You are still taking the leucine, though? How frequently do you take it?
Are you taking ReceptorMax at the recommended dose and spacing it as suggested throughout the day?
You’ve only been on ReceptorMax for a week. I’d say give it another 1-2 weeks.
How much of your protein comes from powders?
[quote]PonceDeLeon wrote:
You are still taking the leucine, though? How frequently do you take it?
Are you taking ReceptorMax at the recommended dose and spacing it as suggested throughout the day?
You’ve only been on ReceptorMax for a week. I’d say give it another 1-2 weeks.
How much of your protein comes from powders?[/quote]
Hey Ponce,
Yes, I am still taking Leucine. I take it four times per day, as recommended, at breakfast, with my pre-workout meal, post-workout meal, and bedtime shake.
Yes, I am taking the recommended dose of ReceptorMax - 6 caps per day. On lifting days this entails one before breakfast, three before working out, one before my post-workout meal (the one after my post-workout Surge), and one before dinner. Non-workout days it works out to be two before breakfast, two before lunch, and two before dinner as this is pretty evenly spaced out and all before larger meals.
As stated in the first post of this thread, I plan to take ReceptorMax for the full three months of the program and will do so as outlined. The point of my post yesterday was not to complain about lack of progress, but simply to state that I do not expect to see any noticeable results after only one week, because, in my opinion, it is simply not enough time to realistically expect any significant changes. Besides, you yourself stated in the discussion forum that one would need to give it at least an 8 week run to be fair before coming to any sort of accurate conclusions (and I agree).
Finally, I eat 8 meals per day, 9 if you include my peri-workout Surge on training days. Of these 8 meals, 4 are solid meals and 4 are shakes. Solid meals consist of eggs, beef, chicken, and sometimes fish. The rest are whey/casein blends, usually combined with healthy fats (EVOO, mixed nuts, fish oil, flax oil, etc). So let’s say about half of my protein consumption is from liquid/powder and the other half is complete, animal-based protein.
I am always open to people’s suggestions on training and nutrition, but rest assured, I am not a beginner and I know what I am doing. There is no magic pill, no matter how much we wish there could be. All we can hope for is something that will expedite the process, then pay the price and continue to bust ass to earn every pound of muscle and that’s exactly what I intend to do.
Day Eight:
Continued to kill it in the gym today, which was actually a big surprise considering I got a less-than-desirable amount of sleep last night due to some extra curricular activities. Either way I felt like a beast in the gym and am hitting the sack early tonight to help compensate.
Workout details as follows:
Bench press
175 x 4
200 x 2 x 10
Squat
185 x 4
225 x 3
260 x 2 x 9
Barbell row
145 x 4
190 x 2 x 13
Great day today and really looking forward to the Isometric/Explosive day tomorrow. Time to get some rest.
I can definitely tell you know what you are doing. I admire your adherence to the plan and overall sense of discipline.
I expect good things from this log and want to see you succeed. I’ll keep checking back.
Cheers.
Day Nine:
My roommate blew a fuse in the apartment today and for some reason we cannot seem to fix it with the conventional flick-it-one-way-then-the-other-way method, so after a little bit of craftiness I am writing this post on stolen internet. My TV still won’t turn on, but that may be a good thing (at least until the Ultimate Fighter tomorrow at which point if it’s not fixed I may have to put a hurtin’ on someone).
Kick-ass day in the gym went as follows:
A1) Deadlift isometric hold
7s hold, 90s rest
A2) Power clean from hang
145 x 5, 90s rest
Repeat for 7 sets total
B1) Back squat isometric hold
7s hold, 90s rest
B2) Jump squat
75 x 8, 90s
Repeat for 7 sets total
C1) Bench press isometric hold
7s hold, 90s rest
C2) Speed bench press
125 x 5, 90s rest
Repeat for 7 sets total
As an aside, it’s starting to annoy me when people ask me what the hell I am doing when I am deadlifting/squating/benching in a power rack against a set of pins and they look at me as though I am mildly retarded. I just tell them they wouldn’t understand and think about all of the strength and size gains that I will soon experience that they also “wouldn’t understand.”
Off day tomorrow.
[quote]PonceDeLeon wrote:
I can definitely tell you know what you are doing. I admire your adherence to the plan and overall sense of discipline.
I expect good things from this log and want to see you succeed. I’ll keep checking back.
Cheers.[/quote]
Thank you for the kind words. I am happy to see that someone is actually interested in my results, whatever the reasons may be. It helps me to continue pushing harder every day, both in and out of the gym.
[quote]Dan Thompson wrote:
PonceDeLeon wrote:
I can definitely tell you know what you are doing. I admire your adherence to the plan and overall sense of discipline.
I expect good things from this log and want to see you succeed. I’ll keep checking back.
Cheers.
Thank you for the kind words. I am happy to see that someone is actually interested in my results, whatever the reasons may be. It helps me to continue pushing harder every day, both in and out of the gym.
[/quote]
He’s not the only one…I’ll be watching ;0
Day Ten:
No lifting today, just a lot of clean eating and recovering. Normally, I would at least go to the gym and do some recovery work, but I had to attend a training session for work on my lunch hour so I didn’t even get to do that! (Although they did provide us with lunch, which I didn’t eat due to a conflict of nutritional interests).
I haven’t been sore at all this week. I figure the reason I was last week is probably due to not having lifted so close to my max in a while. Either way, things are going well, and so far as planned.
Tomorrow is more heavy doubles and I plan to completely kill it, so there’s something to look forward to!
P.S. Power has returned to the apartment and there is much anticipation of watching UFC tonight. Thank god for MMA.
[quote]Trenchant wrote:
He’s not the only one…I’ll be watching ;0[/quote]
Again, thanks for the support. I really hope to come away from this with some awesome results to share with this forum and the community. This site has given me more knowledge and helped change my life for the better than I ever thought possible.
I think it would be arrogant to say that posting results on an internet thread is “giving back,” or anything along those lines, but the more information that is out there, the better people can make their own intelligent, informed decisions.
Day Eleven:
Absolutely exhausted! I’ve been staying late at work all this week and it’s really starting to take its toll on me. Unfortunately, I didn’t manage to get much sleep last night either due to some drama at the apartment, but despite all of this I still managed to have a pretty good day in the gym.
There’s also nothing from stopping me from being in bed by 9 tonight, so I think that’s just what I’ll do.
Workout details from today’s session:
Push press
145 x 4
170 x 2 x 9
Sumo deadlift
265 x 4
325 x 3
385 x 2 x 8
Pull-up (medium grip)
208 (BW +25) x 2 x 15
Time to make my food for tomorrow and hit the sack.
Stay tuned.
Day Twelve:
What a day! No lifting (as the program recommends), but got some quality stand-up technique in at lunch today. Worked 12 rounds on the heavy bag, everything crisp and clean. Still had tons of energy afterwards, which was intentional so as not to compromise gains.
Went out on the town (Manhattan) tonight with one of my friends from the gym and tore it up. I rarely drink (and didn’t tonight) and honestly think I have more fun when I don’t. A couple notes about going out sober:
I still managed to keep to my diet by bringing food with me to the bar (I actually do this all the time), although it is a little awkward when getting the pat-down from the bouncer he asked me what was in my pockets and I had to reply “Beef jerky and fish oil… I don’t want to go catabolic.” Yes, I am actually that paranoid about my diet.
Night all.
I haven’t drank or smoked in 4 months. I feel fantastic.
I did have a sip of wine at a friend’s, because it was the wine given to him for his wedding and he begged me to have a sip (literally, 1 tbsp). I did but other than that I have not had alcohol in a long time.
I hear you on the bar scene when sober. I just have more fun socializing these days. I am starting to think people drink out of habit of having something in their hands, like if you were to hold a lit cigarette and join a circle of smokers, without even smoking, you’re still “in” somehow. Group think.
I will have to one-up you with the bringing food out to public deal…maybe I’ll sneak in a blender.
Haha, love it.
BTW, getting close to that 405 sumo DL for 8 reps, huh?
[quote]PonceDeLeon wrote:
I am starting to think people drink out of habit of having something in their hands, like if you were to hold a lit cigarette and join a circle of smokers, without even smoking, you’re still “in” somehow. Group think.[/quote]
I completely agree. I think it really comes down to comfort. For example, I feel completely at ease being in a bar without a drink in my hand, but it seems like other people immediately become apprehensive when they see someone operating “outside the norm.” I have literally had good friends of mine tell that I made them feel uncomfortable when we would be out and I wasn’t drinking, so they would give me their empty beer when they were done so I would have something to hold (mostly for their benefit).
If you are comfortable with yourself, you shouldn’t have to fit in to be relaxed and have a good time. Unfortunately, not everybody sees it that way.
You sir, are a champion.
[quote]Trenchant wrote:
Haha, love it.
BTW, getting close to that 405 sumo DL for 8 reps, huh?[/quote]
Depends what you mean by that… Next week is slotted for singles of 405, as many as possible in 20 minutes, in which case I should hit 8 no problem (I am guessing that’s what you meant). As far as pulling 405 for a solid set of 8 reps straight, that would be sick. I am really focusing on strength and size right now (as is probably obvious by my choice of program) and have some decent strength goals I would like to achieve by my birthday in March:
Bench: 275
Squat: 365
Sumo deadlift: 495
I would also like to be able to do a solid set of 8 weighted pull-ups with my own body weight plus 45lbs, which is probably closer than I think right now.
Day Thirteen:
Heavy partials and tendon strengthening today - damn am I shot! By far the toughest day in the gym so far. I literally had to take a nap after my post-workout meal due to all the stress that I had just put myself through. I must admit, I am looking forward to next week when I will go for more reps and more weight.
Next week aside, here’s what I did today:
A1) Partial bench press
225 x 5 (warm-up set)
245 x 5, 120s rest*
A2) Negative Bench press
245 x 1 (warm-up set)
295 x 1, 120s rest
Repeat working sets for 4 sets total
B1) Partial sumo deadlifts
365 x 5 (warm-up set)
425 x 5 x 3
425 x 4, 120s rest
B2) Negative conventional deadlift
365 x 1 (warm-up set)
425 x 1, 120s rest
Repeat working sets for 4 sets total
C1) Partial pull-up (medium grip)
238 x 5 (BW + 55)
238 x 4 x 2
238 x 3
C2) Negative pull-up (medium grip)
263 x 1 (BW + 80)
Repeat for 4 total sets
D) Bench press
50 x 150
E) Squat
65 x 100
BW x 50
F) Seated cable row
45 x 150
*I decided to change the starting point for this movement slightly closer to my sticking point in hopes to see a better carry-over in my max-effort lifts.
I never thought that doing 150 squats could every suck that much. I left the gym over 4 hours ago and I still feel raw (although I am sure the partial sumo deadlifts played a large role in this as well). Also, doing 150 reps of bench and rows will make you feel absolutely incredible. Good stuff.
UFC 91: Lesnar vs Couture tonight. This is going to be great…
Did you do the 150 reps straight through? Or was a rest-pause technique incorporated?
Could you have broken up the 150 reps into sets with rest intervals in between?
Savage workout.
[quote]PonceDeLeon wrote:
Did you do the 150 reps straight through? Or was a rest-pause technique incorporated?
Could you have broken up the 150 reps into sets with rest intervals in between? [/quote]
Taken from the article:
"The second portion of the workout is much simpler. You simply pick one exercise for the movement patterns above and perform 100 to 200 total reps. That’s it.
Note that these reps don’t have to be performed straight through. You can take short pauses of five to ten seconds during the set. Also, pick a very light load. The goal here isn’t to hit muscle failure; this isn’t a muscle-building movement. The objective is simply to increase blood flow and tendon integrity."
So my goal for this part of the session was basically to perform 150 reps of each exercise with near perfect form. For some exercises this required the use of a rest-pause technique, while others I was able to do the set straight through. For example, I was able to get in 90 reps on the bench press before having to take a 5-10 second break, then was able to rep out the last 60, although the last 15 or so were pretty sloppy. Next time I think I will take more rest as necessary in order to ensure better form throughout the set. To be honest though, by the time I got to around 120 my muscles were burning like crazy and I just wanted to push through and finish the set.
I may use just the bar next time and shoot for a set of 200. In contrast, I was able to do 150 reps of cable rows straight through without even breaking a sweat, so I will probably up the weight next time. Squats I had to take about 4-5 breaks, so I will probably drop to bodyweight squats next session.
One thing about this program that I love is that it is very different from “traditional” training programs. Although I have done heavy partials and isometrics in the past, I feel that I am now at a much better place in my training to be incorporating these techniques. Hopefully this will translate to better gains in both size and strength in the coming months.
I have considered lifting twice a day, 3x a week. I currently am doing TBT style routine, 3 days a week.
I might either pick two muscle groups to work with higher reps in the evenings, or just one muscle group to do 100 reps for as my PM workout.
We’ll see.
Day Fourteen:
Weekly weigh-in:
Weight: 183 lbs
Waist: 32.12"
Weighed in this morning the same as last week, but this does not necessarily mean that I am not making progress.
I weighed in at 185 on Thursday with the same scale, so as long as I am not losing weight and have some sort of gradual upward trend each week I consider myself on track. In addition, I also lost 1/8" on my waist, which is always a welcome sign to a FFB like myself.
No real news on the ReceptorMax front, I will continue to post my workouts and progress and see where I stand as I go. Pumped for bench and squats tomorrow - heavy singles are a favorite of mine which I rarely do enough of.