As of today (Saturday 15th of Feb) I’m officially 8 weeks out from the IFBB Gauteng North Novice show & 12 weeks out from the NABBA Pretoria Classic, which will be a qualifier for Provincials this year.
I’ve been working with Shelby Starnes for the last 3-4 months, and been following Mountain Dog Training for this prep as I have for the last 18 months.
I know my body, and the 8 week mark is when things start getting pretty tough for me mentally, so I decided that keeping a journal would be a great way to stay accountable and motivated… That plus my twice weekly updates with Shelby which keep me very honest.
These will be my 2nd and 3rd contests. I competed last year in the IFBB Intermediate show in June, and won my division (over 80kgs/176lbs)but didn’t place in the overall line up.
I’m all about experimentation and learning as much as I possibly can about nutrition and training, so in my offseason I experimented with some methods and worked with a different coach which didn’t quite work out for me. I ended up gaining more fat than I wanted to, and finished up at about 99kg/218lbs, when honestly, I don’t believe my weight should have crept over 89-90kgs.
I’m currently sitting at 83.7kgs/184lbs, and Shelby and I are shooting for a contest weight around 78kg/172lbs. Judging by my current rate of fat loss, this should be very achievable albeit with a little suffering along the way.
My next update with Shelby is due for Tuesday, so the pictures below are from my last update on Wednesday the 12th (8.5 weeks out).
Training days:
Pre training: 17g cream of rice/40g protein from whey isolate/ 1TBSP almond butter
During training: 1/2 scoop Plazma/1 scoop MAG-10
Post training: 1/2 cup basmati rice/125g sirloin steak
All other meals: 40g protein/0g carbs/ 10g fat
Non-training days:
All meals: 40g protein/0g carbs/10g fat
Cardio is currently at 35 minutes everyday, fasted in the AM.
[quote]lemony2j wrote:
Looking good at 8 weeks out I’m in![/quote]
Thank you for the kind words bro. As Shelby always mentions, comparisons to other people are pointless. As long as I can beat my condition from last year, and know that I gave this prep 100%, I’ll be very happy.
I’m feeling very motivated to work my ass off for the next few weeks.
[quote]jppage wrote:
Looking foreword to this Matt.I’m liking all these contest threads going on.[/quote]
Ya, it is seriously motivational. I literally sit at work (I own a health & supplement store in South Africa) and go through all the contest prep threads to keep my head in the game!!
Very cool Matt. Great to have you logging your prep on here. I agree with Shelby in that it’s always better to compare to yourself than to worry about other competitors. So long as you continually get better, you’re winning.
Any photos from your previous contest? Those quads (crazy overhang!) look great, I’d love to see what sort of conditioning you brought last time. No doubt you’ll be cruising in and setting the bar higher this time out.
[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:
Very cool Matt. Great to have you logging your prep on here. I agree with Shelby in that it’s always better to compare to yourself than to worry about other competitors. So long as you continually get better, you’re winning.
Any photos from your previous contest? Those quads (crazy overhang!) look great, I’d love to see what sort of conditioning you brought last time. No doubt you’ll be cruising in and setting the bar higher this time out.
All the best brother.
S[/quote]
Thanks you Stu! I really appreciate you following along! To be honest, it was due to reading your, and zraw’s, prep threads that I finally decided to compete in the first place!
I’ll ask my wife if she has some pics from last year. Most of them were saved on my phone, which was stolen from my store a few months back.
The amazing thing is, I’m 8 weeks out, and within 3lbs of the weight I actually competed at last year! The general consensus amongst my training partners and posing coach is that I did manage to put on some lean muscle during my short offseason; so all things considered, I’m very positive about improving my condition this time around.
Just finished up my AM cardio- today was definitely one of those sessions that was a bit tough to get through. I went to a late movie last night with the wife, so ended up only getting about 6 hours of sleep.
Now it’s time to pack my meals and head off to work. Got a MountainDog arm session planned for this evening, though. Looking forward to it!
Chest and shoulder pump from yesterday evening. It was my second (slightly lighter) chest and shoulder session for the week. I hit chest & shoulders twice per week as discussed with John, as I do feel they’re fairly weak in relation to other body parts, particularly my legs.
Struggling to get to sleep tonight. Last year, that also started to happen at around the 8 week out mark. I think this time around, I should be a little smarter and try to compensate by throwing in a nap after training.
If anyone can chime in and give me their experiences with sleep (or lack thereof) during prep, it would be much appreciated.
On the bright side, just placed a big Biotest order! Got some Metabolic Drive and enough Plazma and MAG-10 coming to last me until a few weeks in to the offseason hopefully. Getting the products in to South Africa is always such a hassle… but totally worth it.
