Open Class 8
bro you have a better frame than everyone on stage and are carrying a lot more muscle. I don’t know too much about conditioning but no one elses condition blew me away. I am not quite sure how anyone beat you. smh
Bonus pics.
While on vacation, I headed to Muscle Beach and Gold’s Gym. I had the best intentions going out to LA to hit the gym and follow a relatively good diet. That went down the drain the first day I was there. I ate everything in sight (until it hurt), lol.
When I came back, I was up 26lbs. I nearly passed out. Of course most of it was water weight and bloat. After two days of eating clean again, I already was down 10lbs. lol
Where to from here?
Now after finishing my first year of competing, the only thing I can really think about is next year. I’m looking to add more muscle while staying leaner in the off-season. Now that I actually have a goal and purpose in the gym, I can push myself that much harder. The main feedback I got from the judges was to work on my conditioning. The only way I see to work on that is basically to not get fat (to put it bluntly).
Right now, I have a custom workout plan from CT and Indigo-3G in my arsenal. I’m hoping that these two things can really help now that I can increase carbs a bit and really push me past where I have ever been. I will keep an eye on the scale but use the mirror (and pictures) as my main point of judgement.
During this contest prep, I used FINiBARs, ANACONDA, and MAG-10 exclusively. I had plans on switching to less expensive supplements (due to financial reasons), but I’ve really seen great progress from these products. I know Stu credits a lot of his gains to Biotest products and I have always been a fan too. I’m hoping I can find a way to keep the peri-workout nutrition in my arsenal as well as possibly add some other staples (considering Receptormax). I’m sure in just year, I can make substantial changes for my next contest and be a force to reckon with.
I think that this thread has served its purpose of showing my experience with competing for the first time. I’ll continue tracking my off-season progress with Indigo-3G in my Indigo-3G log and am willing to answer any questions anyone may have.
[quote]thoughts1053 wrote:
[quote]waylanderxx wrote:
Geez, no one nailed their conditioning in that entire line up lol. You looked good though man, you definitely have good shape. Will look really good with some added mass and better conditioning.[/quote]
Hard to tell over the internet, but is that sarcasm or not? Lol. About the conditioning of the line up, not about me.
I’ll get Open Class pics up tomorrow. Off to the gym; gotta work hard towards my next show. I’m about 50 weeks out now :)[/quote]
Haha nah wasn’t being sarcastic, everyone is pretty soft. Guess I’m just used to NPC conditioning.
I am surprised your placing was not better though, you stand out pretty well in those pics. Odd.
[quote]thoughts1053 wrote:
Bonus pics.
While on vacation, I headed to Muscle Beach and Gold’s Gym. I had the best intentions going out to LA to hit the gym and follow a relatively good diet. That went down the drain the first day I was there. I ate everything in sight (until it hurt), lol.
When I came back, I was up 26lbs. I nearly passed out. Of course most of it was water weight and bloat. After two days of eating clean again, I already was down 10lbs. lol[/quote]
Sick photo and great work. You stood out. I imagine your training can be attributed to how balanced and symmetrical you look. Again, amazing stuff.
[quote]davidcox1 wrote:
[quote]thoughts1053 wrote:
So I’ve come back from vacation and finally had some time to get the pictures uploaded to my computer. I’ve got a bunch of pictures coming from each class so I’ll just post them through out the day. The picture above is me getting my 4th place award for the novice class (I placed 7th in Open). This was after a long day of posing and I was just ready to go home and eat 
I did get some feedback from the judges and their main comment was I needed to work on my conditioning (I already knew this). I dropped 50lbs to get to where I was on stage. Next year I won’t have to drop nearly as much.[/quote]
In this photo you show pro-quality shape and symmetry (and decent size)–you can go far in this sport if you choose to. Congratulations on an excellent first contest! [/quote]
Agreed with this, very aesthetic.
Thanks guys. I always was a bit stockier and luckily after training for a few months, I found T-Nation and quickly realized that I should be hitting legs hard. I have to really credit this site for the reason that I didn’t become an upper body only guy (as that was all my training partners worked out). I would actually go to a different gym on leg day as they would only do extensions and leg presses where I wanted to squat and deadlift. Now I have to play catch up with my upper body.
You looked great at your show, very balanced physique! I’d say your back is the only point that could use more work, other than that you obviously know what you’re doing so keep it up!
Well, there is no doubt that you belong up there. You have a fullness to you that isn’t seen on everyone. Good luck blowing up over the next year or so.
I would expect some major progress.
edit:
Also, yeah, MAG-10 and Anaconda are worth it. I would honestly have to change my entire way of doing things if I took that out now because it has made that much of a difference.
[quote]thoughts1053 wrote:
Thanks guys. I always was a bit stockier and luckily after training for a few months, I found T-Nation and quickly realized that I should be hitting legs hard. I have to really credit this site for the reason that I didn’t become an upper body only guy (as that was all my training partners worked out). I would actually go to a different gym on leg day as they would only do extensions and leg presses where I wanted to squat and deadlift. Now I have to play catch up with my upper body. :)[/quote]
That’s a good problem to have IMO as the majority have the other problem. In fact I wouldn’t even look at it as you need to play catch up, more like you just have ridiculous legs and to just keep getting everything bigger.
Got the professional photos yesterday. I’ll post a few up here. Also, I’ll be posting a lot more in my Indigo log. I’ll be keeping track of my nutrition and workouts there. I’ll also be posting “off-season” photos every 1 or 2 weeks so take a peek whenever you get a chance and leave feedback here.
