Alpha Lab Kit II log

[koleah]

Alpha Lab Kit II log (w/ weekly pics and body comp log)

Week 0

I'll be logging my Alpha Lab Kit II results here. I got the kit from Royd The Noyd over in the Promo forum.

Starting stats:
Age: 30
Height: 5'6"
Weight: 158.8 (average for the past week)
BF%: 11.2% (BIA method (Omron), I measure in the same conditions every morning. Whether its correct or not doesn't matter as much as whether its changing. )
Left bicep: 14-1/4"
Right bicep: 14-1/2"

I weigh myself and take my bodyfat % almost every morning. I've been doing this for at least the last year and a half, and a little less strictly since the end of 2011 before that. I wanted to be able to bring some hard data to this log, in return for Royd graciously allowing me to have an Alpha Lab Kit 2.

My weekly data from cutting since the beginning of the year:

My bodyfat and body comp chart:

Pictures:

Week 0 pictures:
Week 0 - Imgur


Diet:
3855 calories workout days MWF: 339gPr (35%), 272gC (28%), 159gF (37%)
3047 calories non-workout days TuThr: 261gPr (34%), 159gC (21%), 155gF (45%)

3532 ave calories on weekdays: 308gPr (35%), 227gC (26%), 157gF (40%)
(If I can figure out how to upload my current diet plan spreadsheet to Google Docs, I will share it.)

Here's pretty much my diet (Royd said to take the Lab Kit pills with my 10am meal and my 4pm meal):
During the week:
6am: 20-30minTreadmill with 5g BCAA
10am: 1/2 scoop whey, 1/2 scoop casein, 15 almonds
12noon: beef stew for lunch
4pm (workout day): 1/2 scoop whey, 1/2 scoop casein, 1 scoop cytogainer
4pm (non workout day): 1/2 scoop whey, 1/2 scoop casein, 15 almonds
6-7pm (workout days, during workout): 4 scoops cytogainer
9pm: dinner (salmon/pasta workout days, omelette non-workout days)
10pm: casein based protein smoothie

Weekends:
9am: 20-30minTreadmill with 5g BCAA
11am: eggs and toast
3pm: lunch (omelette or rice/burger/eggs)
10pm: dinner (pizza, omelette, or steak/pasta)
11pm: casein based protein smoothie

Other supps: Diesel Test Hardcore (1tab, 3x /day), Slin Sane V2 with lunch and dinner, 12.5mg ephedrine/100mg caffeine/200mg theanine (4x/day), Hot-Rox (2ea preworkout), Omega 1250 fish oil, glucosamine chondroitin, Vitamin C, Vitamin D, ZMA (pre bed), glutamine, leucine, rhodiola rhosea, Superfood

Training:
3 days a week, switch off A-B workouts (A-B-A, next week B-A-B, etc)
A:
Squat, SLDL, DB Inc Bench, BB Row, Curls, Tri Extensions, more Curls
B:
Deadlift, Leg Ext, Pullups, Overhead press, Lateral Raises

Every morning (well, most mornings): 30minutes treadmilling at 110-115HR prior to eating anything

My recent max's were:
Deadlift: 315 x 2 x 5
Squat: 275 x 2 x 5
BB OHP: 135 x 3 x 6
I'm planning to just see how high I can get on reps with these weights for the squat and dead. That seems like a good comparison for before and after, versus maybe adding some weight, but losing some reps, and not knowing what the tradeoff was.

Background:
I've been cutting for the past six months or so. I cut about 11-lbs of fat and lost about 3.5-lbs of muscle. Next time I cut, I think I'm going to drop the calories straight to 2800 instead of slowly bringing them down, and hit it a little harder for a shorter time period. I got down to 10% (via BIA) at the end of June, brought my calories back up in July, and I'd like to start putting back on some muscle while keeping that bodyfat level low.

My calorie level is a little over optimal-muscle-gain level, based on the minor bodyfat gains I've been seeing, both in the mirror and in my spreadsheet, but I don't want to be undereating while trying the Alpha Lab Kit. The only change I'm planning on making is the addition of the Alpha Lab Kit 2. I might bring my calories up a little bit during the cycle. Pros to this would be if it helps to build that much more muscle. Cons would be that I wouldn't have a baseline for the effects of that higher level calorie amount while not being on the ALK2 to compare against.

Royd didn't mention what sort of gains I should expect to see, so there shouldn't be any placebo effect. Plus, I've got my body comp log to show what really happens. Its nice being lean, but I feel kind of skinny at 158, even though I've gotten a TON of compliments about how good I look. I'd eventually like to get back up to 185-lb at 8% bodyfat.

Also, I had shoulder surgery last October on my left arm, so if there are some size imbalances between left and right, or my lifts seem like they should be higher, thats a large factor in it. I'm about 95% recovered, but the joint is still a little troublesome, especially with DB incline bench presses above about 75lbs.

NOTE: I've got all the next 8 or so posts taken so I can put in my weekly results there and people won't have to scroll through this log to find them.

 

[koleah]

Week 1

Day1

Time go get off the natty path and on the gain train to swole city.

Day 3:
http://anabolicminds.com/forum/steroids/3947-what-kind-gains.html#post39054
After reading that, I ran the numbers and saw that I was at about 22.3kcal/lb-BW. (3532/158)
Adding in an English muffin with some jam in the afternoon and a half scoop of whey to my morning and afternoon shakes. This should bring me up to about 3922/158 = 24.8kcal/lb-BW.
I've been a little iffy on making this shift, but Royd had even mentioned bringing my carbs and protein up a little bit when I showed him my diet prior to starting.


Week 1 results:

Body Comp

Lost 0.6 pounds of muscle, gained 0.5 pounds of fat, for a total weight loss of 0.1 pound.
Kind of odd considering I brought my calories up near the end of the week, but looking back at Row 500, I was at 3532cal/day, and I managed to lose 0.5 pounds that week also. So maybe its just some wierd fluke. Its not very heartening though, thats for sure.
Biceps: Left: 14-1/4"; Right: 14-1/2"; no change.

I probably got about 3700cal/day average since I didn't increase till later in the week (as noted above). This next week willl be that average of 3922cal/day.
The above picture is just the weekly averages. An example of the full daily data is here: http://i.imgur.com/YHEGDmU.png

Pictures

Album: http://imgur.com/a/rCkTT

Gym Life
Squat: 275x2x5 last week to 275x2x6 on Monday (1st day of ALK2). Went to squat again Friday, but maxed out at 275x1x2, followed up with 245x4x6. I was pretty burnt out on Friday from getting just a little bit less sleep the night before, and a slow day at work, so I ended up going with volume over weight.

Deadlift: 315x2x5 last week to 315x2x6 on Wednesday. The first rep of the first set at 315 came up quick and smooth. Usually its been a 5 second grinding rep to get up on that first one, but on that rep, 315 felt like 225.

Modest gains on the lifts. Not outside of what could be normal vs being on the ALK2. I don't think the ALK2 had anything to do with being tired on Friday. Sometimes you just have an off day.

Going to switch one exercise from A day to B day, and one from B to A, to move a little bit away from full body workouts to slightly more targeted:
Old:
A:
Squat, SLDL, DB Inc Bench, BB Row, Curls, Tri Extensions, more Curls
B:
Deadlift, Leg Ext, Pullups, Overhead press, Lateral Raises

New:
A:
Squat, Leg Ext, SLDL, DB Inc Bench, Curls, Tri Extensions, more Curls
B:
Deadlift, Pullups, BB Row, Overhead press, Lateral Raises

Misc
These pills are probably the worst tasting pills I've ever had. its a good thing we're not here for sweet tasting pills. There were some shattered and powderized blue pills in the bottle, so I guess at the end of the cycle I'll just have to snort the powder: http://imgur.com/a/XYC8G
I don't feel any more aggresive or alpha, or any less, than normal. I'm not sure if I'm supposed to "feel" anything or not, but so far, I don't.
The lack of gains in body comp this first week is a little disheartening as I'd noted, but hopefully its just something weird going on, and I'll spring back these next three weeks and make all kinds of gains.

 

[koleah]

Week 2

Wednesday 8/13/14
Work had a BBQ with some BALLER brisket, ribs, and pulled pork (as well as some good Costco cookies), so I ended up having some of that, as well as my normal beef stew for lunch. Problem with that is that it really slowed down my digestion of everything following that (preworkout protein/carbs, and preworkout energy pills (Hot-Rox)). The energy pills didn't even kick in until my second max set of my first exercise (squats)(almost 2 hours after I took them), at which point I stopped dragging and was off to the races. Interesting to see how digestion time was affected by a bunch of fatty foods though. Good to note for the future. I'm still working through how to time the preworkout pills with the extra preworkout carbs that I added while on the ALK2 (an english muffin with jam). I'm thinking if I have the pills with the carbs, that should work better than having the pills 30-45 minutes after the carbs. Things to test I guess. Thankfully, small things.

Week 2 results:

Body Comp

Gained 0.6 pounds of muscle, gained 0.2 pounds of fat, for a total weight gain of 0.8 pounds.
Good to see I'm gaining muscle again. Hoping that first week was just a fluke.
Biceps: Left: 14-1/4", maybe 14-3/8"; Right: 14-1/2", maybe 14-5/8";

Did eat that 3922 ave calories per day, although that BBQ day probalby pushed that up a little bit.

Pictures

Album: http://imgur.com/a/xtCGj

Gym Life
Squat: Preworkout took forever to kick in on Wednesday (because of all that fatty BBQ food that was ahead in the gut in line for digestion). Didn't even hit me till I was almost maxing on the squat. Didn't go up to 275, since I felt like crap before it kicked in. Went up to 265x3x5 though, and those felt light. I felt like I could have done another set or so, but didn't want to get too enthusiastic on a heavy low-back exercise and blow something.

Deadlift: Hit 315x3x5 on Monday, up from 315x2x6 last Wednesday. Deadlifted again on Friday, but I got a couple of twinges in my lower back on rep 3 of my first set at 315, so I just dropped the bar and moved on.



Misc
Did they mix some Melanotan in these things? Kidding. I was doing some yardwork yesterday in the sun and got some tan. Also, channeled my inner Zyzz into an awesome Son of Zeus pose:
http://i.imgur.com/ejlrF64.jpg

 

[koleah]

Week 3

Monday:
Great personal news. I dislocated my shoulder July 2013 and had surgery to fix it, six weeks in a sling, then rehab/PT for another several weeks after that. But I haven't had the range-of-motion to get my hand back into place to be able to squat regularly. I've been using gym towels as makeshift handles to mimic a safety-squat bar since January/February when I started squatting again.
But I finally have the ROM to be able to back squat regularly again, with my hands on the bar. Went to 275x3x5 tonight, which felt great. Felt like I could have gone further than that, but I didn't want to push my newly usable shoulder too far on its first time. I looked it up in my lifting journal and its been more than a year since I back squatted, and I was having knee issues back then.


Week 3 results:

Body Comp

Gained 0 pounds of muscle, gained 0.5 pounds of fat, for a total weight gain of 0.5 pounds.
I seem to be gaining a lot of fat. I'm going to cut back to 3672 ave calories per day, by taking out the english muffin preworkout.
I was at around 3500 before starting ALK2, which is when I jumped to 3900 at the advice of Royd to bring up the protein and carbs a little bit. I think I might have gone too high though, so I'll see what happens. (Plus I think I'll be a little more energetic in the gym with a slightly emptier stomach.)

Pictures

Album: http://imgur.com/a/djKfy

Gym Life
Squat: Being able to squat again is amazing. Hit that 275x3x5 easily on Monday. Brought the weight down and the reps up a bit on Friday, did 225,245,255x8. 8 is a lot different than 5 for me, but its more hypertrophy focused, which I think will be a good thing. 275 probably would have still been easy at 5 if I'd gone for it instead.

Deadlift: Hit 315x2x5 Wednesday, after getting some scary low back twinges last Friday. Maybe could have gone for another set, but I didn't want to take the change of twinging something incorrectly. Those two felt pretty solid though. I'll probably bring the reps up and temporarily drop the weight, like with squats (plus to ease the load on my lower back, since thats starting to worry me a bit.)



Misc
Kind of an odd week in that I didn't morning-treadmill Fri, Sat, or Sun. Thurs night I went to a nerdlesque show that got out late, so I slept in that extra hour. Saturday and Sunday I was rebuilding the stairs and deck at my place, so while I didn't treadmill, I did do NEPA (non-exercise physical activity) for basically 7 hours straight both days. And went to the nerdlesque show Saturday night again, and danced for an hour or two at the afterparty, so more NEPA. I hit a couple of Son of Zeus poses in the light booth at the afterparty, but looking at some of the pics on the camera, I really need to focus on leaning back out after finishing the ALK2, and trying to make super-clean gains, so I can keep "dem hawt abz yo" for those opportunities where I can take off my shirt.

 

[koleah]

Week 4
Not a great start to week 4. All that hauling around lumber and deck building over the weekend fatigued my lower back. Didn't hurt it tonight in the gym, but I could tell that it was coming if I'd tried to go heavy at all on deads. Or even if I tried to go lighter and bring up the volume. Also affected my barbell row, but that I shifted over to one-arm DB rows with the other braced on a bench.
Hit pullups, DB rows, BB and DB OHP pretty well though, so that felt good.

Wednesday:
Counted out my remaining pills, and here's what I've got. Not sure why the qty's are so far off. I didn't count at the beginning, but I've been taking 3ea blue and 3ea pinks twice a day since I started.
What I have at this point in the middle of week 4:

 

[koleah]

Week 5

 

[koleah]

Week 6

 

[koleah]

Week 7

 

[koleah]

Week 8

 

[koleah]

Week 9

 

[koleah]

Week 10

 

[koleah]

Week 11

 

[koleah]

Week 12

 

[Afi140]

Looks good so far! Not sure the week posts lol. If you're going to add and edit or what. Let me know how it goes
as I am very interested in the stack and your results. Best of luck. Forerunner is top notch for sure!

 

[Royd The Noyd]

Strong start!

 

[TyMan14]

Best base for a log Ive seen! Im in.

 

[Wagz86]

Nice back dude.

 

[koleah]

Nice back dude.

It actually looks better than I would have thought. I never really got a good look at it till a week ago when I took the rear Week 0 pictures.
Thanks brah.

 

[Wagz86]

Yeah man anytime. I'm finding I'm chasing a good back myself so that's the first thing I notice on others these days.

 

[Afi140]

Good stuff. It should really start kicking in this week

 

[koleah]

Good stuff. It should really start kicking in this week

Does it normally take some time to kick in? Royd The Noyd

 

[Royd The Noyd]

Does it normally take some time to kick in? @Royd The Noyd

Prohormones (like anabolics in general) start working immediately. "Kicking in" is something that people feel that really is subjective to the user, and varies with everyone.

 

[Afi140]

How many times have you ran this royd? Looking shredded for sure.

 

[koleah]

Updated with week 2

 

[Afi140]

Looking shredded man. Keep up the good work.

 

[koleah]

 

[koleah]

Great news to start off week 3:
http://anabolicminds.com/forum/supplement-reviews-logs/253954-alpha-lab-kit.html#post4588639

 

[koleah]

Week 3 update is up! Scroll up or click here:
http://anabolicminds.com/forum/supplement-reviews-logs/253954-alpha-lab-kit.html#post4588639

 

[Afi140]

Sheer beauty. Thanks for the hook up Royd! The 5-alpha was the only thing that's mine. Log will probably go up wed or sat. I'll PM royd for a few clarifying questions. Beyond stoked! Great company and reps for sure. Thanks again!

 

[koleah]

I'd count what you've got in each bottle. I'm in the middle of week 4, and I've got 4ea pinks left and enough blues to get me through till Monday. I didn't count at the beginning since I figured they'd each have the 168ea they're shown as having.

What I have at this point in the middle of week 4:

 

[koleah]

A similar problem to the missing pill issue that I ran into is mentioned here, in the first review:
http://www.forerunnerlabs.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=1675

 

[Royd The Noyd]

Koleah do you need another Bulk bottle? I can send you one. This is a production issue that has since been corrected.

 

[harbonah]

The bottles I got last did not have an issue was it one of the first run issues?

 

[Afi140]

Koleah do you need another Bulk bottle? I can send you one. This is a production issue that has since been corrected.

now of that's not top notch customer service, idk what is. Well done FRL.

 

[Royd The Noyd]

The bottles I got last did not have an issue was it one of the first run issues?

The very first run were all white tabs. The second was colored like Koleah has. Third is finally fixed.

Tabs are hard to produce unfortunately.

 

[koleah]

Koleah do you need another Bulk bottle? I can send you one. This is a production issue that has since been corrected.

No? Since they're also sold as standalone products, and since I'm almost at the end of the first phase (only four more days), I kinda figured I would just finish out the blues, and start on the Reboot next week.

Is that a bad plan or what? I figure you would know better than I would what the better route is to go. With shipping, that other bottle wouldn't even get here till Saturday anyway probably, and then there'd be only one day left....

 

[Royd The Noyd]

No? Since they're also sold as standalone products, and since I'm almost at the end of the first phase (only four more days), I kinda figured I would just finish out the blues, and start on the Reboot next week.

Is that a bad plan or what? I figure you would know better than I would what the better route is to go. With shipping, that other bottle wouldn't even get here till Saturday anyway probably, and then there'd be only one day left....

I meant more so to make up for the loss. You could save it for the future.

 

[Royd The Noyd]

No? Since they're also sold as standalone products, and since I'm almost at the end of the first phase (only four more days), I kinda figured I would just finish out the blues, and start on the Reboot next week.

Is that a bad plan or what? I figure you would know better than I would what the better route is to go. With shipping, that other bottle wouldn't even get here till Saturday anyway probably, and then there'd be only one day left....

I meant more so to make up for the loss. You could save it for the future.

 

[Royd The Noyd]

No? Since they're also sold as standalone products, and since I'm almost at the end of the first phase (only four more days), I kinda figured I would just finish out the blues, and start on the Reboot next week.

Is that a bad plan or what? I figure you would know better than I would what the better route is to go. With shipping, that other bottle wouldn't even get here till Saturday anyway probably, and then there'd be only one day left....

I meant more so to make up for the loss. You could save it for the future.

 

[koleah]

I meant more so to make up for the loss. You could save it for the future.

Oh don't worry about it, you've been plenty generous enough already with sending the Alpha Lab Kit 2 in the first place

I'm sure someone else would also love to jump on that bottle if you were to say... put up another promo opportunity

 

[Afi140]

The very first run were all white tabs. The second was colored like Koleah has. Third is finally fixed. Tabs are hard to produce unfortunately.

Do you happen to know which tabs I got? Will start my log Saturday and haven't opened the bottle yet.

 

[Afi140]

Btw how is libido? Feeling any suppression at all?

 

[koleah]

Btw how is libido? Feeling any suppression at all?

Libido is about normal. Maybe a little lower, but thats probably unrelated to the ALK2. Although I have been having more sex-related dreams than normal in the last week or two, which is odd. No idea if thats related or not.