Batman fightin crime on RPM/Drive

[The Batman]

DAY 13 05/09/08

OFF

DAY 14 05/10/08

crappy day all around
weighed in at 188.5 and measurements were almsot identical.
Maybe a slight reduction in the waist.
went to the gym and had a horrible workout.
My strength just wasn't there and my CNS was definetly fatigued. Ended up doing some higher rep work then spent some time on the bike and jumping rope.

DAY 15 05/11/08

Mothers day and I ended up driving almost 300 miles.
Also forgot to bring food with me so my diet got thrown out of wack for half of the day. I wanted to get my workout in but I got home at 10 and was exhausted, ended up going straight to bed.

I had a rather crappy weekend all in all workout and healthwise.

DAY 16 05/12/08

Today i'm ready to go and am heading straight to the gym after work.

I will write a halfway update with some of my thoughts on the stack when I get home.

Starting today I will be making several changes and will get into that in my next post.

[The Batman]

DAY 17 05/12/08

Powerclean 95 x 5 x 5
strict standing overhead press 95 x 10 x 3
lateral/front/ rear raises 10 x 20 15 x 20 20 x 20
scap pushups bw x 20 x 2


Diet was also perfect today.


Starting today I changed routines to the following

Monday shoulders then steady state cardio
wednesday arms the HIIT
friday legs
saturday chest/back steady state cardio
sunday HIIT

My body adapted to my current program very quickly and my cns is definetly strained. Im very surprised this happened as I barely pushed over 90 percent max effort in many lifts.
I also noticed that RPM/drive seems to have little to no effect on maximal strength levels. Under 8 reps it doesnt do much but when you go into the hypertrophy range it adds alot of muscular endurance.
This seems to correlate to other peopls logs as well, those on maximal strength based programs seem to have much less success then those on bodybuilding based programs.
Therefore for the remainder of the log I will work in the 8-20 rep range and see how far I can push it.
I got a sick pump roday in my shoulders and seemed to actually get stronger the more sets I did. I will be on a slight deload this week then I will push myself to the limits and hope to set some new 10-15 rep personal records.

[The Batman]

DAY 18 05/13/08

Diet was solid except for a little too much natty pb.

Also went for a 20 minute run on the treadmill.

[The Batman]

DAY 19 05/14/08

Arms today

Chins BW x 18 slow reps with emphisis in bi's
Close grip bench press 135 x 10 x 3
standing ez bar curls 30 x 20 40 x 20 50 x 20 40 x 20
bench dips bw x 20 bw x 20 bw x 30
various farmers walks for the forearms.
20 minutes HIIT on an exercise bike.

Decent workout. One thing Drive/RPM makes you do is just keep on going in the gym. I just didn't really want to stop. Also got a pretty decent pump.

My diet has been pretty much spot on and i'm feeling very healthy, can't wait to step on the scale and take measurements saturday morning.

[The Batman]

DAY 20 05/15/08


2/3 of the way through.
Off day today and i've been enjoying the natty pb with raisins wayyy too much today.

[The Batman]

DAY 21 05/16/08

Back squat
135 x 10 155 x 10 175 x 10
front squat 135 x 5
barbell calf press 135 x 30 135 x 30 135 x 30 135 x 10

It's been a very long time since I so much volume on a leg day and I burnt out real quick. I usually don't do over 3 reps for movements like squats. That plus a combination of the cardio i've been doing smoked me. With the addition of it being friday night I decided to take it easy and short. I did end up getting one of the better pumps I have gotten in my legs. My calves were more vascular than I have ever seen them. Unfortunately it quickly diminished when I left the gym.

[The Batman]

DAY 22 05/17/08

Chest/back

Wide grip pullups bw x 15 bw x 8 bw x 6
incline bench press 135 x 10 x 3
chest supported rows 70 x 10 x 3
dumbell bench press 45 x 12 50 x 12 55 x 12
wige grip lat pulldowns 80 x 20 x 2
incline dumbell flies 20 x 20 x 2
30 minutes on exercise bike.


Got a good pump in my chest and back tpday and had good "mind-muscle connection" Having lifted for power most of my time in the gym it is one of the things I never got into.

Got a decent pump but I felt pretty weak today/ My body is not use higher volume hypertrophy routines.

Diet has been pretty much on lockdown

[The Batman]

DAY 23 05/18/08

Got in about 2 hours of manual labor in the morning and about 15 minutes of sprint intervals in the evening.

Also had a fair amount of carbs today which jacked up my weight 5 pounds.

Only have a few more servings or drive left and I'm going to be taking a much needed week off from the gym starting in the next few days so my final review should be up soon.

[The Batman]

DAY 24 05/19/08

dead hang power clean 115 x 5 x 5
strict standing overhead press 85 x 10 105 x 10 105 x 9 105 x 5
1 hour low intensity cardio on an exercise bike.

This was my last workout on the stack, I have a few more days of drive left but my CNS is pretty beat up at this point and I will be taking the next 8 or so days off for some R and R.

I'll probably end up posting my final review today or tommorow.

[The Batman]

FINAL REVIEW

Well, i'm done training with RPM/drive I wont be back in the gym until next wednesday. I have enough drive to last until saturday and will give another update at that time on any effects it has on my rest and recovery period.

SO, where do I begin.
Bodyweight stayed about the same, waist shrunk about 1/2 an inch and added a little bit of mass.
However no amazing changes or for that matter changes that were above and beyond what I would of expected with my diet and routine.

The stack also had no noticable effects on libido or aggression.

Strengthwise it did very little for maximal strength, I was actually surprised at how weak i've been the past few weeks, wasn't very happy at all.

I noticed an increase in strength endurance mutliple times.
especially in the 10-15 rep range. It gave me enough endurance to add an extra rep or two often. I was also able to handle higher workloads for more sets. Several times I actually felt myself getting stronger through sets and them getting easier even though weight remained the same.

Energy and pumpwise I did routinely get a better than average pump and did have slight increase in energy, although I really don't routinely have a problem with either.

I did notice an increase in muscle density and hardness throughout the day and I did get slightly more vascular.

I can't say I noticed any increased recovery while on drive and RPM and was actually very surprised how quickly I burnt out.

Looking through some other logs as well I noticed a similiar trend. Those training on maximal strength programs were less than impressed with the stack, however those with higher rep hypertrophy rountines seem to have much more success.

I also dont think it had a very pronounced effect on leaning me out, I leaned out a little bit, but I would of expected to anyways with my diet.

I'd actually be interested in running this stack on a lean bulk with a hypertrophy split and see what happens.

Bottom line for bodybuilding purposes I would give this stack a shot. For strength purposes I would probably look elsewhere.