MidwestBeast's take on VPX Power Shock

[MidwestBeast]

Well, it finally got here lol. I was beginning to wonder if I'd ever get this great product or not because of some shipping/receiving issues between VPX and my place of employment, but things finally worked out.

The following was my application for this product back on August 30th:

Sex: Male
Height: 6'1"
Weight: 241 (up from 208 3 months ago)
Body type: Mesomorph / Endomorph hybrid
Training experience (as much detail as possible): 11 years of dedicated weight training. Longest break was ~3 months off during baseball season for the first 3 or 4 years. Since then, longest break has been 2 weeks. 1+ full year of bodybuilding training. Currently in my 8th week of Max-OT training and bulking. Current noteworthy numbers (without spotters): Bench Press: 335x6, Squat: 425x5, Leg Press: 1,025x5. Through 6 weeks my thighs have gone up 2.5" and my arms have gone up 1.5" (increases on all muscles).
Current training regimen, including cardio (as much detail as possible):Max OT training. Monday-Friday split (varies on pairing week to week). Cardio is currently fullcourt basketball on occasion but will soon be several fasted LISS sessions upon rising, more basketball and likely HIIT sessions on Sat/Sun for 30 minutes (gunning for 4 days of cardio work once I start the cut, adjusting with more if necessary based on progress).
Current Diet and Macros (as much detail): Currently through my bulk it's been ~125-150g Fat / 450g Protein / 350-400g Carbohydrates (lifting days are max numbers, weekends are lower numbers)
Current Daily water intake: 2-3 gallons
Current Supplements (brand, product): USP Labs: Prime, Pink Magic, PowerFULL, ReCreate, Anabolic Pump/P-Slin (preceding carb meals). Various proteins as necessary to meet macro needs. Personal intra workout blend (currently): 4:1:1 BCAA mix + Creatine Mono + Glutamine. NOW AAKG powder + LG BC+EAA pre-workout. *Most of these will be ceased at the end of this week and next (weeks 8 and 9).
Will you be using any other VPX products during this log? If so, list: Not on the agenda right now, unless I decide to bring Redline in and use this all on cutting
Short Term Goal: Round out my bulk soon (ending between the next week-3 weeks) and then cut down to single digit bf%
Long Term Goal: Have the same muscle group size ratios as Arnold in his prime (5 year goal for me) along with obtaining ***** for CPT or CSCS along with picking up a 2nd bachelor's in dietetics (the joys of a university job that will pay for this!) and co-authoring a book on health/fitness with a section on how it relates to religion and your personal life. I have a lot of goals

For more info on me, feel free to check out my bodyspace, which should have links to my training logs as well. Obviously, in nearly a month, some things have changed since that application. I have slowly transitioned into my cut and made some minor alterations. Notably:

My current supplementation is: Oxy Elite Pro, Alpha T2, SlinShot or Anabolic Pump or P-slin (nutrient partitioners that are used pre-carb meals), Orange Triad, Fish Oil, ZMA, AAKG or a pre-workout (which will be noted in daily entries), glutamine post-workout, and protein shakes as needed (which also will be noted in daily entries). I have been using bulk BCAA's intra-workout and will switch that over to Power Shock.

My training: is still Max-OT, but has transitioned into adding some lower weight / higher rep sets focusing on the flex since I've started my cut. I'm doing a 4 day lifting split with ab work done as needed on off days and cardio as needed also.

My diet: is at around 3,000 cals daily and varies between high (legs and back/traps), moderate (chest/delts and arms) and low (off) carb days.

Weight yesterday morning was 238.8 lbs. I'm holding most of the extra bodyfat from the bulk around my lower abs and lower back. I still have defined upper abs and pretty well defined obliques, so it's not awful, but obviously I'm looking to shred up nicely.

Tonight will be a chest/delts session and I will update later with diet info, etc.

(For more information on me, feel free to check out my bodyspace - it's pretty up-to-date on things. And of course, feel free to ask away on questions)

[VPX_Sports]

Thanks man, please post some before & afters as well

[MidwestBeast]

Thanks man, please post some before & afters as well

I'll be doing that this evening once I'm home.

[MidwestBeast]

So this is what today's diet looks like. Lately things have been a blur with work and other things, so I've been consuming far more protein shakes than I'd like - that should change soon.

7:15 3/4 C whole grain cereal w/ 4oz skim milk & 2 scoops NutraPro
9:40 2 scoops NutraPro
12:15 2 pieces whole grain bread, 1 slice fat free cheese, 1 slice pepperjack cheese, 8 slices turkey
3:15 2 scoops Nutra Pro / 1 C oats (pre-workout)
6:30 2 scoops Wheybolic Extreme 60
7:30 whole food meal of complex carbs / protein (likely 45g protein / 36g carbs)
10:00 2 scoops ON casein

As you can see, far too many protein shakes, which as I said, should be shifting soon. Macro-intake won't change, but I'll get the protein from whole food sources.

This is what most mod-carb days will look like.

[MidwestBeast]

Hit delts, chest and calves tonight:

Seated DB Shoulder Presses
Side Lateral DB Raise
Bent-Over DB Rear-Delt Lateral Raises

Incline DB Flys
Incline BB Bench Press
Bench Press

Seated Calf Raises
Seated Solo Calf Extensions

Training session was solid. Lasted about 1:15 and had a real nice pump. Since I hit delts and chest together, my upper body was lookin real wide.

Thoughts on Power Shock after first use:

Used 1.5 scoops in ~14 oz of water. The flavor I was given was Lime Splash and the only thing I can compare it to is CL's White Flood (in terms of taste). The next time I dose it, I'll use more water. To this point I had been using 36g of BCAA (4:1:1) in 1/2 gallon of water. This came out to about 19g of amino acids, so slightly lower.

As would be expected, nothing was noticeable in terms of using this instead of my previous intra-mix.

[MidwestBeast]

Day 1 photo has been taken and is on my bodyspace. I'll link it in here once my post count is high enough.

[MidwestBeast]

Planning on tonight being a cardio session. If things work out, I'll be playing some basketball. If that doesn't pan out, I haven't decided if I'll get my back/traps workout in or just do a cardio session regardless.

Today is a low carb day.

[schizm76]

Planning on tonight being a cardio session. If things work out, I'll be playing some basketball. If that doesn't pan out, I haven't decided if I'll get my back/traps workout in or just do a cardio session regardless.

Today is a low carb day.

Hey Beast!
Sub'd! Lookin good man!! What PreWO you using or are you using one?

[MidwestBeast]

Hey Beast!
Sub'd! Lookin good man!! What PreWO you using or are you using one?

Glad to see you in here, bro

Last night I just used 3.5g AAKG powder + some aminos about 30 minutes before I hit it. I'll likely continue this layout with OEP in play (due to the caffeine content), but I may dabble with using something else with a low stim content pre-workout in the future (I have a ton of pre-workouts). I'll note that if it changes, but otherwise it can be assumed that I'm just using AAKG.

[schizm76]

Glad to see you in here, bro

Last night I just used 3.5g AAKG powder + some aminos about 30 minutes before I hit it. I'll likely continue this layout with OEP in play (due to the caffeine content), but I may dabble with using something else with a low stim content pre-workout in the future (I have a ton of pre-workouts). I'll note that if it changes, but otherwise it can be assumed that I'm just using AAKG.

Ah, gotch ya man! more power to ya! and low carbing it too....dang! you cutting right now?

[MidwestBeast]

Ah, gotch ya man! more power to ya! and low carbing it too....dang! you cutting right now?

Yes. I went into a maintenance level for just a bit to slowly adjust cal levels and have now dipped into the cut. I'm still keeping cals between 2,800-3,000 and will make adjustments as needed.

Right now I'm doing carb cycling, so the low-carb days are my off or cardio days.

[MidwestBeast]

Surprise, surprise - basketball fell through. My buddy helps coach a local high school team and after their workouts he lets them scrimmage against a group of us to help them prepare against bigger players and different skill levels (not me so much, but him for example lol - played college ball for a bit and is like 6'9"). Guess they did their thing right after school and I couldn't get out of work early enough.

I ended up at home and had very little motivation, but decided to drag myself out to the gym around 8 PM. Did 1 scoop of Jack3d before just for the motivation. Ended up doing a pretty great cardio session derived from Marc Lobliner's (Scivation) contest prep.

Started off with 15 minutes of HIIT on the bike (15 seconds all out, 45 seconds moderate) followed by 20 minutes on the stepmill. HR was around 80% for the duration.

I dosed Power Shock at 1.5 scoops again, but this time in an entire shaker cup and that made the taste much better by my standards. I drank a bit before starting, a large portion as soon as I got off the bike, a sip at the halfway mark on the stepmill and then finished the rest of it as soon as I stepped off.

[swollPH91]

I'm in- I'm about a month into my Power Shock log and am liking it a lot. Here's my log if you're interested:

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showth...hp?t=127231803

and I agree with your mixing method, I fill my shaker with as much water as possible for 1.5 scoops and after I drink about 1/3 I fill it up again, which is the perfect taste for me. It's a pleasant but pretty strong taste.

[MidwestBeast]

I'm in- I'm about a month into my Power Shock log and am liking it a lot. Here's my log if you're interested:

(I still don't have enough posts for your link to show up lol)

and I agree with your mixing method, I fill my shaker with as much water as possible for 1.5 scoops and after I drink about 1/3 I fill it up again, which is the perfect taste for me. It's a pleasant but pretty strong taste.

BCAAs are one of the things that are hard for me to really "judge" in terms of "feeling." I've been using them for so long now that I won't go without them, so I can't notice much difference. I like the product so far as well.

Interesting to hear that you have the same thoughts on the mixing amount as I do. I followed the recommended guideline and the first time I just cringed because it was way too strong for my taste, haha. I'll definitely check your log out as well, bro.

[VPX_Sports]

BCAAs are one of the things that are hard for me to really "judge" in terms of "feeling." I've been using them for so long now that I won't go without them, so I can't notice much difference. I like the product so far as well.

Interesting to hear that you have the same thoughts on the mixing amount as I do. I followed the recommended guideline and the first time I just cringed because it was way too strong for my taste, haha. I'll definitely check your log out as well, bro.

LOL at your quote (about not having enough posts for links)

[MidwestBeast]

LOL at your quote (about not having enough posts for links)

Haha, glad you found it amusing. I'm hoping to steamroll past that number here pretty quickly. I've got tons of posts spread out across other forums and tend to just read over here and not post near as much.

I digress

[MidwestBeast]

Okay, so I haven't been posting regularly and that's due to my traveling back to IL Friday evening for my mother's surgery which was yesterday morning and successful. She came home this afternoon, so now it's rest and recovery time.

[MidwestBeast]

Friday was going to be an off day for me as I had to travel for 7 hours as soon as I got off of work, but I decided to sneak in a quick gym session. I tend to get very tired and crash about 2 hours after I get off work if I don't get in my workout, and I obviously wanted to avoid that feeling since I'd be on the road.

Banged out about an hour-long back session that went pretty well. One of my buddies was doing leg day, so it conflicted with some time in the cage and I didn't have time to wait around, so I didn't end up getting any deads in. I didn't like that, but I was okay with it since I'd be spending so much time in the car - didn't want to be all sorts of uncomfortable.

Got in some real good lat-work. Went with lat pulldowns, seated rows (wide, overhand grip), pullups (bodyweight) and pulldowns with the double-d rings. Then hit some solo shrugs on the smith machine and banged out some shrugs (behind the back grip) on the smith after that. Quick, but good workout. Obviously not my best, but it got the job done.

[MidwestBeast]

Saturday I got up early, hit some fasted cardio and dosed my 1.5 scoops of Power Shock with it. Only able to do 20 minutes of LISS work on the treadmill @ 10% incline (had to use what my parents had as they live about 20 minutes outside of town and I didn't have a shot to get in to a gym). Not the best, but better than nothing and I really enjoy the cardio first thing in the morning.

Took off for my college's homecoming after that. Rained ALL day long, so we left tailgating about 2 PM after 3 hours of it and just watched the game at a local restaurant/bar. It wasn't much of a game anyway (as we expected). Our team isn't all that great these days and we played a very poor team; just not exciting to watch.

[MidwestBeast]

Sunday I hit some cardio work at home again once I returned. Just LISS on the treadmill @ an incline again. Power Shock was dosed the same. Nothing great here, but better than nothing.

[MidwestBeast]

Monday was a killer arm workout for me. Started off with biceps, moved onto triceps and finished with a bit of forearm work (which got cut short 'cause I ran into a buddy I played ball with in high school and started talking - decided to chalk it up after that, rather than start lifting again after that long of a pause). Arms weren't quite as swollen as last week (19" w/ bicep pump before starting tri work a week ago), but still felt very good. It was actually easier to accomplish more lifts with less of a pump.

Olympic bar curls, EZ bar curls (standing), DB Hammer curls, skull crushers (@ a low incline), cable pushdowns (V-bar), solo ring reverse curls (slow and squeezed 'em out) and then standing BB wrist rolls (behind back).

Power Shock drank throughout.

[MidwestBeast]

Tuesday was my mother's surgery at 7:30, so I was up at 5 and at the hospital by 6. Cardio was a no go. Spent a total of 15 hours physically in the hospital during the day, with 2 quick breaks to get the dog and to eat. Diet wasn't off by much today, so that's good considering the situation.

Surgery was successful and she only spent Tuesday night there. She's home now, so that is great.

[MidwestBeast]

Well it was a day late, and my legs enjoyed the extra rest. Absolutely destroyed legs tonight. Numbers were quite solid. 45 degree leg press, squats, SL deads, seated calf raises.

Worked my way up to 1,100 on the leg press - got it for 4 and 5 (or 6, don't have my notebook handy). The screwy thing is that this leg press is far different than the one at my current gym. It has 2 bars on each side for the weights and I made the mistake of loading them up on the lower. I felt all the weight below my legs and it was awkward. I started top-loading it more after about the 4th set and that really helped. I loaded 920 lbs on the top rack on my final set for 8 or 10 (again, can't remember) very good, deep reps. Ended up with 6 sets on leg press.

Ended up doing a set of seated leg curls (150x8) before squats while I waited for the cage (someone doing deads in jeans...whatever). Anywho, did 225x8, 275x6, 315x8, 335x6 (or 8). This isn't as much as the 425 I was repping during my bulk, BUT, these were completely butt touching the ground reps - every single one. I haven't been able to move 335 that easily before; not like that. And all of this was after heavy leg press - so that's impressive for me.

SL deads were 315x8 and 315x7. I was good all the way up til that first set. After it, I wanted to puke BADLY. My heart rate rocketed and I had to take about a 5 minute break before the 2nd set - and I still didn't feel great. I stopped after 2, so I wouldn't throw up. Got 2 sets in on seated calf raises (really good squeeze), but still wanted to throw up and couldn't shake it. As my workout crossed the hour mark, i decided to call it a night so I didn't actually throw up.

So, not one of my epic leg days that I expect from myself, but great numbers on leg press and particularly squats - so I'm happy. I'm really thrilled that despite my bad knees I've been able to add this weight and go even deeper.

PS was dosed at 2 scoops throughout. This is more in line with the amount of aminos I normally ingest (particularly during a cut) intra-workout. The flavor is good, but citrus grows waaaay too quickly on me. It's a good flavor, but I get sick of it very quickly (just my tastebuds). I'd love to try another flavor in the future and see if I'm able to stomach it easier on days I'm wanting to puke in the gym (it was hard for me to drink it and keep it down once my HR was way up).

[MidwestBeast]

Tomorrow will likely be chest/delts, though it may be a cardio day - not sure yet. We shall see.

[MidwestBeast]

Got in a really solid chest/delts workout tonight.

Seated DB shoulder presses
Smith machine military press (front)
Side lateral DB raises
Seated rear delt DB lateral raises

Incline bench press
Incline DB Flys
Bench press
Cably flys

Strength was up very much and it just felt great. Dosed PS at 1.5 scoops and had 1 scoop of Jack3d pre-workout. Tomorrow is either back/traps or cardio.

[MidwestBeast]

That last post should say Thursday.

Friday ended up being an off day.

[MidwestBeast]

Saturday was a pretty solid back and traps day. I had to deal with a few things with fixing my car, so I was pressed for time and only got into town with an hour to use the gym before it closed.

Lat Pulldowns
Seated Rows (wide/neutral grip)
Pulldowns with the Double-D Ring
DB Rows (one knee on the bench, parallel to floor)
Smith machine Shrugs (bar in front)
Smith machine solo Shrugs (bar to side, one arm at a time)

It was very quick, minimal rest, but a great back pump.

PS was dosed at 1.5 scoops for this.

[MidwestBeast]

Sunday turned into an off day as well. Was supposed to be a cardio day, but with mom rehabbing from her surgery and being back with family, I just neglected it as there is plenty of time for it when I'm in KY.

Diet was on point until later that night when we had a little fire in the backyard and smores came into play lol. I actually only ended up with less than 1 graham cracker, half a Crunch bar and 8 marshmallows (though I'm not sure I was able to get all 8 with as much as was left on the stick lol). For a splurge, I've done much worse.

[MidwestBeast]

Got back into town around 7 Eastern after 6.5 or so hours on the road. Hit the gym as soon as I unloaded the car. Got a nice arm workout in. Started off with tri's this time as I usually lead with bi's.

Incline Skull Crushers (narrow grip)
Cable Pushdowns (tri bar)
Overhead DB tri extensions (2-handed, seated)

Standing EZ bar curls
DB Hammer Curls
Overhead Ring curls

Standing BB wrist rolls (behind back)

Around the time of hammer curls I started feeling sick to my stomach. I've felt this a few times lately and am not sure if my pre-workout meal is just not enough or what (~50g protein / 50g carbs). I'll monitor this.

PS was dosed at 2 scoops and put into my half gallon jug this time. I like this a whole lot more. I can't wait to try something other than lime splash one day, though lol.

Tuesday will be cardio.

[MidwestBeast]

Cardio tonight. Ended up with about an hour of full-court basketball. Man, my lungs aren't what they were just 2 years ago...it's sad. I used to be able to play for 3 hours straight (no joke; just ~2-3 minutes between games for the next team to come on) and the only thing that would be sore would be the bottoms of my feet. I haven't been playing consistently, so I just dont' have the endurance I used to.

Anyway, PS was dosed at 2 scoops in 1/2 gallon of water again. It was definitely needed for this day.

Low-carb today. Only carbs came from 30g of WMS pre-basketball with protein.