First off the titty/belly bling bling thing gives me the willies!
Now onto more important things. The best, number one piece of advice I can give you as a first timer is this; remember where the judges are! They are the only ones that matter and seem to have the worst seat in the house. When you hit your shots do it in a mirror that is below you and at the angle the judges will be viewing you from.
Too many guys hit a front double bi and although they have some good mass, you only see the bottom of their tri.s. You will see the same thing in a front lat; guys lean back way too much.
Get The Mighty Stu to show you what a bad shot looks like (the ones that no one would ever see) and then compare it to his pro style pics. It will show you how the same guy can look better or worse.
Some guys have what I call “The Pop”. Regardless of height or weight, they pose big. It will come in time. Truthfully at 26 and with what you have built, you are ready for your first show. Keep us posted.
Ok heres another at a little over 3 weeks out. A few days of OTC diuretics, cutting off water midday the day before and some oatmeal had me looking pretty dry when I woke up at 5am, too bad there was no light for me to do my video, and I since ate and drank some.
Got my trunks, (brazil cut) and getting a little more comfortable with the poses. I’ve discovered the faster you transition the less time you spend bumbling around looking awkward and if you kinda drop into it a litte it looks a bit tighter. Next time I’ll try to show some other moves, the ones I’ll piece into my routine. I’ve picked out a few moves but still debating between a few songs.
I don’t really feel as though I’ve gotten appreciably leaner during the past couple weeks, and I’m not sure why my calorie count hasnt changed all that much and I’ve actually increased cardio frequency and duration. I’m about to cut down to minimal fats again as thats how I began my diet and seemed to have the most success with shedding weight, and although its about to late to get too much more cut, I feel like if I can dry out ok, tan up well (just got my protan in) and oil up right I’ll do ok.
Hoooly shit. Just painted myself with a test run of pro tan for the first time ever. Was worried about my conditioning; but without even attempting to carb load or cut water, I looked fucking SHREDDED. Id post a picture but its late and I look like I rolled around in pig shit but god damn, I really thought that the cut up look bodybuilders have on stage is a result of Lasix or some other hardcore diuretic but the skin color has as much to do with it if not more, I wish I was a black guy so I could look like this always. I’m feeling real confident about placing not just in the novice but maybe even the open too, but even if I don’t I’ve learned a lot doing this prep, even though its about the most miserable and grueling experience of my life.
Just thought I’d share, and would recommend to anyone interested to try and compete, you will learn a whole lot about this game and what you can look like if you go through the process. Good times.
Well guys this is how it turned out: definitely was outmatched in the open but managed to top 5 in the novice out of like 15 dudes, which was great because I got to go back out during the evening show and do my routine. Which by the way got some compliments as everyone elses was boring, and I was doing some 1980s bob paris type stuff, too bad I went blank right at the end, and forgot my next move in a very obvious way, I think it might cost me the points that woulda put me with a medal instead of in 4th place. Oh well, live and learn. I’m excited as now I know what areas I need to focus on and what to expect for my next one. Some of the take bigger take home points I made were:
There is no need to stress over reaching 3% bf at this level, I was one of the leaner and more vascular dudes there surprisingly, even in the open.
If you don’t need to diet for 4 months, don’t. I know I looked better at the end of Jan than mid March; I didn’t start fat enough to warrant such a long and painful cut. Along with working 45 hrs a week it was overly stressful, mentally and physically and didn’t accomplish much. A shorter and more strict diet woulda been much better and easier on me, coulda adhered to it better and snacked much less. I simply assumed the prep had to be long and painful.
Know how much you can carb up. I walked on at 167 on sat and by the end of sunday after taking care of all my cravings I was up to 182 feeling so tight like I was going to burst. Granted some of that was intestinal food volume, but that still leaves several lbs of water and sugar I coulda been totin with me up there. I thought I carbed up sufficiently over 1 night and 1 full day, but if you are really carb tolerant eating ricecakes all day may not be enough. Also, and correct me if I’m wrong I believe you would have to consume X amount of calories above what you are burning for the day to really store it up, which means if you are burning 2400 and want to store 400 grams of carbs up, that means eating nearly 4k cals that day or you arent going anywhere. This seems to make sense to me but everywhere its spoken to be modest and keep the calorie intake the same as its been. Not for me. I truly forgot what it felt like to be full and strong til after pigging out.
Anyway here are some of my stage pics, which I’m glad I got, I don’t think they take em if you don’t do your routine.
Bro, I am so freakin happy for you! You hung in there and pulled a 4th in novice. You really knocked it out of the park. But the best part of it all was how you explained what you did in that last post. That’s how you learn; by doing.
Your shape was nice and those quads looked great. The size will come with some more training and then you will feel more at home in the open.
Congratulations man on a very successful first contest outing! You looked great, I hope you enjoyed the experience. Think you’ll compete again in the future?
Once you do one you kinda have to go again, there is so much id rather do different and several things I really want to work on first.
Another thing that is great about getting up there is that when its all done, you have a set goal to accomplish with your training; that is, you want to improve area X,Y,Z.
My training is definitely going to shift toward more of a BB style whereas before it was simply alot of crippling volume and bone crunching weight. Was fun, but limiting in terms of how well you can recover and grow from it.
Well done! You did great your first show. You also learned a lot. I agree with you on your 3rd point, my 2 shows last year I did not take in near enough carbs and food and was fairly flat in both shows. Seems like I would have learned the first show but didn’t.
You will get better every show as you put more muscle on and you learn about your body. Well done! Wish I would have known what you know at your age.
