@Gorillakiv83 thanks bro, good to see you on here again!
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Had a few minutes to do some quick photos this morning, posting comparison pics from 3.5 weeks ago, a few days before I started the new plan, to this morning. Seeing some slight but noticeable improvements, there’s about a 5 pound difference between the pics, probably 17-20 pounds to go.
Weight this morning was 171.3, height is 5’4"
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That’ll be good, nice to be able to have some clear outcome that demonstrates the efficacy of it.
Great write up on the travel, crazy good discipline as well. Photos are evidence that the work is being done, inspiring stuff!
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Thanks bro!
WEEK 4 START
-Today’s weight, 171.3 (technically .3 above last week)
Weight drops have stalled a bit so after checking in with Cliff this morning he made an adjustment to the plan, cutting 20g carbs daily. Cardio didn’t increase and the weekly re-feed wasn’t touched either. New macros:
200p, 200c, 66f
It’s not a super significant adjustment, but now I get to go into my spreadsheet and rework my plan a bit. Working with Cliff previously I used to question such small adjustments, but I have found great success in them and over time it just keeps a slow and steady decline, rather than adjusting too much too soon, not leaving much room later.
Today I also started round 2 of the 10 set protocol training program, a 3 week program that’s repeated 4 times. Posting a pic below of my training log from today. I didn’t start recording my numbers until half way through the last round, after realizing how beneficial it would be. I haven’t recorded weights in years, but on the prep now I do want to track strength. And, with how long these workouts take, it would be very helpful to see where I started this session when I start round 3 so I have a better reference point. Especially with doing 10 sets of 20, it can be really tricky to pinpoint a good first working set. As you can see there were sometimes when I started the first set, and wound up needing to drop down because the next sets felt good for 12-15 reps, then it got challenging real fast (how often do you really do 20 rep work?) I never go that high so it’s been a learning curve. 12-15 is my highest typically.
Tomorrow is legs, starting off with 10x20 of leg press. LET’S GOOOO.
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I think you have a problem. Quality
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WOW this leg workout today is a beast, starting with 10x20 leg press, it took about an hour all-in for leg press, including warm up sets and longer rest periods. Each set is taken close to fail, then the last set is taken to failure. Once I got to the last 5 sets I had much longer rest periods between to make sure I could perform well, and go heavy. Rest periods in the last 4 sets were 4-5 minutes, but man it felt good to push hard and crush that one.
If you see “part.” that means I did partials at the end to failure.
Made my new nutrition plans with the adjusted macros. We eliminated 20g carbs, but I made some fairly significant adjustments to the plan. Here’s my method to the madness along with pics of my various plans:
BREAKFAST
I was eating two pieces of Ezekiel bread with the eggs and veggies (man if you’re not eating Ezekiel bread as your main bread, you should be! There’s a ton of varieties.) I chose to eliminate the 20g carbs from breakfast and still have more carbs throughout the day, but I wanted to avoid being more hungry, so I took out the bread and subbed for more broccoli and some fruit. 200g broccoli is way more filling than 2 pieces of toast. Ezekiel bread also has a decent amount of protein (4g per slice) so I did have to replace the 8g of protein with egg whites, which adds a good amount of food volume. So even though breakfast has less carbs and cals, it’s actually more filling which is awesome.
PRE WORKOUT MEAL
I was doing a cereal bowl of Ezekiel cereal, protein milk, apple and walnuts, which tasted great and wasn’t too heavy, but also never felt like a substantial meal. Trying to eliminate hunger as much as possible makes a prep a lot easier to handle, and I’ve had success with trying to pack in as much food volume as possible in the past. I usually wait until later in the prep to do so, but wanted to get an earlier start this year. So I replaced pre workout cereal with chicken and veggies that I make into an awesome chicken salad with toast and some apple.
DINNER
Is mostly the same but I did move some fats around in my plan to have a more even dispersement of fats with each meal, I was previously only getting 7g fat with dinner. So I added some Kerrygold melted cheese to the veggies which was awesome.
PRE BED MEAL
Is usually a make-shift clean desert type thing, cottage cheese, yogurt, protein, nuts, cereal, all mixed together and put in the freezer for a couple hours, comes out like ice cream and is really good. Or sometimes I’ll do that but swap out some cereal for blueberries and make a shake and put that in the freezer, super good. But not very filling, so I made some additional meal plans that have alternate meals I can sub out for if I want to. So a new pre-bed meal option is basically breakfast all over again, but bigger. Cliff is a big proponent of the pre bed meal being the biggest meal of the day to fight nighttime hunger, but there are also huge mental benefits to that as well.
So I’ve got my staple “Regular day” meal plan, with a couple of alternate meal plans with different options I can swap as the macros are pretty much identical for the swap out meals. On the off days I just adjusted breakfast. Biggest difference with the off day is I have 5 full meals, because instead of intra workout carbs and post workout protein, I have a whole foods meal.
Tomorrow’s an off day, if I have time I’m going to go to the gym just for recovery, use the hot tub and sauna.
I was feeling a little sore today from back yesterday and after legs, and remembered that when I was completing previously I had a regular massage therapist and chiropractor, which was really helpful for recovery. So I’m going to look into local options for those here.
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Understatement.
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WEEK 5 start
-Today’s weight, 169.8 (1.5lbs down from last week)
Logs from last training sessions:
The 10x10 lunges was for sure the most intense exercise of the week, it’s 10 per leg so really 10x20, I did walking lunges with a barbell across some open space in the gym.
I think next time I’ll set it up in a squat rack, and just walk to the open space from there, there are a bunch of squat racks next to this area. By the end getting 135lbs from the floor to my back took some gas out of the tank.
Yesterday was at a friend’s birthday brunch, it was the first event like this during this prep that has all this awesome food I’m not eating. My first competitive season these types of events were really hard, it’s a huge learning curve, cause you really don’t know what to expect. I brought my second meal with me. I know what I signed up for now so I’m used to it, but man, what a spread.
Got a bunch of travel coming up, and it’s a super busy week until then. But with enough planning and determination, anything is possible!
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Very detailed !
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How’d I miss this? So glad to have you around for another prep. IN!
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WEEK 6 start
-Today’s weight, 167.4 (2.4lbs down from last week, 8lbs down from the start)
Progress continues! Yesterday, Monday, is the day I weigh in for check ins and my weight was 170lbs, but I knew it was from water weight, digestion, etc., from the travel, and I had an inclination it would go down by today and it did. We’re not making any changes, continuing along the same macros and cardio.
Normal Day - 200p, 200c, 66f
Refeed day (1x per week) - 180p, 300c, 61f
Last week I had my first traveling session for 4 days, I was able to stay on track with nutrition through bringing a couple meals for day 1, Whole Foods hot bar, and some grocery shopping. This was the longest I’ve ever traveled while on a contest prep.
This is everything I brought with me, pre measured containers of pre and intra workout mix, beef jerky, walnuts, cashews, whey isolate, whey blend, vitamins.
Dinner first night there, it’s easy at the hot bar because you can ask them to weigh out amounts of whatever you want, and I brought my food scale for the rest.
For groceries I got Ezekiel muffins, cottage cheese, yogurt, grapefruit, apples, chicken breast, hard boiled eggs, carrot sticks, coffee creamer. I used these for most meals, but was also able to eat some of the meals at the event because they were super clean and macro friendly.
View from the hotel in Miami:
I had one gym training session while I was there for shoulders and arms, the group also did a station based HIIT style workout (push ups, pull ups, row machine, medicine balls, etc.) at a Crossfit gym which was a lot of fun to build camaraderie with everyone. So one of the days I had two workouts and I ate some extra fruit to compensate for the energy output. Here’s a pic of the crew post workout.
It was an awesome event, called “Redeemed”, a men’s conference focused on faith, fitness and fellowship, hosted by Justin Roethlingshoefer, world renown health, fitness and mindset coach. We do a couple events per year and have an awesome community, if anyone wants more info on the group please reach out.
More travel to Dallas coming up soon. The hotel is very nice but does not have a fridge, or microwave. SO, I purchased a portable plug in fridge and hot plate on amazon. I’m going to prep most of my meals, bring ingredients for the rest, and I can keep the fridge plugged in the room and use the hot plate to cook breakfast and reheat meals. I’m driving so I can bring everything in the car.
Progress is moving along and I want to stay on track, when we get down to 165 which should happen in the next week or two, the plan is to take a little diet break and go to maintenance if there’s time, which right now there is. I’m down 8lbs from when we started 6 weeks ago and it has felt pretty easy, little hunger every now and then but that’s it, it’s been super manageable and I’m pleased with the progress and conditioning so far. So I’d rather keep it tight now and time for a couple of diet breaks than be more lenient now and have to push harder later. I know the end will be tough no matter what, but the smoother we can make the entire process, the better.
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WEEK 7 start
-Today’s weight, 167.4 (same as last week)
Travel last week was smooth, I was in Dallas speaking at a real estate conference, drove there from Austin, it was about a 4 hour drive with traffic. The hotel was beautiful, but the room didn’t have a kitchen or a microwave or anything, so I prepped every meal for the travel, bought a portable fridge on Amazon that I plugged into the car while driving and into the hotel when I got there, and also bought a hot plate and a pan. Re-heated all my meals on the desk on the hot plate. So I didn’t need to do any grocery shopping at all. It was a lot of upfront work but it actually worked out really well and I was able to stay 100% on my plan with no guess work.
Some food prepping
Cooler plugged into the car during the ride to keep it all cold
TRAINING
Training wise today I start round 3 of the “10 Set Protocol”, which is a training program Cliff created, it’s a 3 week program that I cycle through four times. Last week, week 3, has only 3 training sessions so I had three full days off between Friday and the weekend which was much needed, feeling good and ready to go today. The first week is the toughest week, lots of 10x20 sets this week for all muscle groups. Strength is maintaining or increasing since we started though which is awesome.
POSING
I hired a posing coach recommended by Cliff and we’ll start working together in the next week or two. I never had a dedicated posing coach, I always practiced a lot but posing is SO important and often underrated and underutilized by many competitors. It’s the only opportunity you have to showcase your work and it better be on point! I’m looking forward to working with him, he’s also going to help construct my posing routine, very much looking forward to not having to worry about that.
So we’re about 5 months out of the show, starting week 7. 5 months sure feels like a long time to go, but it’ll be here before I know it and there’s still quite a lot of work to be done, I’m guessing another 13-15 pounds to go. We’ll see if Cliff makes any adjustments this week as my weight is the same as last week.
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Shoulders looking big and round Rob, Quality.
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Very impressive ability being show here in regards to working around a complex schedule and “getting to yes” in terms of nutrition. Much respect for the dedication you are showing, you’re a great example to showcase to a lot of individuals who would it used much smaller hurdles as an excuse to not hit nutrition goals
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Man thanks so much @simo74. Working delts was a huge priority after my last competitive season so your feedback is super motivating. Thanks bro!
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Thank you man, I sincerely appreciate that. Over many years of entrepreneurship, bodybuilding, life stuff, it’s really impossible to fail if you’re willing to do what it takes. Anyone can do what it takes, most people just choose not to. Being super disciplined on nutrition while traveling is hard. Stalling on progress and wondering “what if” on show day is harder. Being financially successful is hard. Living paycheck to paycheck is harder. Crushing your goals is hard, living with regret and not living up to full God-given potential is harder. Ultimately the more you make doing whatever it takes to accomplish your goals a lifestyle, it does become easier and more natural.
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Leg day today, the first leg workout of the 10 Set Protocol is absolutely brutal, starting with 10x20 leg press.
Last working set, 10x20
Today’s log
The 10x20 leg press takes about an hour. Rest periods get longer as the sets go on and weight increases. Rest time between sets on the last 3-4 working sets is 5-7 minutes, by that time I’m already pretty taxed, but Cliff wants me to get closer to failure as the working sets go on, with the last set going to failure. So I need to rest long enough to keep pushing hard towards the end. After that my legs are pretty spent already, so I take my time getting through the rest, the whole workout takes about an hour forty five.
With my weight stall this week, Cliff did make an adjustment to the macros. It’s been a bit of a mental hurdle for me to go through everything with all the food for my travel last week and not have a new low this week, but it’s all part of the process and there’s wisdom to be gained in everything.
Old Macros - 200p, 200c, 66f
New Macros - 205p, 180c, 61f
So we added 5g protein, cut 20g carbs and cut 5g fat. Total daily calories is just about 2,000. Cardio stays the same at 3x 20min LISS per week. I never do cardio on leg day, except for the final week when there’s only three training sessions in the week.
Here’s my new meal plan:
Here’s what I changed:
- Breakfast - nothing changed
- Lunch (pre workout meal) - nothing changed
- Workout nutrition - added a little more whey isolate after training
- Dinner - This is pretty much where it all was modified. Meat is the same, but I totally removed all the potatoes (that hurt.) Cliff recommends that pre-bed meal has higher carb content, and I 100% agree. He finds his competitors maintain better sleep with a higher carb pre bed meal. I can tell you when prep gets really tough as the show is approaching, my sleep has always been absolutely worthless. Mentally it’s always nice knowing there’s a big pre-bed meal coming. I’m pretty hungry as a type this and am looking forward to eating after this! I took all 20g carbs out of this meal, and made the call to fully remove potatoes because if I kept all the potato in, I’d lose the veggies, which is a non-starter. Vegetables are SO important for nutrients, fiber, and hunger control (more fiber and food volume = feeling fuller for longer). So I removed all potatoes and actually added some more veggies, so all carbs from dinner are from vegetables. Cooked green beans, and added raw carrots and bell peppers. It’s still a pretty solid amount of food with all the vegetables. I also added a greens drink, powdered organic greens that I mix with a little flavored EAA so it doesn’t taste like I’m drinking broccoli. As calories and nutrients get lower, adding in something like this is really important.
- Pre-bed meal - took out all 5g fat from this meal by reducing the walnuts. I enjoy the ice-cream like pre-bed meal, as prep continues and eventually calories get lower, I’ll probably turn that meal into a more traditional meal like meat and veggies or egg whites or similar.
I must still be getting leaner because yesterday I went a new loop tighter on my lifting belt. It’s thick leather and pretty unforgiving, so I can always tell as I’m leaning out when the belt can be adjusted.
Tomorrow is an off day, and I have a steak salad to substitute the macros from my intra and post working shakes, so with the additional whole-foods meal and higher food volume from vegetables and salad greens, off days still feel like I’m eating closer to maintenance, even though I’m in a deficit.
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I’m curious about the purpose behind the 10x20 leg press…
Is it to help dry out your legs?
Glycogen depletion?
Just seems like overkill in my unsolicited opinion. I don’t think i could recover from this very well at all.
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