Crazy strength especially with you dieting.
How you coping with the dieting right now?
[quote]plateau wrote:
Crazy strength especially with you dieting.
How you coping with the dieting right now?[/quote]
Thanks bro.
Right now the diet isn’t too bad at all. I still have tons of energy in the gym and strength is still there. I have really yet to have a day where I say this is unbearable or very tough. Don’t get me wrong, it’s hard, but I haven’t ever struggled more than just the desire to eat more, which is simply mental and easy to cope with/rationalize since I know that the end result will be great after it’s all said and done.
Looking awesome man. You do realize that you were already as lean as some of the guys you’ll be standing next to at 4 weeks? I thought I was pretty tight, but you’d kick my ass!
I doubt the dieting is going to effect you much at all. You clearly eat well to stay lean year round, so you won’t have those “fat kid” cravings that make some of the heavier guys grouchy. Plus, you seem to know how to cook! That helps a ton. Good tasting food and knowing how to make a few low calorie treats made dieting for my contest a breeze.
I actually started to think I was doing something wrong since I wasn’t miserable like the rest of my buddies! My strength did drop every time we cut some of my carbs, but after a few days my body acclimated and I was strong as ever again. I was still pushing hard and heavy until we started cutting water. Then I had to dial it back so I didn’t injure myself, haha.
Keep training like a beast! If you keep the post-diet food clean, you’re gonna love the rebound after your prep is over.
Great deadlift!
And as others have said, Quads are huge.
[quote]23278 wrote:
Looking awesome man. You do realize that you were already as lean as some of the guys you’ll be standing next to at 4 weeks? I thought I was pretty tight, but you’d kick my ass!
I doubt the dieting is going to effect you much at all. You clearly eat well to stay lean year round, so you won’t have those “fat kid” cravings that make some of the heavier guys grouchy. Plus, you seem to know how to cook! That helps a ton. Good tasting food and knowing how to make a few low calorie treats made dieting for my contest a breeze.
I actually started to think I was doing something wrong since I wasn’t miserable like the rest of my buddies! My strength did drop every time we cut some of my carbs, but after a few days my body acclimated and I was strong as ever again. I was still pushing hard and heavy until we started cutting water. Then I had to dial it back so I didn’t injure myself, haha.
Keep training like a beast! If you keep the post-diet food clean, you’re gonna love the rebound after your prep is over.[/quote]
Haha, thanks bro, 6 weeks actually :P…
Haha I certainly have those fat kid cravings, but they aren’t so bad that they make me miserable…I plan on taking a few days post-contest to just destroy any type of food I want…looking forward to that.
Knowing how to cook and spice up food certainly helps a TON…bland chicken/rice/broccoli can get very boring very quickly.
I’m very excited to see how I can take advantage of the rebound. I don’t plan on gorging myself right after (except for the days right after), but rather will slowly increase calories and gradually build up to a number that allows me to get to a heavier weight at a lower BF than before.
Appreciate the comments bro.
[quote]timmcbride00 wrote:
Great deadlift!
And as others have said, Quads are huge.[/quote]
Thanks bro, appreciate it.
[quote]
I’m very excited to see how I can take advantage of the rebound. I don’t plan on gorging myself right after (except for the days right after), but rather will slowly increase calories and gradually build up to a number that allows me to get to a heavier weight at a lower BF than before. [/quote]
I’d be interested to see how that works for you. I did the complete opposite.
I ate a slice of cheese cake and a dozen donut holes the hour after, then I went and ate 5 rolls of sushi. I ate chicken thighs, sirloin, and sweep potatoes the next 5 days. Then I left for a 4 day cruise and put down (yes, I really did carry a scale around…trainer wanted a food log) 3 lbs of new york strip, 3 lbs of roast duck, 2 lbs of lamb, 5lbs of bbq chicken, and piles of eggs at the breakfast buffet. I kept the carb sources to the white rice, potatoes, and oatmeal. They had this sugar free mint cake desert for dinner that satisfied my sweet cravings.
I freaking exploded, but in a good way! I weigh where I started my bulk, but carrying 4% less bodyfat.
[quote]23278 wrote:
[quote]
I’m very excited to see how I can take advantage of the rebound. I don’t plan on gorging myself right after (except for the days right after), but rather will slowly increase calories and gradually build up to a number that allows me to get to a heavier weight at a lower BF than before. [/quote]
I’d be interested to see how that works for you. I did the complete opposite.
I ate a slice of cheese cake and a dozen donut holes the hour after, then I went and ate 5 rolls of sushi. I ate chicken thighs, sirloin, and sweep potatoes the next 5 days. Then I left for a 4 day cruise and put down (yes, I really did carry a scale around…trainer wanted a food log) 3 lbs of new york strip, 3 lbs of roast duck, 2 lbs of lamb, 5lbs of bbq chicken, and piles of eggs at the breakfast buffet. I kept the carb sources to the white rice, potatoes, and oatmeal. They had this sugar free mint cake desert for dinner that satisfied my sweet cravings.
I freaking exploded, but in a good way! I weigh where I started my bulk, but carrying 4% less bodyfat.[/quote]
Hmmm lol…may need to rethink my strategy…obviously nothing’s set in stone…Thanks for the description/explanation of your rebound.
[quote]23278 wrote:
[quote]
I’m very excited to see how I can take advantage of the rebound. I don’t plan on gorging myself right after (except for the days right after), but rather will slowly increase calories and gradually build up to a number that allows me to get to a heavier weight at a lower BF than before. [/quote]
I’d be interested to see how that works for you. I did the complete opposite.
I ate a slice of cheese cake and a dozen donut holes the hour after, then I went and ate 5 rolls of sushi. I ate chicken thighs, sirloin, and sweep potatoes the next 5 days. Then I left for a 4 day cruise and put down (yes, I really did carry a scale around…trainer wanted a food log) 3 lbs of new york strip, 3 lbs of roast duck, 2 lbs of lamb, 5lbs of bbq chicken, and piles of eggs at the breakfast buffet. I kept the carb sources to the white rice, potatoes, and oatmeal. They had this sugar free mint cake desert for dinner that satisfied my sweet cravings.
I freaking exploded, but in a good way! I weigh where I started my bulk, but carrying 4% less bodyfat.[/quote]
Damn, I went on a week cruise this summer in the middle of my week…and put on 10 pounds, mostly fat haha definitely wasn’t near contest lean though
Hey guys.
I know I didn’t update this week, have been very busy with LSAT prep, school, prep, and other stuff…Here are a few pics that highlight areas that are leaner.
New back pic: Hammies/back is visibly leaner here. I was very happy with this.
And here is one from the front.
These were taken last weekend, and this week, my quads have seemed to have gotten much leaner. I think this coming weeks pictures (5 weeks out) will demonstrate a level of leanness I haven’t yet presented.
It’s tough for me to post these with the Olympia fallout and all, but I figured why not lol.
As we get closer to the contest, I’ll also start posting posing videos to give a better idea of what I will look like when onstage.
Looking amazing and DENSE! Guess that’s what all those heavy lifts do.
Allright guys, weekly update.
I weighed in this morning at 201.0, which is a low for me at this point in the diet.
Right now, we are exactly 5 weeks out. I feel very good with where I’m at right now in terms of leanness/size. From what I can infer, Layne believes that we will fall below 190, as I will be competing in the light heavyweight with the cutoff at 189 so that’s the deal right now. Diet and cardio are not bad at all right now and training is as intense as ever.
Right now, my training split/cardio looks like this:
Sunday: Arms + Steady-State
Monday: Quads/Calves + Steady-State
Tuesday: Either Back/Biceps + HIIT or Chest/Triceps + HIIT (depending on how I feel)
Wednesday: Either Back/Biceps or Chest/Triceps + HIIT
Thursday: Hamstrings/Calves + Steady-State
Friday: Delts/Traps + HIIT
Saturday: HIIT
We are doing 4 HIIT sessions/week which may seem like a lot, but it’s totally bearable. The steady-state sessions are relatively short, 20-30 minutes in duration. I refer to them as “medium intensity” as I am still working pretty hard in them.
Right now, my training is centered around still trying to progress on a variety of compound movements. I am a firm believer in forcing yourself to not lose strength on a diet, and that being something one can actually do. While I recognize that some strength loss will occur, I am still putting up, for example, 275 for sets of 5-6 on incline bench presses/deadlifting 500 for reps, squatting 450 for reps, and push pressing in the mid 200s.
Those aren’t amazing numbers, but for an almost sub-200 lber (GASP), they’re pretty solid.
So there’s the update, and here are some pics.
In this one, I’m trying to bring my elbows in a bit to emphasize my arms/width a bit more.
The lighting outside today was a bit off…but I think these look pretty good still/display progress well.
Front relaxed
