Optimize-T/M-Test 12 Week Log

[Joshlm69]

Chest+Triceps Day 40
Workout Time : 50mins
Cardio : 0mins

Short & sweet today as its Easter weekend & the in-laws are over, so a bunch of stuff to prep. Shoulder felt not comfortable benching today, hoping Curcuprime works some magic. No Dips today also, staying away as much as possible from aggravating my right bicep

 

[LeanEngineer]

Easter weekend & the in-laws are over,

Same for me! Some unhealthy food incoming in my near future

 

[cronikgains]

Just checked into this log for the first time and wow - I'm impressed! Incredible progress bro keep it up!

 

[Joshlm69]

Just checked into this log for the first time and wow - I'm impressed! Incredible progress bro keep it up!

Lovely of you to say mate, the stack has definitely exceeded my expectations, didn’t think I’d be able to put on as much muscle at 35 years old as I have in such a short period of time, while dropping a considerable amount of fat.
I’ve definitely been lazy over the last 2 weeks in comparison to the start, but that’s mainly down to injuries substained from over training like an idiot

 

[Joshlm69]

Chest+Triceps Day 41
Workout Time : 56mins
Cardio : 13mins

Weights intentionally lower today because of my bicep. Still felt a little sore but not agonizing, glad I put the session in. Brutalized myself on cardio today, 2 levels higher than I normally go at a much higher RPM, need to start thinking about cutting. No More peanut butter sadly

 

[LeanEngineer]

No More peanut butter sadly

IDK if I can live without peanut butter!

 

[Joshlm69]

IDK if I can live without peanut butter!

It's a sad sad reality, but I eat so much peanut butter, I imagine I can literally cut by cutting out peanut butter

 

[LeanEngineer]

It's a sad sad reality, but I eat so much peanut butter, I imagine I can literally cut by cutting out peanut butter

I can probably say the same for me. My wife stocks these perfect bar peanut butter flavored protein bars and they are addicting. I think they are made of like 90% peanut butter or at least that's how they taste

 

[sns8778]

I can probably say the same for me. My wife stocks these perfect bar peanut butter flavored protein bars and they are addicting. I think they are made of like 90% peanut butter or at least that's how they taste

Those things are great, but I try not to splurge on them much if I'm eating right bc of the sugar content.

If you haven't tried them, Daryl's Bars are really good. They are surprisingly filling for a protein bar.

 

[Joshlm69]

I’ve eaten so much food this Easter weekend without training, I feel there will be a large amount of regret in the next few days

 

[LeanEngineer]

Those things are great, but I try not to splurge on them much if I'm eating right bc of the sugar content.

If you haven't tried them, Daryl's Bars are really good. They are surprisingly filling for a protein bar.

I have not. Just looked them up though and they have a third of the sugar content and higher protein than the perfect bars so definitely better.

 

[Joshlm69]

Unfortunately a bit ill today, and have been pretty congested nasally for the last 3-4 days. Nothing major at all but probably dont want to be spreading this around the gym. Will see how I feel tomorrow.

Worth noting I never get ill, but this feels like I've almost been ill for days now but it hasnt happened. Im guessing its the vitamins I take religiously daily that's holding it at bay.

On a positive note, the Curcuprime definitely is doing its magic, can feel daily the additional relief to my bicep & shoulder area

 

[sns8778]

I have not. Just looked them up though and they have a third of the sugar content and higher protein than the perfect bars so definitely better.

They aren't exactly the same as the Perfect Bars, but I think you'd really like them. They have a variety pack that has a lot of their flavors in it.

I'm pretty hooked on Key Lime, Strawberry, and Mocha at the moment.

The fiber content varies by the flavor with some under 5 grams and some around 15 grams, so when eating multiple ones per day, just have to make sure don't grab 2 or 3 with the higher fiber amounts.

 

[sns8778]

Unfortunately a bit ill today, and have been pretty congested nasally for the last 3-4 days. Nothing major at all but probably dont want to be spreading this around the gym. Will see how I feel tomorrow.

Worth noting I never get ill, but this feels like I've almost been ill for days now but it hasnt happened. Im guessing its the vitamins I take religiously daily that's holding it at bay.

On a positive note, the Curcuprime definitely is doing its magic, can feel daily the additional relief to my bicep & shoulder area

I hope that you feel better.

I'm really glad to hear that CurcuPrime Gel is helping the bicep and shoulder.

 

[LeanEngineer]

Key Lime, Strawberry, and Mocha at the moment.

Flavors sound interesting for sure for a protein bar. Will definitely give them a try.

 

[Joshlm69]

Legs Day 42
Workout Time : 35mins
Cardio : 0mins

Well, I thought even though I was ill gym would be beneficial today; how wrong I was. After every set I pretty much felt like I was going to pass out. Couldnt catch my breath, and legs are already agony even though I barely worked out. Had to call the session early unfortunately.

Going to take the dog out now for a couple of hours & get some fresh air

 

[sns8778]

Legs Day 42
Workout Time : 35mins
Cardio : 0mins

Well, I thought even though I was ill gym would be beneficial today; how wrong I was. After every set I pretty much felt like I was going to pass out. Couldnt catch my breath, and legs are already agony even though I barely worked out. Had to call the session early unfortunately.

Going to take the dog out now for a couple of hours & get some fresh air

It's very important when sick or coming off of being sick not to overdo it. I used to be terrible about that myself.

I hope you feel better.

 

[LeanEngineer]

Going to take the dog out now for a couple of hours & get some fresh air

That's probably the most relaxing thing I do is take my dog for a walk on a nice day. Just gotta get some nice days!

 

[Joshlm69]

Shoulders & Triceps Day 43
Workout Time : 1 hour 5mins
Cardio : 0mins

Probably shoudln't have gone today but couldn't help myself. So annoyed at constantly being injured, or sick, or something being up. Session was actually much better than anticipated although my side & front delts felt very weak today.

CissusXT finally turned up today, hopefully pairing it with Curcuprime will help my shoulders & bicep further.

 

[Joshlm69]

Chest & Triceps Day 44
Workout Time : 1 hour 25mins
Cardio : 16mins

Applied a new bench form today after doing some studying on youtube. Went great, zero shoulder discomfort at all. Gym'd with a friend so it was a long session, but a lot of the time was spent chatting. Back on the cardio grind as I stupidly ate an entire easter egg last night.

Tried the new Alpha Lion Strawberry Samauri today @LeanEngineer & oh my god, tasted amazing. Best preworkout I've ever tasted by a long long way. Almost identical to the strawberry Starburst sweets.

Weight still fluctuating around 80kg, but most likely going to try and lose 3-4kg in fat in the next 8 weeks on a cut.

CissusXT & Curcuprime really doing their thing now @sns8778 , shoulder feels completely healed now & the bicep is feeling better every day that I wake up. I would say since I included CissusXT, its sped up dramatically vs being on Curcuprime alone.

 

[LeanEngineer]

Tried the new Alpha Lion Strawberry Samauri today @LeanEngineer & oh my god, tasted amazing. Best preworkout I've ever tasted by a long long way. Almost identical to the strawberry Starburst sweets.

Alpha Lion's taste profile is on point for sure. Some of the best tasting products out there in my opinion! I haven't tried their protein powder. I'd be interested to see if their protein powder taste as good as their pre workout products.

 

[Joshlm69]

Alpha Lion's taste profile is on point for sure. Some of the best tasting products out there in my opinion! I haven't tried their protein powder. I'd be interested to see if their protein powder taste as good as their pre workout products.

I’ve only had PES select for the last 15 years for protein, love the flavours. I assume it’s still a good protein although I haven’t ever shopped around so I’m not sure? Is it still a recommended protein?

 

[sns8778]

Alpha Lion's taste profile is on point for sure. Some of the best tasting products out there in my opinion! I haven't tried their protein powder. I'd be interested to see if their protein powder taste as good as their pre workout products.

Alpha Lion's taste is great, but they are an example of a company that as they've grown they've really scaled their formulas back to be able to focus on taste, meaning that they don't use any ingredients that could make it hard to flavor their products.

I definitely understand why they do it - bc we're in an age where to the general consumer, taste is more important than results in a lot of cases.

That's a constant challenge as a brand for flavored products - many ingredients have unique, sometimes not good tastes and can be hard to flavor, so when trying to flavor a product, brands have to choose between providing the best product and providing the best tasting product in a lot of cases.

We're going through that now with flavor sampling on a lot of things. I want to provide the best products, but there's no point in doing that if they won't sell because of the taste.

 

[Joshlm69]

Alpha Lion's taste is great, but they are an example of a company that as they've grown they've really scaled their formulas back to be able to focus on taste, meaning that they don't use any ingredients that could make it hard to flavor their products.

I definitely understand why they do it - bc we're in an age where to the general consumer, taste is more important than results in a lot of cases.

That's a constant challenge as a brand for flavored products - many ingredients have unique, sometimes not good tastes and can be hard to flavor, so when trying to flavor a product, brands have to choose between providing the best product and providing the best tasting product in a lot of cases.

We're going through that now with flavor sampling on a lot of things. I want to provide the best products, but there's no point in doing that if they won't sell because of the taste.

I actually looked into getting your preworkout Steve, but the only ones were the Swole caps, and I wanted a powdered PWO form rather than caps. Are you planning on releasing a powdered PWO?

 

[sns8778]

I actually looked into getting your preworkout Steve, but the only ones were the Swole caps, and I wanted a powdered PWO form rather than caps. Are you planning on releasing a powdered PWO?

We have a great powder pre-workout under Muscle Addiction, Pump Addict Ultra Hardcore.

https://muscleaddiction.com/product/pump-addict-ultra-hardcore/

We will have powdered pre-workouts coming out later in the year under both SNS and CEL if all goes well.

 

[LeanEngineer]

We have a great powder pre-workout under Muscle Addiction, Pump Addict Ultra Hardcore.

https://www.strongsupplementshop.com/pump-addict-ultra-hardcore-by-muscle-addiction

We will have powdered pre-workouts coming out later in the year under both SNS and CEL if all goes well.

View attachment 241331View attachment 241332

Definitely a good pre for sure!

https://www.strongsupplementshop.com/pump-addict-ultra-hardcore-by-muscle-addiction

 

[Joshlm69]

Back & Biceps Day 45
Workout Time : 1 hour 13mins
Cardio : 0mins

Solid session just had to drop weight on a few things just to ease the tension on my bicep (seated row & bicep movements).

Actually took a full scoop of All Out Sweat stim preworkout and yeah, as much as the energy was amazing, I felt like I had anxiety all day haha. Little bit of trouble falling asleep last night, but will just half scoop tomorrow and see if thats ok. I do want to try and enjoy the fat burning properties of the PWO so will give it another shot, bit silly jumping straight into the full dose on my behalf

 

[Joshlm69]

Legs & Biceps Day 46
Workout Time : 1 hour 30mins
Cardio : 19mins

Fasted workout today & every session forward will be fasted also as I'm starting to cut for the future holidays. Took 1/2 a scoop of No Sweat & 1 scoop of Alpha Lion, felt great, no crash, no anxiety today.

Bicep still continues to heal daily, these are great products Steve.

It'll be 12 weeks on the 19th of this month, so will be ending the log there. Will make a separate thread for my continuation of workouts/thoughts etc and would love all you regulars to come and join. I will be trying out some new supplements but M-Test will definitely be a daily year round supplement for me. I cant choose between Optimize-T & Mtest as they are both fantastic, but M-Test is so much cheaper, just makes it very affordable to run year round!

 

[Joshlm69]

Shoulder's & Triceps Day 47
Workout Time : 1 hour 33mins
Cardio : 14mins

Load's of Front & Rear Delt PB's today which is crazy considering the injuries they've sustained recently & the fact I'm working out fasted. Side Delts still arent as strong as they were pre-injury but, you can't have everything in life .

 

[LeanEngineer]

Rear Delt PB

Gotta get those shoulders capped!

 

[Joshlm69]

Back & Biceps Day 48
Workout Time : 44mins
Cardio : 0mins

Didn't have time to gym properly today as had a lot of plans on, but managed to sneak in a quick session. Felt like I almost did nothing as I'm so used to 1 hour 30 sessions. Busy busy weekend

 

[Joshlm69]

Comparison photos now I'm on the last week of the run. Weight gain has been about +5kg during the run (11lbs). Only side I've noticed while being on is back acne, but I think thats also due to me upping my cardio the last couple of weeks and being more sweaty / night sweats occuring.

 

[Joshlm69]

Chest & Triceps Day 49
Workout Time : 1 hour 18mins
Cardio : 15mins

No Spotter today for chest so had to take it easy on flat bench, just don't feel comfortable going for 95kg without a spotter. Zero shoulder discomfort anymore which is great, biceps are basically fully healed also. Happy strength is remaining consistent despite training fasted.

4 more days left on this run, extremely pleased overall

 

[LeanEngineer]

just don't feel comfortable going for 95kg without a spotter

That's the biggest benefit about having a lifting partner is you can always go to failure and not worry

 

[BCseacow83]

I think the days of me lifting anything “heavy” are over, if I can get back to 100kg for 2 sets of 8 I’ll be ecstatic.
Modern bodybuilding is weird these days. When I was younger, being able to bench 225 for reps meant you were fairly strong. Now every 18 year old on social media can easily bench 3 plates

They also have all been on sarms since 15ish and now are ordering their tren via IG/TT/Snap, so ya things have changed lol. When I got started out you were NOT getting jack from the guys at the gym until you proved you were serious, and that took YEARS.

 

[sns8778]

They also have all been on sarms since 15ish and now are ordering their tren via IG/TT/Snap, so ya things have changed lol. When I got started out you were NOT getting jack from the guys at the gym until you proved you were serious, and that took YEARS.

Yeah, things have changed, and not in a good way. So many are looking for the quick fix way which sounds good when they're young and think they're invincible, but its going to cause a ton of health issues for them down the road.

 

[cronikgains]

They also have all been on sarms since 15ish and now are ordering their tren via IG/TT/Snap, so ya things have changed lol. When I got started out you were NOT getting jack from the guys at the gym until you proved you were serious, and that took YEARS.

To be fair, when I was 21 (2011) - I was able to buy H Drol and a few others on Amazon... that was pretty convenient. I bought CEL H Drol from Amazon multiple times. Loved that stuff.

 

[Joshlm69]

Legs &Biceps Day 50
Workout Time : 1 hour 14mins
Cardio : 15mins

Feel like on leg extensions I'm sacrificing form in order to move up each week, so tested some lighter weights today with stricter form. Think I'll stay at 80kg just to really get a good squeeze at the top, then move back up in weights slowly. Biceps felt very sore today prior to working them out at the end so was cautious. Tried 50kg preacher curls but on the first rep my bicep said no, so moved back down. Hopefully it'll be fully recovered in a couple of weeks.

Definitely noticing a drop in my energy with the fasted training & dropping my calories by 500 a day. Ideally my body will adjust to the change as I'm finding myself more tired when working in the morning after training

 

[LeanEngineer]

drop in my energy with the fasted training & dropping my calories

Whenever I drop calories I typically will always increase my caffeine intake. Maybe an extra cup of coffee mid day to keep the energy going.

 

[Joshlm69]

Shoulders&Triceps Day 51
Workout Time : 1 hour 41mins
Cardio : 15mins

Still PB'ing shoulders every session which is crazy, especially fasted. I actually changed my rear delts today to training each delt one at a time, but facing sideways instead of head on, for maximum stretch (credit to Jeff Nippard). The stretch was insane and felt the engagement of my rear delts way more.

Not sure why today took so long, I did have a few convos in the gym but, its way too long. I dont want to start dropping volume but might need too at this rate.

Shoulders are in agony, so a solid session in the bag, slapping the Curcuprime on as we speak.

 

[Joshlm69]

Back & Biceps Day 52
Workout Time : 1 hour 30mins
Cardio : 0mins

Session went great, lifts still going up on all fronts. Only 1 set of the lat pulldowns as it aggrevated my shoulder & I didn't want to take the risk. Headphones ran out so no cardio today.

That's the last day of the 12 week log! Will post final thoughts below

 

[Joshlm69]

FINAL REVIEW

12 Week Optimize-T/M-Test Run

Price:
M-Test - 10/10
Optimize-T - 7/10

As a UK customer, we pay quite a lot more on US products. M-Test is most definitely cheap enough to run as a year round supplement, which I shall be doing; however when coupled with Optimize-T which is a bit dearer, it becomes too expensive for me personally to run year round.

General Health:

Feel Good : 10/10 - This is where the products shined most for me. I felt amazing mentally daily, very motivated, never sluggish or lethargic.
Libido : N/A - I did not notice any change in libido. My nether regions were definitely a lot more plump than before, but no libido boost for me. I believe I am an outlier here as I do not respond to libido products.

Body Recomp : 10/10 - Putting on 11lbs of lean mass in 11 weeks was mind-blowing to me, especially as I lost a decent amount of fat. The amount of muscle I was able to pack onto my back/delts felt almost too good to be true. Definitely exceeded my expectations, and to be honest I didn't think I'd have anywhere near results this good on a natural stack; especially as I opt out of doing the big compound lifts. ( See Page 4 for all Recomp comparison pics)

Strength : 10/10

Notable Lift difference in 12 weeks:

Flat bench - 70kg for 8 to 95kg for 5 - (+55lbs)
Seated Row - 80kg for 8 - 110kg for 8 - (+66lbs)
Shoulder Press - 60kg for 12 - 100kg for 10 - (+88lbs)
Vertical Leg Press - 90kg for 8 - 140kg for 8 - (+110lbs)

Some of these PB's were pre injury but most of them occurred in week 11/12. Note that I was training before starting this log, just not consistently at all, so its even more impressive it didn't occur after a long break from the gym.

General Overview: If you can afford to run these supplements year round I believe it would be a great idea for any natty gym goer looking to feel great on a daily basis while having a steady recomp. I believe I could have far exceeded the gains made on this stack, however I injured myself quite a lot during this run, mainly due to overtraining in the beginning, leaving some lingering injuries.

Thanks to all of you for supporting me on this log, there were days where I definitely would not have gone to the gym if I wasn't logging, but didn't want to let you guys down! I hope this log has been a solid representation of the great products Steve has been putting out!

 

[sns8778]

Thanks for the very detailed log and final review.

I love both M-Test and Optimize-T. On our side (the US), there's a 10.00 price difference between them, so I think that's a lot closer in price than it is on yours.

 

[LeanEngineer]

I see a lot of 10/10s on that final review! Can't beat both of those stacked together when it comes to natty products!