Alpha Drive XL and Restore Review by BiO

[bioman]

I'll have to look into that..how are they performed?. I have been doing regular hyper extensions for the last 3 weeks or so and I can really tell the difference in terms of it stabilizing the sacrum.

I can't help laughing at how such a simple little excercise can make such a big difference..especially since I used to be of the mindset that squats, deads and other leg/back work took care of everything. That's definitely one of those muscle mag hype deals..ie "squats; the king of all excercises!" lol.

[CHAPS]

Squats and deads are my babies i love em. And go to westsidebarbell.com: The Best Search Links on the Net to have a look at what reverse hypers are, you can also do them on a stability ball.

[bioman]

Oh good..actually it looks like that is what I am doing. I just called them hyperextensions. I use an angled back extension wrack instead of the ball. It's been working pretty well and my chiro today said the sacrum wasn't as far out of wack as it normally has been..so that would point to stabilization.

[bioman]

8-25-06 Update

AM weight 185.6

Mood: Still good, focus good.

Energy: Good and consistent

Strength: not so hot today.

Libido: Almost totally back to normal. I think getting off the Restore will probably allow it to resume full speed.

Had to take a couple days off training as my shoulder has been getting tweaked from being on hands and knees and laying pavers..lots of pavers. Left shoulder and neck got really inflammed on Wed night and this extended in Thursday day.

Everything "felt" good enough to hit chest and tris today, but I think I still have some pretty good nerve impingment in that left shoulder so this workout was pretty lackluster. I did not even bother to attempt any TUT sets today.

Hammer Strength Wide Iso Lateral Press
180 x 8
270 x 4
270 x 3
290 x 3
and just for the hell of it
320 x 2
Strength was just not there nor was endurance. Shoulder did not feel bad per se, but it was not confidence inspiring.

DB Flat Press
65 x 10
70 x 4
70 x 2
I pretty much called it quits with the presses after this. My left arm/shoulder was significantly weaker than the right..probably due to a pinched nerve.

Dips
bodyweight x 12
BW + 35 x 7

Dips felt better but kept dips short and sweet worrying about shoulder issue.

Tri pushdowns
145 x 10
165 x 8
180 x 7
180 x 5

Cable Flies
managed to do TUT style on these
25 x 12..burn!
30 x 10
40 x 8

Core work went well.

Despite this very lackluster WO, it did produce a pretty nice pump that is still mostly with me.

BF% has definitely gone up on this stack but that is likely mostly due to being force fed carbs by my grandparents. You can't say no to grandma's cookies..she'll be upset. lol

[bioman]

Mini Update 8-28-06

I have taken the last two days off as my body was pretty much demanding that I do so. I tend to be low recovery and though the Alpha Drive/Restore stack helps a lot in this regard, my shoulders and back were just not getting a break with the whole brick laying thing everyday.

Mood: still good and consistent..pleasant really which indicates to me that test levels must be nice and high.

Libido: as stated earlier..back to normal. Once in a while I will get a surge of horniness from the Alpha Drive, but on the whole libido is back up to baseline which is good.

Recovery from last week's leg WO was great despite going heavy. Legs were a tight but not sore. The last chest WO has been a different story though. Pecs and shoulders are STILL sore. That soreness coupled with the aches and pains from brick laying has me adding another off day into the mix.

Another interesting note...I am up another 2 pounds on what is essentially a maintenance diet though I do up calories on WO days.

Current weight: 187
Starting weight: 183

I feel a pound or two of that must certainly be VAT, but there has been some LBM gain in there as well. This is notable since I NEVER gain off cycle anymore on the current diet I am on.

So far, I am willing to call this a good stack for PCT and possibly bridging. I will run some basic bloodwork probably next week for lipids, liver and kidney values so we can see if this combo is safe. I have a feeling it messes with lipid values but we shall see.

[Rage (SoCal)]

Mini Update 8-28-06
This is notable since I NEVER gain off cycle anymore on the current

Awesome.

[frizzlerock]

so did you get your lipids & test done?

[bioman]

Just got the blood draw this morning so we should see th results hopefully by next week. Test/free test and estro were not performed as it would cost me out of pocket somewhere in the neighborhood of $400. The test will include lipids, liver and kidney panel, basic metabolic parameters and TSH.

Been busy as H-E-double hockey sticks so I will give a very brief overview of the last few workouts.

Leg workout on 8/31 went OK. Numbers were essentially the same as last week but the number of reps on the max leg press went down to 3. Given how much manual labor I was doing, this is not surprising.

Shoulder,back and bi WO on 9/2 went so-so. Weights were actually down a little on most lifts. Suspect overtraining might be coming into play. Had to concentrate on my renovation work and do some field work for several days and I used that time as a 6 day off period to try and let the ole CNS recover a little. It was a crazy busy 6 days so we shall see.

Did 45 minute cardio session yesterday which felt very good coupled with some much needed deep stretching.

I'll do chest and tris tonight or tomorrow and report back.

[frizzlerock]

cool, i was enjoying this thread

[bioman]

Ran out of Alpha Drive yesterday so this workout is based on dosing 2 Restore capsules per day.

Chest and Tris

Mood: vunderful as oosual. Happy as ah leetle gurrrrl!

Focus: Still good

Endurance: down

Libido:
Has actually gone up a little since ending Alpha Drive. I think my hormones are tired of being messed with at this point and I am 100% recovered and then some.

Strength: appears to be down a little.


Hammer Strength IsoLateral Press
regular style
180 x 10
200 x 8
220 x 4
210 x 6

Strength kinda fizzled hence the pyramid like sets. Needed to go up in wieght more gradually rather than 20 pounds at a time.

Hammer Strength Iso Lateral Wide Press

180 x 10
230 x 8
250 x 7
270 x 5

Strength definitely dropped.

Dips
Bodyweight x 12
+35 x 8

Nothing new here.


Tricept pushdown
160 x 10
170 x 10
175 x 8

The same.

Core and other cable chest work went as usual.


This concludes the performance aspect of this log as I am out of Alpha Drive XL and will be out of Restore in few days. Blood test results will hopefully be back within a week to 10 days and I will report these in full.


Overall Impression:

I think this stack is a very worthy contender for ancillary PCT use. It is virtually neck and neck with the legendary NHA stack with the exception that the high grade trib and long jack really do improve libido for me which is not the case with the NHA. I don't think it controls fat gain quite as well as the NHA stack and this is likely because of it's lower dose of anti-cortisol ingredients like Mbaet. This could easily be dealt with by adding one or two doses of Retain or Lean Extreme to the mix if one is concerned about cort rebound/damage control.

Elevation of test seems on par with the NHA if not better due to the increase in libido. Retention of gains made on cycle were excellent. Estrogen suppression also appears to be excellent as no changes in nipple diameter or appearance were noted...stayed very dry the entire time.

I give both of these product a thumbs up and would use them again in the future.

Special thanks go out to BioScience Technologies, ALRI and Nutrplanet for their support in making this log possible.

Very curious to see what blood test numbers look like. My guess would be that lipid numbers will be slightly eskew but all other numbers should be fine..but we shall see.

[machinehead]

Nice log, thanks for the feedback.

[CHAPS]

vunderful as oosual. Happy as ah leetle gurrrrl!

Creeeeeeeeepyyyyyy, lol.

[CHAPS]

When your done the log maybe some L3Igf-1 and Cissus for your back injury would be good.

[bioman]

Lower back is actaully doing OK. I've been doing lots of hypers along with ab work, stretching and hanging in gravity boots. It's been a lot more stable but i am going to take another month or so off of deads and squats then slowly get back into them if I can.

Starting Cissus back up since this log is basically over.

[CHAPS]

Oh yes the gravity boots those are always fun. So as of now would you buy these products? And what do you think they are best suited for?

[bioman]

I would buy either again. Both are good additions to a PCT using nolva or torm. As a bridge or standalone it rates pretty close to the NHA stack IMO.

The Alpha Drive could be used alone, particularly if you want a libido boost.

[BioScience]

Big cheers to you for such an excellent log!

Stay tuned because I will annouce the contest winner this Friday, September 15th.

Thanks!

[frizzlerock]

i was looking to buy this stack soon. this pretty much seals the deal:bb:

[bioman]

Thanks BioScience, my pleasure.

Blood work is in, I will pick it up tomorrow morning and post asap.

[bioman]

BLOOD TEST RESULTS


TEST TAKEN WHILE ON ALPHA DRIVE XL AT 3 CAPS PER DAY AND RESTORE AT 2 CAPS PER DAY.



RESULTS RANGE
CHOLESTEROL 211 H, <200 MG/DL
TRIGLYCERIDES 99, <150 MG/DL
HDL 27 L, >39
LDL 168 H, <130
VLDL 17, 0-29
CHOL/HDL RATIO 7.8 H, <5.0


GLUCOSE 84, 65-99

UREA/BUN 18, 10-28
CREATININE 1.1, 0.6-1.5
GFR ESTIMATED >60, >60
BUN/CREAT RATIO 16.4, 10-28
URIC ACID 5.2, 3.5-8.0
NA 141, 135-145
POTASSIUM 4.5, 3.5-5.2
CHLORIDE 104, 96-110
CO2 20, 19-31
ANION GAP 17, 4-18
OSMOLALITY 289, 279-295
PROTEIN TOTAL 7.7, 6.0-8.2
ALBUMIN 4.6, 3.3-4.9
GLOBULIN 3.1, 2.1-3.9
ALB/GLOB RATIO 1.5, 1.0-2.0
CALCIUM 10.1, 8.4-10.4


PHOSPHORUS 3.2, 2.5-4.5
ALK PHOSPHATASE 105, 39-160
GGT 30, 5-80
ALT 54, 2-60
AST 43, 10-50
BILIRUBIN (TOTAL) 0.7, 0.2-1.3


TSH HIGH SENSITIVITY 2.43, 0.45-4.50





Sorry that's hard to read, the board software keeps compressing the lines no matter how far I space them apart.



So, pretty much what we were expecting here. No impact to liver and kidney function which is an added plus for oral anabolic steroids users. Cholesterol is out of wack in part due to the cycle before using these products, the elevation of total test brought on by the products themselves, a familial history of hyperlipidemia, and having to live with a pregnant woman who only stocks the larder with carbs and fat.

Thyroid looks happy. CO2 levels are way low..go B12 and folic acid!