

[kaikara]

Current Workout info:

I'm in school two nights a week, and usually one day every weekend is occupied so I can't lift. That leaves about four days a week to lift. Occasionally I get lucky and squeeze in a fifth. My current split is as follows:

Legs
Chest/Biceps
Back/Triceps
Shoulders

If I get a fifth day, it may be arms, or I'll just start over and something gets lucky and gets hit twice that week.

I'm lifting for strength and hypertrophy. I usually start with a heavy compound lift (bench, deadlift, squat,military press) for 5 sets of 3-5 reps, then I finish out the rest of the workout with sets of 3 in the 8-10 range. I often do drop sets on the final set of each exercise.

[kaikara]

Thursday, March 15:

I absolutely killed it at the gym last night! On the once a week or so occasion that I go to the gym, I love it when it lands on leg day. My favorite part is doing calf presses on the leg press machine. I loaded up 12 plates and did 5 sets of 12 reps. My calves were loving that!

I'm still going lighter on squats right now, so I didn't go over 225lbs. For those not in the know, a little over 3 weeks ago, I was deadlifting and something snapped in my lower back. I went to the doctor because I couldn't stand up straight and I was barely able to walk. The pain was excrutiating. I didn't work out for a week and a half just waiting for it to heal, and I'm still having pain when I sit down.

I did a few other things like hack squats, Romanian deads, ham curls, leg extensions, then finished it off with some ab work. I hate ab work. I hardly ever do it. Usually, and it happened last night, when doing ab work, I get this intense pain where it feels like one of my ab muscles just curls up in a huge knot. It's quite crippling for a few minutes. Cardio didn't last long. I think I made 7 minutes on the stair climber. My legs were beat!

One thing that's a real head trip is drinking clear BCAA's that taste like fruit punch. Weird.

I'm pretty stim sensitive, and most of the time I'm flying high on one scoop of any preworkout. I haven't noticed anything irregular with the Jack3d yet. It's fairly mild thus far.

Yesterday was my first day, so I don't know if the Compound 20 and Erase Pro are doing anything yet, but I had one of the best nights of sleep in a loooooong time last night. I was even on my girlfriend's super hard bed last night. For those that caught my last log, AgeForce Melatonin Patch, you know that sleeping usually isn't very restful for me.

I haven't measured my bodyfat yet. I forgot to do that on Thursday morning when I started, and I stayed at my girlfriend's house last night, so I couldn't do it this morning. I'll try to remember to grab my calipers in the morning and check it out.

[kaikara]

Using my crappy calipers and the 3 folds pinch method, my current bodyfat is 20%. I pinched a 66, which according to my chart is right on the line of 19% and 20%.

Now some comparisons.

My previous before and after pictures were 200 lbs at 20% bodyfat, and 175 lbs at 10% bodyfat, respectively.
The corresponding lean mass weights are 160 lbs and 157.5 lbs. Meaning that of the 25 lbs I lost during that 12 week cut, 2.5 lbs was muscle.

By the same calculations, right now at 232 lbs with 20% bodyfat, my lean mass weight is 185.6 lbs.

That's a gain of 28.1 lbs of muscle in 18 months.

Let's see if this C20 and Erase Pro can help me shed that bodyfat without any loss of muscle. Optimally, because of C20's recomposition properties, I'd like to see a higher lean mass weight at the end.

[kaikara]

Friday, March 16th:

I did a quick chest workout when I got home while waiting for my girlfriend to come over. Started out with Incline Bench press x3 plus warmups, then heavy flat bench press x5 plus warmups. Moved on to superset Incline DB press with Pushups (x3). I finished it off with low weight decline DB press to really pump it up. I was feeling pretty good. I love that swole chest feeling.

My girl came over, and we went and ate chinese food. My favorite! I don't eat out a lot, maybe once or twice a month. I allowed this indulgence at the beginning, because I'll be dropping cals from here on out.

[nokkT]

I love Chinese food. I always want to eat it.

[kaikara]

Saturday, March 17th:

Parades suck, let's pound iron!

Woke up at about 9am, ate breakfast, waited about 45 min, drank my Jack3d, waited another 35min, then hit a shoulder workout!

I'm going to post up my entire workout. Shoulders are a bit higher volume for me. I've found that it takes higher volume to make my shoulders grow. I know they look kind of flat in my pictures, but at lower bodyfat, they don't look bad. They didn't really start growing for me until I started higher volume.

Military Press: 5 sets, 5 reps, 150 lbs
Behind the Neck Military Press: 3 sets, 8 reps, 100 lbs

Side Lateral Raises: 3 sets, 10 reps, 25 lbs
Superset with
Front Lateral Raises: 3 sets, 10 reps, 25 lbs

Supermans: 3 sets, 10 reps, 50 lbs
Superset with
Rear Lateral Raises: 3 sets, 10 reps, 35 lbs

Cable Face Pulls: 3 sets, 10 reps, 55 lbs
Superset with
Upright Rows: 3 sets, 7 reps, 100 lbs

Shrugs: 3 sets, 10 reps, 275 lbs
Dumbbell Shrugs: 3 sets, 15 reps, 45 lbs (burn in to pump the traps)
Dumbbell Shoulder Press: 3 sets, 10 reps, 45 lbs (losing steam)
Reverse Grip Military Press: 2 sets, 15 reps, 45 lbs (burn in to get that pump at the end)

My shrugs, like my deadlifts, are staying a bit lighter as I work my way back up from lower back injury.

Then I finished out with a 25 minute jog. I'm beat!

Third day on C20 and Erase Pro. I don't notice any real change in body composition yet.

[kaikara]

Sunday, March 18th:

I hit up an arms workout, but wasn't motivated enough to do any cardio. I need a stair climber in my living room or something.

I started off with some dips and chin-ups, just banging out as many as I could for 3 sets of each. Moved on to Skullcrushers for 5x5, then straight barbell curls for 6reps x 5sets (need to increase weight next week). Worked out a nice pump by supersetting tricep rope pulldowns and hammer curls at about 10 reps each for 3 sets. Then moved onto forearms with barbell forearm curls and that little rope on a stick thing that you twist (I call it the Forearm Blaster).

Arms is something I'm going to try doing a more dedicated day of. I've always done arms linked with another day whether that was chest/tri and back/bi or chest/bi and back/tri, but I feel my arms are lacking in comparison to the rest of my body. So for the past couple of weeks, I've split them off when I could.

I'm feeling pretty hungry all the time now. The only thing I've adjusted in my diet so far was cut out the cheese on my salad last night, and in my taco meat today. I bought a light oil based dressing instead of the creamy caesar dressing I've been using, but won't switch to that until I run out in a few more days. That should cut just a few more calories out. I was maintaining fairly well on what I was eating, so with the addition of the C20 and Erase Pro, I don't think I should cut many calories right off the bat. We'll see. I've plenty of time to adjust.

[nokkT]

I hit up an arms workout, but wasn't motivated enough to do any cardio. I need a stair climber in my living room or something.

Or go to a gym *cough*.

So, are you liking the arms day split out from the rest of your workouts?

[kaikara]

Or go to a gym *cough*.

So, are you liking the arms day split out from the rest of your workouts?

You gonna pay for my membership?

I do. It was usually just something tacked onto the end after working a larger body part, so I was tired by the time I got to them. I like that I can go into an arm workout fresh now. I can lift heavier.

[nokkT]

You gonna pay for my membership?

I do. It was usually just something tacked onto the end after working a larger body part, so I was tired by the time I got to them. I like that I can go into an arm workout fresh now. I can lift heavier.

No, that's what you have a job for!

Awesome, glad you're liking it that way. Sounds like its working out for ya.