Show time!

I’m a week late writing this, so sorry about that! The last few weeks have been mental! Firstly, peak week, I was already very carb depleted by this point so it was low carb as normal to start with, however I did start sodium and waterloading from Wednesday through to Friday, and my carb loading was Friday and Saturday. The sodium loading was pretty simple, I used either Himalayan pink salt or soy sauce on everything I ate! The waterloading was a different story! I usually drink 4/5 litres a day, but Wednesday was 8l, Thursday was 9 and Friday was a whopping 10l of water!!! Not like you wanted to know this but I was constantly running for the toilet!! Also I used MHP expell, it’s a natural diuretic so helped wh flushing everything through. My carb load was 6 meals containing 40g protein 50g carbs and 5-7g fats per meal, I pretty much ate the same both days so I didn’t have loads of food prep! Although after meeting with my coach post-tan on Saturday he decided I needed to fill out a bit more so we hit up nandos!! I know right! Crazy, all that strict diet and the day before a show I’m smashing half a chicken and spicy rice while sipping on red wine!! 

The morning of the show was all about keeping my nerves under control, I actually slept surprisingly well, might have been the wine… But I was still up before my alarm pacing about the hotel room! For breakfast high sodium, high carbs was on the menu so me and my girlfriend headed to Bills restaurant in St. Albans.  

  
Yep that was my preshow meal, not what I would have thought to go for, but it was amazing!!! Especially considering after that my day mainly consisted of rice cakes almond butter and honey! 

The atmosphere backstage was awesome and everybody was so nice and friendly, so I felt pretty good going into the show. I would love to describe what it was like on stage but it’s all a bit of a blur to me! All I can remember was the poses being called and screaming!

I came in 2nd place and was overall very happy with my performance, although I know I have a lot of work to do in order to improve! I feel that my legs where lacking in comparison to my upper body (not to surprised considering my operation) so I am going to be working a lot on them to balance things up, also I want to work on building more of a V taper and improving my lat spreads.

Here’s a few pics from the show!

   
          
Just as. Reminder this was me in October 

  

And here’s a comparison shot

  

Overall not too shabby I think! I know I have a lot of work to do but feel like I can carry on making progress in the future and maybe even compete again!! 

2 weeks to go…

I’m not going to lie, this is tough! Everyday I feel like I’m pushing myself to the limit, both mentally and physically. Doing a tan tomorrow so it will be interesting to see how I look under lights afterwards as at the moment I just get washed out.

On a positive note, I seem to be constantly along progress! Even small things like a new vein starting to pop through or looking more striated! It’s all that’s keeping me going at the minute… 

This begs the question, would I compete again? 

The answer is probably! Although I would give myself more time and also hopefully be in better shape beforehand and also probably compete in a fitness model category instead. 

Contest prep is not for the faint hearted either way but  personally glad I have chosen to do this, even just to test my limit and push myself beyond anything I ever expected from me! 

  

Here’s a progress photo from last week!

3 weeks to go

It is getting closer and closer to showtime!!! So far I’ve had an incredible journey! Having some problems shredding my legs out nicely (probably due to my knee issues I am recovering from!) so had to drop the carbs, and also increase my training volume! 

The only downside with this is how much carbs affect your mood. Las it stands I do 4 days with only veg as carbs then 3 days “refeed” around my workouts, these are timed to fall on both leg sessions and the chest and back volume session. Because of various things (I.e a slight niggle with my left quad) this week I have done 4 days in a row no carb, and Jesus Christ I have felt it! Yesterday was probably the worst, until my preworkout meal I felt tired, depressed aching all over, and generally low and negative. 

I believe this shows the importance of carbs in people’s diet and why you shouldn’t drop them just to loose a bit of weight, unless you know what you are doing or have a coach who does!

Thankfully my coach, Simon, has been brilliant so far and although I am going extremely strict at the moment I am still managing to maintain the weights I am lifting and also managed to increase a few! 

Hopefully I can cut up in time, it’s hard work but if I can keep up how I am going at the moment I’ll be more than happy!

6 weeks left

I can’t believe how fast these last few months have gone!!! Managed to bulk up considerably to 86kg in January now I’m cutting right down dropping all the body fat! 

It’s not easy, but I’m helped by having a great coach and a super high metabolism!! Been using Dr Layne Nortons PHAT training principle but modifying it to intensity and volume days. Also added fasted HIIT and ab sessions on weekends (which are also the volume training days). A lot of my training is based on opposing muscle group supersets and trisets eg weighted Chin ups followed by dumbell chest press so really concentrating on squeezing the muscles and getting the best pump possible!!

Except with the obvious drop in calories the only changes in my diet so far is the addition of a digestive enzyme and a probiotic and changing my oats to gluten free!

As it’s been so long here are some progress photos:





Week 10

Wow it’s gone quickly! 10 weeks!! Damn. The last couple of weeks have been tough staying on track for me, it was my birthday and then all the Christmas temptations, but other than going out for 2 meals, I have been pretty good! Iv noticed that I was starting to plateau with my weights, so I have mixed things up! I’m doing a 4 day split again but only training 1 main muscle group a day. Also I am changing the days I actually work out so I train at weekends so u can sleep during the week!! So my plan now will look like this:
Monday- rest
Tuesday- rest
Wednesday- chest and biceps
Thursday- legs
Friday- rest
Saturday- back and triceps
Sunday- shoulders and abs

I’m hoping this will make a difference and by further lowering the intensity and increasing the volume per muscle group I can slap on some serious mass by January!

Progress pics

Right it’s been 2 months since I started training for this competition! Wow it’s gone quickly! Just as a quick reminder this is how I looked starting out:

This is where I am at now:

I’m pretty happy about it so far hopefully won’t kill it too much as its my birthday next week and Christmas is coming!!!

Week 6 update

On my 2nd week of GVT! Absolutely kills me suffering from DOMS constantly! Finally settled in to my new food structure and feel good for it! I tend to follow the guide below:
Meal 1- grass fed sirloin steak 2 handfuls of spinach and 30g of nuts
Meal 2- large cod fillet cooked in 25g coconut oil and ginger with broccoli
Meal 3- 1 chicken breast 500g sweet potato and handful of green beans
Meal 4- 1 mackerel fillet 100g cucumber
Pre-workout- 10g coconut oil and double espresso
Intra-workout- 10g BCAA and 5g creatine monohydrate
Post-workout- 100g vitargo and 40g whey protein
Pre bed- 30g casein protein 120g instant oats and greens powder

On top of that I’m using the myprotein v system multivitamin and animal flex joint support.
I’m training 4 days a week doing chest and back 1 day and legs and shoulders the following and repeating. I tend to break it down so I target different areas of the muscle groups on both days for example. Day 1 I’ll do incline chest press and on day 3 I’ll do it on a flat bench.
Depending upon what I can get on at the gym (training at a commercial gym during peak is a nightmare!!) my typical week looks like this:
All exercises 10 sets of 10 reps

Day 1- chest and back
Incline dumbbell chest press superset with 1 arm rows
Wide grip lat pull down superset with press ups
Decline fly superset with rear delt raise
Ez bar curls

Day 2- hamstrings, glutes, shoulders and abs
Stiff leg deadlift superset with standing shoulder press
Hip thrusters superset with upright row
Lying leg raises superset with super slow tempo bicycles (4/5 seconds concentric and eccentric)

Day 3- rest

Day 4- chest and back
Flat dumbbell chest press superset with underhand bent over row
T bar row superset with press ups
Single arm underhand tricep push downs

Day 5- quads, shoulders and abs
Squats superset with seated shoulder press
Dips superset with lunges
Leg press superset with lateral raises
Hanging leg raises superset with Russian twist

Day 6&7- rest

Obviously this plan isn’t fixed sometimes I have to change it up depending on time equipment or how I feel that day!

Week 3 update

It’s done!! I’m all registered for the show, not gunna lie I’m bricking it already. I’ve never been a very outgoing person so for me this is a major deal.
My knee should be ready for squatting in about 2 weeks time so I’m confident I can get my legs back to size in time! And I’ve completely overhauled my diet based on the ultimate performance bulking diet ebook, how to cast a bigger shadow. The next couple of months are gunna involve me eating red meat, spinach and nuts most mornings for breakfast. Also I’m going to changes mass gainer shakes to whey protein and add vitargo. This should hopefully improve my recovery and also cut out a lot of useless crap that you find in mass gainers.
Training has been hard these last few weeks, I’ve been working long days and also worked all weekend, so I’ve been exhausted! I haven’t made much progress on my compound movements, which I think may be down to being shattered all the time and doing a lot of heavy manual work. I think it’s time to mix up my plan a little bit so I don’t plateau. The most important thing I am concentrated on at the moment is tempo. I find a lot of gym users throw the weight up and down as quickly as possible so they can go heavy, okay weight is important , but ask anyone with a good understanding of the anatomy and they will say the negative phase is vital for building strength and muscle. Hence, most trainers will get you to follow a 3010 or 4010 tempo. 3/4 seconds lowering the weight to 1 second up. Just add this 1 little tip into your workouts and you’ll be amazed! Time under tension is crucial for muscular development so why do so many people neglect it?

Week 1 update!

What a week! Been getting up at 5am to get to work, so I’ve been pretty tired 😒 unfortunately I also didn’t get home Wednesday night till 9pm!! So been struggling to get to the gym this week! The long days have impacted my workouts as well, only managed 4 reps on dumbbell press instead of 8 😞 people of starting to comment on my size now which is encouraging, quick tip to anyone who wants a boost before the gym without using pre workout formulas, double espresso and coconut oil before you head down the gym really gets you going!!! I also am using reflex intra fusion BCAAs and reflex creapure during my workouts and reflex instant mass pro afterwards. Personally I find having BCAAs during a workout really helps especially when your giving it all you’ve got! I’v also downloaded the ultimate performance ebook for bulking, and would really recommend looking into it some great ideas from the best in the business!
The day I can start training legs properly again is fast approaching as I am now able to do full glute bridges and stiff leg deadlifts (got 8 reps of 100kg out on Tuesday woo!) the range of motion is coming back in my knee so I’m slowly getting deeper with my squats although I’m not ready to start adding weight.
All in all its been a challenging week but I’ve pulled through without any major issues, (except trying to write the bio for my entry form!) can’t wait to see what happens over the next few weeks regarding my rehab for the knee! Once I’m all good I’ll be following the plan in the ebook I mentioned earlier.

A new purpose

Recently I’ve had a bit of a knock to my training and lost all my strength and size following an operation to repair the meniscus in my left knee.
At first I was very disheartened by it and got very frustrated. Eventually I motivated myself to come back stronger, leaner and bigger then I have ever been!
I have decided to enter into a natural bodybuilding competition to keep me focused and more motivated then ever before!
I am now going to use this blog to track my progress!

This is me 3 weeks after being back to the gym. I’m still not able to train legs because of my knee but it should be too long!