Also, heres a wee pic to highlight how shit it is being tall…gonna take some time to fill out this frame
Training legs tonight but gonna do single arm floor press (for right pec) and ring dips along with my abs after to get some more chest work done
One thing that stands out to me in all your photos is that you don’t seem very confident…in your face, or your posture. You gotta be a little bit cocky for this sorta thing. Pull your scaps back, stand tall, and think to yourself “yep! I’m owning this!” right before camera flashes!
[quote]jskrabac wrote:
One thing that stands out to me in all your photos is that you don’t seem very confident…in your face, or your posture. You gotta be a little bit cocky for this sorta thing. Pull your scaps back, stand tall, and think to yourself “yep! I’m owning this!” right before camera flashes![/quote]
ok sure, I’m always thinking negatively when getting pics taking like “bet im flat/fat/watery” or “bet i look unsymmetrical as fuck” need to think more positive and practice the posing more to be more comfortable, thanks!
Decided to punish myself as penance for my dietary break down mid week, so upped the leg volume and cardio for tonights workout
Hamstring Curls - Light Bands 25 reps x 8 sets
Front Squats - 50k 10 reps x 2 sets
60k 8 reps x 2 sets
70k 5 reps
80k 3 reps
40k 12 reps x 2 sets
Calve Raises/Knee Raises/ Side Bends - 25 reps a movement 5 sets
Did a couple of extra sets of knee raises with floor presses also
Cardio - 30 mins steady state bicycle
Took today as a rest day off from lifting as I’m sore all over, just did some ab work and cardio and will do some more cardio later
Gonna focus on these 3 poses and will use one as my torso shot and one as my full body shot, need to remember to not try too hard on the whole looking confident thing
Trained chest/shoulders today, had to reduce workload though because they are still sore from the tiny bit of exercise they got a few days ago.
Weighed 162lbs today cause of last weeks mess…which I should maybe go into further detail on…
Not only did I eat what I wanted on thursday, I did like wise all the way until sunday…god damn home made birthday cake.
My fatal flaw is definitely not having a set limit of carbs for my reef (IF ANYONE HAS ANY SUGGESTIONS THAT’D BE AWESOME)
I just have no idea how to select the amount of carbs for a refeed? Currently getting 40g carbs with the get shredded diet daily.
If weight loss doesn’t stall is it ok to continue dieting and not have a cheat or refeed? I would rather just trudge on and stick to schedule.
Took some snaps more in line of what a usual contest prep would consist of to gauge progress, hopefully should get nice and shredded come late June/July
Couple Thoughts:
-You would be better off mentally sticking to weekly photos to look for progress. If you want to mess around with poses or lighting or something, daily is fine, but for actual progress pics stick with one day a week, the same day, under the same conditions (before breakfast, after going to the bathroom, usually on the morning of the refeed to avoid any “artificial” fullness and water holding)
-If you are doing the Get Shredded Diet, Berardi advocates a BI-WEEKLY REFEED DAY in which you stick to a guideline of 2-3x your normal calories (so Body Weight x 30) but eat whatever you want ALL DAY. I have personally experienced the most benefit from a weekly refeed MEAL. You might have to experiment here to see what works best for you both physically, psychologically, and socially.
-The way I kept it in check was to make it the same thing every week, and I made it a meal at a restaurant so there wont be any left over food at the house, and there is no way to keep eating more if you get insane… The food is gone. It is MUCH harder to keep gorging if doing so is going to add another 15 bucks to the check. Order one meal, one dessert, and be done.
-I would definitely NOT recommend NOT having a refeed of some kind. I have seen too many people benefit from it to advise skipping it. I personally tried this during my contest prep and felt after 2-3 weeks that my results slowed down from NOT cheating. Your mileage may vary, but Its something I have experienced and seen others experience.
[quote]Lonnie123 wrote:
Couple Thoughts:
-You would be better off mentally sticking to weekly photos to look for progress. If you want to mess around with poses or lighting or something, daily is fine, but for actual progress pics stick with one day a week, the same day, under the same conditions (before breakfast, after going to the bathroom, usually on the morning of the refeed to avoid any “artificial” fullness and water holding)
-If you are doing the Get Shredded Diet, Berardi advocates a BI-WEEKLY REFEED DAY in which you stick to a guideline of 2-3x your normal calories (so Body Weight x 30) but eat whatever you want ALL DAY. I have personally experienced the most benefit from a weekly refeed MEAL. You might have to experiment here to see what works best for you both physically, psychologically, and socially.
-The way I kept it in check was to make it the same thing every week, and I made it a meal at a restaurant so there wont be any left over food at the house, and there is no way to keep eating more if you get insane… The food is gone. It is MUCH harder to keep gorging if doing so is going to add another 15 bucks to the check. Order one meal, one dessert, and be done.
-I would definitely NOT recommend NOT having a refeed of some kind. I have seen too many people benefit from it to advise skipping it. I personally tried this during my contest prep and felt after 2-3 weeks that my results slowed down from NOT cheating. Your mileage may vary, but Its something I have experienced and seen others experience.[/quote]
Thank you for taking the time to reply, it’s really appreciated
I’m such a newb I have been taking weekly progess pics weekly but not under the same conditions! Progress pictures for conditoning will be taken Sunday Morning from now on!
Will need to consider what is easiest, will probably just go for one meal refeed per week than the one binge day because of my mindset
I had originally attempted to do the bi weekly refeed as stated in the program but didn’t have good enough tunnel vision to not take in external viewpoints from other programs (i.e weekly refeed/cheatmeal/carb load yadayada) and stupidly failed
[quote]RATTLEHEAD wrote:
Took today as a rest day off from lifting as I’m sore all over, just did some ab work and cardio and will do some more cardio later
Gonna focus on these 3 poses and will use one as my torso shot and one as my full body shot, need to remember to not try too hard on the whole looking confident thing
[/quote]
IMO the left photo is more striking. If you can play with your right arms positioning a little, it may show more of a “capped” looking shoulder perhaps? Just an idea.
x2 on the facial expression. You are doing this competition for yourself right? So ENJOY it! Feel pleased with each workout knowing the end result and look confident and DOMINATE your photos. Imagine stepping on stage, knowing you gave your all and did YOUR BEST.
Your chest photo was good though, chest looked thick mate.
[quote]The Recluse wrote:
[quote]RATTLEHEAD wrote:
Took today as a rest day off from lifting as I’m sore all over, just did some ab work and cardio and will do some more cardio later
Gonna focus on these 3 poses and will use one as my torso shot and one as my full body shot, need to remember to not try too hard on the whole looking confident thing
[/quote]
IMO the left photo is more striking. If you can play with your right arms positioning a little, it may show more of a “capped” looking shoulder perhaps? Just an idea.
x2 on the facial expression. You are doing this competition for yourself right? So ENJOY it! Feel pleased with each workout knowing the end result and look confident and DOMINATE your photos. Imagine stepping on stage, knowing you gave your all and did YOUR BEST.
Your chest photo was good though, chest looked thick mate.[/quote]
Thanks for chiming in 
Yeah I need to try and position my right arm in a way so my delt doesnt disappear.
I really do need to start thinking about enjoyment, its just since its been at the forefront of my mind for 6 months now it’s easy to forget that this was a personal choice!
Today marks 22 weeks since starting my prep, starting weight was 189lbs that day and I weighed 163lbs today
[quote]RATTLEHEAD wrote:
Today marks 22 weeks since starting my prep, starting weight was 189lbs that day and I weighed 163lbs today :)[/quote]
Just out of curiosity, sorry if you have already spoke about this. How has your strength been since the start of your prep? If so, any body parts that have been effected more than others?
[quote]The Recluse wrote:
[quote]RATTLEHEAD wrote:
Today marks 22 weeks since starting my prep, starting weight was 189lbs that day and I weighed 163lbs today :)[/quote]
Just out of curiosity, sorry if you have already spoke about this. How has your strength been since the start of your prep? If so, any body parts that have been effected more than others?[/quote]
Strength has been affected but its honestly hard to gauge how much so due to diet in my case tbh.
For years i trained 5/3/1 and for example used to be to able to rep 50k for 5 sets of 10 on military press but I do mountain dog now and after all the pre fatigue I’m lucky if I can pyramid up to 40 k for 10 reps!
It has been similar with all muscle groups and movements, but since that style of training is new to me I have made mild strength gains in movements that were new to me and different rep ranges.
I just try not to think about strength right now and just make the little improvements each week and go for a crushing pump! Looking sick in the avi btw Recluse!
[quote]The Recluse wrote:
[quote]RATTLEHEAD wrote:
Took today as a rest day off from lifting as I’m sore all over, just did some ab work and cardio and will do some more cardio later
Gonna focus on these 3 poses and will use one as my torso shot and one as my full body shot, need to remember to not try too hard on the whole looking confident thing
[/quote]
IMO the left photo is more striking. If you can play with your right arms positioning a little, it may show more of a “capped” looking shoulder perhaps? Just an idea.
x2 on the facial expression. You are doing this competition for yourself right? So ENJOY it! Feel pleased with each workout knowing the end result and look confident and DOMINATE your photos. Imagine stepping on stage, knowing you gave your all and did YOUR BEST.
Your chest photo was good though, chest looked thick mate.[/quote]
I agree. One of the things I liked about the left photo was the neck.
OP, you have a long, thin neck that kind of draws attention to it IMO, which gives you more of a tall and skinny look. It jumps out in some pics more than others. I liked the left pic because it minimized the effect of this. Maybe practice posing in a way to draw less attention to it?
Great work man! that side by side comparison from the start of your cut is night and day progress, you look bigger now. Try not to let the scale weight bother you…nothing you can do about it now. I competed in my first men’s physique contest this past fall. I started my prep at 194 lbs, thinking I’d be shredded at 180. Not even close! it was humbling realizing how much more fat and less muscle I had than I thought. I ended up coming in at 170 lbs. You’re still a ways out from needing to worry about your post contest plans, but really make sure you reverse diet! I made the mistake of jumping right back into a “bulking” diet and gained a lot more fat than I needed to.
[quote]Apoklyps wrote:
[quote]The Recluse wrote:
[quote]RATTLEHEAD wrote:
Took today as a rest day off from lifting as I’m sore all over, just did some ab work and cardio and will do some more cardio later
Gonna focus on these 3 poses and will use one as my torso shot and one as my full body shot, need to remember to not try too hard on the whole looking confident thing
[/quote]
IMO the left photo is more striking. If you can play with your right arms positioning a little, it may show more of a “capped” looking shoulder perhaps? Just an idea.
x2 on the facial expression. You are doing this competition for yourself right? So ENJOY it! Feel pleased with each workout knowing the end result and look confident and DOMINATE your photos. Imagine stepping on stage, knowing you gave your all and did YOUR BEST.
Your chest photo was good though, chest looked thick mate.[/quote]
I agree. One of the things I liked about the left photo was the neck.
OP, you have a long, thin neck that kind of draws attention to it IMO, which gives you more of a tall and skinny look. It jumps out in some pics more than others. I liked the left pic because it minimized the effect of this. Maybe practice posing in a way to draw less attention to it?[/quote]
Thanks for the help and input!
I will totally try to avoid hide my giraffe like neck in pics, never really noticed it til you said haha.
[quote]pwolves17 wrote:
Great work man! that side by side comparison from the start of your cut is night and day progress, you look bigger now. Try not to let the scale weight bother you…nothing you can do about it now. I competed in my first men’s physique contest this past fall. I started my prep at 194 lbs, thinking I’d be shredded at 180. Not even close! it was humbling realizing how much more fat and less muscle I had than I thought. I ended up coming in at 170 lbs. You’re still a ways out from needing to worry about your post contest plans, but really make sure you reverse diet! I made the mistake of jumping right back into a “bulking” diet and gained a lot more fat than I needed to. [/quote]
Thanks man!
Yeah, in all honesty I aint too bothered about the number, I remember being this exact height and weighing 135lbs when getting weighed for ski’s when I was 17 so if I am 160lbs now and leaner, i’m happy in the short term ha.
Ok sure, I will probably start giving the post contest diet thought and time after this month just so I dont fall into a trap of “Oh I hve nothing planned so I might as well eat everything with a gallon of milk to get swole”
[quote]RATTLEHEAD wrote:
[quote]pwolves17 wrote:
Great work man! that side by side comparison from the start of your cut is night and day progress, you look bigger now. Try not to let the scale weight bother you…nothing you can do about it now. I competed in my first men’s physique contest this past fall. I started my prep at 194 lbs, thinking I’d be shredded at 180. Not even close! it was humbling realizing how much more fat and less muscle I had than I thought. I ended up coming in at 170 lbs. You’re still a ways out from needing to worry about your post contest plans, but really make sure you reverse diet! I made the mistake of jumping right back into a “bulking” diet and gained a lot more fat than I needed to. [/quote]
Thanks man!
Yeah, in all honesty I aint too bothered about the number, I remember being this exact height and weighing 135lbs when getting weighed for ski’s when I was 17 so if I am 160lbs now and leaner, i’m happy in the short term ha.
Ok sure, I will probably start giving the post contest diet thought and time after this month just so I dont fall into a trap of “Oh I hve nothing planned so I might as well eat everything with a gallon of milk to get swole”[/quote]
Also, how did your contest go?
So according to my family I am drastically smaller than any previous winner and it is pointless to enter…unreal how unsupportive some of the closest people to you can be.
Trained back last night;
Dumbbell Rows - 10k x 15reps x 3 sets
20k x 15 reps
25k x 12 reps
30k x 10 reps x 3 sets
Chins (close, medium, wide) - 8 reps x 3 sets
Chest Supported Dumbbell Rows - 10k’s - 12 reps x 4 sets SUPERSETTED with Band Face Pulls - light band - 30 reps x 4 sets
Lats and mid back were disgustingly pumped, will be training arms with chest/delts/abs after today
Drastically smaller? I don’t think so. Lighting and photo touch ups can make someone look incredibly bigger than they really are. Keep at it Rattle; haters gonna hate, even if they are your family.