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By
Charles Staley, B.Sc, MSS
Director, Staley Training Systems
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I'm sure you've seen our recent
requests for test subjects for an upcoming 6-week anecdotal
study we're running in conjunction with USP Labs. We'll be
picking and announcing our 10 test subjects later today (Sept.
5th, 2008), which will be culled from over 200 applications
we received over the past week.
Given that this is the first
time we've ever done something like this, I thought I'd tell
you a little bit more about how this small study came into
being, what we're hoping to accomplish, and of course, tell
you a bit more about Prime itself.
About 3 weeks ago I received
a letter from a fellow conditioning coach named Jon Doyle,
telling me about this new product he'd been using, which was
called "Prime".
Jon was literally gushing
about how powerful this product was, and although I've know
Jon for quite some time, I was a bit taken aback about how
hard he was pitching this product to me. I yelled over to
Phil Stevens in the next room "Man, either Doyle is doing
an amazing sales job on me, or this stuff is really a bitch-slapper!"
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Click
here to get your Prime - it's available through Staley Training
Systems now! |
Anyway, as I began trying to cook
up a reason why we weren't interested (those of you who've followed
my work for any length of time know I'm not a big supplement junkie),
Jon starts rattling off some of his recent PR's while on the product:
>>>"I
went from front squatting 225 for 8 to 315 for 6 in 4 weeks...and
I never came anywhere close to failure
>>>clean went from 275 to 335 in same time...
>>>sick, sick stuff...shoots recovery and strength
through the roof…" |
So as you might imagine,
that caught my attention, given that I'm currently preparing for
the American Masters competition on November 2nd, in Savannah,
Georgia. And before I could even ask Jon wrote back "I Know
someone over at the company, I'll have them send you a 6-week
supply, you need to check this out."
I told Jon that my
numbers have been very stable for several weeks now, so I'll be
in a good position to assess whether or not the product is working
for me.
The next e-mail from
Jon:
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Insane! Well,
my numbers have been very stable in recent months, so I'll
be in a great position to see if it makes a difference.
>>>it's
not an "if" Charles...its a "how much"
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OK, so long story short,
I started taking Prime on Saturday, August 30th. I'm documenting
my experiences on my training log at the Team Staley forum. Click
here to view that or:
http://teamstaley.com/showthread.php?p=82759#post82759
I've also been in an
extended e-mail volley with Jacob Geissler, USP's CEO. I had a
lot of questions as you might imagine, and I'm sure you do too,
so below is an edited transcript of our conversations, highlighting
the main questions I had, along with Jacob's responses:
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Charles: Jacob,
what's your new product Jon Doyle had you send me?!?! (He's
a good salesman BTW, either that or you guys are on to something!)
Jacob:
Hey Charles, nice to "cyber meet" you, Jon has
had a lot of respect for you! But to your question, we've
been looking for a product that would in essence be a better
alternative to both pro-hormones and anabolic steroids,
or in other words a supplement that would have the same
anabolic properties without the typical down-side of testosterone
suppression. And obviously, something that would be legal
and not result in positive drug tests in any National or
International sport governing body
Charles:
Have you guys done any studies at all, or do you have anecdotal
evidence? If we're going to carry this stuff in our storefront,
people will look for that I think.
Jacob:
No totally, I understand. We did a pilot study- it was a
group of 12 exercising men were found to experience the
following, on average, over a 30-day period while using
the product:
- 4.29 lbs increase
in body weight
- 6.37 lbs increase in lean body mass
- 2.08 lbs decrease in fat mass
- 40.83 lbs increase in bench press strength (3 RM)
- 54.58 lbs increase
in squat strength (3 RM)
Charles, also, I'm not sure how deep your chemistry background
is, so forgive me if I'm stating the obvious (!) but just
to make certain the product isn't simply acting as an androgen
and exerting these effects, we had Luteinizing Hormone (LH)
and total and free testosterone levels measured. (LH is
the hormone responsible for allowing the testicles to produce
testosterone and is usually decreased when a substance is
acting as an androgen, though there are some exceptions.
I'm sure you're already on top of that, but just FYI)
What we found
was that there was no statistically significant decrease
in LH or testosterone in the subjects taking Prime.
Charles:
Wow, that's pretty impressive. Do you guys know what the
mechanism of action is with Prime?
Jacob:
This is an interesting question. The weird thing is, we
found no evidence for androgenic activity. We believe it
has anti-glucocorticoid effects, providing a possible mechanism
for the increase muscle mass that we're seeing in test subjects
It may also be something related to improved nutrient absorption
or utilization.
But get this
- even on subjects who were making poor food choices (re:
pizza, chicken wings, etc!) and consuming 750-1000kc/cal
surplus per day - are getting insane results.
Also Charles,
a lot of people don't realize that most drug companies don't
know the mechanism of action for many of their products-
it's just one of those "dirty little secrets"
that are a fact of life but that the average consumer doesn't
understand.
Charles:
Thanks Jacob…the only other thing people are gonna
ask me is about side effects- any issues there?
Jacob:
Only thing I'd caution you about is that people are training
so intense and heavy that CNS recovery might become a problem.
SO I'm not sure what you want to tell people about this,
but my way of looking at it is, it's not such a bad problem
to have, as problems go ;-)
BTW that's also
why the label instructions state a 5 days on/2 days off
schedule. Obviously, you know your training inside out,
so ignore that and just go 7 days, but monitor your recovery.
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OK, that's pretty much
the gist of my inquiries about the product.
And my experiences
so far?
Well, keep in mind
I'm only 5 days in, and Jacob says the effects really start to
become noticeable on week 3, but on Tuesday, I hit a lifetime
PR on a 10RM squat, and also a lifetime PR on a jerk behind the
neck. Now to be fair, these are not habitual lifts for me, so
the jury's not entirely in yet, but I could have hit that PR jerk
for a double, and probably will next week. Also, today, I equaled
my lifetime PR for jerk recoveries, and my bodyweight today is
lower that it was the last time I hit that weight, so in truth,
it's a "relative strength" PR.
I'll keep you posted,
and do visit my training log, because that's where I'll be posting
the most details. Also, keep an eye on our e-mail broadcasts,
because we'll be introducing the 10 test subjects, showing you
their before pics, and so on and so forth. All subjects will be
using the same training protocol, which I designed for the study.
That's all for today,
stay tuned and if you'd like to follow our 10 subjects over the
next 6 weeks, you can use THIS
link that'll take you to our forum section devoted to the
trial.
http://teamstaley.com/forumdisplay.php?f=252
Click
here to get your Prime - it's available
through Staley Training Systems now!
About The Author
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His colleagues call him an
iconoclast, a visionary, a rule-breaker. His clients call
him “The Secret Weapon” for his ability to see
what other coaches miss. Charles calls himself a “geek”
who struggled in Phys Ed throughout school. Whatever you
call him, Charles’ methods are ahead of their time
and quickly produce serious results. His counter-intuitive
approach and self-effacing demeanor have lead to appearances
on NBC’s The TODAY Show and The CBS Early Show.
Currently, Charles competes
in Olympic-style weightlifting on the master’s circuit,
with a 3-year goal of qualifying for the 2009 Master’s
World Championships.
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