First Bodybuilding Show. April 2012

Training
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Its funny with the leg issue, because I trained them on Tuesday pretty hard and by the next day they were very “blurry” and I had lost the deep cuts I had with them on contest day. I definitely see where the rule of not training legs for a week came from after that. I almost had an “oh shit, I’m getting fat already!” moment, but then I realized that the day before I hit them pretty hard, and they were a bit sore.

Sounds like everything is going according to plan, cruising right into the finish line. I know EXACTLY what you mean about wanting to be done… And you almost are. 2 more days, brother!

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[quote]timmcbride00 wrote:
I knew I wouldn’t have the most muscular body on stage, so my plan was to get leaner than the competition.
[/quote]

It’s all about presenting the best of both worlds, size and conditioning. When I won my WNBF Card, the guy in 3rd was crisp as hell, but overly lanky without much muscle at all. The guy in 2nd had me sizewise in the quads, but wasn’t in his best condition. That put me as the competitor with very good scores in both criteria.

You never know who else will show up, so head up, smile, and be damn proud brother! You worked for this moment, enjoy every second of it!

S

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[quote]Lonnie123 wrote:
Its funny with the leg issue, because I trained them on Tuesday pretty hard and by the next day they were very “blurry” and I had lost the deep cuts I had with them on contest day. I definitely see where the rule of not training legs for a week came from after that. I almost had an “oh shit, I’m getting fat already!” moment, but then I realized that the day before I hit them pretty hard, and they were a bit sore.

Sounds like everything is going according to plan, cruising right into the finish line. I know EXACTLY what you mean about wanting to be done… And you almost are. 2 more days, brother! [/quote]

I was actually planning to only hit them on day 1 of depletion (Sunday), for the reasons you mentioned and as was previously discussed in my thread.

But, then I figured my legs MUST have darn good recuperative abilities based on doing the HFSW 6 days a week for the last few months and dragging my tire about 3 times per week. So I made a last minute alteration to my plans and gradually tapered the legs off of their training volume throughout the depletion.

On Sunday I did the normal CT Prowler Leg Protocol twice (for me 8 sets, 4 forward and 4 backward), then I cut out down to 6 sets on Monday AM and 4 sets on Monday PM. I stuck with 4 sets on both of Tuesday’s sessions and even did the 4 sets on Wednesday morning prior to the load. I figured I was doing ZERO eccentric work during my deplete and my legs would handle it. I think I am right, they are looking fine.

I am feeling much better today, it took all of yesterday and this morning for my body to finally realize it had some carbs in it. I am awake and not dragging at all right now. It’s a nice feeling, I felt like I was hit by a train yesterday.

[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:

[quote]timmcbride00 wrote:
I knew I wouldn’t have the most muscular body on stage, so my plan was to get leaner than the competition.
[/quote]

It’s all about presenting the best of both worlds, size and conditioning. When I won my WNBF Card, the guy in 3rd was crisp as hell, but overly lanky without much muscle at all. The guy in 2nd had me sizewise in the quads, but wasn’t in his best condition. That put me as the competitor with very good scores in both criteria.

You never know who else will show up, so head up, smile, and be damn proud brother! You worked for this moment, enjoy every second of it!

S[/quote]

Naturally, I tried to get as big as I could over my bulk in 2011. I hope I didn’t come off as sounding like size wasn’t important. It was more or less just me accepting that once I started to get contest ready, the only thing I could control is my leanness; nobody is adding slabs of muscle in the final weeks.

I hope to present the total package, my wife keeps telling me she thinks I have good size, symmetry and leanness, but she is a TAD biased. :slight_smile:

I will enjoy it, trust me!

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I actually did the exact same thing for my legs in terms of tapering. Just some easy sled dragging/prowler pushing, 8 sets on Sunday, 6 sets of Monday, 4 on Tuesday. This created ZERO soreness, and I think allowed them to deplete more and soak up the carbs when they were coming in.

Its interesting how we both decided to “break the rule” the same way. Perhaps we are on to something :wink:

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Amazing Work!!

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Good luck, Tim! Can’t wait to hear about the contest and see the pictures.

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Been a great thread, best of luck!

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[quote]Lonnie123 wrote:
I actually did the exact same thing for my legs in terms of tapering. Just some easy sled dragging/prowler pushing, 8 sets on Sunday, 6 sets of Monday, 4 on Tuesday. This created ZERO soreness, and I think allowed them to deplete more and soak up the carbs when they were coming in.

Its interesting how we both decided to “break the rule” the same way. Perhaps we are on to something ;-)[/quote]

That is really neat that we both did that without knowing the other was making the same decision. It just didn’t seem right to completely not train legs after hammering them 6 days a week for months. I am glad I made the choice because the looked fine this morning.

In fact, my calves, which are the WORST hold outs on my body (in part because I have a desk job and I think water/fluid just sort of pools there for lack of a better explanation), looked GREAT this morning. I took some video, not sure if it does them justice, but regardless, they were grainy and veiny, it was awesome.

Also, I am still doing box jumps in addition to the posing practice during the load.

@ Johnman18
@ Serge
@ Plateau

Thanks guys! It is great to have so much support.

I hope to try and document with pictures and video, but I don’t know how nervous/flustered I will be tomorrow and I may not think too much of getting out the camera.

Woke up at 170.5 this morning, I was hoping to see the scale move up a tad, but no luck. I looked really dry so the load is going very well.

I have two meals down this morning and 3 or so to go today.

Average Load Day has been like this:

Calories 3883
Fat 96
Carbs 568
Protein 187

I’ve actually been right around 600 grams of carbs though, because I threw in some handfuls of cereal here and there and also a little bit of dark chocolate and a couple grapes that weren’t on my nerdy spreadsheet.

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AHHHHH! MUSCLE CRAMPS!

Cramping has not been an issue at all…until today. Calves cramped upon waking up and my forearm cramped doing a front double bicep.

Based on a quick search; potassium, magnesium, circulation and water can all help.

So my quick plan for the rest of the day is:

  1. Walk around office as much as possible for circulation (I have a desk job)
  2. Eat potatoes for dinner (was planning on brown rice, but potatoes offer MUCH more potassium)
  3. Increase magnesium intake (I have the mineral at home)
  4. Keep water intake high until I cut it out around 6pm tonight.
  5. I don’t have a potassium supplement, but I read that cocoa and raisins are decent sources both of which are part of my pre contest load tomorrow morning.

Any other ideas I can implement so I don’t cramp up on stage?

  • I know bananas are a good source, but they give me heartburn (I know, weird) and I do not eat them regularly at all, so I didn’t want to introduce a food that upsets my stomach and is relatively foreign to my body on the day before the show.
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[quote]timmcbride00 wrote:
AHHHHH! MUSCLE CRAMPS!

Cramping has not been an issue at all…until today. Calves cramped upon waking up and my forearm cramped doing a front double bicep.

Based on a quick search; potassium, magnesium, circulation and water can all help.

So my quick plan for the rest of the day is:

  1. Walk around office as much as possible for circulation (I have a desk job)
  2. Eat potatoes for dinner (was planning on brown rice, but potatoes offer MUCH more potassium)
  3. Increase magnesium intake (I have the mineral at home)
  4. Keep water intake high until I cut it out around 6pm tonight.
  5. I don’t have a potassium supplement, but I read that cocoa and raisins are decent sources both of which are part of my pre contest load tomorrow morning.

Any other ideas I can implement so I don’t cramp up on stage?

  • I know bananas are a good source, but they give me heartburn (I know, weird) and I do not eat them regularly at all, so I didn’t want to introduce a food that upsets my stomach and is relatively foreign to my body on the day before the show.[/quote]

For potassium you could eat a few kiwi’s

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pedialite. seriously…fighters chug the stuff after cutting to make weight…idk if that would be ok with your diet tho.

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I’m not usually one to screw around with sodium/potassium balances, simply because the body will usually just fairly quickly, and in terms of appearance, it’s never a good thing when it does.
In terms of avoiding cramps though, ensuring adequate hydration, foods that have ‘some’ potassium in them (I always take a few bananas with me on the day of a contest, but I’m sure you can find another option), nice slow drawn out pump ups (not excessively long, but not rushed), adhering to my per-bed mineral protocol even during peak week, and making sure your muscles stay fairly warm are all methods I try to address.

S

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@ Plateau
@ FrozenNinja

Thanks for the ideas

[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:
I’m not usually one to screw around with sodium/potassium balances, simply because the body will usually just fairly quickly, and in terms of appearance, it’s never a good thing when it does.
In terms of avoiding cramps though, ensuring adequate hydration, foods that have ‘some’ potassium in them (I always take a few bananas with me on the day of a contest, but I’m sure you can find another option), nice slow drawn out pump ups (not excessively long, but not rushed), adhering to my per-bed mineral protocol even during peak week, and making sure your muscles stay fairly warm are all methods I try to address.

S

[/quote]

Couple follow up questions:

How late would you consume water? I was going to cut out water at 6pm tonight, pre-judging is at Noon tomorrow. Giving me 18 hours of drying out.

Should I increase water intake prior to when I cut it out? I was consuming 12 cups of water today, I still have time to take in more though.

Raisins and Cocoa are my potassium friendly foods, along with potatoes tonight.

I will be careful to take the pump up slow and stay warm, thanks for the advice.

Thanks Stu!

I was close to freaking out for a second.

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[quote]timmcbride00 wrote:
Couple follow up questions:

How late would you consume water? I was going to cut out water at 6pm tonight, pre-judging is at Noon tomorrow. Giving me 18 hours of drying out.

Should I increase water intake prior to when I cut it out? I was consuming 12 cups of water today, I still have time to take in more though.

Raisins and Cocoa are my potassium friendly foods, along with potatoes tonight.

I will be careful to take the pump up slow and stay warm, thanks for the advice.

Thanks Stu!

I was close to freaking out for a second.[/quote]

-If prejudging is at noon, I’d drink until about 9pm when I’d try to get to sleep.
-I’ve downed 4-5 gallons the day I plan to cut my water, essentially being bloated as all hell (and constantly running to piss) while being pro-tanned (freezing my ass off the entire time as my body freaks from so much liquid -lol)

Best of luck brother! Keep us informed :slight_smile:

S

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[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:
-If prejudging is at noon, I’d drink until about 9pm when I’d try to get to sleep.
-I’ve downed 4-5 gallons the day I plan to cut my water, essentially being bloated as all hell (and constantly running to piss) while being pro-tanned (freezing my ass off the entire time as my body freaks from so much liquid -lol)

Best of luck brother! Keep us informed :slight_smile:

S[/quote]

Wow, awesome, thanks for the quick reply.

I will increase the water intake and delay the cut off until later.

I feel good about it now that you’ve recommended it and I have thought it through.

I still look real tight, so my body is clearly handling the carbs well, which means they are being directed to my muscles. It logically follows that the stored glycogen needs water to look its fullest. Plus, I am still eating a lot, and water is needed for digestion. It would make sense to give my body the water it needs to digest the food I am giving it otherwise I would risk being gassy and bloated, not to mention cramping from being dehydrated.

I am trying to imagine the worst that could happen from consuming too much water right now and I can’t think of any.

So it is - Gassy, Bloated, and Cramping VERSUS Hydrated, Digested, Fuller and Peeing a lot…not a hard choice.

I’ve consumed tons of water the previous two load days (Wednesday and Thursday) and still woke up crisp the following morning; so why would tomorrow morning be any different?

I am rambling, but it makes me feel better to type it all out, lol.

Can anyone tell I am starting to get nervous? : )

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[quote]timmcbride00 wrote:
It logically follows that the stored glycogen needs water to look its fullest. [/quote]

^Amazing how many people forget this :slight_smile:

Gonna kick ass brother!

S

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Good luck, Tim. You’re gonna kill it!!!

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Time flew by these past couple of weeks, I’m glad I checked in :slight_smile:

Tim, you’re looking SHREDDED! You’re going to destroy!!

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Tim, You most likely wont read this for a few days, but ENJOY YOUR SHOW BROTHER. But more importantly, enjoy the day after your show :wink:

Cant wait to see the fruits of your labor on here, you are going to be insanely shredded. Probably make me look like a porker by comparison

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Want to see contest pics of you pwning everyone plz.