By Roger “Rock” Lockridge
For those of you that may not know or be aware of me, I’ve been working with BPI as a writer and ambassador for a year now. In mid-January, thanks to a combination of talking to members of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s team, an editor at Muscle & Fitness, and my wife, I took on the challenge of training like the seven-time Mr. Olympia did during his reign atop the bodybuilding world for a month. This meant I was following his “double split” routine that included each major bodypart being trained three times a week in two-hour workouts. You may have seen examples of that training in Pumping Iron. In summary, I was training four hours a day, six days a week. My split would look like this.
Monday AM Chest and Back, PM Legs
Tuesday AM Shoulders PM Arms
Wednesday AM Chest and Back, PM Legs
Thursday AM Shoulders PM Arms
Friday AM Chest and Back, PM Legs
Saturday AM Shoulders PM Arms
I would train calves and abs every day, and Sunday was my only day off. You can do a Google search to see examples of what one of his routines would look like. Bodybuilding fans can tell you that his workouts were among the longest and most intense ever. You can see the series I wrote for the four-week process over at Muscle & Fitness’ website, and you can see highlights on my Instagram @rocklockridge.
I will save you some time, though, and share my results. I lost 16 pounds on the scale, dropped two pants sizes, and got stronger on various exercises such as the incline bench press, squat, and pullups. Clearly, following a program that intense requires dedicated recovery, smart nutrition, and sound supplementation, which I had courtesy of BPI Sports. Since people have been asking how I survived this process, much less saw the results I did, I wanted to share my supplement stack as well as my reasons why I chose the supplements I did.
1.M.R. - The new and improved 1.M.R. was clearly the preworkout I went with, and their improved formula didn’t disappoint. I had their Star Berry and Lemon Swole flavors, and I alternated between both. Aside from the caffeine to help wake me up for the morning workouts, the Dynamine and Teacrine played solid roles in helping me maintain my pumps, improve my endurance, and yes, even helped me get stronger. I would take this before the morning workout after my second meal of the day.
Pump Formula – I didn’t want to take caffeine again before bed, but I needed some form of preworkout support before the second round of training, which was another two-hour workout. The stimulants would affect my sleep at night, which would’ve negatively impacted my recovery. So, I went with Pump Formula for the second preworkout. The citrulline malate and DIM would be enough for me to feel the muscles swelling with blood throughout the second workout. The improved nitric oxide levels were vital to keep me going for so many workouts in a row.
BCAA Shredded – The BCAA Shredded was my intra-workout product of choice because of both the taste and nutrients that came with it. BCAA’s can be a big help with endurance, which I felt was important for these high-volume workouts. I didn’t want to tap out after 45 minutes when I had another hour to go. I went through two entire bottles because I drank it for both of my workouts as well as once on my off days.
Muscle & Joint Fix – This type of training was about more than muscle, and the body was broken down repeatedly throughout this challenge. The tendons, ligaments, and joints took serious beatings over this past month. I needed something with anti-inflammatory properties. Recovery was more important to me than the preworkout strategy, which is why I added Muscle & Joint Fix to my stack. The collagen support was big for bone support, while the Peony and Turmeric assisted my muscle recovery.
Iso’Hearn Whey Protein – BPI has always been big with the protein flavors, and I had ordered the Iso’Hearn Whey Isolate before the challenge because I wanted to try it. It was great to have not only for the protein support, but it was sweet enough to curtail temptation to have an extra bite of something that wouldn’t help me. I used my last serving on my last day of the program because I was taking anywhere from 2-4 servings a day.
Nite Burn – Going back to recovery, I needed something to not only help me get quality sleep, but also help with the weight loss efforts. Nite Burn had melatonin and l-tryptophan, which helped me not only go to sleep, but stay asleep until it was time to get up. Then there were raspberry ketones and green coffee bean extract to support my goal to lose fat. I lost over a half-pound a day over the four weeks, so it’s hard to argue against the results.
If you want to try any of these supplements for yourself, you can go to www.bpisports.com to check them out. Use my code RL15 at checkout, and it will save you some money as well. There was no way I could’ve finished a program like this without high quality supplementation, and BPI clearly provided that