Team Best

Best of the Midwest Photos & Video

Written by Josh on October 18th, 2010

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Tags: best of the midwest, bodybuilding, photo, routine, video

Offseason Diet – October 2010

Written by Josh on October 18th, 2010

Here is my offseason diet that I started today. I’ll keep an eye on my weight and make sure it’s not going too far too fast in one direction or the other and make adjustments if necessary.

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Tags: bodybuilding, diet, food, offseason

Last Place: Best of the Midwest thoughts

Written by Josh on October 17th, 2010

I think I’m being honest here when I say I would probably have the same feelings right now that I would if I would’ve received 1st place. The thing is – you do this sport for you and yourself and that’s it. So by the time I had arrived at the contest, I’d already judged myself.

I know I’m not at my full potential – I have a lot to work on, and a lot to improve on. If you ask me, that’s a good thing. If I had come in thinking I was at the best I could be and then received last place – I might have different feelings.

So the feelings I have right now are relieved and hungry. I won’t be doing another bodybuilding show for a long time. I’d like to not do one again until I’m 30 – 4 years away. I’d like to really take some time and build my body; and I’m excited to do that. I’m ready to hit the gym as hard as I can, get my diet right, stay lean, and see what I can really accomplish.

The next time I hit the stage I want to be at my best. The next time I hit the stage I want my body to look different, I want to be big, I want to be lean. I want to be a champion. The next time I hit the stage I want there to be no question about who gets 1st place. I want there to be no doubt in anybody’s mind.

I’m tired of getting last place. I’m sick and tired of it… and it’s either now or never that I do this right. It’s all or nothing at this point — and I’m going for it.

So I’m putting yesterday behind me. It was the last contest of my beginner phase; and my new journey begins today.

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Tags: best of the midwest, bodybuilding, motivation, results, thoughts

Peak Week (and a half) Documentation

Written by Josh on October 13th, 2010

Just jotting down a few notes about what I did during the last 11 days of this prep.

11 Days Out – Tuesday

• Weight: 151.6
• Worked out: shoulders and forearm
• Started refeeding after working out
  • Ezekial bread, natural peanut butter, 2 whole eggs

10 Days Out – Wednesday

• Weight: ~154
• Worked out: none
• Still refeeding until about noon
  • Oatmeal, ezekial bread, and natural peanut
  • Thought this was going to be my last refeed until 3 days out

9 Days Out – Thursday

• Worked out: arms by myself (not very good)
• Walking the dog at night

8 Days Out – Friday

• Tough day to make it through… no workout
  • Still not final on my posing routine
  • Still didn’t look that great (in my mind)
  • Just ready to be done

7 Days Out – Saturday

• Weighed in at 150.2 – lowest
• Lifted legs… nothing major, stuck with 2 plates
• Realized I wasn’t going to make it without another refeed -refed through the evening into the next morning

6 Days Out – Sunday

• Took the dog for a quick walk
• Finished refeed – ezekial bread, oatmeal, and peanut butter
• Lifted chest and back
• Posed and took pictures
• I really started to make the turn at this point
  • I was looking better
  • I was feeling better
  • I was excited to compete
  • I finished my routine
  • This was the first time in a long time that I had started to be excited

5 Days Out – Monday

• Perfecting the routine
• Worked on posing

4 Days Out – Tuesday

• Short, morning walk
• Felt solid most of the day
  • Had to take doughnuts to work today… but wasn’t even craving them
• Worked total arm – shoulder, bi, tri, forearm
  • last real workout
• First coat of protan
• More posing practice

3 Days Out – Wednesday

• Was very hopeful to break 150 today, but weighed in at 150.2
• Showered the excess protan off
• Started refeeding – same oatmeal, ezekial bread, and pb
  • Wasn’t very hungry though – I wouldn’t say I had to force myself, but still not as hungry as I usually am
• Applied second coat of protan

2 Days Out – Thursday

• Weight was 153.2
• No more soda, about 30 g’s of carbs at 8:00pm
• Applied 2 coats of protan
• Ran through posing routine

1 Day Out – Friday

• Took the day off work
• Woke up around 4:15am, ate some egg whites and 1/2 cup oatmeal around 5:30am
• Weight was at 151.4
• Showered off last night’s protan
• Went to the gym – just a light full body run through
• Ate 1 slice of ezekial toast and some egg whites
• Was on the road to Cedar Rapids around 10:15am

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Tags: best of the midwest, bodybuilding, documentation, peak week, tan

10 Days Out: I’m ready to be done

Written by Josh on October 6th, 2010

I don’t want to read any more about bodybuilding. I don’t want to see any more pictures of bodybuilders. I don’t want to listen to anymore bodybuilding podcasts.

I want to be done (with this contest prep, anyway).

I’m ready to move on… and I’ve been ready for a long time now. I’ve known for several months that this will be the last contest that I compete as a beginner. And that’s what’s really been on my mind… after the contest.

So here are a few things I should read before doing my next contest.

Plan
I think the #1 thing I should do next time is map everything out. I really have never mapped anything out besides my diet – which I seem to change on a whim. I don’t want to do that next time. However, I do want to listen to my body, and if something isn’t working right change it… but not nearly as frequently as I did this time around.

Getting lean
I figure there are 2 options for the next diet to improve on how lean I get – either a) diet longer or b) start at a lower bodyfat. Those 2 options will also have to be combined with the nutrition knowledge I’ve learned over the course of this diet. One thing is, I will not do a keto (drop to 0 carbs) hopefully at all, but at least not right away – which is what I did during this contest prep.

Those are the 2 biggest things that will help me when it comes time for contest prep. I did do quite a bit of cardio this time around – but nothing was high intensity… I like doing low intensity cardio – so I don’t think I would change much about that. Next time I would maybe start cardio a little later than I did and try to do the least amount possible. I would rather keep cardio as a tool in my toolbelt and only get it out when it’s needed.

Getting big
This is where I’m having my internal war right now. I’ve always tried to gain as much weight as I can and become as strong as I can after my contests – but I’ve been wanting to take a different approach this time. If I stay leaner, it would help me in 2 ways – 1) getting lean would be easier and 2) I would be able to see if I’m making any gains during the offseason. On the other hand, gaining a bunch of weight would allow me to 1) get stronger and 2) not worry about what I’m eating (doughnuts, brownies, cakes).

I don’t think I can do it halfway – the main reason is because I don’t want to be stuck in the nothing phase. So I either want to stay very lean or get very fat. Maybe I’m too extreme.

One of those options definitely sounds more fun to me and also since I really don’t want to do another bodybuilding contest for several years it might be a good option. But, the one thing I have to keep in mind is that it might be possible to stay lean but also not feel terrible (like I’m dieting for contest prep). If I don’t feel terrible and starving all the time – it might be a good possibility. That’s just one thing I’ll have to see how it goes since I’ve never done it before. The other thing I keep pointing out to myself is that just because I stay lean does not mean I have to stay small! I hate being small and the whole idea of bodybuilding is to build your body.

That’s what I really want to keep my focus on – building my body – the best way I can.

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Tags: best of the midwest, bodybuilding, diet, food, future, thoughts, update