Muscletech Clear Muscle 12 Week Log

[sfgiants13]

Big thanks to the folks over at Muscletech for giving me this great opportunity. I'll write a bit about me and what I've done in the past couple of years before I actually get started with the log.

Growing up I was always heavily involved in sports and lifted a lot in high school. My diet was pretty awful though. I played hockey in college and for about half of that I lifted seriously as well, but again my diet was seriously lacking. After graduating I didn't lift for several years and became skinnyfat and had virtually no muscle mass. I really hated the way I looked and saw an ad for a gym membership so I signed up. This was in February 2016. I did a self created workout for a while and did a cut that was probably too aggressive, but that did cut out a good chunk of body fat so I was in a good position to lean bulk for a year. I ended up moving to the Fierce 5 beginner program and got my macros in check and made good progress. I bulked over a year and went from 169 in May 2016 to 188 in May 2017. I had a vacation to the Caribbean coming up so I cut down to 178 over about 2 months and resumed bulking right after vacation. In March I was at 192 and carried a little more fat than I wanted so I decided to do a brief cut again before a week in Europe. That was supposed to last a month but when I got back I decided to do another 5 pounds or so. Overall I cut for a little under 2 months and I just finished last night. My goal (which honestly I lowered a few times) was 180 and my moving average was 180.3 this morning so I'll call that a win. Now, I can resume another lean bulk.

With regards to training, after a year on the Fierce 5 beginner I started slowing down my progress which was expected. I moved to the F5 U/L split and still made some progress, but about a year ago I started stalling heavily. I tried deloading but no bueno. I moved again to the 5 day F5 split and still stalled. My auxiliary lifts and bench were increasing slowly, but with a few back injuries thrown into the mix, I have actually dropped weight on my squat and dead lift in the last year and can't seem to get above where I was. Being 100% honest, I haven't pushed myself 100% on those 2 exercises out of fear of messing up my back yet again. Recently, I moved to GST training 4 days a week and it seems to be helping me get some progress back even while I was cutting. It's slow, but I'll take it. This was during a cut so now that I can up my calories I'm hoping the progress will resume. When I started, I knew it would take years to make enough progress to where I'm happy with my lifts and what I look like. It's been a slow journey but I'm getting there.

Here are a few of my 1 rep max that I really want to improve on:

Bench - 265
Squat - 315
Deadlift - 260 (really needs work)

I'll likely eat at maintenance for a couple of weeks (or at least attempt to this weekend when I'm out of town) and go into a slight surplus around 3000 calories after for the duration of the summer. I have a bachelor party and another trip to the Caribbean in October so I don't want to blow up too much. Being in the ballpark of 185-190 should be good. I'll also try to upload a couple of photos I'm where I'm at now so I'll have a comparison in 12 weeks.

I just started taking Clear Muscle 2 days ago and had 1 workout while I was still on the cut. I'll do another workout tonight and continue taking it through vacation and once I return Monday I'll start logging and eating normally. Let's see how this goes!

[anandagirl]

Based on your squat, your deadlift has to be a form issue at most. Post a vid if you feel comfortable

[sfgiants13]

Based on your squat, your deadlift has to be a form issue at most. Post a vid if you feel comfortable

My deadlift form is awful. I will try to get a video up from my next deadlift session. I have a hard time not rounding my back even with light weight. I think partially a flexibility issue because I have no problems keeping it straight except at the very bottom of the movement where it's hard for me to bend down that far. Part of that also goes back to the lower back injuries I've had which have trashed my flexibility.

[anandagirl]

My deadlift form is awful. I will try to get a video up from my next deadlift session. I have a hard time not rounding my back even with light weight. I think partially a flexibility issue because I have no problems keeping it straight except at the very bottom of the movement where it's hard for me to bend down that far. Part of that also goes back to the lower back injuries I've had which have trashed my flexibility.

Ahhh That's a bummer! Well, happy to help however I can. Maybe a fresh set of eyes.

[Marshall28]

Don't see too many people who bench more than they deadlift My max deadlift is 700 so I can safely say I will never bench more than that.

[sfgiants13]

Don't see too many people who bench more than they deadlift My max deadlift is 700 so I can safely say I will never bench more than that.

Yeah I did a quick search of the forum and I'm an odd duck. Thankfully my back has been much better lately so I'm hoping if I work at it my DL will pass my bench quickly. I'm hoping to get a video of me deadlifting tonight so I can get some critique and fix whatever form issues are holding me back (and the ones that kept causing me to hurt my lower back).

[yoojungl]

My deadlift form is awful. I will try to get a video up from my next deadlift session. I have a hard time not rounding my back even with light weight. I think partially a flexibility issue because I have no problems keeping it straight except at the very bottom of the movement where it's hard for me to bend down that far. Part of that also goes back to the lower back injuries I've had which have trashed my flexibility.

I've had the same issues with DL, took me 3 years to actually nail the form. Once you get the technique though, you got the stressful part out of the way

[FormulaLT1poweR]

In for support.

Proper deadlift form is key. Bad form and too much weight can really be a bad thing. Like squats and bench press, leave the ego aside and start at a low weight. Really focus on form. I'm sure I'm not perfect, I still watch videos of others!

Keep up the great work, hopefully CM can help the progress!

[sfgiants13]

Just a quick update from my vacation in Phoenix. I didn’t end up hitting the gym but I did a hike up camelback mountain and that was a challenge in itself. There’s an LA fitness just down the road from the hotel so I should be able to get in a workout tomorrow then resume my normal routine Monday. I’ll still get a deadlift video up so I can get some help on my form.

[FormulaLT1poweR]

Just a quick update from my vacation in Phoenix. I didn’t end up hitting the gym but I did a hike up camelback mountain and that was a challenge in itself. There’s an LA fitness just down the road from the hotel so I should be able to get in a workout tomorrow then resume my normal routine Monday. I’ll still get a deadlift video up so I can get some help on my form.

Have a great Memorial Day weekend man!

[sfgiants13]

I just got home today and apparently my gym closed at 4. So it looks like tomorrow will be my first workout update. I’ll get the before photos of me up tomorrow too. I look a bit rough after the vacation but since I’ll be eating at maintenance for a week or two before I start lean bulking it should normalize pretty soon.

[sfgiants13]

I'm off to the gym so I'll get a real update after. In the meantime here's a couple of before shots. The first one was taken about a month ago, and the last one was a week ago after I dropped a few more pounds. There was definitely some bloat in the last one since I had just got home from Vegas. I was at 185 in the first one and about 180-182 in the second. After eating at maintenance for the next 2 weeks and giving my body a chance to get back to normal I should be around 182. Both are unflexed and the goal is to put on about 1-2 pounds per month for the duration of the log. Once I'm done with that I want to stay between 185-190 for the duration of the summer/early fall. As I said in the earlier posts I knew it would take many years to get where I wanted to be. It's been a bit over 2 years so it's still a work in progress from 0 muscle mass.

[Marshall28]

Excited to see this log take off

[anandagirl]

Bloat... pshaw! I can still see abs!

[sfgiants13]

Alright I just got back from the gym and I'm not going to lie I feel pretty terrible right now. But, I still managed a decent workout. Between the booze and travelling I guess this past weekend is catching up to me. I tend to travel much less in the summer time so it'll be easier for me to avoid that for the next few months.

I recently switched to Growth Stimulus training and for those who are unfamiliar here's a brief rundown. I workout 4x per week with each workout having a main lift and auxiliary lifts with both being on a 4 week cycle. For the main lifts I do 3 x 8, 6, 3-4, and 1-2 so my rep range changes each week. The last set is as many as I can do which is how I calculate my new max for the next cycle. This seems to be helping me break through plateaus I've had for a long time. My auxiliary lifts I do 2-3 x 15-20, 3-4 x 8-10, and 4-5 x 4-6 so those are on a 3 week cycle instead of 4. I move up up on those by completing 90% of the goal reps. My main lifts are weighted pullups, OHP, deadlift, bench, and squat. So far I've done the lower end for sets since I've been cutting since I started but I'm hoping to have the energy to go for that last set now that I'll be bulking. Here's todays workout:

Bench - 185 x 8, 8, 13 (right at my calculated max even with feeling like crap so not bad
Decline bench - 205 x 8, 7, 7
Lat pulls - 185 x 8, 7, 6
db press - 70 x 8, 7, 8
tricep pulldowns - 155 x 10, 10, 10

Overall not bad considering my state. Now, I have 2 volleyball games in different leagues tonight so if you don't hear back from me I didn't make it through the games lol.

Tomorrows workout is my Pull/overhead press workout. Normally I workout Wednesday, Friday, Sunday, Monday but vacation messed it up a bit. Now I'm back on my normal schedule.

[FormulaLT1poweR]

Hitting the gym after a long weekend is always a little rough. Add in the booze, traveling, eating like crap and it just gets worse!

After a few days you'll get back into the groove. Sounds like you got a lot going on during the summer!

[Marshall28]

13 reps!! Nice work!

[sfgiants13]

Yesterdays workout was again kind of rough but I got through it. For whatever reason I can never sleep well on Tuesday nights (the first day of my work week is Wednesday). I didn't get home from my games until late and just couldn't wind down so I was going on about 4 hours of sleep. Thankfully, the late games should be done within a few weeks so that'll help. I didn't sleep the greatest last night either but I'm off from the gym Thursdays so I should be able to get to sleep early for a good workout tomorrow.

For now I'm still doing a bit of mixing the GST program due to all of the travel and having to shuffle my workouts around, but once I start my bulk in a bit less than 2 weeks I'll start on day 1 and progress from there. Yesterday it was Pull/OHP day. I drank some preworkout on the drive over (which was probably not the greatest since there was very little left and it was clumpy). At least I have a new Muscletech PWO being sent over soon. I ended up having to switch up a few exercises, including one of my core lifts of military press, due to the fact that the benches and racks I needed weren't free the entire time I was there. My gym can get packed at night after work but it's usually not this bad. My rep goals were 8 for core (pullups and normally military press) and 8-10 for supplement lifts.


Weighted pullups 15 x 8 3 sets
Seated cable rows 165 x 8, 9, 10
Incline press 190 x 8, 7, 7
BB Curls - 100 x 8 3 sets
Machine shoulder press (sub for military) 170 x 10 3 sets
Ab work on a crunch machine (sub for leg raises)

Since I realized I wasn't able to do the dosage with the correct timing from home I now have a magical bag of pills at my desk at work. That will make it to where I can spread my intake out more and be able to take it 30 minutes before my workout. Tomorrow is pull day with deadlift being my core lift so I'm hoping to get a form video up. For now I'm still on 2700 calories and will make the jump to 3000 on June 13 along with starting fresh on the workout cycles.

Until tomorrow!

[sfgiants13]

edit: Looking at some of the other MT logs I'll add some other info that I left out in the OP. I'm currently taking the following supplements:

Orange Triad
Whey whatever brand is cheap - right now it's Muscletech because I got them at a good price
Creatine - currently bodybuilding.com brand
NOW beta alanine
Sometimes a superfood powder
Preworkout that is currently ENGN Shred but the MT one should be in soon

[sfgiants13]

Yesterday was a solid workout. I made progress on deadlifts by adding a couple more reps to my set where I do as many reps as I can. I had more in me but as I was tiring I felt my back starting to round so I cut it off there to avoid a back injury. I was also able to get a video of my deadlift form so I'll try to get that up soon. Macros wise, I'm still at 2700 and have been hitting them, but Thursday and Friday I was about 50 over at 2750 but no big deal there. This bulk I'm trying to make better food choices because while I hit macros in the past, my food choices left a lot to be desired and I think it was starting to effect my energy levels and performance in the gym. Needless to say it's not easy to squat after eating crappy food all day. Also I'm trying to cut down on the weekend booze. That is also hampering my progress a bit.

Disclaimer - I just ate 2 slices of pizza lol. But 2 slices is better than the whole thing.

Anyway I took my PWO yesterday on my drive to the gym from work like normal and took my Clear Muscle right before I left. The workout ran a little long because as usual there were large groups of people doing a set every few minutes and socializing on every piece of equipment I needed. I really need to switch to another gym but this one is 3 minutes from my house so it's tough. But man this crowd is a mix of people who do nothing but instagram and the dbags who claim 3 pieces of equipment only to not use more than one of them for an hour then start raging when you try to jump in. /Rant.

I felt pretty good throughout the entire workout and made some progress. Today it was "lift" day and the rep goal was 8 on DL and 8-10 on all auxilary lifts. Here were the numbers

Deadlift - 185 x 8, 8, 11
Barbell Lunge - 110 x 8, 8, 8
Hyperextensions 45 x 15
Leg Press - 480 x 10, 9, 8
Leg Curls - 180 x 8, 8, 8
DB Shrug 80 x 10, 10, 10
Planks - 1:30 x 3

I'm back at it tomorrow with press day. It's a day off and I have a feeling I'll nudge up my bench calculated 1RM number. I'm looking forward to it!

[sfgiants13]

I'll have an update for yesterdays workout and today in a few hours. I'm off to the gym shortly for leg day. In the meantime here's the deadlift form video. Any tips would be appreciated!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQK1-7PY_fU

[Marshall28]

Form looks solid man. Personally I wouldn't deadlift in Olympic shoes but other than that looks good.

[sfgiants13]

Form looks solid man. Personally I wouldn't deadlift in Olympic shoes but other than that looks good.

Thanks. I really have to focus each rep on keeping my back straight until I can do it naturally. There's another video of my old deadlift form and you can see there's a huge difference.

I've strung together another 2 good workouts. More reps and I feel much better than I usually do after. Once I do the lower 2 rep ranges I have a feeling my 1RM will be increased. My endurance is lacking right now so I really start to tire out when I do higher reps, but that has started to change for the better since I started clear muscle. Here were the lifts:

Yesterday - press
Bench - 210 x 6, 6, 10 I usually can bust out 8 or so but doing 10 increased my calculated 1RM by a few pounds - I really think it will go up again once I hit the lower rep ranges
Decline bench - 205 x 7, 8, 7 I had to do this after lats and shoulder press so I was already more tired than normal - the joys of a busy gym
Lat pulls - 185 x 8, 8, 8
DB shoulder press - 70 x 9, 10, 8 More reps so a good result
Skullcrushers - 80 x 8, 8, 7

Today - legs
Squat - 250 x 6, 6, 8 I normally can do 6 so the reps are going up again
Good mornings - 115 x 9, 8, 8 More weight and more reps than last time
Front squats - 195 x 8, 8, 8 I was really happy here. The sets felt great even though I took less rest since people wanted to use the rack. Had I taken my normal rest I probably would've done 10 reps
Leg press - Didn't log because some trainer was hogging all 3 leg press machines so I had to use one of the horizontal ones instead - On a random note I don't like her because sh'es the one that takes up whole areas and doesn't use everything and also leaves weights unracked and the area a mess which is just bad for a trainer
Decline crunch - 25 x 17, 17, 17

It seems like I'm starting to make progress which is great since I've been stuck so much for the past year. No pain in my lower back which is also great. My next workout is normally Wednesday but I may change it up a bit again since I'm meeting my parents in Vegas for a few days this weekend. Can't miss workouts!

[sfgiants13]

Another pretty good workout. This is normally Wednesdays workout, but due to me leaving town Friday I had to move it to today and Fridays to tomorrow. I also added in a few exercises from Friday to this workout since I will be short time tomorrow. Even though it was a long session with less rest than normal, I'm still happy with it. I'm making progress still and I haven't even upped my calories past maintenance yet or done my normal schedule with normal rest. Today was 3-4 reps for the main exercises and 4-6 for the auxiliary.

Weighted pullups - 30 x 5, 4, 4
Military press - 155 x 5, 4, 3
Cable row - 185 x 6, 6, 6, 5
Incline bench - 205 x 4, 4, 3, 4 (no spotter so I played it safe)
BB curl - 110 x 6, 4, 5, 4
DB shrug - 85 x 6, 6, 6, 6
Hyperextensions - 25 x 16, 16, 16, 16 I normally do 45 but I dropped it to try to get more movement than I used to do
Weighted cable crunch 195 x 16, 16, 16, 16

[FormulaLT1poweR]

Nice updates, your form does look good, but like you said really focus on keeping your back straight.

Work with low weight to get a feel for it, if you think you are doing it wrong. I know a lot of people who deadlift with no shoes on, just socks and the floor!

2 weeks in, about the 3 week mark you are going to be hitting the sweet spot! Keep up the great work.

[sfgiants13]

Man is my body sore and stiff today. 6 sets of squats 2 nights ago followed by volleyball, 2 games of volleyball and a longer workout yesterday, and now deadlifts today. Oye this is going to be rough. I guess the glory days of high school and being able to train/lift and play volleyball 3 hours per day every day are long gone.

[sfgiants13]

Just a quick update. Yesterday toward the end of the day my lower back started bothering me so I didn't do much at the gym. I did a few sets of 225 deadlifting just to work on form. Had I been 100% I definitely would've been able to do more than normal. I am quite happy with how my form and the lift as a whole are both progressing. I then did some BB lunges and some ab work just to get a sweat going without overdoing it. I've learned from the past of pushing through with my back not up to snuff. I would be stubborn and turn something that would only take a couple of days of rest into a few weeks of dropping weight and trying to work my way back up to 100%.

I'm going to have to figure out a plan to better space things out when I travel over the weekend. Between volleyball and the workouts it's left me pretty tired and for whatever reason the outer part of my ankle is quite sore. Oh well I have a few days off now and the rest should leave me just fine once I'm back.

[anandagirl]

Jumping in a bit late - form looks good, one thing you may want to try is to only do singles, or at least reset between reps. The weight looked really light so not a lot of loading at the start (but I also suck at loading). I would maybe try upping the weight a bit every week, I bet you can lift a lot more than you think

[sfgiants13]

Jumping in a bit late - form looks good, one thing you may want to try is to only do singles, or at least reset between reps. The weight looked really light so not a lot of loading at the start (but I also suck at loading). I would maybe try upping the weight a bit every week, I bet you can lift a lot more than you think

I probably can. My weakness is as the reps go on my form gets worse as my back starts to tire out. Since I'm upping my calories next week I have no doubt that I can make significant progress on the lift. Well, truthfully I've been trying to eat at maintenance which is around 2700 calories but I've been a bit of a pig lately so I've been slightly over.

[anandagirl]

I probably can. My weakness is as the reps go on my form gets worse as my back starts to tire out. Since I'm upping my calories next week I have no doubt that I can make significant progress on the lift. Well, truthfully I've been trying to eat at maintenance which is around 2700 calories but I've been a bit of a pig lately so I've been slightly over.

I say do singles and progressively go up until your form gets bad. Video it and watch it on your rests