I’ll toss in a few comments. These are my opinion, for what it’s worth.
First and foremost: Keep plugging away. You are doing a lot of things right.
Symmetry strategy: Put on more muscle everywhere.
Your weakest body part: Chest. It seems as though you lack stark separation between your lower pecs and your torso below. I would try more volume first.
Posing: Your legs don’t seem to show as much separation in your latest pics as they did in your first pics. Were you near the same weight? When I posed the first thing I did was flex my legs and then everything else. Flex your legs and abs every day in front of a mirror.
Skin tone: Get as much natural sun as you can.
Anxiety: I would suggest competing every year, so you feel very comfortable on stage. I would enter small shows at about 90%. Anxiety is one of everyone’s biggest opponent. It will suck water out of your muscle and put it under your skin, result, flat and smooth. Always keep in your mind that there will be another show, another day. It is never all or nothing.
All good advice given… just try to keep everything in perspective. Yes, competing is tough, it has its ups and downs, but the overall experience should be fun… at least to some degree (we won’t all win every show).
Thank you everyone for the advice, it’s definitely much appreciated.
I’ve been plugging away every day at life, work and the gym trying to stay focused. I’ve made a small tweak to my regime to, hopefully, bring up my chest and shoulders a little before the Oregon Open. I plan to continue adding focus to those areas during the off season. I also plan on carbing up later and more conservatively.
You’re right and this can be attributed to 1: not flexing them hard enough during that practice round; 2: water retention; 3: not on as much gear and 4: bad lighting. The lighting at that spot at that gym does not do justice to legs. I’ll take new pictures on the other lighting this weekend when I can get back to my other gym.
I have a pretty good background in stage acting (I love Shakespeare) and presentations, so I’m quite comfortable being in front of crowds. While being up there for a competition is different I wasn’t anxious. But: I did get frustrated after being repeatedly moved to the outside of the line up and I’m sure that affected my look in the latter rounds.
Currently weighing in at 209 lbs 10.5 weeks out. Trying to come in at around 195, which shouldn’t be a problem. Still at 3000 cals/day. Cruising at 200mg/week.
I do plan on cutting down to 2500 calories/day for Saturday through Tuesday. Why? My birthday is on Wednesday and my son’s is on Friday. I want a slice of my son’s bday cake and a big, fat burger for my Birthday cheat. Then back to 3000 calories Saturday.
Today I decided to play around with my front and rear relaxed poses. Mainly I went from a more pronated hand position to a more supinated have position. I feel like it brings out my shoulders more and maybe makes my chest look fuller. Of course it could be the lighting as well.
On the left are from four days ago, on the right are from today.
Also, for shits and giggles: on the left is about 10 weeks out from the Vancouver Open vs on the right today which is just about 10 weeks out from the Oregon Open.
I’m not necessarily a bodybuilding expert, so hopefully an actual competitor will chime in, but I’ve never liked comparing photographs in such starkly different lighting/backgrounds to assess posing or progress. I personally can’t glean anything from that comparison.
The relaxed poses have been a problem from my experience being a head judge. They can be, IMO, anything but “relaxed.” I did my head judging in the early '80’s. Many competitors didn’t like my demands about relaxed poses. And it is most likely just my taste in physique appearance. When it gets to the point where the competitors arms looked more like wings than arms, I insisted that they lowered their arms.
In the “relaxed” quarter turns, it would be a terrible decision to be totally be in a totally relaxed. I would tell them to try to get into a position that would make a picture of yourself for a magazine and then flex.
So all that said, your supinated arm position appears to improve your pec and delt presentation. Now see if you like the look if you lower your arms a little. BTW, your supinated arm position has you arms lowered a little compared to the other.
