I have been pretty satisfied with my supplements and results lately. On the right is a chart showing my weight and body fat over the past semester. I try to do it most weeks, but have missed a few. This past week was a little frustrating. The past few weeks have been frustrating workout-wise. I have been plagued with exams and minor injuries, and a less sleep than I would prefer, and it has been taking a toll on my body. Also, last week was Thanksgiving, and I deviated from my diet. Actually I have been less disciplined than usual with my diet over the past few weeks.

I keep telling myself that I want to put on weight no matter what, but when I go up 2%in body fat in 2 weeks it makes me question my motives. I still am going to get up to 250lbs. That is the goal.
I started a new Pro Hormone, Tri-Methyl Xtreme 3.15, which is kind of an "x-factor." The manufacturer's representative said the product would deliver "30lbs of 'wet mass'" in 4 weeks. I had never heard the term "wet mass" before, but I imagine it means basically muscle, not lean muscle. I am fine with adding "not-lean-muscle" as long as it is muscle and not fat. I am one week in with this product, and that 1 week included Thanksgiving, so the jury is still out on "Tri-Methyl."

However, I have been and felt incredibly strong over the past week. I squatted 455lbs 2x, which is a personal best, and my bench also went up. I hope to get 315lbs before January.

I am going to start some cardio to deal with some of this extra fat I have been putting on.

I have also been taking Synthesize and Elite Mass, which I really like and will review later.
Get Huge!!!

Cell Drive

I have been taking Cell-Drive for the past few weeks and I so far I am very impressed with it. I have been taking it immediately post workout mixed with Nectar Isolate, and I have found that the "Punch Rush" flavored Cell Drive and the "Strawberry Kiwi" flavored Nectar mix very well. I take it immediately post workout to refuel my body with fast digesting whey isolate and to get the creatine, BCAA's, and the glutamine needed to recover. I have found that taking Cell-Drive really helps to decrease muscle soreness.

I typically lift between 5 and 6 times per week, depending on how I am feeling. My lifting split is divided so that I have 2 days minimum rest before lifting a muscle group again, and very little related-muscle overlap (no triceps day after benching, or traps day after working back). I lift 3 days then rest 1 day, and if I need to take a day off to rest, I can do so at any point. While taking Cell-Drive, I have felt rested enough to lift for 6 days and not take any extra days off.

I have also been taking Cell-Drive during my workout. Initially, I started doing this in order to save money and not overlap similar products (I was debating taking Size-On or Synthesize during workout, but I found that Cell-Drive and Size-On contained fairly similar ingredients.) I wrote earlier about Ultimate Nutrition's "adreNOline" that I liked the effects but disliked the taste; I am a big fan of "during-workout" shakes, because they allow you to lift with greater intensity for greater time periods. I was taking Cell-Drive during my workout for these effects.

I am going to stop taking Cell-Drive during my workout for several reasons:
1. I think it is a great recovery shake, but it was not intended to be taking during workout. I am going to try out a few intra-workout shakes that were designed for that purpose. I would also like to have some sort of stimulant during workout, and Cell Drive does not contain that.
2. I have been going through the Cell-Drive incredibly quickly.
3. There is a 32g of sugar in Cell-Drive, which by itself is not a ton, but by having multiple servings of Cell-Drive and Size, I was getting more sugar than I need. A lot more. The sugar overload could have contributed to the "junk weight" I gained along with the muscle.
Nitro also has a sugar free version of Cell-Drive that I would be interested in trying out.

Cell-Drive is a VERY good recovery shake. It does a great job of replenishing the body and reducing muscle soreness. It combines all of the recovery components well... 3g of glutamine, 3.5g of creatine, 1000mg of BCAA's, and a little bit of arginine to pick you up after your workout. It is ideal for recovering from heavy lifting or from cardio.

I am going to continue incorporating Cell-Drive into my supplement regiment because I am very impressed with it.

Overall product rating "A+"

Progress Report... SIZE!!!

I have been on my current supplement cycle and lifting routine for the past 10 days. Just to recap, I am taking M5 preworkout, Cell-Drive during workout, Cell-Drive and Nectar Isolate immediately post workout, a Size shake 45 minutes later, and 1 or 2 more Size shakes throughout the day.

I get my weight and body fat tested on Monday afternoons. Last Monday, November 1st, I weighed 213.1 lbs with 13.7% body fat. Yesterday, November 8th, I weighed 218.0 lbs and was 15.0% body fat. Initially I was pretty impressed with myself, but after doing some math I realized that I had put on 3.5lbs of fat and only 1.5 lbs of muscle. Granted, I am trying to bulk up, but that is not necessarily the bulk I am trying to put on. I am not worried though. I went from doing a lot of cardio to doing none, and

I think I went a little bit overboard with the Size shakes.
One thing is for sure, JS Nitro Size shakes help you put on weight. I went through a bag in 1 week. All things considered, I had a great lifting week. I went up in most of my totals. And recovered very well from my workouts, which are pretty rigorous.

Today I squatted 405lbs 4times for my 5th set of 4 reps, which is something I have not done ever. My bench last week was depressingly low, but I realized that I hadn't benched heavy in over 4 weeks, and had worked shoulders the previous day. I thought I was close to 300lbs, but struggled to get 265 2x. I switched up my routine from last week, and should go into bench day pretty fresh. On standing straight barbell curl I did 2 sets 135lbs 4x, which impressed me. And my close grip bench press went up 10lbs to 205lbs for 4 reps. I deadlift only twice per month because it is pretty taxing on my lower back, but I did 405lbs 4x. I had planned on attempting 455lbs, but I wasn't really feeling it.

Overall, I am excited about the strength gains I have seen so far, but the ratio of fat-to-muscle that I put on is not what I was looking for. I am glad to gain strength, but can't put on that much fat.

The changes I am going to make are:
1. do only 1-1.5 Size shakes per day, and possibly try out a different weight gainer when I finish this bag.
2. do 15 minutes of long-slow-distance cardio before a few of my shorter workouts.

Getting bigger every day!

JS Nitro Size Chocolate Size

The flavor of John Scott Nitro's size that I tried is "Double Chocolate Ice Cream." And honestly, it tastes really good. Granted, if I am going to have a shake that has nearly 1000 calories, it had better taste good. It mixes well with both water and milk. I prefer the taste with 3/4 water and 1/4 milk, but I can't store milk in my locker, so I only mix with milk when I am at home.

So far I have been very impressed with JS Nitro products. They make sense.

I was initially skeptical because Size contains 150g of carbs (50% of your daily value) with only 1 gram of fiber and 79g of sugar. But those sugars are to replace the sugars expended while lifting. Size has a 50/50 ratio of fast and slow digesting carbs to replenish your body and to give you good carbs.

Combining Size with Cell Drive, also a JS Nitro product, is ideal because Cell Drive contains a creatine, BCAA's, and glutamine in the recovery shake. Some mass gainers contain these, but Size does not. If I was not taking Cell Drive, I would probably look for a Mass gainer that contains the BCAA's and glutamine, but currently I am very happy taking both products. I would rather take two products that do what they are supposed to do effectively instead of taking one product that performs both functions half way.

I have only taken Size for 3 days, so I have not really seen any quantifiable results, but the taste is great. I take size 30 minutes post workout, because I take Cell Drive and an isolate immediately post workout. I will probably start doing another size shake before bed. The taste is good enough that I don't have to chug it, and actually enjoy sipping it. My only reservation is that the taste, while very good, is pretty strong, and I don't want to take so much of it that I get tired of it. Also, it is a pretty "heavy" shake, and I need to make sure I lift hard enough to use the 1000 calories for muscle gain instead of just fat. I will probably buy vanilla size and see how I like that.

As far as taste and ingredients go, I would give Chocolate Size an "A." Time will tell if results come.

Update

On October 31 I started a 12 week bulking cycle. I am switching up my workout every 4 weeks. The main focus is back, chest, and shoulders.

My long term goal is to get to 230lbs at less than 10% body fat. As of today, I weight 213.1lbs and am at 13.7%body fat. My goal for this cycle is to get to 240lbs and 13.0%body fat. I am going to keep an update journal to track my progress and my thoughts on the supplements I am taking.

Here are the supplements I am currently taking to reach my goals.

For a pre-workout I am taking "M5 Extreme" in the fruit punch flavor by Cellucor. I picked this preworkout because it has a creatine in it and I had never used it before.

I am taking Cell Drive by John Scott Nitro both intra-workout and immediately post workout. I was deciding between that and Size-on by Gaspari Nutrition for my intra-workout shake; I want to replace the calories I am burning so that I can put on more weight. Cell Drive is a post workout, but is a similar product to Size-On, so to save money I decided to try using it during my workout.

Immediately post-workout I have a shake that includes both 1 serving of Cell Drive and 1 scoop of Nectar Isolate Strawberry-Kiwi. I chose to do this because isolate is the fastest digesting type of protein.

30-45 Minutes post workout I am taking chocolate "Size" by JSNitro, a 1000 calorie mass gainer.

At night and for extra meals and calories during the day I am taking Elite Gourmet, a blended protein.

2-4 weeks from now I am going to start a pro-hormone. I am currently debating which one to try. I am waiting so that I can break through any plateaus I reach in my first 4 week cycle instead of experiencing bigger gains more quickly.

I will review each of these supplements in more detail as I use them. I will update on a my lift totals on a regular basis so record them, but I will only do body fat percentage once per week.

240 here I come... watch me.