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LDubs EP1C Journey (Unsponsored & Unbiased)

DAY 20

I'm not sure whats going on but the last couple workouts I've had my press and bench get weaker, while I've been getting PRs on squat and deadlift.

Any insight on what the heck is going on?

My weight has also been jumping around more than usual. Today my weight was up. I weighed in at 210.2 lbs.

Visually I think my shoulders and arms are looking more defined, but I am not seeing any difference in chest or stomach. I typically lose fat on arms and shoulders before chest and stomach though s ok I'm not surprised. First place to store fat, last place to lose it.

As far as how I feel EP1C is affecting my workouts, a decrease in rest time, slight increase in lower body strength/endurance. Also more full feeling on off days.
 
Its a L.P. program. Kinda like Starting Strength. I alternate chest/press each workout. I workout Tue, Thurs, Sat.

I should note that the strength loss is reps completed with a certain weight.

I had recently done a deload across all my lifts and am now comparing the reps I am getting at a certain weight to the reps I had gotten with that same weight before the deload. With both press and bench I keep coming up 1-2 reps short of what I had gotten before. The reps I'm getting are in the 7-9 rep range on my AMRAP set so I will continue adding 2.5 lbs to each lift each workout until I can't complete 5 reps.

Its a little disconcerting though seeing my numbers lower after the deload. I thought everything would have gotten stronger after it.

Also, it was a planned deload, not one taken because of not making my rep goals.
 
Not familiar with the program you're doing. I have done full body, 3 day a week routines, training chest all 3 days and it definitely made me stronger. But it also made me fat!! Although my diet was dirty bulk eat everything in sight without thinking twice!!! But that is where I gained most of my strength. I don't have an answer, other than that's just training for ya. I also go through peaks and valleys with strength and endurance. Chances are, it will come back.
 
Dma378 said:
Not familiar with the program you're doing. I have done full body, 3 day a week routines, training chest all 3 days and it definitely made me stronger. But it also made me fat!! Although my diet was dirty bulk eat everything in sight without thinking twice!!! But that is where I gained most of my strength. I don't have an answer, other than that's just training for ya. I also go through peaks and valleys with strength and endurance. Chances are, it will come back.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm not too worried. Hopefully in the upcoming weeks my upper body will pick up a bit.
 
LDubs said:
Its a L.P. program. Kinda like Starting Strength. I alternate chest/press each workout. I workout Tue, Thurs, Sat.

I should note that the strength loss is reps completed with a certain weight.

I had recently done a deload across all my lifts and am now comparing the reps I am getting at a certain weight to the reps I had gotten with that same weight before the deload. With both press and bench I keep coming up 1-2 reps short of what I had gotten before. The reps I'm getting are in the 7-9 rep range on my AMRAP set so I will continue adding 2.5 lbs to each lift each workout until I can't complete 5 reps.

Its a little disconcerting though seeing my numbers lower after the deload. I thought everything would have gotten stronger after it.

Also, it was a planned deload, not one taken because of not making my rep goals.
Click to expand...


Sounds to me like you probably have a higher concentration of fast twitch fibers in your upper body and the shorter rest periods there are not allowing for enough recovery. That or your legs are winding you a bit so you are unintentionally giving them longer rest periods than with the pressing. If you are doing something similar to a strength routing you should not be trying to shorten your rest periods. That is counter productive to your current goals. Short rest periods are for hypertrophy training, or conditioning training. Try this add 30 seconds to your rest period on your pressing movements and see if your reps don't come back, or even increase. With most strength based programs they want a minimum of 3 minutes rest if you are trying for less then you are choosing not to gain sttrength as efficiently as possible. Certainly you can make plenty of progress that way but not the most efficient way possible. So at least go back to the rest periods you were using before if you want to compare your strength to your previous workouts. You might be surprised and get more reps than before.

Remember just because you feel ready to jump back in does not mean you are. A good pre-workout or extremem positive feelings can make you hyped to get back under the weight but that doesn't mean it is go time if strength is the goal. With every set you start before recovering all the way you get cumulative fatigue in the muscle. So where you may be able to hit all of your reps on your work sets when you get to the AMWRAP you have effectively exhausted more muscle fibers than you did when taking longer rest periods so the AMWRAP is suffering. Doesn't mean you are not getting stronger or in better shape just that the shorter rest periods cause cumulative fatigue. That will probably make you grow more due to more lactic acid build up in the muscle but as far as strength goes you don't want lactic acid in the muscle it makes it harder to contract with full force.
 
MrKleen73 said:
Sounds to me like you probably have a higher concentration of fast twitch fibers in your upper body and the shorter rest periods there are not allowing for enough recovery. That or your legs are winding you a bit so you are unintentionally giving them longer rest periods than with the pressing. If you are doing something similar to a strength routing you should not be trying to shorten your rest periods. That is counter productive to your current goals. Short rest periods are for hypertrophy training, or conditioning training. Try this add 30 seconds to your rest period on your pressing movements and see if your reps don't come back, or even increase. With most strength based programs they want a minimum of 3 minutes rest if you are trying for less then you are choosing not to gain sttrength as efficiently as possible. Certainly you can make plenty of progress that way but not the most efficient way possible. So at least go back to the rest periods you were using before if you want to compare your strength to your previous workouts. You might be surprised and get more reps than before.

Remember just because you feel ready to jump back in does not mean you are. A good pre-workout or extremem positive feelings can make you hyped to get back under the weight but that doesn't mean it is go time if strength is the goal. With every set you start before recovering all the way you get cumulative fatigue in the muscle. So where you may be able to hit all of your reps on your work sets when you get to the AMWRAP you have effectively exhausted more muscle fibers than you did when taking longer rest periods so the AMWRAP is suffering. Doesn't mean you are not getting stronger or in better shape just that the shorter rest periods cause cumulative fatigue. That will probably make you grow more due to more lactic acid build up in the muscle but as far as strength goes you don't want lactic acid in the muscle it makes it harder to contract with full force.
Click to expand...

Thank you very much for this! I didn't even think about how my shorter rest periods would have an impact on strength. I will try going back to my longer breaks and see what happens.
 
You are very welcome.
 
After paying attention to rest times my upper body strength/endurance has bounced back.

My weight keeps fluctuating around where I started. This while strength is going up.

Overall, so far I am not experiencing the really crazy PH like results that some people talked about having. However, I do think there are some mild results that I'm seeing. We'll see what happens as this keeps going. Still got quite a while left until I run out of EP1C.
 
Sorry for the big gap in updates to anyone still following along.

Weight this morning was 210.0.

So throughout this run so far my weight hasn't really changed much. My strength continues to increase though. Visually I dont feel like I look that much different than when I started. Maybe some slightly better definition but ill let you guys be the judge of that in another month once I finish this up and post my after pics.

Not noticing much of an increased pump.

One side effect to mention is the stomach discomfort has gotten worse to where I have diharreah that lasts all morning after my dose on an empty stomach. I could add food but then I'd have to get up even earlier and Id rather just deal with the Hershey squirts.
 
DAY 37

Weighed in at 207.2 this morning. (- 2.4 lbs. ) That's the largest drop I've had yet. This had me scratching my head because this last week has been full of cheat meals. I have family in town and almost every dinner this last week has been pasta, pizza, or burgers. This has me thinking that the EP1C is helping to mitigate fat gain.

While my weight has been hovering around my starting weight, I have been able to consistently add weight to all movements each workout.

Still not noticing much of a pump effect though.

Still having Hershey squirts after preworkout dose. Came in the middle of my workout today. Kinda sucks.
 
DAY 51

I'm starting to near the end of my run. My weight is hovering around my starting weight even though my strength has increased consistently each workout. (Other than that patch where my rest times were way down)

I have not taken the PM dose on workout days in a little while and do not notice anything different. So my advice would be to save the caps and just do 2 pre workout.

My stomach discomfort has gotten better the last week. I'm not sure what's up with that, but I'm happy.
 
So LDubs the weight is the same but is the composition any better? Have you grown and gotten leaner?
 
Sorry about the lack in updates. I said at the beginning this wouldn't be a very detailed log. Just wanted to share my experiences.

I am all finished with my run of EP1C. It was exciting at times. Definitely saw a decrease in amount of time between sets before feeling ready to go again. I didn't really notice the pumps some people talked about. However, my bodyweight stayed around the same while strength increased consistently. I would say that I am slightly leaner in appearance now than when I started.

I was really excited before starting this from all the great feedback epi was getting. Although this provided decent results for me, it was not what I was hoping it would be like. The physique/strength changes I experienced could probably have been achieved without the EP1C.

Would I buy an epi product again? No.
I would rather spend the money on ArA. That yielded much more noticeable results for me in regards to strength increases.
 
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