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

I may not be there yet, but I'm closer than I was yesterday

The first week is completed, only 14 more to go.

I started early Monday morning with a solid chest workout, followed by 30 minutes of cardio and another 30 minutes cardio and ab session in the afternoon. Tuesday I did back and cardio in the morning and another 30 minutes of elliptical training in the evening. Wednesday was my non-training/active recovery day with abs and 30 minutes of cardio in the morning and Thursday my focus was on shoulder and traps. To accommodate for my training partners' busy work schedules I moved our extensive leg workout from Saturday to Friday and will keep it that way. So after "killing" my quads, hammies and calves on Friday I did forearms, biceps and triceps on Saturday. Even though I used to keep it "biblical" and Sunday was my "day of rest", I added another 30 minute cardio session Sunday mornings to further increase the chance to reach my goals by June 16th.

A detailed version of my training plan can be found in the "FREE WORKOUT PLANS" section in the right side bar.

So Sunday afternoon the first moment of truth came when I stepped on the scale. As expected my weight dropped. Even though probably most of it was water weight, the scale announced a drop of 3.4 pounds compared to last Sunday's weight in. A nice start to my quest.

Since a picture says more than a thousand words, I decided to add a weekly progress picture to my posts. As mentioned in my introductory post, I have been taking a picture of myself once a week over the past year and documented well the changes of my body. If you are starting a new diet and workout regiment, I would strongly recommend doing the same. Besides your body weight and picture, it also helps to record your body fat, the size of your arms, calves, chest, neck, thighs and waist, along with any changes in your diet and "supplement stack" (more about that in one of my upcoming posts).

Little Kodak Moment.

So it begins...

The title says it all. Today is the first day of my contest preparation, a.k.a. the beginning of my strict diet. I have been eating fairly clean over the past year and used a customized diet to build lean muscle mass.

My "old" diet was designed to add lean muscle mass by taking into consideration body weight and body fat content and working with the body's natural insulin production. The result was a pretty solid meal plan that was divided into training days and non-training days. Training days consisted of 7 meals plus an additional during/post workout shake with the last carbohydrate intake around 2:30 in the afternoon. Non-training days, including cardio days, reduced carb containing meals to a total of three and increased the total protein intake. The result was a gain in 15 pounds of lean muscle mass.

My "new" diet reduced my daily intake of carbohydrates by almost half and increased my protein consumption by around 25%. The pre-contest diet also prohibits any "cheat meals", fruits, sugars and dairy products. What's left is basically a mix of oats, brown rice, vegetables, such as green beans, broccoli, lettuce and cauliflower, chicken, lean red meat and various sorts of fish, as well as whey protein isolate and casein (obviously both sugar free).

A detailed version of my training plan can be found in the "FREE NUTRITION PLANS" section in the right side bar.

My current body weight is 286 pounds with a caliper measured body fat content of 6.5%. I am now 104 days out and will try to reduce my body fat to roughly around 3.5-4%, while maintaining as much muscle mass as possible. It is shear impossible to lose fat without losing some muscle mass, but I trust that this specific diet will minimize the loss of muscle.

In addition to this drastic change in my diet, I have also made some alteration to my training plan and increased my cardio. The new workout incorporates basically elements of FST-7 and was altered by me to focus on my weaknesses (upper chest, calves and forearms). While I am still doing fairly heavy weight, the emphasis is now also on reps (8-12), forced reps, shorter breaks, stretching/flexing the muscles in between sets reps and good technique.

Cardio went up from two sessions a week to 8 times a week, with a mix of elliptical trainer, steep incline treadmill and stair master. Since I am trying to lose fat without sacrificing too much muscle mass, I am trying to keep my pulse in between 110 and 125bpm.

Time to do some chest and cardio.

Let's get this party started!

I started this blog initially in August of 2011 but for the longest time I could not not decide on what format it should be. Am I going to start one of those many online training guides or is it going to be a workout diary?
I have been involved in sports and working out for well over a decade now and developed a passion for lifting weights in this time. I played collegiate American Football so lifting weights was essential to develop strength and speed during those days. Once my football "career" was over the idea of "getting/staying in shape" took over and the gym became more and more important.
Unfortunately at that time I had no clue about the importance of proper nutrition and continued doing my old football specific workout plans. The result was a drop in weight of almost 50 pounds; unfortunately now looking back, at the expense of muscle mass and strength.
In February of 2011 I decided to get more serious again about my body and health and started researching diets, supplements, workouts, techniques etc. I started reading everything weight training related and began documenting the progress with pictures, instead of solely relying on the scale. The results were overwhelming.
Even though I regained 20 pounds within six months, my waist size dropped 3 inches and so did my overall body fat.
With a "new" body and a good portion of found again self-esteem I recently decided to do my first amateur bodybuilding show. The show will take place on June 16th 2012 and is organized by the Organization of Competitive Bodybuilders (OCB), an all-natural Bodybuilding and Figure federation. Since I have never done a show before everything, from strict dieting to posing, is a complete new experience for me and I figured maybe worth sharing.
Well long story short, I finally made up my mind about the format of this blog and think this blog will be somewhat of a combination of training guide and workout diary and a nice tool to keep me focused over the next months up until my show.

So now let's get to work!!!