SNS X-Gels - First stab at ARA!

[blongo804]

Hey everyone!

It's not often I choose to log a supplement as I'm kind of a newb in general with certain supplements. I just finished another "natty anabolic" that I actually wish I logged (results were great!), so I don't want to miss another opportunity here.

My plan is as follows:

- 4-day upper/lower split training (Fierce 5 Upper/Lower)
- 1.5g SNS X-Gels (6 caps)
- 81mg baby aspirin
- 6g GMS (from BulkSupplements)

I write down all of my workouts and willing to mirror that writing in this thread. I'm currently on a deload week but started X-Gels yesterday to get it in my system.

My GMS is arriving today, so I will start using that beginning with Thursday's upper body day. Otherwise, below will be my first two workouts with X-Gels and baby aspirin combo. The only "kink" i'm working on is figuring out what to do for a pre-workout meal. Right now I train in the morning, before work, so I'm testing eating LITTLE food pre-workout (day 1 & 2) and trying a fasted workout (day 3 & 4) since ARA works best with an empty body.

Anyway, below are days 1 & 2. It's not much but I'm not expecting much yet.

Day 1

Stack: 1.5g ARA, 81mg baby aspirin

I can’t say I have much to report. I will say that my pumps felt pretty intense after lat pulldowns today. I usually get a nasty bicep pump with those, but being deload week and even doing the lighter weight (~50% my max) I got borderline hurtful pumps. I understand ARA needs to build up a bit before I feel its full effects, but I was kind of surprised here.

Anyway - i’m very excited to run this. I’m looking to put on some size at the moment and X-Gels seems like a good path to take. I have some “before” pictures, and will be taking “before” measurements either later today or tomorrow morning. Currently all I know is that my waist is around 33 1/8" at the moment.

Day 2

Stack: 1.5g ARA, 81mg baby aspirin

Today was day 2 of X-Gels, day 2 of my deload week. Today was lower body day including some squats, leg press, leg curls, leg extensions, and I threw in some deads to practice form and get a little extra in.

It’s still tough to judge what’s going on with X-Gels as I feel it’s too early to tell and it’s a deload week. I’m really excited for next week though since my lifts will be back to normal (going for 5lb upper and 10lb lower PR’s since that's what is programmed for next week) and 4 days worth of ARA will be in my system.

 

[LeanEngineer]

In on this!

 

[rowz4broz]

im also in

 

[f4iguy]

Following.

 

[JAS51]

blongo804 following

 

[blongo804]

In on this!

im also in

Following.

blongo804 following

Happy to have you guys here! Tomorrow is day 3 with X-Gels and I just received my bulk GMS from BulkSupplements yesterday, so 6g of GMS will be going down with my pre. I will also be training fasted.

 

[GQdaLEGEND]

Happy to have you guys here! Tomorrow is day 3 with X-Gels and I just received my bulk GMS from BulkSupplements yesterday, so 6g of GMS will be going down with my pre. I will also be training fasted.

In. Let the gainz begin

 

[blongo804]

Day 3

HUGE shoutout to SNS for hooking me up with a 2nd bottle of X-Gels for this log. This was 100% out of their own generosity. Ballin' on a budget as a recent college grad, working a cheap paying job at a small company in a broke city is not easy, so such generosity is appreciated beyond belief. Thank you very much guys!!

Added a picture of the stack to the first post because pictures make threads nicer. :slight_smile:

Stack: 1.5g ARA, 81mg baby aspirin, 6g GMS

Today was day 3 of X-Gels, day 3 of my deload week, my first fasted workout test, and my first day dosing 6g GMS with X-Gels. Needless to say, this was a very different approach for me this morning. Normally I'm slamming down a good amount of food pre-workout, a full serving of Re1gn, and off I go. This morning I didn't eat (was a little hungry), didn't have caffeine (used Carbon Prep, stim free pre), and used straight GMS for the first time. I'm mostly just taking a break from Re1gn while deloading this week, but lack of stims pre-workout kinda sucks.

Before I get into the better part of this day's review, let me just say - downing GMS was VERY weird. I chased it with my pre-workout drink and the stuff was clumping in my throat before I even swallowed one mouthful of pre. Otherwise it was tasteless as far as I could tell.

As for my workout, training fasted wasn't so bad. I think next week once I'm back to my usual schedule, Re1gn will make my body forget that I'm fasted lol.

Today was upper body day consisting of standing overhead press, pendlay rows, and some isolation work. Something very interesting happened by the time I was done with my 4th/final set of overhead press.. my triceps were in pain. Not a bad pain, but a pump-like, sore type of pain.. hard to describe. I have a feeling this may have been some ARA action taking place because I've never felt this before and I didn't tweak anything because they feel fine now, a few hours later, and they didn't limit the rest of my workout in any way. I was actually pretty excited by this being that the weight was fairly light (about 55% of my 1RM, 75% of my 3x6) yet this new feeling still came to me. My triceps hardly ever get any sort of pump as they're one of my weakest parts unfortunately, so this was very cool.

Otherwise, not a whole lot else to report. I'm feeling kind of sick like a head cold is trying to get me, and being on a deload week is keeping my intensity down a bit. Next week I should have lots of great things to report I'd imagine.

 

[00A]

In.. good luck bro

 

[blongo804]

Day 4

Stack: 1.5g ARA, 81mg baby aspirin, 6g GMS

Today was day 4 of X-Gels, day 4/final day of my deload..thank goodness. Not pushing near my limits is boring!

Today was lower body day including front squats, rack pulls, banded/deficit deadlifts (first time trying these), and leg isolation stuff. This isn't my usual routine, but wanted to try a different lift combo. It was definitely a good time and using a resistance band doing deadlifts is quite a sensation. Easy to get off the ground but that ends quickly as the band resistance kicks in. Fun stuff!

I'm not sure how well training fasted is doing. I feel pretty low on energy, but I also blame the pre I'm using. Once I use Re1gn again on Monday, all should be well, so I'll wait to pass judgement until then.

As for any effects - not much to note. My quads/glutes got a nice little pump that is uncommon, so that felt good.

My next post should be gold. Heavy upper body day.. Hoping for some nasty pumps from the ARA.

 

[LeanEngineer]

It's hard to beat Re1gn as a pre. I really like it. And yea you should be getting some good pump on 4 caps of x gels on an upper body day. Especially if you do some high volume training + x gels = insane pump.

 

[blongo804]

It's hard to beat Re1gn as a pre. I really like it. And yea you should be getting some good pump on 4 caps of x gels on an upper body day. Especially if you do some high volume training + x gels = insane pump.

The pump today was insane! I’ll be posting my thoughts below. Right now I’m doing a lower volume, progressive overload program that’s been working great so I’m going to continue that for now. I imagine high volume feels crazy though!

 

[blongo804]

Day 5

Stack: 1.5g ARA, 81mg baby aspirin, 6g GMS
Pre-workout: Sample serving of Performax HyperMax (<— incredible!!)

Today was day 5 with X-Gels and the first session at full steam. My deload last week was MUCH needed. Not only was I feeling sick all last week, my body was just battered feeling from the weeks leading up to it. I woke up feeling great today - refreshed and ready to go. I made sure to eat a little extra here and there this weekend to aid today’s session as well.

My Monday’s are upper body day, consisting of bench (international chest day…duh!), incline bench, barbell rows, lat pulldowns, and some other isolation assistance work. My goal today was to hit 5lb PR’s on each lift and that was a success. Bench today felt GREAT. I learned a new grip to help take some unnecessary pressure off my wrists and it paid off big time I think. While it was only a 5lb PR, the bar moved fairly fast.

All other lifts were great - no complains. All of my lifts, besides incline bench, felt like there was another 5-10lbs in the tank so that was awesome. Incline bench is programmed at 3x8 on 5lb increase weeks and 3x9 the following week before the next 5lb increase attempt week. Getting 8-9 reps can be grueling, and it was also my last exercise of the day. While I completed the 3x8, I did have to take a 30 second rest on a set or two at rep 5 or 6. Not a huge concern really.
Overall, I don’t think I felt any sort of crazy DOMS yet besides day 3. My joints feel the same as well. The pump was insane today though which felt awesome.

This session was fasted as will be all of my sessions going forward.

 

[livetolift22]

In for the ride!

 

[Astock]

In, been interested in X gels for a while

 

[blongo804]

Day 6

Stack: 1.5g ARA, 81mg baby aspirin, 6g GMS
Pre-workout: full serving of Re1gn + 500mg SNS Agmatine XT

Today was day 6 with X-Gels and my lower body day. I only got about 5.5 hours of sleep compared to usual 6.5-7, but still woke up feeling great. This was also my first day reunited with Re1gn and it reminded me immediately as to why I love it.. The stuff just works, plain and simple.

Lower body was scheduled today including squats, and BB hack squats as the primary lifts, along with some isolation assistance hitting legs a bit further. I don't know what it was, but my squats were on point today. Since transitioning into morning workouts back in late December, I felt my squats were all that really suffered. There's just something about putting heavy weight on my back that morning me didn't care for. Today was a goal of +10lbs from last squat session, putting me at 235lb for 3 sets of 5. My 2RM for squats is 295lb but that was also low bar. I've since transitioned to high bar and am working my way back up. The weight moved fairly fast and my depth was more than good. Barbell hack squats are fun - I do these instead of leg press since I've never cared for that movement. Only up to 185lb for 3 sets of 8 now, but just started doing these 2 months ago roughly.

My quads/hams were on fire by the end of the session and it felt great. I may have mentioned before, but I don't typically get crazy leg pumps compared to the way my upper body gets.

My general strength was pretty surprising today though. I'm not sure what it was, but 235lb squats felt lighter than 225lb from 2 weeks ago. Very happy!! I know I'm weak sauce but have really been serious about nutrition/training for the past year. Never really tried to pack on mass either as I was always trying to cut for no reason. I'm planning to get a picture update this Sunday so I will show my current state then.

ON EDIT: I also want to point out, almost my entire upper body is feeling pretty tight from yesterday. I feel like I hit every muscle group pretty good on Day 5.. Thing is, I don't typically have "day after" DOMS.. Could it be X-Gels effects? I guess we'll see if this trend continues.

 

[blongo804]

Random rest day thoughts..

The DOMS are still real today.

They set in slowly but surely yesterday and left me crippled feeling. Luckily the feeling is wearing away as the day goes on. Interestingly, I've also felt a "pump" all day today without taking any sort of pump inducer (forgot to take my Agmatine XT this morning :frowning. I'm guessing the pump feeling is from my overall muscle soreness, but, again, this is something I'm not used to. I've had DOMS before, but not this type of way.. Very interesting..

 

[blongo804]

Day 7

Stack: 1.5g ARA, 81mg baby aspirin, 6g GMS
Pre-workout: full serving of Re1gn + 500mg SNS Agmatine XT

Snapped a quick cell phone shot of my current pre-stack this morning for the heck of it.

Today was day 7 of X-Gels and an upper body day. Main lifts were BB overhead press and pendlay rows along with the typical isolation assistance work. I don't get too deep into explaining my workouts in this log, but I can if there's interest. I figure most are here to hear about X-Gels!

Let it be known, I'm still feeling some DOMS from Monday & Tuesday's session, which is surreal to me. That being said, I wasn't going to let anything hold me back from my workout, and it was a success because all of my lifts increased as they were supposed to. Something to note - prior to lifting I take a few minutes to warm up by doing some stretches and some band work to get some blood flowing. With overhead press being my first lift of the day, I used a light resistance band to do some front raises along with some flyes to get my shoulders/upper back/arms etc warmed up good. By the time I was done, my front delts were obliterated feeling. My front delts NEVER feel this way and I've been warming up like this for the past couple of months. Needless to say, overhead presses were tough because of this but I powered through. Front delts are still very sore. Interesting..

Besides the above, I want to note that my workouts seem to be going faster. My tempo has been up, endurance feels better, and I feel overall pretty strong after my 3 heavy sessions this week. Tomorrow will be a big eye-opener if I still feel the same. I do front squats and romanian deadlifts on Friday's that destroy my legs normally and really kill endurance through the rest of the workout.

I'll report back.

ON EDIT: Currently having some chest spasms near my front delt area. Poor, poor delts are in rough shape lol.

 

[blongo804]

Day 8

Stack: 1.5g ARA, 81mg baby aspirin, 6g GMS
Pre-workout: full serving of Re1gn + 500mg SNS Agmatine XT

Today was day 8 with X-Gels, and typically one of my more grueling training sessions. They’re all tough in their own regards, but this is my lower body ‘B’ day that includes front squats and romanian deadlifts as the big lifts. With that being said, this day went better than usual…

I’m not sure if it’s the X-Gels taking charge or what, but all this week I’ve felt pretty noticeable improvements in both strength and endurance - today was no exception. Front squats went amazing after hitting a new 3x5 PR @ 195lbs. I felt so good that I went for a 1RM PR of 225 and crushed it. This was also my first time using a lever belt while front squatting because it’s becoming more necessary as the weight goes up. It’s not that I have a real problem bracing properly, I really just want to protect myself, and it did a great job doing so.

My previous front squat PR of 3x5 @ 185lbs left me so gassed that RDL’s just weren’t happening that day (3 sets of 8 reps are programmed for RDL’s). Today after front squats, I had more than enough energy to bang out a 10lb 3x8 PR of RDL’s. My body keeps saying let’s stick to 3x5, but the higher rep scheme is way more challenging and fun.

After RDL’s, I really wanted to see how far I can push my new found strength and endurance. I went ahead and loaded up 315lb and attempted a 5 rep set. My 1RM is 405 for conventional DL’s, and I have no problem pulling a 315 single, or even a 365 single - I just never really tried to rep out 315. I managed to nail the 5 rep set fine, even after destorying my legs prior to it… no straps or belt. I think if it was strictly a deadlift day, I would have no problem doing a few sets of 5 @ 315lbs.

Overall I’m really happy. The X-Gels pump was becoming evident and my legs, while pretty strong, don’t usually get that much of a pump. At the end of the workout, I did a couple sets of pull-ups to test how quickly a pump can come on, and my biceps were on fire after the 2nd set - NOT normal. I think my body is becoming more and more saturated by X-Gels as it should be, so I can’t wait to see how I feel next week.

 

[blongo804]

Day 9

Stack: 1.5g ARA, 81mg baby aspirin, 6g GMS
Pre-workout: full serving of Re1gn + 500mg SNS Agmatine XT

Today was my upper body 'A' day, and I was running on about 5 hours of sleep - stating my sleep amount because I think my workout was hindered because of this. Last night I hung out with a friend I haven't seen in quite some time which pushed bedtime way back.

After having a pretty good upper 'A' day last week, I was hoping for a repeat this week. Today's programming has me aiming for one more rep per set this week, so instead of my 3x5 170lb bench, goal today was 3x6. I was okay hitting 170lb for 4-5 reps, but the reps were way less clean than I'd like - they were very touch and go and borderline bouncy. With that said, I'd prefer way more control, so I kind of count my benching today as a fail. I haven't bumped up calories in probably 3-4 weeks now, so I'm thinking today was either 1) due to bad sleep or 2) my food intake is not keeping up with my lifts or 3) just a bad day.

The rest of my lifts were "ok" at best as well. Incline bench was basically just as bad so I dropped weight about 25lbs and hit some slow/controlled reps. Lat pulldowns gave me a pump that was painful but I still powered through fine - barbell rows ended up being the best lift today.

Not sure how to take today.. I may bump up calorie intake with protein alone because I feel my carbs/fat are at a good place. I'll probably just throw in an extra scoop of whey at some point during the day and go from there.

As usual, the pump was very real. I think I see myself having fuller vascularity nowadays which is cool to see (who doesn't love being vasky?!), and as of last week I felt my strength was ramped up. Today may have just been a fluke. Monday's are tough, especially with less sleep than preferred.

 

[blongo804]

Day 10

Stack: 1.5g ARA, 81mg baby aspirin, 6g GMS
Pre-workout: full serving of Re1gn + 500mg SNS Agmatine XT

Today was lower body ‘A’ day, and this time I had more sleep. I felt night & day different this morning compared to yesterday, but did that correlate to my lifts?..

Yes and no. I’m not sure what’s going on, but i’m in rough shape. Squats were programmed 3x6 this week at the same weight as last week (except sets were 3x5 last week), and I just didn’t feel confident I was moving the weight well. Sometimes you just have to suck it up and drop the weight to work on form - that’s exactly what I did and what I’m going to do all next week at this rate.

Before getting into a short story on my thoughts on my diet/training, I have to say, X-Gels is definitely doing its’ thing. About 20-30 minutes after taking it this morning, before even leaving my house, my biceps became fairly tight and in pain… Not a sharp pain, but just sore. How much is X-Gels correlating to my training? Not sure yet. I think I need more time with it to make a good assessment. It’s only been 10 sessions after all.

As for my diet/training, I think I’m going to up my calories by using basically protein alone. My protein intake is around 220g right now, carbs around 350g, fat around 100g. At 220g protein, that’s about 1.15g/lb (current weight 196lbs), so I’m going to bump it up to 245 or 1.25g/lb. If I start to see fat gain, i’ll drop carbs because that’s more than easy to do. This will have my calories around 31-3200 which is roughly 4-500 over my current maintenance. I think this will put me back in a good place with my training, and I figured it was worth mentioning in this thread.

Tomorrow is a rest day and it very much will be. Thursday is upper ‘B’ day which is usually pump city… Can’t wait!!

 

[blongo804]

Also… Very sad day. The Agmatine XT that SNS had me log a while ago, that I’ve been savoring, is finally gone.

 

[JAS51]

Also… Very sad day. The Agmatine XT that SNS had me log a while ago, that I’ve been savoring, is finally gone.

View attachment 160847

Wow that lasted a long time too

 

[blongo804]

Wow that lasted a long time too

I couldn't help but make it last as long as possible because it worked so well for me.

Fortunately Re1gn already has 1g agmatine, and since it's my go-to, I really only typically needed to add 500mg/1 cap Agmatine XT.

 

[blongo804]

Rest Day thoughts..

Feeling great today! I was able to score about 8.5 hours of sleep last night and I feel very refreshed. My fiance was tired last night pretty early, so I took advantage and said time for bed! lol

As far as how my body feels - not bad. Legs are feeling some DOMs from yesterday, as well as my arms/upper body still from Monday. These are the most consistent DOMs I've felt in, well, as far as I can ever remember, which makes me feel like my body is either saturated or mostly saturated already with ARA from X-Gels. Pretty cool stuff.

Diet is fully on point with my recent macro increases too. 3200 calories starting yesterday with 245p, 95-100f, 360-370c. Hoping to get back on the gains train!

 

[blongo804]

Day 11

Stack: 1.5g ARA, 81mg baby aspirin, 6g GMS
Pre-workout: full serving of Re1gn + 500mg Ethitech Nutrition Agmatine (RIP Agmatine XT!)

Today was upper body ‘B’ containing overhead press, pendlay rows, and I added in light bench work because I’m desperate to get bench up. I felt much better today than my ‘A’ workouts, but still not 100% like I was last week. Not sure what’s going on, just accepting it and working with how I’m feeling.

I will say, the pump is getting ridiculous at this point. I will likely remove any extra agmatine from my pre-workout stack because I think the intense pump I get on upper body days (maybe even lower body?) actually disrupts my sets. I’ve never had arm (specifically chest/shoulders) pumps so painful before, but it definitely feels great after the session.

I’d say X-Gels are really doing their thing at this point. I’m sure I will get more saturated by the ARA, but the effects are definitely being felt. I also feel a bit more full/tight on a daily basis I noticed. Nothing crazy but it’s noticeable, at least to me. Push-ups alone give me insane upper body pumps with NO other lifting.

Overall I’m very happy with the feelings I’m getting from X-Gels. I still want to get some current body pictures - hopefully this weekend. The last pictures I have are from a couple weeks ago at the end of another natural anabolic run I was on, and past that are pictures of before that run. If I get new ones, I will have 3 sets of pictures that will hopefully show some changes. I’m almost 12lbs heavier than I was prior to X-Gels or the other anabolic, so there’s gotta be some changes I’d assume.

 

[blongo804]

Forgot to post this yesterday..

Day 12 & 13

Stack: 1.5g ARA, 81mg baby aspirin, 6g GMS
Pre-workout: full serving of Re1gn

I’m going to make this a 2 in 1 update since I missed last Friday. Things have been hectic in regards to trying to find and secure a wedding venue. My fiance and I will be engaged for 2 years in about 2 weeks, so we’re really trying to nail down a venue before that. Fingers crossed these final places I’ve emailed come through for us.

Day 12 was lower B with front squats and romanian deadlifts. This day is continuously very hard. If I start the day with front squats like I usually do, my hamstrings/quads are usually burnt out before I get to RDL’s. With that said, I had a killer front squat session and a so-so RDL session. I purposely dropped the weight a bit for RDL’s to ensure form wasn’t destroyed. At the end was calf raises using the smith machine + slow/controlled reps and lots of squeeze. Four sets of 20 later, my calves are still in pain as I type this lol.

Overall day 12 was pretty good. I would’ve liked a better RDL session, but awesome front squats made up for it. Oddly enough, my front squat is catching up to my back squat. Not sure if I should be happy or mad about that…

Today was day 13, upper ‘A’ day. After last week’s upper ‘A’, I decided to drop the weight a bit on bench and incline bench to get my form straightened out. Last week I found myself being a bit too bouncy/touch & go with bench than I’d like, so today I focused on control and mind-muscle connection. Needless to say, it felt great! I knocked out 3 sets of 10 at about 80% of my previous 3x5 weight. Although I feel ashamed of being back down to a one plate bench, it’s a necessary evil in my opinion.

I added in rack pulls after I was done with BB rows to continue the crazy back pump I was feeling. I don’t normally feel a back pump, but my arms were actually pinned in a flared position to make room for the baby lats… Pretty cool feeling for sure. A big back is big goal!

All in all, I’m loving how I feel, post-workout, using X-Gels. It’s been about 5 hours since completing my workout this morning and I still feel pumped/tight. This is very unusual for me so it’s awesome. I took out the extra 500mg agmatine to help make sure pumps weren’t too painful and I think that was successful today.

 

[blongo804]

Day 14

Stack: 1.5g ARA, 81mg baby aspirin, 6g GMS
Pre-workout: full serving of Re1gn

Yesterday was lower 'A' day including squats and, normally, barbell hack squats as the big lifts. Instead of hack squats I did sumo deadlifts though because I'm not quite confident in my hack squat form yet. I dropped the weight on squats and started doing sets of 8 instead of 5 or 6 to refocus on my form. They felt pretty good, not great. My body has been feeling pretty sore/broken lately so that may be to blame.

Otherwise, my nutrition has been on point and the extra calories have been well received. I actually started taking Evomuse Gut Health instead of MTS Machine Uptake, and the bloat i'd sometimes feel seems to be subsided already. I am noticing my hunger is also increasing, maybe because I'm digesting better - not sure.

I'm almost through my first bottle of X-Gels at this point! So far I'm definitely feeling the muscle fullness and DOMS associated with it. I can't for sure say much else. I do have some other thoughts but i'll save those for a week or two from now.

 

[GQdaLEGEND]

(RIP Agmatine XT!) ... nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

lol

nice detail update .. glad you are enjoying it, ive done xgels + agmatine and was too much for me or felt like i didnt need much for pre workout

 

[blongo804]

(RIP Agmatine XT!) ... nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

lol

nice detail update .. glad you are enjoying it, ive done xgels + agmatine and was too much for me or felt like i didnt need much for pre workout

It was a very sad day! But, like you said, it was definitely overboard for me as well at this point. Since Re1gn is my primary pre and has enough agmatine in it, I am fine without AXT for now lol.

 

[blongo804]

Day 15

Stack: 1.5g ARA, 81mg baby aspirin, 6g GMS
Pre-workout: sample packet (full serving) of Nutrex Outlift Amped (peach pineapple)

Today was upper ‘B’ aka big pump day although I guess both upper body days leave me pretty pumped feeling during and after. The big lifts today were standing overhead press, bench, pendlay rows - all of which moved pretty well. I hit a 3x5 PR on OHP, bench went as planned (still lower weight, controlled reps), and hit a 3x8 pendlay row PR. Otherwise there was some isolation lifts, some pullups and pushups as well.

This was a good test day in general. I haven’t used Outlift Amped before but had a full serving sample laying around from a very generous online retailer. The peach pineapple flavor was pretty good. A tad sweet even in 14oz water, but both flavors came through well with pineapple being slightly stronger. I haven’t actually used a legit pre since Re1gn in a while so I was excited to test. I’m happy to report the crazy pumps I’ve been feeling aren’t strictly from Re1gn w/VASO6 (I was worried that could’ve been the case) as the pump was still very real today… X-Gels FTW!

So far I’m still feeling fuller overall, and, again, pumps are unreal. I finally gained a pound after raising my calories another 200, weighing in at 197.6 this morning while empty. I’m up 12lbs since 12/4, trying to keep it slow and steady.

 

[blongo804]

Day 16

Stack: 1.5g ARA, 81mg baby aspirin, 6g GMS
Intra: full serving of EAA Max
Pre-workout: full serving of Re1gn

Today was lower ‘B’, probably my most taxing day that includes front squats and romanian deadlifts as the big movements. Today was also my second time using Primeval Labs’ EAA Max as my intra. I’m not worried about the calories from the EAA’s and HBCD taken in with X-Gels because I have X-Gels nearly 1.5 hours prior to even having my first sip of EAA Max. This whole log, with the same aforementioned timing, I’ve been using Vaxxen Labs Chainlink, a BCAA product, as my intra that isn’t anything too special, but it does include SerinAid and coconut water powder.

I just started using EAA Max yesterday (forgot to mention it), and, so far, I’m a huge believer in this stuff. I have the watermelon flavor, and not only is it amazing tasting, but I am so far believing in the effects of EAA’s intra alongside the 2g HBCD and 500mg D-Ribose. Usually, even per my notes in this very log, I’m pretty gassed after 3x5-6 of front squats. Today was different - today was 3x5 with a scheduled 10lb increase from last week. Not only did I kill 2 sets of 5, but the 3rd set I wanted to try an AMRAP and hit 7 reps at 195 (scary because my front squat is catching up rapidly to my back squat lol)!!

Now the best part… Romanian DL’s went perfect for once and I nailed 3x8 at 235. Last week I was supposed to do 235 for 3x9 but couldn’t because I was gassed from front squats prior, and ended up doing 185 3x8-9 just to get them done for the day. I wasn’t done here either - I did some banded back extensions, leg extensions, kneeling cable crunches, and finished with calf raises.

For the first time, in almost 2 weeks, I felt alive at the gym, and besides my caloric increase last Sunday or Monday, nothing else has changed except for the addition of EAA Max! I’ll definitely give it a few more go’s before I declare it amazing, but so far I’m a believer.

Lastly, the quad pump and calf pump were intense. I’m actually starting to feel a quad/hamstring pump that I’ve mentioned before is rare for me to feel. X-Gels are still doing their thing I have a feeling.

 

[blongo804]

Oh, and 4 pills left in my first bottle of X-Gels. No better time than this weekend to get some "so far" pics. Really planning on finally doing this.. I swear! lol

 

[blongo804]

Day 17 & 18

Day 17
Stack: 1.5g ARA, 81mg baby aspirin, 6g GMS
Intra: full serving of EAA Max
Pre-workout: full serving of Re1gn

Day 18
Stack: 1.5g ARA, 81mg baby aspirin, 6g GMS
Intra: full serving of EAA Max
Pre-workout: full serving of Outlift Amped (giving Re1gn a break)

So life has been super hectic lately. Between wedding planning and training a new guy at work, I’m finding little time to BS around on forums during my free time. This is where going to the gym in the AM comes in so much handy, meaning my gym time is never affected by a hectic life.

Day 17 and 18 went along like usual…mostly.

Day 17 was Upper ‘A’ and went actually better than it has been. I’m been in a “heavy weight” slump lately where I’ve been experiencing form breakdown, and just an overall tougher time moving weight. On Monday, I got a glimpse of myself from 3-4 weeks ago coming back. My bench felt amazing, and I actually did some decent volume. I warmed up like usual with no weight, just some stretchy bands. My bench warm up was my usual 95lbs just to have some weight on the bar. I then moved to 135, planning on hitting 8-10 reps for 3 sets. After my first set, I hit 135 for 12 reps with maybe another 1 or 2 in the tank. I thought to myself…hmm…let’s work on getting to heavier (to me) weight. I added 20lbs, hit 155 for 10. Added another 10lbs, hit that for 8. Added another 5, hit that for 6. With how well that was going, I decided to shoot for the almighty 185, hit 1 rep easy, went for another and the bum came off the bench to get it up. I was really happy with that though since 185 is my 1RM at the moment and my bench has been CRAP lately, as mentioned in other posts. This was a good amount of volume for me. Something funny to point out is the fact that I think dinner the night before had a lot to do with it. About 10 hours before Monday’s workout, my fiance and I had some homemade chili. She messaged me saying she had a great gym session too, lifting heavier than normal. I told her - must be chili power LOL.

Overall, the pump was insane as always for upper body day. I’m currently weighing just about 14lbs heavier than I was on 12/4/17, but my vascularity is just as good, if not better than before. I’m feeling constantly pumped during the week while I’m taking X-Gels, and it’s a great feeling. So far no negatives with X-Gels, and I’m officially on my 2nd bottle.

Day 18 was my Lower ‘A’ day with squats and now with sumo deadlift instead of hack squats. Similar to my bench, my squat has also felt like it’s falling apart. I worked my way up to 235 for I think 2 sets of 2, maybe 3 sets. I have everything written down, just never have my notebook in front of me while writing up my log post. The heavier weight and perfect depth for my squats on this day was reassuring. I just would like to be able to work up a few more reps per set - soon enough! By the time I was done with sumo’s, my quads/hams were on fire. My quads are getting pretty defined too, so that’s nice to see.

Speaking of quad definition - I did finally get “1st bottle down” X-Gels pictures. I just need to get some time to gather my December 2017 pictures, February 2018 pictures, and current ones to examine differences and post. Hopefully the gains are apparent. From what I’m seeing in the mirror, I don’t look much fluffier, just fuller than I used to. Clothes are mostly fitting the same, just tighter in my upper back/chest/shoulders than usual. What i’m saying/hoping is that my 14lbs isn’t just fat…hopefully lol. My waist went up an inch total, but oddly enough, that happened when I first started X-Gels.