Just Keep Lifting With Endurance BCAA Plus

[ragnar1199]

So I get home from work today and the wife says, "Oh, you got something in the mail today." And I says, "Oh yeahhhh?" She says, "What did you get now?" And I said, " That's what I'm logging next, oh yeah!"

Yup, got the goods today. A big thank you to Formutech Nutrition and their reps for picking me to try this stuff out. I like to use a BCAA product pre and or intra-workout since I usually end up working out 4-5 hours after lunch (I haven't been having afternoon snacks lately). Sometimes I workout first thing in the morning, either on an empty stomach or a while after having a protein shake. I also just like to drink something besides water while working out, so it might as well be a tasty BCAA drink. Here are some pics of the tub I received:





One scoop with 10 ounces of water:



One scoop with 20 ounces of water:




I think how I'll use this is one scoop pre-workout and one scoop during my workout. That's what I did tonight, the pre-workout scoop with 10 oz of water and then a scoop with 20 oz to drink throughout my workout. I'll take a scoop on non-workout days, probably first thing in the morning, to keep the beta-alanine and creatine in my body. I'm not currently taking any other creatine product, I cycled off for about a month, but will be purchasing one soon. I'm also 10 days into a stim break, which is gonna last at least a month. So it's nice for me right now to have a bcaa supp with the added beta-alanine, citrulline and creatine. Speaking of creatine, I don't think I've ever used the form found in this product: creatinol-o-phosphate. Since my only creatine intake right now is from the BCAA Plus, it'll be interesting to see how effective it just takine the 1-2 grams a day.

Anyway, I have to get to bed. I'll be back tomorrow with more info. I'm doing Mike O'Hearn's Power Bodybuiling routine right now, for the most part. I'm at the end of week 7. Hit up some back tonight. Felt pretty good throughout the workout, no problems keeping the momentum going. I would've done an extra set or two here or there, but I just wanted to get in to the house and eat. (I workout at home in my landlord's barn).

Deadlift: 3x490, 3x490, 3x490 (First set done with a pause after each rep, last two were touch and go off the floor)

Dumbbell Row: 10x134, 9x134, 9x134 (I have olympic db handles that are 9 lbs with the collars)

Pulldown: 8x180, 8x180, 8x180 (Done on a cable attachment on an old gold's gym bench)

And I had the wifey take a pic of me when I got in:

[mormonpickett]

deads with 490?? Crappers.

How did ya like the taste of Endurance? I love this stuff

[kingnickandnate]

In to see how it goes

[ragnar1199]

I've been working out for real since I was 19, after I enlisted in the Marine Corps. I have, however, been messing around with weights since I was a little kid, since my dad had some. I graduated high school a measly 157 lbs, at a height of 6' tall. I gained about 30 lbs by the time I was 21, mostly muscle. I've always been pretty lean and have a hard time gaining weight. Those first two years of serious weight training were great, gains slowed after that. I've been as high as 213 lbs, that was like over 4 years ago with some prohormone help. This time last year I was about 208 lbs, or close to it. That's what I weighed at the powerlifting meet I did in April.

Took some time off after that meet, then had a couple injuries not related to the gym that made me ease back into it nice and slow. I weighed 197 lbs yesterday morning, trying to get back over 200, just not eating enough lately. Strength is pretty high, though. Not quite what it was when I did that meet, but close.

Current supplements include:

Dymatize Elite Mass Gainer
Universal Beef Aminos
Glutamine (I get this once in a while, not sure yet if it helps with anything)
Gaspari IntraPro (About 1 scoop left, don't like it. Makes me super gassy. Gotta order something tomorrow)

That's about it, not taking much right now, no creatine or spiffy pre-workout powders. I do have some Magnum Opus that I took a few times before I got the Endurance BCAA, but I'm not taking it right now, although I may combine the two towards the end of this log. Like I said before, I'm doing Mike O'Hearn's Power Bodybuilding routine, found here: http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/mike...k-program.html. I figured I'd give it a go, but I'm not doing the cardio. I don't usually do the 7 sets for squats and deadlifts, usually 3 or 4, and I do 5-7 sets for the incline bench. I start week 8 today.

Anyway, I'm about to suck down a scoop of Endurance BCAA and head out to the barn to lift. I'll be back after the workout. This is my workout area:



I also have an old Gold's Gym weight bench with some attachments for it, as well as olympic dumbbell handles.

Edit: Gotta listen to this first, then go lift:

[mormonpickett]

how'd it taste bud?

[ragnar1199]

how'd it taste bud?

Tastes pretty good. Has a melon flavor. I think it has a slightly off aftertaste, like bitter or something. It's not the best tasting supp I've had, but it is pretty good. Definitely very drinkable. I like it.

[ragnar1199]

Hit chest yesterday. Pretty good workout. Took 1 scoop of Endurance BCAA pre-workout and 1 scoop intra. I get the beta alanine tingles in my face for a bit with the pre-workout scoop, usually about 10-15 minutes after I drink it. A little early yet to talk about effectiveness I think, but I did have a nice chest pump, even after the low rep incline bench, which is sets of 3 reps this week. Also did a couple sets of standing calf raises with a barbell. Haven't been hitting calves much lately, which isn't good because I have tiny calves. Pretty soon I'm gonna start pounding 'em.

Incline Bench Press: 3x265, 3x270, 2x270, 3x265, 3x265

Flat DB Bench: 10x96.5, 10x96.5, 7x96.5, 7x94 (The 3rd set of this exercise is where I start to fall off every week, for like 5 weeks now).

Incline DB Flye: 8x79, 6x79, 7x79

Standing Calf Raise, BB: 22x135, 22x135

Here's a video of the three chest lifts:



And my post workout meal, a 4 egg cheese omellete with home fries, some of which I put in the omellete:

[ganutrition]

Hi Ragnar:
I hope that you like the Endurance. I was reading your intro and one to point one thing out. Creatinol O Phosphate is not actually a creatine. We added it along with Beta Alanine to assist with lactic acid reduction and allowing you to (long story short) be able to increase reps throughout your workout. There is quite a bit of information on it if you would like to google it. I do not want to hijack your thread with a long post on it!!
Thanks

[ragnar1199]

Hi Ragnar:
I hope that you like the Endurance. I was reading your intro and one to point one thing out. Creatinol O Phosphate is not actually a creatine. We added it along with Beta Alanine to assist with lactic acid reduction and allowing you to (long story short) be able to increase reps throughout your workout. There is quite a bit of information on it if you would like to google it. I do not want to hijack your thread with a long post on it!!
Thanks

Hey no problem, thanks for the info. I sort of knew that, I did read up on it a little to familiarize myself with it before I applied to get the product. Well, off to do a leg workout, which I should be posting tonight.

[ragnar1199]

Did legs tonight. Felt really good tonight, for the most part. Last week I was squatting 405 for 3 reps, but realized I was beginning to not go as deep as usual, so I scaled it back to 385 for a couple deep reps, which is the weight I started with tonight. Felt pretty easy, ended up finishing with 395 on the 4th set for 3 deep reps. Then on to 1 leg squats with my rear leg on a block. Felt some pain in my left hamstring doing that, just did two sets. Finished with some leg extensions. I need to get the leg attachment for my new bench. The old one on the old bench just sucks.

My recovery time may be improving. Usually, my body parts are most sore 2 days after a workout. Today is two days since my chest workout, and my chest isn't really sore, which it was yesterday. I'll see what happens with my legs. Tonights workout:

Squat: 3x385, 3x385, 3x390, 3x395

One Leg Squat: 10x135, 10x140

Leg Extension: 10x160, 10x160, 10x160

Post workout meal, some venison stew made in the crock pot today:

[mormonpickett]

how do you like 1 legged squats? I've tried them maybe twice in my life. Do you kick one leg out in front or what? Not sure how to do it and not sure if my knee will explode

[ragnar1199]

how do you like 1 legged squats? I've tried them maybe twice in my life. Do you kick one leg out in front or what? Not sure how to do it and not sure if my knee will explode

I do them with one leg behind me, with my foot on a block. I've tried putting my foot up an a bench, so the top of my foot rests on the bench, but that was too hard and felt weird. So I just put my foot on a block that's like 8-10 inches high, with just my toes and ball of my foot on the block. The rear leg tends to do a little bit of work, especially when going heavier, but the work leg gets a great workout.

Just looked on bb.com, here's how they show it: http://www.bodybuilding.com/exercise...-barbell-squat. That's pretty much how I do it, just on a lower block. I guess I could try it with my toes on the edge of a bench like they show.

[ragnar1199]

Did a delt workout a couple days ago. Went well, I'm becoming fairly certain the Endurance BCAA is improving my recovery time. I started doing seated barbell presses, I was doing them standing but tweaked my neck last week, so I decided to start doing them seated again. I'm only doing upright rows because they are part of the routine I'm doing. I figured, I haven't done them in like 10 years so what the hell, I'll do 'em for a while.

Worked out after plowing snow. You'd think you wouldn't be too tired after sitting in a truck plowing, but it is tiring (and there's some shoveling, too). Had a good workout, though:

Seated BB Press: 8x135, 8x145, 9x145

Wide Grip Upright Row: 8x120, 8x120, 8x120

DB Side Raise: 12x34, 10x34

DB Rear Raise: 12x54, 12x54, 12x54

Also did some ab work.

Second set of BB Press:



First set of side raise:

[ragnar1199]

Had a good arms workout the other day. I made an effort to take shorter rest between sets, and it didn't seem to effect my ability to keep lifting the same weight. Although, for biceps, and barbell curls in particular, I can never seem to do the same amount of reps after the first set. That's pretty much the way I've always been. I guess my biceps don't have a lot of endurance or something.

My left elbow started bothering me doing skullcrushers over the last couple weeks, and this time, I couldn't even warm up with the bar without the elbow hurting. So, I did a couple other exercises and went back to the skullcrushers and was able to do a couple heavy sets without too much pain.

Standing BB Curl: 10x120, 8x120, 7x120

Seated DB Curl: 9x54, 9x54

Standing overhead tricep extension, bb: 12x90, 11x100, 12x100

Skullcrusher: 8x115, 8x115

Preacher curl, (on back side of preacher bench): 12x60, 9x60

Triceps Pushdown: 12x70, 11x80, 10x80

Bout to head out for my back workout, which means some nice video coming soon. Might try to pull 500, we'll see.

[mormonpickett]

glad the endurance is helping with recovery!

[ragnar1199]

Back workout today, so here's a vid of a badass chicky doing some heavy db rows, I know you guys know her:



I had a good workout, reduced my rest times again as compared to last week and still hit it hard (except for the heavy deadlifts, those get 5 min rest between sets). Upped the weight with deads and just a tad with the 3rd set of db rows. As you'll see in the video, my old pulldown attachment flexes quite a bit with the amount of weight I use. I think I use more than it's rated for. Which is why I plan to purchase this attachment for my power rack with some of my tax refund:



And I'll probably buy this for my bench:



Also, I'll probably buy the dip attachment for the rack, too. Here's a vid of my back workout, I know some of you probably think I'm retarded because of how loud I am doing deads, I would never be that loud in the gym, but since I started lifting at home, I make all kinds of noise:



And the workout:

Deads: 3x500, 2x500 Right knee had enough

DB Row: 10x134, 10x134, 10x136.5, 8x136.5

Pulldown: 8x180, 8x180, 8x180

[ragnar1199]

Another bad ass chick:




Hit some chest this morning, didn't do as much volume as usual, but felt good and strong. It was about 15 degrees out there, took a little while to warm up. Kind of felt like I hurt my left inner pec just a tad on the third set of incline press, nothing major, but noticeable, so I was a little hesitant about doing too much after that. Still a good, strong workout. Weights continue to increase.

Incline Bench: 2x270, 2x275, 2x275, 1x275

Flat Dumbbell Bench: 8x99, 9x99

Incline DB Flye: 9x81.5, 8x81.5, 8x81.5

[mormonpickett]

275 on incline aint no joke...

[ragnar1199]

So, I'm liking this supplement so far. It's getting to the point now where I'm noticing my muscles becoming slightly less fatigued. I've been reading more about CoP at various websites, and it looks like a minimum of 2 grams a day is the suggested dose, which would be 2 scoops of Endurance. That's what I'm doing on workout days, once scoop pre and one scoop intra. I'm tempted to purchase more and also purchase some bulk CoP to add a gram of it to the pre-workout dose, as well as doing the intra dose, for a total of 3 grams on workout days.

I do have a problem. I've use 18 scoops of this product. I've noticed that it is almost gone, so I checked to see how much is left. I have just over 3 scoops left, so there were about 22 scoops in the container, not the 30 that it is supposed to have. I know things settle, which is why I always shake my supplement powder containers a couple different times throughout their usage, but being 8 scoops short seems a bit excessive to me.

Now, I'm not saying I'm dissatisfied with the product, as I said, I like it. I like the combo of the bcaas, glutamine, beta alanine and CoP. Actually, I think it's a great combo. But, with it being that low on servings, I'm not sure I would buy it again, so it is a little disappointing. As it stands now, I have enough left for 2 days, so this log is just about done.

[ganutrition]

So, I'm liking this supplement so far. It's getting to the point now where I'm noticing my muscles becoming slightly less fatigued. I've been reading more about CoP at various websites, and it looks like a minimum of 2 grams a day is the suggested dose, which would be 2 scoops of Endurance. That's what I'm doing on workout days, once scoop pre and one scoop intra. I'm tempted to purchase more and also purchase some bulk CoP to add a gram of it to the pre-workout dose, as well as doing the intra dose, for a total of 3 grams on workout days.

I do have a problem. I've use 18 scoops of this product. I've noticed that it is almost gone, so I checked to see how much is left. I have just over 3 scoops left, so there were about 22 scoops in the container, not the 30 that it is supposed to have. I know things settle, which is why I always shake my supplement powder containers a couple different times throughout their usage, but being 8 scoops short seems a bit excessive to me.

Now, I'm not saying I'm dissatisfied with the product, as I said, I like it. I like the combo of the bcaas, glutamine, beta alanine and CoP. Actually, I think it's a great combo. But, with it being that low on servings, I'm not sure I would buy it again, so it is a little disappointing. As it stands now, I have enough left for 2 days, so this log is just about done.

Hi Ragnar:
I appreciate your feedback on the Endurance powder. This is actually the first time that we have ever heard of this. We have to adhere to strict GMP guidelines and follow a set of procedures to stay in compliance. Each bottle is suppossed to be weighed out for gram accuracy. There is always a possiblity of human error of course. What I will be happy to do is have them send you out another bottle that is weighed out to assure compliance on the label. I will also shoot you a PM as well. Hope this helps.
Thanks

[mormonpickett]

Sometimes I throw a scoop in my bottle and its more like a heaping scoop rather than a level scoop. Maybe that's whats happenin with ya?

[supermaz]

thats really wierd man. everything ive gotten has had more than enough, even extra.

i just kinda looked, if you do a heaping scoop (1.15-1.25 scoops) it can bring the servings down about 5 scoops.

keep lifting heavy man. 275 on incline is the real deal!

[ragnar1199]

Sometimes I throw a scoop in my bottle and its more like a heaping scoop rather than a level scoop. Maybe that's whats happenin with ya?

I don't think that's it. I try to stay right on, because I've been doing more logs recently and I have more planned to do, so I've been keeping very good track on the calendar of when I begin each supplement and when it will end, based on how much I'll be using each day.

I'm sure the thought crosses some peoples' minds that I just want to try to scam the company or something, which is completely understandable. However, I've been a member in good standing here for over 8 years now, and I didn't get there by trying to scam companies.

Now, like the title of this post states, I talked to Bruce Davis from Formutech Nutrition on the phone. He PM'ed me his phone number and ask that I call him. That's some pretty damn good customer service right there. He told me that they've been counting scoops in quite a few tubs to check them and he went into good detail about how everything is weighed and how exact everything needs to be. It seems like it's most likely my error, but like I said, I've been keeping track lately of exactly when my supplement usage starts and stops. The one other thing he thought about was the possibility of the wrong size scooper being in the container, but I didn't ask him what the right size was. So just for kicks, if anyone has a tub of Endurance BCAA Plus available, can you check the scoop size? Mine says: 29.6 CC.

Anyway, it was a good conversation and I am impressed with the speed in which this issue was addressed. This level of customer service is fantastic, the issue has been resolved and they pretty much have a customer for life now. I will be purchasing some of their other supplements, starting with Flexible and REM 8.0, and possibly Volatile (just wish it wasn't proprietary blend). Also, the wifey wants to start exercising again, so Lean EFX and Natural EFX are both possibilities for her. Anybody have experience combining Volatile and Endurance BCAA pre-workout?

[ganutrition]

Ragnar: I want to point out that no one should think you were trying to get something from us. I offered and you did not ask. The scoop size is 29.6 so thankfully it is not that. I spoke again to my QC and he did say that ingredients will settle but of course never to that degree. I appreciate you pointing this out because it allows me to keep everyone on their toes! The bottle will go out today. Thanks again for logging Endurance!

[ragnar1199]

Ragnar: I want to point out that no one should think you were trying to get something from us. I offered and you did not ask. The scoop size is 29.6 so thankfully it is not that. I spoke again to my QC and he did say that ingredients will settle but of course never to that degree. I appreciate you pointing this out because it allows me to keep everyone on their toes! The bottle will go out today. Thanks again for logging Endurance!

No sir, thank you.

[supermaz]

anyway..

you training for any meets or anything coming up?

[ragnar1199]

anyway..

you training for any meets or anything coming up?

Not exactly. I would like to do another meet. If I do one this year, it'll be later in the year, maybe the fall. Right now, I'm pretty much obsessed with being at my biggest and strongest come spring time. Actually, I set a few goals for myself, 600 dead, 500 squat and 375 bench by my birthday in June, so that's what I'm training for right now.

It's strange, kind of a sickness, a lot of us are probably twisted, but, I think I'll always feel like the skinny kid I was growing up. I know we don't all feel that way, some of us were fat, some just wanted to be in better shape. For me, I was a skinny weakling in school that got pushed around. Ended up joining the Marine Corps Infantry and hitting the weights hard. So, I'm pretty much dedicated to being bigger and stronger, always.

I will do another meet at some point, either this year or next year. I'm leaning toward this year.

Edit: Glad to see you stopping by in my log. What about you? You doing any meets? My first meet, last year, was with USAPL in Albany, NY.

[mormonpickett]

I've used volatile and endurance together for the past few months actually. Great combo IMO. Never gets old.

Glad the issue was resolved.

How much you deadlifting in your AVI?

[ragnar1199]

Did a bit of legs this afternoon. It was wierd. I was like, in the zone, but at the same time I just wasn't feeling it and wanted to be done. I think the whole thing with the scoops in my container was bugging me and I just wanted to get back in the house and take care of that.

But, I was amped up pretty good while I was working out. As I've said before, I think Endurance BCAA is a good supp and is helping me lift more. My caloric intake hasn't exactly been as high as it should be for me, but I'm still getting stronger every week, meanwhile pretty much keeping the same bodyweight, so that's nice. My workout today:

Squat: 2x400, 2x400, 2x400 Should've tried 405

One Leg Squats: 10x145, 10x145

Leg Extension: 10x175, 10x175 Drop set to 150, 100, 50, 25

My first set of squats, feeling strong, ahhhhh (but could've been a tad deeper):



And another vid from my girl, DLB (I gotta say, whether or not you like bodybuilding chicks, she looks incredible, just an amazing body :



And some real motivation, kill it mother fukcer:

[mormonpickett]

looked plenty low to me and nice and slow