DT's ReceptorMax/Beast Building Log

Training Logs
41

[quote]PonceDeLeon wrote:
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.[/quote]

Twice a day workouts are awesome. I have only ever done them for cutting so I can’t really comment on their effectiveness for mass phases, but I have heard good things.

If you haven’t read it yet, I know CT has some good stuff in his “Black Book of Training Secrets” on this topic, and probably has some stuff floating around this site as well.

I know one of the things he recommends is to focus on the heavy compound exercises in the AM session and lighter isolation exercises in the PM session, ideally having at least 4-6 hours between sessions. He also suggests working the same muscle groups in both sessions in order to maximize muscle trauma and subsequent recovery.

If you are looking to improve specific lifts, a you may want to perform the same exercise twice in one day, doing many low rep sets in the AM and one or two super high rep sets in the PM. So if you wanted to incorporate sets of 100, a good example of this may be:

Bench press
80% of 1RM x 5 x 5 - AM session
10% of 1RM x 1 x 100 - PM session

(Obviously, other assistance exercises would be performed in addition to the above)

Also, please note that I just made this up and is not part of any program that I am aware of. Rather, it is just an idea of how one might incorporate sets of 100 into their plan.

Either way, spending more time in the gym always makes me feel awesome. Good luck!

42

Day Fifteen:

Post #100 here on T-Nation!

Well now that’s over…

Good day in the gym today. Decided that I LOVE to do heavy singles. Not really much else to say - I felt like kicking ass and taking names when I woke up this morning and that’s exactly what I did.

My “ass-kicking” workout went as follows:

Bench press
175 x 4
195 x 2
215 x 1 x 10
Squat
200 x 4
245 x 2
275 x 1
280 x 1
285 x 1 x 7
Barbell row
135 x 4
185 x 2
205 x 1
210 x 1
215 x 10

Nothing fancy, but highly satisfying.

I really don’t feel like doing anything right now so I think I’ll just take it easy and watch some football. Peace out.

43

Day Sixteen:

I hate to say this without having the measurements to back it up, but, I look and feel leaner than I did last week. This may just be my head messing with me, and I may have finally drank the Kool-Aid, but I honestly think I am starting to see some improvements in body composition. This is of course, in no small part due to the fact that I am busting ass in the gym and adhering to about 99% dietary compliance.

Speaking of busting ass in the gym, today’s workout:

A1) Deadlift isometric hold
8s hold, 90s rest
A2) Power clean from hang
155 x 5, 90s rest
Repeat for 7 sets total
B1) Back squat isometric hold
8s hold, 90s rest
B2) Jump squat
90 x 8, 90s
Repeat for 7 sets total
C1) Bench press isometric hold
8s hold, 90s rest
C2) Speed bench press
135 x 5, 90s rest
Repeat for 7 sets total

No lifting tomorrow, so hopefully I will be able to get some MMA training in at lunch. I know there’s some sort of competition at work tomorrow so hopefully I can break free for a bit to make some time for self-improvement.

44

Day Seventeen:

Long, stressful day. My boss totally sabotaged my workout today by announcing an impromptu meeting at 1:30 (right in the middle of my lunch hour), so on short notice I basically had about 20 minutes to de-stress on the heavy bag before having to run back to work for a worthless meeting that lasted a whole 5 minutes. To make it worse, I was already having a shit day so of course not being able to get the lead out made it ten times worse than it otherwise would have been. Still kind of pissed about that if it’s not abundantly clear by now.

At least it wasn’t on a lifting day. That would not be pretty.

Looking forward to heavy singles again tomorrow and watching the Ultimate Fighter tonight, so I guess all is not bad after all.

Tomorrow is a new day.

45

Day Eighteen:

They’re retiring Vanilla Surge!? How am I supposed to grow now? I seriously love that stuff - it’s the only flavor I’ve ordered in the past year. At least the clearance price was ridiculously cheap and thus allowed me to stock up for the next six months or so. We’ll see what they come out with by the time I get through it all…

Enough ranting though, today’s workout went as follows:

Push press
145 x 4
170 x 2
185 x 1 x 10
Sumo deadlift
275 x 4
350 x 5
405 x 1 x 9
Pull-up (medium grip)
BW x 4
233 (BW +50) x 1 x 14

Not really a fan of doing single-rep pull-ups, but it’s still kind of cool to use that much weight and have virtually no fatigue after the 20 minutes are up.

Off day tomorrow then back at it Saturday.

46

Day Nineteen:

Another long day at the office. TGIF! I managed to get out for about an hour at lunch and do some bag work, again focusing more on technique than anything else (I need to save all of the energy I can to build muscle), but it was a much needed stress reliever nonetheless.

On the bright side, I got a compliment on my shoulders today. It was actually quite funny since it came from one of my MALE co-workers, who is also an avid lifter. It went something along the lines of:

(Looking around to see if anyone is within earshot)

“Bro, no homo, but I think your delts are getting bigger. Must be those heavy military presses you were doing the other day.”

It made me feel good, like all this work is starting to pay off.

No homo.

47

Day Twenty:

For the first time since I started this log, I had a below-par day in the gym. Normally this would bug me as I hate to fall short of my own expectations, but what makes it worse is that I can’t put my finger on why I had a bad day - I got plenty of sleep last night, I haven’t cheated on my diet, and my mood has been pretty positive lately aside from a few work-related things here and there. It just wasn’t the best of days and that happens.

Today’s workout went as follows:

A1) Partial bench press
225 x 5 (warm-up set)
260 x 5
265 x 5
270 x 4
265 x 4
260 x 4
A2) Negative Bench press
245 x 1 (warm-up set)
305 x 1, 120s rest
Repeat working sets for 5 sets total
B1) Partial sumo deadlifts
365 x 5 (warm-up set)
425 x 3
405 x 5, 120s rest
B2) Negative conventional deadlift
365 x 1 (warm-up set)
425 x 1, 120s rest
Repeat working sets for 5 sets total
C1) Partial pull-up (medium grip)
238 x 5 (BW + 55) x 4
238 x 4
C2) Negative pull-up (medium grip)
263 x 1 (BW + 80)
Repeat for 5 total sets
D) Bench press
45 x 200
E) Squat
BW x 200
F) Seated cable row
50 x 200

Just felt kind of off today. I only managed to get 3 reps on my first set of rack pulls which really pissed me off since I was able to get 5 pretty easily last time, so I dropped the weight in order to get the reps in. Still, I managed to grind through the workout for what it’s worth. Tomorrow is an off day so plenty of time to recover before hitting the weights again on Monday.

48

Day Twenty-One:

Weekly weigh-in:

Weight: 183 lbs
Waist: 32.12"

After two weeks straight with no gain in weight or (change is n waist size) it’s definitely time to bump up the calories a bit. In order to accomplish this, I will be adding about 300-400 kcals per day this week.

The majority of these calories will be in the form of carbs and protein before and after training on lifting days, protein and carbs in the mornings on non-training days, and protein, EFA’s, and MUFA’s on my low-carb day. Hopefully this will lead to an increase in scale weight after this week. If not, I will just keep increasing my energy intake until I start to notice results.

Time to go eat something.

49

Excellent discipline. I’m impressed.

Now, have you felt an increase in hunger? Anything you think you could attribute to the ReceptorMax?

50

[quote]PonceDeLeon wrote:
Excellent discipline. I’m impressed.

Now, have you felt an increase in hunger? Anything you think you could attribute to the ReceptorMax?[/quote]

As a rule I am pretty much always hungry. I figure it’s due to the fact that I eat every 2 hours without fail and therefore my body is processing food all day and revving up my metabolism, but that’s just a guess really.

I actually have noticed that despite consuming a TON of calories during the peri-workout window, I still get insanely hungry right around that time. Now like I said, I am always hungry, but around this time it is at a ridiculous rate. The reason I bring this up is that I take 3 ReceptorMax caps right before my workout, as recommended. I know it is probably normal to be hungry around this time, but considering the amount of calories I am taking in, it does seem kind of strange.

For example, my typical peri-workout food/supplement intake consists of the following:

3 ReceptorMax caps 30 min prior to workout
5g BCAA, 5g Creatine, and 2g Vitamin C 15 min prior to workout

1 scoop Surge immediately before workout - 165 kcal
2 scoops Surge + 40g BCAA during workout - 330 kcal
2 scoops Surge + 5g Creatine immediately after workout - 330 kcal

Solid meal one hour later consisting of the following (it is always exactly the same):

1 Chicken Breast (8 oz) - 220 kcal
1 Cup Chick Peas - 220 kcal
1/2 Cup Brown Rice - 110 kcal
1 Scoop Mass XXX Protein - 185 kcal

So that’s over 1,500 calories (all from protein and carbs) within a two hour window and I am seriously hungry within a fifteen minutes to a half hour of eating this. I can honestly say that the hour and a half between right after eating my solid PWO meal and my first meal after that (lunch #2) is the high point of my day in terms of hunger, usually to the point where all I can think about is food.

Now like I said before, it is normal for me to be hungry all time time, but most of my meals fall within the 400-600 kcal range. I also NEVER remember being this hungry before, but this could also be due to a revved up metabolism (which may very well be a result of ReceptorMax).

On a side note, I actually just ate before starting this post and took 1 cap before that. I am really hungry right now so probably not a coincidence either.

Sorry for the extremely long post to answer a seemingly simple question, but really the answer wasn’t as simple as I thought it would be.

51

Day Twenty-two:

Beast Mode!

That’s pretty much been my mantra over the past few days since one of my co-workers showed me this video of Marshawn Lynch hijacking his teammate’s interview:

So basically anytime I need to get in the zone, be it for lifting, work, or whatever, I just propel myself into “Beast Mode.” Hopefully Marshawn Lynch doesn’t join the Nation and try to sue my ass!

Anyhow, I decided that I needed to go into Beast Mode today after having a below-par workout on Saturday, so that’s exactly what I did. Rather than stick to the 90% recommendation for the unload in week 4 of the program, I decided to work up to 95% while still keeping the volume low (half the number of reps in week 3). So I was basically following the program, just heavier, and it felt great. Sorry to deviate from the plan, CT.

“Beast Mode” workout as follows:

Bench press
175 x 4
195 x 2
215 x 1
220 x 1
225 x 1
230 x 1
235 x 1
Squat
200 x 4
245 x 2
275 x 1
285 x 1
295 x 1
305 x 1
315 x 1
Barbell row
135 x 4
185 x 2
205 x 1
210 x 1
215 x 1
220 x 1
225 x 1 x 4

Good day. I am really excited to start doing reps again, hopefully with much heavier weight than I am used to. I am fully confident this will happen as the past few weeks the weight has just been going up like there’s nothing to it.

I think I will repeat the 95% protocol on Thursday as well, just to make sure there are no imbalances (and it’s damn fun to lift heavy). I will also be at my grandparent’s house for Thanksgiving (already found a gym that’s open that day), which means unless I want to be completely anti-social my PWO meal will contain mashed potatoes, and although I am on a bulk right now I don’t want to get fat. This means it’s do or die in the gym!

Stay tuned.

52

Day Twenty-three:

Sort of a de-loading day today. I basically kept the weights the same as last week and dropped down to the original number of sets that I did in week one. I figure that the decrease in volume should provide a sufficient break for my nervous system while allowing me to still get a good amount of work in.

Also, perhaps the increase in energy intake and decrease in energy expenditure will help gains.

Anyhow, today’s workout went as follows.

A1) Deadlift isometric hold
9s hold, 90s rest
A2) Power clean from hang
155 x 5, 90s rest
Repeat for 6 sets total
B1) Back squat isometric hold
9s hold, 90s rest
B2) Jump squat
90 x 8, 90s
Repeat for 6 sets total
C1) Bench press isometric hold
9s hold, 90s rest
C2) Speed bench press
135 x 5, 90s rest
Repeat for 6 sets total

Heading down to my grandparents’ place for Thanksgiving tomorrow so hopefully I will be able to keep this updated while I am gone. I already scoped out the gym scene and have all my food and supplements packed so not worried about things on that end. Really, the only thing I am worried about is having to spend 3 days with my extended family.

Wish me luck.

53

Out of curiosity, do you have any SMR or stretching routines that you do on off days?

Good luck with the family and have a safe holiday. And please, try to eat well (read: stuff yourself).

54

[quote]PonceDeLeon wrote:
Out of curiosity, do you have any SMR or stretching routines that you do on off days?

Good luck with the family and have a safe holiday. And please, try to eat well (read: stuff yourself).[/quote]

Thanks! Although I’m not sure if I am mentally prepared to just go all out at the dinner table on Thursday, I am definitely looking forward to eating turkey and cranberry sauce (that’s a good PWO meal, right?)

I do have a stretching program that I practice 3 times per week, either in the gym before my MMA training on “off” days, or at home on Sundays (which is my only true “off” day, I guess). It’s basically a 10 minutes warm-up session that focuses on total body stretching for injury prevention, as well as some MMA specific stretches, most of which are designed to increase flexibility in the lower body, especially the hip area, so you can lock in triangles and body locks more quickly and effectively. On occasion, I will also perform extended stretching along the lines of Mike Robertson’s “Hardcore Stretching” articles. Truthfully, this probably only happens about once a month, though.

As far as SMR goes, I will admit that after reading your post I had to run a search to find out what you were talking about. So the short answer is no, the long answer is that I plan to start when I get back from Thanksgiving. Although I had to look up the term, I have read about SMR numerous times, both on and off of this site. I am well aware of what it is as well as the associated benefits, so I guess I really don’t have an excuse not to be doing it. That said, I plan to start incorporating some SMR work as well as some exercises to work my Transverse Abdominus after work on my “off” days when I get back as I think it would pose some good benefits to where I am at this point in my training. So thanks for the kick in the ass!

On that note, is this something that you are currently doing? If so, how much time do you typically spend doing it and what sort of benefits have you seen? Any advice is always appreciated.

55

We are the same height with a similar build, I will be interested in following your progress.

56

Day Twenty-four:

After spending 7 hours in a car with my immediate family, I was relieved to discover that our hotel has some sort of deal work out with the Gold;s Gym down the street, so all I need to do is show my room key and I have full access to their facilities while I am here. Score.

No lifting today, but I went over to check it out for tomorrow. This place is pretty sweet - they’ve got just about every machine ever made, along with a basketball and racquetball court. It’s a little commercial for my liking, but it’s got some cool things going for it (there are leather couches and high def TV’s in the locker room).

Smacked around the racquetball for an hour or so with my cousin to get over being stuck in a car all day. Heavy singles and turkey tomorrow.

57

Day Twenty-five:

Thanksgiving day. Luckily, the Gold’s gym across from my hotel was open until 2 today, which allowed me to time my lifting about as well as I could to ensure that whatever I ate for Thanksgiving dinner would be within the 60 to 90 minute post-workout recovery window.

Speaking of workouts:

Push press
140 x 4
170 x 2
185 x 1
190 x 1
195 x 1
200 x 1
205 x 1
Sumo deadlift
275 x 4
350 x 5
405 x 1
415 x 1
425 x 1
435 x 1 (miss)
425 x 1
Pull-up (medium grip)
BW x 4
208 (BW +25) x 3
218 (BW +35) x 2
228 (BW +45) x 1
233 (BW +50) x 1
238 (BW +55) x 1
243 (BW +60) x 1
248 (BW +65) x 1
253 (BW +70) x 1
258 (BW +75) x 1

+15 minutes of beach work
Dumbbell Bench press
65 x 12
70 x 10
75 x 8
Dumbbell Row
100 x 12
110 x 10
120 x 8

(Hey, I consider chest and back to be “beach” muscles.)

I am pretty disappointed that I missed the 435 pull, but I think it was really due to technique than anything else (not that it makes it any better, but I know I could have gotten it with a better set-up).

My workout was accompanied the by usual pre-, during-, and post-workout Surge, and about an hour later it was time to feast on turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, and cranberry sauce. I couldn’t watch it being prepared because I knew it was probably all swimming in butter, but nonetheless I ate like a king.

Throughout the entire meal, my non-immediate, highly overweight (I still love them though!) family commented how if they ate like me, they would weight 500 pounds and I must be some kind of genetic freak. I just stuffed my face with food to prevent yelling at them and thought about hitting 435 the next time I deadlift.

Happy Thanksgiving.

58

Day Twenty-six:

Black Friday basically consisted of trying to avoid shopping areas while simultaneously not spending too much time with family (not to sound like a dick, but I would guess most people are familiar with these types of situations). The result was spending a ton of time in the gym despite the fact that I had no scheduled lifting.

The gym here doesn’t have a heavy bag so all I was able to do in terms of MMA training was some light shadow boxing, then moved on to mobility work. I seriously did about an hour of foam rolling, stretching, unilateral bodyweight exercises, etc. Really different from what I normally do and probably much needed.

59

Day Twenty-seven:

What a day! We decided to drive back home at 8:00 this morning and I had a nuch we’d get stuck in traffic, so I basically woke up at the crack of dawn in order to get breakfast and lifting in before heading out. You know it’s early when even your grandparents aren’t awake yet.

Early morning workouts are really not my thing, but it seemed to go alright, all things considered:

A1) Partial bench press
225 x 5 (warm-up set)
245 x 5
255 x 5
265 x 5
275 x 4, 120s rest*
A2) Negative Bench press
245 x 1 (warm-up set)
315 x 1, 120s rest
Repeat working sets for 4 sets total
B1) Partial sumo deadlifts
365 x 5 (warm-up set)
425 x 5, 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)
C2) Negative pull-up (medium grip)
263 x 1 (BW + 80)
Repeat for 4 total sets
D) Bench press
50 x 100
E) Squat
65 x 100
F) Seated cable row
50 x 100

*Sets of 100 done all the way through, without stopping.

Now, usually after a good workout I enjoy sitting down at my desk or on the train for a while. After this particular workout I was stuck in a car for 10 hours… it was a little excessive.

I will hit the four week marker tomorrow and am excited to see where I stand.

60

This is everything a training log should be. I’ll be really interested in your results, I’m planning to hit Beast Building later next year. The ReceptorMax review will be useful too. Thanks for sticking to it.