Cutting Stack + Follidrone Log (Unsponsored)

ma70 said:
Alright, today was the day for a PR attempt on my OHP and Deadlifts. To keep things short, it was a success. After last week's session where I failed to even rep out 305 on my Deadlifts, I wasn't feeling confident for what I had to do this week. I chalked it up to bad sleep (2 hours only) and wrote it off but still didn't feel confident until today. Also, I'd like to point out that today was the first day I've had awesome sleep quality in awhile. I took 1 cap of Sleephoria on Sunday and it didn't do much, so I tried 2 caps yesterday and it knocked me out cold. I woke up this morning and I didn't feel groggy, so I was happy about that. Here's the session:

Overhead Press: (I ended up doing this first because the Deadlift stage was occupied)
65x5
75x5
95x5
110x3
125x3
140x4 --> PR

Deadlift:
135x5
185x5
225x5
255x3
290x3
325x3 --> PR

Squat:
135 x 5
185 x 5
225 x 5
245 x 5
245 x 5
245 x 5
245 x 5
245 x 5

Standing Cable Face Pulls:
40x12
40x12
40x12
40x12

Overall, it was an awesome session today. My last month PR for OHP was 135x3, so 140x4 is pretty definitive and shows that Follidrone helps with top-end strength too (Week 3 seems to be when this effect may kick in). My last month PR for Deadlifts was 315x3 and I got 325x3, so I was pretty pumped about that because I failed at 305x1 last week. I've been adding Face Pulls just for shoulder health and to help my posture out. Other than that, great session overall. One more session until deload week, but I'm running 2 bottles of FD so hopefully the next month is awesome too. I'll be adding weight to my Squats for my next cycle as they're becoming "fairly easy".
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Damn. Good stuff brother.
 
Tomorrow is the last real workout of the month until I deload for a week. I have two bottles of FD though so we'll see how things pan out during an extended FD run. Hopefully more top-end strength gains :)

I'll definitely be adding more volume next cycle though for sure, because the endurance benefits are too good to pass up.
 
Today's the last day of power week. Pulled off another PR (this is becoming typical at this point) and I'm deloading next week. Just in time too, because I'm starting to feel it in my shoulder joints, but this might be due to additional work that I've been able to do (among adding more weight). I've been doing pause reps at the bottom of a lot of my reps to really work on my form and perfect it. Anyways, here's the session.

Pendlay Rows:
95 x 5
115 x 5
140 x 3
160 x 3
180 x 3 --> PR

Bench Press:
95 x 5 --> Pause Reps (2-4 seconds)
115 x 5 --> Pause Reps (2-4 seconds)
135 x 5 --> Pause Reps (1 second)
160 x 5 --> Pause Reps (1 second)
185 x 5 --> Not pause reps. My shoulders were feeling iffy at this point

Squat: (Upping the weight next cycle)
135 x 5
185 x 5
225 x 5
245 x 5
245 x 5
245 x 5
245 x 5
245 x 5

Standing Cable Face Pulls:
40 x 12
40 x 12
40 x 12
40 x 12

Good stuff overall. Adding more volume is pretty easy with Follidrone.

Week 3 Effects:
- Great endurance
- Increase in top-end strength (could be indirectly or directly related to increased endurance)
- Great Pumps

Now it's time to deload to give my joints a break. Great stuff so far.
 
I actually edited my first post. I changed the cut to a recomp and I am currently up 5 lbs from my starting weight. I was this weight a month or two ago and I am the same weight now, but much more lean/defined. My waist size decreased too, so that's something that's notable (which means I obviously lost fat). No idea where the weight came from, but other loggers notice it too.
 
So this week I am doing very little sprinting and lowering the intensity of the weights. I have to comment that 2 caps of Sleephoria is giving me amazing sleep though.
 
ma70 said:
I actually edited my first post. I changed the cut to a recomp and I am currently up 5 lbs from my starting weight. I was this weight a month or two ago and I am the same weight now, but much more lean/defined. My waist size decreased too, so that's something that's notable (which means I obviously lost fat). No idea where the weight came from, but other loggers notice it too.
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Probably its a combo of intracellular water and then also muscle as protein synthesis is significantly increased with Follidrone.
 
Update for today is that I've decided I'll just be splitting all of the big lifts so I can put in much more volume to really take advantage of Follidrone. Even though I hit PR's and all that, I felt like I didn't really take full advantage of FD (every workout I felt like I could do more), but I was always time limited due to having work afterwards. I'll be squatting heavier, but on 2 days a week instead of 3. It'll look something like this:

D1: Bench Press/Assistance/Squats
D2: Pendlay Row/Assistance
D3: Rest
D4: Military Press/Assistance/Squats
D5: Deadlift/Assistance
D6: Rest
D7: Rest

Squats still won't be at max intensity and more for volume, but I'm still increasing the weight. I'll try bumping it up to 255 for 5x5 and see how it goes. I haven't been noting it too much, but I can hill sprint pretty well now (15-20 is usually what I stick to).
 
brundel said:
Probably its a combo of intracellular water and then also muscle as protein synthesis is significantly increased with Follidrone.
Click to expand...

Possibly. I'm not complaining, just answering questions. I'll take more LBM over weight loss any day.
 
ma70 said:
Possibly. I'm not complaining, just answering questions. I'll take more LBM over weight loss any day.
Click to expand...
I agree. The good news is there reason to believe your gaining muscle tissue. Studies indicate protein synthesis is significantly increased with Follidrone.
 
Yeah, can't wait until deload week is over. I'm gonna really hit the volume next month.
 
Had a good session on my first day back from deload week. I tried to increase volume for my volume week and I split up all my lifts so I could have more time to do other little assistance lifts/volume. Today was bench day.

Bench Press:
95 x 5
115 x 5
135 x 5
155 x 8
175 x 8
200 x 6 --> I was planning on doing straight sets of 8 for my worksets, but I'll probably go for 6 in all of them and make the last heavy one an AMRAP set. Probably could have cranked out a rep or two more if I didn't get too volume heavy on the other worksets. Oops

Squats:
135 x 5
185 x 5
225 x 5
255 x 5
255 x 5
255 x 5
255 x 5
255 x 5

Dumbbell Bench Press:
50(x2) x 10
50(x2) x 10
50(x2) x 10
50(x2) x 10
50(x2) x 10

Standing Cable Face Pulls:
45 x 10
45 x 10
45 x 10

Good session today. I really tried to push the envelope for volume today, but I might have gotten ahead of myself too much. I probably should have done more of the heaviest set instead of the lighter ones. Oh well. I'm actually rock climbing later so I will see if I'm working out tomorrow or on Saturday.
 
Anyways, I think I'll post up little tidbits of my experiences so far and how I'm working out. I used to take 1-2 minute breaks during warmup sets and 3-5 minute breaks during worksets for everything, and now I'm taking zero breaks during my warm up sets (except the time it takes to rack the plates) and 2-3 minute breaks during worksets. It may seem like I'm not gaining strength, but I can definitely tell if I rested like I used to I'd be smashing PRs most likely. This isn't an excuse though, because I think "rushing" through these workouts is allowing me to burn off fat and lean out pretty well. I think starting next week I'll start taking normal breaks so I can really see what it's doing for strength and get good PR sets. Follidrone is sort of allowing me to almost be "careless" about my workouts and just lets me ignore fatigue. I really like it and I'm gonna probably be bummed when I run out.

Also, my assistance template is not set in stone. I just do whatever I feel like doing. The main lifts are the focus and the assistance is just assistance. I'm doing face pulls for shoulder health, and for assistance I'll probably do dumbbell or other variations of the main lifts at a lower weight with the idea of doing 5x10 sets/reps.

Cardiovascular conditioning is going great. I can walk for hours easily (I have to walk around a lot at work), as well as do many hill sprints in a day. Also, taking minimal breaks between sets does not make my heart go racing anymore, so it's all great.
 
Today was a great workout. I did not expect to put out the volume I planned after rock climbing yesterday.

Pendlay Rows:
95 x 5
115 x 5
125 x 6
145 x 6
165 x 6
110 x 10
110 x 10
110 x 10
110 x 10
110 x 10

Standing Cable Face Pulls:
45 x 10
45 x 10
45 x 10

Dumbbell Carries:
1 lap around my gym, 50 lbs --> I don't really know how much distance this was, but this was a nice addition anyway

I think I am most impressed by the fact that my form didn't break down once I started to do the sets of 10 on my rows. Yeah, it's light weight but it's still a lot of volume for someone like me. Great workout overall.

Side note: Someone in the gym commented on my diet going very well, but I told him I actually upped the calories from when he last saw me for the past month and he was surprised. So at least people notice something and it's not just in my head.
 
Thats awesome!

Hows rock climbing in general? A hobby? Competitive with your friends?
 
Whew. Awesome workout today. I think my shoulders need to get accustomed to the new volume I'm exposing them too. I lowered the warm up set reps because overall they aren't too important and I'd rather focus on the heavy worksets and the stuff after. Here's the workout:

Overhead Press:
65 x 3
75 x 3
95 x 3
110 x 6
120 x 6
125 x 6

Bench Press: (Attempted dynamic work, but my shoulders/triceps were so burnt out from the OHPs that this was just normal paced bench pressing)
125 x 10
125 x 10
125 x 10
125 x 10
125 x 10

Squats:
135 x 5
185 x 5
225 x 5
255 x 5
255 x 5
255 x 5
255 x 5
255 x 5

Standing Cable Face Pulls:
45 x 10
45 x 10
45 x 10
45 x 10
45 x 10

Dumbbell Carries:
3 laps around the gym with 55 lbs

My shoulders aren't enjoying the new volume though so I'll have to be a bit careful with all of the pressing I am doing. Thankfully after I did all the face pulls/carries they seemed better. I should possibly focus more on pulling exercises to balance things out. I might have to up my calories even more at this rate because this kind of volume is very new to my body. Also, chest pumps were insane. I guess burning out my shoulders/triceps somehow made the Bench Presses I did an isolation exercise.
 
Good stuff.
It takes alot out of you when you shift to higher volume.
 
Today's workout was a big win for me today. I did not expect to put out the volume that I did mainly because it was for Deadlifts (usually the exercise I do the least reps for, etc.) I drank an extra scoop of BCAAs today (easy way for me to drink water in the morning) and went at it.

Deadlift:
135 x 3
185 x 3
225 x 5
260 x 5
300 x 5 --> I definitely had more in me, but because of the volume I set out to do today, I didn't try anymore reps of this
190 x 10
190 x 10
190 x 10
190 x 10
190 x 10

1 Hour of Incline Walking

That was it. All I did was Deadlift and walk today, but it was insane for me. I actually had lower back pumps for the first time in my life, haha. I made sure my form was good but towards the last 10-20 reps I was getting tired. Probably in the last set I just dropped the bar 5-6 times (instead of lowering it normally). Either way, I'm glad with what I was able to accomplish today. I am probably going to feel crippled tomorrow.

Week 5 Results:
- Pretty much the same thing as always. Great endurance and I feel like I can squeeze out more top-end reps
- Pumps are strong
 
huxley309 said:
What have you seen in gains so far?
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Weighing in at 203 dry. But I am eating recomp calories but obviously using a big fat burner stack too. My top end strength has increased on all major lifts, my work capacity has increased, and I'm down two waist sizes at 203 from when I was 198. I slowly work my way to PRs every month. This session of 300 lbs was seemingly very easy to me. Last month I could only do 295x5 (with some struggles to hit the required reps) and now 300x5 was sort of a breeze (and add the fact that I ended up doing 50 extra reps today). I already hit my strength PR about a week ago at 325x3 so this month I'm planning on going for 335x3 at least.

This stuff is really good.
 
Barely ate anything all day other than my post-workout protein shake and I'm going to Applebee's later for half off appetizers. Oh boy. LOL.
 
Alright, today was a not so good day. I was feeling tired/light headed yesterday even though I've been sticking to around 2600-2900 calories and even though I thought I had a decent sleep, today seemed like a very off day. I can attribute this to a couple of things. It may be possible that all of my activity + the additional volume (basically added an extra day's worth of working out) may require that I eat a bit more carbs. I'll explain more below this post.

Bench Press:
95 x 3
115 x 3
135 x 3
155 x 4
185 x 4
215 x 1.5 --> had a BAD lift off on the first rep, then the second rep I got it off my chest but could not get it past the midpoint. In an attempt to salvage this though, I tried dropping the weight and finishing the reps after taking a short break (3 mins)
205 x 3

Overhead Press: (this was assistance today)
75 x 10
75 x 10
75 x 10
75 x 10
75 x 10

Squats:
135 x 5
185 x 5
225 x 5
255 x 5
255 x 5
255 x 5
255 x 5
255 x 5

Bench Press:
205 x 1 --> I just felt bad, so I did one more rep of this after everything. Haha.

So I was still able to pull out the same volume as before, but my top end strength seemed to suffer. As listed above, it COULD just be an off-day although I can't see why it would be since my sleep was okay and diet's been normal. It could be that I dropped a bit of weight because I am looking much leaner lately and I haven't weighed myself in awhile (because I don't actually have access to a scale in my apartment). Usually when my weight drops, my upper body lifts that are dependant on my shoulders seems to drop a bit too. This leads me to believe I may be undereating with all the new volume I've been taking on. Either way, I'm not too discouraged from today. I'll bump up my cals a bit and see what happens. I gotta say though, I am not feeling confident for hitting a Bench PR. It's been awhile since I've stalled on it and it may be time for it to stall....hmm.
 
After reading some articles online (specifically a t-nation one by CT and a Jim Wendler article), it seems that shoulder strength is the first thing that suffers when losing any form of weight (even water weight). I guess we'll see what happens when I'm doing my Overhead Pressing day. They said that actual volume/endurance is not effected though, so what I am experiencing seems to be due to weight loss of some sort.

EDIT: Just found a scale at work. I'm wearing jeans right now and I had my wallet/keys/phone on me, and I've already had my protein shake/breakfast and I weigh 202. So something tells me my dry weight is pretty damn low right now (~196-198 would probably be my dry weight now.). I guess I need to up the calories, but either way, leaning out is sort of nice and Follidrone is still helping me sustain this ridiculous amount of volume.
 
Just ate my last meal of the day. Carbed up like a beast. I'm sitting at 3300 calories today. I don't mind losing weight and getting leaner, but that failure today really got to me. Haha. Accidental cutting due to too much volume....first time I've done it. I'm hoping next week my Bench #'s won't be pitiful. Gonna really go at it for Overhead Press day because the point I failed today was probably the shoulders holding me back.
 
Alright, today's session was like things normally are. Great endurance, etc. Not much to say here because it's been an occurance every workout.

Pendlay Row:
95 x 3
115 x 3
135 x 4
155 x 4
175 x 4
115 x 10
115 x 10
115 x 10
115 x 10
115 x 10

Standing Cable Face Pull: (almost doing the whole stack!)
50 x 10
50 x 10
50 x 10
50 x 10
50 x 10

Dumbbell Carries:
3 laps around the gym

We'll see how I do on overhead press day to see if yesterday was a fluke or a result of massive weight loss that occured over a week of time.
 
ma70 said:
Alright, today's session was like things normally are. Great endurance, etc. Not much to say here because it's been an occurance every workout.

Pendlay Row:
95 x 3
115 x 3
135 x 4
155 x 4
175 x 4
115 x 10
115 x 10
115 x 10
115 x 10
115 x 10

Standing Cable Face Pull: (almost doing the whole stack!)
50 x 10
50 x 10
50 x 10
50 x 10
50 x 10

Dumbbell Carries:
3 laps around the gym

We'll see how I do on overhead press day to see if yesterday was a fluke or a result of massive weight loss that occured over a week of time.
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I would expect strength to drop with weight.
As long as your looking leaner and still full seems like a win to me.
 
brundel said:
I would expect strength to drop with weight.
As long as your looking leaner and still full seems like a win to me.
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Well the Squats I've been doing haven't felt any harder to me than before, and the rows I did today felt the same if not easier than before. But as usual, I guess the weight effects anything involving the shoulders the most (pressing movements). We'll see what happens in two days (overhead pressing day).
 
ma70 said:
Well the Squats I've been doing haven't felt any harder to me than before, and the rows I did today felt the same if not easier than before. But as usual, I guess the weight effects anything involving the shoulders the most (pressing movements). We'll see what happens in two days (overhead pressing day).
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Awesome man. Ill try to check in over the weekend.
 
Had the oppurtunity to weigh myself at my parent's house yesterday in the morning (before food/etc.) and I was 197 lbs. Although I lost weight by accident (additional volume plus extra workout day in general probably meant my calories were no longer sufficient), this is probably the strongest and leanest I've been at this weight range. Here was the workout.

Overhead Press:
65 x 3
75 x 3
95 x 3
105 x 4
120 x 4
135 x 4 --> Last rep was UGLY as hell but I got it up there (no leg drive used, just a really slow and weird looking lockout)

Bench Press: (this was assistance)
125 x 10
125 x 10
125 x 10
125 x 10
125 x 10

Squats:
135 x 5
185 x 5
225 x 5
255 x 5
255 x 5
255 x 5
255 x 5
255 x 5

Considering at 198 (before this log) my best max for my overhead press was 135 x 3, this was already a win since to me, cranking out another rep on OHP is a huge difference especially when the worksets before it are heavier than months ago, but also...I'm leaner and lighter (yeah, by 1 lb, but hey, it's something since I am way more defined than before.). I'll aim for PRs next week.
 
Young builder said:
I've looked it up an can't find a supplier considering your the owner were do u get it
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Youll be able to get it at most of the places on our where to buy page in about a week give or take a few days.
Nutraplanet
Strong
Orbit
Etc
 
ma70 said:
Had the oppurtunity to weigh myself at my parent's house yesterday in the morning (before food/etc.) and I was 197 lbs. Although I lost weight by accident (additional volume plus extra workout day in general probably meant my calories were no longer sufficient), this is probably the strongest and leanest I've been at this weight range. Here was the workout.

Overhead Press:
65 x 3
75 x 3
95 x 3
105 x 4
120 x 4
135 x 4 --> Last rep was UGLY as hell but I got it up there (no leg drive used, just a really slow and weird looking lockout)

Bench Press: (this was assistance)
125 x 10
125 x 10
125 x 10
125 x 10
125 x 10

Squats:
135 x 5
185 x 5
225 x 5
255 x 5
255 x 5
255 x 5
255 x 5
255 x 5

Considering at 198 (before this log) my best max for my overhead press was 135 x 3, this was already a win since to me, cranking out another rep on OHP is a huge difference especially when the worksets before it are heavier than months ago, but also...I'm leaner and lighter (yeah, by 1 lb, but hey, it's something since I am way more defined than before.). I'll aim for PRs next week.
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A pr is a pr.
Even meeting a prev pr at a leaner weight is amazing.
I think your body needs more food!
 
Barely had sleep last night and felt sore as hell from the overhead pressing but this morning's session was still a success. Everything is going as planned. At this rate, it looks like the only "absolute" PRs I might fail to make are my OHP/Bench, but at my current weight, everything is a PR already.

Deadlift:
135 x 3
185 x 3
235 x 4
275 x 4
315 x 4
185 x 10
185 x 10
185 x 10
185 x 10
185 x 10

Standing Cable Face Pulls:
50 x 10
50 x 10
50 x 10
50 x 10
50 x 10

Dumbbell Carries - 50 lbs, 3 laps around the gym

Great workout. My lifts are not completely suffering from the weight loss and I'm stronger/leaner at my current weight than I've ever been.

Week 6 Results:
- Pretty much the same thing as all of the other weeks. I don't think this is a supplement that needs "saturation". It seems to work right away and work constantly.
 
Alright today has confirmed that my weight loss has definitely effected my pressing movements. Not as bad as I thought though. I'll explain below.

Bench Press:
95 x 3
125 x 3
150 x 3
175 x 3
200 x 3
215 x 2 --> After my set of 200, I already knew there was no way I was going to rep out 225 today, which was the target weight for this week, but it's okay.
205 x 3 --> Did this set after my set of 215, which is actually a big deal. I'll explain below.

Overhead Press:
95 x 10
95 x 10
95 x 10
95 x 10
95 x 10

Squats:
135 x 5
185 x 5
225 x 5
255 x 5
255 x 5
255 x 5
255 x 5
255 x 5

Anyways, at my current dry weight of around 196 I am stronger (at this weight) than I've ever been, with more work capacity and LBM (more arm/back definition is a big factor as to why I believe this). Normally, after the heaviest set of Bench Pressing I could do, I'd be wiped out and couldn't even do anything remotely close to it after, but I managed to put out a heavy set after. Also, the worksets were heavier than any other mesocycle I've had, so while it's not an absolute top-end PR, it's a PR for this weight. I managed to up the weight on my "assistance" for Overhead Pressing which is amazing, but my left elbow feels sort of sore so I should be careful of this. Since I managed to put out all of this volume while getting "weaker", I'm just convinced that the loss in top end strength is probably due to the loss in weight (203 down to 196) that happened once I started doing a 4 day split with much more volume.
 
Awesome,u got good results even though ur sleeping habits are not that good. I hope i get even better results since i sleep around 7 hours everyday.,usually 9 on weekends and ima be eating more calories.your results are pretty good though.congrats.
 
Markos4 said:
Awesome,u got good results even though ur sleeping habits are not that good. I hope i get even better results since i sleep around 7 hours everyday.,usually 9 on weekends and ima be eating more calories.your results are pretty good though.congrats.
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Haha, thanks! Follidrone is the real deal. I wish this came out last winter during my bulk.
 
I thought today was going to be horrible because honestly, the DOMs from yesterday were killing me. But instead it was just another PR smashing session.

Pendlay Row:
95 x 3
115 x 3
145 x 3
165 x 3
185 x 3 - best PR I've had, period. The fact that my weight loss didn't hurt this number is great.
125 x 10
125 x 10
125 x 10
125 x 10
125 x 10

Standing Cable Face Pulls:
50 x 10
50 x 10
50 x 10
50 x 10
50 x 10

I was late to work today so it should be noted for the cable face pulls, I took 30 second breaks in between each of them (instead of the normal 1 to 1.5 minutes) and I had an awesome pump. Overall, great session. I dropped weight and I still hit an absolute PR. Seems the trend is going to be that the pulling movements aren't going to be effected.
 
Gonna have a weekend getaway for Memorial Day, so I won't be resuming my workout until next Tuesday. Have a good weekend guys.
 
Finally back in the gym, but I definitely feel like a deload should be coming. All of this extra volume has been tough on my joints and all.

Overhead Press:
65 x 3
75 x 3
95 x 3
115 x 3
125 x 3
135 x 3 --> I knew today there was no way I could set out to do reps of 145, so I just did heavier worksets and completed a weight I felt I could do

Bench Press: (assistance)
135 x 10
135 x 10
135 x 10
135 x 10
135 x 10

Squats:
135 x 5
185 x 5
225 x 5
255 x 5
255 x 5
255 x 5
255 x 5
255 x 5

Completely sore and drained. I don't think it's a food issue, but more of a deload issue. I'll see if I'm ready to Deadlift tomorrow but I might just skip the session and go take the week off.
 
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