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Firefist
04-01-13, 11:23 pm
Firefist’s ATP Final Review

Alright, today was my last day of the ATP. First off, let me apologize for not running a log like I was supposed to. I never got the email until Nix0r forwarded it to me. I ran the can pretty much like the email said though. Anyways, after the whole can of project stak, I have a lot to say. I was awarded the opportunity to try this guy out after interning at the cage, which if you couldn’t tell by my many write-ups, I loved. Anyways, here we go…. Let’s start out with some basics.



PRE-ATP

I bulked up for the Arnold and the PvsB contest and then trimmed a little off a few weeks before with the extra cardio. I started at 195 +/- 2lb upon waking up the first day. My body fat % came it at 12 +/- 2% done by my friend, an exercise physiologist who I went through the Ex Sci program with, using a Lange caliper.

My diet is simple. Eat my 6 meals and anything else I want is fair game. Those six meals consist of potatoes, rice, oats, and pasta for carbs, and chicken breast, turkey sausage, ground beef, steak and canned crab meat for protein, for the most part. I don’t count macros usually. I don’t measure things either. As long as my Tupperware and stomach is full, I’ll eat more if I want to. Sometimes, my extra meals will consist of burgers, burritos, pizza, ribs, and all that other good stuff. I eat at my girls place at least 2 times a week, and she always makes awesome pasta dishes and either chicken or roast. If I look sloppy, I clean my diet up. If I’m feeling 100%, I eat more. For the most part though, I feel like I ate more than I used to during ATP.

Sleep is a luxury for me. Everything in my life needs to be planned to the half hour. Work from 8-4, class from 6-10. Training either in between 4-6 or after 10. Then homework, cooking, etc…. Sometimes I get to bed at 12. Most nights, 2AM or later.
Supplements… to me, one of the more exciting parts of this game. On top of the Stak prototype, I am using the following: Pak, flex, Rage, Atomic 7, torrent, and creatine caps. Some staples in most people’s supplement regiments, and some of my favs. Pak and flex in the morning (ATP on off days), rage and creatine caps preworkout, atomic 7 intra, torrent postworkout. I took the ATP 30-45 minutes preworkout.

Training schedule. Monday-Deads and back, Tuesday-Chest, Wednesday-Shoulders, Thursday-Legs, Friday- Arms, Saturday- Anything goes. Sometimes I take Thursday off because of an advanced finance class that I have to spend a lot of time prepping for. In that case, I move legs to Friday and arms to Saturday. My training is usually 8-12 sets of the basics, squat, bench and deads at a rep range of 1-5. This is followed up by 2-5 accessory movements in the 4-15 range.

My starting lifts:
Squat-405X2
Bench-275x3, 295xfail
Dead-475X1



POST-ATP

Now 3 weeks later, here's what I got. I will go down the talking points sent in the email. Lets talk numbers first:

Squat-405x5, 425x2
Bench- 295x1 (injury)
Dead- 505x1 (C), 515 (sumo)

If that doesn’t say anything about 3 weeks worth of work, I don’t know what else I can do. Let’ start with the bench. I am confident it would have been higher if I didn’t suffer a shoulder injury towards the beginning….. still got a PR though. My squat went up for sure. I feel the weight moving a lot easier from the hole, and that “holy shit” feeling when I unrack the weight the weight disappeared for the most part. My deadlift.... Goodness. I couldn’t budge anything over 475 worth shit on most days. I got lucky with a 485 once but I didn’t count it because it was sloppy. When I tried 495 two weeks into ATP, the weight went up EASILY. 505 was hard fought, but went up just like 475 of the weeks past. Here’s the best part. I never was a good sumo puller until I decided I needed to train it (my squat stance is wider, and I figured the training would carry over). I may have pulled sumo 4 times prior to ATP. During ATP, I practiced sumo on 2 Saturdays with 315 for form. Last week, I pulled 495 for a single pretty easily. Today, as I am writing this on Monday, April 1, I pulled 515 sumo…. A 30 pound PR and 515 sumo in 3 weeks work? Pretty awesome results if you ask me.

My weight is now 208 +/- 2, taken upon waking up. My body fat %, done by the same friend, was 14% +/- 2%. Weight change would be 13 pounds +/-2 and body fat % change was 2% up +/- 2. I can live with a 2% increase in bodyfat with the PR’s. I wasn’t pulling 515 pre-Arnold at 210 pounds, if that’s any indication. Though my body fat went up and I can see a little more chub around the mid section, I still have abs and I feel the mass I put on outweighs any bit of fat I put on. I definitely noticed a positive change in my physique. Thicker in the chest and back and wider on the shoulders for sure.

My recovery time has definitely gotten quicker. The best indication would be my chest soreness. I used to be sore for at least 4 days after pressing. Now? 2 at the max. My legs are hardly ever sore now. Even after a 20 set squat session 2 weeks ago, I was not terribly tender the next few days.

Keeping it reader friendly, this is all I will say about libido. My girlfriend has volunteered to buy a case of the new stak when it comes out.

Along with recovery time, I feel it takes much longer for me to fatigue. After I get all my sets in, I’ll still be looking around for something to do. Today for instance, after my back workout, I decided to do heavy shrugs, which turned into heavy rack pulls afterwards.

I’ve never taken any product in this category of supplement. I would definitely say I responded very well to it at the very least. A few extra notes…. I did have a little breakout of acne on my forehead the first week of taking ATP, it came back a few days ago and is clearing up now. This could also have been attributed to diet or anything else really. The pack was very manageable to take for those with a hard time with pills…. very similar to taking Rage, its all caps. Kinda smells like incense and cinnamon rolls? I am very happy with the results I got in the last 3 weeks. I really have nothing bad to say about ATP. Aside from a few red spots on my forehead, everything else was more than I ever expected. My experience with this was like the first time I took Rage. Just a huge WTF moment when I look back and I look at the stats:

20 pound PR on squats, 20 pound PR on bench, 30 pound PR on deadlifts, with a 515 sumo out of nowhere in just 3 weeks. 13 pound increase in body weight in just 21 days. Those are HUGE, almost ridiculous changes in such a short time. Almost like one of those infomercials you get pissed off at when they come up on TV…. but real. I didn’t notice how big of a change I underwent until tonight. I’m very curious as to if I will lose some of this strength in the upcoming weeks without ATP.

Anyways, if there is a round of BETA testing, I would love, love, LOVE the opportunity to run it again. I have nothing but great things to say about the ATP experience, and I’m sure the final product will be solid.

Last note: I don’t know if anyone was monitoring the handing out of cans, but if my can happened to be a placebo, please, for the love of God, don’t let me know.... My whole world may turn upside down lol.

If anyone has any questions, please feel free to ask. I think I covered most everything, but if I missed something, I’d be happy to entertain the matter.

Until next time, happy training.

Firefist out.

Firefist
04-02-13, 8:46 am
To any mods who may be reading this, could you do something with the spelling butchering I did with Review in my title? haha