Thanks spidey, this type of training works Well for me and im sure youll find the same.
update. 8 weeks out yesterday. today is my first réal zero catb day of the prep. so far i feel ok, but the performance of my hit cardio decreased notably. i emailed shelby and suggested that adding 15 to 30 grams carbs would fix this. we will see what he says.
well you guys Wanna know whey Shelby is the best in the business? he got back to me in 15 mins with the perfect solution!
that last pic i like, lines in the right places. good luck and have fun with this one dude
tipping the Scale at à massive 179.4 today after à low carb day. starting to wonder if im looking at a contest weight below 170 lbs
[quote]GrindOverMatter wrote:
tipping the Scale at �?� massive 179.4 today after �?� low carb day. starting to wonder if im looking at a contest weight below 170 lbs[/quote]
Conditioning’s looking good Grind! I’m definitely not an expert on posing but one thing that jumps out at me: Have you tried your back double bi and rear lat spread with a narrower stance? To me, your legs being spread so wide makes your back look not as wide as it could. You’ve got some beastly legs/hammies also, and having them so far apart from each other seems to not showcase them as well as you could, and makes your legs look kind of long and gangly. Again, if Shelby or another respected bb’er has instructed you on your posing, completely disregard my comments!
[quote]pwolves17 wrote:
[quote]GrindOverMatter wrote:
tipping the Scale at �??�?� massive 179.4 today after �??�?� low carb day. starting to wonder if im looking at a contest weight below 170 lbs[/quote]
Conditioning’s looking good Grind! I’m definitely not an expert on posing but one thing that jumps out at me: Have you tried your back double bi and rear lat spread with a narrower stance? To me, your legs being spread so wide makes your back look not as wide as it could. You’ve got some beastly legs/hammies also, and having them so far apart from each other seems to not showcase them as well as you could, and makes your legs look kind of long and gangly. Again, if Shelby or another respected bb’er has instructed you on your posing, completely disregard my comments![/quote]
ok, tommorow ill try that and see if it improves things!! thanks
[quote]GrindOverMatter wrote:
tried to keep legs closer and bend knees less…i think its better now![/quote]
I like that pose a lot better!
7 weeks out, 1st thing in the morning. before food or water
feeling great!! still having great workouts!!
You said you’ve worked a lot on improving your strength in the Squat, DL, and Decline pressing.
Any particular method you are using to do so, like a plan of progression? Or just kind of going by feel?
Looking sick in the newest picture by the way. Ridiculous progress.
[quote]Spidey22 wrote:
You said you’ve worked a lot on improving your strength in the Squat, DL, and Decline pressing.
Any particular method you are using to do so, like a plan of progression? Or just kind of going by feel?
Looking sick in the newest picture by the way. Ridiculous progress. [/quote]
great question, so here’s a perhaps a bit of a long winded answer
i approached each lift for progression a bit differently.
lets start with everyones favorite, the squat;
I feel this has always been a good movement for me to grow quads, and for a good chunk of time i used the big beyond beleif system to get this lift stronger. After i stepped off stage in novemeber, i stole the two rep and set ranges from BBB, 8-10 and 13-15 for sets of 3-5 with rest periods of 60-120 seconds, also utilizing the top set and back off sets that people have adapted for that program. Make no mistake, this is where i got A LOT of quad growth. However, me personally, can only progress for so long with that sceheme until my back gets injured. Its just too insane to do for prolonged periods. So i searched for something more sustainable. which i eventually just settled on linear progression, with no hard plan, basically id take a shot at 275 for a top set, get maybe 15 reps, then do some back off sets to keep volume a bit higher, then next week 295, next week 315 etc. After i stepped off stage in november i had not back squated in months due to a back injury, so when i first squatted again, the most i could do was 225x7. yup thats it, at a bodyweight of 181. pretty pathetic. within months i could do 315x7 again. so yeah the legs responded well to that.
next up deadlift;
always had back issues with the deadlift too, so this year i put a premium on MORE VOLUME, MORE FREQUENCY, lighter weights and very little GRINDING REPS. i actually did a charity deadlift only meet and increased from 405 to 440 in 4 weeks just from working with 315 for triples and 365 for sets of doubles. used about 10 sets each on thrusday and saturday. focussing a lot on technique.
decline presses’;
the problem with me in the past with presses was that i could NEVER feel my pecs working.it just didnt come as natural as getting a huge quad, or back pump, or shoulder pump. so with this lift i primarily used sets of 8 and really focussed on feeling the pecs, which yes took some weight off the bar\ dumbells. I used a mountain dog type thing, like 4x8 with a static weight. I feel this has helped me chest progression a lot.
as for what i mdoing right now for these lifts, im keeping the sets and reps exact same for decline pressing, but for squat and deadlift , oh and incline pressing too. ive been following a set and weight progression that goes like this. week 1 3 sets of 8, week two, same weight as last week but 5x5, week three, add 10 lbs 4x4, week four, add 10 lbs 3x3—then repeat. So far its been working well, almost in contest shape and all my lifts are holding up quite well
[quote]Spidey22 wrote:
You said you’ve worked a lot on improving your strength in the Squat, DL, and Decline pressing.
Any particular method you are using to do so, like a plan of progression? Or just kind of going by feel?
Looking sick in the newest picture by the way. Ridiculous progress. [/quote]
Definitely agree Grind,your progress Is stunning.
[quote]jppage wrote:
[quote]Spidey22 wrote:
You said you’ve worked a lot on improving your strength in the Squat, DL, and Decline pressing.
Any particular method you are using to do so, like a plan of progression? Or just kind of going by feel?
Looking sick in the newest picture by the way. Ridiculous progress. [/quote]
Definitely agree Grind,your progress Is stunning.[/quote]
thank you both, i was really nervous that 10 month off season wasnt enough to change anything as a natural, but fortunately i was able to make the exact improvements i wanted. and let me repeat, the best thing is that i feel fucking phenominal right now! i was dying last year at this condition due to an extreme diet, and my body was just not used to being lean at all. Im sure there will be some difgging involved over the next few weeks, but after last year i feel like i can survive anything
In ~~~ looking forward to following this contest prep thread.
BTW: Grind, you should change your avatar to one of your more recent poses. Up until I read this thread, I assumed you weighed about 135 lbs (based on that avatar)
your gonna kick some ass!!
[quote]GrindOverMatter wrote:
[quote]Spidey22 wrote:
You said you’ve worked a lot on improving your strength in the Squat, DL, and Decline pressing.
Any particular method you are using to do so, like a plan of progression? Or just kind of going by feel?
Looking sick in the newest picture by the way. Ridiculous progress. [/quote]
great question, so here’s a perhaps a bit of a long winded answer
i approached each lift for progression a bit differently.
lets start with everyones favorite, the squat;
I feel this has always been a good movement for me to grow quads, and for a good chunk of time i used the big beyond beleif system to get this lift stronger. After i stepped off stage in novemeber, i stole the two rep and set ranges from BBB, 8-10 and 13-15 for sets of 3-5 with rest periods of 60-120 seconds, also utilizing the top set and back off sets that people have adapted for that program. Make no mistake, this is where i got A LOT of quad growth. However, me personally, can only progress for so long with that sceheme until my back gets injured. Its just too insane to do for prolonged periods. So i searched for something more sustainable. which i eventually just settled on linear progression, with no hard plan, basically id take a shot at 275 for a top set, get maybe 15 reps, then do some back off sets to keep volume a bit higher, then next week 295, next week 315 etc. After i stepped off stage in november i had not back squated in months due to a back injury, so when i first squatted again, the most i could do was 225x7. yup thats it, at a bodyweight of 181. pretty pathetic. within months i could do 315x7 again. so yeah the legs responded well to that.
next up deadlift;
always had back issues with the deadlift too, so this year i put a premium on MORE VOLUME, MORE FREQUENCY, lighter weights and very little GRINDING REPS. i actually did a charity deadlift only meet and increased from 405 to 440 in 4 weeks just from working with 315 for triples and 365 for sets of doubles. used about 10 sets each on thrusday and saturday. focussing a lot on technique.
decline presses’;
the problem with me in the past with presses was that i could NEVER feel my pecs working.it just didnt come as natural as getting a huge quad, or back pump, or shoulder pump. so with this lift i primarily used sets of 8 and really focussed on feeling the pecs, which yes took some weight off the bar\ dumbells. I used a mountain dog type thing, like 4x8 with a static weight. I feel this has helped me chest progression a lot.
as for what i mdoing right now for these lifts, im keeping the sets and reps exact same for decline pressing, but for squat and deadlift , oh and incline pressing too. ive been following a set and weight progression that goes like this. week 1 3 sets of 8, week two, same weight as last week but 5x5, week three, add 10 lbs 4x4, week four, add 10 lbs 3x3—then repeat. So far its been working well, almost in contest shape and all my lifts are holding up quite well[/quote]
Thanks for taking the time to write all that. I too did BBB for a long time, so Quads are a strong point for me as well. the progression plan is interesting, I may have to steal it for Squats, Decline, and OHP. Thanks for that.
I know you said you added only about 20 lbs during the off-season from your stage weight. Was it just slow, gradual progress, 2 pounds a month? Or did it come in spurts? Like were you just in a steady surplus through out and made adjustments?
Sorry if I’m asking too many questions, just seems like you’ve done a lot of things right lately so curious to learn lol
[quote]GrindOverMatter wrote:
Shelby has me doing hit cardio which I do on the bike which helps the quads stay big, I think[/quote]
I used to race bicycles in the early 90s ~~~ and my quads have never been has big as they were at that time (and I never trained my legs in any other fashion other than on the bike).
What did Shelby have you doing on the bike? Are you allowed to share it ~ because I would like to add something like this to my routine also (I have time to time back issues like you) ~ and for this reason, squatting is often more of a back exercise for me than a leg exercise ~ so supplementing with the bike would be cool.
[quote]iplan wrote:
[quote]GrindOverMatter wrote:
Shelby has me doing hit cardio which I do on the bike which helps the quads stay big, I think[/quote]
I used to race bicycles in the early 90s ~~~ and my quads have never been has big as they were at that time (and I never trained my legs in any other fashion other than on the bike).
What did Shelby have you doing on the bike? Are you allowed to share it ~ because I would like to add something like this to my routine also (I have time to time back issues like you) ~ and for this reason, squatting is often more of a back exercise for me than a leg exercise ~ so supplementing with the bike would be cool. [/quote]
well using the bike was my idea, he just told me to do the intervals, basically its 15 minutes of intervals, with 15 seconds all out, 45 seconds rest, repeat.
