Tanning???
Hasn’t the tanning technology made any strides since the '90’s? A large number of contestants had very lacking body tone, splotchy, etc.
Has there been an in-depth discussion on T-Nation Forum concerning the science around tanning stage prep?
That is a very interesting observation as 199.5 lbs ended up being the lightest I was able to achieve on this prep. One week out I weighed myself at 200.5 and at weigh in I was 209. Things to note: I believe my home scale weighs a couple lbs light; I weigh naked at home, but was wearing clothes at weigh in. Show weigh in was at night vs I typically weigh in myself first thing in the morning. I should’ve brought my scale with me to the hotel, but I didn’t: lesson learned.
Regarding strength: I lost nothing. My lifts the week after were about the same as 2 weeks out. The last week out I lightened the loads purposefully as I didn’t want to risk injury.
Regarding tanning: that’s out of my scope. The tanning company the show used was NWCC Tan. The ladies tanning me up were very nice which was good as being completely naked while someone sprays you with what looks like an industrial paint sprayer is very awkward.
I followed the company’s recommended tanning prep and the lady said my skin took the tan well. I believe much of my tanning irregularities were due to a yeast/fungal skin infection that really flares up when I start eating a lot of carbs (of which I ate too many going into the show); I’m currently treating it topically and hoping it will be better by the next show.
Also, the lighting in the gym is different than the lighting on stage. 
I’ve been in and out of the gym for about 22 years. I first started training to play lacrosse and realized I liked lifting more than I liked playing the game. So I talked to my high school and they let me use the time I spent at the gym for my PE credit.
Kept lifting through college and while I followed bodybuilding (this was during the Ronnie Coleman era) I picked up powerlifting as, at the time, there was no Classic Physique and I had no interest in being over 300 lbs.
Funny enough at the peak of my powerlifting I was, in fact, 300 lbs. But it sucked so much: walking was laborious, I couldn’t wear jeans because my thighs were too big and I struggled to put on my socks and shoes. Also, my bench always sucked and really screwed up my totals. After some joint issues I decided to quit and downsize. Add in a divorce and the motivation to get back in the dating pool I got down to 185 lbs.
In 2011 I decided to start competing in street luge racing, a sport I had dabbled with since 1999. For the next 7 years my training would be seasonal: race/practice for half a year, gym for half a year. While I achieved a lot in the sport including 3 world series championships and a Guinness World Record, the inconsistent exercise wrecked havoc on my body and conditioning: I got fat.
In January 2018 I decided it was time for a change. While I was still racing, although a lot less seriously, I decided I needed to get into shape. So I started going to the gym every day, no matter what. It reignited my interest in bodybuilding and I soon discovered Classic Physique. “I can only be 230 lbs? Hell yeah.” I, like everyone else, preferred the physiques of the 70’s anyways and it seemed perfect. I set my sights on competing in 2020 and figured that was enough time, but the pandemic hit and moved my debut to 2021.
I’ve done a lot of different training styles: 4 days on, 3 days off; high volume; high intensity; etc.
What works for me now is training every day, unless there’s something real that prevents it like a trip, or unavoidable responsibility. I like a 6 day split: Back; Chest; Glutes/Hams; Shoulders; Arms; Calves/Quads. I keep my lifts basic and purposeful and keep the intensity very high and the volume fairly low, similar to what Dorian Yates preaches. I like doing a single working set to failure, then several drop sets. I also focus on the contraction more than lifting the weight.
That was probably more than you wanted to know, but I wrote it and don’t want to delete it. 
It was never my plan to start tanning the morning of the show.
I tanned with sun and/or tanning beds for 8 weeks prior to the show. If hairy you would need to keep it short enough to not block the sun. I shaved my body on the weekend before. (Shaving can irate the skin causing it to hold fluid fighting the irritation)
On Thursday I would apply a tanning agent that works similar to Sudden Tan, if I didn’t get enough natural tanning. The morning of the show I would use a product like Pro Tan (It was fairly popular in the '80’s and '90’s)
I know absolutely nothing about what is used today. And I lived in Florida where the sun is plentiful, so natural sun might be a challenger for you.
Another thing you can do is lie in a salt bath for a short time the morning of the show. The hypertonic water will draw water out of your skin. Your body is isotonic and bath water is hypotonic. In a hypotonic solution your body will draw water into it.
Thanks a lot.
No, actually I am glad you describe your lifting journey so detailed. I like to hear people experiences.
Do you think your biggest muscle gains came in your early lifting days, or later as a powerlifter who eats a lot 
or actually later when you switched your focus to bodybuilding lifting style (although i mid 30s)?
And also, basicly how many sets per bodypart you do nowadays? Considering you lift to failure or beyond failure…
And what about periodization/deloads?
Ok, one more question , were your calves naturaly small/big and generaly gains/calves question. How do you train(trained) them and what worked for you(or not)?
Thanks a lot again 
I wonder about judges’ fatigue.
I was just wondering how many competitors were judged and how many groups were judged, so I counted the groups and the competitors from the link you provided.
How long was pre-judging?
How many judges were there to spread out the responsibility?
Did the makeup of the judging panel change between groups?
Did you happen to be judged by different judges?
Bodybuilding and classic physique were done in the morning as the first “block”. It started at 8:00 and was done around 10:30. Bodybuilding was finished before CP; so CP probably started around 9:15.
I don’t know how many judges there were total. I believe the same judges who did bodybuilding also did CP.
I don’t know if they changed judges for other categories.
I was bigger during my power lifting days, but also stronger and fatter, a lot fatter.
My working set break down is basically:
Back - 4
Chest - 3
Shoulders - 4
Arms - 4 (2 for biceps, 2 for triceps)
Quads - 2
Calves - 2
Glutes - 2
Hamstrings - 2
Things to remember: I often do 3 - 4 drop sets after each working set. I also do 2 - 3 warm up sets that are as, if not more, intense than most gym goers working sets.
I didn’t always train like this, but this has been what works for me lately.
I never deload.
My calves are smaller than my arms, whether they’re relatively small or large I cannot speak to. At last measure (Saturdays) they were 16.25" on the right and 16" on the left. They seem to grow proportionally with the rest of me. I always train calves first before quads so I am the most fresh and can push them hard. I feel like exhausted quads affects calf training intensity, but exhausted calves don’t affect quad training intensity.
Sorry, I am not sure if I got this right…
You do 2 warm up sets(pretty intensive), then working sets to failure(2 or3 or4 depending on the muscle group) , and then also 3 or 4 drop sets?
Correct?
No. You asked how many sets per bodypart. Per exercise there is one working set with usually several drops.
Veteq, I have one more question about the judging of Men’s Classic Physique Class B.
I have head judged a few shows, so I speak with some experience.
There were 13 contestants.
How many call outs were made for posing comparisons? I got the impression you indicated only two. From the contest pics you posted, one of the call outs was for those that finished 8th through 12th. I’d have added 13th to your group, if for no other reason than to assure him he was being fairly judged (It served no pragmatic purpose, because he was clearly 13th.) Also, did the entire group stay on stage (maybe to either side) so the judges could see all 13 contestants. This gives an opportunity to interchange contestants for comparisons.
If two were the number of call outs 1st through 7th were in the other call out. These grouping decisions are usually made by the head judge, and he doesn’t necessarily ask for any input from the panel of judges. The head judge highly influences how the panel ranks the contestants by who is in the group and where he positions the contestants within the group.
I would like to see the judging sheet. Did 6th or 7th get any 8th or 9th votes, and visa versa?
I really appreciate your insight, comments and candor.
There were two call outs.
The stage was too small to keep all contestants on stage. If I remember correctly during the first confirmation round all contestants were kept on stage, but for the call outs they were not. I’d have to refer back to the live stream video. I might have to share my live stream log in information privately with you so you can watch.
I currently don’t have access to the judging sheet as it hasn’t yet been posted publicly. If I ever get a response from the judges on my request for improvement I will ask them.
Addendum: I was looking at the pictures from Bodybuilding and now realize how bad the lighting must have been. In person back stage Stuart Sutherland (the overall winner) looked phenomenal and was huge and shredded. On stage he looks soft and and small. I even took a check in video for him before tanning and he looked significantly more impressive.
Dude I think no matter what happened at the show you look great, certainly miles away from “do you even lift?” Which is what most of us are going for. You are muscular and lean as fuck.
It might not have been what won the day of the show, but for what most of us are trying to achieve I think you’re probably winning on a daily basis. Most guys who train for 20 years don’t like as good as you.
I did one show myself and placed right in the middle of the pack… the show experience sucked though and I decided not to do another one as well. I lift for me and my goals, not to go to a school gymnasium, spend $500, get tanned by strangers with spray guns, make sure other people think I’m best
Thank you very much.
I have a pretty competitive personality and find that it tends to make me focus and push myself to being better at whatever I try. I’ve been competitive in all my sports and many of my hobbies whether it’s lacrosse, fencing, street luge or RC car racing. I’m already confident I’ll compete in Classic Physique or bodybuilding again… it’s just in my nature.
Yeah, among the few things to keep in mind, is the fact that the entire sport is about illusions. Something I figured out during my years competing was that with slight tweaks of posing, or any way that I could appear better than I was, or even better than other individuals on stage with similar caliber physics.
I understand what’s being said about the number of judging rounds, and the head judge having some influence, but aside from the issues of so many competitors that they were filing them on and off the stage, I have never known a qualified judge, at a decent caliber show, to go against their own inclinations just because the head judge put a certain competitor in the middle.
Likewise, if The head judge is doing his job, everyone should have a good idea what’s going on after the quarter turns. I had my first instruction on posing from Rich Gaspari himself a hell of a long time ago, and he told me that after the quarter turns, any competent judge knew who the top six were going to be, and if they didn’t, they had no business sitting at that table.
S
Update: I finally got a response from a couple judges.
My feedback:
- Nice arms and overall structure
- Conditioning was good but needed to be tighter, especially in your core
- More lats and delts will improve your shape and balance
I agree on the conditioning. I think I tried too hard with the carb up and ended up “spilling over”. I’m going to take a much more conservative approach next time.
Good muscularity of the back and biceps.
Keep working on building the chest and legs. Bring up the conditioning and you will be more competitive.
Again: conditioning.
I definitely also agree that my chest and shoulders are a weak point and have added an auxiliary chest and shoulder day to add more weekly volume to help bring them up.
A little disappointed to hear about my back and legs needing work as I thought they were my strong points.
So, Vancouver Open was 13 weeks before my originally planned first show: the Oregon Open.
On that first week after the show I basically pigged out and ballooned up to like 230 lbs; mostly water of course. Lots of carbs and back to my regular cruise dose.
12 weeks out I started back on the plan at 3000 calories/ day, which should put me at a 500 - 750 calorie deficit if my historical data in to be believed. I can “comfortably” go down to 2500, which is about as low as I want to go. This last prep I went all the way down to 2000 for a while and it was unsustainable; or also made my job extremely dangerous as I had zero energy and couldn’t focus on anything but food.
FWIW I log almost everything: workouts daily, diet daily, body weight weekly, measurements weekly. It certainly helps with formulating a plan for a desired outcome. I just wish I had a more accurate way to measure bodyfat regularly and inexpensively.
Here are some screen grabs from today’s posing practice after a back workout. The lighting was sub-par. Currently at 211.5 lbs, so I have more water to lose because I hope I didn’t gain that much fat in a week.
You have a very good physique, competition can bring out the best in us. I would just say don’t wrap up your identity and self esteem based on what the judges say on the day, you know?
The competition I did, aside from how I placed, just wasn’t a fun experience (maybe it would be if I won?? Probably more so) so I decided not to pursue it any more but I don’t train any less.
You have lots of pursuits though, some people only have BB
You look amazing, so don’t take what I say badly, because bodybuilding is about minutia and min-maxing.I read everything and here’s what I think:
• Indeed conditioning. I mean you are ripped but certainly not stage-ripped (I can’t wrap my head around the other competitor pic you posted lol)
• Shoulders look a bit “slopey”, you should begin your workout with rear-delt work
• Back is indeed great but you could work on your width, you have high insertions and are tall like I am… So you have to work extra on back and legs even though they are good parts…
• And a bit more chest indeed…
I feel you mate, granted we are tall, but I can’t fathom grown men going under 2000 cals unless they are like so inactive
Thank you for your insight. I think my shoulder shape is highly genetic, but I’ll put more focus on rear delts, maybe add a little extra work on back day.
Chest, back, delts and legs… it just sounds like I need to get bigger all around . Well that’s the plan for this fall/winter; maybe I’ll skip competing in 2022 to give me more time to max out my weight cap (230 lbs). I was also thinking of trying to come in at 225 and competing in heavy weight bodybuilding.
Don’t we all? 
I’m not a judge by any means… But your legs and calves seems really good for your height!
