One Down, Eleven More To Go...

Man does it feel good to "back on track" and working towards another competition and an actual date. I know that I will probably regret this statement when my diet will barely include any carbs again and my energy levels are going to be close to zero, but I am already excited to see how my body will change over the next 11 weeks.

After "bulking up" over the winter and having the occasional cheat meal/meals, eating "clean" and lesser amounts of food feels actually good and somewhat refreshing. I feel better and already saw a slight drop in my body weight, even though it's not visible in this week's progress picture. It helps tremendously that I am working with a professional trainer/nutritionist this time, who is constantly monitoring my progress and adjusting my diets and workouts accordingly. 

Fred Smalls is an experienced professional bodybuilder who identifies my weak points and provides me with exercises to improve them. He knows exactly what the judges will be looking for and helps me to change my body accordingly. 

Having him on my team makes me more relaxed and confident going into this prep.

It also helps that this year's show prep is not my "first rodeo" and I know what to expect and what I will have to endure during this journey.

At the moment I am doing High Intensity Cardio every day for 20 minutes in the morning and lift weights five times a week. Well if I count my ab workout six times.
I kept my training days the same but Fred changed my workouts dramatically. Besides focusing more on isolation exercises and increasing reps per set, he also has me doing exercises I have never heard before, let alone done before, working muscles I have never solely focused on.
Our goal was this off-season to work on my symmetry, develop my back and increase the size of my quads.
I think we are on the right track and I can already say that my body has changed a lot compared to last year.
Let's see what will happen over the next 11 weeks, when it's finally time to hit the stage again at the:

NPC Mid Atlantic Natural Classic & Fitness

When: Saturday May 11, 2013
Where: North Brunswick High School, 98 Raider Rd North Brunswick, NJ 08902. 
Prejudging begins at 11am and the finals are scheduled for 6:30pm. 

Next weekend my girlfriend and I are planning a trip to Columbus, OH to visit the Arnold Sport Festival. Even though travelling while being in the middle of a contest prep is a little difficult and requires a lot of planning in advance (meal preparation, adjusting your training schedule, finding suitable gyms, etc.) I am excited to head out there and see what the "Arnold" is all about. I have never been before, but if it holds up to my expectations, I should bring back tons of supplement samples, freebies and pictures with fitness celebrities. Maybe I'll even get a chance to meet the Governator himself.

Preparation May 11th in full effect.

Never Confuse A Single Defeat With A Final Defeat

This quote from F. Scott Fitzgerald probably sums up best last weekend's contest.
Even though I did not place well in my third and final competition of the year, the OCB Mid Atlantic's Battle for the Belt, I entered the contest in personal best form and was in the past shape since I started this quest 25 long weeks ago. 

Compared to previous shows, I came in leaner and exhibited nice shades and striation in my legs. I successfully transformed my body and got myself in a much better shape than I would have ever imagined.. 

I proved that I do possess the necessary discipline, work ethic and confidence to compete in the sport of bodybuilding and will definitely continue with it.

So while I lost this battle (no pun intended), I consider myself the winner of the war. However, before getting into analyzing the "war", let's recap this battle first.

The "Battle for the Belt" was held at the performing arts center of the Burlington Township High School and, unlike my my first two competitions, which were both sponsored by the NPC, the National Physique Committee, organized by the OCB, the Organization of Competitive Bodybuilders.

The Venue

The OCB is an all-natural Bodybuilding and Figure federation that only holds drug tested events.
So in order to compete at this event I had to take and pass (DUH!!!) a drug test after registering.
The "drug test" was in this case a short polygraph test with a handful of questions, administered by a law enforcement officer at the venue. Overall winners were further required to take a urine test immediately following the competition. However since I did not even make the top 5 in my class I can't tell you more about this procedure and have to limit my "drug testing experience" to the infamous lie detector.

Once I was cleared, I "staked my claim" in the backstage area and set up the area where I would spend most of the next 12!!! hours. Besides my cooler with food and my bad with towels, extra clothes, warm-up equipment (dumbbells and bands) and supplies I also brought my own mirror just in case.

"Setting up shop" backstage

Once I was settled in, the waiting began. I spent my time watching movies on my IPad and, of course, eating. Lucky me I ran into my friend and former pro bodybuilder Jack "Rhino" London who had a female client competing in the event and bugged him a bit until it was time for the competitor meeting.

Jack "Rhino" London

Since it was my first time competing in an OCB sponsored event, I paid extra attention at the briefing to catch any rule variations or different requirements.
The biggest difference were the number of mandatory poses (OCB requires Side Chest and Side Triceps to be displayed from both sides and can ask for other poses such as Hamstrings Curl, Double Calf Raise, Side Serratus and/or Single Quadriceps), as well as that the classes would be divided by height and not by weight.
Being 6'8" I obviously ended up in the Tall class, which by OCB definition includes all competitors over 5'11", regardless of weight. So at 6'8"/250lbs. I was competing against 5'11" guys with 180lbs. or even leaner. Maybe I should file a petition to create a new class for big AND tall competitors next year.

Pre-judging started right on time at 12:30 but took, due to the large number of competitors, almost three hours. In my dehydrated eyes it took ages until the tall group was finally called on stage.
However once in the spotlight I was in my element and gave my very best. The judges kept us on stage for quite some time and despite cramps, exhaustion and pain I kept on smiling.

Every time I am surprised anew how exhausting a "little bit of flexing and posing" actually is. Once we were done, my body felt like I just had completed a three hour football game and I just wanted to lay down. So that's what I basically did until it was time again to prepare for the night show. I found a spot in the carpeted foyer of the theater, laid down and half delusional ate my plain potatoes and cold steak.
Then the waiting game began again until it was time for my individual posing routine at the evening show.
At 8 p.m., 12 hours after I checked-in, I was finally walking off stage and eagerly waiting for the results.

The final results of the OCB Mid Atlantic's Battle for the Belt were as follows:

Men's Open Group 3

1 Phil Cohen #55 (*) (BP) (P)

2 Phillip Roundtree #66

3 Jared Ferguson #56

4 Latwayne Galloway #40

5 Matthew Robertson #61

6 Marco Kristen #53

7 Perry Antrilli #47

8 Kelvin Moore #64

Congratulations to my fellow Trainingcenter buddy Phil for winning the overall and earning his IFPA pro card. Hard work and dedication finally paid off for him.
Unfortunately I did not make the top 5 and left Burlington, NJ empty handed. So besides hunger, thirst and exhaustion a feeling of disappointment overshadowed my ride home and didn't disappear until the next day when I realized how much I actually achieved in the past 25 weeks and that the transformation of my physique was the only true award (even though getting another one of those cool looking trophies would have been pretty awesome as well ;-) ).

Well this concludes the 2012 "season". The past 6 months have been quite a journey and I am very thankful for my friends who supported me during this time. I have learned a lot and am excited to apply my newly acquired knowledge during the upcoming "off season" and hopefully return next year as a more serious competitor. To put it in the words of one of my childhood heroes.

"I'll be baaaak"

                                                                            Arnold Schwarzenegger/The Terminator

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

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?

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“!

Practice makes perfect

Today I want to talk a little but more in detail about my current workout plan.

Including weight training and cardio, I basically train every day at the moment. Five days out of the week I lift weights and do cardio, while the remaining two days are active rests (cardio and abs only) days.

In general I train every body part once a week, with the exception of abdominals and my weak body parts (traps and calves) and usually focus on one muscle group each workout.

Mondays I focus on chest in the morning and cardio, calves and abs in the afternoon, Tuesdays I train my back, Wednesdays are my active rest days with abs and cardio, Thursdays are reserved for shoulders and traps, Fridays my plan calls for an intense leg workout, Saturdays are my arm days and on Sundays I do cardio and traps again.

I mentioned in a previous post that my plan is somewhat FST-7 inspired. FST-7 is a training principle created by Hany Rambod and stands for Fascial, Stretch, Training and the 7 refers to seven sets of 12 repetitions performed as the final exercise of the target body part. The "Fascial" set is always a compound lift, the "Stretch" set an isolation exercise with the intention to stretch the muscle, the "Training" set another compound lift and the "7" usually another isolation exercise to focus on a weak part of the target body part and preferably done on a machine to follow a fixed motion. For the "7" exercise, it is important to keep the rest period in between sets around 30 seconds and to constantly drink. Staying hydrated and stretching in between sets pushes fluids into the targeted muscle and stretches the fascia even further. The result is an intense "pump" after the workout and an increase in muscle volume.

Before I get swamped with smart ass emails pointing out that I have other/more exercises than traditional FST-7 workouts or that FST-7 requires all smaller muscles to be trained twice a week, etc., I want to clarify again that my workout is not an exact copy of the FST-7 training principle but rather a combination of exercises and methodologies, that have proven to work for me in the past and evolved over time, with many FST-7 elements.

I usually perform 3 sets of 8-12 reps per exercise with 60 to 90 seconds rest in between sets and "finish off" the specific body part with the above mentioned "7" principle before doing cardio and 15 minutes of posing.

From years of experience I cannot emphasize the importance of training in the "right" environment and having a reliable and equally motivated training partner/s. Training at a "real" gym and not at a "fitness center" can have a huge impact one ones personal motivation and mood. Besides having the right equipment and sufficient amounts of weights (plates, as well as heavy dumbbells) "real" gyms also tend to attract more highly motivated individuals, creating a more "competitive" and more energetic environment. I changed gyms in the Fall of 2011 and could not be happier. I wouldn't say that going from the "poor man's country club" to a serious gym with experienced lifters and bodybuilders was a "life changing" event but definitely a huge step in the right direction. Learning from accomplished bodybuilders or powerlifters has helped me to gain more lean muscle mass and strength in the off-season and invaluable, now that I am preparing for an actual contest.

A detailed version of my current workout plan can be found on the right hand side under "FREE WORKOUT PLANS".

Lift sssings up and put sssem down.