Showtime

Don't worry!!! Relax!!!

No, you did not confuse the dates and missed my first competition. It is still scheduled for June 23, 2012 and as of today, there is still plenty of time for you to plan your attendance and to get your T-Shirt or Tank Top to show your support .

This week's post is only about my trip to the NPC Lehigh Valley Championships 2012 on Saturday May 26th, 2012 at Dieruff High School in Allentown PA .

I have never been to an actual bodybuilding competition, so before hitting the stage myself on June 23rd, I wanted to see one and get an idea about how they are organized, what is actually happening, what kind of environment it is, etc.

So I went on the National Physique Committee's website a couple of weeks ago to check out their schedule page about any upcoming shows close by. 

It happened that the Lehigh Valley show was not only within a manageable 2 hour driving rage but also fell on a weekend that I had no other plans.
Long story short, last Saturday I took a little road trip to Allentown.
Since I had plans that evening, I just wanted to see the prejudgment and got to the event just on time.
Besides the simple venue (High School auditorium) the show was very interesting and instructive, being the first live bodybuilding event that I attended.
Seeing the organization of an event like this, the procedures, what is expected from the contestants and the different routines and poses really made this trip worthwhile.
It was interesting to see the different calibers of competitors, not only between the various classes, but also within the same class. Just by looking at the athletes and their shape, posing and stage appearance, you could easily spot who had some show experience, who worked on their poses, who had someone experienced helping with the contest preparation  and who followed his or her diet to a tee.
I took a lot away from this show, which will hopefully help me with my preparation and on the actual show day, so it was definitely money and time well spent.

Women's Bodybuilding

Men's Physique

Master Men's Bodybuilding "Relaxed"

Master Men's Bodybuilding "Front Double Biceps"

Novice Men's Bodybuilding "Relaxed"

Novice Men's Bodybuilding "Front Double Biceps"

Open Men's Bodybuilding "Relaxed"

So enough of the show, back to me. 

I am now only four weeks out and starting to make the first adjustments to my diet. While I have been already on a very strict diet for the past 12 weeks to reduce my body fat, I will now have to fine tune my body to achieve the desired dryness/hardness for June 23rd. 

To appear more vascular and exhibit a dense hardness I will have to decrease my muscles' water retention and make sure they appear full and hard. 

The first step to achieve this within the next 27 days, I had to remove the Creatine from my diet. Up until now I would add 5 grams of Creatine to my pre- and post-workout meals, which has helped me over the past weeks to maintain and for certain muscle groups even to increase my strength and mass. 

While this was obviously desirable, it also caused my body, and especially my muscles to store extra water, which I will now need to loose to appear more defined and cut on stage.  

Let's see if this slight adjustment will have the desired effect and if I can maintain my mass and strength for the upcoming weeks.

Dry, Drier, Driest

It's T-Shirt time!!!!

You asked for it. You got it. 

Here is your chance to show your support for SixEightFitness.com, encourage me on my "journey" and look great at the same time.

Just in time for the last workouts before the competition, I received some pretty cool looking T-Shirts and Tank Tops that are now available for sale.
However quantities are limited!!!

Regardless if you want to wear them on June 23rd to show your encouragement at the Philadelphia Championships, wear them in spirit or just get one to support this project, get your SHIRT together and get one TODAY!!!

All three models are available in classic black and feature a high quality color print of my logo on the front.

The Shirts and Men Tank Tops are available in sizes ranging from S to 3XL, the Tank Tops are available in sizes ranging from XS to XL.

To order your shirt(s) or tank top(s), simply print and complete this order form and email it to info@sixeightfitness.com or hand it to me in person.

Or get them directly online HERE

Life is uncertain. Eat dessert first.

I have to admit, I have a very sweet tooth. And by "very sweet tooth", I mean "Augustus Gloop, the little fat boy from Charly and the Chocolate Factory who falls into the chocolate river, sweet tooth".

If I wasn't so determined to get the most of my body and to compete in bodybuilding, I definitely wouldn't have any problem to look like him in a matter of days. I LOVE sweets and their sheer endless varieties. Chocolate, pastries, marzipan, nuts, pudding, cakes, pies, candy, gum, lollipops, ice cream, fudges, candy bars, jelly candies, gummies, kettle corn, caramel, you name it, I love it.

I don't go crazy when I eat them, but I enjoy them occasionally, and especially for dessert after a meal.

Part of this little "taste-of-sweet-after-a-meal" craving might be the result of my upbringing. My grandmother used to cook for us almost every day lunch and if she didn't cook a "sweet dish", like pancakes with fruit jams, cinnamon oatmeal, sweet grits, or Marillenknödel (Austrian apricot dumplings), she would ensure that every meal had at least some sort of dessert with it.
Sometimes it was canned peaches or other fruits, other times homemade vanilla pudding or a pie. Long story short, I am somewhat "conditioned" to finish off a meal by satisfying my sweet taste buds.

This kind of created a big problem, at least for me, because since I am preparing for a bodybuilding competition, I obviously can't eat sweets anymore.

At the beginning I would eat my meal, get full, but still had the feeling that my hunger wasn't a 100% satisfied. I quickly realized that this was due to the lack of "closure", usually initiated by a dessert or sweet dish. 

When I started working out again more seriously last year, I would cheat and give in to those cravings by eating a chocolate bar, some candy, a piece of chocolate, a sugarfree pudding, fruits or cottage cheese with cinnamon and stevia. 

However once I started preparing for my first bodybuilding show and got on a very serious and strict diet 11 weeks ago, even these little "treats" became history and this feeling of "incompleteness" after the meals came back.
It was by sheer accident that I found my "diet saver" when I was searching for calorie free snacks and meals online.

The Walden Farms product line.

Walden Farms produces calorie-free condiments, such as Barbecue Sauces , different salad dressings, Ketchup , mayonnaise, dips and "praise the lord, hallelujah, ave maria" also sweet condiments such as Caramel Dip , Chocolate Dip , Whipped Peanut Spread and various Fruit Spreads and fruit jams.

I am not sure how they make it and what they put in there, to be honest I don't even want to know, but their stuff is pretty darn good and tremendously helped me to stick to my diet for the past 77 days. All their products are absolute sugar, fat, carb and calorie free. While the taste of most of their products is relatively good, they are obviously not the "real deal" and can't compete taste wise. However, being in the middle of a 16 week diet without any sweets, sugars, fruits or dairy products, a teaspoon full of chilled Walden Farms chocolate dip tastes like heaven and I have to admit, I am a Walden Farms addict.

The only downside I have discovered yet is that all of their products are relatively high in sodium, so with my show now only 5 weeks out, I will have to cut them out completely soon.
Another discovery I have made is that chilling the dips will alter their consistency and, in my humble opinion, increases their taste. I eat them by themselves, as a spread on top of low-calorie rice cakes (a little 40 calorie treat) or use them as ingredients/flavor enhancements in diet-approved recipes.
One of my very favorite meals is my breakfast, consisting of oats and either an egg white omelette or 50 gr of whey isolate. I mix 1.5 cups of dry oats with water, microwave it for two minutes and stir some stevia, ground cinnamon and a teaspoon of Walden Farms Caramel Dip in it. To add some flavor to the egg white omelette I simply add a tablespoon of Walden Farms Ketchup and I have a great tasting 650 calories breakfast with 65 gr of protein, 81 gr of carbs and 9gr of fats to get my energy levels up and my day started. 

While I found some substitutes to satisfy my "sweet tooth" during my diet, I cannot wait for my diet to be over so I can finally treat myself and my taste buds with real, delicious, calorie rich chocolate.
With this day in mind, I bought a ginormous bar of delicious Milka chocolate in Germany and brought it back from my trip in April.
The giant 300gr, 1,668 calories alpine milk and cookie chocolate bar has been sitting in my fridge ever since my return and is eagerly waiting for June 23rd. And so am I.

Last week was very challenging. Again I had to leave town for work and even though I did not stay overnight, commuting back and forth for four hours each day for 4 days in a row, working a second job and getting solid workouts in, was quite a task. I would get up in the morning at 6:30, get ready, take the train to Washington D.C. at 8am, work for seven hours, ride the train back for two hours, prepare food, eat, leave for my second job at 8:30pm, work until 2am, hit the gym on "my way back home", get home at 4:40 am, hit the hay, get up again at 6:30am and do this for 4 days straight. Needless to say I was slightly sleep-deprived and pretty exhausted all week and when Sunday finally came around I completely crashed and basically slept all day.
Not sure if it was the extra caffeine but surprisingly I had some of my best workouts last week. Maybe I should switch my workout schedule to 2am indefinitely? Well, considering how sh***y I felt Sunday, maybe not.
Yesterday I was exactly 5 weeks out from the "big day" and with this work trip behind me, I have only one more business trip to deal with before the show and hope to master this one as well as my previous ones. Hopefully the Excalibur has a nice gym and I will get my chicken, rice and oats through airport security without any problems again. 

"I'd give up chocolate, but I'm no quitter!" 

                                                              Author Unknown

Force = Mass x Velocity

While I obviously enjoy working out and sculpting my body, training at the gym and doing cardio there as well can get slightly monotonous over time. To break through this monotony I like, at least every once in a while, to either change up my workout routine, to switch up exercises, or to try out new things.
This past week, a very new and also very unique "thing" came up that would definitely break trough my monotony. One of my best friends Mike asked me a couple of weeks ago at the gym if I was interested in "pulling a plane" and being the "meathead" I am, I immediately had to sign up for the event.
So last Sunday, Mike, myself and 18 other members of our gym literally pulled a plane. Well I stand corrected, we actually pulled two. 

The Delaware Air National Guard organizes an annual fundraiser, that benefits the Special Olympics of Delaware,  in which several teams, consisting of 20 "pullers" each, compete against each other to pull a C-130 aircraft for a distance of 12 feet in the fastest time. This year's event had the teams pull two planes, one without fuel and one with an additional 900 lbs. of fuel, and as you can see, these planes were massive.

Lockheed C-130 Hercules

The Lockheed C-130 Hercules is a four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft and weighs 100,000 pounds. They are 97-feet long, have a wing span of 137 feet and stand 38 feet high. As I said, MASSIVE.

Our team was last year's defending champion and consisted of 19 guys and one girl. A mix of powerlifters, strongmen and bodybuilders, we were favored to win it again this year, bur for whatever reason completely blew the first pull and ended up with a horrible time, putting us in an unsatisfying 4th place. Even though we did not do nowhere near as well as expected, it was still a great experience and the overall cause of the event made it still well worth it. Besides raising money for a good cause, our team also dedicated this year's plane pull to a recently deceased fellow member of our gym, so even if we didn't place first, we still won.

In other exciting news, after using USP Labs OxyElite Pro weight loss capsules for the past nine weeks and initially seeing great results, I felt its effects starting to wear off and thought it was time for a little switch. Remember monotony?
After consulting with my trainer Jack, we decided to give Species Nutrition Somalyze Gen2 a try.

While USP Labs OxyElite Pro is a supplement that boosts thyroid function, contains caffeine to increase energy and weight loss and is taken in the morning and around noon, Species Nutrition Somalyze Gen2 is a stimulant-free nighttime fat burner and sleep aid, taken one hour before bedtime.
According to the manufacturer, Somalyze works by utilizing a high-dose of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), which is a neurotransmitter in the central nervous system, that plays a role in regulating neuronal excitability throughout the nervous system and is also directly responsible for the regulation of muscle tone.
Somalyze is supposed to increase endogenous growth hormone levels and encourage increases in fatty acid metabolism on a cellular level.
Long story short, it will slightly increase your body temperature, causing the body to burn more calories while sleeping, and induce a deep and restful sleep.  

And this is exactly the problem I am having with it. While a week of usage is still too early to determine how effective it is as a weight loss supplement, I have been definitely experiencing a very deep sleep, that actually translates into me being very sleepy after I wake up in the morning to work out. 

Without the extra energy boost from OxyElite and with the sleep inducing effect of Somalyze I felt a drastic drop in my energy levels during the first two hours of my day, all week long.
Since I am usually using the first hour of my day to prepare food and to get ready for the gym, I couldn't really care less about my energy during that time, but it continues for another hour at the gym and is now seriously affecting the intensity level of my workout.
I tried to offset the effects with extra caffeine pills before my workouts but still can't sufficiently elevate my energy levels during the first 60 minutes. 

I will continue taking it for at least another week, to see if my body will adjust to this sudden drop of caffeine and use of sleep aid, as wellas closely monitor my weight loss and body composition.
If I don't see the advertised results and/or if my energy level odes not start to go up, I will have to make some adjustments. I have the persistence and the will, now I need to get my energy back. I will keep you posted. Obviously!!!

"Energy and persistence conquer all things."

                                                                                              Benjamin Franklin 

Supplies, supplies, supplies

With the Philadelphia Championships show date approaching fast, I have been getting all my "show essentials" for the competition together to avoid any last minute struggles. By "essentials" I mean all the basics that are either required, such as posing trunks or things that will enhance my appearance on stage, such as tanning lotion and posing oil. I am glad that I started acquiring the stuff early, since I ran into some "small" issues with my initially purchased pair of posing trunks.

I ordered a pair of standard posing trunks online from a bodybuilding supply store based on my waist size. A very nice pair of black latex trunks in a so-called flex cut. When they arrived I obviously had to try them out immediately. While I liked the color, material and cut, it became obvious that these suits were made for the average bodybuilder and not for a 6'8" tall person. I purposely chose a style to show a little bit more skin but this off-the-shelf suit gave the expression "going balls out" a complete new meaning. To avoid any mishaps on stage I decided to look for another one that would actually fit and cover all the "essentials".

Realizing that my unusual height and body composition would require a unique suit to ensure that everything would stay in place during the show, I searched online for a custom-made solution. I found a company that is specialized on custom-made suits for bodybuilding, fitness and figure competitions. Vandella Costumes (www.vandellacostumes.com) out of Swansea, SC provided me with exactly what I needed. I sent them my exact measurements and within a week received two nice, and most importantly of all, well fitting posing trunks. To be safe in case one of the trunks gets discolored or misplaced, or to possibly alternate suits between prejudging and the night show, I got two pairs. One in black and one in royal blue. Both are again flex cut and made out of spandex, but this time, they fit like wax.

Even though I have been going to a tanning salon for the past 3 weeks and got a nice base tan during my stay in Jamaica, I will need to be as dark as possible come June 23rd, to appear well defined in the bright light on stage at the show. Since "conventional" tanning will only darken my Middle European skin up to a certain degree, I will will need to apply several coats of spray tan on the night before of the show and the morning of the competition to achieve this dark, dark color. After doing some research on the web and talking to other bodybuilders, I decided to go with Pro Tan Instant Color. Pro Tan is a liquid tanning agent that is either sprayed on or applied with a sponge applicator. From what I was told, it will require several coats to achieve the desired dark and even color but Pro Tan is supposed to remain the most stable when used with oil or while sweating on stage. I read that the application is very messy but I guess I will have more to report on that once I have actually done it.

To further enhance my muscularity at the competition I also bought Pro Tan Muscle Juice, a special posing oil. The oil is sprayed onto the body right before the show and supposed to offer more shine than other products on the market. Again, June 23rd will tell.     

Another product in my "show essentials shopping basket" was Pro Tan Hot Stuff. This spray is a menthol-based oil that apparently will warm up the skin and enhance vascularity. And as Stewie Griffin put it in one of my favorite episodes of "Family Guy", "If there is one thing women love, it's a vascular man".

The last "necessity" in my package was Pro Tan Bikini Bite. This product acts like a glue and is supposed to keep the posing suit in place to avoid any "accidents" on stage. It helps to keep the sides high and prevents the back part of the suit to creep up. After the experience with my first posing suit, this product is definitely a necessity. 

My "care package"

On Friday I mailed out my entry form for the Philadelphia Championships on June 23rd 2012 so now there is no more backing off and the only direction is straight ahead. I continued to further prepare for the big day and made some good progress last week. According to my trainer Jack I am right on target for being seven weeks out but need to focus more on learning to properly flex my quads, to show off their full potential. To add more definition and "carve" my legs, I changed up my workout slightly and substantially increased the total number of reps on leg day.
Just comparing the pictures taken over the last couple of weeks, I can see that my body is heading in the right direction, as it is getting leaner and more ripped. Besides my physique, my posing is also improving week by week. I am getting to know my body better and better and understand how to control it to hold the different poses over longer periods of time without starting to shake.

"Progress - gradual improvement or growth or development"