Archive for September, 2010

The spiritual journey & music choice

Written by Josh on September 29th, 2010

Dieting and training for a bodybuilding competition can become a very spiritual-type of experience.  I think because a lot of the time you’re by yourself.  I’m up early in the morning walking by myself, I’m out late in the evenings walking by myself… and the diet aspect – while everyone else is enjoying their cupcakes – I’m sipping water, by myself. Cooking, eating, posing, reading, thinking.  Most of it’s time spent alone, with your own thoughts.

In a way, you have an out-of-body experience. You have to, because you have to be able to ignore the cravings, ignore the tiredness, ignore the soreness, make yourself wake up, make yourself be alert, force your body to keep losing fat, force your body to keep lifting heavy weights.

At the end of the day, what you’re doing all of this for is those few minutes on stage.  And 1 of those few minutes is your individual posing routine to music.  The question becomes, how do you sum up all of these feelings and thoughts you have while preparing for months and months into 60 seconds?  How do you pick a song that will show the crowd – this is what I’ve been through?  This was my journey and this is who I am, today.

I always spend a lot of time considering my music choices for my routine – but for this contest, I’ve been stuck.  I’ve been thinking about it for months – and my brother has been actively helping me search for a song.  It’s been a lot harder and taken a lot longer for me to settle on a song this time.  This journey has been a little bit different, so I’m looking for that perfect 60 second clip of music that will allow me to show a condensed version of my spiritual journey in the form of a posing routine.

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An honest thought

Written by Josh on September 24th, 2010

Right now I’m 3 weeks out and have come to realization that I cannot attain my goal. The goal being this picture I have in my head of how I should look. And it’s tough to take.

I have 22 days left of this contest prep and there’s just not a lot that can be done in 22 days. I can do my best and try my hardest… and I will, but 22 days is just not enough time to get to where I had pictured myself being.

I’ve kind of, somewhat, known that I wouldn’t get there all along – but you always hope that you will. But it’s all a learning experience. This won’t be my last contest – so everything up to this point, and everything after, will all be more experience and more knowledge that I’ll have for the next time.

And that’s what I’m excited for; that’s what I’m ready to start preparing for – next time. Because I have some high expectations for myself next time. And preparation for “next time” is going to start immediately after this contest is over.

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A theory I have

Written by Josh on September 18th, 2010

The human body has an incredible ability to adjust and adapt to pretty much anything you throw at it – it’s one reason why humans have survived ice ages, etc. We all know that if you continue to do the same exercises for the same reps at the same weight – you will stop getting stronger. Your body has adapted to those exercises and those weights and it has become efficient at getting that specific job done. So what should you do? Change up your exercises, change the number of reps, change the weights – keep your body guessing.

Why do we not think the same is true for losing fat as it is for gaining muscle? We so often hear that bodybuilders should eat on a schedule, every 2 hours, the same thing, at the same time, every day.

My theory is that your body is able to adapt to what you’re feeding it. After awhile, it knows it has another meal coming in 2 hours so it won’t shed as much body fat. It knows it will have some carbs coming in the morning and some carbs around workout time.

What I’ve started doing
I’ve started to mix up my diet a little more – especially timing of meals. For the most part I stick to my routine, eating about every 3 hours… but I’ll also throw in some times where I don’t eat for 6-8 hours at all. I’ll also throw in some times where I take in a substantial amount of calories in a short period of time – followed by a period of straight protein, for example.

I have no scientific fact to back up my theory – it’s just my theory. The body is too good at being able to adapt – keep it guessing.

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Tan – A fact of bodybuilding

Written by Josh on September 14th, 2010

I’d say probably one of the most frustrating things for me about a competition is tan.

Tanning Beds
I’m not big on tanning in a bed… I have a little bit of fear of using them actually. While I’m in the tanning bed I’m thinking – will I go blind? will I get skin cancer? The other thing I think about while I’m tanning is… what a waste of time – laying here to make my skin darker – how stupid.

For my first contest, I used the tanning bed a lot. For my second contest, I didn’t use the tanning bed at all.

Tanning Products
Another frustrating thing is that nobody agrees on what product(s) to use. Do you use the spray tan service provided at the contest? Some people only use Dream Tan. Some people hate Dream Tan and would never use it. Some people love Jan Tana – it provides the best color. Jan Tana turns some people’s skin green. Some people just use several coats of Pro Tan. Some people use a combination of Pro Tan and Dream Tan.

Shine
If you use Dream Tan you shouldn’t need another product for shine… but if you do, use Pam. Don’t use Pam on top of Dream Tan because it will run and become a mess – instead, mix baby oil into the Dream Tan before putting it on. This product makes you too shiny, this product doesn’t make you shiny enough. Don’t use butter flavored Pam. Don’t use Pam at all, instead use a product that was designed for making your muscles defined and shine.

No way to practice
The most frustrating thing is that you really can’t practice your tan. You can practice your posing, you can practice your routine, but you never really know how your tan is going to be the day of the competition. I don’t want to apply coats and coats of Pro Tan and a couple coats of Dream Tan at 5 weeks out because I’ll be looking like an idiot – especially at work. It’s bad enough looking that way on the day of the competition.

This year’s tan strategy
I’ve really been struggling to come to a decision on what tanning strategy to use this year. It’s pretty much a crap shoot, in my opinion. I have seen some pretty bad tans though – and you hate to see 29 weeks of hard training, dieting, and prep go to waste because your tan is crappy.

So, I’ve use the tanning bed sparingly this year – started about 8 weeks out and went once a week for a couple weeks – then bumped up to two times per week. The reason I’m using the tanning bed at all is because my initial strategy was going to be to get a good base tan, use 4-6 coats of Pro Tan and then use Muscle Sheen for posing oil. I just don’t know that I’ll be dark enough – and again – you hate to lose a couple placings because of tan. So today I ordered the Dream Tan #2. I’ve used it in the past 2 contests with fairly decent success.

So, I guess I won’t know, this year anyways, if Jan Tana would make me look great or if Pro Tan + Pam would make me look awesome.  But, hopefully I have decent color and shine come showtime.

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5 Weeks Out – Update

Written by Josh on September 12th, 2010

Just a quick update. I’m at 5 weeks out and feel that I’m right on track – but always in the back of my mind I feel a little behind. I feel I look good… but then I take a look at this post on Bodybuilding.com and realize I still have a long ways to go. I feel I’ll come in at my best ever – which is the main goal; but I don’t feel I’ll come in at the leanest I could ever be – a goal for another contest.

Diet
As far as the diet goes, I’ve been sticking with a keto-type diet. I have a slice of Ezekial bread with natural peanut butter on it in the morning and a couple scoops of natural peanut butter at lunch time – those are the only 2 times I eat carbs/fats – the rest of my food is pure protein (boiled chicken, tilapia, egg whites).

I do have a refeed / high carb day about once a week. It’s nice when it comes around, but it also feels counterproductive — when really I think it’s beneficial. This is what I look forward to all week…

Whole wheat pancake mix, egg whites, and oatmeal pancakes with natural peanut butter on top

Cardio
Cardio has been bumped up quite a bit. In a future contest I would hope not to do as much cardio – but for this contest, I want to push myself beyond where I’ve been at before. So I’m doing low-mid intensity cardio twice a day nearly every day. I’ll take a cardio session off if I’ve had an extra good workout, absolutely need a break, or am having a high carb day.

Going forward
I don’t see many changes to the routine going forward… just keep pushing myself. The main goal right now is to keep the intensity up at the gym – which is difficult sometimes.

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