Someone has to come in last right?
I think the difference is that at 38 years old I no longer have the energy, time or drive to do something that doesn’t fill me with happiness. I have no illusions of turning this into a career; at the most it’s an obsessive hobby.
Maybe. It’s just over 12 weeks away. I’ve been wallowing in frustration and self pity since Saturday and having given much care to my diet. But you can only gain so much fat in a week, right. I’m planning on regrouping and restarting a cut on Sunday. But this weekend I’m celebrating my 38th birthday; so I’m going to enjoy all the cake, ice cream and BBQ I want.
The cut at this point is mostly to keep my abs for the summer. We’ll see how it goes for contest prep; but I don’t want to put myself in as much stress as I did for this show.
So… maybe.
Dude, you put it all out there and stepped up on stage. That’s commendable. Good job. If you don’t ever wanna do it again, great. If you wanna go for it again, I bet you’ll do better than last time.
Its a subjective sport at the end of the day, so comparing yourself to others, while the entire point of a bodybuilding show, will probably not be a productive pursuit for you personally.
Look at yourself, you’ve already identified that you weren’t lean enough, that your tan was off and that you didn’t get your peak right. So ignoring all other factors outside of your control, there are 3 things that you can, over the next 12 weeks, work on to bring a significantly improved physique to the stage all of which are entirely in your control.
Which is ultimately to say there is no value in second guessing what the judges were thinking and the most productive route forward is to be better. ‘Be so good that they can’t ignore you’ to paraphrase a common cliche.
That said, I certainly wouldn’t put you last in that lineup however I have little (no) experience in the area
Can you remember how the placing went? If you can, pick one of the pics, by time stamp, and starting at the left, state their final placing. I can’t read the numbers. I was a NPC National Judge many years ago and I’ll critique as best I can from the pics. Though nothing compares to being there at the time for an accurate assessment.
My first contest. the 1970 Mr All South, out of the 16 contestants I came in dead last. They posted the results for all to see on a wall. In 1971 I returned to compete again at the Mr All South. I had talked a friend into competing that year. It was a good thing I did. He came in dead last and I was next to last.
It went like that in multiple contests until 1974, when I came in 4th at the Winston-Salem Open. I finally figured it out in 1977 and began a good run the next 20 years, winning 70+ trophies.
If the July show is run by a different group of promoters, I would highly recommend you give it another try. There could be much better lighting, more competent judges, etc.
If you’re going to be honest with yourself, also be honest about the good parts. You did a lot right too. 
I submitted a request for feedback from the judges using the form on the event’s website.
I figured I’d share a few of my favorite pictures from the official photographer.
If you’re interested inseeing the full results they’ve been posted on NPC News Online:
http://contests.npcnewsonline.com/contests/2021/npc_vancouver_open_championships/
Lookin good dude! Let us know what they say back!
I would have you as number 1 or 2 out of that group (the guy second to the right looks pretty good too, more size, but his conditioning is not great). I don’t see any major weaknesses with your look. A few of these guys had major issues. A couple of them are lacking a lot in the legs. One of them has very short biceps. Worst of all, the bearded guy is sporting a gut.
I agree, I’m not well versed enough to notice much, but from my untrained eye it looks like all OP lacked was maybe a couple more weeks worth of deficit.
I agree in general that OP’s conditioning was a bit off, but it was at least middle of the pack in this line up (with a few that were clearly worse).
I mean shit, I am a fat powerlifter, and I think I look at least as good as this guy from behind? Maybe I am just delusional?
That is clearly a gut that is visible from behind, and not really at much of an angle. Nlt great arm development, or really any taper from the lats. OP destroys this IMO (I think it is as close to objective as bodybuilding can get).
Not doing as well as you hoped in a contest is always a bitter pill to swallow. I figure you can always do one of two things, either come away feeling it was a negative experience, or use it as motivation to improve.
I know that’s easy for me to say, I hung up my trunks years ago, but even in the shows where I really felt I got screwed over, I always let that anger and frustration turn into intensity, and I would hit the gym vowing to be so good, that there’s no way I couldn’t win my next contest.
Your pics show that you did a pretty good job, but at the end of the day, you can’t control who else shows up, and you can’t control or change the judging criteria. At most shows that I judge, the different federations usually have a symmetry round, which sometimes can give benefit to those with genetic structural advantages, despite poorer conditioning. You also have to remember, that there are several different mandatory poses, that gets scored as well. When Dorian Yatea tore his bicep, I saw one of the head IFBB judges explain that year’s Olympia score sheet in an article. The rationalization, and it made sense, was that even if Dorian lost every pose where his torn bicep was a visible flaw, he still clearly won the others, which constituted a simple mathematical majority for that scoring round.
Imo better posing and conditioning can overcome a lot of competitors with naturally “better” structures.
S
What division are your pics with 5 of you on stage, with you on the far left, that you posted?
I’m trying to match names to the pics of you five together.
This reminds me of my initial experience in Strongman.
My first show was in 2014. I competed in the lowest weight class, at 175 lbs. And I had to do a near 15 lbs water cut just to make that weight. And I was lean, lol. I came in dead last in the show, and one of the guys who beat me legit didn’t even look like he lifted weights. I took last in 4 of the 5 events, and zero’d the deadlift event, which was the one event I thought I had ‘in the bag’. It was a tough, and quite humbling experience. I firmly believed that strongman was not for me, and I never intended to do another show.
I spent the next 2 years in the gym training, and eventually signed up for a second show, where I competed in the next weight class up (200 lbs). I believe I took 7th out of 11 people (something like that). That was enough to give me a glimmer of hope. Anything was better than last place. The next year, 2017, I won my first show, and won a few more shortly after. Then in 2018, I took 7th at Nationals, back in the lower weight class, and then 4th at a World championship.
The point being: don’t let your first show define what you can or can’t do in the sport. I could have ended my strongman career with that first loss, and moved on to something else. I could have been happy to just say ‘hey, I gave it a shot!’. I’m glad I didn’t.
Classic Physique Open Division Class B.
From the first comparison picture I posted left to right:
Frank Williams (myself)
Ian Bray
Keith Lane
David Gilyot
Richard Gonzalez
I suppose you could call this the 2nd call out, even though they really didn’t do call outs like they traditionally would.
How many callouts were used to judge Class B?
Was the first callout group those that placed 1st thru 7th?
And was Braeden Zurfluh called back at all?
Noticed: Did everyone wear a bracelet? What was its function?
Once the head judge had Keith Lane and Richard Gonzalez exchange places, that is usually a “tip off” of how he saw that group’s relative placing, i.e.,
8th: Gonzalez
9th and 10th: Bray and Gilyot
11th and 12th: Williams and Lane
BTW, How many judges were there, and did the same judges judge all the groups?
IMO, the top 3 in Class B are clearly better than the rest of the field, with Knight much better of the three.
4th thru 7th are fairly comparable, and stand out above 8th thru 13th.
Like Frank says, 13th place is out of place on stage with the rest of the field.
Frank,
This is not related directly to your show, but I am interested what is your training history and how do you train now.
We are approximately same age and almost identical height and (I gueas) body type, and while I am not so muscular, you are still the one I can relate to.
Thanks 
From pics alone this guy has a much better physique than the one that took to the stage two weeks later. Much fuller muscle bellies.
How much weight did you lose in those two weeks?
About how much strength did you lose? Did you have an exercise that you use as a primary strength gauge, example: bench press, etc? IMO, you need one. If your strength starts to drop significantly, you are losing valuable muscle. Also, anxiety can pull fluid from your muscles and put it under your skin. Nothing worse can happen to a bodybuilder.
