Crazy how much his face cheeks have sunk in.
Two weeks away … who is going? A friend and I are since we live relatively close.
A few new pictures of the beginning of the water cut are up on Matt’s log:
http://asp.elitefts.com/qa/training-logs.asp?tid=126&__N=Matt%20Kroczaleski
[quote]therajraj wrote:
Crazy how much his face cheeks have sunk in. [/quote]
I like how you specified “face” cheeks in order to avoid an obvious joke… nicely done
.greg.
Monsah
.
shelbys after saying on his FB its looking like kroc is gonna win his class, he also said one of his clients in the show might take the overall, he didnt say which one. (he has 2 clients in the show kroc is one of them)
yeah so he won his class.
And 2nd overall, qualifying for Nationals.
Saw his pictures on his log … he looked insane, apparently a judge pulled him over to say he could turn pro?
I wonder what the competition was like.
It is both inspiring and heartbreaking (for me) that he weighed in at 214 looking like that. I recently hit 250 at the strongest I’ve ever been and I still wouldn’t look like that dieted down to 214.
LOL.
FML.
^ LOL
Not too shabby. I’m curious to see what the nay-sayers will come up with. Personally, I’m surprised,… not in a bad way, but that everything came together so well, when weeks ago we were all looking looking at his ‘imbalances’ 
S
[quote]SteelyD wrote:
It is both inspiring and heartbreaking (for me) that he weighed in at 214 looking like that. I recently hit 250 at the strongest I’ve ever been and I still wouldn’t look like that dieted down to 214.
LOL.
FML.
[/quote]
From another board:
So, don’t feel bad Steely
And I wanted to quote this stuff for the “you must stay lean all the time in bbing” crowd.
You want to work your way up to huge numbers and crazy thickness, you need to give your body plenty of excess fuel…
Anybody have pictures showing the entire line-up?
[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:
Not too shabby. I’m curious to see what the nay-sayers will come up with. Personally, I’m surprised,… not in a bad way, but that everything came together so well, when weeks ago we were all looking looking at his ‘imbalances’
S[/quote]
His weak areas are still there, it just means that he looked better than his competition anyway 
I was surprised too, though. When I saw the back pic with tan on and all in his log from before the show (not the lat spread), I thought “that prep went well!”.
Shelby and Matt really pulled that one off perfectly, Matt doesn’t look like he lost much if any muscle…
I honestly expected things to go a little less well because it’s the first time for them working together on a prep.
And congrats to Matt for having found himself such a supportive significant other. Beats any trophy you can win.
/edited
Swiped this from his Log:
"First and foremost I want to thank two people. Shelby Starnes for guiding me from blocky, chunky powerlifter to a streamlined and proportionate bodybuilder. I have learned a ton from Shelby over the last 17 weeks and as I have mentioned before I am so impressed by his knowledge that I have recruited him to help me gain size in the off season. I will most likely be working with him year round from now on as I attempt to accomplish all of my powerlifting and bodybuilding goals. Second I want to thank my girlfriend Lauren for all of her help and support. This would have been so much more difficult without her. She basically prepared 90% plus of my meals and took care of so many other things for me so I could concentrate more on preparing for the show. Not only did she often do things like get up at 5am to take pics of me for Shelby to evaluate she did what was perhaps the hardest of all and that was putting up with my frequent mood swings and irritability or what she liked to refer to as Mr. Crabs lol. Anyone that has gone through this process knows what I am talking about and the burden it places on your significant other.
The morning started off well and things were going as planned as I weighed in at 214lbs (on a light scale) and felt ready to do battle. Prior to us even beginning the diet Shelby predicted that I would weigh 215 on stage. The dude is like the Nostradamus of the dieting world. At weigh ins it soon became apparent that I would have a fight on my hands as two other heavy weights showed up looking big and ready. I wasn’t going to be the only freak here on this day.
Prejudging went well and after it was over I was assured by many people that I would be the heavyweight victor but I never count unhatched eggs and this was bodybuilding so I listened to what everyone had to say and waited to hear the official results at the night show. I did notice that the first time we turned our backs to the audience there was a collective “oooohhh” from the crowd which I hoped was directed at me since I knew my back was my strength. As it turned out this was what in all probability won the heavies for me.
In between the night and day show the general consensus seemed to be that whoever won the heavies would most likely take the overall but again it’s never over until it’s over and in bodybuilding anything can happen so I didn’t get my hopes up just because the rumors were prognosticating good things for me.
One very cool thing that did happen was that one of the judges pulled me aside and told me that he was very impressed with my physique and that he felt I had all of the necessary tools to become a pro if I was willing to do what it would take. That was nice to hear.
Well when it came time for the night routines mine went off well in spite of the fact that I had only put it together two days prior, practiced it very little and Shelby and I had burned the CD only a few hours before prejudging lol. I have been so incredibly busy lately there just wasn’t time to squeeze that in and I was confident that I could pull it off with minimal preparation and I did. Still it didn’t help that no one came to tell us I was getting close to being up for my routine when we were backstage and I almost missed it and had to go out without hardly pumping up at all.
Another positive was that I continued to shed water and harden up as the day went on and I was significantly drier at the evening portion of the show versus the prejudging. All of the pics I am posting were taken at the prejudging by the way.
So when it came time to announce the class winners I was relieved to hear my name called for first in the heavies and felt pretty confident going into the overall comparisons and pose down. As soon as they gave us the word to free pose and cranked the music I walked right to front center stage and began hitting all of my strongest poses. The middle weight winner that was very shredded as well and who many considered to be my biggest rival for the overall jumped right up along side of me and we went at it pose for pose. The rest of the winners gathered around us and did there best to convince the judges that they were the deserving victor.
I stayed front and center the entire time and was the last guy there still hitting poses as the rest of the competitors dropped back to center stage to await the announcements. I felt I had done a good job asserting myself as the man to beat and now I just hoped the judges would reward me for my efforts. Like I mentioned previously I was onstage and not in the judging chairs so I won’t say anything about whether or not I deserved the overall but as far as the crowd was concerned I was the favorite.
I was extremely disappointed when my name was not called as the overall winner but I this was a very valuable experience none the less. I learned way more about dieting and nutrition than I expected to, gained new respect for Shelby and most importantly this entire experience has motivated me to train even harder and I believe I will become a much better powerlifter and bodybuilder because of it."
This is awesome. He looked great!
his quads and hammies need work if he wants to go pro.