ClearMuscle - BS or BeSt ever Log... Skepticism ftw

[lvsteven]

Hi, my name is Steven Campbell.
I am a former fat guy, fitness and personal performance coach, and I focus mainly on fat loss in my work with clients.
I've decided to pick up a bottle of clear muscle with a left over gift card I have and as long as I'm "in it to win it" I may as well do a real log of this stuff, right?

I am 35 years old
172 lb
Around 15% bodyfat

My goal here is a general recomposition where I can eat my maintenence and see results in the twelve weeks I'll run it.

INTRODUCTION ASIDE I AM A HARSH SKEPTIC OF ALL THINGS SUPPLEMENT BASED.

Sorry, I just am.
Although in the past I jumped on the pre workout train and did logs for different companies, I have since cut my supplement usage down to a simple regiment of fish oil 3g, vitamin d3 2000 iu, and an antioxidant blend.
I also use aloha lipoic acid and acetyl l-carnitine at night.
I fast most days and will use an ec stack if I need to.

With that I will tell you that staring at the bottle of ClearMuscle in a Walmart store led me to research that less to more research that led me to many studies.
This led me to the conclusion that:

A) most of the studies on HMB are on the less studied HMB-fa
B) there are a lot of people that seem to dig this stuff.

Plus, it's cheap. I don't like to spend money on crap that won't work, and the fact that when this launched it would have cost you $210 for three months (the 12 weeks they recommend) seemed outlandish.
The good news is that you can hunt around and find it for for as little as $32.00/bottle shipped now.

So I plan on writing. A lot. The reason is I like to write, but I may it be as good as I think I am and I need the practice.
I also just dig putting my thoughts down and interacting with people.

Part of the science cd based stuff is that I'll be doing intermittent fasting with this. See, I love fasting, be it alternate day fasting like the program in my signature offers or just eating at the end of the day. I can't tell you enough how much it's worked for me in the past.

So there you have it.
The start of a log.

Sorry there is no formatting. Doing this on mobile.
Questions? I got answers.

Ttyl

[lvsteven]

So the workouts for this product... They recommend DUP and even include a template for this on the MuscleTech website.
I am just today coming off a pretty high volume program which is four days a week, but cutting back to 3 and upping intensity isn't a problem.
I'll start this on Monday, and I may or may not log ALL these workouts.

Honestly I find it dry and boring to read a guys workout logs, but I do use an app called jefit and I'll try and post screenshots of the summaries.

The location of that workout is http://www.muscletech.com/trainhard/

[jaredmus]

I'll follow along on this as well , interested to see your thoughts

[holl0309]

Following along. I also do IF and will be starting clear muscle after my cut is done. Interested to see your results and thoughts.

[lvsteven]

I'll follow along on this as well , interested to see your thoughts

Nice. Thank you for the patronage.

[lvsteven]

Following along. I also do IF and will be starting clear muscle after my cut is done. Interested to see your results and thoughts.

Hey nice.
I will keep myself active and hope I get some replies...
It's funny because I'm launching a new website and need content. This supplement seems to split people right down the center.
The "evidence" guys (which I do consider myself more or less) will tell y

Following along. I also do IF and will be starting clear muscle after my cut is done. Interested to see your results and thoughts.

Hey nice.
I will keep myself active and hope I get some replies...
It's funny because I'm launching a new website and need content. This supplement seems to split people right down the center.
The "evidence" guys (which I do consider myself more or less) will tell you to look at the examine.com article that states something along the lines of:

Hmb did increase muscle protein synthesis by 20% and regular leucine by 110%

The main issue with that is they are not actually using the same product, when they compare generic Hmb bound to calcium and this supplement which is the trademark and patented (and those things matter sometimes) FREE ACID version.

I cannot discussed banned stuff but there are versions of NORMAL and legal with a prescription testosterone replacement and then there is d-aspartic acid.

While d-aspartic acid will increase FREE TESTOSTERONE, you may get very few if Amy muscle Building, Fat burning and libido effects, because it does a thing that can be measured with a test, but isn't the same as total testosterone bound to the proper hemoglobin (is it SBHG?), which is what happens with actual testosterone replacement therapies.

So in that lies this area... Guys can say "yea, DAA works man. I tested my blood work. Free test went up!" but what function did that serve?
In this case the answers be "none, zero."

Would a man be wise to discredit all forms of testosterone (disclaimer again - LEGAL THROUGH THE DOCTOR) as being worthless?
Well. No, because there was a much more bioactive and available therapy that would have actually worked.

It's like that. ou to look at the examine.com article that states something along the lines of:

Hmb did increase muscle protein synthesis by 20% and regular leucine by 110%

The main issue with that is they are not actually using the same product, when they compare generic Hmb bound to calcium and this supplement which is the trademark and patented (and those things matter sometimes) FREE ACID version.

I cannot discussed banned stuff but there are versions of NORMAL and legal with a prescription testosterone replacement and then there is d-aspartic acid.

While d-aspartic acid will increase FREE TESTOSTERONE, you may get very few if Amy muscle Building, Fat burning and libido effects, because it does a thing that can be measured with a test, but isn't the same as total testosterone bound to the proper hemoglobin (is it SBHG?), which is what happens with actual testosterone replacement therapies.

So in that lies this area... Guys can say "yea, DAA works man. I tested my blood work. Free test went up!" but what function did that serve?
In this case the answers be "none, zero."

Would a man be wise to discredit all forms of testosterone (disclaimer again - LEGAL THROUGH THE DOCTOR) as being worthless?
Well. No, because there was a much more bioactive and available therapy that would have actually worked.

It's like that.

[lvsteven]

detail, thoughts and video logs posted at www.newfitnessnewlife.com/12weekdup

And I bet you thought that I was dead. Not yet.
I need to hammer out my website posted above, so for the time being it is only the log you see here.

I recommend you check it out, I posted some different thoughts on the main page and I am embedding video logs once a week too.

Yesterday was the first day of doing the same program that muscletech recommends for this twelve week better than illegal drugs clear muscle program.

Let's say that I am skeptical.
On the above page, I posted my calories for recomposition but they are high.
I'm getting g them from an intermittent fasting calculator built into the tracker I use...

I do not use myfitnesspal as I got tired of the imposed limits to try and get me to pay so I chose to use an app called joyapp (find it at http://www.joyapp.com

It has a recomp of +20/-20% at 3600/2400 respectively and I will try and eat that.

Problem being that eating that much on training days is a task. It isn't fun.

I have moved away from food as a fun thing a long time ago, and I now see it as a thing I must do in order to achieve goals.

On that side of the coin I sound pretentious don't I? I sound like I want to "eat clean" and like I'll be breaking out the broccoli, chicken, brown rice and Tupperware.

In reality, I am avoiding donuts and ice cream, not because they are "poor quality" foods (although they are loaded with sugar and saturated fats), but because I really do have the fat guy reflect living in a place in my brain... My former me comes out to play.

I've been pretty decent, and I end up using dry cereal, peanut butter and sugar free jelly and decent bread as a substitute.

It helps me tremendously that my wife is a gourmet cook. Most men say this, but I can prove it. She wants to open a catering business and I think it's a great idea.

This means a giant slab of salmon with Asian stir fry vegetables or amazing chicken breast based dishes are a staple at my house.



So with that amazing salmon dish, and more like it, the four lower carb days should not be a problem. It's the higher calories that are the issue.

Of course that changes. As I move forward with the training in I'll be at 5 days a week lifting, and therefore I don't know if I should even be calorie and carb cycling now, or just doing a standard maintenance every day setup.

What first world problems we have don't we? While people starve, I complain of needing too much food.

With that, I'll close by saying the workout was okay yesterday. Higher rep training isn't something I'm used to, and I try to not abuse volume.

I have a tender patellar tendon on my right knee so I am mindful of form all the time and look forward to updating you on how this will all play out.

[llahhsoj]

Hi man! I'm glad that I stumbled upon this log. I will be following along. Clear Muscle does take around 10 days or so to build up in your system, so keep that in mind.

[lvsteven]

Hi man! I'm glad that I stumbled upon this log. I will be following along. Clear Muscle does take around 10 days or so to build up in your system, so keep that in mind.

I'm shooting you a private message. Hopefully you have time to check it.

Thanks for stopping by the log.

[lvsteven]

So today was the Wednesday workout of week one.

random thoughts and observations
* I feel much less sore. Possibly repeated bout syndrome and I won't say it is or is not the supplement
* i am abandoning calorie cycling as too much to do at the moment and will just eat between 2600-3000 depending on that day.
* follow up to that above point... I walk constantly. Some days I am walking ten miles.i do sales. Lately I've been driving to work due to bad weather. I'll eat based on that.


MuscleTech must have some super busy reps.
I sent the rep that replied here a well thought out request to log something or at least get guidance on a test booster, but got no reply.
Then again, maybe I just need to put more time in as a log producing beast before they'll consider me.

But speaking of MuscleTech they certainly can't create websites very well...

See, if you hit up weeks one to four of this DUP program you'll note the second day of the three day split they have tells you to do a traditional 5x5 routine.
... with 40% of a 1 rep max... Cue failtrombone.mp3

I'll add that there is no social element anywhere on the page. I cannot read about it anywhere and wonder why a program designed to have me "pushing overreaching" would tell me to use warm up sets for day two.
Although I am not super advanced trainee, I can tell something is amiss, and I look up another page dedicated to this same routine and clean muscle on muscle and strength (that's here btw https://www.muscleandstrength.com/wo...scle-challenge

It's a good thing I did, because this shows me that this is meant to have the "power workout" days as maximum velocity training.
Yes, we are using 40% of our rep max, but only because we are moving the bar at extremely high rates of speed.

This explosive movement is shown in university and proper studies to increase functional strength.
Just goes to show you should not be doing this as a newbie.
A set of 5x5 deadlift working for speed? Yea, good luck unless you've been deadlifting with proper form for years.

So what gives, muscle tech? How had this harmed you?

I can only imagine that some people did the same program, never looked anywhere for a reason for this weird weight recommendation, and then said the product didn't work or produced lame results.

Well, that's it for today.
And for the record, I really am getting sick of chicken breast.

[lvsteven]

So here we are, about seven days I to starting the supplement and on day three of the first week of the DUP workouts.
Today is a heavier day with lots of "big boy" lifts. Should be fun.

Sleep since starting...

Ive been sleeping an awful lot in the past week. I can't attribute this to the supplement at all, it's just a coincidence I suppose.
Nowhere does it say that hmb causes people to sleep more.

Supplements also using

I am using around 250-300mg tongkat ali (aka long jack) that I bought some time ago. This stuff is horrible and bitter, but it's evidently a potent testosterone booster with blood work done by people to back claims up. I'll try using it for two weeks and then take a week off as suggested.
Also fenugreek. It apparently has a number of positive effects, testosterone and sex drive may be one.

I am thirty five and I can tell you that the drive and energy isn't there like it was. Yet I have so much stuff I have to do in my life yet, so I need l the energy I can get through mental and physical means.

I'll post back in a few days. I am not doing the digital logs but paper ones. It is back to old school basics now.

This is all psycho****tic I'm sure but...

... I would swear I feel fuller and look better just a week in. I'm certain this isn't anything aside from me wishing intensely that this was working better than illegal drugs which is what muscletech claims.

About those claims...

I don't use a lot of supplements but between reps not even answering a message I sent, the workouts not being properly explained and the crazy claims on the bottle, muscletech isn't my favorite company right now.

If it means anything, I still have the warm fuzzies over how cool controlled labs was with me years ago.
Maybe muscletech is just so big they aren't paying attention.

If the supplement speaks for itself, I'll totally forgive them.

[lvsteven]

So here we are at day Seven if week one. Starting at monday and counting today.

I have gone up around two lb in the past ten days, and a little under 1 lb this week.

It's important to note that I've technically started logging before beginning the proper dup workouts, so this is actually a January 29 through today.

How do you feel?

I've always said that I'd most people worked out with the intensity they thought they had, there would be no one complaining they can't see any results.

With that, I'm pushing myself as hard as possible and I started off very sure I'd be very sore.

Afger the first few days of this week, the soreness was there, but more of a dull throbbing vs the sharp doms so many get. How I used to get.

Eating and food

I am eating maintenance or what I perceive it.
I am gaining weight.
That is interesting, isn't it?

Okay so I am up to 3000 calories Max and most days around 2800.

Yesterdsy my Samsung watch logged 22000 steps which is around 11 miles.

I'll add that the watch is very good at ignoring cars and bikes and registering false steps, and if I used google maps to see where I went and measure the distance it isn't far off.

I'll see body composition changes if they happen at all in a few weeks.

Is anyone reading?
Doesn't look that way.

[holl0309]

I'm still here!

[lvsteven]

I'm still here!

Very nice.
Reps (if anyone here still does that) from my all powerful (lols) 488 rep score.

[lvsteven]

Clear muscle is an interesting product.
Perhaps it's the workouts, maybe the supplement or a combination of the two, however I am seeing positives over negatives as I move forward.

After the sodium bowl, (or is that superbowl), I weighed in at 173, then a staggering 175 on Tuesday.

This was a followed by a drop of a few lbs and somehow I am actually at less weight when I started, today clocking in at 171.6 lbs.

Certainly there is a large amount of water weight moving around, but I'd like to think that the product has been helping, as I cannot feel any soreness although I'm pushing myself on my workouts as hard as I can.

With that, I'll add that I am still eating maintenance calories every day and getting sufficient protein can be a challenge.

I am of the school of 0.75 g per lb being sufficient, and the 1g idea works for some, but I'm trying with a little less.

I'll be changing my workout days up to Saturday, Monday and Wednesday to accommodate work as work and family have to come first.

I'll post on lower back injuries and half or partial deadlift larger.

If you're still here, give me a bump and shoot me a comment.

Thanks.

[FormulaLT1poweR]

Looks to be about 2 weeks into ClearMuscle...this is where the majority of people begin to see/feel the "effects" of ClearMuscle. This upcoming week will be interesting, so I'd like to hear what you think thus far, and also if that changes within the next week.

[lvsteven]

Looks to be about 2 weeks into ClearMuscle...this is where the majority of people begin to see/feel the "effects" of ClearMuscle. This upcoming week will be interesting, so I'd like to hear what you think thus far, and also if that changes within the next week.

Well, I'm really glad you are here looking in. I have been trying to get a hold of MuscleTech reps via private message, and last mailed BlueRev but got no replies so far.

I added alphatest to this about one week ago, and it is the pro series version, therefore I am wondering if this is a worthwhile test booster, as over the counter products go.

I know you had the black bottles and the formula was different.

I wouldn't mind some more info on it, if you were to message me via pm.

LOG 2/15/16

So, indeed the start date to today is over the two week period, and although in the past I've done phases of maintenance calories, this is the most dramatic change I've seen and felt.

I can't say for certain if it is the product, the lifting program, both or something else but I've actually now lost weight since the start of the log.

Eating maintenance calories should in theory keep me the same weight or close to it, and although I haven't lost more than a lb, it'd still not what I expected.

I'm still eating all my meals in the evening, and am around 3000 calories per day.

I saw a huge drop on the scale today, but this I assume (know) is just water because I had a day or two of a stomach flare up thar always causes nasty bathroom issues.

I was 168.4 today from 171.4 and that's just a bump that I expect will vanish by mid week.

Thanks for looking into the log.

[llahhsoj]

I'm glad things seem to be going well man. I'm still around.