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. 

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?

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.