June 23rd is the new June 16th

It's official, the decision has been made. Instead of starting at the OCB organized Central Eastern Seaboard on June 16, 2012 in Wilmington, DE, I will be competing a week later at the Philadelphia Championships in Swarthmore, PA.
This competition is sponsored by the National Physique Committee (NPC), one of the premier amateur physique organization in the world. The NPC was founded in 1982 and many top athletes in bodybuilding, fitness, figure, bikini and physique have started their careers in the it or used it as a stepping stone to move on to the International Federation of Bodybuilding & Fitness (IFBB) Professional League.

After a lot of thinking and consulting with my coach Jack, we came to the conclusion that multiple reasons favor the Philadelphia show date and that the event should be a better first time show for me. 

First and foremost, the actual show date of June 23rd much better accommodates my busy work schedule. As I mentioned in my previous posts, I have to fly out to Las Vegas, NV in June and this business trip falls right into the week leading into the Central Eastern Seaboard show. I am worried that all my hard work will go to waste if I have such a distraction and major stress in a week where I will drop my carb intake completely and drastically reduce my water, as well as sodium intake. An additional week should give my body enough time to rest and recover from the exertions of traveling across country.

Second, I was already kind of looking ahead and thinking about competing in the Delaware State/Delaware Open Championships on August 11th, as well. Since this show is also organized by the NPC, it makes more sense to just do two shows within the same organization, instead of doing two shows with different ones and paying two quite pricy membership fees. 

Third, after looking closer at last year's OCB event, the competitors and their body types, I feel that with my body size and composition I would not really meet the criteria by which OCB competitors are judged.
Being 6'8" tall I have already naturally a slight disadvantage compared to other shorter bodybuilders in terms of proportion and width but think I that I will feel more comfortable, with my the mass and frame, to compete within the NPC.

Since the "new" show date is only seven days after the initially planned event, I will just continue with my preparation the way I have been. The only downside is that I will have to wait an additional week before I can finally "eat" again.

For all my friends who want to support me at my very first bodybuilding show, here are the exact dates and times:

Philadelphia Championships
When: Saturday June 23, 2012
Where: Players Club of Swarthmore, 614 Fairview Rd Swarthmore PA 19081. 
Prejudging begins at noon and the finals are scheduled for 6pm. 

Your support would be greatly appreciated!!!

With this "slight change", I am now officially half way through my contest preparation and, as of today, 48 days out of my first competition. Everything is slowly coming together and the results of changes in my diet and work out, as well as increased cardio and posing are finally starting to show. At his morning's weight-in, the scale read exactly 265.0 lbs., a drop of roughly 26 lbs since the beginning of my journey on March 4th. My energy levels and spirit is still up and my stress level is, without the worries of competing right after a stressful trip, way down. June 23rd, here I come!!!

Once you're halfway home, you know that you can probably get the rest of the way there. 

Ya Man!

Jamaica, vacation, beach, sun, all-inclusive resort, best friend's wedding. 

Not necessarily the greatest conditions for an all-natural bodybuilder in the middle of his contest preparation.

Despite countless temptations in form of jerk chicken, fruits, juices, endless dessert buffets and open bars, I somehow managed to stay strong and did not give in. Just looking at my pictures of the trip and thinking back of the sheer endless food selection at the various restaurants, I am still amazed and surprised by my own will power and self-discipline. 

Temptations, temptations, temptations!!!

 Even though the buffet selection was catering to the taste of the average vacationer and not really to the low crab, low fat diet of an "in-season" bodybuilder, I was still able to somewhat eat "clean". Okay, I had to cut some corners, for example instead of my "beloved" brown rice I had to go with its high glycemic "white" cousin, but overall I stuck to my meal plan, portion sizes and eating times. 

Again planning and preparation was key to keep on track during this trip. 

Just as I did for my trip to Germany, I prepared chicken and brown rice for the flight and packed it along with some extra low carb protein bars in my carry-on luggage. Having extra food proved to be good idea, since my flight was overbooked and I was rerouted with a three hour delay. 

Since I knew that I was staying at a resort with limited opportunities to go grocery shopping and the trip would only be for a long weekend, I also packed enough whey protein, casein and even dry oats to provide enough protein and good carbs. Protein powder and creatine packaged in zip lock bags and a plastic container full with minerals, vitamins, BCAA and weight loss pills surely caused some raised eyebrows at customs but "whatcha gonna do"? 

Being the "meathead" I am, I even packed my protein shaker bottle, a plastic spoon and a 1/2 cup measuring cup. "Crazy is, who crazy does". 

So while I felt confident that I was prepared from a nutrition point of view, I also planned ahead in terms of working out. 

I did some research online about what to expect in terms of facilities to train at and adjusted my workout accordingly. Due to the limited amount of pictures and bad experiences with hotel gyms from previous trips I had to assume the "worst" and was expecting maybe one or two pieces of cardio equipment and maybe if I was lucky some free weights. 

So instead of my regular routine, I postponed my Wednesday cardio and abs session to Thursday night and replaced it with Friday's leg workout. Going heavy back-to-back-to-back-to back without an active rest day also required a slight change in my Tuesday back routine to avoid injury or overtraining (Now how often can you spot the word "back" in the previous sentence?). Instead of dead lifts I did barbell bent-over rows to not put too much stress on my hamstrings and lower back, before hitting them hard with squats the next day. Thursday morning was business as usual and Thursday night at 2am I had the great idea to do abs and cardio. 

After my arrival at the Iberostar Rose Hall Beach in Montego Bay on Friday my first "excursion" led me to the hotel gym and I was actually positively surprised of what I saw. State-of-the-art Life Fitness cardio equipment, a real bench, a Smith machine, a good amount of free weights, dumbbells going up to 60 lbs. and machines for every major muscle group were more than I expected from a "hotel gym". 

After catching some sun, I did my 45 minutes of cardio on Friday and met up with my friends for dinner. Saturday I was able to get a solid arm and cardio workout in and Sunday I did my active rest training. The equipment actually even proved to be sufficient to get a half-way decent chest workout in on Monday, before I finished off my stay with some more pool time and a nice sunburn. 

Again I "survived" another trip but after seeing the amounts and especially the quality of food and the impressive beverage selection I will definitely make sure to book an all-inclusive trip again and that time I will make sure that I will not be living on grilled chicken, brown rice, oatmeal and broccoli. 

So instead of the usual lame bathroom mirror self-portrait, how about a picture update straight from the Caribbean?

No Problem, Man!!!

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall...

According to my mum, I am somewhat of a slight narcissist, so looking at myself in the mirror has always been one of my favorite pastimes.

Now with my first competition approaching, the mirror has become an important part of my daily workout routine. Besides checking my form in it while I am actually lifting weight, the mirror is the essential tool to work on my posing. In order to be successful at a bodybuilding competition you need to have more than just a sculpted body, you will also need to know how to present it.

On stage, a bodybuilder is judged by several criteria. The judges are obviously looking for muscular size and definition, but also for symmetry and importantly, the ability to present it. 

Posing is exactly this ability to present your well-trained body. Nearly every bodybuilding event consists of several rounds of posing routines, which vary between prejudging and the actual show. 

During prejudging, the "morning show", there are usually three posing rounds. The first round contains the so-called "semi-relaxed poses", the second ones are the "compulsory poses" and the third round is the "free posing".

Semi-relaxed Poses: Unlike one could assume by their name, these poses are anything but relaxed. Every competitor is viewed from the front, his or her left side, the back and the right side, while constantly flexing the entire body and maintaining a relaxed look on his or her face. This round's purpose is to mainly evaluate the contestants' proportions and symmetries. 

Compulsory Poses: In this round the contestants are asked to perform seven or eight standard poses and emphasize specific body parts. As with all poses, even though the focus are on specific muscle groups, the entire body from head to heel needs to be flexed and held for some time. The standard poses are Front Double Biceps, Front Lat Spread, Side Chest, Side Triceps, Back Double Biceps, Back Lat Spread, Abdominal-Thigh Isolation and Most Muscular. Depending on the sanctioning organization, a competitor might be asked to only present his strongest side or show both sides for Side Chest and Side Triceps.

Free Posing: This round gives the competitors the opportunity to present their unique routine and emphasize their strong points, while at the same time hiding weaker areas. 

The actual show, which is most of the time at night, usually begins with "free posing to your choice of music", then a "pose down" between the top competitors and is concluded with the "overall pose down"   

Free Posing To Your Choice of Music: It's show time. Like, the free posing round during prejudging, this round gives the competitors the opportunity to present their unique routine and emphasize their strong points to a 60 to 90 second piece of music of their choice.

Pose Down: In this round, the top competitors of each class pose "against" each other simultaneously on stage and present their best poses to the audience before the placing is announced.

Overall Pose Down: This round allows the individual class winners to compete directly "against" each other on the same stage before the overall winner is announced. 

The key to good posing is endless practice. I am currently working on all mandatory poses for 15 to 30 minutes every single day. Besides having the possibility to "hit" them at the aerobics room of my gym in the mornings, I also put up a large mirror in my bedroom to work on them in the evening. 

Besides adding posing to my daily workout routine, I have also changed up my cardio workout and increased it from a daily 30 minutes session to a 45 minutes session. Since my main purpose of doing cardio is to loose body fat without losing too much lean muscle mass, I am trying to keep my heart rate between 110 and 130 beats per minute. To achieve this, I am only "walking" on the treadmill at a constant 3 miles per hour speed, but at varying inclines. The first 15 minutes are performed at a 5.0% incline, the second 15 minutes at 7.5% and the last 15 minutes done at an incline of 10.0%. This causes my heart rate to gradually increase within the fat burn zone. 

 ...who gets leaner and leaner and is 6'8" tall?

What sup?

No I do not suffer from slight dyslexia and misspelled "What's up?".
Today I want to talk a little bit about supplements and my experience with them.
First of all I want to clarify that dietary supplements are exactly what their name implies, "supplements". They can never replace "normal food" and can only work in addition to a well-planned diet or meal plan.
There is a whole bunch of sports nutrition, vitamins, minerals, dietary supplements, etc. on the market and it can be difficult to figure out which ones are necessary, which ones can help you and which ones are just bogus.

After years of personal experience with various products and manufacturers, as well as reading more on the topic, I have narrowed down the field to a handful of essential vitamins, minerals and supplements that proved to work well for me.

Since everybody and also every BODY is different, what works for one might not work for another and vice versa. Since I am nowhere close to being a licensed dietician, nutrition or doctor of any sort, do not mistake this post as any sort of medical or dietary advice. I am just writing about my own personal experience.

Due to the various ingredients, my "pre-contest stack" varies slightly from the supplements I am taking in the "off-season".

What basically remains the same, besides the obvious Whey Protein Isolate (Optimum Nutrition 100% Whey Protein) and the nighttime Casein (Syntrax Matrix ), are the vitamins (Kirkland Signature Daily Multi Vitamins & Minerals Tablets taken twice a day), Glucosamine (Kirkland Signature Extra Strength Glucosamine HCI with MSM for joint health), Fiber (Metamucil Sugar Free), Iron (Feosol Ferrous Sulfate Iron Supplement ), Flaxseed Oil (TruNature Organic Flaxseed Oil), Calcium (Kirkland Signature Calcium with Vitamin D3), Magnesium (Nature Made High Potency Magnesium ), Branch Chain Amino Acids (Gaspari Nutrition BCAA), Glutamine (Optimum Nutrition Glutamine),Alpha Lipoic Acid (Source Naturals ALA) and ZMA (NOW Foods ZMA).

During the off-season I experienced great gains with the GASPARI Nutrition product line. Besides a whey protein/carb mix, I also included Gaspari SuperPump Max to my pre-workout "meal" and felt the promised increase in endurance, as well as focus and "pump". Over a period of eight consecutive weeks I have also used Gaspari SizeOn Maximum Performance during my workouts, as well as Gaspari Viridex XT to increase lean muscle mass with more than satisfying results.

Now that I am preparing for a competition and following a more strict diet, I have dropped all of these products, due to their sugar content, etc., and replaced SuperPump with "regular" Creatine Monohydrate Powder. Since my goal is to decrease my body fat and maintain as much lean muscle mass as possible, I have also added OxyElite Pro, a weight loss product, to my "stack" and take it now twice a day for the next eight weeks.

Along with my carbohydrate reduced meal plan and increased cardio, I am already seeing some improvements in my physique and a drop in body weight of almost 20 pounds within the past 5 weeks.

Step by step...

D is for Deutschland

An 11 day trip to Europe, followed by an extended weekend at an all-inclusive resort in Jamaica, two weddings, a three day business trip to Washington, D.C. and potentially another business trip to Las Vegas the week before my first show. It looks like I will be facing a lot of adversity in the weeks leading up to my very first competition.

Just the thought of flying overseas for 11 days in the middle of preparing for a contest caused quite some stress in the previous weeks and raised several questions before the trip.

Would I be able to stick to my diet? Where would I work out? What supplements should I take with me and which ones should I simply buy when I was there? How could I ensure that I would be eating good food every 2 hours while sitting in an airport or on a plane? And so on, and so on.

Well, now that I am back from my "little" excursion to Germany, I can tell you that I found answers to all of these "earth-shattering" questions and am glad to announce that I was able to stick to my workout and diet regiment almost 100%.

As with every trip, planning ahead was everything. Since this would be my first transatlantic flight on a strict diet, I researched the web to see if and what kind of foods I would be able to bring on the plane to ensure that I could eat every two hours, even at 35,000ft above the Atlantic ocean.

TSA approved diet

While the TSA is very strict about fluids, it turned out that neither oats, brown rice, whey protein nor chicken are considered potential weapons and could be taken on a plane. To prepare for 14 hours of flights, connection time and car ride home, I packed three plastic containers with a dry oats/whey protein mix, two containers with brown rice and chicken, a couple protein bars, extra whey protein powder, some casein and my stack of vitamins and minerals in my carry-on luggage. I passed up on the "delicious" airline food, including pretzels, peanuts, etc. and instead ate my own food. It's amazing how delicious brown rice and dry chicken suddenly tastes when you see what the other passengers got served on the flights. I cannot imagine what people on the plane were thinking when I pulled out my little plastic container with oats and protein powder and started mixing it with water.

Once I arrived in Germany, one of my very first stops lead me to my friend Pasquale, who owns a fitness and supplement store (Fitnessworld24.net). Thanks to his expert advice and great assortment in his store, I was able to get sugar/carb free whey isolate protein and casein at a good price and was set for the week in regards of supplements. 

With my supplements taken care of, it was time to organize "real" food. At the local supermarket I was slightly shocked when I converted the price of chicken into US dollars. $5.90 for a pound of chicken breast. Guess the price of chicken and gas prices must be highly correlated. Since I did not want to blow my entire budget on some chicken breasts, I opted to get some Alaskan Pollock in addition to 3 pounds of chicken as my primary source of protein. Due to the bones and "taste" this turned out to be a bad decision and after two days of "fishy, fishy" I went to another supermarket and bought a couple of pounds of chicken at a more reasonable price. Besides my protein, I also had to get my carbohydrates, in form of, big surprise here, brown rice and dry oats, as well as some vegetables. Storage space in the average German home is usually smaller than in the US and so is the typical German refrigerator. The results is that foods are packed in much smaller packages and I had to walk out of the store with several tiny cartons of oats and rice instead of just one large size container. Man, how I missed my Costco that day.

Successful shopping trip: Fish, chicken, brown rice, dry oats and broccoli. 

To ensure that my meals and portion sizes remain the same, I converted my meal plan into metric and even packed a set of American measurement cups.

Once foods and supplements were checked off my to-do-list, my next problem was finding a suitable gym. The gym I used to go to before moving to the States unfortunately went belly up last year, so I had to find a new "home away from home". After talking to friends back in Germany and doing some research on the web I narrowed it down to a couple of places I wanted to check out and try to get a weekly membership. Again it was my friend Pasquale who helped me out tremendously by recommending me his current gym. His place was not on my initial list, but I decided to give it a shot anyways. 

Clever Fit is a chain of fitness clubs in Germany and caters to the average Joe. The facility was very clean and the equipment, consisting of Life Fitness machines, racks, treadmills and ellipticals, was state-of-the-art.  The staff was very friendly and helpful, but unfortunately the number of free weights was very limited and it lacked decent leg presses. However the gym had great hours (M-F 6am-Midnight, S&S 9am-10pm) and I was allowed to do a one week "free trial", so no complaints.  

Clever Fit Fellbach, Germany

Another gym on my list to try out was the Fitnessclub Fellbach. Coincidentally a friend of mine just took over the general manager position at this place so I figured I would take a look at it and see if it had the necessary equipment to get a solid back and leg workout in. It surely did. The place had anything a serious lifter or bodybuilder could ask for. Various leg presses, power rack, squat rack, machines, dumbbells up to 140 lbs. and a good amount of free weights. From an equipment point-of-view it was exactly what I was looking for, however the hours were not very accommodating for a early riser like me (M-F 9am-11pm, Sat 10am-7pm and Sun 10am-5pm) and the atmosphere was somewhat sterile. The old machines and colors gave the place a slight retro look and it felt like a time travel back to the 1990's. 

Fitnessclub Fellbach, Germany

Fitnessclub Fellbach: Back to the future, welcome to 1990. 

German food, pastries, candy, chocolate and baked goods are in my opinion some of the world's best and the things I miss the most in the States. Walking by a bakery and smelling the fresh bread, seeing all the delicious cakes, freshly prepared rolls and pastries was mere torture. Looking at the plates of my relatives loaded with Spätzle, dumplings, gravy, roasts, Schnitzel, filet, sausages and salads at family functions and then just "digging" in my steamed broccoli, cauliflower and grilled chicken required tons of self-discipline and will hopefully pay off when I finally hit the stage in June.     

German Bakery: Homemade pralines, cakes and other confectioneries

Chocolate Store

Even though I resisted all those delicious temptations I will make sure that my next trip to Germany will be in the "off-season" so I can finally enjoy all the deliciousness the German cuisine has to offer.

„Grüße aus Deutschland“!