Black Lion Research - Vector - New Natural Anabolic Log!

Hey everyone!

I’ve decided to post up a Vector log since I’m finally getting some spare time again nowadays to be able to post daily/weekly here on the forum. I have 3 tubs/months worth of Vector to go through, so I’m pretty excited to see how this goes!

About me:
25yr old, 6’0", lifetime natty (just sayin’), 201lbs currently.

Diet:
Closely monitored caloric surplus with a bigger meal or two on the weekends. I typically eat progressively while my program gets tougher as I’m usually running some type of periodization/progressive overload type program.

Macros at the start of Vector: 3500 calories with 250-260g protein, 350-400g carbs, 100-115g fat. I’m still toying with the carb/fat levels, but that’s generally my day.

Current Program:
Ben Pollack’s 10 Week Periodization, Intermediate Program - “Unfu*k Your Program”

Rough estimates for some 1RM’s (I say rough because some days are better than others)…
Squat - 245-255 (I hit a deep 295 before but haven’t found confidence to get that heavy again)
Bench - 185 (can probably do 190-195)
Deadlift - 385 (similar to squat, I have hit 405 one time, but haven’t tried again)
Overhead Press - 135
Front Squat - 225

My goal with Vector is to hopefully gain some extra strength that simply packing in food won’t provide. I’m hoping it keeps my weight gain as lean as possible as well. I started “bulking season” on 12/4/17 at 185, so I’m up 16lbs so far with the help of another natural anabolic (MassMax) and a 1.5 bottle run of X-Gels alongside my caloric surplus.

I’ll be posting my thoughts on any interactions with Vector in this log. I may post daily, weekly, who knows. I’d just like to get this up. With that said - I’ll be posting my 9 days in thoughts in the next post.

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Couple of things here…

My first thought when I see Vector is ‘Vector Victor’ from Airplane…

Second what is Vector?

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I started Vector on 3/31/18, so today is my ninth day in with it. Here’s some of my preliminary thoughts:

  • My appetite is slowly growing each day. I noticed if I don’t eat for 3-4 hours (not common, but happens), I will start to get a slight hypo headache and brain fogginess.

  • I’m not as bloated as usual even with adding 300 calories upon starting Vector. I was due for a 200 calorie bump at the time, but went with 300 for the heck of it.

  • DREAMS. Lots of dreams. I’ve never dreamed so much ever. Over the past 9 days, I’ve probably had 5-6 nights of dreams. I even woke up, from a dream, from being too hot one night, fell asleep, and continued with a new dream LOL. This is clearly not a bad thing, but very interesting to me that my sleep has been deeper.

  • Starting to notice better energy throughout the day. I’m very alert right now for example when this is usually right next to my afternoon crash from lunch.

  • Not sure if related, but minor acne gains. I grew one on my face, a couple on my head under my hair. I really never get them on my face, sometimes on my head in general from sweating but that’s it. I’ll monitor this throughout the log. Could just be coincidental.

  • Now the good stuff - strength gains. Are they there? Unfortunately, time will have to tell. It’s a bit early I think.

So far I am happy with the effects. I’m able to eat more, easily, and have less bloat due to the gda properties of Vector I imagine.

I’ll report back soon!

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Here you go: https://www.blacklionresearch.com/product-page/vector

At the bottom of the page are links to extensive write ups on the 3 ingredients. Honestly it’s all pretty mind-blowing, but I know @Brundel doesn’t mess around with his products.

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Thank you. Was curious. I’ll take a look at the write up.

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Vector is the latest Natural Anabolic from Black lion Research.
It has 3 plant extracts but each extract has many active chemicals.
For example ingredient 1= Eriobotrya japonica. Our extract has viable doses of these=
Epicatechin
Ursolic acid
Chlorogenic acid
Corosolic acid
Oleanolic acid
Caffeic acid
Procyanidin B2
Protocatechuic acid
Ferulic acid
Tormentic acid
Naringenin
Ellagic acid
EGCG
Quercetin

And this is just one of the extracts. Each is a beast on its own but combined I dont think there is anything natural that compares.

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Thank you Brundel. So what is the purpose in taking it? (besides the ‘getting jacked bruh’ obvious sentiment) Just curious. Any side effects?

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You reminded me of the one thing I missed in my initial thoughts post. Slight acne increase that may or may not be related to Vector. Others have reported it too.

Otherwise, I believe there’s no known negative side effects. Hypo effects may be a negative for some if you’re not eating enough, but you should be eating ton on this.

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I’ll follow but skeptical as a motherfuger. With maybe ARA as an exception and I mean maybe, natural anabolic agents are a dream.

Looking forward

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It’s good to be skeptical. I remain skeptical too, but I’m happy to share some experience.

ARA, for me, was fantastic through the first bottle of X-Gels. The DOMS/joint pain got me pretty quick though at 1.5g a day (4 workout days a week). I just couldn’t recover in time from session to session unfortunately. So far into Vector, I do miss the ARA + GMS + Re1gn pump…

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Looking forward to your results, been talking with BLR about coming on my podcast

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That would be awesome I bet!!

Today was week 2, day 6 of Ben’s periodization program, day 10 of BLR Vector. I’ve not done this type of program before so this training style is pretty new to me. Needless to say - it sure feels like a ton of cardio with this much volume!

Week 1, day 2 called for 3x12 at 65% of my max deadlift so 3x12x250 (I’m using 385 for a reference point even though I have squeezed out a single 405). I can’t tell you the last time I did 12 reps of deadlift - it was brutal.

Today called for 3x10 at 70% (270), and, I’m not sure what it was, but, compared to last week, I flew through this fairly easily. Last week is all I can really gauge today off of since, again, I don’t typically do this kind of volume as I’ve typically done 2-3 sets of 5-6 reps, singles, doubles, low volume type work. Really the only rep I struggled with was set 3, rep 10, so I’m really happy with this.

Besides the deadlift work, I actually started today with barbell overhead press. Today called for the same 3x10 at 70% of my max (135), so 3x10x95. I breezed through this without a hitch as well which shocked me. Probably around 2-3 months ago I was struggling to hit 3x5-6x95, so breezing through 3x10 made me proud. I would have to go back through my log book that’s not in front of me to see when I last did 3x5x95, but 2-3 months ago is a good estimate. If next week goes well at 3x8x100, that’ll be a good PR and really shocking.

Overall I’m really happy with today. These lifts make me feel like I’m moving in the right direction. I was going to up another 100 calories this week, but I’ll save that for next week I think. I like to progressively eat while the weight moves up because it seems to work well for me (makes sense it would). I know the weight is low, but I’m still a newb with only around a year of barbell training. Either way, we can blame this on Vector or blame it on the 300 more calories I started eating on 3/31. You be the judge. I’ll be back soon with more updates! :slight_smile:

Looking forward to following your progress. Vector seems interesting and I’ve been thinking about giving it a try after my Ep1logue run.

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Weighed in at 202.6 this morning, so weight is still climbing slowly. This puts me at 17lbs gained in about 19 weeks. I also added in another 100 calories on Sunday to keep weight moving.

Something new I noticed - I’m not sure if it’s the ingredients causing a mind-muscle connection, the muscle fullness, or a combo of both, but I’m getting great activation from all over while doing compound movements. This, in turn, has made my lifts feel stronger, which is really nice.

I’m also hitting PR’s every session lately. If it’s not a PR by weight, it’s a PR by reps. For example, my latest deadlift rep PR was 315 for a set of 5. Yesterday I hit 290 for 3x8 with room in the tank for maybe one more set. Next week is calling for 315x3x6, so I’m pretty excited to give it a go. Another example - yesterday I did 100x3x8 BB overhead press with ease, where a month or two ago I had a good fight to hit 100x3x6.

It’s certainly nice to see progress. Is it purely progress from progressive overload + progressive eating? Maybe. Is Vector aiding in my lifts lately? Maybe!

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How’s Ep1logue working for you?

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Awesome to read

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IN on this log

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19 weeks? You’ve only been taking Vector since 3/31, right? So you had huge mass gains before starting this stuff.

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Correct, but since 12/4/17 I’ve taken:

2 months/bottles of Performax MassMax standalone - gained about 8lbs lean (no waist change)

~1.5 months of SNS X-Gels standalone that I had to stop due to DOMS/joints killing my workouts - gained another 8lbs, not as lean. Somehow my waist grew a magical inch at around 3lbs in with X-Gels, even at my 1lb/week rate. Nothing else really changed, vascularity remained the same, if not better, so not sure, didn’t really bother me.

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