Mighty's Contest Updates & Q&A Thread

Training
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Could barely sleep (3 hours fitfully), so I got up, watched a little video my brother was able to take, and grabbed a screenshot for you guys. My girlfriend’s sister snapped some great backstage shots of the two of us, so when she emails them to me I’ll get them up ASAP. Also, we got some professional shots done, so as they come in (as well as pics friends n family took), I’ll share as well.

In the meantime, I think we can all agree that I’ve stepped up my game considerably. I still think I could use some additional size in my quads, but my chest is no longer a weak point IMO. Still, lotta work if I’m gonna be on the same stage as Cordova n Whitacre now :slight_smile:

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Congratulations on both of you.

Maybe convince your gf to join T-Nation?

503

Congrats man. That’s great. Looking fwd to seeing the pics and checking out the mag shoot.

Obviously you’re in a much better mood than the last time - guess we picked the wrong show to come to! : )

504

Awesome job. Congrats. All that hard work paying off big time. You deserve it. Enjoy

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About to head off to my photo-shoot (so f-ing cool! -lol), but wanted to share a pic of the very slick trophy I won last night :smiley:

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[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:
Could barely sleep (3 hours fitfully), so I got up, watched a little video my brother was able to take, and grabbed a screenshot for you guys. My girlfriend’s sister snapped some great backstage shots of the two of us, so when she emails them to me I’ll get them up ASAP. Also, we got some professional shots done, so as they come in (as well as pics friends n family took), I’ll share as well. In the meantime, I think we can all agree that I’ve stepped up my game considerably. I still think I could use some additional size in my quads, but my chest is no longer a weak point IMO. Still, lotta work if I’m gonna be on the same stage as Cordova n Whitacre now :slight_smile:

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Great news Stu congradulations! I’m glad to hear after you were disapointed with your placing at the last show. Just looking thick as hell in that MM shot, I agree your chest looks good in that one but your traps are freaky! enjoy your continued success

507

Like I said, the best you’ve ever been and some decent judging this time! Kudos. What a great trophy to boot!

508

The more I see it the more I like that most muscular. It really adds a degree of aggression and confidence that the other styles dont. Of course… Maybe thats just because you’re stacked from head to toe…

509

This thread is bloody awesome

510

Congrats Stu, that MM is impressive

511

Congrats Stu! You got what was rightfully yours.

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[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:
About to head off to my photo-shoot (so f-ing cool! -lol), but wanted to share a pic of the very slick trophy I won last night :smiley:

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I love that picture. The trophy is great, of course, but I love to see that you are using the same vegetable glycerine as I do :wink:

I have to say it one more time: the progress you’ve made over the last year or so ist just fantastic. Outstanding! In 22 years of natural bodybuilding I cannot remember such a dramatic evolution in so little time. My deep respect, man!

Telling from the picture, the field wasn’t exactely the easiest to beat! The tough competition makes your victory even more applaudable.

Looking forward to seeing you on stage in November (that would be the WBNF/INBF World Championships in NY, wouldn’t it?).

Cheers, PA

513

Great news, well deserved win after that last comp!

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[quote]Lonnie123 wrote:
The more I see it the more I like that most muscular. It really adds a degree of aggression and confidence that the other styles dont. Of course… Maybe thats just because you’re stacked from head to toe…[/quote]
I have always liked that style of most muscular the most. Unfortunately I have never liked the way I look when I do it, for some reason I just look better with the palms pressed together, I think it makes my delts pop more.
I wonder if you just need to be really filled out to pull off that pose or it certain MM poses suit different structures better.

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Sorry I haven’t been able to chime in more since the show, we got home Saturday night at about 3am, and then I was up early (couldnt sleep), and spent the entire day in Jersey. We planned to have dinner with my folks, and didn’t get back to NY (Long Island) until after 6pm, and then eventually back home (Queens) at abut 9:30, so the day just zipped by.

I sent a few ‘prodding’ msgs to friends who had cameras at the show, but I know I can’t really speed up the pro video or photos, so that will probably be a while before I can share. The small clip of video my brother got is shakey as hell, and not very long as he was told he couldn’t film by the head of the Federation (they’re pretty strict as far as controlling all of the possible $-making aspects of their shows).

As I’m at work now, I can’t really write too much, but I’ll get back here later tonight and detail a bit about the actual show, the photoshoot the next day, and Yes, my girlfriend has agreed to come on T-Nation and write a bit about her experience if anyone’s interested (be nice! -lol)

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BEAST.

i’m excited to see some closeups of your condition on stage. you already looked at least as good as you did on stage in previous contests before even drying out and carbing up

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Ok, my girlfriend’s sister seems to have put a FEW pics on facebook (stage shots are blurry). Here’s a couple of Cat n’ I backstage early in the morning before we lost our smiles -lol

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Cat got into phenomenal condition for a first timer, and its even more awesome that she won.

You guys both look like your having a blast, which is really what this is all about for us. Congrats to both of you.

520

Alrighty, let’s see if I can finally sit down and share some thoughts about Saturday with you guys :slight_smile:

Going into this show, I knew it was going to be rough. This is easily the most competitive (and largest) INBF show simply because it offers pro cards to each open class winner. As such, you get competitors from all over showing up for their shot at glory. Last year, I had 2 prep clients in the show, and there were I believe 200 total competitors. While even the Novice divisions are tough, the Opens can be downright insane, especially the ‘middle’ classes (lightweight and middleweight), where you have some amazing combinations of both size and conditioning.

The breakdown of the different classes had been posted online about a week ago, and it certainly gave an interesting view of events, especially for a competitor who has to judge the timing of various factors over the course of the day. There were 14 different categories, not counting the weight divisions of a few (ie. Women’s Bodybuilding would be further broken down into lightweight, middlweight, and heavyweight), which brought the total number of groups to judge up to 20!

As a Novice figure competitor, Cat would be going on in the 2nd group to be judged that day. As a Men’s Open competitor, I would be at the very end, far off from the usual 11am/12 noon timeline I usually try to peak for. Knowing this was somewhat helpful, as I adjusted (as best as I could approximate) my water and carb up accordingly.

Backstage, you can never really tell exactly what weight class someone may be in. Aside from having no sense of your own ‘self’ in comparison, when you’re truly in contest shape, actual scale weight is quite deceiving. While walking around, my friend Mike and myself tried to figure out who my competition would be. One competitor in particular easily caught my attention.

He was just going over a few things with his backstage ‘coach’ (probably a friend, similar to Mike helping me), when I caught sight of his quads. Easily larger than mine, and as I didn’t realize just how much I had improved my own conditioning, conditioned enough that I instantly felt worried that my dreams of walking away with the title were gone if indeed he was in the Middlweights.

(continued after I take care of some ‘real work’ -lol)

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