Just Like The Naked Mole Rat

Now what does an East African Naked Mole Rat (Heterocephalus glaber) has to do with bodybuilding? 

No worries, it's not a newly discovered lean source of protein or an alternative to chicken breast that I am trying to pitch, no, the answer is, hairlessness.

You Talkin' to Me?

In order for the physique to really stand out on stage and to see the definition more clearly, bodybuilders have to entirely remove all of their body hair a couple of days before the competition and be as smooth as, well, a naked mole rat.

As funny and strange as it initially sounds, hair removal is actually an important part of the final contest preparation and can make or break your on-stage appearance. Obviously excessive dark body hair will cover up muscle details but even tiny, light colored hair can deteriorate a ripped physique once covered with dark spray tan or in the bright spotlight of the stage. 

There are several different methods and techniques to remove unwanted body hair, so here is a short overview over the three most popular ones.

Shaving

I would imagine everybody is familiar with this method, so I will keep the blah, blah here to a minimum. Shaving is probably the most popular method, since it is easy and, if done correctly without any self-mutilation, pain free. It can be performed virtually everywhere and supplies (shaving creme and razor) are usually on hand or can easily be acquired.

On the downside, shaving can cause rashes and ingrown hairs, especially in "new" areas, and does not keep the hair "off" as long as other methods.

Sprays and Creams

Using  Hair Removal Creams and Sprays is a fast, but also rather expensive way to remove unwanted body hair. The cream is fairly easy to apply and leaves a very smooth surface for days.

I personally "swear by Nair" and used it with very good results for larger areas, such as legs and arms. Even though I had good experiences with it, creams and sprays might be less effective for people with thicker hair and will have to be used with extra care.

The chemicals can cause severe burns on the skin if the cream stays too long on the skin, so exactly following the instructions is key. Sensitive areas such as private parts and face should be avoided for the same reason. 

Waxing

I haven't had the "pleasure" of experiencing this technique yet, so I cannot really comment on it.

Many people prefer this technique, since it is apparently almost irritation free and the hair does not grow back too quickly. However it is supposed to be painful and after watching the scene in the movie " The 40-Year-Old Virgin" in which Andy is getting his chest, or at least part of it, waxed, I have no real desire in trying it out.

In my experience, regardless of the method, I would recommend to initially use an electric razor to shave off the major part of the hair before you "smooth" it out by either wet shaving or using hair removal cream, especially if it is your first time and your body is covered with a "fur". 

I would lie if I said that it didn't take me quite some time to overcome my initial skepticism and that completely removing all body hair wasn't awkward at first, but now that I have done it several times I am more comfortable with it and don't mind it at all.

Personally, I had the best results by using wet shaving for sensitive and hard-to-reach areas (face, arm pits, private area, chest, shoulders and back) and applying hair removal cream to larger areas such as legs and arms. 

The whole process can be very time consuming, so I usually set the Thursday evening before a Saturday show aside and remove all body hair in one "session". On the morning of the competition I only have to shave off my facial stubble and I am ready to go.  

Final piece of advice, don't wait until the last day before your competition, especially if you have never shaved your legs or "manscaped" before. 

Hair removal is not only very time consuming, but it can also cause severe skin irritation or maybe even burns. So give it a try a month before the show and see how your skin will react and just "maintain" your hairlessness up until the competition. 

The past week has been surprisingly exhausting, both mentally and physically. The longer carb depletion period, as well as the back-to-back workout sessions including heavy deadlifts and heavy squats definitely took their toll on me.

As planned I started the carb depletion process on Thursday and have been following a somewhat ketogenic diet for the past four days.

4,000 almost 100% carb-free calories.

My daily food intake during this time consisted of 32 oz of chicken, 12 oz. of lean steak, 12 oz. of lean ground turkey, 8 cups of broccoli and 6 spears of asparagus along with 4 tbs. of extra virgin olive oil and 3 gallons of water. 

As you can see I cut out all the carbs besides a minimal amount found in broccoli and asparagus and have been doing low-weight/high-reps workouts along with High Intensity Interval Training cardio sessions every day to squeeze the last bit of glycogen out of my muscles. 

My energy levels are way down and my cognitive abilities, as well as my mood are also taking one for the team.  

I am tired, exhausted, grumpy and moody. To best describe my current mood, imagine a mix between menopause and "that time of the month" packed in the body of a silverback gorilla with the temper of a world of warcraft playing teenager. Needless to say that any interaction with other humans should be avoided as much as possible.

Well, tomorrow will be the last zero carb day before I will start carb loading on Tuesday. Hopefully along with apple pie filling, oatmeal and yams, my spirits will also return. 

Does Not Play Well With Others During Carb Withdraw

Do You Have What It Takes?

If you have the will power, discipline and work ethic to get your body in the best shape ever, why not take it a couple of steps further and compete in a bodybuilding or physique competition?
If you do not know where to start or what to do, maybe this article can answer some questions.

When I decided to do my very first bodybuilding show this year, I had no real clue about contest preparation and timing, and almost completely relied on the expertise of befriended bodybuilders.
Now that I have a competition "under my belt" and am in the middle of preparing for another one, I thought it might be beneficial to write down my contest preparation as some form of step-by-step competition guide.

So if you are thinking about entering a bodybuilding competition yourself, maybe the following "timeline" can  give you a rough idea of what to expect and help you with the timing of the steps that go into a proper preparation. 

The first step is to decide what organization you would like to compete in and then choose a competition. There are several organizations out there, with the NPC, the National Physique Committee as the largest one in terms of members and offered events. Once you picked an organization and a date, the actual planning can start.

12-16 Weeks Out:

Diet

Depending on their current physique and bodies' shapes most bodybuilders begin with their competition diets 8-16 weeks out from the competition. If they are maintaining a very lean physique all year round, they might find a shorter period (4-6 weeks) sufficient enough.

The competition diet is a full-time commitment and probably the hardest part of the contents preparation. Workouts and cardio sessions may last for one or two hours, but following a strict competition diet is a 24 hour job. It will require a lot of will power, proper planning and a good amount of preparation. The ultimate goal of this step is to loose the maximum amount of body fat, NOT body weight, while maintaining as much lean muscle mass as possible. However once you start loosing body fat, you will also loose some muscle mass. The rule of thumb, if done correctly, is usually one pound of lean muscle mass per three pounds of body fat. So knowing your body's actual daily caloric intake requirement is key. There will be no room for "cheat meals" or even small "snacks" outside of your meal plan.

You should monitor your progress every week by taking pictures, measuring your body fat and recording it along with your body weight and measurements of key body parts (circumference of your neck, chest, arms, waist, quads and calves). Once you get close to the actual show date these changes should be recorded and compared daily to make adjustments to your diet and workouts. 

Workout

Besides starting your competition diet, you might also consider making slight changes to your workouts and putting more emphasis on isolation exercises and focus on perfect form. With this being said, the goal is also to maintain the hard gained muscle mass so compound exercises and heavy lifts should still be a major part of your training routine. 

However with fewer carbs in your diet and decreasing body weight, your strength will eventually also decline, so no false pride when it's time to drop some plates to avoid a sloppy form or low reps. 

Posing

In addition to lifting weights and doing cardio, you should also practice your posing for 15 minutes on a daily basis. It is important to know all mandatory poses and being able to hold them for an extended period. Once you have the basics down and can hold them without shaking or cramping up, you can start working on your individual posing routine. 

6 Weeks Out: 

If you haven't already done so, now might be the right time to finally register for the competition and start acquiring all necessary supplies (see post "Supplies, supplies, supplies for a list of "competition essentials"). 

Ordering your supplies now should give you enough time in case something is back ordered, needs to be custom-made or exchanged. 

Once your paperwork is submitted and your registration is official, the entire preparation process becomes even more real and the level of intensity increases. 

4 Weeks Out:

In order to start depleting your body from excess water storage, you should stop taking creatine at this time if it has been part of your competition diet. 

If you're like me and not blessed with natural dark skin and don't frequent a tanning bed on a regular basis, you might want to think about starting with it now so you can get a solid base tan over the next month. 

Most organizations require some sort of membership in order to compete in one of their events, so if you don't want to wait in line on the day of the show, you should also consider getting a membership card at this point. Completing all the necessary paperwork now should allow for enough time to have it mailed, processed and returned in time for the competition.

3 Weeks Out:

To achieve further water depletion I significantly increase my vitamin C and vitamin B6 intake at this point.  

2 Weeks Out:

14 days before the show you should increase your daily posing practice to at least 30 minutes and continue working on your routine. If you haven't picked a music track for it you also might want to get on that so you can start practicing with music and fine tune your timing.

At the two week mark, I also I bump up my glutamine intake and start taking sugar-free nitric oxide supplements to increase my vascularity. My preferred nitric oxide booster is Vasotropin from Gaspari Nutrition.

Final Week:

As the preparation process enters the last week before the competition, everybody has their own method to appear as ripped and vascular as possible on Saturday. Common methods are fat loading, carb depletion and loading, sodium loading and depletion and playing with the water intake. However since every body is different and reacts different, there is no general formula and you will have to experiment what works best for your body to achieve the desired physique.

I am still experimenting myself with different methods, but for the Delaware Championships, my schedule looks like this. As you can tell, my peak "week" will already start this Thursday, 10 days before the event.

Thursday until Monday

For a period of five consecutive days I will follow a carb depletion diet and workout plan. The idea is to completely drain the muscles' glycogen storage and prime them for carbohydrate loading.

In addition to a diet made up almost entirely of protein and fat, high-rep/low-weight workouts in the morning and High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) cardio sessions in the afternoon should further accelerate the depletion process and prepare the muscles for the carb loading phase.

Each workout and cardio session will also be followed by posing practice.

Tuesday

Tuesday's morning workout session will mark the last actual weight training and cardio session for the week and will be a high intensity, full body workout to reduce the muscles' glycogen storage as much as possible. Following immediately after this workout, the carb loading process will start to replenish the empty glycogen stores. 

Wednesday

The carb loading process continues, however the carb intake will be reduced from the previous day and the amount of protein increases.

Practicing the mandatory poses and working on the posing routine should be done for at least 30 minutes.

Thursday

The Thursday before the show is usually my "grooming day". 

Besides getting a hair cut and trimming fingernails and toenails, I also remove all unwanted body hair that day. To avoid any misunderstanding, I do not wait until two days before the show to completely shave, wax or whatsoever my body, I just re-shave. Hair removal is quite a procedure and very time intensive, so I remove it all several weeks before the show and just "maintain my hairlessness" until the competition. There are various methods to get rid of your hair, which I will cover in more detail in one of my future posts. 

Since I am slightly OCD, I also like to pack my bag for the competition (rubber bands, towels, posing suits, paperwork, extra clothes, supplies) that night, so I have everything ready to go and an extra day, Friday for any last minute errands.

Continue practicing your poses and routine. 

Friday

After posing in the morning, try to relax the rest of the day and get off your feet as much as possible. 

One day before the competition would also be a good time to get your spray tan on. Regardless of the color of your skin, one or more coats of spray tan should be applied, since the darker you are, the more defined your physique will appear on stage. 

Since I am personally not a big fan of orange bathrooms, I just take advantage of professional services and have them "paint" me (and clean up the mess afterward). 

Prepare and pack your food and snacks for the next day and get a good night's rest.

Saturday

It's finally show time.

Everything that can be done is done by now. 

Make sure to have your bag, cooler, food, two sets of posing suits, some extra towels and cash for unexpected expenses (parking, food, fees, etc.) and head to the event to be on time for the registration and competitor meeting.

If you, despite any common sense, have not registered for the event yet and/or need to obtain an organization membership, plan to arrive at the venue way early to give yourself enough time to stand in multiple lines and take care of the paperwork. Also, most events will only accept cash for registration, membership fees, etc. so stopping at an ATM along the way might be a good idea.

Once you are signed in, it is finally time to enjoy the fruits of your hard labor and to compete.

August 11th is only two more weeks away, so in accordance with the above timeline I will be looking at some major changes in my diet and workout regiment this week. Every single one of the next 14 days is already planned out, so I know exactly what to expect and can prepare my meals in advance.

For the five days of my carb depletion diet, I have 320 oz. of chicken breast, 21 gallons of spring water, 4 lb.s of lean steak, 4 lbs. of lean ground turkey, 3 bags of broccoli and 1 bottle of extra virgin oil on my shopping list. As mentioned above, I will start this process on Thursday, so I moved my last full leg workout before the show from Saturday to Wednesday. My leg workouts have been pretty intense over the past weeks, so I will definitely need some carbs before and after the gym. Doing legs earlier should also give them more time to rest and allow for some of the excess water under the skin to disappear. 

"The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will." 

 Vince Lombardi

How Do You Like Me Now

I have been preparing for this summer's competitions now for exactly 20 long weeks, so I thought it was time to take a moment and reflect on the past 5 months.

If you have been following the blog from the very beginning on, you might remember that I started this "journey" "officially" on March 4th 2012 and faced quite a bit of adversity and some obstacles along the way.
A couple of business trips, a vacation in Germany, an extended weekend in Jamaica, working odd hours, and stress were minor or major interruptions of my contest preparation but eventually could not stop me. 

While March 4th marks the beginning of my low-carb diet and altered workout schedule, the actual work started way before that, to be precise, after last year's Summer, when I started lifting heavy again and changed up my diet by adding more carbs and calories. I gained a lot of muscle mass and strength during this "off-season" period, but also a  little bit of extra weight around my hips. 

I began my contest preparation that Monday with a body weight of 291 lbs. and a caliper measured body fat content of 7%.

140 workouts, approximately 5,600 minutes of cardio and roughly around 270 lbs. of dry chicken breast later, I weighted in this morning at 258.2 lbs. with 4.5% body fat. At my last competition I was even down to 251.2 lbs. 

In retrospect, I wish I could have maintained more lean muscle mass, but that is all part of the learning process and will definitely influence next year's preparation plan and timeline. 

Following a strict diet and workout regiment for such a long time took quite some dedication and willpower, but looking at the results, I have to say that all those 5 am workouts were definitely worth it.

It is amazing to see how my body transformed within this time period and comparing my current pictures with previous ones motivates me for the next 5 weeks. 

Even though my spirits are still high, I have to admit that after 140 days of contest preparation I am kind of looking forward to the end of my last competition on August 25th, so I can finally "eat again". 

Don't get me wrong, I am not planning on letting myself go and "pigging out", I actually already have an "off-season" meal plan and workout plan made up to hit the ground running, but I will definitely enjoy a couple of "free windows" in my diet and one or ten pieces of candy. 

My goal this winter is to gain 20 lbs. of lean muscle mass so I can compete at around 270/275 lbs. next year. Since this will require a substantial amount of extra carbs and less cardio, I guess I won't be posting any shirtless pictures of me then for a while. So enjoy them while you can. ;-)

While it is already kind of amazing to see the transformation of my body within the last 20 weeks, I love to go even further back and compare my current physique with the pictures I took when I initially started working out more serious again, back in February of 2011. 

Not to sound too cocky, but I would say this "kid" has made quite some progress in the past 1.5 years.

Cleaning up my desk at work I also found one of my very first meal plans from last year and wanted to share it here. 

Back then, I just searched for "bodybuilder meal plan" on Google and this was one of the first results that popped up. Without any real understanding of nutrition or even my daily caloric requirements I just copied it and used it for a couple of months. 

Now that I have a better understanding of the subject I look at it and laugh when I see that my calorie intake was only around 2,500. Doing the proper math, I should have been at 4,200. Guess that's what happen when you "just do something" instead of fully understanding what and why you are actually doing it.  

Well enough reminiscing about "ye olde tymes" and back to focusing on the future.

My next competition, the 2012 Delaware Championship, is only three weeks away, so it is time to enhance my metabolic functions again by adding 1,500mg of vitamin B6 and 4,500mg of vitamin C to my daily supplement intake. Besides playing an important role in metabolic functions, they are also intended to help achieving water depletion. 

Being the second contest preparation within a couple of weeks it kind of feels like groundhog day with the exception that I am less nervous, more confident in doing what I am doing, and that I have a better understanding of how my body will react.

140 days down, 34 more to go.

"In the confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream always wins... not through strength, but through persistence."