Contest Prep Changes & Numbers (yes Rach, I'm a copycat)

Met with my posing coach yesterday, it had been 2 weeks since I had seen him because he was out for a week competing at North American Nationals in Ohio. Things were very positive, he could see changes and that I had been working hard and following his directions. He even said I look better now than I did at the last competition. I have been posing everyday either before or after cardio, doing 65 minutes of cardio a day along with lifting 5 days per week. To try and draw as much water out, I am going to up this to 105 mins of cardio/day plus 5 days of lifting this week, and 4 days next week. I have 10 days of hard work in front of me, so that will (hopefully) keep me motivated. Here's how it should look:

9/13 105 mins cardio
9/14 105 mins cardio; Lift Legs
9/15 105 mins cardio; Low carb day - eliminate all carb sources, keep everything else the same
9/16 105 mins cardio; Lift Shoulders
9/17 105 mins cardio; Lift Arms
9/18 105 mins cardio;
9/19 105 mins cardio; Lift Legs
9/20 105 mins cardio; Lift Back
9/21 105 mins cardio; Lift Chest
9/22 105 mins cardio; Lift Arms/Shoulders; Low carb day - eliminate all carb sources, keep
everything else the same
9/23 Off
9/24 Off
9/25 Competition

My night cardio on the 22nd will be the last workout I do before the competition. That should give my body enough time to recouperate so I have energy for the show. Also, on those two days I'll be carbing up (YES!), loading creatine, and dropping water. 1 gallon on the 23rd and 1/2 gallon in the morning on the 24th and only sips after that. I have to do my hair removal and protan the night of the 23rd, another coat of protan the morning of the 24th, and then touch ups before the show (I think that's right, I'll have another post on that next week).

Numbers:
12 - # of days left until the show
7 - # of lifts left
29 - # of cardio sessions left
1,010 - # of minutes of cardio left
15 - # of carbs I'll have on the two Wednesdays before the show (from veggie sources)
4 - hours of sleep I got last night




Just have to get through next Wednesday, I'll give an update much sooner than later.

Bulking Cycle Edit

Going through this new cutting diet, I'm thinking about changes I might want to make to my bulking diet after the show. I want to decrease reliance on shakes (Morning & PWO shake are good, but I want to ditch the day shake and possibly the casein shake at night), and increase whole foods. This will keep me more full during the day (I don't think I'll have a problem with staying full) so I won't go into cheat foods as often, and I think it's just better in general. Also, I'm going to try and keep veggies in 3 of my meals, and have fruit at 3 of my meals. Here's what the new bulking diet will look like:

Morning shake (immediately on waking up):
5oz banana
50g whey
30g maltodextrin
30g waxy maize

1 hr later
6 whole eggs (jumbo)
1.5 cups oats
120g Berries

Mid-morning shake
8oz chicken
450g Sweet Potatoes
160g Broccoli
100g asparagus
30g almonds

Postworkout Shake
50g whey
4oz banana
20g dextrose
20g maltodextrin
30g waxy maize

Lunch
1/2 cup (uncooked) brown rice
1/2 cup beans
8oz ground beef/turkey
1/3 cucumber
100g green beans
1 tomato

Afternoon Snack
32g peanut butter
80g oats
9oz salmon
1/4 cup (uncooked) quinoa
90g apple

Dinner
300g Sweet Potato
85g spinach
8oz steak
160g broccoli
1/2 cup beans
1/2 cup carrots
1 tomato
1 bell pepper
10g chia/flax seeds


Before Bed
50g Casein Shake

Still a work in progress. Up next: Numbers & more contest prep changes for the next 1.5 weeks.

2 Weeks Out

Another long gap in posts...here's what's been happening: a lot of the same. Same diet, same workout schedule, same long hours, same lack of sleep, etc. However, things have been going pretty well all in all. I am down to 181.5 as of this morning, I feel very lean but depleted at the same time. I've been pretty consistent @ ~90g of carbs/day, w/ one day ~110g carbs. My current diet on the 6 days looks like this:

Meal 1:
40g Oats
12 jumbo egg whites

Meal 2:
8-8.5 oz Tilapia
80g broccoli
50g asparagus
16g PB

Meal 3:
135g sweet potato
8-8.5 oz chicken

Meal 4:
8-8.5 oz Tilapia
100g broccoli
50g asparagus
15g almonds

Meal 5:
135g sweet potato
8-8.5 oz chicken

Meal 6:
150g spinach
75g green peppers
6-6.5 oz flounder
5 egg whites
12g PB

Supplement w/ 4g fish oil, 3g CLA, 1 multi, & 1 glucosamine. I take a vit C & a B complex post cardio, and take my normal post lift vitamins with my postworkout shake. On days I lift, I do so before meal 3 and sub 56g whey for chicken. I do my cardio before meals 1 and 5 everyday.

One change for this week: Wednesday I will drop all carb sources so I can prepare for dropping carbs really low the following week Tuesday-Thursday. Other than that, everything will be pretty much the same. The week after, my cardio intensity and duration should decrease, and my lifts will change to full body rather than splits, but I'll worry about that next weekend. For now, I'm going to try and push through this week and make sure I'm in position to dry out well.

4.5 Weeks Out

The last couple weeks have been hard and frustrating. Taking on a new diet and new outlook on precontest training has been hard to adapt to. It's a new way of thinking, and changing is hard after years of doing the same thing. I think yesterday was the first day in about two or three years I didn't have some sort of protein shake right out of bed (now that I am doing cardio on an empty stomach in the AM). But I am finally starting to sink into the swing of things. The hardest changes have been AM cardio and figuring out an optimal postworkout shake/not having a postworkout meal an hour after lifting.

Precontest I have always focused on the scale as the number one resource to view my progress. It has never been a problem trying to cut weight per se (it feels and seems like I'm getting looking better and getting a little more definition), but the number on the scale isn't changing. I've been 186lbs for the last 2 weeks, going up to 189 during one of the first days on the diet. After doing 3 sessions of cardio yesterday, I swore I was going to at least see some change in weight this morning...but nothing. I feel good...lean but still fairly full, I figure I just need to keep tweaking things until I see some change on the scale. I would be happy...check that, ecstatic, with a half pound drop. Here are the changes I've made so far this week (keep in mind, this is the second day of these changes):

-AM/PM cardio 30-40 minutes each, no more. One day, add 3rd session of cardio mid day.
-No mixing chicken and fish - concept being the body is already in a calorie deficit, and it is hard for the body to sort and absorb different aminos and minerals at the same time.
-Lift 5 days/week doing arms twice or hams/quad split
-Fat @ meals 2,4,6. Carbs at meals 1,3,5.
-Have the same meals on a daily basis (i.e. meal 1 is the same every day, meal 2 is the same every day, etc.).
-One day/week (preferably off day), carbs only from veggie sources (about 10g/meal). One day/week (friday) increase carbs at carb meals by ~25%

I felt ungodly flat and weak on Friday and Saturday from undercarbing all week (only 2 carb meals), but I carbed up saturday and felt great Sunday, even had a strong lift Sunday as well. Just goes to show how things can change in a very short amount of time. Now that I am doing 3 carb meals/day, and 3 'fat' meals/day I should be able to stay full through the week a little better.

The last thing I'll say about this new 'regime change' is getting up and to the gym every morning around the time they turn on the lights is rough. Once I get into my groove on the stepmill it's not bad, and after I get through the first 5 minutes stepping and squeezing my ass every step I can pretty much zone out. And since I have my last meal at about 8 or 8:30, and I have to get all my food/powders ready the night before, I don't get to bed as early as I'd like (at least early enough to get ample sleep to wake up at 4:30-4:45am). Then add 3 workouts/day 6 days a week to that. So if you see me walking around with my head down looking half asleep...that's why. But alas, 4.5 more weeks...3.5 weeks at this intensity. We'll see where I'm at then.

Paradigm Shift

So I was talking to one of the other trainers, who is an NPC bodybuilder, about my training and problems and he threw my whole way of thinking about training & dieting upside down. Here are the changes he said I need to make in order to improve my contest prep:

-Remove all sugars: This includes bananas & other fruits, dextrose, maltodextrin, and waxy maize (even though malto & waxy maize aren't technically sugars, they take a long time to burn off).

-Increase protein: Before I was eating about 5oz of meat when I'd have my food meals, and he recommends 8-10 oz. I plan on staying closer to the 8oz mark when I have 6 meals a day, and 10oz when I can only get in 5 meals.

-Reduce reliance on protein shakes as meal replacements: Shakes are going to have too much sugar, and are not absorbed as well as real food.

-Increase veggie intake: On non-carb meals, eat 2 green veggies. Take out sugary vegetables (tomatoes, red peppers, carrots, etc.) completely.

-Change cardio: The 30-40 mins of moderate-high intensity steady state cardio probably burns too much muscle even though I supplement w/ anti-catabolic aids. New cardio: walking at an 8-10% incline at 3.5 speed and/or stepmill @ ~50 steps/minute for a combined 45-60 minutes. This should be done when possible in the morning on an empty stomach to optimize fat burning.

-Eliminate postworkout "meal": Before, I was having a postworkout shake w/ whey, dextrose, maltodex, & waxy maize, then an hour later having a meal w/ carbs & protein. I now take that meal out, and rely solely on the postworkout shake that just has whey. I am going to try adding some oats and he also suggested throwing in almonds as well, then wait about 3 hours for my next meal.

The basis of his changes are under the concept of the difference between offseason and precontest. They are two very distinct and different times, and I somehow have been going through a kind of hybrid of the two.

So here is my schedule for the week:

Sun: 60mins AM cardio/60 mins PM cardio
Mon: 50mins AM cardio/Back & Tris mid day/Hams & Calves PM
Tues:50mins AM Cardio/60 mins PM Cardio
Wed:30mins AM Cardio/Shoulders & Traps mid day/60mins PM Cardio
Thurs: 50 mins AM Cardio/Quads mid day/45 mins PM Cardio
Fri: Off Day
Sat:60 mins AM Cardio/Chest & Tris

That puts me on my regular lifting schedule, and gives me ~525 minutes of cardio for the week which should be pretty solid.

My weight has fluctuated a lot this week: between 185.5 and 189. I assume it's because I've added a bunch of sodium (tuna) to my diet, and since I don't have a postworkout meal I'm eating later at night (last meal at 9-9:30). Also, with the added food protein I haven't been as...regular...as before, even though I am having 8-12 servings of veggies along with 50-90g of oats. I googled it, and it seems like that is a common pitfall of the high protein diet.

On the plus side, I was 186 this morning and have a solid workout schedule for this week. If I can get down to 185 by next week that would put me on a good track 5 weeks out.

< 6.5 Weeks Left: Leg Day

I split legs in to two days this week, and had a pretty successful Hams/Calves day on Monday. I was surprised how much energy I had (lifted at 6pm, after lifting back/bis earlier that morning). Got through everything in about an hour, hit 14 sets of hams including my first sets of rack pulls w/ no knee/back/hip pain. Was pretty stoked about that. It looked like this:

Rack Pulls: 4x6x405
RDL: 10x295 (2)
Glute-Ham Raise: 8
Superset w/ 45 degree hyperextension: 10
Leg Curl: 8x170
Std Calf: 15x140
Standing Calf: 8x210

I was good and sore up through today, though it wasn't nearly as bad today as it was Tuesday or Wednesday. I got my Stick (www.thestick.com) yesterday, so I was able to roll out my legs/back/hips before hitting quads today. I didn't feel the 'good deep pain' I hear about when people talk about foam rolling...that could mean I'm not doing it right/hard enough or it means I just don't have a lot of

So on to today's workout. To sum it up...less than mediocre. I hit 2 sets of back squats before me knee started acting up. No chance of finishing my back squats or moving on to front squats. Unlike 2 weeks ago, I was able to move on hack squats and leg press without too much knee pain. Had to go light on leg extensions to save my hip, which started acting up at the end of leg presses. I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow to get x rays on my hip to make sure it's healing ok, so I'm going to get my knee checked out...though I'm not expecting too much as the docs have never been able to do anything helpful for any of my past issues (knee or otherwise). I expect I'll hear the typical "rest and ice" response. Awesome, thanks doc! That was a good use of a co-pay and an hour wait.

7.5 weeks out: Leg Day

So right now I'm doing what I normally do when I'm writing my blogs, laid up icing and resting. Just lifted my injury-riddled legs. I had planned on splitting legs into two days, but with my knee and quad it wouldn't have made much sense. I wore my brace for a little extra support, but I still couldn't go any lower than about halfway in a conventional squat so I had to make some changes to my workout. Today it looked like this:

Trap bar DL (high handles) 8x395
BB Step ups 8x65
Stiff DL 10x295(2)
superset w/ trap bar DL (low handles) 6x255
Sumo Stance Hack Squats (full) 8x150
Leg ext (slow) 12x200
Std Leg Curl 10x190
Std Calf (slow) 15x140
Standing Calf (slow) 10x190

My quad/hip flexor felt a lot better, the skin has all of its feeling back all up and down my leg and the things that bothered it before (leg extensions, squats, std calf raises) were fine as long as the weight was lower than normal and I super slowed down my rep speed. As I got deeper into the workout, it felt like everything loosened up a little bit too. Hopefully by next week I'll be able to get back to my planned routine because this workout was absolute dog crap compared to what I normally do...it was an adequate workout at best, but nothing that will improve the condition of my legs. Until then, I guess it's ice and rest...