S
Stu thatās awesome haha.
Thanks JP. Catās had so much to do lately, that I canāt believe she managed to pull this all together. Plus I had so many texts and emails earlier in the day (nothing strange, it is my Birthday), and Iām telling friends all morning that weāll do something after Catās show, how I donāt want to celebrate while sheās unable to join inā¦ lol. Sneaky Wife!
Grabbed this pic off of my brother in lawās girlfriendās FB page. Nothing special, just Cat, me and the cake, but seeing how my injured arm is starting to fill out again after the surgery is a nice little birthday present 
(my chest is taking its sweet ass time though!)
S
Ya I agree and who would of thought she would even be In that state of mind to pull off and plan such an event given her situation with the contest prep.Thatās a good girl there stu.And your arm,shoulder size Is the first thing I noticed when looked at the pic.The size is definitely there buddy,and coming on fast
Happy Belated Stu
ā¦Geezeā¦, no wonder Cat has been absent in her log, she has waayyy better things to do. YES!!! She is a keeper!!
That was awesome!
You look like you had a blast in those pics. Thanks for sharing 'em. You definitely look like you are filling out your shirts again
That looks like a SUPER fun party. Cat must have been your HERO that day. (Oh man, that was badā¦)
Nothing really new to update, but just wanted to get some of my thoughts out:
A buddy of mine commented the other day in the gym that he can tell that Iām āretired from competitionā because he saw me checking my cel phone in between sets of squats (actually Iāve taken to answering texts from clients during my gym time if need be, this wasnāt always the case).
Now, Iām most definitely not ready top concede retirement, at least not permanently, but I will note that there has certainly be a slight shift in priorities since my injury. For one thing, while I have dealt with smaller (relatively) injuries over the years, having the surgery that I did not even a year ago, is not something to just put out of your head, and resume training with the same intensity that earned me my WNBF Pro card in the first place.
Yes, there has always been some issue or another to keep in mind, and workaround when training, but even my usual intense focus and attention to detail has moved up a notch. The old adage of training smarter, not harder has taken on new meaning, and despite my reluctance to fully acknowledge the increases in size that have happened the last couple of months, Iām still taking things a day at a time with my own recovery, and focusing a lot more on answering otherās questions in the gym.
I actually seem to have even more people approaching me now that Iām not so intense and single minded with my gym time. Maybe I just look more approchable (mellowing with age perhaps -lol)? Maybe it was the sight of me training with my arm in a full sling and changing so much in physical appearance? Maybe itās the fact that I have so many competitor/clients walking around making sich visible progress from week to week (sporting my logo on tshirts and hats)? Who knows.
I can admit though that I do genuinely enjoy it. Last night I actually spent a good 15 minutes outside the gym before my workout discussing possible Fall contests with a couple of college kids wanting to compete, and then another 20 minutes answering nutrition questions for some of the trainers at the front desk after my leg workout.
No matter what I end up doing competition wise, I just love the whole science/sport of bodybuilding. Iām damn lucky that my current gym is so full of others who share my feelings and ambitions. In all the places Iāve trained at over the years, it hasnāt been that way more often than not.
S
Stu
Best of luck in rebounding from your injury. I posted the following in the BB forum, but no one responded. Iād like your input. Please see below since Iād like your input, as well as any other competitors.
I competed in a bodybuilding contest on May 4. It was my third contest in 7 months. At weigh-in, the day before the contest, I was 180 lbs. This was weight in my last two contests as well.
Yesterday, I weighed 181.3 lbs. and had my body fat percentage taken via underwater testing. I was 5.5%. Last May, prior to my pre-contest prep, I weighed 206 lbs. at 11.7% taken via underwater testing. Consequently, it took me roughly 17 weeks to go from 205 lbs. to 180 lbs. at contest time.
I now start my gradual increase in calories and weight.
I have two questions for fellow competitors:
Yourself
- What is your approximate difference in pounds between your off-season weight and contest weight, and rough body-fat at that off-season weight?
My situation
2) What weight do you think I should be for a steady-state off-season weight? I like being roughly 205-207 lbs. (even though it was 25 lbs. over my contest weight) and I was still able to see my outline of my abdominals. My body fat was roughly within the 8-12% range at 11.7%.
Again, Iām currently at 5.5% body fat at 181 lbs. and making a plan for this post-contest transition. As a result, Iād like your thoughts on your situation and my current one.
You sound like you are an EliteFTS athleteā¦ āLive. Learn. And Pass On.ā
I think as we get more experienced at ANYTHING we get much more comfortable and can thus do differently and more ārelaxed.ā Now that you have a very good idea of what works for you, what weight you need to be, how much of this/that you need to do, there isnt the need to be deathly serious about every detail in the gym.
What Iām trying to say isā¦ Can I have your phone number?
Keep on keepinā on Stu. If and when you decide to hit the stage again Iām sure you will be proud of the package you present.
Iāll type more when I have more time, but for now I just needed to share this. I just had an entire case delivered to my apartment. Yeah buddy!
S
LOL
That could be a thread in GALā¦ āPastries That Changed Your Lifeā
Stu I looked for those today haha,my storeās donāt have them yet.Guess thatās why they were ordered(delivered) I bet.
[quote]ghost87 wrote:
Stu
Best of luck in rebounding from your injury. I posted the following in the BB forum, but no one responded. Iād like your input. Please see below since Iād like your input, as well as any other competitors.
I competed in a bodybuilding contest on May 4. It was my third contest in 7 months. At weigh-in, the day before the contest, I was 180 lbs. This was weight in my last two contests as well.
Yesterday, I weighed 181.3 lbs. and had my body fat percentage taken via underwater testing. I was 5.5%. Last May, prior to my pre-contest prep, I weighed 206 lbs. at 11.7% taken via underwater testing. Consequently, it took me roughly 17 weeks to go from 205 lbs. to 180 lbs. at contest time.
I now start my gradual increase in calories and weight. [/quote]
Hey Ghost, always great to hear from fellow competitors. 3 shows in 7 months eh? I know a lot of people like to line up a string of contests like that, but as much as I love competing, I also like to balance out the rest of my life. As such, always keeping my contests to the Spring allowed me to loosen the reins a bit. I think that psychologically, this is what enabled me to keep things in perspective. When Iām off season, Iāll be strict enough to make progeress and not cause unnecessary physique damage (ie/ having to diet off uneeded fat later on), but when itās prep time, thereās no room for mistakes.
17 weeks to drop from 205 to 180 sounds like a good pace, and by now you undoubtedly understand how your body reacts to cutting. Hope you did well, but more importantly, hope you had a good time. I know that like me, youāre not one of the younger dudes up there anymore -lol.
Ok, so lemme take a look at the topics posedā¦
[quote[
I have two questions for fellow competitors:
Yourself
- What is your approximate difference in pounds between your off-season weight and contest weight, and rough body-fat at that off-season weight? [/quote]
When I started competing, I was usually around 205-210 lbs off season. Of course, my body fat levels were nothing to write home about, as I didnāt really understand a lot of the things that I do now. I honestly and truly believed that I would just keep making body composition changes while keeping my scale weight higher, and one day I would magically wake up looking like a bodybuilder. My first ever contest weight was a mere 170 lbs (I told people Iād likely be 190 onstage! -lol) Still, I was f-ing shredded on stage, and while I went through the usual āI feel so tinyā mental freak outs that most people would have, looking at photos really put things into perspective.
Each successive year, I would hold my weight back a bit in the off season, and yet my contest weights and measurements would continually increase. [Thereās no need to get into the whole aspect of my putting on a higher quality of lbm due to my leanness here, itās been done to death]
I canāt tell you bodyfat percentages through the years though. I might have used a tape measure here and there, but never fooled myself with calipers because even if they were accurate - theyāre not - it makes no difference for a contest bodybuilder for purposes other than bragging to people who really have no concept anyway. What I did use more than anything though, was the mirror, and a digital camera.
At ~205 lbs, I had visible abs. Not āsemblence of absā, but all abs visible when flexed. Now, this is something that became more and more pronounced each year, despite my scale weight staying the same. What also changed, was my measurements. While my arms were always a strength, for that first show (2009) I had 17" in contest shape. Each year they improved, until I was flexing ~17.5" arms onstage at 176-178 lbs. At almost 40 years of age (well, 40 as I write this), thatās some quality improvement.
[quote]My situation
2) What weight do you think I should be for a steady-state off-season weight? I like being roughly 205-207 lbs. (even though it was 25 lbs. over my contest weight) and I was still able to see my outline of my abdominals. My body fat was roughly within the 8-12% range at 11.7%.
Again, Iām currently at 5.5% body fat at 181 lbs. and making a plan for this post-contest transition. As a result, Iād like your thoughts on your situation and my current one.
[/quote]
As a competitor, there are several things you need to concern yourself with IMO.
-You KNOW that youāre going to have to diet down to an approximate weight range. Do you want to make it more difficult than it absolutely has to be?
-How comfortable are you at a given off season weight? This applies to how you feel (I love wearing XL t-shirts and stretching out the back, shoulders and upper arms) walking around every day. Are you embarassed to take you shirt off even though while clothed everyone calls you ābig guyā?
-Do you feel that training is better at a certain off season weight range? Do you move more weight because of your heavier bodyweight? Is it really necessary to continue to pack on muscle?
-Are you enjoying your life when not prepping? Iām certainly not going to suffer 12 months a year because I like competing. Thereās too much good stuff out there to eat, friends to go binge with, and fun to be had. Everyone needs to find their own degree of balance.
Personally, I think that the #s you threw out sound right on for your situation. Most pros I talk to will stay about 20-25 lbs from their contest weights. Sure there are the few who like to stay leaner for guest posing and professional situations, but if the rest of your life doesnāt revolve around playing the bodybuilding persona, I think youāve got a healthy plan with what you outlined.
S
Thank you Stu for responding. Good luck again on your recovery from your injury
this has probably been asked and answered so my apologies. Do you eat both poptarts or just 1 PWO?
[quote]StevenF wrote:
this has probably been asked and answered so my apologies. Do you eat both poptarts or just 1 PWO? [/quote]
Lol, you know, when I first started paying attention to macros, and the timing of certain nutrients, I honestly thought that if I ate too many carbs at one point, even if itās right after I trained, that I would get fat. To put it simply: I was wrong -lol.
You have to remember that your body can handle a certain amount of each macronutrient each day in order to address its daily needs, including the training and other stresses you subject it to. How you space out your carbohydrates can vary quite a bit depending on the individual.
What I learned over my years of competing, was that you can handle quite a lot of carbohydrates if everything else is already addressed in an intelligent manner. With that said, as I usually train in the evenings most days of the week, I prefer to have the majority of my carbs before training. This wasnāt always the case, but you always have to be open minded enough to try new approaches, and I feel that this simply enabled me to have more productive sessions.
I still have ONE poptart post training, even at night, because Iām not really exceeding how many daily carbs my body can handle without porking up. If I hit the gym earlier in the day, maybe on a weekend, I might have 2, 3, who knows how many after training. Of course having so many simply means that Iāll back off a bit later in the day, sticking to more P+F based meals.
The take home point is that so long as youāre not exceeding how many carbs your body can handle each day, you can place them wherever they will do you the most good. I remember when I was training for a show a year or two back, in addition to eating tons of oatmeal, ezekial bread, and even fat free snack cakes during the day, I was also having 3 finibars and some Surge Workout Fuel right before/during my training. Of course I wasnāt overdoing the protein (maybe 225-250g), or the fats (maybe 10-12g), and my total calories were just enough for a slight deficit. To sum it up, it wasnāt bad at all -lol.
S