First log: Bulking with SNS stack (PA, PrimeXT, XGels, Amento)

[Kman2244]

Yesterday (the 16th) was leg day. Was a solid workout overall, I did feel a little twinge in the muscle right above my knee after doing the leg presses, so that’s why I did lighter weight on the leg extensions and really slowed the reps and focused on a controlled squeeze. Also my blood sugar was also going down a bit when I was doing the leg curls, which may have negatively affected performance a little, I had some sugar though and it didn’t get too low. Also I ran out of the Pump Addict pre workout a few days ago, so this workout and last workout I had an energy drink in its place. Could be effecting strength a little who knows.

Just trying to be thorough in covering any factors that are different and could be effecting things, but it wasn’t a bad workout. Also the reason the weight and reps went down on the decline sit-ups is because previously I was doing them on the lowest decline setting, and this time I did them on the highest. Very big difference in difficulty! I wanted to do them this way to keep the reps lower and give more room to build without having to hold too much weight

Leg press 330LBx12 330LBx10 286LBx15

Decline sit ups 25LBx20 25LBx15 20xBW

Seated leg curls 120LBx15 110LBx14 100LBx15

Leg extensions 100LBx20 80LBx15 60LBx20 60LBx15

Back hyperextensions 25xbw 20xbw

 

[Kman2244]

Today was push day, had two energy drinks prior (spaced out a little) totaling 280mg of caffeine, which is a little more than usual for me. Felt good this workout, the caffeine helped with energy I’m sure, but I also felt well recovered too. Managed to hit 4 reps of 225 which was a PR for me so that was exciting! Barely got the last rep but I did it with no assistance. Rest of the exercises were solid too.


Bench press 135x10 225x4 185LBx8 155x13

Shoulder press machine 170LBx15 170LBx15 170LBx8

Assisted dip 20LBx20 20LBx15

Rope push downs 55LBx22 65LBx20 85LBx13

Chest fly machine 170LBx15 170LBx10 130LBx8

Ez bar skull crushers 50LBx20 60LBx12 40LBx20

Side lateral raises 20LBx20 30LBx15 25LBx20

 

[Kman2244]

Today was pull day, ended up working out at 8pm instead of earlier in the day like usual. Had mowed a lawn a few hours earlier, but other than that wasn’t too active. Also last night I did 10 L sit chin-ups and a set of 40 pushups, plus another set of 42 a few minutes after. So I was a little more sore than usual before this pull workout. Also I was in a rush so only rested an average of 1 minute between sets. Despite these factors I did a little better than the last pull workout on multiple exercises. Although I did skip the shrugs because I started to feel pretty fatigued by that point and didn’t want to drain my grip strength before all the curls


Pull ups BWx11 BWx7

Chest supported row machine 160LBx16 140LBx16

Rear delt flys 100LBx10 80LBx12

Lat pulldown machine 150LBx13 130LBx12

Chest supported T-Bar row 70LBx10 45LBx14

Rope lat pullovers 155LBx15 145LBx14 135LBx15

Face pulls 105LBx20 95x20

Dumbell curls 50LBx6 40LBx9

Single arm rope curls 45LBx9 35LBx15

Ez bar reverse curls 60LBx15 50LBx20

Dumbbell Wrist curls 20LBx20 40LBx11 30LBx12

 

[Kman2244]

Was really busy the last couple days and still a bit sore, so I ended up doing leg day today. Was a good workout and I felt pretty strong, did a good bit better than last workout on the leg press. It was in the evening and I only had half an energy drink in place of pre workout, which I think caused me to get fatigued a little bit more half way through. Still managed to do better on the leg extensions too though. Also I ran out of PA xt a couple days ago, so I’ll need to order another bottle along with more X gels as those are getting low.


Leg press 330LBx15 330LBx15 308LBx15

Decline sit ups 25LBx22 25LBx17 15xBW

Seated leg curls 130LBx13 110LBx14 100LBx14

Leg extensions 170LBx20 150LBx12 100LBx20

Back hyperextensions 23xbw

 

[Kman2244]

Yesterday (24th) push day, I just wasn’t feeling it, blood sugar was high for a while prior to the workout, and after the first working set I could tell my strength wasn’t going to be great so I decided to just take it easy in terms of not trying to beat any past numbers and just focus on getting a good pump. Didn’t record it since I wasn’t counting reps or anything. I have been out of PA xt for close to a week too, so who knows, that could be impacting strength, although I think the biggest factor was it just being an off day.

 

[Kman2244]

Today was pull day, was much better compared to the previous push workout in terms of strength. Did a little better than last pull day on some of the excesses too, so that was good. Took out the chest support rows since I have chest supported T bar rows in the workout now, so I felt they were unnecessary volume. I feel a better stretch on the chest supported T bar rows as well.

I have more pump addict pre workout, PA xt, X gels, and also glycer pump, on the way. Should come tomorrow, excited to see how my strength reacts with those being added back in!


Pull ups BWx11 BWx7

Rear delt flys 100LBx12 80LBx12

Lat pulldown machine 160LBx12 130LBx14

Chest supported T-Bar row 80LBx10 55LBx12

Rope lat pullovers 165LBx14 145LBx15 135LBx15

Face pulls 115LBx17 105LBx20

Dumbell curls 50LBx6 40LBx10

Single arm rope curls 45LBx9 35LBx15

Ez bar reverse curls 60LBx15 50LBx20

Dumbbell Wrist curls 25LBx20 40LBx12 30LBx12

 

[Kman2244]

Have had a lot going on and been forgetting to post, here’s a summary of the past few days:


26th was leg day. The glycerpump, more PA xt, and pre workout came in, so got back onto the full stack, with the addition of the glycerpump. Energy wasn’t the best for whatever reason but it was still a solid workout. Did a little better on leg press, decline sit-ups, and leg extensions. Although I did skip the third set of leg press as my energy wasn’t the best like I said, and I wanted to not wear my legs out too much for the other exercises. Also replaced the third set of decline sit ups with leg raises to hit the abs in a different way, I’ll probably add a second set of leg raises next workout.

Leg press 330LBx16 330LBx16
Decline sit ups 25LBx25 25LBx17
Upright leg raises BWx15
Seated leg curls 130LBx13 110LBx15 100LBx14
Leg extensions 170LBx20 150LBx15 100LBx20
Back hyperextensions BWx15 BWx15


The 27th I went to the gym with my friend and he had to be somewhere soon so we didn’t have a lot of time. Decided to just do whatever and not worry about trying to do my usual push workout, as it would have been too rushed.

On the 28th, sadly my grandma passed away. Didn’t go the gym that day.

The 29th I decided to do push day again, since on the 27th it wasn’t a full push day. I could tell strength wasn’t going to be great after I only got 2 reps of 225, and I also was feeling a little discomfort in my right shoulder so decided to just focus on the pump and not worry about weight that day. This may be because I didn’t have enough rest from the 27th. Wasn’t in the most motivated mindset so didn’t track anything. Also just to be clear, the right shoulder discomfort isn’t anything new. I’ve been dealing with it for years, even before I started working out more, it comes and goes. Not sure what ever caused it, as I never had any noticeable injury to my shoulder. I think it’s just something that gets aggravated from overuse of certain movements, I’ll need to be careful with it as I don’t want to make it worse. I know if I’m careful it’ll go away, as it has in the past. Probably should just cut out anything that aggravates it even a little, like dips and heavier side lateral raises on that side, instead of trying to work through it.

 

[Kman2244]

Today was pull day. Last night I couldn’t fall asleep and was up to 4:30am, I did sleep then, but not enough. Despite this factor, it was a good workout. Strength was good, I was feeling out of breath often though. I think that’s a sign I need to add cardio. I know, I know, should have already been doing it, but I haven’t been recently, and im paying the price lol.

I was stronger on most exercises, except the dumbbell curls for some reason. The wrist curls on the other hand were good, I got 3 extra reps with the 40lb dumbbell compared to the last pull day. I replaced the machine rear delt flys with crossed-arm cable rear delt flys, they felt much better on my shoulders and allowed a better stretch and squeeze. The weight listed on those is per-side, not the total weight ofc lol

Great pump this workout, had to take a picture after as the muscles fullness seemed excellent

Pull ups BWx12 BWx7

Cable rear delt flys 25LBLBx15 25LBx7 15LBx10

Lat pulldown machine 160LBx13 140LBx13

Chest supported T-Bar row 80LBx11 55LBx12

Rope lat pullovers 165LBx14 145LBx14 135LBx15

Cable rope face pulls 115LBx18 105LBx20

Dumbell curls 50LBx5 40LBx6

Single arm hammer grip rope curls 45LBx10 45LBx8

Ez bar reverse curls 60LBx17 50LBx20

Dumbbell Wrist curls 25LBx20 40LBx15 30LBx13

 

[sns8778]

Looking great. You're in fantastic shape.

I'm so sorry for your loss. It takes a lot of dedication to be able to train at all during times like that.

 

[Kman2244]

Looking great. You're in fantastic shape.

I'm so sorry for your loss. It takes a lot of dedication to be able to train at all during times like that.

Thank you. And for me it would be harder to not train to be honest, it helps me take my mind off everything

 

[sns8778]

Thank you. And for me it would be harder to not train to be honest, it helps me take my mind off everything

That's understandable and makes sense. I'm glad that its able to give you some comfort.

I'm so sorry for your loss. My grandmother is one of the most important people in the world to me. She's the last grandparent that I have left.

 

[Kman2244]

That's understandable and makes sense. I'm glad that its able to give you some comfort.

I'm so sorry for your loss. My grandmother is one of the most important people in the world to me. She's the last grandparent that I have left.

She was an amazing woman, at almost 98 she still drove, played chess, went out to restaurants, etc. Always lived in her own house, never had to go to a nursing home. A while ago she ran an Inn with my grandpa when he was still around, I have fond memories of visiting the inn as a kid. It was a large house built in the 1800s in Massachusetts, surrounded by pine trees and right near the old town of Lenox. Was such a cool experience going there every year as a kid. I only have one grandparent left now too, my other grandma, same as you. I hope they both are with us for as long as possible

 

[sns8778]

She was an amazing woman, at almost 98 she still drove, played chess, went out to restaurants, etc. Always lived in her own house, never had to go to a nursing home. A while ago she ran an Inn with my grandpa when he was still around, I have fond memories of visiting the inn as a kid. It was a large house built in the 1800s in Massachusetts, surrounded by pine trees and right near the old town of Lenox. Was such a cool experience going there every year as a kid. I only have one grandparent left now too, my other grandma, same as you. I hope they both are with us for as long as possible

She sounds like an awesome lady and those sound like some wonderful memories. The Inn sounds like a beautiful place.

Thank you, I hope that they are with us for as long as possible as well.

 

[Kman2244]

Today was leg/ab day, felt pretty strong today and did better on every exercise, except for the leg curls. Haven’t been getting enough calories recently (probably not enough protein as well), I’m not tracking currently, but based off when I was tracking calories in the past, I know I’m not. That’s really the only missing piece of the puzzle right now in terms of getting optimal gains. Well to be honest, I could also use better quality sleep some nights, which I’m going to work on as well, but my sleep isn’t terrible by any means.

I’ve also started doing body weight single leg and double leg calf raises hanging off a stair, as my calves are definitely a weak point and I’ve slacked on them for too long. Not tracking this right now as I'm just going with an intuitive approach, doing them whenever my calves aren’t sore on whatever day, and just doing as many reps as I can. Once I build up some decent calf strength with body weight then I may start adding weighted variations and tracking weight/reps.

Still taking all the supplements: X gels, prime xt, PA xt, creatine, amentoflavone, glycerpump, and pump addict for the pre workout. Amentoflavone is about out, probably will hold off on ordering more of that for now as I’ll still be taking a good amount of supplements. And since I added the glycerpump recently, that’s kind of replacing it as a pre workout pump supplement. Not to say the glycerpump is “better” per say, as I can’t comment on which one is better since I’ve been taking them both, and there’s far too many variables to speak on that with any certainty.


Leg press 352LBx16 330LBx16
Decline sit ups 35LBx25 25LBx18
Upright leg raises BWx20
Seated leg curls 130LBx13 110LBx13 100LBx14
Leg extensions 170LBx20 160LBx15 110LBx20
Back hyperextensions BWx25 BWx15

 

[Kman2244]

Push day I wanted to be careful of my shoulder so I just didn’t go as heavy and avoided any exercise that even slightly aggravated it. Ended up not doing a lot of the exercises in the workout and tried some new stuff, didn’t track it. Was a solid workout.

Pull day I did at a different gym, I went to this gym until they closed for renovations and now they opened back up with new equipment and everything. Ended up doing a random pull workout, just whatever I felt like. That same night I also did a bunch more pull up variations at my friends house, he had a pull up bar and we were just doing them for fun, but it was still a decent workout lol.

On leg day (the 5th), I went with two friends and we ended up doing some squats, leg extensions, and leg curls for legs. I was able to do 225 for 4 reps on squat, which I know isn’t a whole lot, but for me it was pretty good considering I hadn’t squatted in well over a month, and my legs used to be very weak before I started training them consistently this year, I didn’t have naturally strong or big legs. I also was able to do 4 reps of 250LB leg extensions with full ROM, that’s the heaviest I’ve ever done on those (the gym I was going to ever since I started this log, had a leg extension machine that only went up to 170LB). So I felt like strength was pretty good.

That not all though, next we ended up feeling like some curls this was the third time I hit biceps in a roughly 24hr time period lol. I didn’t even feel that sore and strength seemed great surprisingly, even though I had hit the biceps twice the prior day. Now that I’m thinking about it, I’m sure doing them after legs instead of after all the pulling movements like usual, canceled out any strength loss from them being worked hard the day prior.

I wanted to try out the fat gripz (pro version) that had just arrived that day too, so I did some pull ups with the fat grips, and used them on ez bar curls with both regular grip and reverse grip. Also was able to do 60LB dumbbell hammer curls for reps (not with the fat grips tho haha), just a little bit of swing but other then that the form wasn’t bad. Was very happy with that.

So I woke up sore following all that, unsurprisingly. As the day progressed I got more sore, and it’s late at night right now as I’m posting this. The forearms are extremely sore now, hurts to close my hand with any force at all lol. Between all the pull ups, curl variations, and using the fat grips for the first time, I’m not surprised. I love it because I feel like the forearms are gonna blow up if I keep hitting them hard like this. The fat gripz added to the soreness a lot I feel like. Definitely resting all the pull related muscles for a bit now though haha.

My weight has gone down slightly (now 174.6), I need to eat more. But I still look the biggest I ever have, the small amount I lost may have been mostly fat. Muscles feel full and vascularity is good. Abs are looking more solid too, I’ve gotten so much stronger on the decline weighted sit-ups and I think it’s showing. Back in February (the last time I was tracking workouts before this log), I did two sets of 15 and 1 set of 20, on a low decline setting and just with body weight. Now I can do 25x35LB and 18x25LB on the max decline.

I’m going out of town tomorrow, so I’m putting the log on hold. Will be gone for a little over a week, considering it a deload week and just going to do some light workouts not at a gym. When I come back I’m interested to see how my strength will be.

Attached are some pictures of my current progress. I should note that these were taken midday, with no pump. Didn’t workout at all this day. I’m very happy with my physique since I’ve only been going to the gym for around 8 months (I did workout at home a bit prior, as I mentioned in my intro post, but not as intense). I often haven’t hit the ideal calorie and protein levels during this time, and substantially fluctuating blood sugar levels are bad for gains, so that is something that probably has hindered my progress a little. Despite these factors, I feel like my progress has been fast, so I’m pretty sure these supplements have helped (ran a different natural SNS based stack earlier this year as well, but there were months in between that time and my current stack).

Of course there’s no way to compare to my results if I never ran a natural stack, but at least one can make a reasonable assumption that there was noticeable benefit, if the results achieved seem greater than expected. What do you guys think, considering my lifting history and the factors that must have hurt my gains a little (type 1 diabetes and not tracking macros consistently), would you agree that so far I’ve got better gains than you’d expect or not really? Just trying to gauge how good my progress has been but I’m happy with it either way!

 

[sns8778]

Looking great. You're in fantastic shape.

 

[Kman2244]

Looking great. You're in fantastic shape.

Thanks! I’m pretty proud of how far I’ve come. I realized I didn’t even show a before picture, which is kind of important, posted this late and I was tired lol. Here’s one I found from Jan 26, 2023, so a little over a year and a half ago. I made most my progress this year though, as I never worked out as hard or as consistently at home compared to when I started going to the gym. As you can see I was always lean (I should note I was flexing my abs in this picture). I was even thinner before this, I had made a small amount of gains already when I took this pic. I’m really happy that I’ve put on so much size and still have defined abs, it shows most of the weight and size I gained was muscle and not an excessive amount of fat. Of course I gained some fat too which I’m totally ok with, makes it easier to put on my omnipod and Dexcom lol

 

[Segansational]

Sorry for your loss...

Your progress here is noticeable, nice work! Enjoy the week off.

 

[sns8778]

Checking in. I hope that things are going well for you.

 

[Kman2244]

Checking in. I hope that things are going well for you.

Hey, appreciate you checking in. Yeah I’m doing pretty good, had a nice vacation in Florida. Didn’t go to the gym while I was down there, and took a break from all supplements except creatine. I did still do some home workouts. I felt like by the end of the trip my muscles didn’t feel as full and I didn’t look quite as big. Of course there’s a lot of factors that could play into this, hard to know for sure what difference I was noticing or if it was just in my head.

But when I got back from the trip, I got back on the supplements (Prime XT, X Gels, PA XT, glycerpump pre workout) and I’ve been feeling like I did before, muscles feel nice and full, so I think the supplements are helping there. Strength has also been pretty good, although I haven’t been tracking my workouts recently. Been trying out some new exercises and just having fun with it, but still training hard of course.

One thing that’s interesting is I haven’t got anywhere near my 4 rep pr with 225 on bench that I did while I was doing this log, although I feel pretty strong on most other exercises. Maybe the trip (it was about 10 days including the driving) cleared out enough of the supplements from my system that they’re having to rebuild back up and weren’t at the same concentration as when I hit the pr. I’ve also been forgetting to take the X gels on my rest days, so maybe that’s also hindered the build up in my system. Who knows, maybe the day I hit 4 reps was just an especially good day for whatever reasons I’m not realizing. In any case I’m going to try to not miss any days on the X gels and hopefully the bench strength goes up again!

 

[sns8778]

Hey, appreciate you checking in. Yeah I’m doing pretty good, had a nice vacation in Florida. Didn’t go to the gym while I was down there, and took a break from all supplements except creatine. I did still do some home workouts. I felt like by the end of the trip my muscles didn’t feel as full and I didn’t look quite as big. Of course there’s a lot of factors that could play into this, hard to know for sure what difference I was noticing or if it was just in my head.

But when I got back from the trip, I got back on the supplements (Prime XT, X Gels, PA XT, glycerpump pre workout) and I’ve been feeling like I did before, muscles feel nice and full, so I think the supplements are helping there. Strength has also been pretty good, although I haven’t been tracking my workouts recently. Been trying out some new exercises and just having fun with it, but still training hard of course.

One thing that’s interesting is I haven’t got anywhere near my 4 rep pr with 225 on bench that I did while I was doing this log, although I feel pretty strong on most other exercises. Maybe the trip (it was about 10 days including the driving) cleared out enough of the supplements from my system that they’re having to rebuild back up and weren’t at the same concentration as when I hit the pr. I’ve also been forgetting to take the X gels on my rest days, so maybe that’s also hindered the build up in my system. Who knows, maybe the day I hit 4 reps was just an especially good day for whatever reasons I’m not realizing. In any case I’m going to try to not miss any days on the X gels and hopefully the bench strength goes up again!

I'm glad that you were able to get a break and a vacation.

It can definitely take some time for supplements to build back up in the system. That's why I would suggest things like Prime XT, Phosphatidic Acid XT, Pepti-Plex, etc. be used while on vacation. Even if not working out, it keeps you from having to have them build back up in your system.

 

[Kman2244]

I'm glad that you were able to get a break and a vacation.

It can definitely take some time for supplements to build back up in the system. That's why I would suggest things like Prime XT, Phosphatidic Acid XT, Pepti-Plex, etc. be used while on vacation. Even if not working out, it keeps you from having to have them build back up in your system.

For sure, I would have kept taking them but I kinda wanted to take the break from everything as an experiment to see if my strength went down at all or if I noticed any changes in appearance. In the future I’d just keep taking during vacation for sure, as I feel like that 10 day break put a hold on my progress and maybe set me back a little. But I’m still glad I took the break to see the effect of it