Competing at 40: Rob's Bodybuilding Prep Journal for Season 3

[robstein]

LFG! After 8 years since my last show, I’m starting my journey back to the stage at 40 years old for my third competitive season, and 5th bodybuilding competition.

This prep log will detail my third season of competitive bodybuilding, including updates to training, nutrition, food choices and food hacks, meal timing, cardio methods and any other possible minutiae that competitors obsess about on the road to the stage.

PREVIOUS PREP LOGS:

2016: Season 1 Prep Log

2017: Season 2 Prep Log

2020: Season 3 Prep Log

I’m 40 years old, living in Leander, TX just outside of Austin, own a few businesses and am a full time entrepreneur, husband, father, follower of Jesus, and once again, a competitive bodybuilder.

2016 was my first year competing, prepping for a total of 6 months, coached by T-Nation rock star and WNBF pro, @The_Mighty_Stu, who has become a great friend and mentor. The season started with a 4th place finish at the WNBF Northeast America Cup, and ended with a second place finish in the Open Bantamweights at the WNBF Hercules in Manhattan, NY. It was a brutal prep, lots of learning and leg work. Ultimately, mass and structure were strong points, conditioning was solid but not quite super shredded. I came in with the best package I could have and enjoyed every minute of it. Stage weight was 146 show day.

January 2016 - June 2016

After a very brief off season for a few months, we got right back to work utilizing the lessons we learned in 2016 to prep for 2017. I started in a much better place, trained on areas I wanted to bring up, specifically hamstrings, shoulders and arms, and took a higher carb, moderate protein and lower fat approach, which worked out much better. I competed in two shows that year, an ANBF show in Atlantic City, winning the overall and an ANBF pro card, and competed again at the WNBF Northeast America Cup, winning the overall, but unfortunately there were not enough competitors at the show to earn a pro card. Stage weight was 140lbs, so came in lighter but looked bigger and way tighter. Overall condition was lightyears better than previous year, didn’t quite have shredded glutes but brought my best look yet.

After two straight years of prepping and 4 shows, it was time for a break, and there have been some big life updates since then.

-Moved from New Jersey to Austin, TX in 2019
-My wife quit her teaching job and we went full into real estate
-Became a top performing agent, then top performing team leader, and ultimately build an online coaching platform for real estate agents, which has since become the #1 online coaching for Realtors in the U.S.

In late 2020 I tried to get back into competition and the prep was actually going really well, I was working with Cliff Wilson and it was the easiest and most efficient prep experience I’ve ever had, we cut down for about 3.5 months. Ultimately when we hit about 8 weeks out, I really started feeling the negative effects of prep, and with everything I had going on in business at the time, made the decision to pull out. I was still running my music business, building my real estate team while still acting as an agent, and also building my online coaching platform, all while my wife was pregnant and still wanted to be present for her and with her. It was way too much and things started suffering, so backing out was the right call at the time.

Now however, with God’s grace and blessings and an incredible amount of grit, hard work and determination, businesses are running smoothly and I’ve got my teams in place that keep everything moving along. I work from my home studio full time and have a lot of control of my schedule. Most of my time is spent in my home office doing virtual coaching and speaking, and I also do some travel for speaking as well. Over the past month I really started getting the urge to compete again, I’ve had 8 years of building and still have a little regret knowing I never truly reached the ultimate level of conditioning I wanted to.

I also just absolutely love the sport of bodybuilding. I love the discipline it takes, the relentless consistency, planning things out, and having such a hard goal to work towards. It’s one of the hardest most rewarding things I’ve ever done, outside of being a dad, which is the ultimate best!

I am PUMPED to be working with Cliff Wilson as my coach again, doing both training and nutrition. He’s arguably one of the top coaches in the industry, and is famous for bringing his competitors in with absolutely insane conditioning. His approach is much different than what is mainstream, based on hundreds of competitors and years of experience. Really excited to work with him again after getting great results in 2020.

We’re aiming for some summer time shows so we’ve got plenty of time. I’ll be posting next about our training, nutrition, along with some cure

I’ll be posting as much as possible here, aside from being informative for any readers it’s also very therapeutic and enjoyable for me. Feel free to ask any questions and I’ll always do my best to respond ASAP.

Thanks for reading!

[s.gentz]

Following!

[SkyzykS]

YEAH!!! .

Great to see you at it again Rob!

[robstein]

Let’s go man thanks for being on the journey!

[robstein]

Yeaaaah @SkyzykS awesome good to see you on here, buddy!

[robstein]

Cliff started me out on a 3 week program that is high volume, super intense. There are only 5 exercises per session but some of the exercises are 10 sets of 20 reps, which is both extremely brutal and fun. Just finished legs and abs, took an hour and a half.

The first exercise was 10x20 leg press, less weight than I’d usually do but I’ve never done 10x20 before, worked my way up to this weight for the last couple sets.

[TrainForPain]

Awesome - excited for this

[robstein]

Let’s gooo!

[alex_uk]

Fantastic, I wasn’t posting, but I was lurking last time you were competing, really looking forward to seeing the prep and the end package. Massive congrats on all of the amazing life updates as well, my favourite part of this post though:

@robstein

follower of Jesus

If you don’t mind me asking, what church do you go to?

[robstein]

Awesome bro thanks for following along!

Of course I’m always happy to answer any questions especially about faith. We’re in Leander, TX, we go to City Reach Church, it’s an incredible organization, non-denominational Christian church, lead pastor is a badass Marine and a very strong man, so I really resonate with him and the vibe. The men’s ministry is also really strong there, and there is definitely not enough of that going on today so it’s very exciting to be a part of. What about you?

[dchris]

Dude! Glad to see you posting again. Looking forward to following along. Next time I’m in Austin area, I’ll shoot you a text. I moved to DFW a few years ago.

[robstein]

Yesterday was an off day, which was awesome, and also a little mentally challenging. In the off season I’m training 5-6 days a week, for health and also because it’s a necessary mental escape from the entrepreneur grind, which is extremely rewarding and I wouldn’t have it any other way, but it is also an all encompassing challenge and I love getting to the gym to push some weight around and escape mentally. I will likely utilize off days to go to the gym anyway and just relax in the sauna, hot tub, recovery etc.

Cliff’s approach is vastly different than what’s mainstream. Preps are long (24-28 weeks or more), cardio is extremely minimal and slowly added as needed, and off days are utilized a lot. The process is very slow and steady, which creates way less physical and mental stress, and then allows for a very hard push at the end if needed. He also prefers that rather than picking a show to prepare for, we start cutting down, and as the conditioning is approaching the right level, pick a show as bringing incredible conditioning can’t be rushed. Fortunately, the shows we’re targeting start in mid July, and we’re both confident there’s plenty of time.

On Monday my weight was 175.3, our goal is to cut 10 pounds and see where we’re at, and assuming there’s enough time, have a bit of a diet break, bring food up for a while then cut down again, so the prep will go in phases.

I’m training 2 days on, 1 day off, 3 days on, 1 day off, and doing 3 LISS (low intensity steady state) cardio sessions per week for 20min each. The elliptical is my go-to cardio method, very easy on the joints and I just watch some videos while knocking out cardio, goes by pretty quick.

Current Macros
Regular Day - 200p, 220c, 66f
Refeed Day (once per week) - 180p, 300c, 61f

He sends me the macros and I make my food plan. Here’s my variation of regular days and my off day, I usually train mid afternoon but will train in the morning if necessary.

I am a very clean eater on and off season, good quality food and no junk or sweets. I don’t drink, don’t do added sugar. A cheat meal for me is larger amounts of more healthy food, Mediterranean is my favorite. Give me a ton of pita bread, meats, veggies and rice and I’m good to go.

I also have genetic predisposition to very poor insulin sensitivity, even being lean and healthy and exercising all the time my A1C is 5.7, borderline pre-diabetic, runs on my mom’s side. So I have to be careful with carb intake, blood sugar, etc.

Today’s session is going to be Delts, arms, and cardio, it’s not many exercises but will be high volume.

DB Lateral Raise- 10x20
Reverse Pec Dec- 3x8
Preacher Curl- 10x20
Cable Triceps Ext- 10x20

Lastly, here are some of my first set of check-in pics from two weeks ago, weight was 176 that day. It’s been many years since I’ve done posing so definitely felt a little rusty, but I’m extremely passionate about posing because it’s so important, and will also be hiring a posing coach. Cliff will help me with that as well, but I do want a regular posing coach to make sure I’m leaving no stone unturned and maxing out my potential.

I’m 5’4", the lightweight class tops off at 154.5 pounds, so I’m thinking I’ll end up towards the top end of the lightweight division. I’m GUESSING I’ve got 20-25 pounds to lose, ultimately all that matters is the look. Place your bets! I’m guessing 152.4.

I have remodeled a bedroom to my home studio/office, so I have an awesome setup in here for pics, video, and posing practice.

TIP FOR PROGRESS PICS: STOP TAKING PICS IN THE GYM LOCKER ROOM AND THINKING THEY’RE AN ACCURATE REPRESENTATION OF WHERE YOU’RE AT. Gyms and locker rooms are almost always exclusively top down lighting, which looks great for your social media posts, but it’s not accurate. Get the frontal lighting in there too to really see what’s up. Here at my work station I’ve got both top down and very bright front lights for when I’m doing online coaching or creating content. It is really crazy to be in the locker room mirror thinking, “WOW I’m in way better condition than I thought! Shredded!” then get home and get the frontal lighting and go, “OH wow…OK…guess not!”

On stage the lightning is brutally bright and from the front, which is why you need to get really tan to see the definition. So I have to make sure the progress pics I send to Cliff have bright frontal lighting to make sure we’re matching stage conditions. Not saying I won’t post progress pics from the gym also, but if you really want to accurately gauge your physique, good lighting is important.

It is super motivating to look great in the gym, no doubt, but just don’t use top-down only lightning as a gauge, it’s very deceiving.

Weight in these pics: 176

[robstein]

YO BROTHER! Man good to see you on here! I’m in DFW fairly regularly would love to connect!

[robstein]

Wrapping up today’s session and I’ll tell you what, nothing quite as humbling as doing 10x20 shoulder raises, preacher curl and tricep rope extensions with good form and control to check your ego. By the time I’m at sets 7 through 10, weights are about half of what I’d normally do on 3 sets of 8-12. The pain and pump is ridiculous. If you want some growth give this protocol a shot!

[TrainForPain]

Awesome stuff!

On your intra being only 10g carbs, do you feel there’s a minimum threshold to get what you want out of it? Like do you notice a difference in 10 vs 0?

[The_Myth]

Welcome back, looking forward to the journey.

[robstein]

Good question!

Those are the initial numbers Cliff gave me, I do feel better with 10 than with 0. It doesn’t feel much different now than it would with 0, but I know as calories get lower, cardio gets higher and things generally get harder, I have lower energy, it’ll make a more significant difference.

The reasoning behind lower carbs intra workout, during a prep in a caloric deficit, it’s WAY better to eat carbs and calories than to drink them, for hunger, nutrients and overall sanity. The 10g is just enough to give a little extra boost, little extra carbs in the system and insurance the muscle is protected during the workout, in combination with the EAA’s before and during. In the off season I don’t use intra workout carbs, I’d much rather eat them.

I’ve experimented a LOT with intra workout carbs, first with Biotest’s Surge, then when Plazma came out I was a very early adopter, I’ve done from 0, 10g, up to 80g intra workout carbs. Pretty sure I even did 120g sometimes doing 3 scoops of Plazma. (Just checked the Biotest website, looks like Surge is back!) When at maintenance or surplus calories, I don’t feel any significant boost in performance from intra workout cabs. Even a really hard bodybuilding workout can easily be fueled by whatever carbs you’ve got in your system as long as you’re not in a deficit or a low carb diet.

THAT BEING SAID, timing is an important consideration. I usually train in the mid to late afternoon, around 2:30/3:00pm, so I’ve already had two meals and am ready to go, and feel great in the gym. But, for the past couple years I’ve been going to the gym early, first thing, getting there around 6:30 or 7, and did not eat before hand because I’m not hungry when I wake up and eating a big meal would feel uncomfortable. During that time I DID have intra workout carbs, after trying out fasted training for a little while. I got used to fasted training and it was OK, I was able to maintain. For the first half of last year I was in a gaining phase, so I was in a caloric surplus with a high intensity, high volume plan, but was used to training fasted so I started that training plan fasted, and it was terrible. Once I introduced intra workout carbs, it was a night and day difference and I was able to push hard. But it wasn’t a ton, it was 25g and that was totally sufficient, because I still had a lot of glycogen stored up from my food the day before, and I also had a fairly high carb meal before bed to help give a boost in the morning.

If you train first thing in the morning and don’t want to or can’t eat, intra workout carbs is 100% the way to go. Since I train in the afternoon now, I’m good with my previous meals, and since we’re in a deficit there’s a little intra workout carbs.

I actually just recently moved my training time, I’ve been training in the AM for a couple years now, but am shifting my work schedule to train in the afternoon. So I’m in my home office by 8am, hard stop at 2pm, leave for the gym no later than 2:30, back with the family by 5pm for dinner and family time. I ALWAYS feel better training in the afternoon, I perform better, and mentally it’s better too. After a hard morning workout, work would be very challenging, combine that with being in the back half of a contest prep, I’d be pretty worthless after the gym training in the morning. Thank God I am in a position in my businesses to be able to have so much control of my schedule, which was a primary consideration in deciding to compete again.

Well, that was a pretty long answer but wanted to provide my experience because every detail matters!

[robstein]

My T-Nation brother! It’s good to see you on here! Guys, @The_Myth is an absolute legend, he is such a great contributor on here. He even came to one of my competitions to support me. Thanks for joining the ride man!

[SkyzykS]

Holey lats batman! Very solid back.

[TrainForPain]

That was a really comprehensive answer - thank you! I’m a morning trainer and have landed on about 25g intra exactly as you described - awesome to see your detailed thought process around it.
Congrats on getting yourself into a position to be able to create your schedule too.