Posts Tagged ‘update’

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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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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Update

Written by Zack on August 8th, 2010

Well I haven’t posted for quite some time, really nothing interesting about rehab, but now I’m transitioning from rehab to regular working out.    I am currently 18 weeks post surgery and everything seems to be coming along well.  Josh and I took some time off the last 2 weeks in July and we have come back full force.  My arm isn’t bothering me on anything except bicep curls, and I’m also cautious with back exercises, I would put myself at about 75-80%.  One thing that got me excited was a 315×6 bench this week.  After hitting that I’ve decided that I should be able to do the Omaha Open in November in some capacity.

On a slightly dumber note -

Josh is 10 weeks out from his bodybuilding show and I can tell it’s wearing on him.  He so close and yet so far away and he would give anything for it to be over with so he could get back to normal.  So in support of him I’ve started growing my beard (It makes no sense, does it?)  I told him that I would go with out trimming or shaving the beard for the remaining 10 weeks.  That way I can be as miserable as him? I’m not sure?

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10 Weeks Out

Written by Josh on August 6th, 2010

It’s been a little over a month since I posted last, so I will summarize how July went.  I went on vacation to Denver where I cheated on my diet to my heart’s content.  I ate anything I wanted, but stuck to drinking diet soda.  Surprisingly, I only gained about 5 pounds which I quickly lost once I got back home and back on the diet.  In total, Zack and I took two full weeks off at the gym.  We’ve been hitting it hard the last 2 weeks at the gym.

A few pictures from around 11 weeks out




Cardio & Abs

I’ve also started ramping up the cardio and abs. Right now for cardio I walk for half hour in the morning, climb 10 flights of stairs mid-morning, 10 flights of stairs mid-afternoon, and 2 minutes of super high intensity cardio right after our workout.

For abs, we’ve just been mixing it up – inclined abs, hanging leg raises, and various other abs machines. We’ve been hitting abs every workout.

Diet Tweaking
I’ve stuck to the diet I posted in my last post all through July (except for the vacation). Today is the first day that I’m changing my diet – and it’s not a big change. But I’ve been eating 4-5 oz of chicken at 9, 12, 3, and 5. I’m changing that to eating 3-4 oz of chicken at 8, 10, 12, 2, and 4. I’m trying to keep my metabolism up during the day.

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Changes

Written by Josh on June 22nd, 2010

On my last post, I posted random thoughts that were filling my head and stated that it’s hard to ignore them. Well, sometimes you shouldn’t.

Bluffs Classic
Over this past weekend, I did a lot of thinking. I was 10 weeks out from the Bluffs Classic. I really didn’t think I was going to be where I wanted to be to compete in the Bluffs Classic. It was somewhat of a difficult decision to make, because I’ve been working towards competing for this specific contest for 12 weeks already. You always want to better than you’ve done previously – and I just didn’t think I was going to.

Cardio
I haven’t been doing any cardio. I could probably compete in the Bluffs Classic if I really gave it my all… what I mean by that is early morning cardio, late evenings at the gym doing cardio, etc. I’ve done that on my previous diets… and I felt like I was killing myself too. I don’t want to do that during this diet… I’ve been getting lean, slow and steady – and I’ve felt great.

Goals for this diet

  • Better than I was last time
  • Maintain a regular family lifestyle (as close as possible)

Best of the Midwest
So, I’ve changed the contest I’m doing from the Bluffs Classic on August 30 to the Best of the Midwest in Cedar Rapids, IA on October 16. By doing so, I get an extra 7 weeks of diet time – this will allow me to really narrow down and be where I want to be for the contest.

Vacation
As part of the change of contest, I’m allowing myself to go on vacation with my family for a couple of days, and cheat on my diet. Although I really don’t consider it cheating because I’m planning it and doing more for the benefit of the diet than for any other reason. I’ll be dieting for 29 weeks total… I think my body could use a few days reprieve.

I think this change will be good… it’ll really give me the chance to diet down and be the leanest I’ve ever been and I won’t have to kill myself to do it. This will be my third contest – the first one, I did just to see if I could do one, the second – was my first one with my family and everything – now this one, I want to do well in the contest. I wasn’t really planning on doing a bodybuilding contest this year, but here I find myself dieting for one, so since I’m going to put in the work – I might as well make it worth it and give it my best shot.

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