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Started my 2nd BP run earlier this week.
Worked with Rob to come up with a killer custom plan.

With 1 run under my belt and Rob's help with this custom plan, I feel like I have a pretty good handle on this 2nd run. Really looking forward to the results that are sure to come.

Even though I was a total noob on that first run, and as lost as anyone could be, it was a huge success:
- I gained incredible strength and set new PR's in every big lift.
- I gained about 6lbs. of Lean Body Mass as I lost about 4% of BF.
- I learned so much about the science of bodybuilding, overall health, physiology, supplements, and who you can trust in the bodybuilding marketing circus!

Thank You to Rob, and all of the BP Army for literally changing my life in the last few months! Absolutely priceless....

On to my 2nd Run:
Goal - to gain even more strength and reach 180lbs, without gaining much BF.
I am currently at 168lbs and 15% BF.

I started Famine on Monday, July 2 and will be running the full BP Periodic with some specific tweaks that Rob incorporated.

Supplements consist of:
MPS, MultiVitamin, Fish Oil, BioForge, Super Cissus, BCAA, Karbolyn, and Mass Pro Whey.

Famine will be:
WO's - the stock BP workout template.
Diet - 8x body weight in calories.

Feast will be:
WO's - the 5 day bridge, and then the full periodic.
Diet - Caloric zig-zags ranging from 120% - 80% of maintenance (never going below 100% on WO days).

Cruise will be: (actually, not exactly sure what cruise will look like yet, but will probably be...)
WO's - the stock BP Cruise WO's
Diet - 80% of maintenance

Famine - Day 1 - July 2, 2012
- Weight 168
- Calories - 1317, protein - 33g (fruits/veggies/almonds/juice/V8/skim milk)
- MPS - 5 pre/post WO (will be using MPS during Famine on WO days only)
- MultiVitamin
- Fish Oil

Famine WO 1 - Legs, Back and Bi's:
Legs and Back
- Bulgarian Split Squats - 65lb DB's x 4,4,4
- Seated cable rows - 150 x 6,5,4

Rest 2 minutes between each set.

Biceps
- Standing barbell curls - 100 x 6
- Incline dumbell curls - 30 x 6
- Preacher curls - 125 x 6
(preacher curl is done on a machine, so I can set it to higher than I would be able to do with free weights)

All in all, I felt pretty good. Since this was the first day of Famine, and I workout first thing in the morning, I was not feeling any different then any other day...yet!

Famine - Day 3 - July 4, 2012
- Weight 165 (on target for losing 1lb. a day)
- Calories - 1350, protein - 37g (fruits/veggies/almonds/juice/V8/skim milk)
- MPS - 5 pre/post WO
- MultiVitamin
- Fish Oil

Famine WO 2 - Chest, shoulders and tri's with 1 minute in between sets:
Chest & Shoulders:
- Flat DB bench press - 70x9
- Seated DB shoulder presses - 25x8
Rested 1 minute
- Incline DB bench press - 55x8
- Kettlebell Press - 25x10
Rested 1.5 minutes
- Decline DB bench press - 60 x8
- Seated DB shoulder Press - 20x5
Rest a little over 1 minute
- Flat DB bench presses - 60x7
- Kettlebell Press- 25x10
Rested for about 2 minutes then:
Triceps:
- Decline skull crushers - 40x10
Rested about a 1.5 minutes
- Flat skull crushers - 50x10
Rested about a 1.5 minutes
- Cable tricep pressdowns - 120 x 6
Rested about a 1.5 minutes
- Seated DB overhead tricep extension - 45 x 7

I was actually pretty surprised at how well this workout went today.
Even though Rob does not recommend using MPS during Famine, I am taking 5 pre/post on WO days only and I believe it definitely made a difference compared to my first famine run.
After 3 days of Famine, this WO can be pretty brutal, especially with only ~1 min. rest between sets, but with MPS, I just felt better during the WO and did not feel as exhausted afterwards.

Famine - Day 5
- Weight 164

No WO today, although I did go to the gym and do some stretching and a few light kettlebell exercises, just to keep the blood flowing.

My target calories for Famine is 1360.
I managed 1317, 1360, 1320, & 1347 so far, and my highest protein day was 33g (4th of July).

The multistix show me to be somewhere between 15± and 30+
And my resting heart rate is up 6 beats per minute this morning.

Looks like I could have done a little better (based on heart rate and protein excretion not quite being where they should be), but I'm not sure what different I could have done.

At any rate, today is the last day of Famine, and what a glorious day tomorrow will be!!

3 days of feeding and the Feast 5 day bridge starts on Tuesday.

First Day of Feast
Weight - 163 (down 5 lbs from start of Famine)
Resting heart rate when I woke up this morning was 7 BPM higher than the start of Famine.
The multistix showed a solid 30+ protein excretion when I tested at the end of the day yesterday.
So everything seems to be right on cue to end Famine and start Feast!


I woke up at 5 am this morning because I was so excited to start eating like a mad man!! LOL, and so far I have!

For these next 3 feeding days, I will be consuming 20x my body weight. 163x20=3260 calories.
After that, I will go to 120% of maintenance on training days, and 100% on off days. This will be somewhere in the range of 2880-3000 on training days and 2400-2500 on off days.

Supplements during Feast:
Synthagen, Boiforge, multivitamin, Fish Oil, Whey Protein
Going to keep it simple to start, but I may add in some Super Cissus, BCAA's and Karbolyn as things progress.

Feast Bridge WO 1
Weight - 167
MPS - 6 pre/post
Caloric zig-zag -
reduce to 120% on Workout Days/100% on off days (2880/2400)

Warmups and then:
DB Bench Press - 80'sx6
SS w/DB Pullovers - 55x6
(I missed the mark on the bench press. was supposed to be 8-10, but hit failure at 6)

Rest ~5 min.

Warmups and then:
DB Ball Squast - 45'sx10
SS w/Good Mornings - 15x10
(Definitely should have done more weight with the Ball Squats)

Rest ~5 min.

EDT Block
DB Inclined Bench Press - 55x6,6,5,4
Bulgarian Split Squat - 35'sx6,6,5,4
TT - 10:42 min.
Rest ~2 min in between sets.

Was a little disappointed that I couldn't hit the expected rep range on the DB BP, but 80's is quite a bit more than I was able to do during my first run bridge WO, so I'm a heck of a lot stronger than I was just a few months ago, so I guess I shouldn't complain.

Feast Bridge WO 2
Weight - 168
MPS 7 pre/post

Warmups then:
DB Bench Press - 80'sx8
SS w/DB Pullovers - 55x8

Rest ~5 min.

Warmups then:
Ball Squat - 60'sx7
SS w/Good Mornings - 24x13

Rest ~5 min.

EDT Block
DB Inclined Bench Press - 55x6,6,6,6
Bulgarian Split Squat - 35'sx6,6,6,6
TT - 10:22 (last time - 10:46 min)
Rest ~2 min. in between sets.

Not real sure what was so different from my 1st Bridge WO and this one, but I felt stronger and clearly lifted more today than I was able to 2 days ago.
My DB Bench Press is back on track and I obviously need to increase weight in my EDT Block.
My weight is back to 168, which is where I was before Famine.

Feast Bridge WO 3
Weight - 169

Warmups then:
DB Bench Press - 85'sx5
SS w/DB Pullovers - 55x5

Rest ~5 min.

Warmups then:
Ball Squat - 75'sx4
SS w/Good Mornings - 24x15

Rest ~5 min.

EDT Block:
DB Inclined Bench Press - 60'sx6,6,5,4
Bulgarian Split Squat - 40'sx6,5,5,4
TT - 10:19
Rest ~2 min. in between sets.

Added Arm Work:
BB Curls - 90x5,4,4
Tricep pushdown - 130x7,5,5

Felt pretty good after my prescribed WO, so decided to add in a little extra arm work. Felt like I could have kept going too, but time was running out and had to get to work.

Feast Bridge WO 4 - Deload
Weight - 167 *!&@&#!

Warmups then:
DB Bench Press - 80'sx7
SS w/DB Pullovers - 60x7

Rest ~5 min.

Warmups then:
Ball Squat - 60'sx7
SS w/Good Mornings - 24x12

Rest ~5 min.

EDT Block:
DB Inclined Bench Press - 60'sx6,6,6,5
Bulgarian Split Squat - 40'sx6,6,6,5
TT - 11:47
Rest ~2 min. in between sets.

Added Arm Work:
BB Curls - 90x7,7,6
Tricep pushdown - 140x6,6,5

Pretty disappointed that my weight is down 2 lbs. since Monday. I will increase my calories from 2400/2880 to 2500/3000.
I'm trying to gain weight, not loose it!! Just not sure if only increasing by 100 calories on my off days will be enough?? Any thoughts?

Personally I would bump it up 200-250 instead of just 100. Generally the recommendation everywhere is to bump calories up 300 if your weight stalls and you want to gain

Regarding your MPS use during the famine workouts -> not sure if that's advantageous. I understand that the workouts feel better, but isn't the whole point of famine to keep protein at a minimum so the body has to upregulate every mechanism to increase efficiency of protein usage? Adding MPS kinda defeats that purpose, doesn't it ?

Rizzo23601 wrote:Personally I would bump it up 200-250 instead of just 100. Generally the recommendation everywhere is to bump calories up 300 if your weight stalls and you want to gain

Thanks Rizzo, I'll go 250 and see what happens in a week. Next week I have to decrease my WO day calories to 110% anyway.

Rizzo23601 wrote:Regarding your MPS use during the famine workouts -> not sure if that's advantageous. I understand that the workouts feel better, but isn't the whole point of famine to keep protein at a minimum so the body has to upregulate every mechanism to increase efficiency of protein usage? Adding MPS kinda defeats that purpose, doesn't it ?

I know, and Rob told me the same thing, but I was curious to see how it affected the outcome of Famine. Based on the indicators, I was right where I needed to be to end Famine and start Feast.
Weight lose=5lb.s and protein excretion=+30. So I believe I still have an effective Famine run.

Not saying this means is OK, and as you and Rob both mentioned, it is not recommended. I will probably not do it next run, but I was just curious to see.

Feast Bridge WO 5 - Attempt new 1RM
Weight - 168

Warmups then:
DB Bench Press - 95'sx3 - PR! 1RM calculator=101's
SS w/DB Pullovers - 60x6

Rest ~5 min.

Warmups then:
DB Squat - 85'sx4 - 1RM calculator=93's
SS w/Good Mornings - 24x10

Rest ~5 min.

EDT Block:
DB Inclined Bench Press - 65'sx6,5,5,4
Bulgarian Split Squat - 45'sx6,5,5,4
TT - 12:30
Rest ~2 min. in between sets.

EDT Block:
BB Curls - 90x7,7,6,5
Tricep pushdown - 140x7,6,5,4
TT - 9:37

Need some advice here. On my DB BP, I hit 95lb dumbells 4 times this morning, but 2 of the 4 were only about half way down. I'm not real sure why I did that, other than I didn't think I was going to be able to come all the way down and all the way back up with it, so I feel like I cheated myself! As soon as I was done with that 4th rep, I was like "why did you do that?!" but it is what it is I guess.
So, how do think I should treat those last two reps? I recorded only 3 reps above, but should I just scrap the last two reps and say I only did 2, or do you think saying I did 3 is OK?
The only reason I am asking is because what I record for today will affect what I do throughout the GLP, so I want it to be as accurate as possible.
I appreciate any opinions on this.

Aside from that, either way you look at it, I set a new PR today. At the end of my first run, 95'sx1 was the most I could do. The GLP1 gave me that PR, and today I broke it!

Love the BP!!!

I would just count it as 2 reps as you could probably do 6 or 7 of the half-reps, maybe even more, so they really don't count.

Fair enough.
Thanks man.