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View Full Version : Ragin' Bull - Round 2



shnelson
05-27-11, 12:44 pm
Figured I'm due to start a log now that I'm a rage-a-holic.

Round 1 Summary - Started March 13th:
Height: 5'8
Body weight: 225lbs
Maximum working weights:
185 5x5 Bench
225 5x5 Squat
225 3x5 Deadlifts
115 5x5 Seated Press

Round 1 Finishing stats (Depleted my first tub of Rage 5/23):
Body weight: 204lbs
235 5x5 Bench
365 5x5 Squat & finished with new PR 405x5
315 3x5 Deadlifts (still working on my form here)
155 5x5 Seated Press

I haven't gone for any 1RMs yet, still working up the confidence after taking a break from lifting for so many years. My 1RM for squat & deads was 405, I'd say I blew squats out of the water doing it 5 times. Biggest goal is Bench, previous 1RM was 275 and I'd like to see six plates on the bar by the time I finish round 2. If I stay consistent with 5lb increases every week, In a perfect world I'll be 5x5'in it in 16 weeks. Working out 3 days a week, my 44 servings of Rage should take me straight through to see it as at least 1RM.

Only thing that is going to get in the way is the cut I'm on now, definitely think I need to get out of a caloric deficit if I'm expecting to make this kind of progress.

Rage Round 2 started today with Seated press, deads & squats. My new friend Mr. Animal Pump showed up and holy shit am I liking this stack. Stay tuned for some serious progression, appreciate the support!

Bruiser
05-27-11, 1:01 pm
Welcome bro. Great progress in such a short time period. I'm looking forward to seeing what you can do.

shnelson
06-01-11, 10:19 am
Thanks Bruiser, your log is one of the ones that inspired me to join up here.


I passed on Monday's workout, had a pretty intense full body thrashing over the weekend from cutting and moving a bunch of sod... would have been a puddle in the gym if I did make it in.

This morning was bench/squat/bb row - and I thought I messed up big time when I took the full Animal Pump pak (left the stim in without thinking) and a shot of Rage. Started getting jittery on the ride in, but once I was under the bar it was all good:

Bench: 4x5 @ 245lbs; 2x275lbs & finished with 5x225lbs - big PR for me here
Squat: 12x185lbs; 8x225lbs; 3x5 @ 315lbs & quit due to some knee pain
BB Row: 10x135lbs, 8x185lbs; 2x5 @ 195lbs; 2x5 @ 205lbs Another PR, wanted to keep going but didn't want to sacrifice my form just to cheat a few more lbs on the bar.

I'm still on the fence about keeping the stim pill in with my next workout. This morning was incredible, but I feel like I could have accomplished the same with a few hundred MG less of caffeine.

Bruiser
06-01-11, 10:30 am
Thanks brother. It's nice to know that even when I'm feeling run down and like I'm not doing enough that I'm inspiring someone. That means a lot. Look like you had a pretty solid session. I always train with the Pump/Rage combo and have never taken out the stim pill. I love the energy I get from it. Except yesterday was my last session with Pump for a while. I forgot to order it and it's too expensive to buy around here. So I'll have to go without until next month.

shnelson
08-23-11, 1:56 pm
I bet you all thought I fell off the horse, or didn't give a shit since the post got buried anyways...

My bad, summer got me busy and I didn't keep up with the logs like I should have. You can be sure as shit I've been hitting the grind day in and day out though!

Just finished my (second) tub of Orange Juiced with yesterday's workout. I've been pretty religious with the 5x5 core workout regimen, here's where I sit:

255 5x5 Bench
365 5x5 Squat - maintained this as a heavy set & started working in 275 5x10 to try and shred my core muscles.
315 3x5 Deadlifts - haven't increased due to form suffering.
155 5x5 Standing Military Press (took forever to gain this from where I was at seated, whole new set of muscles i guess?)


When I ordered my new tub of rage, I added a few other fine animal products to the lineup:
Animal Pak (been taking this since day 1)
Animal Pump
Animal Cuts
Animal Stak

Thinking about dropping xtends as primary bcaa's and going with Nitro for post, have also read great things about M-stak. Will I be thrashing my body if I were to stack all six? It's already done a number on my wallet!

I figure I can go all out now that I've got myself conditioned for the plates in the gym again. Ready to see what kind of animal I can truly become here, why hold back?

shnelson
08-25-11, 3:18 pm
08-24 Pushing to 260

Started in on the cuts 4pm tuesday. Slept like shit, finally fell asleep around midnight to be woken by the dog an hour later and broke sleep again 4am for no apparent reason. Thinking I may need to start up the melatonin if this keeps up.

0500 Alarm goes off, do I smash that bitch and hit the snooze or down the packet of animal pump I left on the night stand? Took the pump, good choice... 0530 I'm on the road wide awake, drooling over the smell of my slaughtermelon juice in the cup holder. Had that shit down by 0545, felt my skin starting to crawl and I was getting amped.

0600 on the bench, warmed up with the bar and a pair of quarters some asshole left on from the night before (seriously, clean your shit up when you're done). Man, even this feels heavy and I feel like shit. Suck it up and move on.

185lbs x 5, still not liking it
225lbs x 5, getting warmer
260lbs on the bar, where's my spotter? He's late, but I didn't come here to be a bitch. Fix your grip and fuckin' push already! Once, twice & onward to the fifth. Holy shit that felt good!
260 x 4, still no spotter
260 x 5, he finally showed up so I was comfortable trying for that last rep
260 x 4 & assist on the fifth
260 x 4 & another assist. Dropped to 225 and burnt out.

0630 Going easy on the squats today, you're an animal but not stupid.
135 x 20 warmup
225 x 10 warmup
275 x 10 working set, hit 5 more sets at 10 reps, focused on a tight core and called it good.

0700 Bent over Barbell rows, time to get out of a three week rut.
135 x 5 warmup
155 x 5
185 x 5
195 x 5
205 x 5
205 x 5
205 x 5 & ready to puke. Pack it up and push for 5x5 @ 205 come Monday.

Made some solid progression and seriously missed not having pump for the last month. Took dose 1 of cuts at 1200 and wanted to tear out of my skin, next dose at 1600 went much better & with the aid of melatonin 3 I was able to turn in at a decent hour.

Today I rest, tomorrow going to see if I can finally push into 160 for standing press as I've been working 155 for quite some time now.

Jay
08-25-11, 5:27 pm
Welcome.. Are you doing the pills or Rage powder??

You could go with nitro or my favorite BCAA powder, Atomic 7.

shnelson
08-29-11, 11:23 am
Welcome.. Are you doing the pills or Rage powder??

You could go with nitro or my favorite BCAA powder, Atomic 7.

Thanks man, had to go with the powder to change things up, especially considering the pill count from all of the other animal supps I'm taking.

I used to mix xtend with rage and drink it on the way into the gym since I workout in a fasted state, but now I take rage straight and don't hit the BCAA's till the workout starts. Is Nitro in pill form?


Friday's workout was disappointing, but I've got to stay positive on the fact that I still got in there and gave it everything I had. I think I ran into an issue with too much stim and not enough sleep.

Hit 160 for 2 sets at 5 reps, tried to finish with 155 but had to drop back to 135 to get them all out. Wasn't feeling it with squats either, but still managed 275 5x10. Tried to make up for a less than stellar workout with deadlifts but failed with 315, finished these at 225 2x5, called it quits and stacked up on a large breakfast to set me up with a couple days rest over the weekend.


I'll label this morning as excellent, even falling short of 260 5x5 by only 4 reps on bench it felt great all the way through. I am short a spotter this week, I think I could have made it all the way with only one assist.

Bench:
135 warmup
185 x 8
225 x 3
260 x 5
260 x 5
260 x 5
260 x 4 (failed on the 5th)
260 x 3

Squat:
135 warmup
225 x 10
275 x 5
315 5x5

Barbell Row
135 warmup
205 4x5
185 x 5

I revisit this workout on Friday, goal is to keep squats where they are at and close up 5x5 working weight for 260 on bench and 205 on rows. I've got it in me to hit 160 on standing press this wednesday, just need to keep my diet strong and sleep in check. Also took Universal Rep's advice and dropped the stim from Pump on workout days, as well as from the cuts I take at 1600 to avoid keeping me up all night.

shnelson
09-08-11, 2:41 pm
Last wednesday did not go as planned, friday was even worse. Not sure what I had going on, but was feeling pretty burnt out.

Decided to rest up on Monday instead of hitting the gym, after all it was a holiday right?

Was a good thing I did, Hit bench yesterday and threw 265 on after warming up. Was able to run it 4x5 no problem, that last rep I felt it burn all the way through. Knowing the 5th set was going to be trouble, I wanted to tear into some new muscle and added 10lbs.

Thank god I had a spotter! Got it up three times and lost it. That 4th rep was not going to happen, and I'm fairly certain my spotter pulled 200lbs up for me.

Decided to finish bench with 225 and go until my spotter had enough. I learned today that Animal products = no bullshit when followed with a blueprint in mind.

Did I mention that Stak finally showed up? 275 in two weeks if all goes well...


The rest of my workout was nothing special, not worth putting the numbers up here.

shnelson
09-20-11, 9:07 pm
I'm going to make the assumption that your post is spam, based on the links in your signature...


Time for an update -

Caught a Universal vid on youtube a while back, showing a couple of the guys taking rage straight up. Figured I'd give it a shot, and have to say I like it a helluva lot better than with 4oz of water! I can learn to appreciate a kick in the face like that at 5am.

Finished my tub of Cuts over the weekend, and would like to recommend anyone taking cuts+pump+rage to follow UniversalRep's advice and TAKE OUT THE STIM PILL(s). I took the stim out of one of the cuts per day but that wasn't enough. Having some serious caffeine withdrawals this week, next round I'll completely remove it from the cuts and only take the pump stim when I'm not hitting rage (I like the kick start in the morning as opposed to drinking coffee).

With all that said, I've been making exceptional progress since Stak finally showed up. I was able to bump my working bench weight up to 275lbs friday and went for a max of 305 then 315 afterwards. Finished the rest of my lower body workout for the day and wanted to keep going, so I started to throw around the dumbells until 110lbers finally wore me out... which is more than I could ever remember doing in the past let alone at the end of the workout.

Just another post where Rage gets 100% of my vote for its effectiveness. I normally fade out by now, but it's kept my motivation through the ceiling, something I can truly appreciate.