Wednesday Supplement Roadtest

OK, I believe you should always admit when you've screwed up. The truth is... my eyesight is pretty damn terrible (keratoconus) and I struggle to read the directions on these sample packets. Therefore, I assumed the Amino Energy would suit my needs as my mid-workout supplement. Truth be told, taking this after already having taken the Pump Fuel about 1/2 an hour before training was overkill, big time!

Here's the story.

The Pump Fuel went down nicely. I was thinking I might stop in at Kmart over the road from gym before training, but by the time I got changed into my training gear, tied my shoe laces and combed my beard, forget it! I was in "I need to get to the gym, NOW" mode

Today was a Pull routine and a hard one at that. Deadlifts, upright rows, heavy shrugs, pull ups, face pulls, hamstring curls, reverse hypers, back extensions and bicep curls. LOTS of heavy pulling movements. Once I'd started on the Amino Energy, I noticed that I just was not getting tired. I was pulling some heavy weight up and down for reps, and not feeling like I needed much rest in between sets. Once I got to my pull ups I looked in the mirror and noticed what a great pump I had going on all over, not just in the back muscles that I was actually targeting. Also my vascularity was even more pronounced than usual.

So. Seemingly limitless energy, muscle fullness, vascularity... everything you're looking for from these types of supplements. The only problem is... who knows which one of them should get the credit? I have more of this stuff so I'll give it another run and see!

Oh and the Platinum Hydro Builder protein! Very nice. Tasted like dark chocolate to me. Would recommend!

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Tuesday Supplement Review

Today I decided to go with the Gaspari Myofusion & Superpump Max samples, as well as Blox Amino Acids. My pre workout shake was International Protein Banana Flavour, blended with an actual banana and a couple of strawberries. It hit the spot!

Before I continue let me take a moment to complain about the weather again. It is DISGUSTINGLY HOT. And summer is supposed to be OVER dammit. So... the heat is exhausting and oppressive, how is a man supposed to get motivated to go train under these horrendous conditions? Well that's where the pre-workout supplements come into it.

If you read about Superpump Max on the Gaspari Nutrition website you'll see that they have gone against the trend of many other pre-workouts, by using less stimulants and more useful nutrients and amino acids. So, again this is not a pre-workout that sends you nuts with the high intensity of more concentrated stimulants... but I still found that I perked right up and felt ready to get in there and train hard and heavy.

Now... today was my heavy barbell lunge day and in this heat that was really all it took for me to feel like I'd blown out all of my energy for the day. I hit some calf raises as well and then took a sip of the Blox in cold water as I went to hit the PUMP section of my routine for upper body. I really felt like it made a difference right away and I definitely felt like if not for taking the amino acids mid (actually about 1/3 of the way though) workout I would not have lasted to the end of the session under these conditions.

Finally I smashed the Myofusion after training and DAMN. This has got to be the best tasting protein supplement on the market. Absolutely delicious. They have added a pro-biotic to this one as well, which seems like a really good idea to me.

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Monday Supplement Roadtest

Day two of roadtesting all the free samples I picked up at Fitx, and also day two on my Power, Precision and Pump routine.

Today I hit up all of these goodies from Bioflex Nutrition, an Australian company I actually have not tried before. So... first up was the Hydroflex Protein. Since it is disgustingly hot here I blended this up in milk with some ice + one frozen banana. It went down nicely! There's not really much more to be said about a protein supplement is there? If you want the specifics you can check it out on the Bioflex Website.

Next up was Biocharge, the pre-workout supplement. This did the job nicely. It took a little bit of shaking to get it dissolved in my ice cold water, but it went down nicely and there are no complaints about the taste. Some pre-workout supplements can be pretty intense, bordering on scary if you're not used to them. This one I found was quite mild. It did get me fired up and enthusiastic, but not with that crazy level of intensity of some other supplements. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing is up to you.

Now, once I started training, that's when I new this was a good supplement. I felt strong and powerful. My POWER move on today's card was One Arm Dumbbell Rows, and I worked my way up to 60kg for 5 reps. For an 83kg guy, that was pretty good!

Finally the Recover X supplement, intended as a post-workout supplement but I took mine about 1/3 of the way through training as is my wont. I wasn't nuts about the orange flavour, but it was ok. That's a minor complaint at worst. This is one of the hardest days on my routine, it is a ridiculously hot day, and for some reason I decided to do lots of isolateral stuff. One arm dumbbell rows, rear delt laying lateral raises, glute isolation machine... it seemed like I was in the gym for a LONG time working very hard indeed. I got through everything though and was pretty happy with all of my numbers from start to finish. The supplement has to have played a part in that.

ALSO after training I hit up some International Protein Cookies & Cream flavour. Delicious!

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