[quote]timmcbride00 wrote:
Macros leading up to refeed:
2979 cal, 110 fat, 280 carbs, 217 protein
[/quote]
Wow. Quite interesting. That looks EXACTLY like my intake last week.
Except my refeeds are not quite as well-executed as yours. Or maybe to put a more positive spin on it, my ‘refeeds’ are much less boring and involve cheeseburgers, beers, and soft pretzels. Or at least it did last night!
Thanks for all the detail. Good stuff.
Just read the OP and wanted to give kudos for downing 5.5k calories per day. A lot of people say “Hey, I could eat that much in one day,” but downing that much consistently is f***ing hard to do.
@ Serge
I am surprised your carbs aren’t higher given your Indigo usage. Regarding refeeds, whatever works is my opinion.
No problem.
@ 3 Commandments
I was telling my wife that bulking is hard and cutting is the easy part. She said “For you, no one else has trouble bulking” Of course, what she means is, “People like to eat (junk mostly) and lots of it.” I told her that eating 5.5K calories day in and out is a chore and even people who like to eat would have a hard time, especially with the vast majority being clean calories.
I also explained that I put on about 32 pounds and I may be lucky if after cutting down I have 8 or 9 pounds to show for it (or less). But when I diet, I feel like I retain most of my muscle. So in my opinion, cutting is way easier than adding lean mass.
Thanks for checking in!
Did the Prowler leg protocol yesterday and today. Lots of posing practice as well.
Bodyweight back up to 185 today and I feel good, like I’ve normalized after a very up and down week. Some of you may read and think 182 to 185 isn’t a very up and down week, but my body doesn’t tend to flucuate a whole lot. Probably because my diet is pretty monotonous and I don’t indulge in cheat foods or high sodium foods that cause big swings.
Here’s what I have been up to in the gym:
(filmed during 2 workouts)
Trying to be as explosive as possible, the big lifts are HFS work:
250x5 on squats
167.5 (+50 chains) x5 on bench
Front Lever Hold (normally I don’t swing that much)
Ring Dips
340x5 on deadlift
131x5 on OH Press
Like the training video. I am no where near an expert but those deads that looks like finishing in hyperextension and makes my low back hurt watching that.
Tip for the ring front lever. Try rolling up in the tucked position and starting inverted. THen slowly row down still tucked to parallel to the floor then just using lats go back to inverted. Repeat this and once you are good at that 5reps or so move on. Get to parallel tucked then start slowly extending a leg in that position. Alternate legs.
@ Ryan
Thanks for the tip on the front lever. Serge mentioned that to me as well. I try both methods. I prefer how the legs extended version feels though.
I totally see what you are seeing, I am leaning back, but my lower back doesn’t hyperextend, I think I tend to finish like that due to the strong finish with my glutes. My lower back has actually felt great with squatting and deadlifting daily (well, 6 days a week).
@ BBB
Thanks guys, I appreciate the concern, but I feel fine. Lifting in explosive HFS style has felt great. My joints have honestly never felt better. I have had a little elbow and delt pain recently but I know I did that to myself on the rings and rack press (based on when the pain came and how it stopped when I was more careful on rings and eliminated rack press).
Garage gym of the year. I think I saw standard size plates in there too. I love it.
I have about 8x8 in my basement and its like lifting in a jail cell with a squat rack. I trained there the last 2 years but had to get a gym membership, I was going crazy down there bumping into stuff.
@ Colin
Yeah, 8x8 would be a bit claustophobic. My gym is probably 10 by 16. Clearance overhead isn’t much, I can’t use the 50 pound plates with overhead work. That’s OK really, doubt that will ever be an issue, I have plenty of 25 pound plates (4 for each side) and 10’s. I would have to start repping 300 pounds in the OH press for it to be a real problem, ha, ha. But even with the 25 pounds, I have really explode and stand completely straight (legs locked, elbows locked) then I will bump the ceiling.
Hit some nice PR’s this weekend.
Squat
350x2
320x7
Also, going to be increasing food intake as I lost way too much weight this week (even with my refeeds). Over 2 pounds! Goal was only to lose 1 pound per week at this point.
Roughly 10 weeks to the show and I am still eating 3100 calories, sweet!
Sorry I’m late to the party. Busy at work and having to bring some of it home, while still hitting the gym, kept me off of T-Nation for a while.
Spray Tanning - Both me and my girlfriend did the spray tanning for out two shows. It is basically as BBB described if you’re going with the show’s official tanner. 2 coats the day before and 1 the morning off. I hope you feel comfortable cause you go in with a sock (or naked if you prefer) and they get in all the crevices. It seems like the popular brand to use is Liquid Sun Rays and the sprayer should give you a set of instructions to follow to prep your skin. You should be able to get touch ups the day of as well as sheen before heading on stage. For me, the first show was great. The sprayer took great pride in her work and was really helpful to us newbies and stood all the way until the evening show. The 2nd show, it seemed like the lady was all about business. The tan still came out great, but she wasn’t very accommodating to the amateurs.
Posing - All poses look much better. It still going to come down to practicing daily. Keep trying to be wide and push your legs together. You’ll have to tweak things a bit to see which way you look best. Two things that still stand out to me though. a. Leg posing should be swapped on most muscular poses. Crab pose gets one leg forward and hands on hip gets both legs parallel. b. Leg posing seems a bit off. I can’t tell if it’s the angle, but it looks like you are locking your knees. You should have your knees bent slightly with your feet somewhat close and angled out. This should make your quads look bigger. Stu’s old avatar, double bi with his trophy (still in his profile), shows a perfect example of this.
Training Vid - I’m jealous, lol. I wish I had my own home gym. Eventually! As far as the comments, I’d have to somewhat agree with BBB. If your joints aren’t bothering, who am I to say otherwise. One thing I have read in the livespill is that sometimes people compensate for explosiveness by accelerating the bar at lockout. Explosiveness should take place right at the beginning of the concentric like a ‘reflex’. You seem to accelerate a lot much closer to lock out. I’m just paraphrasing something CT said, but now it’s lost in one of the livespills and I can’t find it. Either way, you’re doing great and are in great condition.
Sorry for the novel, lol.
@ Thoughts
Any thoughts on using protan the week prior to get a bit of a base? Or is that overkill?
Great point about finding/tweaking things that work for your individual body. I was never comfortable with the front lat and front double bicep, but as I play around with slight tweaks, I’ve finally found a position that I feel confident with.
Checking several different references to posing, it seems that there is some freedom with leg position on the most muscular, but I will keep that in mind.
I’m at work and I can’t recall what I did in the video, but since then, I have gotten much better at the idea of keeping the legs bent and either spreading the floor to display quads or pulling it together to display hams/glutes, it is feeling more natural.
I can tell you that I am trying to be violent from the start hence the little extra butt clench on the beginning of the bench for example. And the reason the deadlift isn’t explosive at the start is because you are not supposed to explode until you are past the knees. For the squat, I have actually been pausing some reps in the hole to practice staying tight and developing the initial speed.
I like your phrase “lost in the livespills,” I know if I don’t immediately copy a tidbit of information into a MS Word file, it’s lost for good because I am not going to be able to find it again!
Glad that you think the conditioning is great.
Previous diet I hit a 30.5 inch waist…so what size trunks do I order?
Small goes up to 30"
Medium is listed at starting at 31"
Here is the cut/style I am thinking about getting:
http://www.cherrybombs.net/Men_s_Posing_Suit_p/1002.htm
It’s the flex cut, more coverage than the Brazilian, but less than traditional. I liked it because I hope to come in with AT LEAST squared off glutes and maybe even some detail/striations (this is based on me being almost in the same shape I was in at the “mock” contest prep and having squared off glutes that cut, but I have 10 weeks to get some more detail on my bum). And if my glutes are good, I want to show them off since based on what I saw as last year’s show, most people didn’t have defined glutes, in fact, some of them weren’t even squared off (dare I say most weren’t).
Regarding color, I am thinking about:
Maroon, Forest Green, Black
[quote]timmcbride00 wrote:
Previous diet I hit a 30.5 inch waist…so what size trunks do I order?
Small goes up to 30"
Medium is listed at starting at 31"
Here is the cut/style I am thinking about getting:
http://www.cherrybombs.net/Men_s_Posing_Suit_p/1002.htm
It’s the flex cut, more coverage than the Brazilian, but less than traditional. I liked it because I hope to come in with AT LEAST squared off glutes and maybe even some detail/striations (this is based on me being almost in the same shape I was in at the “mock” contest prep and having squared off glutes that cut, but I have 10 weeks to get some more detail on my bum). And if my glutes are good, I want to show them off since based on what I saw as last year’s show, most people didn’t have defined glutes, in fact, some of them weren’t even squared off (dare I say most weren’t).
Regarding color, I am thinking about:
Maroon, Forest Green, Black[/quote]
^ I considered the same colors, eventually deciding that black was just the simplest (although I did go with the brushed velvet cuz it just looked gansta -lol).
It’s not just your waist size to consider, but really how much ‘junk’ is in the trunk. When I competed a couple of years ago, I wore a Medium onstage. This past year, I went with the Large, as I was just carrying more muscle and there was no way I could have pulled off the smaller size. Of course I don’t have small hips, or an especially petite rear end, so that factors in quite a bit.
Also, I doubt anyone ever regrets covering more of their butt rather than less. I’ve seen some ridiculous displays onstage (one competitor in the Overall Posedown at last year’s Hercules for example), where you actually see guys yanking their trunks up their ass to flex it. Seriously, if you’re truly shredded, your whole body shows it, and I doubt anyone has ever “won by an ass” at a bodybuilding contest -lol.
S
@ Stu
Looks like you went with French cut?
What are your thoughts on the Flex cut?
If I call up, Cherrybombs.net will they be able to talk me through a good selection to make size-wise?
Good point about the whole body showing it if I am shredded, still leaning towards the Flex cut, Brazilian is a bit too much for me.
Regarding the recent discussion on my training video, I reviewed the Perfect Rep video found here:
At the 5:32 mark, Nate Green starts performing sets. And as you can see, he has the same explosive lockout that I have.
Regarding the heavier sets as he goes on, obviously there isn’t as forceful a lockout because the bar speed is slowed down despite intent to be explosive. My sets were about equivalent to his 2nd and 3rd work sets both in speed and in weight.
I guess I feel in good company because CT praises his reps, especially in comparison to the other guys reps (towards the end of the video he makes this comment).
[quote]timmcbride00 wrote:
@ Thoughts
Any thoughts on using protan the week prior to get a bit of a base? Or is that overkill?
[/quote]
I’d say it’ll be overkill. The spray tan gets you so dark no matter what your natural skin color is. Before my first show, I went tanning to get a base coat, but the skin prep instructions specifically say not to. For the second show, I went in without any tanning and my color came out just as good.
[quote]timmcbride00 wrote:
3. Before I respond, a disclaimer: I hope I don’t sound combative, because I don’t mean to sound that way, I appreciate all input - It has also been talked about that the intent of explosiveness is important and the actual bar speed doesn’t always manifest itself until further along the concentric.
[/quote]
You don’t sound combative at all. It’s hard to really tell what exactly is going on through a video. I was just passing on something I’ve read, but you obviously know what’s working for you and how things feel.
[quote]timmcbride00 wrote:
Previous diet I hit a 30.5 inch waist…so what size trunks do I order?
…
Regarding color, I am thinking about:
Maroon, Forest Green, Black[/quote]
I personally went with the full cover in the back, but that’s cause I have ‘junk in the trunk’ as Stu puts it. I’d say the Flex cut would be a great choice for you. As far as size, I think you’d be better off going with a tighter fit. What I actually ended up doing was order a black one in both a medium and a large and then sent back the one that fit worse and got a different color in exchange.
Colors: I’d say get 2 since they’re inexpensive and it’s good to have a back up in case you get tan or something on your trunks. One in black for the morning (won’t distract the judges) and forest green (or another color for the evening show).
[quote]thoughts1053 wrote:
I’d say it’ll be overkill. The spray tan gets you so dark no matter what your natural skin color is. Before my first show, I went tanning to get a base coat, but the skin prep instructions specifically say not to. For the second show, I went in without any tanning and my color came out just as good.
You don’t sound combative at all. It’s hard to really tell what exactly is going on through a video. I was just passing on something I’ve read, but you obviously know what’s working for you and how things feel.
I personally went with the full cover in the back, but that’s cause I have ‘junk in the trunk’ as Stu puts it. I’d say the Flex cut would be a great choice for you. As far as size, I think you’d be better off going with a tighter fit. What I actually ended up doing was order a black one in both a medium and a large and then sent back the one that fit worse and got a different color in exchange.
Colors: I’d say get 2 since they’re inexpensive and it’s good to have a back up in case you get tan or something on your trunks. One in black for the morning (won’t distract the judges) and forest green (or another color for the evening show).
[/quote]
Glad to hear the protan would be overkill, I’m cheap and if I don’t have to buy something, all the better.
Cool, glad I didn’t offend regarding the video.
Getting two isn’t a bad idea, but I might just order early and have time to ship it back if it doesn’t fit well. A small might be in order for me based on the size chart.
I think Flex cut is the one.
CHANGES TO NIGHT SHOW ROUTINE
Practiced my night show routine last night (been focusing heavily on the mandatories lately) and I made some tweaks to the routine so it worked better for my body structure in my opinion. I was very happy with how it came out. I typically don’t practice the night show routine in front of a mirror, but I did last night and I was pleased with the detail coming in thus far.
MALTESE CROSS RING WORK
When CT initially started talking about ring work, I immediately gravitated towards the front lever and maltese cross. However, the maltese cross work was hard on my elbow initially. Well, I incorpated some band bicep curls to help warm up the elbow joint and eventually worked past the elbow pain. Next, my left delt started hurting, first the rear, then around towards the middle and front.
I decided to ditch the maltese for a short while and let my shoulder heal up. Then I gradually added back in some band work to mimic the maltese (band wrapped around a pole behind me, I am in a standing positing with arms away from my sides hold the bands with tension in them). This felt good but I started yearning to do the ring work again.
However, this time, instead of letting my arms go out perpendicular to my body, I tried really hard to bring them back at more of a 45 degree angle from my torso, thus more closely mimicking the actual maltese. My feet are still supported so it isn’t an actual maltese. But I can tell you that bringing your arms closer to your sides;
I am very happy and will continue to use it in my programming.
Quote from CT today in the spill:
OBSERVATION: Explosive movements + ring = jacked up metabolic rate… 2 weeks ago I started to focus only on explosive lifts and ring work. During that time I go A LOT leaner (cool) but yesterday I realised just how powerful the metabolic stimulation was. Over the past 4 days I dropped my carbs JUST A LITTLE to get super lean… BAD IDEA… I tanked BIG TIME yesterday. Just standing from my bed to go pee was a 15 min. decision!!! Increased carbs again this morning and I FEEL GREAT! (more)
Explosive actions and ring work combined have a profound impact on metabolic rate AND drastically increase insulin sensitivity. Keep that in mind when it comes to selecting your carbs level.
Synergy went on to observe similar things happening for him.
Well, anyone reading my log knows that I just was dropping weight like crazy the past week and a half. My focus has been on explosive lifting and rings as well. I guess that I just took my carbs and calories a bit too low and it caused the crash. Weight has stabilized since increasing carbs again.
POSING COLD VS POSING PUMPED
Wow, I posed pumped up for the first time (this prep) last night after doing the Prowler Leg Protocol and additional upperbody sled work. The increased size and vascularity were fun to say the least. Add to that, I was in a public restroom (don’t ask) and the lighting was PERFECT. I am feeling confident.
However, it made me think, I am glad that I do the rest of my posing in less than perfect lighting with a non-pumped up body. Because if I can get to a point where I look good not-pumped (and I feel I am getting there) than the added confidence of knowing I will look even better come competition day with a tan and pump are simply icing on the cake.
Just a random thought for the day.
[quote]timmcbride00 wrote:
POSING COLD VS POSING PUMPED
Wow, I posed pumped up for the first time (this prep) last night after doing the Prowler Leg Protocol and additional upperbody sled work. The increased size and vascularity were fun to say the least. Add to that, I was in a public restroom (don’t ask) and the lighting was PERFECT. I am feeling confident.
However, it made me think, I am glad that I do the rest of my posing in less than perfect lighting with a non-pumped up body. Because if I can get to a point where I look good not-pumped (and I feel I am getting there) than the added confidence of knowing I will look even better come competition day with a tan and pump are simply icing on the cake.
Just a random thought for the day.[/quote]
That’s why I stick to my “interrogation room” posing studio. I kept on getting kicked out of those public restrooms.
[quote]Serge A. Storms wrote:
That’s why I stick to my “interrogation room” posing studio. I kept on getting kicked out of those public restrooms.
[/quote]
You and me both, before I could finish posing, George Michael came in and then the police shortly after that. They asked me to leave.
Things going well still. Had a less than stellar diet this weekend, but still ended up weighing lighter than expected. I may actually bump up the carbs again.
I KNOW THERE IS NO PROWLER SUBSTITUTE…
But, this weekend the roads were covered with snow and I wanted to do something similar, I.E. constant tension, great pump, without my cardiovascular system being the limiting factor.
Enter Occlusion.
Obviously, it could never be a long term prowler substitute because there is a decent amount of eccentric stress and DOMS, unlike the prowler. But, I knew Sunday would be a day off of training, giving me an extra day for me legs to recover.
Wrapped up the upper thigh with leg wraps and went to town on leg extensions. It doesn’t take much weight. I have a simple plate-loaded leg extension machine and my occlusion workout looked like this:
100x20, 30 seconds rest
100x10, 40 seconds rest
75x10, 40 seconds rest
75x10, scream in agony, undo wraps
First set isn’t bad, but after the second, your legs start to scream and there is no relief because the wraps keep your legs from getting adequate oxygen. 3rd and 4th set are total pain. It is awesome and awful at the same time.
The only thing the makes occlusion bearable is the short time frame. You know if you can just bear the pain for a little while it will be over.
First I must say, now I have another reason to love your posts…I get to learn new words. Ischemic isn’t the first word I had to look up after reading your posts.
You are enlarging my vocabulary while you follow along on my quest to enlarge my muscles.
[quote]bushidobadboy wrote:
Ah yes, ischemic pain. Uniquely indescribable. Kind of like a heart attack in the legs.
BBB[/quote]
Perfect description for something uniquely indescribable. 
Weight at 182 right now, planning on being 183 at this point. Not that the actual numbers are important. But I keep targets to makes sure I am not losing too fast or too slow. Looking to end up in the mid-170’s but in better condition than previous cut where I ended up at 170.