Testing will not begin until mid to late next week, but I wanted to begin this thread early to field any questions regarding my training, nutrition, person, and supplementation. All questions will be answered promptly and to the best of my ability, so fire away.

Mike McCandless and David Tolson are kindly providing me with the opportunity to evaluate BSN's new be-all-end-all pre-workout supplement, NO-Xplode.

Age: 21

Sex: Male

Weight: 167

Bodyfat: 9.8% (Fitness 2000 Calipers)

Training experience: 2.5 years of lifting, 1.5 years following a bodybuilding lifestyle

Current supplements:

• ON 100% Whey Cookies and Cream - 2 scoops post workout, additional 3-4 scoops/day added to cereal, oatmeal
• LMR Sports Redzone - 2.5cc - 4cc (preworkout on legs, chest, and occasionally back day)
• Bulk Nuntrition ALA - 1200 mg/day taken post workout and after high-carb meals
• BSL Custom Preworkout Blend (EAAs, BCAAs, Taurine) - 20-25 grams pre/during workout
• Gatorade powder (usually I use dextrose) - 0.75 scoops (15 grams of carbs) pre/during workout
• Optimum Opti-Men Multivitamin - 1/day
• Vitamin C - 1000 mg/day preworkout
• Legal Gear LipoBurn - 4 squirts/twice daily

Present goals: Lean bulk at ~ 300 calorie/day surplus

Prescription/Recreational drugs: None

Training Schedule/Protocol: I train with extreme intensity every time I enter the gym (I ritualize my pre-workout tradition of stimulants + energetic/angry music + positive visualization) and finish all of my workouts in under 60 minutes. With the exception of some arm exercises and my set of 20 rep squats, all rep ranges are between 6 and 9. I will be monitoring all lifts but will gauge strength increases primarily on the major lift for each bodypart: flat bench press (chest), squats (legs), dumbell shoulder press (shoulders), skull crushers (triceps), and barbell curl (biceps). I recently began using a superset routine on arms day, but aside from this change, my routine has been nearly constant for the past 8 months. For those of you who are quick to say that change is necessary to ellicit growth, I am still making gains in both size and strength.



HIIT cardio usually consists of 12 to 20 minutes on the elliptical machine. I was a long distance runner for 8 years before I began lifting (yes, I started running seriously when I was 11), and my joints tend to ache if I try to do too much HIIT on the treadmill. I currently structure my HIIT sessions twice a week, typically on legs day or the day after, and again 2 days later.

Current lifts:

• Flat Bench: 205 x 6
• Squats: 200 x 23 (I generally use my 20 rep set as my strength indicator for squats)
• Dumbell Shoulder Press: 70 x 6
• Bent Over Rows: 170 x 9
• Weighted Dips: 70 x 6

Supplement history: I have long been a proponent of pre-workout cocktails. During the schoolyear, I lift first thing in the morning at 6 am and I found that a blend of creatine, EAAs, BCAAs, high GI carbs, and stimulants made my workouts far more effective. I respond fairly poorly to typical creatine monohydrate, and in the past I have tried San V12, Swole V.2, BSL Kreataine Ultra, and VPX CEX. The prospect of using a single supplement that has many of the ingredients that I typically use pre-mixed greatly interests me. I feel that, due to my history of using ergogenic/anabolic pre-workout supplements, I will be able to provide a detailed analysis of NO-Xplode.

Diet

Rather than count every calorie that enters my system, I use the scale and the mirror to evaluate my progress. If I am gaining or losing weight faster than I would like, I adjust my macronutrient ratios and add/remove food from my diet accordingly. I eat clean throughout the year with the majority of my intake consisting of

Protein sources (35%): tuna, lean ground turkey, chicken breast, protein blend, whey protein, milk

Carbohydrate sources (50%): yams, low GI cereal, oats, vegetables, brown rice, whole grain bread

Fat sources (15%): fish oil caps, olive oil, natural peanut butter

When I feel that I am adding fat mass to quickly, I drop my carbohydrates and increase my proteins.

Looking forward to yor review. I didnt get picked, but lookin forward to see how you like this product.

Looking forward to this as well, GFK

~sawastea

8-16-04 Legs (pre NO-Xplode)

Solid legs day today. My lower back was hurting me something fierce the past two days from driving down to school, moving furniture, and sleeping on couches, so I was worried that my workout would be low quality. Just to be sure, I stayed away from heavy SLDLs and prone hamstring curls as both aggravated my back more than I would have liked.

• Squats: 205*20, 225*9, 225*8, 185*17
• SLDLs: 185*12, 185*12
• Seated hamstring curl: 160*12, 160*12, 160*12
• Seated leg extension: 150*12, 160*10 drop 110*7 drop 70*8 hold

This was the first time I have been able to squat 205 for 20, so I was very satisfied. I was training with a beast of a friend whom I hadn't seen all summer and made sure to go even deeper than usual in an attempt to match his deep-as-it-gets style. I ultimately had the last laugh after he ran to the bathroom after set 2 to empty the contents of his stomach. Calves will be performed tonight or tomorrow.

Good to see some of my BB.com brothers here. This is a growing forum and has some good information and a crew of extremely knowledgeable mods.

8-17-04 Arms (pre NO-Xplode)

The past two weeks I have been supersetting tris and bis on arms day. Exercises are the same, but rather than performing all tricep exercises followed by all bicep exercises, I pair an exercise from each and go all out. For lack of a better phrase, my arms were pumped like Reeboks today. I think I will need to train forearms more seriously if I want to continue this lifting plan, as they are recruited for both bis and tris. I have also begun to focus more on form and squeeze and less on weight. As explained earlier, this is the only recent change to my routine, and by the time I begin NO-Xplode, I will be on my third workout using this routine.

• Skull Crushers: 100x12, 100x9, 100x8
  ~s.set close grip: 100x10, 100x8, 100x6
  ~s.set EZ-bar curl: 80x12, 80x10, 80x8
• Weighted Dips: 55x10, 55x8, 45x10
  ~s.set Preacher Curl (Hammer): 45x15, 55x12, 55x12
• Cable Tricep Pressdown: 120x15, 125x12
  ~s.set cable Hammer Curls: 40x12, 40x10

Cardio: 12 minutes HIIT on recumbant bicycle

My BSN NO-Xplode came in the mail today (again, thanks Mike and David), but I will wait until my next lifting cycle begins (Monday, legs day).

GhostfaceKillah writes GREAT reviews. Very detailed. Has the gift of journalism.

Thank you. That compliment means a lot to me.

8-18-04 Shoulders (pre NO-Xplode)

Not a very good workout today. I was up late and had a few beers but managed to wiggle my way out of going downtown with the crew (who ended up getting completely stinky). Whenever I come back to the gym at school, my dumbell lifts all seem to drop by 5 lbs. I find this very odd, but it has happened on 4 occassions. Maybe it's the Blacksburg air.

• DBell shoulder press: 65x10, 65x8, 65x7
• Arnolds: 50x8, 50x8
• Side lateral raises: (25x12 drop 15x8 drop 10x8)x2
• Front raises: 30x8, 30x8
• Standing calf raises: 3 sets

I received one bottle of NO-Xplode (40 scoops). Unless David tells me otherwise, I will utilize the following dosing scheme:

2 scoops pre-workout (lifting days)
1 scoop mid-morning (off days)

40 scoops/(5 days/week*2 scoops/day + 2 days/week*1 scoop/day) = 40/12 = 3.33 weeks

8-18-04 Back (pre NO-Xplode)

Decent back workout despite having no one to push me. I'm missing the intensity of my old workout partner who goes to George Mason University, 3 hours away; we would feed off eachother's energy and always had great workouts. This morning my roommates were still hurting from their nocturnal shenanigans, so I left for the gym without them. I went a little lighter than usual and upped the reps as I am still rehabing the lower back. I was especially cautious with bent over rows, avoiding bouncing.

• Deadlifts: 225x12
• Bent over rows: 165x12, 165x9, 165x7
• Lat pulldown w/wide handles: 150x12, 160x10, 160x10
• Hammer row: 140x12, 160x12, 160x10
• Hyperextensions: 15x15, 15x15 (not part of my normal back workout)
• Abs: 4 sets

8-20-04 Chest (pre NO-Xplode)

Stood up by two workout partners today. Whatever, all I need is me.

• Flat bench press: 205x7, 195x8, 195x4
• Incline Dbell press: 80x9, 80x5, 75x8
• Decline bench press: 165x8, 170x6, 170x5
• Incline Dbell flyes: 35x15, 35x12
• Forearms: 4 sets

Have any of you guys tried MRI's NO2? I've tried it and haven't seen any real benefits. I'm thinking about giving NO-Xplode a try, do you think it's worth the shot?

I haven't tried any NO products aside from Syntrax Nitrous stacked with a few other things. As for whether NO-Xplode is worth a try, that's what I am hoping to determine.

8-21-04 Legs (1st NO-Xplode workout)

I was due for an off day, but I felt mentally prepared for a legs workout, so I decided to hit the gym. I started with a low dose of NO-Xplode (1.5 scoops) to assess tolerance. My morning nutrition/supplementation was as follows:

8:45 am - 3/4 cup oats, cooked and cooled + 1 scoop whey + 1 cup coffee
9:35 am - 1.5 scoops BSN NO-Xplode
10:15 am - begin sipping 1 scoop Gatorade + 25 grams EAAs/BCAAs

Taste/Mixing
I mixed one and a half scoops in 16 ounces of water using a shaker bottle but no agitator. Mixing was excellent and taste was somewhere between decent and moderately good. The Fruit Punch Freeze definitely has a strong taste, but no hideous aftertaste or undertones. It also has an effervescent feel to it, which explains why taking it with food would be a very bad idea (read: bubble guts). I will have to increase the amount of water I use when I up the scoops to 2, as I feel that 8 oz/scoop would be on the strong side.

Sides
Immediately before leaving for the gym I experienced bowel discomort and had to make an additional bathroom trip. Fortunately, this feeling passed and did not affect my workout. I did feel mildly jittery, but not nearly like I feel after a cup of coffee and 3 cc of Redzone. The real jitters hit me, to my surprise, around 4 pm when I expected to be crashing. My heart was racing like crazy. Three hours later I crashed pretty gard, but I am unsure if it was from sleep deprivation, boredom, coming down off of stimulants, or a combination of the above. I also felt ridiculously dehydrated throughout the day and was constantly pounding water.

The Workout
Amazing. No way the placebo effect could have offset everything that was working against me: poor nutrition the day before, depression, waking up at 3:30 am to drunk roommates and a party downstairs, and lifting legs on 4 days rest. I was prepared for a terrible workout, but I needed to be in the gym to get my mind off things, and no better way to do that than to lift legs. I have copied over my previous legs workout (which at the time was a great workout in itself) to facilitate comparison:

Previous legs workout

• Squats: 205*20, 225*9, 225*8, 185*17
• SLDLs: 185*12, 185*12
• Seated hamstring curl: 160*12, 160*12, 160*12
• Seated leg extension: 150*12, 160*10 drop 110*7 drop 70*8 hold

1st NO-Xplode legs workout

• Squats: 210*22, 230*8, 230*6, 185*20 (last 5 from below parallel)
• SLDLs: 205*10, 205*8
• Seated hamstring curl: 160*12, 170*10, 170*10
• Seated leg extension: 160*12, 160*8 drop 110*8 drop 60*12 hold
• Calves: 5 sets

The 210 for 22 reps blew me away. My endurance was excellent. I didn't really feel as focused as I hoped, but this is probably due to lack of a workout partner to charge me up. No pump or vascularity changes to note.

I used 2 scoops of NO-Xplode pre-workout, and despite waking up too late to have my usual cup of coffee, I am uber-jittery. To quote DSade:

"my heart would rebel and hack it's way out of my chest in order to proclaim the power of its beat to the world...right before torching itself."

This is about how I feel right now. I really wish I knew exactly what secrets this proprietary blend holds regarding caffeine content.

More updates on my workout later.

8-23-04 Arms

• Skull Crushers: 100x12, 105x8, 100x9
  ~s.set close grip: 100x10, 105x8, 100x8
  ~s.set EZ-bar curl: 85x10, 85x9, 80x8
• Weighted Dips: 55x11, 55x9, 55x7
  ~s.set Preacher Curl (Hammer): 60x12, 65x10, 55x12
• Cable Tricep Pressdown: 125x15, 130x12
  ~s.set cable Hammer Curls: 40x12, 40x12
• Abs: 4 sets

My upper arms were so volumized by my workout that the act of putting my hands behind my head to do ab work actually cut bloodflow to my hands, making them feel numb. Intense workout, able to maintain speed and strength until the very end. Aside from feeling like I was on amphetamines, I love this stuff.


8-24-04 Shoulders + cardio

• DBell shoulder press: 65x11, 70x7, 65x9
• Arnolds: 55x8, 55x8
• Side lateral raises: (25x12 drop 15x8 drop 12x8)x2
• Front raises: 30x9, 30x8, 30x8
• HIIT on elliptical: 10 minutes

Strength increased. Poor diet this morning (read: barely any food) as I am still trying to figure out how to fit my workouts into my school schedule. I sipped my NO-Xplode during class just to wake me up. It worked, and fortunately I didn't feel like I just took 20 mg of Adderall to the face. Stomach problems have susbided, most likely because I am avoiding food anywhere near the time of NO-Xplode ingestion.

Im in an endourance type of sport,,in our openion would this product be something to look into too,,,,my power is awesome but my endourance is way lacking,,,any help would be great. Im on other suppliments natural/unatural as well,,,my training is excellant as well as body fat ect. Its just that my endourance is very bad,,thank you for your help

If you're looking for endurance, I strongly suggest that you take a look at "Body Octane". Just check it out, it can't hurt. It's worked good for me so far...

I'm taking NO-Xplode at the moment as well and like you, I haven't experienced any "pumps". I'll keep you updated in the days to come.