Characters Welcome

It has been a while since my last post and I wish I had a good excuse, but the truth is I have just been extremely lazy and occupied with myself at the gym.
Since my last trip to Texas, I had another business trip to Germany and the opportunity to visit a bunch of "new" gyms and obviously to work out in them.

While I have been torturing my body at various gyms over the past months, I couldn't help but noticing that every gym has quite some characters training in them and regardless of where you train, a lot of these people can be found in way or another everywhere.

I think that anyone who has ever been to a gym understands what I am talking about. People that basically don't do anything productive at the gym and at best provide entertainment for other guests, or in the worst case annoy the living s*** out of everybody.

Here is my list of characters that I have "observed" over the past years in gyms around the globe.

The Inventor - This guy puts every cross gym trainer to shame with the "revolutionary" training exercises he invented himself. Regardless if it's squatting on a ball, push-ups on vertical standing dumbbells, or running on a treadmill holding a barbell over his head, if there is a chance to turn an exercise into a neck-breaking stunt, it is part of his workout routine.

The Creeper - This type is usually male, in his mid-40's to 50's and looks like he is not allowed to turn on any lights in his house on Halloween. He can usually be found knocking around fitness classes, stretching areas or locker rooms where he does some half-ass crunches on a machine, thigh adductor or extensive stretching exercises, gawking at any female within his peripheral vision.

The New Years Resolutioners - like a swarm of locusts, they miraculously appear on January 1st and will occupy any machine and piece of cardio equipment at the gym. The night before they have made a pledge to themselves, that this year will finally be the year to "loose a couple of pounds" and "start a healthy lifestyle". They swarm out to buy new gym clothes, healthy foods, supplements and of course a gym membership. Gym owners love them, cause they will sign up for a one-year membership and never been seen again come February.

Tweedledee and Tweedledum - Usually two teenage boys who have been doing almost every fitness and bodybuilding magazine workout on this planet, but never felt the urge to ask someone knowledgeable for advice or, let alone, learn the proper technique. So here they are, looking like extremely pale copies of Steve Urkel, checking out chicks, doing curls and benching four times a week. Well at least they do what they consider bench pressing. 

That brings me to the next character, the Bench Presser - this guy trains one and only one body part multiple times a week and wonders why is neither gaining strength nor improving his physique. The workout usually starts with barbell bench press, followed by some bench press and ends with some more bench. If he feels adventurous or the urge to "change his routine up" he includes some triceps pushdowns or lat pulldowns on the machine at the end.

The Sausage - Ever seen how a sausage is made? How the ground up meat is stuffed in the casing? Well this is how this slightly overweight gym member must be getting in her spandex shorts or leggings before the gym visit, because the end result looks the same. 

The Screamer - now this is one of my favorite characters. As annoying as he is, he certainly provides the most entertainment for the entire gym. Regardless if it's a 10 lbs dumbbell curl or a bench press by which his "spotter" is basically curling the entire weight he unleashes the inner beast one heartbreaking scream at a time, putting any woman giving child birth to shame. No matter if it is the very first rep or the end of the workout the rest of the gym knows that he's doing "work". 

The Coach - ever heard the impression "Never trust a skinny chef"? This guy is the skinny chef's fitness equivalent. Usually in no physical shape whatsoever he gladly offers his training tips and advice to anybody, regardless if asked for or not. He knows everything better, talks like he has a Phd in Nutrition and Exercise Science and always has to critique any and everybody's technique. Too bad his "depth of knowledge" is not working out for himself at all. 

Bodybuilding.com Amateur Bodybuilder of the Week

Bodybuilding.com, the number one information portal for bodybuilding, fitness and physique in the world, has selected me this past week for their amateur bodybuilder of the week award and written up a nice article about me.

The article is very well written and talks about how I started weightlifting and about my beginnings in bodybuilding. 

It also includes my current "off-season" diet and sample workout plan.

I fell very honored to be featured on bodybuilding.com and am excited to share my story with bodybuilding and fitness enthusiasts from all over the world. 

The complete article can be found here. 

Everything is Bigger in Texas

Last week I had to travel again for work. Destination this time: Dallas, TX .

After my work assignment in Dallas was over, I spent a couple of days in Fort Worth and explored the area. Since I still had to lift, I simply combined sightseeing and working out and headed  to the famous Metroflex Gym in nearby Arlington, TX. 

Metroflex is THE bodybuilding mecca in the Lonestar State and home to legendary bodybuilders such as 8 times Mr. Olympia Ronnie Coleman, Branch Warren and Johnnie Jackson. 

The gym labels itself as a hardcore training facility and hardcore it definitely is. An old garage with concrete floors, rusty weights, worn out equipment, yellowed pictures the 1980's and an incredibly intense atmosphere. Just by walking into the place you can feel the intensity and the urge to perform. 

I always considered the Trainingcenter, my second "home", pretty bad ass, but compared to Metroflex, with its dirty floors, shared co-ed bathroom, and rusty equipment, it almost looks like the family YMCA. 

As I walked in I saw a girl running out looking for the next available trash can and throwing up. I just smiled and thought: "Yes, this is exactly where I parked my car. My kind of gym, now let's get started". 

I did my regular leg workout but left out squats since I couldn't fit my heavy powerlifting belt in my tiny carry-on bag and learned my lesson more than twice to not squat without a belt. My leg workout was inspired by Branch Warren's routine, so it was kind of cool doing the exercises on the same pieces of equipment.

After my grueling leg session I had the opportunity to watch another "Metroflex celebrity" benching over 600 lbs raw and left more than impressed this inconspicuous high intensity training facility in one of Arlington's back alleys. 

 

  

                                

Time To Get BIG

As promised in last week's post today I am going to talk a little bit more about my new workout plan. This plan is designed as an "off-season" training to add quality, lean muscle mass.
The weights got heavier and cardio has been reduced from an hour every day to a short and crisp 30 minute session once a week.
As with my pre-contest workout, I dedicate each workout to one specific muscle group or body part and even kept the days I train a certain muscle group/part the same.
Monday is reserved for chest, Tuesday is back day, Wednesday I do abs, calves and cardio, Thursdays I work shoulders and traps, arms are trained on Fridays and on Saturdays I torture my legs.

What has changed are the exercises, the number of sets and the number of reps. I have added more compound exercises to the workout, added a couple more sets and decreased the number of reps from 12-15 to 8-10 reps for most exercises. Reducing the number of reps allows me to work with heavier weight and should help me to gain more strength and muscle mass.

Here is the chest workout I am currently following. I start out with 4 sets of incline barbell bench press as a compound exercise to work on the upper part of my chest, then continue with 4 sets of flat barbell presses as another compound exercise before moving towards more isolation exercises, such as machine incline chest press, machine wide grip chest press, flyes and pullovers. 

Bulking Up

After 26 weeks of contest preparation, low carb diets and tons of cardio it is finally time to eat. 

For the first couple of days after the last competition and the photo shoot, I was basically on a "seafood diet". I was eating all the food I would see. 

Ice cream, cookies, french fries, fruits, peanut butter, yogurt, Chinese food, sandwiches, bread, basically everything I was not allowed to eat for the past half year. 

While it felt great to finally have the freedom again to choose different foods and eat what I wanted, it kind of got old pretty soon and I was longing for the structure my contest diets provided me with. 

So after a couple of days of "binge eating", I sat down and created my "off-season/bulking" meal plan. This plan is based on my daily calorie requirements plus an additional 500 calories to grow.

It ended up being around 5,000 calories, which are split up into seven meals and spread out throughout the day with set eating times. 

Compared to my contest diets, I bumped up my daily caloric intake and  noticeably increased the amount of carbohydrates I eat daily. 

The plan is fairly stringent but not as "radical" as my pre-contest diets, since I allow myself 3-4 "cheat meals" per week and some not so healthy food snacks throughout the day.
To be accurate, this diet actually consists of two plans.
One meal plan for days that I lift weights at the gym and one plan for non-workout and cardio only days. Even though the daily caloric intake remains the same with around 5,000, the macros change significantly between the two plans. On actual workout days 35% of my daily calories come from protein, 53% from carbohydrates and around 12% from fat. I am trying to take advantage of my body's natural insulin cycle and time my carb intake accordingly. The majority of my carb is therefore consumed in the morning and right after my workout. Meal 6 and 7 do not contain any carbs. 

On non-workout days, the focus shifts from muscle hypertrophy to preventing additional body fat storage.  This is achieved by decreasing the carb intake to only 30% of the daily calories and bringing protein up to 42% and adding healthy fats. 

My main source of protein remains chicken but I have also added some more lean red meat to my diet and use whey protein for my pre-intra and post-workout shakes.

Brown rice, oats and yams, as well as white rice for my post-workout meal provide me with the necessary carbohydrates and healthy fats come from extra virgin oil, flaxseed oil and all natural peanut butter.
Two to four cups of green vegetables, such as spinach, broccoli, asparagus or green beans are added to meals in both plans. 

The plan is supposed to be an efficient, lean gain diet program intended to add lean muscle mass without too much body fat. 

Two weeks into the new diet and workout routine, it becomes obvious that this plan is an "off-season" plan and that some fat gain is inevitable. But with Summer gone and the beach/pool season over, I am more concerned about gaining mass and strength than maintaining my abs. Sorry folks!

So far my plan has worked out great. I gained almost 30 pounds since I stepped on stage August 25th and also made huge progress in the weight room. I am getting stronger week by week and, to my surprise, my abs are still visible, well, at least to some degree. Next week I will get a little bit more into detail about my current workout routine but that would be it for today.   

Well, time to eat again!

Kodak Moment

Before entirely switching up my diet and starting to "bulk up", I thought it would be a great idea to preserve some of the shape I was in for posterity, well, at least on film/photo.

The physique was there, time could be made and I was already practicing my "Blue Steel" pose, so all I needed was a photographer. 

By sheer coincidence that problem was also solved pretty quick. 

At the Delaware Championship, I started talking to the show photographer, Jim Wilmer, and during our conversation, it turned out that he was also doing private photo shoots. 

We both expressed our interest in working together and immediately scheduled a shooting for the Tuesday after my last competition.

I figured that after 26 weeks of strict dieting what would an additional three day matter. I was dead wrong. Once the competition was over, these three days turned out to take forever. Even though in theory I was not restricted by my contest diet anymore and "free" to eat whatever I felt like,  I had to get even more stringent for this short period, in order to maintain my stage physique as good as possible.

To stay lean and dry I forewent my "cheat meals" following the competition and ate beyond "clean" Sunday and Monday. My meals basically consisted of chicken, broccoli and lettuce.

Despite numerous showers, I still had a coat of spraytan from Saturday's competition left on my skin, so no extra tanner or lotion were needed for the shooting. The color was now, three days afterwards, much lighter, almost like a natural tan and I looked like I just got back from a Caribbean vacation.

Looking at myself in the mirror Tuesday morning I appeared just a tiny bit fuller than Saturday. The extra sacrifice had actually paid off and I was ready to have "some" pictures taken.

Well, we ended up with over 600!!! that day. 

This number shouldn't actually come as a surprise, since the photo shoot took place both indoors, as well as outdoors, and in a wide variety of different outfits.  

Jim Wilmer has been working with bodybuilders and physique models for decades and his experience can definitely be seen in the quality of work he delivered.  It was a pleasure working with him that day and the pictures came out great. 

Now that the shoot is over I can finally enjoy myself for a bit and eat some of the foods I had to deny myself of for the past 6 months, before I start preparing for next year.

"I'm pretty sure there's a lot more to life than being really, really, ridiculously good looking. 

And I plan on finding out what that is."

                                                                                    Derek Zoolander

Blue Steel

Le Tigre

A special Thank You to Jim Wilmer for these great pictures, and now I shall EAT!!!

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