The first nine days I was on Protandim I really didn’t notice any difference in how I felt.  In fact, I felt a little achy the first day or two that I was taking it, which proved to be a normal part of the detox process.  But what I was really excited about was the post-workout recovery potential of Protandim.  I had heard stories of people who lifted the same body parts two or three days in a row without getting sore.  As a human performance coach, this was very intriguing to me, so I decided to put these claims to the test the best way I knew how:  I lifted, hard.

My first hard lift was five days after I had began taking Protandim.  I knew there would be a lag time between starting to take Protandim and feeling anything of significance, but I wasn’t sure how long that exact time was.  My first hard lift was on a Monday; it was leg day.  I decided to construct a lift with the sole intention of making myself sore.  I hit the weights hard before work and slept well that evening.  When I woke up on Tuesday morning I opened my eyes and knew that I had made a mistake before I even took a step out of bed.  My legs didn’t want to move, my quads and hamstrings were tighter than they had felt in years, and when I finally was able to step out of bed, I took a charge, falling back on to my mattress.  Clearly the Protandim hadn’t built up in my system yet.

Nonetheless, I decided to soldier forward with my day and move on to my chest workout.  I blasted my chest, doing multiple sets to failure throughout the workout.  Wednesday I woke up, and as awful as my legs had felt the day before, my upper chest felt equally as bad that day.  Plus, my quads were still tight as ever.  I took it easy in the weight room on Wednesday, just doing some box jumps and stretching.

Thursday I moved on to my back, hitting it as hard as I had my chest and legs earlier in the week.  When I woke up on Friday, however, there wasn’t any soreness.  In fact, I felt like I had taken the day off on Thursday.  The soreness in my legs and chest was gone too.  I felt completely refreshed and ready to hit the weights hard again for arm day.  I went to the weight room and killed my arms, shoulders, and upper traps.  I could barely lift my arms above my head by the time I was done.  However, when I woke up on Saturday there wasn’t ANY soreness!  In fact, once again, I felt REALLY good!

Sunday I decided to do the leg lift again that I had done the week prior, except I upped all of my weights from the week before.  I also played basketball for an hour in the evening.  When I woke up Monday I was dreading that first step out of my bed, but to my surprise I hopped right up!  No soreness at all!

This was when I made the decision to pick things up a notch:  I was going to do double lifts for the rest of the week.  I hit my chest and back on Monday and Wednesday, my arms on Tuesday and Friday, and my legs again on Wednesday.  The week was a little screwed up because it was the week of Thanksgiving, but I still stuck to that schedule.  And every single morning I woke up feeling great!

That’s right, I lifted eight times in one week, doing lifts that I had designed to make myself sore, and I felt great each and every day.  It was the most incredible post-workout recovery I have ever experienced.